Did antisocials ruin MMOs?

I remember doing a lot more grinding and waiting in WoW. From what I've heard, other games had even more. On the surface these things are bad. After all, grinds are repetitive and who likes waiting? But there are benefits to them.

Waiting around is a time for guilds to bond. There's not much time to chit chat during raids; there are more immediate concerns to be handled. Sure, there are a few minutes before pulls while you buff and summon and all that, but are you going to be friends from talking for five minutes a couple nights a week? Are you going to feel any loyalty? I doubt it. By my own experience, that chit chat is annoying. A handful of people who knew each other before talk about stuff no one else understands and it can be alienating. It ends up being "I wish we'd start so they would shut up."

Grinding on its own isn't very social. However if a grind is long enough and based on mass killing, it encourages grouping up. You get a few DPS and maybe a healer to go commit genocide. It's low-key so you can chat and do the sort of numberless theorycraft that can do a surprising amount to open people's minds to the mechanics of the world: "What if we used shockwave when those spawn and then they'll be easier to bladestorm?" "Really, those can be stunned? I didn't know that."

The activity itself isn't much fun, but it's a time to gather and talk. Think of it as the barn-raising of MMOs. Get together and build something and eat pie while the younguns try to hook up and make more younguns. Maybe that last part of the analogy only works in Goldshire.

So what killed boring stuff in MMOs? Maybe it was the antisocial people. They couldn't have fun with people despite the activity. They wanted to log in, get their pixels, and log out without having to deal with other people any more than necessary.

But you say "Isn't this really because people like being able to get things done in a short amount of time?" Maybe. But I wonder, would people be willing to spend more time if they were with people they socialized with more? Sure, there are the log in for an hour twice a week people, but why structure everything around them? Why are all the instances short and all the grinds based on an hour of dailies here and there? I remember people farming in guild groups or waiting for PUGs to form and talking along the way. I joined my first guild while waiting for a ZF group to start.

As I was digging through screenshots to find some for GIMP to grind up into a banner, I stumbled across some very old ones. They were of a few guildies and me on my warlock in Darkwhisper Gorge. We were farming the eye of shadow. I don't recall if we were farming it for a guildy in the group or if we were just farming as a group. Either way, I can't imagine that anymore. What could we possibly need to farm that we cannot do alone?

It's all soloable. Sure, these mobs were soloable, but they were tough enough that a group was appreciated and we were still in a mindset that farming was more than just a solo activity between raids; it was part of what guilds did. I won't pretend we didn't mine solo or hunt some mobs solo, but there was much more group activity outside of raids and instances. The bugs in Silithus used to be elite. Soloable, but still tough enough that it was smart to bring help. Part of the rep included summoning outdoor mini-bosses, which we'd pull together groups for, sometimes entire PUG raids.

These days I almost laugh when people group up outside instances. LFM TFA/cit? Heh. Noobs, learn2solo. That strikes me as wrong. These are supposed to be multi-player games, MMORPGs, and yet increasingly we demand the ability to solo. We push away any hint of reliance on others. Then when we join a PUG we wonder why everyone is so unreliable. We try to raid and wonder who recruited these disloyal idiots.

The other extreme was certainly bad, waiting hours for a spawn and needing a group at almost all times. But this extreme might not be all that much better. Why play online if we're going to play it as a single-player game?

Are we too antisocial to pass the time talking? Are we in such a rush that everything must be able to be done right now? Are we replacing slow-cooking with microwaves and losing all the flavor?

Did you know the tram has a ticket booth?

I just noticed this a yesterday. Since I was a gnome, I decided to jump through the opening. Then I got stuck and had to use my death gate to get out.

You read this?

Every now and then I get completely surprised when I find that someone reads my blog. I think of it as a little tiny itsy-bitsy piece of the blogosphere that no one ever notices. Well sure, I know my favorite gnomes read and a few other people as well, but I'm no Tobold or Gevlon or one of those other names that is just... you know it. Even if you don't read it, you know the name, but odds are, you read it. A strange habit of mine: when I find a new blog I check their blogroll. If I see Greedy Goblin I frown and shake my head, and then go back to a slight smile because it's so much more fun to smile. If I don't see mine I smile a little big less. If I see Pink Pigtail Inn I say: "Well at least they have some taste."

