Rain

The first appropriate image when Googling 'wet': sort it out algorithms!
Photograph: Lewis Whyld/AP

This is not a Warcraft post.

In fact, truth be told, there will not be any actual playing of any games (other than those available on a phone or a tablet) for the next week. I'm off on a holiday, with la famille, which looking at the weather outside is likely to be seven days of drying clothes and finding stuff to do indoors. This is all the fault of Global Warming, of course, so we really only have ourselves to blame.

However, I do intend to post. This place has become a home to me, and even when I am away I (gasp!) think about things that I think would make decent discussion topics, and enjoy writing regardless of where I might exist. If there's something to respond to instantly I'll be about on Twitter (eventually) but expect witterings here throughout the week as time and circumstances allow. Normal Service, such as it exists, will return a week on Sunday.

Until then, enjoy your extended holiday if you have one.

You Gotta Be

This will end in tears. Honest.

5.3 has arrived, and what I've seen thus far I've enjoyed.

I have deliberately avoided The Barrens: I'm away from a PC next week so have decided that part of the new patch will happen on my return. For now, I am pleasantly pleased with the difficulty on Heroic Scenarios (gonna need to work on the gear) and there is again an actual incentive to do LFR for improvements. Of course, knowing my abysmal luck with these things I'll not actually garner any proper upgrades and it'll all come via Valor rewards and upgrades, but the basic theory remains sound. There is a path emerging that I can take, things I can participate in that will keep me happy. There are also goals to attain. I'm not even thinking about Battle Pets right now either. We're going to the other tab first.

In a change to previous totals...

My mount total, unsurprisingly, has shifted down from early initial estimates. This will mean, on my return to a computer, that I'll need to start looking to get the Jewelcrafter to 90 (five mounts) and level the other engineer (one mount.) After that... Elune only knows. The Archy mount? Possibly, and then the Blue Proto Drake from Utgarde Pinnacle... and after that, it all gets a bit blurry. Anzu, I'M LOOKING AT YOU. This didn't end well the last time you and I had a relationship, and I'm betting this time will be no different. Mount grinds are, without a shadow of a doubt, officially TEH SUCK. However, I'll cope, because I wouldn't let you beat me with the Fiery Warhorse and I sure as heck aren't gonna let that happen this time. I'm still fully intending to complete 9,999 bones and I'm not afraid. BRING ON THE GRIND.

I'm sorry, announcing this is a loot window
isn't making the Hair Ball epic... ^^

At some point too I'm going to consider The Longest Day but not for a while, because I will need an entire day to do that (the list is already printed) and that's not the kind of thing I can easily do during the week. Add to this the fact that I've not yet completed the Beasts of Fable questline to be able to re-do it, and that I'd like to take the Monk out to faff with Dailies and XP on battling first anyway before I start locking myself into more pet faffing... Oh, and then there are the Alts. All those poor toons left to gather dust who can now level 33% faster, and who would be useful at 90 so they can be ready to do Professions again for the next expansion... and the fact I'd like to have a chance to play something other than a Hunter. There, I said it.

There really is a phenomenal amount of stuff I could do in game at any given point, and there is always this temptation when a whole load of new stuff appears to just go mad and potentially lose focus. I am deliberately moving away from allowing that to happen, and the planning is really beginning to come into its own. The mounts thing is really important to me, to the extent it will become something you're gonna get sick of hearing me moan about (there, warned in advance.) After that, well... we'll see. A girl needs goals, after all.

Don't Walk Away

This isn't what I was going to write (again) today.

Sometimes, I get very frustrated for (apparently) no good reason. This is always a falsehood: with reflection and consideration I can always ascertain what it was that started me off on the path to annoyance. It used to take me weeks to work out what was doing this, but I've become better over time in identifying my moods. Today, I knew within an hour of logging on I was going to get grumpy in-game, and so took the (very sensible) option of walking away. This is clearly not how things should work for Blizzard when a new patch is deployed, but it is happing with increasing frequency.

