Thursday, August 2, 2007

Buh... huh?

I don't get it. I just don't fucking get it.

So, with the new expansion on the horizon, already the bitching has begun. With the likely potential of a level cap increase, people are complaining about the likelihood that their raiding and PvP quality gear will be replaced quite quickly. This is what I don't get. So you're complaining because you're getting better gear?

I realize the real complaint is that you "put a lot of hard work into getting the gear and now it's going to be replaced" but... isn't that the point of getting better quality gear? So you can go farther, and get even better quality gear? (two separate concepts) I mean, even if they didn't release the expansion, you'd still replace the gear? The gear you did get will assist you by making it easier for you to get even better gear. Does replacing the gear soon after you get it diminish the achievement you got from getting it?

I... I'm serious when I say I just don't get it.

As a side note: I doubt the gear divide will be as humongous between tBC and WotLK as it was for vanilla WoW and tBC. Between the rating system being added and the change to the iLVL value for stamina, the type of gear that could be put without imbalancing the game out vastly changed.

5 comments:

Sean said...

I think it has to do with jealousy. Raiders who gruelingly slaved over hellish boss strategies and had the gear (and epeens) to go with raiding will soon be in the same green quest rewards as those people who might still be leveling to 70.

As for me, the second I replace a Kara epic, I'll just be glad to get something better.

Michael Johnson said...

Don't forget that even if they do announce another X-pac and up the level-cap/ itemization, it might be another 6 months or so, until it's released, and possibly even longer than that. Blizz might have been overestimating when they said they'd put out an expansion every year, it might be more like every-other-year.

Either way, I like more content, and expansions do attract more players to the game, which is always good.

Anonymous said...

Speaking as a former Guild Master and Raid Leader of a fairly high progressed Raiding Guild..

a few things to consider:

Gear is, in avery unique way, your resume'. It indicates things beyond your experience level, the obvious thing.

It indicates how far up the totem pole in your guid you are.
It indicates your attendance level and whether you are involved in first kills or just farm content.

In the case of a new recruit, it indicates that the player possess at least the level of skill, performance, and situational awareness required by the encounters their gear drops off of.

The same gear can mean different things.
If I look at someone wearing a full Khorium Plate set, I'll look at who the crafter was.

If the crafter is the wearer, Ill be impressed by the person's dedication to their own self improvement, as aquiring and crafting the set yourself takes a significant time investment.

If the crafter is someone else, my first thought is merely going to be that the person has a lot of money and is probably a gold buyer.


The common misconception is that the concern is over the stats. It has nothing to do with the stats. A raider will not mind a bit upgrading to something with better stats.
The issue is that a raised level cap and a new expansion serve as a leveler. Now, everyone is running around in a full khorium set made by someone else.
There's no way to tell the good players from the bad, the experienced from the beginners, the casuals from the person who will make a dependable regualar attendee.
Similarly, your entire resume is now negated.
No one can tell the trials you went through that your teir 3 peices are symptomatic of.



I know that i personally will never shard my teir 2. Neither will I shard my tier 3 peices.
While that is partly because they look cool, more so it is the fact that each peice, and even more so the peices that I DONT have, represents a ton of memories.




If you can't understand it, think about the test realm forums. Most people hate them.
They are full of premades all running around in tier 6.
Theres also no way to tell how many of them have any idea how to use that gear or play their character.
You can't tell whether that rogue over there is Joeownzu from [Scrub Guild] on Gurubashi or Ming himself.
Theres no way to get your bearings.


Level cap raises are a healthy thing in that they ensure that leading guilds are where they are truely because they are the most skilled players, rather than simply because they've been raiding longer and no one starting new can catch up.

But there's bound to be resentment when the government gives everybody who doesnt work for a living enough money to bring them to the level of the hard working middle class man who's sweat got him where he was.
It's not so much that the other guy is undeserving, its that the fact that my tidy white picket fence 2-bedroom and hatchback volkswagon I rebuilt myself suddenly are meaningless,because everyone has them, the ones who earned them and the ones who didnt, and I went from something special to nothing to be proud of at all.
Yeah...I can keep working my butt off and maybe by a nice Mustang after I save up, but still....I feel pretty jipped.

Kaziel said...

While I can understand what you're writing, Joana, it doesn't really make sense to me. I just have an entirely different perspective. To me, the value of the items I have represent the challenge I undertook to get them, where they can allow me to go, and the memories I can associate with them.

Other people getting stuff, even stuff that's equal or better with less work does not diminish my item's value. Even if, after the expansion, they changed it so you could literally buy T4-6 from the vendor, it still wouldn't diminish the vale of my Tiered gear, because I got them through hard work.

Also, minor note: it's gypped, in reference to the gypsies, which probably isn't really PC (not that I care that much, and I'm descended from gypsies).

Michael Johnson said...

Ok, on the subject of character progression and Expansion-packs, how's this for an idea:

Keep the Violet Eye as a faction in WotLK. Add some new rewards/quests/whatever. If you've been raiding Kara at lvl 70 and you've gotten some nice rep with VE, you'd get a head-start in WotLK.

We'd need some sort of mechanism to make sure players wouldn't 5-man Kara at lvl 80 just to get the rep, but having some sort of benefit at 80 for the stuff you did at 70 would be grand.