Every now and then a real life friend of mine makes some comment about a recent post. I get confused. "What do you mean 'only I could make therapy disturbing?' Oh! You read that?" This recent exchange led to my idea for a post 'soon': Where do bank alts come from? Or I made a post on the general forums and someone responds that they like my blog. A druid of all types! Somehow this never struck me as a blog that a druid would ever read. Except Hana but she's a druidadin.

Of course once I get going on this line of thought I get all confused. What class would read this? I know because I've been told, that my blog address has pulled in some people looking for a shaman blog. Oops? My labels you might find this in a search for paladins. Or as I recently noticed: hunter BiS weapons. Yea, that's from one post a while back.

Not a class blog. Not a lore blog. Not an economics/gold-making blog. Not theorycraft. Not news. I actively avoid this being a "here's what I did yesterday" blog, though it still happens since what I did yesterday was so amazingly amazing and funny and omg leik can u believe wut dropped!? Sorry. Sometimes I feel like a knockoff PPI with some mix of social posts and commentary and general being a nice person-ness. That's right, I am being outblogged by a Swedish mother and her friend who I am not really sure but I thought was from Arizona.

What does it mean that when I try to write these sort of posts where I'm curious about my audience that they end up all self-deprecating? Oh you say you've never seen me write one of these? That's because I delete them because I hate that emo crap. Cheer the f- up!

Yesterday I learned that I can solo the tiger boss in ZG. I was worried that I'd not have the interrupts to do it. It turns out the heals are infrequent enough that I can damage through them and only need to interrupt close to the end. And it appears that the madness boss is the one I need, so unless it switched tomorrow, I think I'll be able to get it and complete my trinket. Truth be told, this is just a scheme to free up the bank slots. Oh damn, I just did one of those "read this and care about what I'm doing" type of posts, or part of one. That's so... social.

P.S. Just to ensure that I'm not ripping off Larisa by being a nice person, I plan to be an asshole for a while. I figure I'll make it a day or two.
P.S.S. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. Or a Happy Thursday since I know you're not all Americans.

This seems broken.

Hunter armory. Ignore the gear and check the achievements. Specifically check the date of the Onyxia achievement. Compare that to when Onyxia level 80 came out.

BG attendance and RL seasons

Do people do AV more in the winter?
How about AB in the spring?
Is WSG a fall BG?
And who does not immediately think of glowing purple skies and capture the flag when the calender rolls over to summer?

I do think of AV as a winter BG. As it gets colder I think about it more. My first AV was in the winter. In the same pattern, my first WSG was in the fall. But these are not due to seasons, but simply that was the timing of when I started playing and the levels at which I could do the BGs.

Something about snow drifting past the window doesn't match with the sunny Arathi Basin. Nor does it match the torrential downpours. Those are spring weathers.

I imagine Blizzard has data on this, of BG attendance on a given day, and that could be matched up with the seasons. Maybe there's a pattern, but we don't have that data. :(

But I can ask you. Do you see any correlation between your BG attendance and the outside seasons?

A new approach to dealing with damage

Currently damage is mostly dealt with by two types of players: tanks who mitigate it and healers who undo it. For tanks it's mostly about gear while for healers it's mostly about fast responses, anticipation of damage, and somehow surviving knowing that a single screw up can kill everyone. I admire healers for this. DPS don't do much in this process. You might see a ret throw up a sacred shield or maybe a mage or warlock throw up a specific absorb type, but in general DPS aren't involved in the damage control.

Let's change that.

I propose a way for DPS to increase their damage by protecting the raid. It would be a way to redirect certain types of hostile spells to themselves, absorbing most of the damage, and as they get more they accumulate spell combo points. These could be released for various devastating attacks.

Imagine you're on Thorim and Sif is throwing around a lot of frostbolts. You could throw up a resist aura and heal through them. Or, you could get a mage. They could redirect the bolts to themselves and with frost ward absorb the damage. After a while they could strike back with the absorbed damage. Other classes and specs would have similar abilities: shadow priests, warlocks, and DKs controlling shadow. Fire mages, destruction warlocks, and elemental shamans would control fire. Frost mages, DKs, and elemental shamans would control frost. Arcane mages, DKs, and warlocks would control arcane, though warlocks would retaliate with shadow damage. I spent too much time typing those out: the idea isn't meant to be so specific.