I think I could blame the game itself for this as well. However, I know I'm the problem.

I realise this is why I've stopped making definitive lists of things to do when new patches drop. Anywhere new is immediately flooded, and spawn points are religiously camped, by people with the ability to sit and do nothing else all day except stare at a computer until what they want appears. I don't get frustrated so much now by the fact I don't have the time to wait, and it's not the individuals that cause a problem. I think the brunt of my ire circles around the fact that, despite being told to slow down by all and sundry, the need to 'be first' still features as one of the most important factors in deciding what to do.

Whut he sed. With bells on.

Competition is a fundamental part of normal life. Don't get me wrong, I like a good face-off as much as the next driven individual. Unlike my good dear friend @wingtipswaltz I don't have anyone in Guild giving me a hard time doing those Achievement Dings, so it's not a Guild Chat problem. It is the simple understanding that doing things I'd like to do at my speed is pretty much impossible when faced with the player who decides that, like it or not, you're not going to do this before they do. This isn't like a race to World First either, you're having to compete for things that (certainly with the advent of CRZ) are not easily resettable or in a decent supply. The alternative is blissfully simple: come back later, but if you've only got limited playtime, that can become an issue in itself.

In Good News, the new collection of pettage has begun...

Of course, walking away makes all this seem rather petty when reflecting on it from a distance, but it does make you think. Information dissemination has become far, far better than it was with previous patches, but people still get frustrated when they don't know EXACTLY when something will appear or the frequency of its spawn. Is it really so you can nip on Twitter and announce you have it before everyone else? Hell, of COURSE it is, because that's one of the overriding reasons why people play this game to begin with. Good Luck to those of you able to spend the time to do this, and no, I'm not begrudging anyone the opportunity to do anything because they can. So, what am I bemoaning?

Some days I wish it wasn't about winning, but thinking about other people and helping them out. Often I wish it was about not feeling you needed to keep up with 'others' and simply took your own pace. I think it's also to do with a part of me that I often ignore more often than I should, that quietly points out that listening to your own needs is often a far better way to live your life than doing what you think other people expect of you. Mostly, of course, it is about balance, and finding a way to get everything to work with everything else, which is perilously hard to begin with. If that means I don't do everything the moment it appears, then so be it.

The Chinese Way

SO much better, in oh so many ways...

Mogging at lower levels is rather a restrictive task, it transpires, but it is nowhere near impossible. It requires not simply a good sense of what works well together but the patience to check EVERY quest reward for potential suitability. Knowing you want to mog from Level 1 is also a distinct advantage, especially considering how much glods some of the lower level items can go for. Needless to say, with B at 62, I reckon there's very little that will change in this outfit. This will serve me until 90: I am already collecting items for a purple ensemble once I get there, with a possible green outfit in reserve. I wanted to try white, but there is a distinct dearth of relevant leather items. This character is the first one I will have actively mogged multiple outfits for whilst levelling. I rather enjoy the challenge.

I also love the way it looks as if the chest-piece and the belt are one item :D

Needless to say, it has inspired me to remog every one of my 85's as I level them to 90. I think everyone could really do with a change of outfit.

• Headband of the Coiled Serpent
• Rageclaw Shoulder Pads
• Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak
• Feral Harness of the Often Useless Stats
• Aspirant's Staff of Harmony
• Swashbucklers's Gloves of the Even More Useless Stats
• Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion
• Flayer Hide Leggings
• Firemoss Boots

Note: some of these items are actually unmogged at present, but will clearly become mogged as I outgear them... :D

On Days Like These

Okay, so NOW we use the fruit motif... :D

Last week, we set the 5 Man Instance to rights. Today, we're going to give Daily Quests a right good going over (no this isn't a darkened alley, all out in the open and proper thanks very much!) and hopefully send them on their way as better things. However, this isn't nearly as easy a task as I first thought it would be. There's an awful lot of contention with the Daily, after all. However, I find myself thinking that this type of quest would be the ABSOLUTELY BEST way to recycle the existing game world, with the use of minimal dev time to do so.

