So I've been dabbling in various aspects of the game over the past few weeks. My obsession with Pet Battles has dwindled to a healthy "Oh that's a nice break" rather than the mega "I must tame them all!" mantra. I can get a little manic when it comes to this game, and I was pretty into the whole pet battle thing -- so much so I burned myself out.
Enter the "it's a new fiscal year and my IT department has money again" in January and work has been nice and busy lately. The double combination of faffing in game and not having much game time has made for some interesting sessions.
Consider my paladin questing in Townlong, and I'm told:
How does it KNOW?
Luckily, my skin's a bit on the thick side, so I was able to shrug that one off. Not too long after, I got my dynamic duo 'chiever:
Ta Da!
Now that the pally was at 90, it was time to experiment with some solo raiding. I have gotten out the the grind for mounts, and I've started clearing Kara again in hopes that the horse drops. No such luck. After running a few scenarios and getting some halfway decent blue drops (and getting rid of my mostly quest greens), I've been able to solo AQ and not get stuck at the Twin Emperors. I tell ya, that was a heavy feeling of impotence to not be able to pass those two. But now, I've gained exalted rep with AQ and picked up a nice set of flying purple people eater mail mogs, as well as gotten lucky in AQ with each of the pets needed for Raiding With Leashes.
Same with Molten Core, though I *still* need to slog that one out for rep for a few more months thanks to the brilliant decision to only award rep from boss kills! Ugh! But, that and Black Wing Lair have been generous with pet drops, and all I've got left is Naxx. And the bosses in Naxx are not being pet friendly with me. I need all Naxx pets. /sigh
Speaking of Naxx.... It's a bit irrelevant, but it's still an achievement:
Only 2 Expansions Late!
The funny thing was no matter how I tried, the only way I could get Shocking! was by soloing and not having anyone else there to muck it up. Hmmmm. =)
Then, I figured let's actually do some new - current - content. So I checked in with the Shieldwall and started that. All I can say is "Whoa!" I'm liking the story line bunches and I'm looking forward to getting in and doing the dailies (in my case the bi-dailies) to advance the story line. I had seen Navi mention about this cool achievement from the Shieldwall (once I actually got caught up in some blog reading, but that's a different story) so I had to try my hand. I got lucky, and on my second day I got my Dudes achievement!
The Achievement Name is cooler than the Achievement itself
I'm currently swapping back and forth between my Alliance Warlock and my Horde Druid to see which one will get the 3rd and 4th level 90 achievements on my account. After playing primarily Alliance characters, the Jade Forest from the Horde side is pretty cool. Plus, those ookin' Hozen make me laugh with the stuff they say. As I was exploring the clickies in a base, for example, I uncovered this literary gem:
Those ookin' Monkeys can pen a hai-ku!
Oh, and the inn-keeper at the hozen staging area? He's called a Hozen Bed-Haver. Epic!
I find that I relate much of my real-life experiences to things that I’ve either read in books or seen in movies. Therapy would have a field day exploring that, but suffice to say that I find parallels in fiction. For example, Fight Club feature’s Edward Norton’s character discussing the concept of “Single Serving Friends” with fellow airline passengers.
Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I've ever met... see I have this thing: everything on a plane is single-serving...
This resonated with me personally long before starting to play Warcraft. I used to spend an insane amount of time on airplanes. No, I wasn’t driving them. I was a passenger, and I was visiting clients approximately 90% of my working hours. It all added up to an obscene amount of frequent flyer miles and time spent sitting in airplanes or in airports.
To paraphrase Chuck Palahniuk (the author of Fight Club), when you travel that much everything is a single-serving. Your airplane service features a single-serving liquor bottle, a single-serving slice of cheese, a single bag of nuts....In my experience, my airline trips sat me next to random strangers, and invariably we struck up a conversation for the duration of the flight, becoming a single-serving friend just as Palahnuik describes. I’d never see these single-serving people again, and the pleasant experience was limited to that small duration.