Lore-wise some of these might not make enough sense. A warlock protecting the group doesn't seem to fit, but maybe if it's boosting his ability to hurt other people? If it's a net gain in pain, a pain profit if you will, perhaps he'd do it. Other classes would seem to make more sense since several are healers or tanks and mages aren't social rejects (well, maybe only in lore)*. Hunters might have some sort of special arrow which they shoot at spells to catch them and then can be shot back, maybe this would tie into arcane shot.

What would rogues do that would help the group? They're not nice or even casters, so I'm not seeing any potential spell-control utility. Maybe they could have an anti-melee ability: looping a string around the enemy's weapon and pulling it taut, so when they swing at the tank it gets pulled back towards them.

* No crying, it's a joke, I have enough water for now.

DKs in Outland, perhaps not so ridiculous

I've held the belief that Death Knights should not run off to Outland almost straight from their starting area. It seemed to make no sense. They break free of the Scourge and swear to destroy it, and yet right after they run off to Outland to fight an enemy which they may have never ever heard of. How could Illidan and Kael'thas possibly be a worthy distraction to their pursuit of Arthas? They have no vendetta with them.

I left out some factors. There are reasons for the Knights of the Ebon Blade to wish to venture into Outland.

Allies
The last thing you hear before leaving is the need for allies. The Alliance or the Horde is the ally. These allies seek to secure Outland. While it would not seem to be in the immediate interests of the DKs, to maintain ties it is worth supporting their allies.

Personal Strength
While DKs leave their area with powerful armor, a potent runeblade, and the might of Death at their control, they are hardly in a position to directly challenge Arthas. They've obtained the most powerful armor of the Scourge, at least as they can tell, so it is unlikely that further battles in the Plaguelands will yield much gain. In contrast Outland is likely to have many undiscovered items of power.

Furthermore, Outland has entirely new challenges. It has direct confrontation with the Burning Legion in addition to all sorts of unknown enemies. To battle against them will give needed experience and versatility of tactics. It is a training ground for when they take the fight to Icecrown CItadel.

Vendetta
While I claimed that the DKs have no score to settle in Outland, this is not entirely true. They might know that the Scourge was created by the Burning Legion. While Arthas may have been their direct enemy, the Legion is responsible for the existence of the Scourge. Depending on the DK, they may even have been veterans of the previous wars against the Legion. An elf in particular could have been fighting them for thousands of years and could regard them as their main enemy even above Arthas.

Unpredictability
Arthas would expect the DKs to chase right after him. He would be prepared for them. For them to go off to Outland instead would give the appearance that they are afraid. From that he might underestimate them. Then when they return, it is as a surprise, and with greater power for their struggles.

This was all general factors, things that affect all DKs. What about our own personal DKs? My orc, Weisserose went to rediscover his identity as an orc by facing the fel orcs and hoping to discover the untainted ones. My gnome, Fizzledbang, is drawn by rumors of arcane and demonic energy which he might be able to craft into a new and more powerful bomb.

Why is your Death Knight in Outland?

I got a dwarf rogue!

I was camping outside the Alliance inn in Dalaran and I saw another dwarf coming out. As I was standing I got annoyed and started complaining in gchat: "hunter... DK... paladin... wwwwwwww" And finally I caught up to it and nailed it with the turkey shooter that I'd stuck on one of my bars. I was prepared and it paid off.

The dwarf rogue was MINE.

Now I have two shooters left and only need Horde rogues: troll, orc, undead.

And I've cooked up the food for the next four days worth of dailies, so I can start at TB and work my way east.

Turkinator was tricky, took some patience to find a spot and time with no competition. My advice: don't be persistent. Give up quickly so you're not getting in the way of other people. Then they can finish and get out of your way. Eastern Tirisfal seems to work well, I guess people are too lazy to run over there, especially northeast. Actually I got the buff a second time while farming turkeys for the cooking.