|
Originally Posted by MMOChampion
The thoughts of an old player returning to WoW and starting from scratch.
I have recently begun playing again, on a new realm and starting from scratch. I quit at the beginning of Cata having played since the middle of Vanilla, with the occasional break. So I had no experience of LFD or LFR. All of my old friends have long since quit, and so I embarked on a solitary journey to 90 on my Worgen Mage.
As soon as I hit level 15, I hit a couple of buttons, waited for 5 minutes, and 15 minutes later I had just blitzed through RFC. Not a single word was said. I was ported from Stormwind all the way over to the other side of Azeroth, completely destroying any notion that I was playing in the WORLD of Warcraft, and indicating that I was in fact playing in some sort of LOBBY of Warcraft. It was very much like being in the lobby for COD.
Anyway, I planned to only complete each dungeon so that I had done all of the quests in each, as I actually wanted to explore the revamped world. Questing from zone to zone required absolutely 0 co-operation between me and my fellow players. In fact thanks to Cross Realm, the ONLY interaction between me and other players was me being ganked by level 90s. Since all the elite quests have all but gone, I could have leveled to 90 via questing without a SINGLE interaction between me and any other players. Incidentally, I could achieve the same amount of interaction by simply queuing for dungeons and grinding my way to 90 that way. In the end, I did a mix of both, and by the time I was 90 I knew.. no one. Not a single other human being. I hadn't needed any help whatsoever and nothing I did all the way to 90 needed even the slightest bit of interaction.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "But you didn't make the effort. If you wanted to make friends etc etc you could have made the effort!"
But I did. At least initially. In the early levels I attempted to form groups with others who were leveling as I thought this would be more efficient and also a good way to 'meet' people. I soon realized that grouping was completely redundant. As mentioned earlier, there are no elite quests; even as a mage I could solo everything. The mobs respawn so fast mob tagging isn't an issue at all. And a load of people are in heirlooms anyway so they'll simply out level you in no time and race ahead. In short, there's no reason to group whilst questing, so no one does it. Cross Realm also contributed to the complete isolation surrounding questing by cultivating the mindset of 'you're not on my realm, never gonna see you again, BYE'. It's ironic that a feature meant to make the world feel 'alive' resulted in the world feeling phony and very, very fleeting.
Now, questing was always a fairly solo affair, especially relative to dungeons, but there was far more incentive to group back in Vanilla/TBC/Wrath than there is nowadays, and so a lot people did. A lot of people got to know each other this way and eventually form/join guilds together. Dungeons on the other hand were something else entirely. It could take an age to put a group together. It could take an age to finish the dungeon. But BECAUSE of this 'inconvenience', it brought people together. Cliche I know, but it's damned well true. Someone left in the middle of the dungeon? Everyone would spam their guild chat/trade to see who was available. I found out today that you can't even invite a friend to a LFD group in the same situation. WHAT. As a result of the effort put into all of this, you would build up a 'reputation' on your server, even whilst leveling. I would instantly recognize the name of the player who ninja looted and quit the dungeon weeks after the event, and I would also recognize the name of that kick !@# tank who steamrolled through instance X. Over these last few weeks, I don't even bother reading peoples names. Chances are they're not even on my server. Chances are I'll never see them again.
Anyway, I could (and perhaps will) write a whole lot more on the cause and effects of the loneliness that was the modern day leveling experience, because I believe it's a major contributor to the problems at 90, but I'll progress to max level.
So, here I am, a newly dinged level 90 Worgen Mage on a well poplulated server (The Maelstrom - EU), without a single human being in my friends list. I knew absolutely no one. And by 'knowing' someone I don't mean being best of mates looking to start a serious raiding guild, I mean someone with whom I had one maybe two interactions with whilst leveling and so I could give them a whisper if I needed a hand with something. Not as though I would need a hand with anything in MoP.
