So over the past month or two I’ve drastically reduced the time I’ve spent playing WoW. This is due to a several factors; a summer job, the fact that it’s summer, not having a competitive or active arena team, as well as others, but these don’t really matter. What I want to talk about is how different this game is depending on your level of dedication.
The first thing I’m realizing is that even when you play casually, it’s still not really like you can just pick up wow for a quick twenty minute play. Each play time usually involves several hours of commitment. The difference between casual and hardcore for me has been more like going from playing multiple huge wow sessions to having one or two a week, and these being shorter. As much as people suggest that Blizzard is aiming this game at casuals, I don’t think it’s as easy for casuals to get gear or succeed in arena as some would suggest. Other than arena gear, you can’t earn much honor or successfully pve without at least a moderate time commitment.
I guess what I’m saying is that as much as people complain about this game being casual friendly, it really isn’t. Is a casual WoW player is someone who does a few dailies each day, does their wintergrasp weeklies, farms even 30k honor a week (not enough to buy much, at least not quickly), does some light pve or light arena? The community would probably define this as casual, but you’re spending at least upwards of ten hours just to do this, and you’ll always have more to do.
I think when people complain about an increasingly casual wow, people probably think they are saying you need too little a time investment to do well. I think the real issue isn’t time investment. I think the problem may lie in the difficulty of attaining the highest level of gear. What casual seems to mean to WoW is that you don’t really need to follow a structured raid schedule of an elitist guild as was true in other mmos or of wow in the past to get the highest item level of gear or compete in end game. I’m not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing.
I’d also say that playing casually actually increases your motivation to succeed in game, or at least it does for me. Taking it easy for the last little while, I haven’t played arena to top ten ratings. Ratings that were meaningless to me two months ago are suddenly interesting again. I realize this is really just the effect of wanting what you don’t have, but I find it very interesting that the less time you spend in game the more motivated you become to play.
Tip When Playing with a Priest
I don’t think this is any big secret but a friend of mine said he didn’t know about it when listening to arena last night, so I thought I’d mention it. It’s a good idea, situationally, to call for shield before you vanish to maximize the chance of the ability working. This means that dots and aoe that’s already laid down won’t affect your vanish. This doesn’t mean you can do this all the time but when your priest isn’t under pressure it can help.
First Look at the Final Boss for Trial of the Crusader
The final boss for the Trial of the Crusader is now available for testing on the North American PTRs. Pardon the last minute announcement of this, we’re still having some technical difficulties on the North American PTRs and we weren’t sure if this testing was going to be available.
Eviscerate X Update
Still far from being done so stop asking, but I’ve made a lot more progress in the last month than I had in the past, and it’s starting to feel like I can potentially finish. And what I do have so far I’m very happy with. I’m going to start actively recording duels against top opponents, and if you’re alliance on cho’gall, and not a rogue (I realize this is a rogue site but I’ll have more than enough clips against rogues when the video is finished), and you’re interested in some duels, hit me up at feedback@roguerogue.com, or if you’re on horde cho’gall for that matter.
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Comment by Twiggy — July 15, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
i’ve reduced the amount of time i spend in WoW also, and also i seem to enjoy the game alot more when i do this because i feel refreshed when i enter the game.
i don’t pve anymore because the raid wiping and recovery plus long instances take wwaayyy too much time, i spend enough time doing bg’s and arenas as it is.
good article, good website, cool pvp videos, etc. etc.
Comment by funhell — July 15, 2009 @ 2:57 pm
Totally agree with you that playing less gives you all of a sudden more motivation to play the game.
Interesting read as always.
Comment by Lutz — July 15, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
I agree
interesting read
Comment by X — July 15, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
You call being 9th in 3v3 playing casually? You sir, are insane.
Comment by Faucheuse-Vek'nilash — July 15, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
Yeah, toning down WoW can make it more interesting. I would duel you, but my gear isn’t its best right now. Also, when I dueled you on PTR, when you vanished my blind, you still went in stealth, same with the Kidney Shot. Whenever I vanish abilites like those, I remain out of stealth. The only spells that I can vanish and remain stealthed, are spells like Arcane Barrage, Death Coil, etc.
