Has WoW become less social?

So, I was trolling around on the MMOC forums and ran into a pretty decent thread. It happens so and then, not a lot but, it happens. To be exact, this one. The dude who started it has since gotten banned from the forums - never a pretty sight, but it's happening a lot lately. He probably had it coming though. However, the dude (or chick, can't tell) did have a perfectly valid observation. The game seems to have lost the social prowess that it had in the older days. People simply don't care about reputation anymore, large guilds matter less and less. What, how, why? Look at it this way, when the game was still in beta and even the first year of it the game was "new". This will attract a certain type of player who is willing to try new things. A curious player, explorers so to say. Since the game is new (beta even), the game will be poorly balanced, difficult, full of bugs and not much information is available for the players about available items, monsters and cookie cutter skill builds. So, everything has to be discovered and explored by the players themselves. The type of player who has no patience for such things will usually quit early on, thus leaving a much different player foundation in the game than we can see today. So, years go by and the game adds three new expansions, slowly evolving into the WoW we know today. Millions of players worldwide, all investing their money into it on a monthly basis. This cash is used to keep developers active, new Game Masters, quality control, TV advertisements, gigantic server parks all around the world and swords and shields for Blizzard's long time employees. (You know it, you've seen it, and you know you want one too) Now, a different kind of player will be attracted to the game than before. The "cool kids", not just the warcraft fanboys but their friends and friends of their friends because "WoW is big and cool and you should play it too". Unlike before, these guys have everything handed to them. * Short dungeon Queues, connected to a whole battle group. * Detailed theory crafting. * Detailed boss tactics in game even. * Easy mode dungeons. * Raid finder and easier bosses that are downed in hours or days instead of weeks and months. * Epic gear for tokens. * Daily quests. * Smaller zones, less travel time. * Cookie cutter builds on a hundred WoW related websites. * XP needed to level cut by 30% and more if you have access to hierlooms. * 300% XP boost if you get recruited by a friend. * Cheap mounts, mine 1 stack of copper bars and sell it on the auction house and you'll have enough. Something which took people weeks to do before. And more, plenty more. Now, most of those early "veteran" players will have already quit the game in search for new things to explore, but the players who are currently joining the game are playing an entirely different version of WoW than we started those many years ago. And, these players will still stick around because they "like" the fact that they can troll forums and have millions of players read their garble. (Call them trolls if you like) This generation of players is, in comparison, a lot younger and still completely different from the ones who joined the first year. This "evolution" of MMOs is something you could probably write pages and pages worth of school assignments about, psychology of a gamer and so on. There is plenty of material for studies in the analyzing a MMO's and it's playerbase's evolution. Perhaps it's even been done already, I can't really be bothered to spend a day on google trying to find articles about it. But, perhaps this post will inspire someone to do so in the near future. In the end, yes the players in the game today are very much different. More arrogant, lazier, less tolerant, less used to difficult and hard won progress. It's a laid-back generation right now that is used to having a lot of convenience (See above). And they aren't likely to find a different game anytime soon because no game has had anywhere near the money put into it for development and refinement yet. The majority of gamers who started playing WoW 7+ years ago is not likely to still be playing. They are off looking for new challenges, new things to try, discoveries to be made. Or simply waiting for Diablo 3 like me. In a way it's simple evolution, some people leave, others remain. But, on a different scale than we might think, a scale that has been researched very little so far, and yet one that we see and are involved in ourselves. Just look at your own guild and tell me how many people have left your guild in the last year? More than a few no doubt. Of course, I'd be curious to see other people's thoughts on the matter. But in the end I fear the original poster was correct in his thoughts. WoW has become less social. And it's not just because of the dungeon or raid finder. That doesn't mean there aren't still awesome people in the game, but not the overall feeling you will get in random groups or pvp battlegrounds...

