What are people fascination with being a low level grunt?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
41

I mean, I, ah, understood that reference.

And I agree.

42

This is really what it comes down to. Unearned accolades. Classic is about the struggle, the work, the effort that it TAKES to get to that level.

And remember, when you got to WOTLK, you got off the boat and were greeted with “You’re the best they could send? We’re doomed.”

That’s reality.

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43

its easier to be immersed into the world and to relate to your character if you’re just some adventurer than if you’re an ascended SSJ3 demigod wielding the star rod and all 7 chaos emeralds that saved the universe 50 times, just like everyone else is and did
it also makes it alot easier to believe and process all of the lore-power-levels and the world itself without each expansion pack being, like, 10 times more powerful than the previous expansion pack

also, passive storytelling is generally better than non-passive storytelling in video games, and shoving cutscenes down your throat, even if you can skip them(can you?) is really bad for immersion in MMORPGs, as is the world “changing” when you defeat x character while it doesn’t “change” for anyone else until they’ve beaten x character too

and this stuff isn’t just important for RP/RPPvP servers

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44

Not gonna lie, back when phasing was first announced for Cataclysm I fell into the trap of thinking it was a good thing because finally what my character did in the world would matter.

Funny how hindsight works.

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45

Conflict is what drives plot and makes stories interesting. Would you watch a movie where the superhero snaps his finger and wins? Or do you prefer a movie where the hero is at the cusp of failure, battling enemies unknown, and unlikely prevails through intense battle scenes?

Would you watch a romance movie where the guy snaps his fingers and instantly gets the girl?

Would you watch a horror movie where the villain just comes out of the scary hiding place and turns himself in, totally binded and subdued and not dangerous at all?

The sense of danger and conflict is what makes a plot interesting.

Achievements also mean something when you start off humbly. If everybody is a legend, there are no legends. You can achieve greatness by rankings up and eventually getting into Naxx gear, while the peons below you /bow to you. If everybody gets instant level boosts and Naxx gear, you’ll never be able to be special. All have an opportunity to be great. Every person in Naxx gear started off as a level 1 character liking level 1 mobs. It shows that you can, too. It makes you want to strive for greatness and one day achieve that great power.

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46

Because when everyone is a champion/hero then no one is. It’s a farce. Works fine in single-player games but it is laughable in an MMO.

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47

Battle for Azeroth does a really poor job at making your hero seem like the character when your thunder gets stolen by literally every NPC available. You either go whole hog on being the Savior of the World (ex. FFXIV, SWTOR) or you just let people create their own hero scenarios.

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48

I like the gladiator title

49

You still ARE a Hero. You’re just a lot closer to what you’re trying to protect from threats that are relevant to them. You’re not just Momma Sylvie’s bodyguard or the Hand of the King. You’re down there protecting farmers from bandits when the crown sent all the army off to war. You’re cleansing the land from corruption in small ways that matter to the every day NPCs. And you’re doing it alongside other “Small-time” heroes in a way that feels immersive.

And after a career of being a helping hand for villages around the world, you’re called to take on big boy threats like Ragnaros, C’thun, and Kel’thuzad. You’ll just need an army of heroes to take them down.

It’s a lot easier to be part of a large group of heroes than being “The chosen one” since it all falls apart when there’s millions of chosen ones. It’s one small thing in a massive list of reasons why WoW isn’t much of an MMORPG anymore. Striped of RPG elements and a story and gameplay that strips away the MMO part.

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50

Seriously , you need to have someone explain to you why a single player narrative doesn’t “work” in a massively multiplayer game?

If every one is the “Chosen One” then no one is the chosen one, if everyone is “special” then no one is special. I have two max level paladins , one from each faction, BOTH have the same story ! Every Paladin you meet is also everything you are.

Instead of a narrative that clearly can never work in the storytelling environment of the game, why not stick to what DID work in the past, every character being part of a larger narrative, a war story where the signature characters of the franchise are the heroes that WE, the players bear witness to and take part in.

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51

Well Gladiator now is lower than duelist in 99% of seasons.

Hail Champion!

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52

Where’s the fun in always being perfect and never having flaws? Always having it handed to you by Jania or Anduin or Sylvannas on a silver platter is boring AF.

And the idea of an individual doing many of these tasks? Laughable. It took entire armies to take down many lore characters and yet you’re praised as if you did it alone. Silly to say the least. I want to have those accomplishments celebrated withe everyone. Like opening the AQ gates. That takes an entire server! You don’t get that in BfA. And you have not had that in years in WoW.

The fun of being a cog in a wheel is I can be a part of an army of similar like-minded people. I don’t care about being known to the other NPCs. I didn’t enjoy walking in Wintergarde Keep and being “oh look Hands of A’dal”. Meh, I’m just another raider. Sure, I love the competition and bragging between guilds, but that’s between players.

And if I was worried about being the champion in a game there are many other games that do it better.

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53

What’s hilarious is that even though retail tries to make you feel and seem important it ends up making me feel less important than in vanilla.

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54

Agreed. And I feel less important because the praise I get from the Faction Leaders does not seem genuine. If they ignore the other players exist, it feels like a lie.

Granted, the old quests wouldn’t necessarily acknowledge everyone, but they would often reference you bringing friends to take down elite/named mobs. And that NPC would thank you and give you whatever tiny clutch of coins they had left.

I can’t even properly explain why it’s so much more gratifying to do say… Rok’delar than being the Grand Pooba of the Hunter’s Lodge/Unseen Path.

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55

I think it really comes down to it being an MMO, as soon as they try to push the single player narrative too hard it comes across as unrealistic and stupid, especially considering if we were so powerful why did it take 20 of us to kill this one boss.

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56

There’s also something special about doing that insane quest to get either Benediction or Rok’delar as opposed to having an NPC tug you along by the hand in order to get a Legion Artifact. Or even something like Thunderfury.

But that’s only tangibly related to the discussion at hand as that’s more of a gameplay thing.

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57

There’s a version of the game that lets you do all of that!

I like the RPG aspect of having to find a better and learn from them. “Hey, I’ve been standing at this forge for hours and can’t make any progress… I guess I need to go to remote Winterspring and learn from the best.”

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58

It was a different time period back then… it was more about this: “Every grunt must pull their weight around here. Grab an axe and get to killing those pigmans. Chop chop. Loktar!”
And not so much about this: “It’s you! The most important warrior hero god slayer of the universe! Only you can save us!”

It doesn’t make much sense in a MMO, surrounded by thousands of other players, to be given false recognition, praise, or respect, you simply would not have, for being the bottom level grunt you are. This works in a singleplayer game, not a MMO. The Blizzard of old used to know all this.

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59

And the Blizzard of “new” will never even understand it, even if they somehow come to know it.

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60

I remember standing in Goldshire (probably level 6), watching those high level 60’s ride by on their epic mounts. I was in awe.

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