Why do so many WoW players excuse mechanics that are clearly unfun and have no real reason to exist? Well, the answer is pretty simple actually. They’ve never stepped outside of their comfort zone.
A real life example I love to bring up is myself. I was born and raised in a small Russian village. When I lived there - I didn’t know what poverty was. Every single person I knew, including myself, used outside shed toilets. We didn’t have hot water half of the time and electricity would go out on a regular basis. When you live in poverty - that’s all you know. That’s your sole perspective through which you look at the world. And now that I live in a middle class neighborhood in the U.S. - I can see clearly how poor and downright bad my hometown truly was.
Why do so many WoW players excuse having to run back to a boss after a wipe or having to use third-party addons to play the game optimally? Because that’s all they know. They don’t know what it feels like to not have those barriers and restrictions be placed upon them. They’ve grown accustomed to their chains.
Their “fun” is determined by how well they can overcome these artificially constructed difficulty levels. Why spawn right next to a dungeon/raid boss, when you can learn the quickest route you can take to get back to your original location in the fastest amount of time. Why pressure Blizzard to design a better game, when you can just download a third-party software to circumnavigate the problem you’re having.
I’m sure there are a few out there, but I would guess that every single player has played at least one other game…but I would also guess that a majority play or have played multiple games, including other MMOs
This is really important point that a lot of people don’t realize. I know I do, because you see I’m from West Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin’ out, maxin, ’ relaxin’ all cool
And all shootin’ some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
And said, “You’re movin’ with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air”
Well first off we’re talking about the most played and popular mmorpg on Earth, but yeah it could always be improved. Second, they could remove addons but players would still math things out via third party sites, and other addons would again be baked into the game. Third, running back is a frustrating but good thing as it reminds you the game has Shamans.
In all seriousness, I was raised in the swamps of NC. It took 45 minutes to get to a McDonalds. Our school wasn’t known giving us a great education, but I grew up with less and knew what a hard days work meant.
Not to mention, we only went to places you knew about otherwise it required a map that someone wrote down on a napkin in a restaurant that was still serving well water.
I only played games and watched and did things my neighbors did. But now…I can have conversations with people in Australia about my FDK and rotation as well as my choice of favorite music.
Nobody knows about pen pals. Or that there were other ways to do things. Good old Cohort Effect
Did you pull this from Asmongold directly? The problem as you listen to him is this: he doesn’t answer the question, he just raises it.
When you raise the question about running back to the boss, where was your waypoint in this game? Did you run past all the trash and resurrect your raid group? What happened that made you run back, like why couldn’t Blizzard put a soulstone on a mass rezzing class for you?
It’s not unsolvable. But people seem more willing to discuss what they don’t want, possibly due to a lack of imagination, rather than how to ask politely through “uncaring” forums for what they do want and being willing to agree on one of the options and compromise on others. In reality, the forums don’t have a place to align opinions and make manifest.
Did he take it directly from Asomongold, yup. Does that make him wrong? Not really. The run back problem is already solved in FF14. Heck WoW has some raids with ports in it already. The thing is they don’t stay consistent to the lessons they have already learned.
I think of WoW as a gaslighting parent that is getting help but only seems to follow the lessons when they are convenient and tosses them all out when things get stressful.