Your Daily Quest Giver: IN STORMWIND?!!11!!!11

The biggest issue I've heard against the Daily is their 'engagement' factor: there are, after all, only so many ways to kill 8 mobs and pick up 6 drops. It also seems that Blizzard now prefer to set aside particular areas of the game world for Daily 'Hubs' rather than make people travel around for their glods. I think we need to throw both models out of the window and set Daily Hubs all around the game world, by re-using Capital Cities. I'm not just talking about those on Kalimdor either, let's have our Dailies in Shatt and Dalaran too. Take out the 'old' quest givers in those places and replace them with new guys/girls/tentacled beasts to re-energise those zones. Oh, and before anyone asks, this guy in Stormwind has a ? for a reason. My new style Daily Quest giver isn't just here to provide you with summat to do, he'll also collect stuff from you too. There are many different types of quests to do from Straw Berry:

• You can earn faction rep by handing in stacks of raw materials (YES BRING BACK HANDINS) except it wouldn't just be cloth: 100 of any gatherable item rewards you, once a day, with a healthy chunk of rep for YOUR CHOICE OF FACTION. I don't care how you do it Blizzard: whether I have to wear a tabard or press a button, but you let me choose who I gain rep with. Go back to Cataclysm where zone quests reward rep. Give people the choice of where they go, in their own time. Allow these daily givers to let you grind ANY FACTION REP you choose.
  
  
• You'll also, from time to time in Dungeons or killing mobs, pick up special one-off items that start quests that return you to Straw Berry, which allow you to gain specific rep with him as well, which will earn you rewards. He'll like you more and more over time, but the drops are rare enough for that to not happen overnight. Or you could make them once a day handins. That would work too.
  
  
• There'll also be a questline that these guys conduct, tied into a previous part of Game Lore. I'm not asking you to redesign Silvermoon or Gilneas here guys, I'm suggesting using existing phasing and old world areas to do what you TRIED to do with the Cradle of Chi-Ji/August Celestials questline (if this doesn't make sense, read this article from Anne Stickney first) to really work hard to immerse people in what this game has become over eight years. There is a vast world out there that you too often ignore for new shiny content, and ideas that get left aside that really worked well. I think it is high time you tried to combine the best of both.

Now, there's nothing revolutionary in any of this, truth be told. I'm not re-inventing the wheel. In fact, there's a perfect example of what the Daily Questgiver COULD be already in game as I type, and I have to say he's something of a personal hero.

One man and his pole.

Nat Pagle's a perfect example of what a Daily Questgiver should be, and how to evolve the Daily from what it has become to something far more interesting. As a character he too has moved with the game, from the early days of Vanilla in Dustwallow Marsh to his current spot in Pandaria. His role in game has been varied and entertaining: if you don't know what a Mudskunk Lure is, for instance, you missed out on one of the most entertaining parts of the old ZG Instance. So, what's to stop Blizzard from highlighting some of the most 'classic' NPC's in game, across four continents, and making them Reputation hubs all of their own? I'm not just talking about personal reputation with the NPC either (Battle pets ftw), once you max that out let them help you gain reputation with other factions (even classic ones.) Maybe each NPC could have their own Daily 'style' so you can try them all and see which ones you like: what's to say the classic bombing quests in Ogri'la couldn't figure in one NPC's (Griftah maybe?) Oh and Blizzard, I'm not asking you to make a new bombing quest: just use the old one and increase the number of targets required, and add an achievement for doing it in a set time.

This is the key here: No-one's expecting you to waste Dev hours on this. Go ahead and design the new stuff, that's cool. But WHY NOT LOOK BACK AND REUSE CLASSIC CONTENT THAT WAS GOOD.

Having seen what's coming in 5.3 tomorrow... maybe Blizzard are listening? We'll see...

