Monday, May 30, 2011

WAR: Veteran's Prerogative

I'm a veteran WAR player. You know what that means to me? To the world in general? To Mythic? It means I've had to put up with a lot of crap, a lot of bugs, injustices and bad ideas. And it means that I've paid my way through the better part of two years to do so.

I have wasted millions of renown points thanks to a renown rank cap they removed after I've gotten 5 characters to 40. I wasted dozens of hours going through PvE instances hoping for healing gear that seldom dropped, gear I eventually acquired right in time for them to implement the Harbringer changes that made all Intelligence based gear relevant to a healing Zealot. I have been pulverized by bombers, Slayer trains and every other FotM OP class. I have been overhealed for no good reason other than shorter cast times. I've been outDPSed on account of the bad class implementation bat. I've lain dead on the ground with healers trouncing all over my dead body after I've rezzed them consecutively for minutes. I've been robbed of loot and fights over crashes and graphical bugs. I've been branded a quitter when the game fumbles in loading screens. I have acquired currency that was never enough to use and has now been rendered useless. I've been killed by mobs, enemy players, backlash, guard, falling, shrubbery, walls, pebbles, Something. And, for all of this, I've paid a monthly fee.

I'm not bitter. When I get bitter I stop paying and I stop playing (as I have before). Life's too short to do something only to complain about it. I do, however, feel entitled to certain things. I will exploit the shit out of the game at any chance I get if I can get away with it without any negative repurcussions to me or my guild. I think I deserve it. I think I've endured enough bad decisions and managerial tomfoolery to warrant some shady business. Haven't we all? From being robbed silly in our real life accounts to putting up with game breaking bugs (like when some keeps became unattackable and all you could do was stare at them) we've put up with our share of shit. For a fee.

Quality in a product is not too much for a paying costumer to ask for. I don't feel I've always gotten what I paid for. In fact, I feel that people that have been paying for less time than me have it easier, what with their freshly turned 40s being over rr60. I'm not gonna beg for goodies, though. I've been paying and playing of my own accord. I wasn't forced into it. I do feel under appreciated which is probably why I feel no remorse in taking advantage of my good old mates, the bugs and exploits. I've never used third party out-right cheating tools but I've never had to. The game itself provides almost every tool for the kind of exploitation I feel entitled to. I'm a girl from the 3-manning in balcony keep takes era.

Does that make me a bad person? Does that make me a cheater? Do I care? Should I care? For what it's worth, I seldom do anything shady with my main. What she is, for better or worse, is made of pure skill. But my alts... I've got a whole batallion of them. I can't always play fair. And I don't want to. It takes two to play fair. Right Mythic? After all, after all your msitakes and threats of new ones, I keep coming back. Where's my kiss on the cheek and pat on the head? When is it my turn to sit on your lap and tell you what I want? I've been a good girl all these years. Well, mostly.

5 comments:

  1. What did you do? :P

    To be honest, requesting recognition or fair play while you admit that you don't play fair and threatening with continuing to do so doesn't really seem right. Talking from a purely "this situation in life" perspective, you aren't really in a position to complain if you don't play by the rules. I mean sure, you're a customer but if you break the rules (not saying that you did, just generalising), you're no longer entitled to certain things.

    With that said though, I can understand what you're saying. WAR players have put up with a lot of shit and Mythic doesn't really seem to appreciate that fact. The last batch of veteran rewards for example, really weren't that useful and were handed out to everyone to top it off.

    Though it seems that you're trying to justify breaking the rules in game with this post, which is why it all seems odd. But don't mind me, might be the beer. :P

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  2. Threaten? Oh, no I'm not threatening. I'm telling. Whatever it is I did or will do it's the very fabric of the game that allows it. So you might say that I am playing fair in unfair moldes. Like life itself. Seriously, I might have come across like a big bad-ass criminal but I've done nothing everybody else hasn't done, like cheating on a test (we've all done it). We just don't say it too often lest they change the status quo.

    At any given moment, a human being will behave as badly as he thinks he can get away with. That's just a fact of life. I'm just saying it aloud. This post is, in fact, merely a statement of this which seems obvious to me.

    I guess what it boils down to is that I'm a wannabe rebel. I might toe the line but have never actually broken the rules or gone too far. And I get mad getting ganked by faster-than-light Slayers/Knobs/trees that have probvably not invested as much of their soul in the game. Hmm. Mad isn't really the word. Disapointed might be more it.

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  3. I think what's sad is when you get to that point in a game where you no longer take it seriously enough to care about the rules and thus stop caring whether you play fair or not. It's not your fault or any other player's, it's Mythic's fault for letting their game be such a joke.

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  4. It did come across as shaking your fist at the game yelling "if you don't play fair, I'm not going to either!". Maybe it's just me that got that impression. I'm weird sometimes. :)

    I don't agree with humans behaving as badly as they can get away with. I feel that's only true up to a point. There are moral values and principles that go beyond being lazy, not caring or being a rebell. I admit such values are few and far inbetween, but they are there. But talking about gaming in general, that might be even more true, so I guess you're right when talking purely in the contex of gaming.

    And no, I actually haven't cheated on a test yet. Probably because I suck at it and usually fumble and get caught (well the one time I tried it). I probably would if the opportunity would present itself and I knew there's no other way for me to pass. If I could have passed on my own, I probably wouldn't.

    I'm weird. :P

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  5. As long as what you're doing is allowed within the confines of the game world, more power to you. Screw what anyone else says or thinks. I'll be honest also, exploiting through PvE, I have zero issue with. Places like TotVL being so poorly implemented, and resplendent with bugs left me not giving a rats ass about causing scorpions to get stuck on pillars, or fighting the god-king guy in the foyer the whole time.

    To be fair, I also had zero issue using what other players called as exploits in PvP. Bomb group wizards, haste stacked Slayers, and all the other crazy powerful combinations I could find to make the enemies QQ more made my day.

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