Enter Warcraft
Specifically, enter the LFD system. Almost all of the instances that I now experience offer a single-serving experience -- either positive or negative. I can draw the angry tank who’s bitter about everything and criticizes everyone. He or she is a single-serving jerk. Or, I can get that group that just clicks and everyone is on the game. The tank is pleasant and helpful (the kind of tank I strive for if I’ve dusted off my pally or death knight). I enjoy this experience. So much so that I find I queue for random instances much of my time spent in WoW. Ultimately, it’s all a temporary rush.
Before you start to say “But, But, But...” I realize that Blizzard has indeed provided me with tools, especially with 5.0.4, that I can use to stay in touch with those folks from my random instances that truly shine. Before 5.0.4, I would have had to exchange RealIDs with folks; I’m not too keen on that. But now, with Battletags, there is no reason for me not to reach out to people. I’m not giving out an email, after all. I would be saying “I’d like to hang out again for a cross-server event so feel free to reach me whether I’m on this guy or any of my alts.” Er... that’s a bit long-winded. How about “I like you. Let’s hang out more.” Yeah, that’s simpler.
But I don’t say either of those things! I just move along.
In the last months, the LFD instances also began placing a priority on players of the same server. So, increasingly, I’m finding myself grouped with other members of my server. This one’s brutally easy: I can simply friend that person. But I don’t even bother with that. How lazy am I, anyway?
I’m not using the tools the game affords me to stay in contact with players. I have no good reason, either. Is it a habit? Shyness? A joy of sticking with the transitory nature of an instance group?
There is something magical when you do group and get into that party makeup where everyone know’s their stuff, nobody is crabby, and the run is just plain fun. When that happens, it’s so unexpected (for me at least) that it’s treasured. I’m almost afraid to ruin the magic by placing some organization around it. Isn’t that crazy? I’m hesitant to continue a good thing -- because most of the reason why it was good in the first place is that it was a surprise. If I impose organization and then plan a run, the efficiency is now expected and I can only be let down. That’s pretty depressing, when you stop to think about it.
Bad Behavior
Am I alone in this? Perhaps... but it’s really interesting for me to consider why this behavior persists.
Before LFD (and to much more focused view LFR), my options for running a PVE instance were either hitting up guild mates or braving trade chat. Trade had it’s own perils. You had to commit to running an instance (God forbid a raid) because you had to brave the idiocy that is trade chat. It took effort to put a group together, and even then you still might get total buffoons. After all, the tank didn’t need to be nice. Tanks could get a group immediately if they dropped. Heals could usually regroup quickly. DPS? We were a dime-a-dozen and treated as such.
With the introduction of LFD (and LFR), the mechanics have evolved. Tanks still insta-queue. Heals less so. Blizzard even added the Call to Arms mechanic awarding tanks or heals a chance at extra loot when their role is underrepresented. In theory, a DPS could get this too, but really? That’s just not gonna happen.
So again, the DPS take whatever the tank dishes out. Sure you CAN boot somebody. A DPS is backfilled quickly. A Tank will take some time to backfill (even across servers). To some extent, I believe that part of the reason for piss-poor behavior in random instances or raids is based upon how easy it is to re-queue. There is no consequence, really. On a single server, a jerk would get a reputation and then trade chat would lambast them. In random, nobody on my server gives a hoot that someone from a different server was a jerk.
Without a consequence, there’s no discouragement other than social norms or even altruism to behave well in a random group.
I have come to expect poor behavior from random instances. That’s sad, but true. I expect better behavior from my pre-schooler than I do in instances or LFRs. It's a perpetual flash-back to Romper Room.
Even so, I find myself in the situation where I’m trying to quickly establish a rapport with 4 or 24 random people because I’m hoping for the best. I’m also on my toes because I need to perform to my best so that I’m not targeted for the Boot. I don’t want to do anything that would cause me to become a target.
