On a given week, there's a good 30% chance that Jill and I will discuss WoW to some extent while taking our shower. That's roughly 1 out of every 3 conversations. Suffice to say, we talk about the World of Warcraft a lot. I'm going to go further and say we simply talk about Warcraft too fucking much. It's what happens with an idée fixe... like talking of puking which in turns makes you gag, which makes you puke, which makes your friend puke, which makes you puke, which makes you discuss the puke just puked, which in turn....ad nauseum...puke.
Now, we got to know each other better over World of Warcraft, so in a lot of ways, the game will always be near and dear to our hearts. Or, at the very least, what WoW was to us. That was around May of 2009. Our gaming habits reached a fever pitch when we decided the next natural step from playing the game would be to create a raiding guild, of which Jill was the guild master and raid master for some time. This was as time consuming as rearing children irresponsibly or heading a shitty charity. It's still somewhat time consuming. It effectively sucked the fun out of the game and this was exacerbated by the fact that we decided our gluttony for punishment could only be sated by playing the shittiest of the three classical MMO roles, namely, the tank (moi) and healer (elle) , otherwise known as : 'stfu and run me through something because I'm too lazy to play something other than dps'. We eventually got burnt out and had to take a break. This happened a few times down the road, but as the latest expack, Cataclysm neared, our enthusiasm waxed...and also the fact that SWTOR is now closer to its release had to do with our enthusiasm...but I digress!
We had planned to play Cataclysm until SWTOR came out, and the events in gameplay leading up to the release had us all bunged up and excited. It was turning out to be an interesting time indeed. And then came out patch 4.0.1. This was the beginning of the end. It basically made my 'job' as a tank even more uphill.
We chalked this up to change and decided to embrace the changes and live with it, because we were convinced that when the expack came out, all would be well... well, the expansion came out and we were simply bored and not having fun. At all. The new areas were dull, boring, uninspiring.... the quests were idiotic, not really adding to anything ... it really fell short in our eyes in adding to the epic scope that WoW had effectively achieved in its Arthas storyline. And then there was the problem with the gameplay itself...in a reversal faux pas, Blizzard attempted as best it could to correct the culture of enabling fake Asperger's syndrome and general douchebaggery by making the game harder and thus creating an environment which punishes lack of communication and teamwork.
As.Fucking.If.
The problem is how they made the game harder. They made the game harder by making it harder for healers to heal. Which made it harder for healers to have fun. Which made it harder for healers to play their healers, instead of, say, their hunters. Which made it harder for tanks to stay alive. Which made it harder for tanks to play their main toons. Which made it harder for tanks and healers to really want to play at all. Which made it harder for DPS to get it through their thick fucking heads that there is a fucking reason you're waiting around 45 minutes for ONE fucking healer and ONE fucking tank, and that is NO ONE LIKES YOU ANYMORE!
Ok, that's a bit much...I mean, I shouldn't say anymore... it's not like they liked you before...
But the fact remains that there was a certain group of the customer base that was underwhelmed at the least, disgusted and distraught at the most. Jill and I, for example, were barely playing Cataclysm. Luckily, we were 'saved' by Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (as much as one can be saved by a horribly addicting substance) This customer base was initially predominantly healers indicating that their plight was making the game unplayable. This eventually snowballed into a measured backlash of 'the game is boring' and 'I'm letting my sub run out'.
We initially decided we would want to take a break and come back in an undisclosed number of months, in the hopes that the game would be just different.
The backlash crescendo however resulted in lead developer Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street responding to the claiming and the whining in one large monolithic response (ahem...) Seeing a blue font on the forums means pretty much the biblical equivalent of burning bush and reaches Metatronic proportions. I'm certain many a fanboy pants were thoroughly jizzed in the wake of his post. I've included some excerpts which I think are telling of the nature of the 'not a bang but a whimper' reception Cataclysm can claim to have. Basically, Ghostcrawler claims that the qq'ing is just a vocal minority venting. I say, if it's a vocal minority, why the wall of text?
" First, let me state that we do hear you. We understand some of you aren’t having fun and preferred the Lich King paradigm, or at least something closer to the Lich King paradigm. We greatly appreciate the feedback and it always makes us sad when players aren’t having fun. We're not ignoring you. We get it. We may not always agree on every point, but we understand where you’re coming from, and we want to try to help you understand where we're coming from."