Comment by Jizzthethug — July 15, 2009 @ 8:14 pm
Those spells are missles ( have air time).
Really, it’s all lag, and that mumbo jumbo whether you stay stealthed or not.
Comment by tipme — July 15, 2009 @ 9:04 pm
Personally I’ve seen people vanish my kidney shots, then come out of stealth not stunned, vanish my kidney shots, come out of stealth stunned, and vanish my kidney shots, and remain in stealth. Oo
same for blind.
Comment by Scrumptious — July 15, 2009 @ 10:51 pm
Thats so true :>
Comment by Sheyrra — July 16, 2009 @ 1:41 am
Edit: I have similar probs with cs, too
Comment by Sheyrra — July 16, 2009 @ 1:42 am
Exactly! This is world of gearcraft, and when I don’t have the time to commit to a PvE-raid schedule I won’t be able to compete at a high level arena rating because I have subpar gear. I can get the last season PvP gear – it’s not optimal but it’s possible. Pity it will still take countless hours to get that gear. After that I have to upgrade to the current season PvP-gear which most likely will end before I can get the complete set.
I know that this is sort of a whine, but some people just can’t commit to this game but still enjoy it and want to explore high level arena where the gear doesn’t hinder you.
Comment by a — July 16, 2009 @ 3:40 am
”Working as intended” my ass lol vanishing things is a big dice game atm
Comment by Ertruby — July 16, 2009 @ 6:15 am
I completly agree, this game is WAY to gear dependent. That fact alone is what kills it for the casuals. Winning the game, beating it, reaching your maximum potential, or just finish all the content… either way you say it, it’s impossible for the casuals. In order to accomplish that, you’re going to be spending a TON of time in game, and then it’s just not worth it. Especially when everything you just spent all that time getting is replaced and literally thrown away.
Comment by Feight — July 16, 2009 @ 9:51 am
He’s in the 9th best 3v3, however his personal rating is like 1400 which is well below even the top 100.
Comment by :\ — July 16, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
I think a majority of those who spent their nights raiding through BC content, and followed that trend into WotLK have either found themselves retired, burnt out, or at the top level of the game already.
I often wonder where the competitive part of the game went with regards to PvE content. There wasn’t, and hasn’t been too much like C’Thun since it’s hayday.
Many of the guys and gals that I used to raid and hang around with say that the game doesn’t provide enough to keep them interested at the top end. I think Blizzard is trying to circumvent this with multiples of the same instance with achievements to boot, but I’ve thought that I’d rather just have 2 or 3 new instances. That would give something for us to mow through for at least 3 to 4 months on the shortest time frame.
Honestly, WoW has become TOO easy for most of those who used to purposely bring a Warlock to a raid just so we could summon everyone one at a time at the gates of ZG.
Comment by Sharadrin — July 16, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
is there any reason why i cant view akrios on eu armory? the only person to show up on cho’gall is a 55 DK lol
Comment by roguer — July 16, 2009 @ 11:39 pm
the reason why is you’re looking at the eu armory. look on the us one, his name there should be akrioss. with two s’s
Comment by aname — July 16, 2009 @ 11:46 pm
WTB a WoW replacement… Sim City 3000 is getting boring…
Comment by Feight — July 17, 2009 @ 5:43 am
I thought about what I posted. Here’s a suggestion. PVP offers casual players the best experience because they can accumilate bits and pieces of gear to eventually get a full set. You can do the same with badge gear but the problem is the groups. So the suggestion would be to create a huge 100 man instance/BG with over 50 bosses. Different groups or even solo players can contribute to the “run” of getting to the end. It could be a queue type system, so if you leave, someone is automatically replaced. None of the bosses would be hard except for the last 4 or 5. Each boss could be 5 manned, etc. You could have rare drops but for the most part, no gear will drop in the instance. Everything would be on an honor or badge system where you could buy gear as you played. Solo players could work at their own pace comparable to capping a mine in AV. Inside the huge instance, you could have different paths to explore with different things to accomplish. The idea here is to just go balls-to-the-wall. You could implement different hard modes, different tricks, flying bombers, etc. If you want to release every boss and take them all at the end, then go for it. Doing so will reward more points…
To me, this is far superior than the raid system is set up now. Fighting for gear, not guaranteed gear for your time, setting up a party and makeing sure the classes are perfect… all this is just unnecessary.
