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Then of course there is the dinner party, and noticed Lady Keira Berrybuck.
The only shot I have of Lady Berrybuck is her on the floor, but in researching her she looks like she's wearing a pink chiffon Moondress, and part of a bigger circle of nobles. In fact, the Nobles of Darkshire! Now that is an elite group! Man, if they weren't dead, I'd bet they'd be on a kick-ass raiding team!
There are plenty more, of course, but for another time. There are other old things, er, business, I want to bring up.
Even though I click on Bear's blog constantly, somehow Tome saw this first: We All Want to Be Special. Recently I read this post by Prinnie (whom I adore) and it made a lot of sense. I've been having many conversations about elitism, fairness, or the mythology of fairness, achievements, etc. CD Rogue and I were out for a brew the other evening, and the Stanley Cup was playing. I like hockey, but CDR says only live. His opinion was that sports that rely on the other team making a mistake, as opposed to offering up strategies, etc. were not interesting to him. We decided to put this to the test for many such 'games' including WoW and chess. Soccer, hockey are on one end of the spectrum, where only if one makes a mistake is there a goal. Games like basketball are a war of attrition, and perhaps with baseball somewhere in between. Chess on the other hand, requires the forward march of planning ahead. Depending on your play style and life philosophy may make you drawn to one or not. This is not to say that soccer and hockey players don't work their asses off in training, strategies, etc.*
Where does WoW fit it with all this? Well, all over the place. The elite raiding guilds will never, ever be threatened by the other players. Never. But--like little dogs who have big barks, some players think they're part of that club, and they make big noises. Just today Señor was telling me about an experience he had last night:
Where does WoW fit it with all this? Well, all over the place. The elite raiding guilds will never, ever be threatened by the other players. Never. But--like little dogs who have big barks, some players think they're part of that club, and they make big noises. Just today Señor was telling me about an experience he had last night:
Why did the geared mage think it was important or valuable to tell the other mages what to do? I know for a fact my friend has been playing for years, and plays for relaxation and fun. And you see his last comment? He gave no oxygen to the geared mage's fire. I only know the coolest people--yes, guess I'm an elite in that way.
But --wasn't I just saying a few hundred posts ago we needed something like Flex Raiding? I think I called it 'free agent raiding.' Wonder if it's going to be like that.
In the meantime, I'll just keep rolling along, leveling pets, peeking in LFRs for loot, and writing my little stories. I think those are pretty damn leet, some of the time anyway.
*Mr. Snerggulsssss here: The publishers of Sugar & Blood, while not retracting any comments, wish to add this addendum: the goals of sports like hockey and soccer are made by seizing opportunities of errors, not implying any negative connotation in the word "error" but in a sports vernacular. See comments below. Thank you, that is all.
*Mr. Snerggulsssss here: The publishers of Sugar & Blood, while not retracting any comments, wish to add this addendum: the goals of sports like hockey and soccer are made by seizing opportunities of errors, not implying any negative connotation in the word "error" but in a sports vernacular. See comments below. Thank you, that is all.
Señor is a very smart man :)
ReplyDeleteHe sure is -- so grateful for my smart and funny friends! Present company included!
DeleteI want a banshee mini pet, especially if whenever you get a killing blow it shrieked over the fallen corpse of your enemy.
ReplyDeleteAs for elitism, certain people just shouldn't play with others. The biggest elitist jerk I've ever met was someone who failed a trial with my vanilla guild, learnt from this to improve his play and then treated everyone in the same situation as he was, terribly...
That banshee pet must happen. To add, out of no where you'll hear a bone-chilling scream and know it's time to level her up. Something like that.
DeletePeople either receive knowledge and then it, like the gift it is, or beat others with it like a stick. Poor choice to do the latter.
A note for possible future research: WoW Model Viewer has a feature where you can tell it to load the outfit worn by any particular NPC in the game, and it'll load it onto your toon, where I presume you can then inspect all the pieces.
ReplyDeleteIt's come in handy from time to time. :)
Ah, cool, and alas - not sure I have the right equipment. Story of my life!
DeleteI wish people like that just wouldn't play with others. It makes me sad that people like that think they own the game when Blizz realises that the casuals is where the money is.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated to the point of the post, I know, but I object to soccer being cast as a game that doesn't rely on strategy, both in the planning and the execution. :)
ReplyDeleteFirst - my apologies. I promise you if I had typed the entire conversation it would have been more clear the point - this is not to imply in any way soccer, hockey, etc. is a sport that lacks intelligence, grace, or skill. In fact, I mention that players do work their tails off. But when I was reading the post before I hit publish, I thought to myself I wasn't being explicit enough, but let it go for lack of time. There are some components of strategizing that require being prepared for the other team to make mistakes. We were questioning basketball, with its extremely high scores, and it seems to be a game of organized fouling. Baseball is another, a very much -hurry-up-and-wait game. Perhaps this is why fans are so elated when there is a homerun or a goal in soccer - who can not only outlast whom, but also find that moment to seize an opportunity? In many ways, WoW is NOTHING like any of this. The RNGs have way too much sway. In fact, CD Rogue was providing me with insight on how game design work (his area of expertise) and when a company such as Blizz says okay, we'll give out this percentage of Item UWANTIT in any given situation, and taking no account into need or game desires, it weakens the structure of the game entirely. Case in point: I still have a blue weapon from the expansion, and a level 476 weapon that took me over 35 tries to get on my shaman. Am I a terrible player? No. Am I less "deserving?" No, let me check, have I kicked puppies lately or pinched babies? No and no. (OKay I did tell a pregnant lady to let me finish my sentence while she was screeching at me, but it was self preservation!)
DeleteSo: being able to take advantage of an error of the other team is indeed, a respectable strategy. Defense and offense, yin and yang, working together to try to win.
I don't know what it's like in other countries, but I do know we here in the States sure do love our underdogs. We tend to love them so much that when they do actually win, somehow it cheapens our matyrdom.
For the record, neither CDR and I watch sports. We play WoW, write, create things, and have fights over how to cut the end of Otter Pops. So trust me when I say, if I wrote down the entire analysis you'd be crying. Again, my apologies if I cast any dispersions on soccer. Don't even get me started on American football...and baseball is for drinking beer. Not sure why else they would build those stadiums except to house cold beer.
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ReplyDelete(on the theme of pet battles:)
ReplyDeleteI like that you describe it as the "myth of fairness", it's very accurate. An individual PvP pet battle fight can be lucky or unlucky, but in the grand scheme of things, we are both. Just like with drop rates etc. It's so perception based.
That is it - fairness is a myth. I could philosophize about this forever. Thank you so much for your comment - told CD Rogue last night that perhaps lack of fairness is the universe's operating system, and we little humans keep bouncing against it like we can change that. Silly humans.
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