There’s something in that experience -- I’m not exactly sure what -- but there’s something that is preventing me from wanting or even trying to reach out again to the other players in these random experiences. I know that I could; I’m just not.
Maybe I just really enjoy the anonymity and the transience of a single-serving friendship?
If one decides to play a Tauren, then you may choose from the following class choices: Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight, Paladin, and Priest.
I get the Warrior, DK and Pally; Taurens are big honkin' things and they racial War Stomp, so it makes sense for them to tank. An angry bull seems more aggressive than say, a pretty Blood Elf in shiny armor. But now we're just feeding stereotypes.
I also get the Druid and Shammy because of the spiritual natural vibe that Thunder Bluff gives off. The Tauren have strong Native American overtones and are very in touch with nature, so Druids are a given. There are totems all over Mulgore, so why not extend that to Shaman? I suppose I can even tolerate the Hunter, but it's a stretch. Hunter's are more agile, but I guess you can get away with standing in place and blasting away.
But a Priest? Please! All I can picture is a cow in a robe. Besides, priests are restricted to cloth armor. As a Tauren, aren't you already sporting leather with just your skin? Just wondering....
Any serious cow priests (by serious I mean other than those that are simply leveling to 85 for the guild achievement Classy Tauren)?
Why?
I have found that there are a few other things in life that you can count on, aside from the whole death and taxes schtick. While these observations are not Gallilean in their breadth and scope, let alone impact, they are pretty damn true based upon my experiences.
Rule #1
This observation has evolved from my becoming a parent, and I have seen nothing in my personal life to disprove this observation.
The smaller the person, the more space they require.
Pretty simple statement, but consider this: a baby cannot simply get strapped in the minivan (oh yes, I am so cool that I drive a minivan) for a visit to the grandparents. You must load the spare diapers, creams, lotions, toys, changes of clothes for when the diapers fail to contain their intended product and portable bed. This is why parents drive those vans -- the kids take up all the room!
As my children have aged, the amount of crap they need with them has lessened. My son would be content wearing the same clothes all weekend long and would just lobby to carry his cell phone and his iPad. My daughters require their whole wardrobe along with the entire play room!
The warcraft equivalent? Well, I'm pretty sure this is just me, but I choose the tradeskilling combination of Engineering and Mining on my Gnome. Now this improved with Wrath's introduction of the Gnomish Army Knife, but when I first leveled engineering you had to have all this crap in your bags to make things -- Blacksmith Hammer, Arclight Spanner, Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor to name a few. Then, you had to make all these other parts just to assemble the thing you wanted to make in the first place. A toolbox - preferably the Elementium Toolbox - is pretty much mandatory!
Rule #2
I started realizing in staff meetings and client design sessions that:
The more ignorant someone is, the louder they complain.
At work, this was for a change request that would ultimately help someone save days of work during the week chasing down issues. Sometimes, I skate close to the Bobs from Office Space - I don't ever recommend staff reductions, but I do recommend working smarter. However, if an outsider tells you how to do your job, you may want to tell that outsider to piss off. I get that! Professionally, I'll explain to you and educate you on how this change will help you, so long as you give me a chance. Those folks that decline that chance fail to see the improvement and they sabotage the project every chance they get from that point forward.
Where do you see this in WoW? Too many places! How about an LFR where someone didn't get their drop (never mind they were an enhancement shaman rolling on spirit mail that the resto shammy won)? Or a BG where after the first death one of your teammates spends the entire remainder of the battle complaining in /bg about how everyone else sucks -- instead of suggesting tactic changes that may possibly allow your faction a victory. In each of these, someone feels slighted and/or attacked, they go on a rampage. Despite efforts of others in the group to explain why, they fail to listen to explanations and instead go on a nerd rage bender.
How about you folks (if you're out there)? Any rules of your life that crop up in your Warcraft experiences?
oneCof5#1879