Comment by Feight — July 17, 2009 @ 7:50 am
Well PvP isn’t always for Casuals, If you focus on arena 3s or 5s, its more about organizing a time to do those brackets. 2s or BGs is just great for casuals because you could just do it with a PUG (For BG) or another person and do it whenever you’d like or whenever both of you’s are on. Apart from PvP, PvE has issues too, getting Badges for ulduar quality items is just plain difficult. Why would you spend 9 weeks farming VoA25 for enough badges for a runed orb? Its just stupid and a waste of your time. Good thing in 3.2 you get the new badges from the Heroic and regular Instance daily and VoA25 (If there is going to be a new boss in VoA) Making it slightly easier for us casuals to gear up for items. Bad thing about 3.2 is the 2s nerf, it affects Casual PvP’rs because unlike 3s as stated before, “its more about organizing a time to do those brackets”. Only reason blizzard didn’t want 2s to be a popular bracket in s7 is because they’re more focused about 3s being a E-Sport rather than a game itself. TBH, I don’t see how a game such as this could become a E-sport considering theres balancing problems and the lack of time it takes to fix these problems. I’d rather see games/mods such as Neotoyko or L4D as a E-Sporting game because it gets competitive and involves lots and lots of communication and tactics rather than verse cleaves that would just train you down.
Comment by Mute — July 18, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
hey guys.
So I have been spending some time on the Aion beta. Let me just say in its defense. The game is gorgeous, gameplay is very smooth and crisp.
Character generation is really really detailed, think how Oblivion was and more.
Overall the game has ALOT of potential to become a very competitive WoW replacement. Also over the next 6 months we have a metric shitton of new titles hitting the market. Bioshock 2, Left4Dead 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo:Reach, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV (Online and still in testing, quite possibly farther down the line than 6 months)…etc.
You see Akrioss, I agree with you, just like many of the others do. However, I see WoW in a much different light after some fukt drama in my guild recently. Its tough, and now that I also have reduced my time playing WoW, mainly because I am tired of the guild drama. I find myself logging on and not even wanting to raid, due to the fact that the time is just too much. I work during the week and weekends always at 7am and my guild raids until 11p server, or 12pm for me. So by the time we get done raiding I only have 5 hours to sleep before I have to work. Thats IF I get to sleep right away and there is no other guild progression runs (25 man Maly, 25 OS +3D…etc). Granted the time I have put in has put me in the Top 5 most geared for my server, but its absolutely ridiculous.
What made WoW fun to start were the things that you could do with 2-5 people. Questing with buddies while screwing around on Vent. Some small BGs while yelling at your monitor at a retard who refuses to cap the flag in WSG. Last night was the most fun I have had with Arenas in like a year, and we were doing 5s. 4 drunk dudes and a chick just screwing around in Vent. (1W – 11L).
What I am trying to say is, just like anything else. Too much of something always ends up being bad in the end. Sometimes a break can make you just come back and want to play again, but we just have to remember, moderation moderation moderation.
Love you Akrios!
Comment by Faeyna (Kul Tiras-Arena 1) — July 19, 2009 @ 4:48 am
semms i cant get my question answered elsewhere i might aswell try here. akrios, what are your system specs? cpu, graphics, 64 or 32bit os? and what os? what inches are your screen etc? i need to know. your quality is amazing please tell me!
Comment by Vahe — July 20, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
Keep up the good work, we want more though
Comment by Rikee — September 1, 2009 @ 11:51 pm
i played the original SimCity in the 90’s and until now i still play the latest version of SimCity`:.
Comment by Alexandra Cooper — July 3, 2010 @ 1:02 pm