==

It occurs to me that the key to making Dailies more interesting/engaging isn't simply about variation of content. There's a lot to be said for variety of background too. If this part of the game is to remain as a way of rewarding players for returning every day, then 'rewards' shouldn't just be monetary or 'physical', they should be able to be personalised to fit individual needs. Let the Raiders get their items without a massive grind. Let the Casuals choose which reputations they award to first. Allow some flexibility yes, but PLEASE don't forget that there are casualties of failed Daily experiments scattered across the game. Maybe it is time to go back to the past and admit what was good and what worked could be used again, not just in terms of mechanics. The Old Worlds can teach us so much about how Azeroth has become what it is. Is it really so bad to embrace that past n the present?

No really, it's a good idea! Trust me...

Monk's Music

Azeroth's Worst Dressed Mistweaver: discuss.

Last night, B the Monk hit 57.

I hadn't intended to make any comment about the levelling process: I don't enjoy the slog any more, because that is normally what it ends up as being unless a) I'm levelling a hunter or b) the toon is pure dps. I'd always intended my Monk to be a Healer, and this is what I've bought her up as: amazingly however, dps is rather joyful. In fact, I'm really rather getting into biffing random things. I don't spin around nearly as much as I probably should but I'm great at silencing stuff, CC'ing multiple mobs and generally kung-fu-ing anything with a pulse. The fact I am writing 'this is an enjoyable levelling process' is a revelation in itself. I really thought I'd never take another character from scratch to maximum level again. Now I fully intend to make it to 90 and beyond.

It's also made me realise just how much everyone else now looks very much the same with their animations compared with Monks. I am so enamoured with the said animations I am giving serious consideration to making a space on account #2 and rolling a female monk dwarf... just because I can, and that I may even (gasp!) consider working on them as my first ever Tank. There is a lot to be said for enjoying watching your character make their way through the World (Roll ftw) and after eight years to find pleasure in this process again is really rather reassuring. I'm wondering if we'll be getting a new race or whether it'll be a Hero Class in the next expansion... who knows. Part of me thinks we might get a race that starts in their 50's again just so that the first part of the grind can be bypassed...

iLevel 27. Style level zero.

Mr Alt has very graciously hauled me through a number of the high-end 1-60 dungeons over the weekend: Sunken Temple (yes, it's a joke now), Lower and Upper Blackrock, and I hope with the fabulous Enlightenment buff I'll be in a position to be dragged through a bunch of Outland instances this week. I'm levelling her as a Scribe as she'll get a free weapon, and the fact I could do with a max level Herbalist while I level the other bunch once 5.3 comes in and the XP requirements for 85-90 drop. However, my main consideration today is making her look less ridiculous and far more stylish, which may be something of a challenge as she's only little in level terms. I'd considered a white outfit but my options in leather are fairly limited so instead we may go red as that's the largest colour selection I currently possess. Needless to say, once I'm done, you'll see it here.

For now, it's time to pull out Mog It (after I've done my daily Inscription Research of course) and work on getting this little one some elegance...

Serve the Servants

What is wrong with this picture?

Not long ago, I lived on a thriving server.

Since January, there has been an unavoidable change. My Friends List began to dry up. Conversation in Trade slowed to a trickle during weekdays. By the time we entered May I could easily not see another soul in the Dwarven District AH for long periods: of course Ironforge is busy, but only because that's where you enter the CRZ. Stormwind is the real indicator of numbers. My server isn't dead, but it's certainly far less alive than it was this time last year.

Let's not even talk about Orgrimmar...

Once upon a time, a Server was far more than a place you'd call 'home.' It was your centre for excitement and gossip, the only place you could gather people to play with outside your Guild and your commercial market all rolled into one. It's the name you'd give to your mates when they cane to join you. Yes, we're back to Vanilla again (where all evil began and all greatness remains, depending on your outlook) when the Cross Realm Zone and LFAnything wasn't even a consideration. All you needed was your Server to provide everything you could desire: rubbish PuGGers (which is why a Friends List became a lifesaver so you knew who to /ignore) and a Trade Channel so full of Dirge and Anal spam sometimes you just found it funny because it was. Some servers even spawned their own websites, because there was just TOO MUCH STUPID to be contained simply on Blizzard's racks. They didn't call our place Dramasong for nothing.

