I’ve never been a huge fan of MMOs. From a gamer’s perspective, the whole idea of a game without end is great in theory (like eating pizza for the rest of your life), but sucks in practice. That’s not to say it’s bad from the publisher’s point of view. In fact it’s quite lucrative. Without an end (goal), there’s very little sense of accomplishment built into MMOs. There’s no payoff in the form of end-game credits and cutscenes for the time and money invested. So the player is forced to set goals for themselves within the limits of the game. For example…
I got dragged into playing World of Warcraft the December after it launched. As the group of us did not have any other alternative we could all agree to play for gaming night, WoW filled the void. During that period, the most fun we had was milking the auction house. Suffice it to say, we got bored after about 6 months. Unfortunately, we exhausted the replacement games too. And so we got pulled into WoW once more. Part of the problem with our first stint, we attributed to picking pansy Alliances characters. We also researched our classes a heck of a lot more and twinked them like crazy using our Alliance funds. G-zan FTW!
We also made the game more challenging. We concentrated on instancing only, leveling to the point where we’d be high enough to go into an instance and finish it in one run (where possible) but be low enough in level that we didn’t overpower the mobs and bosses. Our best was when we 3-manned Sunken Temple with one death during the fight with Eranikus. Playing this way made the game much more enjoyable the second time around, but shows that it was only fun because we found a way to make it fun, bringing me back to my original point.
Since we could level however we wanted in between instance runs, I opted to do PVP because the Warsong Gulch rewards were easily attainable. Plus I missed playing FPSes and this was the closest I’d get. Eventually we exhausted all the instances we could 3-man and that was pretty much the end, which left me to decide whether to continue with PVP or not. I did get what I originally sought after which was an epic mount. As much as I liked the fact that we completed instances in such a way that we got a sense of accomplishment, I ultimately decided it really wasn’t enough. So I figured I had the skill and time to push for High Warlord. I also realized it was also an investment because once a High Warlord always a High Warlord, and the PVP gear automatically upgrades as the levels expand which means every 10 levels of expansion I can simply buy one of the top three items in the game depending on the content at any given time. Being HW means never having to care about a drop again. Update: Blizzard changed the honor system such that honor is now treated as currency instead of a measure of rank which is a welcomed change but it just means only my title is worth anything. So no easy upgrades for me. At least my weapons lasted me til 70.
So seven months after I started PVP (Remember what I said about it being lucrative for the publisher?), Polio attained rank 14. Of course props go out to Maskimxul, Nelgrath, Black Raiders, Starshadow, The Asylum, and everyone else who offered support. It’s good to be the king. It’s also good that I could walk away feeling I accomplished something. Granted it’s much more a measure of time played versus skill but that’s a whole other topic.