Well, with that many days off work, the psychotic episode was somewhat inevitable, thinking about it. A generally lazy demeanour, coupled with a lack of routine, conspired to turn me firstly nocturnal, and then make me sleep only one night in two, so to fill the time, I’ve been back to work in World of Warcraft mostly, and I’m really quite surprised how accessible the game still is.
Most MMOs seem to have two parts:
The Casual Newbie Friendly Start Game: This consists of character creation, the tutorial island/space station/holothingey/dungeon, the initial city and environs, the first dabbling recipes of tradeskill, and the first quarter of the available level progression.
This is a time of wonder – everything is new, fresh, interesting and full of promise. Yes! I will be the hero! I will embody my class! I will smite evil/hatch plots (as appropriate). I will be a master blacksmith/engineer/tailor! The Start-Game is about the world, and the exploration of possibilities.
I’ve been here many, many times now, in many different worlds, and am hard pressed to name a game where this period of play is actually bad, purely because the novelty, the ‘new experiences per minute’ ratio, is just so high. It slows down of course, and eventually settles into a bit of a routine, then a chore, and then an irritating slog, but you’d be surprised how far you can get into the levels before this starts to really drag.
The Hardcore Guild Raiding End-Game: Frankly, I’ve only anecdotal evidence of what this might be like, because I’ve never been there, but the end-game seems to be a place of large-scale social networking and reliance on others to attain rare and yet absolutely necessary bits of loot. It is a time of clubs, cliques and reputations, and guild drama.
Presumably, the character’s life becomes about optimisation – the never ending pursuit of absolute economy of effort, or perfection. A fifteen hour, ten-man expedition might allow the addition of one vital percent to a critical hit chance, or magic resistance; smaller and smaller steps toward ‘teh win’. The End Game is about the players, and the pursuit of certainties.
I’ve never gotten here, as regular readers will know; I am a lightweight. Except for that one time in Planetside, which really doesn’t count, I’ve universally bombed out the moment the ‘going gets tough’ – typically a point one third of the way from Level n00b to Level hardc0re. The novelty of the new-game wears off, but the promise of the end-game has yet to kick in, and I’m find myself coasting to a halt in some godforsaken shattered grey plain of Mid-Game Mediocrity, left with the feeling that it’s my fault, and that I just don’t try hard enough.
Of course, by this point I’ve used up my First Month Free, and paid for at least one or two more. With the initial box sale, have I served my purpose? Economically, the newbies are the ones to go for. Hardcore end raiders will put up with anything at all, given the very clinical nature of their addiction, and flakes like me are likely to drift off whatever the devs try to do to keep us interested. It makes a lot of sense to focus on the new player experience with as much resources as possible; hence the perpetuation of the phenomenon; lavishly detailed newbie areas, cities and quests, and a gradual drop-off toward the wide grim middle wastelands, with only the distant gleam of habitual raiding on the horizon to look forward to.
Or so I always thought. Warcraft shows no sign of slowing down. I’m a Troll Warrior, who at L45, is still soloable, still viable, and still finding new places and things to do. I’ve just got my Velociraptor GT mount (with a little help from a friend). I have appropriate quests and hunting available in at least eight varied and novel zones, and my crafting is getting to the point where I can make quite neat stuff for sale. In short, at a point in most MMOs where I’m listlessly about to give up, after working out exactly how many An_Enraged_Midgame_Timesinks_01 I have to laboriously batter my way through to get to the next Milestone of Interest, the very business of day-to-day gameplay in World of Warcraft still has appeal. Remarkable.
I usually tend to ignore news of The End Game – patches, rumours, gossip, anecdotes and the like, as I never thought any of it would be For Me anyway, but now I’m looking at the world map and starting to realise that there isn’t as much left hidden, as there is uncovered; I may actually finish one of these things! Indeed, the recent massive revamp of the 'Silithus' zone to give solo L55-60 players something to do on their own seems to be becoming increasingly relevant to me - as I may actually get there, although my rare enthusiasm '4TW' is somewhat dampened by the idea of the ten new, and most likely very long levels being added this year some time.
It’s a nice idea - 'winning', but mostly I’m still quite happy carrying on with the basic gameplay, in a world where the mid-level people seem to be as comprehensively provided for as the new folks.
We’ll see how long it lasts, as I still also have Second Life on the go too. More later...