WoW, The powerlevelling paradise

This post raises a good point, but then takes it and runs it into the fuckin’ ground.

Getting groups together for instances is, indeed, hard. If you don’t have a pool of known people to draw from, forming a pickup group is a double chore. One, people don’t want to join blindly because most people are fucktards, and two, most people willing to join pickup groups are fucktards.

It’s not simply a matter of going to the zone that the instance entrance is in and adverting, either. Because it’s so easy to get around the world, there’s unlikely to be people hanging around in the zone who want to do the instance anyway. The people there are doing quests, or grinding for xp/loot, or whatever.

Consequently the “best” place to form pickup groups for an instance is in one of the major cities, and usually, the one with the auction house. This works semi-okay for Alliance, as Ironforge is pretty equidistant from anywhere of note, but not so okay for Orgirmmar. (Not to mention the problems with overcrowding in Ironforge anyway.) In any event, cities are filled with craptons of chat spam, so it all turns into a horrible, horrible mess.

Fortunately, a plan has been put forth by Blizzard to address this. They’ve stated they’re working on “Meeting Stones” to be placed outside all the instances and will form groups of the “appropriate” levels. It remains to be seen how (or even when) this works out. It is, at least, a step in the right direction.

Now, on to the bullshit portion. HRose, you are so full of crap, it is literally not to be believed. There’s nothing, nothing wrong with people getting powerleveled by their friends. If that’s the way they choose to play; fine. If they are missing out on the “fun” and the “challenge” of getting wiped out numerous times; fine. It’s fine!

What’s next for you? Going to say that Thottbot should be declared illegal? Make all loot BoP? Disabling mail service between “rich” and “poor” players? Come down off your high horse. Even if “ninety percent” of the playerbase “ruins” their experience by never playing the game the “right” way, well, so fucking what. “Ninety percent” means the people have spoken. The only thing stopping the other 10 percent from getting together and playing “their way” is a lack of tools to identify and locate each other.

I have not really a big problem with this because I build my group “by hand”, without using the channels. I do for example a /who druid 41-47 and ask to each if he wants to join. So the “pool” is right what the server has to offer at that moment.

Imho, those stones you speak about will be worthless. Worthless on the same level the LFG channel they built. Or they work for the whole server (like a channel again server wide, or a goddamn LFG system server wide like DAoC), or it’s again fluff that won’t be used. Devs work and time wasted.

I don’t sit and wait at Uldaman to get a group. Instead I would gladly join to do Razorfen Downs if I receive a message, but how can I know that if I’m waiting at the Uldaman stone or if I’m doing other quests because i was bored of waiting?

What I hope is to be able to go to the stone, flag myself and then wander off. That may work.

That is, indeed, how they are going to work. Allegedly. Once the group you’re in is ready, you all get ported in to the instance. Purportedly.

And I applaud your use of /who to find people, I do that regularly myself. It can be tedious, but when you find that one guy who would totally make your party tick like a watch, and he says, “Oh boy! I’m dying to go there! How did you know to ask me?” it’s all worth it.

At any rate, you’re certainly right about the problems finding good instance groups. But it’s not primarily the fault of the game’s deisgn. It’s because people suck.

You do not get the point. Everyone just tries the best path he sees. In the same way I explained above, when you play an FPS you usually use the best weapons you have available, or not?

What happens if you take Doom and give directly to the player all the weapons already on the first level? You are going to use them or not?

The point isn’t that 90% of the players have choosed the best way to play. The point is that 90% of the players have found the best way to beat the game.

If at that point the game is trivial, unfun and “boring”, as defined by those players, they will cancel.

Good. Let them. I despise those kind of people anyway. And if enough of them leave, Blizzard will redouble their efforts to make the game more attractive.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

I’m having fun, me guild is having fun. I think your problem is personal

arsebandits! double post.

Both together?

What is your definition of ‘best way to play’? Where does the number 90% come from? What is ‘beating the game’?

Perhaps Blizzard should force everyone to play in Ironman modw? I mean, respawning is just plain cheating.

Also once you hit level 60, perhaps Blizzard should just show you a cinematic, and kick you to Windows, so that you could ‘beat the game’. (Or better yet, no cinematic, a la Eye of the Beholder II, with a drop to dos).

As long as powerlevelling doesn’t affect me, why should I care how others want to play? I’m having plenty of fun wasting time fishing, cooking for my pet, looking for recipes. Someone else wanting play the game by being handheld so that he can do an instance in 5 minutes doesn’t bug me at all. If you want to form a group, and you can’t find a pickup group, maybe you should just meet up with a regular group of friends to do an instance (that’s what I’m planning).

And btw, Union Carbide is right. I pretty much despise grouping with a character too much higher level than myself, primarily because I get peanuts for XP. You end up having to do pure grinding to make up the difference.

Powerlevelling is a part of every MMORPG that I’ve ever played. If the methods employed aren’t defined as an exploit and you aren’t finding that you can never take part in activity x then whats the problem? If it bugs you, don’t do it.

I can’t say that I especially understand what people get out of it and have seen more than a few people get help powerlevel their account and then announce they are quitting as “there is nothing left to do” despite their, basically, never having played the game outside the narrow band of what they did to level the account.