However, times change. People move on, and friendships for many in the virtual world are fleeting things. Ultimately, for those who remain, the problems have begun to mount. The 'Server' from Vanilla, like so many other things, is beginning to show shortcomings. Of course, it no longer matters where you do your dungeons or raids, but when you return to your server after a long day's biffing mobs, the place you've decide to call 'home' isn't nearly as welcoming when there's only three other people wanting to buy your stuff on the AH. It isn't just the markets however: having decent competition for Guilds to achieve stuff is an important part of the game's dynamic. Being able to recruit people becomes increasing difficult when there's no-one reading your Trade spam. CRZ may make the world 'appear' busy and thriving, but the reality (especially those who play outside normal peak hours) is anything but.

Defending Gnomeregan. FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE!

Solving this particular problem is something Blizzard are struggling to address: the Cross Realm Zone is all well and good, but it has limitations. Cross Realm Raiding is only available on older content, meaning if you want gear from the Throne of Thunder you'll need to find a Guild on your server, or it's time to stump up some money for a transfer. For many the reality is that finding another server is not a practical option: it isn't simply the financial consideration, there's the fact that their name is as important as where they play. If your moniker is a popular one and it exists on your choice of destination already, some people just won't move.

Needless to say, solutions to this problem are not nearly as simple as they might at first appear. CRZ is considered by many as a sticking plaster, a temporary fix for a problem that could ultimately be a far more dangerous destroyer of player subs than engagement or gating. What isn't clear is how important the majority feel their server is to them now: it is clear in the past that server identity was a factor, almost vital in the choices people made when starting the game for the first time. I'd suggest taking some time to read the responses to this WoW Insider post on why do we still have servers which shows that issue is still very important to many people. I'd also bet a neatly-constructed pile of gold this one's a topic of discussion inside Blizzard HQ on a fairly regular basis.

To that end, I'm going to try next week to set up a proper survey to give you guys a chance to offer some feedback on why you've server transferred in the past, what factors you think determine those decisions, and what you think Blizzard could do to solve the server 'problem'. I've already got a willing group of Twitter people standing by to test my survey: once we're ready I'll let you guys get a hold of it, and we can get a better picture of where everyone stands on this issue.

For what its worth, part of me thinks that the 'new feature' we might be seeing once 5.4 finally goes live sometime in September/October could well have something to do with this exact same issue...

How do you Solve a Problem like Maria?

For a couple of weeks now, there has been no desire to LFR.

quinn.anya @ flickr. Bad writing by me.

I know I can use both the points and the reputation, but the need to take part simply hasn't been there. I was beginning to wonder whether I was missing something obvious, and it looks like I was. Yesterday afternoon the clouds parted, a Terry Gilliam animation appeared in the sky above me, and the inevitability of the problem finally registered.

Terry Gilliam's God is an unforgiving git.

It all began when I started making lists.

Aware that 5.3 is due next week not far away, it occurred to me I should start planning what I'd like to do not simply before the patch hits, but afterwards. This means levelling a particular pet battle team so I can have a crack at the Beasts of Fable. There's a bunch of Achievements I'd like to finish on the Isle of Thunder (and in the old Dailies area, if truth be told.) Then there's that much-talked of list of Hunter pets I'm hoping to tame once my stable size increases... and then I stopped. I shouldn't be planning on stuff like this, I should queue for the last part of LFR. I've still not done the last boss. Why?

Then I understood.

And THERE WE HAVE IT.

