So, this happened on the weekend. Quite by accident, and I was somewhat not trying to, but being so close to it I figured I might as well put in the effort and level up my third Legion character.
Notice the awesome Bumblebee helmet and the mismatch of all the other gear from questing, time walking dungeons, etc. The thing that pushed me over the edge to finalize the level and get things rolling with my Paladin was rooted in the thought that I could actually make money in Warcraft. Not real money, mind you, but gaming money. With Couchon (Druid) and Coosh (Rogue) at max level, appropriately geared for all content I am interested in, with legionaries (2 and 1 respectively) and fully upgraded class halls, they are now making me in game money through the app. That’s right, I am pulling in around 3000 gold a day just by using the app. That is enough to pay my sub monthly and then some. Also, with the rumour that the WoW token will soon be able to be used for other things, hopefully other Blizzard titles, I am making my own virtual sweat shop of 110s.
Hitting 110 is no small feat, as it is the beginning of doing some “work”. You need to update your Class Hall, and followers, and have a steady stream of Order Resources to print the gold. This means doing daily quests when needed to stock up on OR. Coosh is in this pattern. Couchon is my main, who is on top of the storyline and running the major content.
The other good thing is that I get to finalize the Class Hall and Paladin campaign, which is my true motivation. Oh, they even have an achievement for this!
I am not sure if that is new for legion or if it was always there. I don’t really pay attention to achievements.
Blizzard was nice enough to give you your flight whistle and world quests immediately upon hitting maximum level if you already have a character at maximum level. There is just one small drawback to that…
That’s the map, and I have none of the flight paths. It is not a huge time killer or major gripe but you would think that by this point there isn’t even a good in game excuse to not have all flight paths unlocked. There is nothing new to discover, the Alliance and Horde are working together to push back the legion, they might be open minded to share where the transportation is. They might as well build in that quality of life improvement.
With every new alt at max level this gives new meaning to WoW life. My next step is to sort out which Horde character I am going to take to max level. I was going to do the Demon Hunter for the short trip but I have an itching to do a character that can do it all which is pushing me to my monk. I like to tank. I like to heal. I like to DPS. Having the full suite on one character will be helpful on a side I have no friends on. In the meantime, I am off to combat the legion from yet another viewpoint.
It looks to me like WoW has become more and more of a meta-game, or a hub world dedicated to a lot of non-game activity of some sort. A grumpy old me would say it all started when people skipped reading the quest text, and look where it’s gotten us, it hasn’t been an RPG for years now!
But that’s actually not what I was trying to say 🙂
This post made me realize (again) how much of a difference there is between 1999-era EverQuest and the world’s most popular MMO today. I know I’m boring everyone when I tell stories about mostly looking at my spellbook for three hours every evening to get just one raid done, but this shitty game design in EQ meant you had to read a lot of chat text and get to know many of people on the server quite well. That fits my personality because I don’t like too much socializing in real life, but socializing with a keyboard and a text interface as mediating element between everyone who’s talking, that’s great.
Do you know of a game that has this sort of “I know everyone on this server” vibe? It could be that EQ was unique in creating that atmosphere because you couldn’t get anything done alone, and it seems WoW can be played mostly single player and with automatically constructed PUGs now, so WoW is not the game to create this atmosphere. If you can make money in it without actually playing, that’s pretty far removed from keyboard socializing 🙂
P1999 has that “I know everyone on this server” vibe. But that is cheating, because it is just old EQ. I did find that the Progression servers also had that vibe. (Again, cheating!). Much like you I miss the chatting and socializing in game. I actually had a post queued up (that I ended up deleting) that shared the chat from a 30 minute Heroic Dungeon Run. I try to make *some* small talk while in them.
…at beginning
Me: “Hi everyone!”
Me: “Is everyone familiar with this dungeon? Not a big deal if not, just good to know. I can explain the fights if need be, no worries.”
… half way through
Me: “That was a big pull, great job heals”
… 3/4 way through
Me: “Anyone need those pants I just looted? They are vendor trash to me”
Rogue: “me”
…. at end
Me: “Nice run guys, thanks for the chat!”
That is common. Most runs not a single word. Guilds are bit more friendly, and in Guild groups I get on mumble and listen in (but I still prefer typing deal with the wife is no chatting over her TV shows while I play…)
Wow is basically a single player / pseudo-lobby game now – I have abandoned all hope that it can be they type of MMO I miss playing, but it is a damn fun single player game and I can still like it for that.
I don’t really see any MMOs on the docket coming up that eschew those “QOL” improvements of not having to talk/type/socialize. I’m not even sure if it would be commercially viable anymore. In the old days (there, I said it!) even on this blog I fought for virtual worlds, meaning in gaming, and deeper connections. The market beat that out of me with each new release. I have had to come to grips and enjoy what is available, not what could be.
I had the same experience in Wow. Of course you can say it’s my fault for expecting an MMO to be like the first MMO I played, but then again, WoW started out like that and then evolved.
I wouldn’t mind if someone made a game where not having voice chat but having to communicate is a part of the design. I think that’s all it would take to make it an EQesque experience in any genre.
Tried a dozen MUDs but nothing stuck. The odd thing is that WoW sounds interesting despite not being that game I want (or your articles make it sound very interesting!) so maybe it’s just stupid nostalgia making me grumpy after all.
I did something like that with a level 100 DK in Warlords with Salvage Yards and managing minion missions. It was an interesting little almost-game, but ultimately fairly boring. WoW already felt like doing chores, and while I could pay for my sub ‘Token with the farming, I barely felt like I was *playing*. I was just sort of… sustaining.
I may also be a bit bitter because the Pre-Legion patch broke the game for me, killing two ‘Tokens I had prepaid for and used, thinking I’d get a leg up on the new content. Now whatever they did to the game actually hard-crashes my PC when I try to run it. I think it’s just killing my video card which causes a chain reaction, but I can’t nail down a fix, and there’s no way they will reimburse me those ‘Tokens.
Still, part of me finds this sort of optimization fascinating.
I’d like to give a hopefully helpful pointer 🙂 After my last comment I’ve tried to find the game I remembered in Shroud of the Avatar. It feels a tiny bit like a mix of EverQuest, Ultima Online and Guild Wars 2. But that felt somewhat clunky.
Then Elysium opened their vanilla WoW server, and this is the closest I’ve ever felt to the EverQuest of old. People are friendly, general chat actually has them talking about the game itself and helping each other, there are WoW newcomers who’ve never played the game before so it feels like it’s fresh and there is enough challenge and little enough randomness (no raid finder!) to make it EQesque enough for me. And with rumored 10k players per server it’s never boring or empty.
I know private servers are a big gray area. If Blizzard would manage to run legacy servers like that and attract the same audience, I’d be happy to pay something like EUR 3/month for it. No way would I pay the same amount as for a normal WoW subscription.
I have consistently argued for private servers for WoW (or any MMO, for that matter). That solves a lot of population and housing issues, plus you can bring in like minded people to play with. BF2142 did this well where I clan rented server space to host our own games. We had options for our own rules, maps, gameplay policices (language, etc.)
I think that would work very well in MMO land. As a clan we all donated to pay to keep it up and running, it was a great investment.