< Rant>
As I've been popping around the blogosphere I've noticed a trend. It's a trend wherein people think questing sucks and everyone must feel that way. It's used as a given, as if there need be no explanation of the statement, just questing sucks and everyone else thinks so too.
Who are you people? Why do you even play WoW? I would argue that 80% of the game is questing. If you really hate it so much and everyone else hates it so much, wouldn't you move on to a different game with less questing?
I hate having words put in my mouth. I am one of the mass of WoW players therefore I must hate questing too.
Well guess what? I LOVE questing. Questing is why I play. And quite frankly, I don't think I'm the minority. 12 million people are only rushing to reach level cap and secretly hate questing? Puh-lease.
I can live with people saying that they personally hate questing. I'm ok with that. Whatever floats your boat. But do not tell me what I do or do not hate. Blanket statements make you sound like an idiot, especially if you don't even attempt to back it up.
</ Rant>
Everyone automagically inserts WoW's playerbase in the upcoming SWTOR. I think this is faulty for a lot of reasons. However...
ReplyDeleteLoosely relating to your rant, can you imagine the "gogogos" having to actually sit through spoken dialogue for the fifth or sixth time and clicking through conservation chains to complete quests? (I am rather meh about SWTOR myself but for various other reasons.)
I think there's a huge denial among the WoW population on it's own identity. If you talk to a "raider" they only see the game through their purple colored lenses. If you talk to a PvPer, then it's only from their point of view, etc.
Me. I hate questing. I don't even read the text 9/10 times. I approach the game as more of a strategy game in relations to instances and raids. Questing offers very little in terms of challenge by and large in my opinion (I realize that many people who enjoy questing do it for THEIR own personal reasons).
In instances and raids there are other variables that impact my game in the form of other players. It adds a fantastic level of complexitiy to the overall game experience to me, especially as a healer or tank.
Sorry riffed a bit there, but the TL:DR version is I agree with you a bit. We tend to view the game only from our personal perspective and self interests. It's important to have your own personal perspective, however it's damaging to be a slave to it.
The larger problem is we do the same thing in real life.
I started watching my weight two weeks ago. I'm doing good, but I would seriously kill a motherfucker for some pie right now.
We're generally wired to see things from our own perspective. It takes effort to take that deep breath and step beyond seeing our view of things as the only view. A lot of people just don't put in that effort.
ReplyDeleteIn WoW, it's become my mantra to say, "It's their game. They can play it how they like." But it is still incredibly frustrating to listen to the negativity of people playing who obviously don't enjoy their time. Especially if they're the same ones claiming that their view is THE VIEW.
The basic point of my rambling? Yeah, I hear you. And it bugs me too. I just take long deep breaths... and do a little eye rolling.
I hate questing sometimes. I usually enjoy levels 1-20 or 1-30, give or take a couple, then it falters and varies after that. I always enjoyed the influx of new gear that happens at 58, but I've grown pretty tired of outlands over the years. The starting zones of WotLK have gotten pretty old too, though I still enjoyed Dragonblight and Icecrown in northrend.
ReplyDeleteI play mostly for the end-game content. Raiding, dungeons, pvp and gearing up in general. It follows that I see questing as somewhat of a necessary evil. The "grind" from 1-max is how you learn your class to prepare for endgame content.
That being said, I've loved the questing in Cataclysm. Actually seeing the effects of your actions on a zone is pretty cool from a traditional RPGer's perspective. That was one of the biggest buzzkills for me in previous expansions. I could spend hours clearing out an area of an enemy, collecting important things to help my faction (or whatever faction I'm helping), defeat an important enemy boss... only to see nothing changed.
*side note, tried several times to get this to post, so if its one of those needs approval type comment systems, I apologize for spamming you*
@MrFenris - MMMM! Pie.... Wait... What were we talking about?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally respect you for your opinion on questing, because you recognize that its just that. Not everyone plays the game the same way as everyone else.
As far as SWTOR goes, I have a feeling its going to bomb for exactly the reasons you mentioned. It's a fine balance between talk-talk and go-go that WoW has previously managed to perfect. I'm seeing signs of this failing in their overzealous use of cut-screens this expansion.
As far as RL goes, you're right, a lot of people do the same thing there too. A vast majority of people assume everyone feels the same way about things as they do.
I'm like the anti-thesis of that model. I actually try to rationalize everything everyone does to the point where it gets so the ideas I have are absolutely outlandish. I call it giving people the benefit of the doubt on supercharge. It makes me naive and innocent in ways, and often gets me into trouble, but at least I'm not trapped in a box of my own creation. :D
@Exile Exactly! I'm just tired of people telling me there is only one way to play the game and that's their way. Sometimes it feels nearly impossible to escape. Or perhaps I'm just struggling because I haven't found another group of people with my same values in game.
ReplyDelete@Sharden I agree. I've loved the use of phasing in Cataclysm. I used to get bogged down right around level 25-30 as well, but I'm enjoying questing much more with the revamp to the world. We'll see how it goes the 2nd time around though.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind BC questing, as long as I can get past Hellfire. To me Hellfire is the biggest buzzkill Blizzard has ever made. HATE HATE HATE!
I actually don't even get tired of Wrath zones until I reach the Storm Peaks. I never want to polish Hodir's boner ever again! Hehe
I agree that people shouldn't put words into our mouths.
ReplyDeleteI both like and dislike questing I guess, but for the most part I enjoy it. I'd rather have more daily quests to do for reputation for example than having to grind out the last bit of reputation in Heroics by wearing a tabard.
At the same time, I definitely could spend a bit more time actually reading quests while leveling. I'm usually in such a rush to level I don't pay enough attention to the quests.
I'm thinking of doing Loremaster in the changed world and taking my time to read the new quests, just to get more of a feeling for them (I suspect I read them the first time I did them all, but by now on alt no 5X I barely glance at them).
@Saga I used to do that too. I'd rush through the quests because I already knew what was going on and I just wanted to get to level cap. Somewhere along the line I've changed. I'm not in a hurry to get to max level anymore, in fact I almost dread it because then I don't know what I'll do.
ReplyDeleteSince the Shattering I've been focusing on reading the quest text to really get a feel for the story. There's some really fun and silly stuff out there.