The reality of the situation made sudden and perfect sense. Back when my Guild was raiding, 10 mans mattered to me a lot, but never at the expense of completing them. I'd sub myself out of fights if I knew there was someone else who wanted it more, in a heartbeat. The key to my love affair with progression content was WE AS A GUILD finished it. That's not happened with the Throne of Thunder, the first time since Karazhan that I've not 'done' a major instance 'properly.' And yes, LFR IS NOT PROPERLY, BLIZZARD. I get to see the boss, sure, but completing it, killing him is not the same as a 10 man or 25 man experience. I am forced to complete LFR with people I don't know and may never meet, and there is no affinity in this action, no empathy in the action. Suddenly doing it 'because it's current content' is no longer enough. I have no competitive desire to be the first person in the Guild to have done it in LFR. Most importantly of all, completing the content on my terms is what matters more, and I can't do that.

Sure, I could desert my Guild and jump server... but I don't want to. I want to do this with my friends, and I've known many of these people as long as I've played the game. Suddenly, the greatest strength the game possesses becomes its biggest drawback.

Not in the slighest bit ironic. Unlike my situation.

If I want points, I may as well run the Vaults repeatedly. The only real need to do ToT is for the Legendary quest, and I don't need to do the 'harder' parts of that at all. My luck with drops continues to be woeful, and gear isn't really an issue if I'm not doing anything other than raiding in LFR... so I have no need to complete the content now. I may as well wait until I outgear it, go back and muller it.

This is not what I think Blizzard had in mind.

What I don't want to be doing right now is wiping repeatedly on Lei Shen with a bunch of people who don't care about me or what I do. What I do want is to be planning things that give me a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. Suddenly, end game content is not part of that equation, at least for me.

I think this might take a bit of getting used to.

A return to faffing days of old. I can live with this.

I realise I am not a 'typical' player by any stretch of the imagination. I understand the need to keep running LFR for those people who believe that the iLevel of their gear is important (for whatever reason that may be, I'm not casting any aspersions here) and I really do grasp how LFR keeps people 'engaged' in content... except it doesn't. Raid content works in 10 and 25 man far better when the people playing have a tangible link to each other. They choose to play as a team, and are not thrown together by fate. There is a honking great big hole in the LFR plan which could explain why the Blizzard subscription ship's started to take on water. Those of you who are 10/25 manning away happily might not notice this sudden listing to one side, but I think anyone who spends a lot of time in LFR might want to take a look under their seat and make sure their flotation device is there. You know, just in case.

Frankly you can never be too careful.

For now, if you want me, I'll be over here faffing on anything I can find and, if I do go to LFR, it won't be for shiny rewards. In fact, now I come to think of it, I should be running Heroics for Justice Points to spend when the gear upgrading chaps reappear...

Just Another Day

Halfhill Quest Giver, by my 8 year old. Poor tracing by Mum, 46.5.

According to some people, this blue punctuation mark is the bane of our existence in game. For others it is a necessary evil. Like it or loathe it, the Daily Quest refuses to go away. There's a good reason for this: several as it happens, and they're all wrapped up in the basic business of How Blizzard Tell Stories (TM).

Back in Vanilla, the Quest was king. Time was also far more of a limiting factor 'back then': doing ANYTHING took longer, simply because the mechanics didn't exist to make the game easier to play. No flying mounts. No Guild Perks. It was the Golden Age for the add-on designers: the Wild West of player-built content, where anything was possible if you understood how things worked. The key here was making things easier because the Devs hadn't yet worked out this was an issue. Time acted as a natural gating agent: no need to hide anything behind anywhere. This worked really well until it was decided that the new AQ Dungeons needed something suitably Epic to accompany their opening. If you are researching the evolution of Dailies, you could argue the race to open the AQ Gates has a lot to answer for...

I'd suggest reading this excellent recap by Alex Ziebart on what happened with AQ if you're not aware of the back-story. The point is twofold here: gating was created by asking for hundreds of thousands of items the Devs knew would take some servers months to collect. A questline was deliberately created that would only be completable by the best, the brightest and the most time-rich players on each server. Only when the two elements came together would you get your gate open. This identifies a number of elements that contribute to the earliest evolution of the 'Daily' in game:

• Having a deliberate time-frame for quest completion. The AQ 'lesson' showed that servers prepared to farm relentlessly could not be restricted by time if given an arbitrary number of items to collect. There needed to be a physical restriction on items gathered. Time is by far the best means to accomplish this in game.
  
