"A challenge based on an influenced probability reliant on time investment"
What is that crazy assortment of buzzwords in the title of this post, you ask? You already know-- you probably spent a lot of time playing it this weekend. That, says Drysc, is what WoW is.
When Nickleplate of Bloodscalp posted the perennial question of why we're still stuck killing n boars for x eyes, Drysc responds with a pretty insightful (some might say cynical) comment: we're doing it to waste time. Why doesn't every vulture you kill drop a tailfeather to collect? Because quests are designed to take time to do them, and to reward you when you invest that time.
Now, I hope Drysc doesn't really think that about this game-- saying quests are designed to steal free time is like saying Jack Bauer defeats terrorists because the script says so. Jack Bauer defeats terrorists because he's Jack Bauer, and we're completing quests because in WoW, we're heroes and that's what heroes do. We aren't really "waiting for those eyes to drop"-- we're supposed to be collecting them to save a village or earn a new faction's respect so we can better save the world.
But leave it to Drysc to rain on the parade. Most players, I think, want and get more out of WoW than just a simple timesink-- they want to have fun with (or play against) friends, experience building a character in a story, or simply develop a strategy (... on how better to obtain boar eyes, maybe, but a strategy nonetheless). I ask for more than "a challenge based on an influenced probability reliant on time investment" from WoW, and most of the time, I get it. Do you ask for more? And do you get it?