Now, I work in customer service, so this is par for the course, and sounds all too familiar. It basically translates to " Ok, now that I let you talk shit for a while, I'm going to take over and make sure this exchange ends how MY employer wants it to end, because shit, they do sign my checks"
" We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. "
As I said before, as if. I can't fault him for this if it is indeed the goal, because it is a very lofty goal, however, the prospect of strangers working with each other in a positive way more than 50% of the time ON THE INTERNET is akin to telling your girlfriend "we won't go all the way, I promise" or "just the tip?"
" DPS specs often get blamed the most for not knowing what is going on. It should be your business to understand the mechanics of the fights. You’re a member of a team, not a follower who can always rely on someone else to tell them what to do."
Let's see... on WoW, groups are normally made of five people, and dps is 3/5ths of a group. You're asking 60% of all users that they need to learn to play. This is 60% of the group that took the easy road, who are rabidly competitive and not only are they convinced that they are experts at whatever they are doing at the moment, but they are also convinced they are experts at healing and tanking as well.
" Which are the adds that must be burned down (and conversely, when should you ignore the adds and focus on the boss instead)? If you aren’t sure, then ask. Almost every group would rather take the few seconds to explain a fight than to wipe "
The fact that Greg Street could even formulate this sentence leads me to believe that this man has never really played with other gamers that were not developers themselves or who were not aware that he was the lead developer. The World of Warcraft is such, that if you so much as ASK the time, it becomes an invitation to mutiny.
" If you just can’t make progress and you are literally wiping on trash pulls over and over, it may be time to analyze your gear. The Dungeon Finder's Heroic item level requirement should be considered a minimum -- and remember, it doesn’t look at enchants or gems or even if the gear is appropriate for you. We are assuming an entry-level Heroic player has a lot of item level 333 gear from Twilight Highlands, normal dungeons, or any of the reputation vendors. These 333s are probably mixed in with a few 318 quest greens, but offset by a few 346 items. If you finished the Hyjal quests, you are probably Revered with Guardians of Hyjal and have access to their 346 items. Questing might only earn you Honored with some of the other reputations, but that is easily rectified with daily quests or dungeon tabards (and don’t forget the Tol Barad reps). There are some nice crafted items. No, the weapons aren’t purple, but when you look at their stats, they are quite competitive."
Rather large excerpt, but, translation- you're going to have to grind absolutely every single quest, every daily until you go blind. That's not necessarily hard, but is it FUN?
" The item level requirement is intended only to keep out players who have no idea what is appropriate content for them. We know you can game it by getting PvP gear or hiding off-spec gear in your bags. Congrats on being sneaky!"
Congrats on totally missing the point that your system has a horrible loophole!
" We've seen a few threads that suggest that we're too proud to admit mistakes. I find that logic strange, because we do it all the time."
This quote is funny as hell to me, because at this point in his post, which I've butchered so far, to be sure, all he had done was admit they HAD made a big mistake all throughout Wrath of the Lich King in creating an experience which allowed for all these bad habits to flourish, and how NOT WRONG WE ARE NOW OMG STFU I MADE THIS GAME GREAT LEAVE ME ALONE AND JUST PAY US YOUR $15 ALREADY. Basically, up to this point, all he had addressed was WHY the game is harder, not what he was going to do about it other than to expect the customer base to ship up or ship out.
" We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate. But the degree to which it's happening, at least at this point in time, is vastly overstated on the forums."
If it was so overstated, the wall of text he gave the forum would have been also overstating the importance of pointing out where the designers are coming from. If this was a minority just throwing a tantrum, it's something that could have been ignored. But no, you took the time to address it, thus it must have been of some importance.
Now, I just posted some excerpts, but trust me, it was a wall of text, rivaling THIS wall of text, and the post was summarily deleted by Blizzard after a day or so. And it seems that Blizzard has been making it a habit of...well... selectively editing what threads and posts are allowed to remain in the WoW forums.
As a follow up story, there are rumors of a size-able discrepancy in expected revenue with actual revenue received in the last quarter, or something of the sort, and a hefty layoff at Blizz...so....dunno.
I must point out, we won't delete your post or comment for saying RIFT. Ok?
=D
No comments:
Post a Comment