  
• Rewarding all players, regardless of their ability.  AQ gave one person per server a physical reward, and proved beyond a doubt that some people were never simply going to be satisfied with 'helping' that person to achieve their goal. Entitlement existed well before this, of course, but the Gates event made it abundantly clear that if certain people worked for things in game, they expected rewards.
  
  
• Restricting flow of content, encouraging persistence. Stopping people from flagging whilst collecting 400,000 Runecloth bandages is not easy. Server 'pride' is all well and good, but even the most selfless of adventurers needs the occasional encouragement. AQ demonstrated that if you want to engage people, there needs to be at least some kind of regular payoff to make them come back. Yes, you're doing well, so have some reputation for completing this task, but you'll need to do this for 15 days if that's okay, but it'll be worth it, WE PROMISE...

It is easy in these terms to see how the past has influenced Azeroth's present environment. Similarly, reputation has now become intrinsically linked to the Daily process, which is logical in terms of evolutionary progression. If we again go back to Vanilla and look at the Timbermaw reputation 'grind' as another example of how time was used as a gating mechanic in Vanilla, it works in a very similar fashion to AQ. If you had the hours to kill thousands of mobs (and were able to do so uninterrupted without having to fight others doing the same thing) you could get enough rep for your rewards. However, on busy servers, or PvP environments, there were obvious pitfalls. It was only a matter of time before Blizzard linked reputation and dailies together. If you want an indicator on where the real problems started for the Daily Quest, I reckon that's the point where you should begin.

Some rep grinds are better consigned to history...

Reputation and Dailies make perfect partners: reputation is a form of gating to begin with, dailies use time as their restriction. Putting them together should be a match made in heaven. It's not like it hasn't happened before Pandaria either: look at the Firelands dailies. Go back to the Argent Crusade. This system is a great way to keep everyone on the same page in terms of progression, and allows the Devs a chance keep us occupied while they come up with new content to keep everyone happy. The major problem this Expansion was the decision to lock gear people needed to get into Dungeons and Raids into reputation you could only gather in one way, every 23 hours. Finally, using time as a gating mechanic lost some usefulness. It condemned many people to a path they didn't want, but had no choice but to follow if they wanted gear.

We were spoilt before in Cataclysm because a tabard worn in a dungeon would grant us bonus reputation for as long as we wore it. I think it is fair to say with two additional reputation mechanics introduced by Blizzard as a result of the outcry over gear (Tillers dailies and your weekly Faction Championing dungeon) the Devs know they made a mistake, but that doesn't detract from the real point. Using a 24 hour window to restrict content is dangerous, especially as attention spans reduce. You can no longer guarantee people will log on every day like they used to, because what you are rewarded with is not enough to maintain interest. The Daily has, like it or not, become an active hindrance to engagement.

The place many people would send Dailies to. Sound effects: optional.

However, solving this problem is not as simple as it first appears. The Daily has become as synonymous with storytelling and gating as the five man has for gearing and the raid has for end game. Redesigning this particular system has the potential to fundamentally change the entire fabric of the game, because of the impact it could (potentially) have on so many other areas of the game experience. I sense with the Thunder Island 'grind' that Blizzard have tried really hard to try and make each day's experience as varied as possible, with the use of Scenarios at set intervals to build a cohesive and engaging experience. Still, once you've hit Exalted, there is no compulsion to go back, and perhaps this combination of Reputation and Dailies has made things better and not worse.

I have my own theories on how things could improve (as I did with 5 mans) and if you hang around until early next week, I'll be happy to share them with you.

The Boys are Back

Not mine, merely related.