I belong to the school of playing that will level an account to the point it can do what I want from the game and then more or less give up doing stuff™ purely for XP or whatever the employed levelling method is.

The point is that 90% of the players have found the best way to beat the game.

I just don’t understand this point, or is the entire aim of WoW to reach level x at which point you “win”?

“And Alexander wept, for he had reached level 50 and hadn’t left the borders of Greece yet.”

Dude…

You’re playing the wrong game. WoW teachs & reinforces the mechanics that you find bothersome. Great art & asthetics aside - the underlying gameplay systems are not for you. You’re not going to find enough of your kind of people in there.

Go find another game. Think hard core and not carebear.

Andrew

I’m glad WOW doesn’t make it impossible for my mates to come help me.

Nothing like being wiped out a few times, and then calling in a bigger guildmate to help your team finish the god damn quest so you can go to bed.

I have a life, and I’m not ashamed!

Where does the number 90% come from?[/quote]
PNOOMA tech.

Honestly HRose, what a load of crap. Everyone takes whatever opportunities they find to level in WoW. Whether that is with a group of friends, strangers, or your guild what does it matter ? Whether that is by completing an instance or a quest what does it matter ?

I don’t play WoW to psychoanalyze every aspect of the gameplay. I play it because it is fun, I get to talk to other players, and playing the AH and item game is a whole lot of fun.

Sometimes I join lower level groups to help them complete a quest or an instance. Not because I want to stand there and show how magnificent I am but because I like to help groups and have fun at the same time. All the groups I have helped have been most appreciative and the bonus for me is the odd green or better item.

I have never had a problem getting groups together for any dungeon or instance in WoW. Maybe if I was a social retard I would have a problem. Peak times make it very easy to find others to complete instances.

Your posts are becoming increasingly manic on the subject of WoW. You come across to me as someone who is becoming sick of playing WoW. What about your guild ? Don’t you enjoy the social aspect of the game ?

Enlighten us please.

Seriously, whats with all the “loose” and “choosed” going on in your posts. I’ve been to Uldaman several times with my guild, so I never have to beg for a group. In fact, that’s why I have a guild. I helped my wife through WC when I was much higher level than her, so I apologize for ruinging WoW for you. I have some tissues over here…

I think this may be the fundamental insight. On a PvP server you’re much more likely to encounter this sort of thing, because the the different nature of the game being played (or perhaps more accurately the hybrid of two different games being played side by side).

We’ve heard the testimonials from PvP server people about the amazing competitive experiences they’ve had that you wouldn’t have anywhere else. Well this, on the other hand, is the price. You will inevitably encounter players who want that experience, and aren’t really very interested in PvE (of which the instance dungeons, for example, are the paradigm and concentrated form). What these players are doing is basically “opting out” of the PvE content, and getting ready for some high level PvP action.

The behavior you describe I’ve hardly seen at all on my happy carebear. There, PvE is what everyone came for, and the instance dungeons, which require cooperative PvE constitute the highest and most addictive form. There are still occasions for powerleveling in PvE (e.g. getting a friend caught up so we can group together), but largely the challenge of doing quests and especially instances IS the core fun of the game: the fun is in the journey and not the destination.

The most recent instance I’ve been plugging away at is Blackfathom Depths - one of the more out-of-the-way instances in the sequence, especially considering so many people my level are adventuring in Hillsbrad. But even if they’re not it’s a long flight to Zoram, there’s no innkeeper, and there aren’t any other quests there for players at the appropriate level for the instance. And yet I’ve had no problem at all forming level-appropriate groups to do Blackfathom. I use all the methods described above – tells to players whom I’ve grouped with successfully in the past (my “pickup guild” I call it), tells in general channel in Org, XR, and finally the zone itself, and finding people on the “who” list (this last produced a most excellent Mage for last night’s trip, allowing us to finally AoE the stupid crabs properly).

Not that you won’t find people interested in a good PvE experience on a PvP server, but it won’t be nearly as large a group and that’s just the nature of the beast.

Brian

I’m new to MMO’s, so maybe this is a STFU NOOB type of question… but here goes:

One aspect of City of Heroes that I find really neat is the Sidekick and Exemplar system, which basically allows players who are significantly higher or lower level to team up together without having their levelling rewards affected one way or the other (well, kinda).

What would be the harm in a game instituting a more restrictive form of such a system where players with significant level disparities are able to team up, but without the “bonus” or “penalty” (depending on perspective) of the whole powerleveling thing.

It seems to me that a well designed game wouldn’t have any need for powerleveling, as the lower-level content should be interesting and rewarding enough to encourage actuallly playing it. On the other hand, perhaps a player who is not interested in the game content itself, but chooses to complain about how others play is, in fact, playing the wrong game and needs to become a hardcore flight sim nut or someting.

The lower level content in WoW is interesting. The higher level content is interesting, too. People say, “hmm, 60 > 25, therfore 60 is better”. And in a way, 60 is better, since you have realized the full potential of your character. Well, in a manner of speaking anyhow - you’ve still got a lot of gearing up to do at 60. In any case, I like doing instances with the correct level groups - it’s a lot of fun. I don’t mind asking a buddy to come power me through something I’ve done before, though, either.

You’re all missing HRose’s main point.

That the plural of People should be Peoples.