A journey of 7 years

I've played World of Warcraft for, seven, nearly eight years. I got into the game at the recommendation of a close friend. One who I now longer speak to. Not for bad reasons, we just, don't anymore. It was open beta, you could try it for free and discover new things, explore new lands never seen before. I started out as a lowly warlock in a dark land discovering magics untold and summoning demons at my will and command. Undercity my home at the time. Not long after did I create a paladin, who did slay those very same demons. I was inexperienced and yet made progress through strange lands with always a friend at my side. A shield and a sword were my tools of the trade, using a talent tree spec one would now laugh at to even consider. Elwyn forest, Westfall, Redridge mountains, Duskwood and so many more. Progress was slow, but everything was new and every level our characters gained made us more powerful. She did not care much for the strength of her armor, greens she would use while I looked for blue. The paladin looked like a clown, armor a mix all red and green, blue and gray, gold and black. It mattered not, for in duels I beat plenty of others. A quick heal a stab or two there, clashing my shield. If she did sleep, my adventures would always take me back to the darker forests and places of the Undercity. People looked strange compared to the humans and elves, but still I belonged here more than among those pretenders. The warlock was abandoned for now, but not forgotten. I started a Troll, a rogue so they say and stealth was his game. The lands were different yet again and it was at the use of a dagger and blade that he did show me a new way. STAB in the back and dead was my foe, so different from a sword and shield and... so much MORE fun. Eventually we did part ways, my friend then going elsewhere and not heard of for many a year. Stranded as I was on an American server with high latencies I decided to make the best of things and create a life anew with my knowledge thus far. A new rogue is what I thus made. Zurgat I named him, for no reason other than my own. He grew to be level 43, then more. New friends were found and old friends rediscovered. Night Lions at first, a guild of few people. Fellowship of the Horn came later, and was his home for near two years. In here I discovered a new game, Raiding. Only occasional at first, then more and more. My voice was heard on teamspeak and ventrillo, fewer would disagree with me as time did pass. Promoted to new ranks within the guild, and eventually made to lead a mass of 40 players, picking heads among others still waiting to enter. Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair and Blackwing Lair did we complete and conquer. Vaelastrahz was especially fun, and frustrating. The game would change though, the Burning Crusade was announced and would soon arrive. We did manage to start on the Temple of Anh'Qiraj, but would not complete even the first boss before that time. Still, we did try and try and try. 80%, 70%, 50%. I do not recall it exactly, perhaps we got to 23% in the end, but then the Burning Crusade came. A new land awaited, and we had made great plans for our future. Some friends would be angered, but we would lay new roads into a brighter future with more progress. Rampage was created, a new guild rising from the ashes of one mostly neglected and full of casual players. FEL REAVER! *Splat* I only died perhaps three times to them, but it's always fun to look back at them. I hope Blizzard will add such monstrosities back to the game in the future. Eventually the guild players would reach 70, and the raiding began again. 10 man this time, and later 25. Constantly members would be gained and lost, an ongoing struggle for every guild in the game, especially since 40 man raids were the default before then. Karazhan, Serpentshrine, Tempest Keep, The Black Temple, and even Mount Hyjal did we conquer and complete. Quite proud of ourselves we were too. The Sunwell was something different, but even so we did barely get past the Twins before the nerfs started and patch 3.0 was installed. Wrath of the Lich King would start a new expansion. Sooner than expected sadly. Naxxramas we cleared, and every other instance. Some on heroic mode, some not. 3.x was a less amusing time, though the new lands were fun to explore at first. Many disagreements did arise from whether we should clear a boss on heroic mode or not, so that we might have to skip another boss later, or get one more item from another to better our abilities. The Burning Crusade was more to my liking, it was harder and no choices needed to be taken on how to defeat a boss. You either did it, or did not. But when you did "it felt good", you had achieved something together that took weeks or more of trying. 4.x was coming, and things fell apart, Rampage a mere shadow of it's former self. Some players gone to be with their family, away from the game, others to different servers and yet others to start a new guild for themselves. Such is the way of many guilds in WoW and we were not immune to this change either it seemed. Cataclysm held some challenges still, the guild, and two private storage guilds would all reach level 25. But, little more glory was to be had. We recruited several guilds under our wing, and we did manage to clear a number of 10 man raids but as far as satisfaction went in those kills... the spark of it has been somewhat lost. Perhaps 10 man raids are simply not as glorious as the old 40 player raids were, or the player-base in general had changed too much from what it was before. Regardless, before the release of patch 4.3, Rampage was no more. Oh it still exists on a few alts, but no longer active. Perhaps it'll open an eye from it's slumber when 5.x comes around but I have no high hopes for it. Life is a journey, regardless of your eventual destination, what matters most is the sights you see along it's path. And indeed, we did see many things and made many new friends along the way.

Dragon Tavern Logger v1.0.7

Ho ho ho! It's another DTL update. v1.0.7 this time with a special Festivus fix included. Version 1.0.7 can be downloaded here. Updates in v1.0.7: * Fixed the name of "Abyssal Mines" in Zones.ini : All subzones have now been fixed and confirmed to be spelled correctly! * Added option to block out logging of "double XP" monsters such as spawn during festivus. Since these can spawn in all areas and may disrupt data integrity. Data analysis dialog (F9): * Added ability to completely hide certain rows based on kill count. * The dialog should now save it's settings more reliably. * The level column now sorts by it's first number rather than by text. So, it will sort as: 1,2,3,4,5,6 instead of 1,20,3,50+,7 etc. Plenty more data as well, but this time all the sub zones have reached the minimum of 25 monters.

Goggle Cat Comics

Every so and then you get an itch that tells you to do something NEW and interesting. Some people ignore the itch, or drop everything and focus on that thing alone. I myself simply try to do everything at the same time :P

I've started another blog called: Goggle Cat Comics a few weeks back, and been posting small comic references on it every few days. Perhaps you already discovered, perhaps not. At any rate, it's growing steadily, got a bit of art by Mipeo from MMOC on the headboard, and more comic links being added every few days.

Obviously, you're welcome to drop by and have a look, add suggestions for other comics to add to the list and whatnot. I've still got over 300 links to add, but since webcomics grow on the web faster than mushrooms in a moist forest I doubt I'll be finished anytime soon.

Also, it's allowed me to play around with the blogger templates some more and make a few improvements on RRVS, you'll notice the post footer looks different from before. The share buttons are smooth and updated. Don't be shy about using them ;)
Not only that, but the page should load faster as well!

Anyway, have a peek: Goggle Cat Comics.