The post in which I lose my mind

Last night was a big night for us, as we finally picked up our first piece of token gear and dropped "He with too many eyes" - aka Cho'gall.  The fight was awesome, stressful, and pretty much a giant blur in my mind.  I know we two healed it (Druid and Pally), used two tanks (Pally and DK), and made one teeny tiny change to our hunter's spec (2/2 in entrapment) that made all the difference in the world.  I felt like the fight was really well tuned, and I'm hoping we can repeat fairly quickly next week.  Al'akir is our current hurdle, but at least we're getting into P2 fairly regularly with 9/10 alive.

 

While I was thinking about writing about Cho'gall, or more Twitter style heroic boss write-ups, my brain today has settled in on a topic that drives me crazy.  The blogsphere has been alive this week with talks of social responsibility, the fact that Cataclysm is the worst MMO expansion ever, and that WoW is dying.  Rants about LFD ruining the social aspect of the game, difficulty of heroics, idiocy of PUGs, and why I can't have the best and most shiney at 85.  Some folks want a return of EQ 1.0 - where "Train to zone" was the order of the day, and you had to keep your spellbok open to regen mana (or whatever it was called, I never played it).  All the stories I've heard though make it sound pretty terrible - but hey, you might have loved it.

 

This isn't Vanilla, EQ, Darkfall, or any other game

 

While I appreciate that my grandfather walked uphill (both ways), in the snow (sans shoes), just to get to his child labor camp (forget school) - I didn't have to do that.  The bus came and picked me up, dropped me off at my place of education, and returned me home in the same manner.  My grandmother picked dirt out of the carpet with tweasers, and washed her dishes by hand.  I use a Roomba and a dishwasher. 

 

My point here is that things change, and not always for the better - or for the worse.  Those danged kids and their rock and roll drove my grandparents nuts, probably the same way my father doesn't understand my music tastes, or how I can listen to Maynard mumble through another album.  I wonder if my dad actually listened to Jim Morrison - talk about your mumblers.

 

So WoW has essentially had a reset, brining it to WoW 2.0.  Six years ago, it was all about the quest to 60.  Walking until you hit lvl 40 and getting your first mount.  Struggling through the general channel to find a group that wasn't full on rogues.  Praying your group had a warlock, so you could summon people to the instance, because getting from the Barrens to Molten Core just plain took time.  Warriors were the only real tanks, boomkins were mocked (you're a healer - get over it), and you might get a token spriest or MS warrior for that one drake in BWL.  Raids were huge affairs, where a full quarter of your group could sleepwalk through Molten Core without you noticing. 

 

BC brought us heroic dungeons, epic gear for the non-raider, and the biggest farm fest in the game (arguably one of the greatest instances - Karazhan).  The Looking for More tool was a joke, and good luck getting into H-MGT if you didn't have some sort of CC at your beck and call.  The Horde got Blood Elves and Paladins, while the Alliance got Draenai and Shaman (AMFG GAME BREAKING!!).  Drama spewed as 25m raids tried to gear up through Kara, and attunement chains of epic proportions were required to even open the front doors (one vial per week outta keep you outta Mt. Hyjal).  Badges were introduced, and we saw our first glimpse of getting raid ready gear, without actually having to raid.

 

Wrath brought us the return of Naxx, the complete lack of required CC, and two weeks of glorious Retadin OPness.  DKs covered the land, and the ranks of terrible tanks began to grow.  We got ToC - the most boring raid ever (one room and no trash - wheee), a full on cross server LFD, and more daily quests than we could blink at.  Our pockets overflowed, and we laughed at the return of Icecrown Radience.  Dungeons were speed runs as players forgot what it was like to do them at level, but instead ran in decked out in gear 45 to 75 iLevels above the final epic drops - much less what you were wearing the first time you stepped in there.  A brand new baby toon could be leveled and raid ready in iLvl 245 gear in a week, having never stepped foot into a raid, but ready for ICC and its 30% buff.

 

Finally Cataclysm arrived, and with it a whole shift in the dungeon perspective.  Heroics were actually hard again, CC was requried, and oh man are they long.  Almost as long and as epic as BRD, BWL, or heck - Scholomance.  There was trash that could wipe you, boss mechanics you had to actually pay attention to, and a leveling system that kept you on rails.  No longer were we the juggernauts of the land, but instead we were aspiring heroes again - struggling to take on the terrors of the land.  Rapid changes were made to the system, guild leveling took a hit, and six weeks after release we finally have seen the first defeat of the final heroic boss.

 

This may not be the game you're looking for

 

Now, you may not love Cataclysm any more.  Maybe the last two, three, or five years have ruined your appreciation of what the game is today.  Maybe it doesn't fit your idea of what the game should be, and you may even have the best idea to fix it.  Personally, I think Blizzard knows exactly what they're doing, and that's making a ton of money by creating a game that millions play.  Even of there are only five million actual playing subscribers, and only half of them are actually enjoying the game, that's still a lot of happy players. 

 

So if you don't like it, quit playing.  Vote with your wallet and not with your mouth.  Quit.  Unsubscribe.  Play another game, go outside, or take up knitting.  If you aren't having fun, I don't see why you'd bother to log in every day, or at all.  Fish or cut bait.  Put up or shut up.  Shit or get the fuck out of the bathroom. 

 

I'm out of usefull cliche's now, so just quit pissing in my ear about how broken the game is.  It's not broken, you are. 

 

Evolve or die.

 

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Adgamorix (Amathalanea)
Parabola - Bladefist(US)
http://paladindivineplea.blogspot.com
http://team-intensity.guildlaunch.com