Comments on: Someone Struck a Nerve

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 03:31:59 +0000

I think there’s plenty of intelligent discourse. I think that, at this point in the long, long life of this game, many topics and elements have been well and truly discussed. In a way, Jimmy’s remark has a bit of an elitist tinge to it, as well.

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:38:36 +0000

That’s an interesting point of view, but I wish you would provide me with some examples of how the blogosphere has become less friendly or less tolerant. I’m not being snarky, I’d like to know. My reading list isn’t that wide, and you can see exactly who I do read simply by looking at my blogroll. So if there is something you are seeing as a trend, it’s pretty easy for me to have missed it.

If you’re taking a shot at me, heck, I’d still like to know some examples, simply to see where I may be going off the rails.

And of course, I miss Resto4Life too. I’m not sure the Resto4Life I remember is the same as the one you do, I don’t remember her being any more critical of the game than anyone else, but she is definitely missed for her wit, her creativity and her passion for bringing people together. And her cute tree form art!

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:17:22 +0000

I think the point about the underlying irony of forum posters commenting on a comic about forum posters is spot on. Having said that, my own opinion is that those art panels are misrepresentations of what the actual criticisms of the game. That’s mischaracterization is acceptable insofar as the goal is to to pull a laugh. The difficulty is that it seems that there are people who confuse the caricatures of the forum posters with their reality.

As a simple player, one thing I think that is undoubtedly true is that as the pool of WoW-related blogs has shrunk so too has the level of intelligent discourse. IMO there is a definite echo effect where it seems that you are one of the cool kids and parrot the Blizzard line or you are critic and an outcast. I long for the days of a blog like restro4life when one could be both a fan of the game and a critic of the game without getting called names.

One can debate the pros and cons of the ways the game has changed over the years. But the biggest change it seems to me is that attitude of the community that has surrounded the game. It’s far less open, for less tolerant, far less sophisticated, and frankly far less interesting.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:09:41 +0000

Hah! That is totally full of win.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:00:17 +0000

These days in LFR, if you are queuing as DPS, you are at the mercy of the healers and tanks as to whether Madness will be clearable. It isn’t a happy thing.

Frankly, given the people queuing for LFR now, it would stand to benefit from the stacking buff, too.

On a separate note, I am *so* looking forward to the new LFR looting system. I wish they would apply it to LFD, too.

By: Herr Drache

Herr Drache — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:48:45 +0000

Bristal, I think you nailed it with the posers :)

I do have to say, though, that personally I find LFR quite lacking. I’m in a non-progression guild that raids, and I think we needed the 25% debuff to get through spine and madness. I’ve stopped running LFR for the most part, though.
People make LFR unfriendly (not Blizzard’s fault). The encounters still seem to be easier than your average HoT boss. I think I really like the “Armchair QB” comparison – not much of a personal investment, very much doable, and then you’re done ;)

By: Bristal

Bristal — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:03:15 +0000

Number IS, but “scarce” would not be the appropriate modifier for number. So, the number of comments is low, or comments are scarce.

Just sayin’.

As an old dude who found MMO’s late, my model for hardcore/leet/casual is professional/recreational sports, so I believe that the ubers should have something exclusive to shoot for. But that exclusive reward shouldn’t be the game itself. Content needs to be accessible. LFR gives us all a chance to armchair quarterback and play the whole game.

But if you put in the time and effort, and have the skill to overcome hard mode content, there should be some consistent, tangible reward system that doesn’t degrade with time. Not sure what that would be, but being in the top 1-10% should be recognizable.

Maintaining a motivated top tier crowd benefits the game and all who play it.

The comic is funny, and I would wager that many “hardcore” forum posters are poseurs. “This is how I think I would feel if I was as hardcore as I think I should be if only my friends weren’t holding me back.”

By: Matty

Matty — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:57:48 +0000

I’m not sure it did overstate the case…:)

Excellent – thank you for bringing that to my world!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:40:22 +0000

The comic is dead on. These people are just bent out of shape that the value of their achievements relative to the time, energy, and gold they invest at the time depreciates more quickly than it perhaps used to. That’s understandable, I think, but the ship of monolithic raid progression through all raids over the course of an expansion has sailed. The PvE game in MMOs these days, for better or worse now, is about seasonal patches of content introduced for everyone to consume and compete over at that time. It became this way when Wrath came around, and the final nail in the coffin was the elimination of all gear currencies but JP and VP, and their “upgrade” as patches get introduced.

Is this a good thing for the raiding game? Well, it keeps people generally interested in the game longer than they might otherwise be, and vastly increases the ability of players to gear toons to a point of raid readiness for the current tier, theoretically increasing the pool of potential raiders. Does this make shelling out a ton of gold for the latest and greatest items in a given tier feel a little foolish? Probably.

To all the folks with sour grapes over this though, I ask: how badly do you want it, really? Paragon isn’t complaining; vodka isn’t complaining. Probably the top three guilds on your realm aren’t, either.