The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW has been out for nearly two weeks now. I love it. The new dungeons, new areas, new achievements, its all really really cool. And yet I've hardly played it. The reason - my daughter was born on launch day :) I was in fact in a queue for a midnight release at my local Tesco while my wife was starting to have contractions. I just about got the game installed before we had to go in to the local hospital.
Since then, as you can imagine, I've been busier than I've ever been before, taking care of my newborn and her mum and so I've had very little time to myself to play WoW. I've actually only had enough time to level up twice since WotLK launched.
But that's not the only unusual thing about my toon. You see, I'm a paladin who is still Holy. Yes, unlike pretty much all my pally contemporaries, I did not respec to Retribution when the last patch made them so powerful and I have not respecced since WotLK launch just to level up to 80.
Maybe I would have if I had had more time to play - the temptation to 'level fast' might have been too much to resist. But I have to say I hope I would not have gone over to the Dark Side, taken the 'easy' route, if I had had the time.
I understand why so many Holy and Protection paladins went over to Ret until they got to 80. Everyone wants to see the 'endgame'. Get to the raids, get to the Heroics, get to the real phat lootz. But what about the content that comes before the end?
As a Holy Paladin I can fill a specific slot in groups - the healer and debuffer. I've healed in the Nexus and Utgarde Keep several times already. I'm looking forward to the challenge of the rest of the dungeons in Northrend. The loot I get won't be kept for long, sure. But the experiences will be fun and good training for that endgame content everyone is so mad about when I eventually get to it.
Then there are all the quests along the way. All the beautiful zones, factions, and rewards to be found and seen. I could respec to ret and powerlevel to 80 in a few days, but then again, I could just pay a professional service to do it for me and read dungeon guides on wowwiki.
The point is, there is more to WoW or any MMO than the endgame. Endgame is the stuff developers put in to keep us playing once we've finished all the main game's content. It is an important part of the game sure, but not all of it. But a lot of players today don't seem to have the patience to enjoy the game itself - they just want to race through to the highest level possible. There's a sort of insecurity about being anything 'less'. But by doing so they deprive themselves and other players of a lot of fun. Players are being given the choice of being useful or powerful - and sadly seem to largely be choosing the latter.
Personally I'm glad I've been slowed down a little, that I'm being forced to take my time in Northrend. The slow rate of exposure means I'm seeing things more clearly, having more meaningful experiences than I would were I to be charging through the levels as fast as I can. I'm happy to level more slowly than I could (although I do still feel somewhat envious when I see guildmates getting all those cool achievements and fancy mounts and loot).
But that gives me something to look forward to. When I get to 80 (if my baby ever lets me!) it will be the end of a long journey. Hopefully I will have experienced a lot of the game along the way and been useful to a lot of groups too. And presumably I'll be that much further away from the burnout many players inevitably feel when they've rerun the same dungeons at max level and seen next to no progress for all the weeks and months in the meantime.
If it's the first time you level, it's a journey. If you done it before a few times, then it's the destination.
Wed Nov 26 2008 11:10AMVery few MMO veterans in general view levelling as anything but a means to an end, rather than a destination.
Players who have gone through EQ, Asheron's Call, EQ2, AO, LOTRO, etc and then start WoW, you'll see these people often not playing for the journey either -- it's like they're all tired of levelling, but nobody's thought of a system since UO that takes it out (not that UO was grind-free)
It's a strange thing developers have to deal with -- they want to put more content into the game, but way too many gamers pay no heed to it, instead rushing to the endgame.
The fault is partly those of the developers though, for fostering this sort of environment via game design.
Wed Nov 26 2008 11:46AMi would say GuildWars took the leveling out of the game by concentrating on the strategy of the game over the leveling. It seems like the complte opposite of WoW where they will probably raise the level cap again with their next big expansion making all the content they have already released more grind to the end instead of end game.
The two games came out at the same time and its funny how the hype blog i just read plays into it but GW was overshadowed by the WoW commercials and Warcraft lore hype surounding the game. I still go back to GW every now and then and play some but since they havent released anything sinc GWEN expansion (waiting for GW2 release) the game has gotten repetetive.
I will be interested to see how A.net does GW2 and how it willcompare to the typical MMO since they have in the past promoted a no leveling system. From what has been said so far they are looking at a no grind PvP format with a City of Heroes leveling system or something similar.
All in all i think A.net has done an excellent job logistically with their games in the past.
Wed Nov 26 2008 12:49PMWait, so your wife is having labor contractions yet you still wait in line, get the game, and worry about installing it? Yep, you are an addict.
Oh, and games are supposed to be about journeys and adventures...not destinations. This is why the WoW community fails because they've made it all about the destination.
Wed Nov 26 2008 1:48PMi'd say by far my most enjoyable times were instance grinding 20-40 on my priest. the variety of groups i met was great and i had a blast every time i went into one of those (well made) dungeons. Infact looking back on my only character to reach max level (or even get close, my hunter lvl 60, 2 weeks before the BC) the best memories were on the journey to 60 and not at 60.
Wed Nov 26 2008 3:46PMI remember back when I first heard about WoW, before TBC. People said, "The game is pretty good, but 60 is BORING. The game is seriously lacking at the end." Well then Blizzard came out with moar epix lewtz, moar raidz, etc., and people started changing their opinion. Then TBC hit and all the new players thought, "I wanna get to Outland! F*ck Azeroth!" So they leveled as fast as possible to 70 to get to the good stuff, the endgame. Nothing's changed in WotLK. If anything, it's worse now.
Sure, there will always be those who do focus on the journey rather than the destination; I'm using broad generalization here because a game with 11 million subs requires it.
Wed Nov 26 2008 10:05PMHehe, just to clarify: my wife's contractions were more than 10 minutes apart, had been coming since 2am the previous morning, and she had another friend with her when I left for Tesco. Even after we went to the hospital the first time we ended coming home again and it was nearly wenty-four hours before baby came. Quite frankly, if your missus ever has 48 hours of contractions, you're going to want a break too :)
Thu Nov 27 2008 8:42AMMMORPG.com writes:
Login or Register to post a comment