As soon I as I hit 90 (with an abundance of gold), I once again clicked a few buttons and I blitzed through some brutally easy (and therefore dismally boring) heroics, soon hitting the required item level for my first infamous LFR. I've read a fair bit about it, 95% of it negative, but I have to admit I was pretty excited. I was never a serious raider. I played casually (never seeing more than a bit of MC and never getting past Gruul), and so being able to see the raids with such little effort and absolutely no cooperation with any other players (Dungeons/Heroics don't count. They're so $%^-ing easy) was surprising. So, once again, I clicked a few buttons, and after a short wait sitting around in Stormwind I was ported half way across Azeroth to Mogushan Vaults. I blitzed through the raid with 20 or so strangers (again, not a SINGLE word was said. That's no exaggeration, not even a HEAL ME or a MOVE OUT OF THE FIRE, nothing) and I was 'rewarded' with a piece of 476 loot with a big fat 'Raid Finder' tag on it. My god was I dissapointed. That was not a real raid, not even close to it. I had no clue what so *!@#ing ever as to what any of the bosses did. I didn't need to, they were all nothing more than a tank and spank cluster$%^-, each and every one. I could say so, so much more on how LFR is - by far - the worst thing to have ever happened to WoW. Yeh, I know, I've read people ranting about LFR over the last few weeks and I'm here saying it again, BUT IT CAN'T BE SAID ENOUGH. The entire allure around raiding, the process by which you had to go through to get into one (even a normal/pug in Wrath - LINK ACHIEVEMENTS), everything completely gone. I could go all the way to the Lei Shen's platform with no effort; a completely apathetic, lonely trudge to the Thunder King himself with no interaction no this, no that NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. It's completely hollow.
So, now again I hear you saying 'Well if you're bored of LFR why don't you just join a raiding guild?'
Firstly I think it's important to note that a brand new player who's had no experience of WoW would NOT say this to him or herself. As far as they're concerned, they've reached max level, they've beaten the end boss, they've got the flashiest looking gear. They're not gonna put in the massive amount of effort (relative to the dull sleepwalk to their current standing) to simply get the same looking gear with slightly larger numbers and perhaps a title here or there. They have no sense of the community whatsoever, so they have no one to play with, to compete against or to simply hang out with. There's no incentive for them to do anything.
In yesteryear, raids were exclusive, and I know there's a massive thread on this at the moment so I won't bang on about it. But exclusiveness is a good thing. Inequality is a good thing in WoW. Not everyone should be equal, regardless of time spent. I'm talking from a casual perspective, where in TBC I would see the guys in the top guilds on my server walking around in the most AMAZING gear (amazing ONLY because it was exclusive) and BAM, that was one large incentive to play right there in front of me; the vain hope that one day I would be similarly looked up to. It was a psychological trick but a very effective one - that there's this never ending ladder of content. Today, everyone and their mother looks like some sort of demi-god. Everyone looks the same, including that new level 90 who's just beaten Lei Shen on LFR. But he doesn't think he's special, and he certainly doesn't think that the guy next to him with 'Storm's End' after his name is special either. They look exactly alike after all.
But this apathy combined with the isolation experienced by newly dinged players puts the final nail in the coffin. WoW is a very boring game to play on your own. If you don't have anyone to play with, you won't be playing for long. In the past, that sense of community was almost forced upon players. Today, it's not, and people simply stop playing after a few weeks at max level.
As for me, I'm trying my best to join a casual raiding guild, but I can guarantee I'll be in the minority of 'new' players trying to do so. I can also say that any allure and fascination with raids (and therefore a large chunk of incentive) has been beaten to a bloody pulp and is lying dead in a ditch. Also, judging by these last few weeks, all I can say is that every whine regarding LFR is absolutely justified. It's an absolute disgrace.
This is bit of an unstructured rant, and yes it's all been said before, again and again and again. But I honestly don't think it can be said enough.
|
07-01-2013, 02:49 AM
Hybrid Mode
