Hudson
When levels trump fleshing out a character
2008-11-10 10:47 AM PST
When does the will to level actually harm your MMO experience? All throughout this recruit a friend bonanza I have had a very very slight tinge of regret in the back of my head about how incomplete these two orcs will be. Now much of this stems from the fact that I am very impatient and I want to pump up my horde account NOW rather than wait. Some of it is also attributed to the fact that I have done levels 1-60 a lot also.
A few of the nit picky RPG things that concern me are faction, titles, pets and achievements, and while I can go back and get these later it does make me feel a little guilty. I have this view about it: I can always get to 60 and go back and do these things, but for 90 days I have triple XP and the ability to grant free levels. Should I actually feel bad about not leveling up slowly or not doing trade skills when I wouldn't have a mount and it would very painful? I don't think so. A character in an MMO is more than just levels to me. I know that once I hit 60 the two orc brothers have a lot of work still left to be rounded out. I am not stupid, I know they will be lacking skills and weapon abilities.
However to have the ability to run any of them through Outlands and Northrend, the content designed after blizzard got their heads out of their asses, is priceless to me. It puts me on the cusp of catching up to the new end game and does not exclude me from grouping with new death knights and their ilk. The one major argument people have with the RAF program is of course idiots that don't learn their class and jump right into 5 mans and get you slaughtered. I think in a sense blizzard was smart to halt RAF at 60. This forces players to still run Outlands instances to get really good gear and it also gives the death knights people to group with.
Sometimes I feel like blizzard has has quite a few tricks up their sleeves and this is just one of them. Smart design either way.
All in all, even though it pains me not to be a completest during these 90 days, I know that I have all the time I need to round them out later. Wow isn't going anywhere after all.
So this weekend I was not TOO busy in WoW, but I did get BOTH the orcs to level 31 already, they have their mounts and they are fully trained up in skills. I started working on the Armory side of Scarlet Monastery Saturday, but Sunday I had a lunch date and things to do. Got home this morning and with a whole week off and Lich King coming up Thursday I really have to buckle down and get to work. I want the orc duo to be up high enough to hit Outlands by Thursday or Friday, and that means a LOT of work to be done.
I have decided that my next duo will be...a rogue and warlock. Yeah I know, I said no more rogues. However this rogue is only going to level 30 with the warlock, then the warlock will get the 30 free levels from Tarkas, my orc shaman, to get to level 59 or 60.
This has led me to think about a lot of things this week regarding WoW. I don't think I am cut out for 25 man raiding anymore, and instead I am looking forward to the 10 man content. Would it be POSSIBLE to make a small 10 man guild that just likes to hang out and run instances, but LEARN them together and not piss and moan about loot? I have been thinking about this. Mature, stable players that want to try the content and just see how it goes. I sometimes feel guilty about not playing my orcs more. I may stop the power leveling and do some quests near the end of the week. Sometimes I just miss PLAYING the game but Recruit a Friend only gives me 90 days. I want to knock this out and move on to 80 as soon as I can. Not that I am in a rush to cap, but I want to cap at least 3 characters then maybe move on from there.
For the first time ever Saturday night my current guild stepped into SerpentShrine Cavern (25 man raid instance). The guild was very careful in proceeding, and we got to The Lurker Below. We wiped twice and it was getting late, but it was our first foray in there and I am sure we probably won't be back due to the expansion. At least I got to see some of it. Unfortunately the "raid leader" was stuck without ventrilo and had to type everything. This led me to think back to EQ1 and 72 man raids and wonder how the hell we pulled that stuff off. Anyway the raid was ok, but the preperation to start it was way too slow with people hearthing to get mats and things out of the bank and crap like that. When a raid is scheduled to start people really need to be prepared ahead of time. The adventure started ONE hour after we tried to form up.
The in game Blizzard raid calendar appears to be generally made of ass. Apparently it can only take a certain amount of invites, so if you have a lot of 70's in the guild, it only gets about the first 50 on the roster. Since I joined the guild late and my character's name starts with "V" I miss every raid invite and therefore have not known about them. This goes back to my guild organization rant last year. USE MESSAGE BOARDS. Why do guilds have a website, but not encourage users to go to it. Casualties of WAR does it, I always did it when I led my guild, but not this guild I am in now. Kind of pisses me off to be honest. If you have the guild and the players, take the time to iron out issues and get your workings straight.
