What A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts...

Tobold is on the loose again wondering why is it so easy to get good gear? My question would be is, why was it so hard in the first place?

It's all about perspective, and there are better pieces of gear out there for people that choose to get them that are NOT as easy to obtain. Tobold, and don't get me wrong, I really like the guy, but he is mostly focused on "instances". Running instances for badges and how long it takes the "Power Gamers" to get them. Trust me Tobold, those folks are still a minority, but I do notice that there appears to be more of them running around now days. The way I look at it is that if they are doing a huge amount of damage, and you don't have to work too hard, then roll with it.

The game is not centered around challenge in the form of hard-to-kill monsters in every place you go. It can be if the people you go with are not all that good... The challenge is building your character how you want them and then moving on to something else like PvP, huge 25 man raids, just hanging out and socializing or whatever. Instances are simply a stepping stone to get to the next level. Who cares if they are overpowered? Blizzard never stopped a level 80 from entering the Stockades to help out a level 15 friend, so why should they stop overgeared 80's from doing runs they are more then capable of doing?

For those of us on the "less then geared" platform, this means we can get geared faster. Believe me, with the que times for getting a group going up, I am all in favor of doing the quickest runs possible once I get in there. I don't think I should have to spend extra time and effort just because someone might be getting burned out sooner. The faster we go, the more time I have to do other things I like to do.

Most of Tobold's fans are obviously raiders or interested in raiding, gathering, and making money. Not everyone sees things quite so black and white when it comes to risk vs reward. I personally like having a bit a risk vs reward, but without interaction or the possiblilty of getting killed by something besides a computer generated toon, I don't think we are going to see anything that compelling any time soon.

I don't remember where, but one of the Blizzard staff had mentioned in an interview or something that one of the goals now days is accessibility. Well, to me that means they are looking into ways to deliver more content to more people. As you know, without Dungeon Finder, there were tons and tons of people like me out there that would never have had the opportunity to learn and experience these instances. Granted, the immersion factor of the Dungeon Finder does become detracted by the ease of entry and exit, and the speed in which we run the instances, but it is something I can live with.

Its all about the game you are trying to play. World Of Warcraft has a huge amount of areas yet to explore in getting people connected and doing things on their own. If the players have a way to run their own events, and a place to hang out with easy access to have others come play with them, then I believe this would help extend the end game for many people for a very long time.

Give us more things "we" can create, and more things "we" can do on our own without relying on Blizzards content, and "we" will do just that. It is possible to create your own fun given the right tools. Just ask anyone that ever played Ultima Online...

I also wanted to mention the latest post from the Pink Pigtail... Apparently we have earhquakes going on now. Most likely to do with the next expansion. What makes me sad is that Blizzard knows the game has shifted from one form to another, but why would they take away the weather? If the majority of players are casual, that fine, but why not leave things in the game for those of us that really enjoy them. I am not saying we should have constant weather all of the time, but a storm of any kind every now and then would definitely wake some people up out there. Just a thought, put the weather back! Good post by the Pink one!

And on that note, I leave you with my latest picture of Myd and her new buddie, the "Perky Pug"... This is what you get when you Pug with more then 100 different people using the Dungeon Finder.

The funny part is, that I used to have a Pug, and this guy acts almost identical to the real thing. I love the pulling with the front legs to scratch the hiney manuever. Classic!

That's all I got... Laters!