First!

03Jan07

This is the beginning of an archive of posts I’ve written in the past. They’re mostly about MMOs (sort of like this blog).
Not many of you know me well, but if you can imagine the Priest that leads the Notre Dame football players in prayer before the games, you have an idea of what I feel for you all right now.

Many of you are the age I was when Everquest 1 had its first expansion – the Ruins of Kunark. Everquest was the grandest game I’d ever played, as flawed as it was spectacular, but with an unmatched vision. I can still remember many moments from EQ, the sun setting on the shores of Lake Rathe, the 3rd game-wide Monk Epic quest completed by my friend Derra, my own completion of the Enchanter epic … it was a heady time for me, made all the more so because my real life was in such utter shambles that Norrath was all I really had that was fun.

WoW is Everquest at hyper speed, everything is faster, more exciting, more colorful, more visceral … more fun. We used to call EQ “EverCrack” but WoW has changed the genre forever. I’m writing this because I wanted to share a memory with you, if you will indulge a newblet such as myself:

The Oasis of Marr – Sunrise

Coming back to this zone after so many levels and so much time was dizzying. I had spent my teens here, and after over 100 days /played not visiting its sandy beaches except to race through it, it was strange sitting at the docks again. Shouts of “Train to docks!!” no longer paralyzed me with fear at the thought of losing xp once again and a naked corpse run back to my body, and I relished the thought of owning that Giant that had stomped me with glee so long ago. I turned, chaotic energy at the ready, and saw over 30 level 50s stomping the poor Giant to the ground. In mere seconds that Giant lay on his stomach in the sand, and I stared at him unblinking. It was an omen of what was to come, and I still remember the feeling of dread as I turned away from the corpse, my magics slowly fading within me.

A small group of us had decided to travel together to the shores of Kunark, and though we were not the first, we were early enough that the titters and nervous cries over guildchat of new discoveries were still flying through the ether. This was years before the idea of the Beta even existed, and we were all exploring virgin territory. I recall disembarking the raft and eagerly seeking the town and then later, the first dungeons we could do. As we ran towards the town with the others, avoiding the freshly upgraded graphical monstrosities all around us, I saw others racing past us with a Druid who had cast Spirit of Wolf (Aspect of the Pack). I was furious with envy that someone would see things before me, it was as if a race had begun, not to experience the content, but to be the Magellan or the Columbus of my generation, the first to discover a new and wondrous place.

We did not linger in the town. We did not devour the vast and deep lore of the town of Firiona Vie as the developers wished. We didn’t marvel at the structure of its buildings, or wonder in curiosity at the story the old man was weaving at the Inn. We simply looked for quests, found none (it was EQ), and followed the beckoning of the men and women over guildchat who had forgone the town and were wandering the wild in search of the first dungeon. It was the first lesson that MMO developers would learn about expansions — in the mad dash for the carrot, the trees would be lost for the forest.

The war of information was so fierce that the most important dungeon of the expansion was merely a rumor for weeks — even after players had found it and built the first keys!! It was a cold war of fear and backstabbing, where friends were put to the test in order to prevent overcrowding of their newly favorite zone. Unlike WoW with its joy of instancing, if a dungeon was overcrowded, everyone lost. Now the lost dungeon of Sebilis is simply one dungeon of many, a pre-requisite of killing Trakanon, its poisonous despot.

Just as the mad dash for content obsessed us EQ players, the mad dash for raid content will consume you as WoW players who have spent a year+ at 60. Already the class meetings and leadership debates endlessly the raid structure of Level 70 raids. Already the fear and desperation will lick at your heels as you hear that your class, which previously enjoyed 8 slots in a raid, will limit itself to 2 or 3. Already the joy of discovery is eclipsed by the fear of being left out of the group.

In 13 days the world of WoW will be eaten alive by personalities that have grown accustomed to being lords of the manor. They have grown complacent and enjoyed the adoring gazes of the underlevelled in the courtyards of Stormwind, the dusty roads of Ogrimmar, the cavernous halls of Ironforge. The expansion will rekindle the flames of opportunistic, envious, viscious and small minded individuals. It will drown out the helpful in a klaxon call of new quests to complete, it will destroy the spirit of discovery and joy in a sea of world PVP, instance overcrowding and server restarts.

You will not find a person more in love with MMOs or their history. I have lived and breathed these games for over 10 years and each trip into Ironforge or Stormwind reminds me why I love them – the grandeur, the hope, the aspiration. WoW was created by many people but the two I know best are Furor and Tigole, two of the most prolific outspoken critics of EQ1’s end-game ever known. Only Thott (of Thottbot) remains of the original 3 Lords of EQ (leaders of FOH, Legacy of Steel and Afterlife — guilds whose names echo in game lore for their sheer mastery of that which had been designed to be unbeatable) and his devotion should be clear to even the most casual of player . Tigole and Furor know what it is to create content that pushes you to the next level — but they also know the agony of 100 person raids. They know the frustrations of a game built around playing with 40 people you don’t like in order to progress. In short, they are the two people who know best of anyone the flaws of the EQ model of end-game raiding. They will not repeat the mistakes of history.

My plea to you, a guild that has survived on a server that has seen veritable Titans birthed, as the guild that has survived beyond the echoes of Nightmare’s Asylum and the triumphs of Exodia and Immortality, is that you enjoy WoW from 60-69. If I sat in on a class meeting this week or next, I would say one thing and one thing only “I can’t wait to help you with your quest for the next great item.” Raiding at 70 will be one part of a new whole, as the vision of the WoW end-game has grown past the halls of the Dragons and Giants that epitomized EQ1, but it will be only a part. As a Druid I hunger for items like the Earthwarden, which are achieved not in 25-mans, but 5 and 10 mans as a faction reward. I’m sure many others have items, crafted or found, that they hunger for, and I’d love only to help them get it. As a player and lover of MMO history I recognize the direction of WoW even if others don’t — the day of the 40 man is over. Onyxia’s day has come and gone, and Kel’thuzad is the final harbinger of a distant past.

This is a long winded way of saying this guild has restored my faith in the casual gamer. You have shown me that good players are found not only in guilds that play 6 days a week slowly hating each other, resenting each drop and each point of DKP.

Dedication to the founding vision and ideals that created FP will do more for this guild than any class meeting, any raid structure or schedule, any promise from the leadership that everyone will get their chance to raid. So on the eve of the expansion, think not of level 70. Think not of Karazhan or the heights of Veeshan’s Peek, think of level 61. Think of overpowered blues and Jewelcrafting, of farming mats and working together on outdoor elite quests with your friends.

Remember this if you read nothing else:

Raiding was designed to distract you from the fact that the game was over.

Enjoy the game, don’t let raiding distract you from the pixellated trees of the computer-generated forest.

Your friend and guildmate,

Thargor
Talisien
Kalël

Filed under: Expansions, MMOs, World of Warcraft   |  Leave a Comment