My good dear friend Mr Big Bear Butt enjoys regaling his readers with tales of his son in The Cub Report (latest episode can be found here.) My son has recently returned to the game: this is his Death Knight. He's twelve, and in his first year of Grammar School, and that's pretty much all the information I'm happy giving about him. We're a private family, and its always been this way, and I work on the theory that if he wants to tell anyone that he plays Warcraft, that's his job at his age and not mine. I wanted to use him as a basis of a quite specific blog post, and as a result if you're reading this it will be because he's said he's okay with me highlighting him an as example of the type of player Warcraft could do with right now.

Yes, I said the game needs more twelve year olds, with some very specific caveats.

Our son's watched a lot of game-time in eight years, in one form or another. He understands the basic mechanics of Warcraft not simply by playing himself, but often by osmosis. He has had impressed upon him the need for a mature outlook when communicating with other people. Most importantly of all, he grasps that this is a game, and not a badge of honour or a means to impress. Entitlement is a non-starter too: he knew he'd have to earn the money for Epic Flying, that we wouldn't help him by giving him the cash he craved [*]. There are basic principles in game that reflect life lessons I am perfectly happy for my son to learn in Azeroth. I feel however that there are some key differences between his game time and many other children of his age, and that these are as much an issue in fostering mature gameplay as understanding the way things work.

Our computers in the house are all in one place. Neither of our children have a TV or computer in their room (though occasionally a handheld device or tablet sneaks in at bedtime and is removed unless permission for it has been asked.) This is how it has been since both my kids began to play, and although supervision becomes less and less of an issue as time goes on, I want to try and impress on both kids the 'social' side of gaming isn't just about how they play, but what happens when they're not. Gaming NEVER comes at the expense of doing more important activities: being outside, drawing, playing games and NEVER HOMEWORK (yeah, sorry about that.) Interacting with the Real World is vastly more important, but I cannot escape that the Future, at least in some part, happens on screen. My son has a healthy interest in Minecraft (he loves to mod), most strategy and puzzle games, and I know that his future could well wrap itself around the computing industry. For that reason alone I want to encourage him to not discount anything, but to learn the value of knowing when to stop and walk away.

When my son does play, I feel it is VITAL to teach him what is acceptable by having him in the same room for at least some of the time. There is is of course, an undoubted need for him to explore and learn on his own, but this I think should be tempered with a responsible adult available to him should he need one. Consequences and actions are often discussed, and I like to try and make him think about the people on the other side of the screen as just that, people who can be just as friendly or devious as the classmates he has to deal with every day. He's building his own experiences of LFD (and has no problems doing randoms because he sees them simply as a way to earn points for gear) and the fact he's not accompanied by eight years of baggage like I am makes for an interesting counter-perspective on a lot of issues. It is easy to forget that having played something for so long can have its pitfalls as well as advantages.

What has become obvious in the time since he restarted playing is that the lessons he has learnt in life all contribute to making him a better player. There are areas to work on (getting him to say hello to people, remembering to say goodbye when he logs needs work) and I hope fostering more social time as a family 'playing together' will help with those shortcomings. I hope those parents/carers who are happy to leave kids alone late at night on consoles or computers realise there are consequences for these actions, that the only way to ensure your children get the best chance in life they can is to be involved at every step of their journey. No, I'm not expecting you to wrap your kids in cotton wool, neither am I advocating the opportunity for them to be left to their own devices. Every child has a different balance point, just as every adult does. If you're lucky, you might hit that once a day.

You should never let just one time be enough.

I hope, if you're playing on the EU realms and you run into my son on your travels, you are as proud of him as I am. He is living proof that age on a computer is no guarantee of what you'll get, for all the good and bad connotations that entails. I'd like to think he can stand as an example to players far older than himself too, that being a decent person is far more important than the dps you bring or the utility you provide. As it stands he's got that covered too, but you get the point. Judge the person fairly and objectively, and treat everyone you meet with the respect they deserve.

He is a lesson to me in that regard, and I will always be grateful.


[*] Once he'd done it I refunded him the money plus a bonus for hard work. Incentives work, people.