God damn Casuals, ruining the game once again.
QQQQQQQQQQ
I bet that’s what you were expecting to read when you came here. Your blood is already pumping, preparing to blast us for for subscribing to the “only 25 man raiders should get exclusive loot” school, and and tell us to tuck our pathetic virtual e-peens away and quit the game.
Man, are you going to be disappointed when you read this. So take a deep breath and let me explain what us “elitist pricks” have to say about all this.
When the raid changes for Cataclysm were announced today, I saw twitter go apeshit. I saw people in all walks of guilds from the most casual to the spreadsheet fanatics go at each others’ throats. Casual scrub this, Entitled elitist that..it was kinda disgusting. I tried to voice my opinion, but expressing your thoughts in 140 characters when people are chomping at the bit for a fight was a lesson in futility.
First off, let me start off by saying I am REALLY tired of the elitist label and how raiders are accused of having some false sense of entitlement. That’s as much nonsense as the unemployed basement dwelling virgin stereotype, and it’s just as silly as saying casual players or ten man guilds are all bad and lazy. Are there exceptions to all those? Sure. But they’re simply exceptions – not the norm. When these changes occur, I watch in fascination – it instantly becomes a casual (aka scrub) vs an elitist (aka no life loser) debate. But have you ever looked closely at the people making these accusations? The self proclaimed elitists? They’re usually just better geared morons that haven’t managed to do anything noteworthy. They’re the ones insisting to see your gearscore, insulting you when it doesn’t hold up to theirs. They’re the ones that measure their worth in pixels. And THEY’RE the ones that don’t want you to have what they have.
It’s very rare when 10/25 man progression raiders act like that. You don’t see them asking for your gearscore. They certainly wouldn’t write those handy boss & class guides, or Fraps & Ustream fights for everyone to view if they felt this way. They certainly wouldn’t take time to help you with your questions and run sites like EJ or Tankspot or PlusHeal. If you look, you’ll be very hard pressed to find any raider that said people should not have access to raids nor gear. The complaint you’ll hear about this change from raiders, 10 and 25 man alike, is the fear that challenging fights will be going the way of the dodo.
If you remember a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the Cata priest changes. If you recall, I summed it up as “we have no idea how this will work, so don’t worry your pretty little head about it”. It applies here as well. Let’s take a little trip down the tubes of time, shall we?
EXCELLENT!!!!!!
Vanilla, the raid size reduction is announced. Death and Taxed proclaim raiding is dead, and thus the game.
Burning Crusade, the changes to buffs and spell/healing power are announced. We were advised to say goodbye to our friends, raiding was finished.
Then we had the 10 & 25 man raid announcements. Contrary to popular belief, Raiding went on, & Hell is still pretty fucking hot.
See a trend? Maybe – just MAYBE – this change won’t be the end of raiding. You want to know what this Elitist prick thinks? I think this change could rock. Yes, you heard me right. Do I have concerns? Yup. But’s look at the possible positives:
1) No need to run both 10 & 25 for gear. I am sick of being a 25 man raider, and having to raid 10 mans on my offnights. I signed up to raid 4 nights a week, and having to raid 5-6 because , for some bizarre reason, some gear I need comes out of tens. With the gear being the same, I no longer have to do that. And ten man guilds don’t have to put up with atrocious PuGs to get 25 man loots. Yes, many guilds will adopt multiple “mains” like they do now to get around limited attempts, but so what? That’s how they enjoy the game, so what’s it those of us that don’t want to do that?
2) Less Burnout Due to Shared Lockouts. This kind of ties in to point #1 – having to raid in both ten & 25 man raids, being visually the same damn thing, is both boring and time consuming. I’ll be more enthusiastic about raiding again because I won’t have to give up almost all my free time to do it. I do see a downside however- it will eliminate a person from running one with their guild, and then a separate size with friends. But having an alt or 4 is pretty much the norm now, so maybe that won’t be a big deal.
3) Difficulty changes may go UP: This is the main concern of raiders I see misinterpreted. Many, myself included, are afraid the difficulty of raids will be scaled down to follow the current “Everyone Gets a Trophy” mantra. But when I started thinking about it, I came to a different conclusion: We all might get challenged again! Think about it:. Currently, regular ten & 25 mans are lacking challenge – they are nothing a group of competent people find difficult. Right now, most of the difficulty comes from the poor people that have to drag mouth breathers along. What if hand holding wasn’t possible? What if the raids are tuned UP, forcing people to understand their gear, their specs and choices? It certainly makes sense, doesn’t it? Gear stats are being simplified, buffs are obtainable by multiple classes – it certainly would play into the “Bring the player, not the class” theory that Blizzard has been pushing. Yes, the 0/0/71 Death knight, the Resto Shaman gemmed for Spirit, & the hunter in spell power gear will be shit out of luck, but why is that a bad thing? Isn’t that what we’ve been asking for? Reward for effort and ability?
4) Shorter raids. I have mixed feelings on this. I actually enjoy a long epic raid. I loved Ulduar & ICC. They were broken up in wings so you could divide your time and they have an immersion you can’t get from short raids like Eye of Eternity or ToTC. Depending on the challenge level, many guilds could be out of things to do once they’re on farm. I don’t think you should have to resort to alts to keep yourself amused. Without knowing more, there’s not much I can say. It certainly makes things easier on guilds that only raid 3 hours or so a night, so that’s good. Maybe I’ll actually get my fat ass to the gym…..nah.
Jesus Says “These changes could kick ASS!”
I do have some concerns, of course: How the HELL do you tune 10 and 25 mans to have the same difficulty? I’m not getting into 25 s are more difficult than 10s here, so let’s not turn it into that. My point is I can’t even imagine how to tune it so both maintain the SAME difficulty to justify the same gear. Is it possible? If it is, this will be an amazing change. I just hope they can pull it off.
So why raid 25s if the gear is equal? Believe it or not, some people DO enjoy raiding with the people in their 25 man guilds. I see so many people say they won’t join 25 man guilds because they don’t want to put up with 24 other idiots just for loot, and it makes me sad. In these times of 3 day server transfers, and faction changes, there is NO excuse not to find a guild you enjoy. That also goes for 25 man players who want to raid ten mans – now there is no reason not to find a guild you’re comfortable with. I think, coupled with the upcoming guild “achievements”, might actually once again put an emphasis on guild camaraderie & loyalty, since there’s no need to settle for a guild you don’t like to get gear. When you enjoy the people you play with, you realize why so many raiders actually do it.
25 man guilds are not better than 10 man guilds, and 10 man guilds are not better than 25 – I’ve seen the elitism from both. Both, for the most part, are looking for a challenge because that’s what we find fun. We raid for a challenge and tackling those challenges with people we enjoy spending our free time with. If these changes play out the way I’m hoping, both guild sizes will get what they’ve always wanted – a challenge and rewards that match it. Maybe then we’ll see the end of these False Entitlement Casuals vs Selfish Elitist arguments & shit slinging that goes along with it, & Billy Baddie will have to learn to play and stop asking “WUTS UR GS?”
We all want the same thing, guys. Let’s just all try to listen, keep an open mind, & see how this plays out.
(PS we’re recruiting – look at the column on the right and come help us kill Heroic LK25)