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A few of the nit picky RPG things that concern me are faction, titles, pets and achievements, and while I can go back and get these later it does make me feel a little guilty. I have this view about it: I can always get to 60 and go back and do these things, but for 90 days I have triple XP and the ability to grant free levels. Should I actually feel bad about not leveling up slowly or not doing trade skills when I wouldn't have a mount and it would very painful? I don't think so. A character in an MMO is more than just levels to me. I know that once I hit 60 the two orc brothers have a lot of work still left to be rounded out. I am not stupid, I know they will be lacking skills and weapon abilities.
However to have the ability to run any of them through Outlands and Northrend, the content designed after blizzard got their heads out of their asses, is priceless to me. It puts me on the cusp of catching up to the new end game and does not exclude me from grouping with new death knights and their ilk. The one major argument people have with the RAF program is of course idiots that don't learn their class and jump right into 5 mans and get you slaughtered. I think in a sense blizzard was smart to halt RAF at 60. This forces players to still run Outlands instances to get really good gear and it also gives the death knights people to group with.
Sometimes I feel like blizzard has has quite a few tricks up their sleeves and this is just one of them. Smart design either way.
All in all, even though it pains me not to be a completest during these 90 days, I know that I have all the time I need to round them out later. Wow isn't going anywhere after all.
So this weekend I was not TOO busy in WoW, but I did get BOTH the orcs to level 31 already, they have their mounts and they are fully trained up in skills. I started working on the Armory side of Scarlet Monastery Saturday, but Sunday I had a lunch date and things to do. Got home this morning and with a whole week off and Lich King coming up Thursday I really have to buckle down and get to work. I want the orc duo to be up high enough to hit Outlands by Thursday or Friday, and that means a LOT of work to be done.
I have decided that my next duo will be...a rogue and warlock. Yeah I know, I said no more rogues. However this rogue is only going to level 30 with the warlock, then the warlock will get the 30 free levels from Tarkas, my orc shaman, to get to level 59 or 60.
This has led me to think about a lot of things this week regarding WoW. I don't think I am cut out for 25 man raiding anymore, and instead I am looking forward to the 10 man content. Would it be POSSIBLE to make a small 10 man guild that just likes to hang out and run instances, but LEARN them together and not piss and moan about loot? I have been thinking about this. Mature, stable players that want to try the content and just see how it goes. I sometimes feel guilty about not playing my orcs more. I may stop the power leveling and do some quests near the end of the week. Sometimes I just miss PLAYING the game but Recruit a Friend only gives me 90 days. I want to knock this out and move on to 80 as soon as I can. Not that I am in a rush to cap, but I want to cap at least 3 characters then maybe move on from there.
For the first time ever Saturday night my current guild stepped into SerpentShrine Cavern (25 man raid instance). The guild was very careful in proceeding, and we got to The Lurker Below. We wiped twice and it was getting late, but it was our first foray in there and I am sure we probably won't be back due to the expansion. At least I got to see some of it. Unfortunately the "raid leader" was stuck without ventrilo and had to type everything. This led me to think back to EQ1 and 72 man raids and wonder how the hell we pulled that stuff off. Anyway the raid was ok, but the preperation to start it was way too slow with people hearthing to get mats and things out of the bank and crap like that. When a raid is scheduled to start people really need to be prepared ahead of time. The adventure started ONE hour after we tried to form up.
The in game Blizzard raid calendar appears to be generally made of ass. Apparently it can only take a certain amount of invites, so if you have a lot of 70's in the guild, it only gets about the first 50 on the roster. Since I joined the guild late and my character's name starts with "V" I miss every raid invite and therefore have not known about them. This goes back to my guild organization rant last year. USE MESSAGE BOARDS. Why do guilds have a website, but not encourage users to go to it. Casualties of WAR does it, I always did it when I led my guild, but not this guild I am in now. Kind of pisses me off to be honest. If you have the guild and the players, take the time to iron out issues and get your workings straight.
