Behind the Curtain:Slow it down

So – Altdorf is burning. That didn't take long, did it? Fifteen days to hit the end-game of one of the most hotly-anticipated MMOs in recent memory? I know I shouldn't lol, but I did, and heartily. The more I thought about it though, the more I worried that it's simply symptomatic of the way we approach and play MMOs just now.

Is this what we've come to? I started World of Warcraft a little late in its lifetime, but I'm pretty sure that the end-game target/ideal/objective hadn't been reached and breached two weeks after the first players logged on. Such does not seem to be the case with Warhammer Online.

There's more than one reason behind the speed with which this happened. From what I'm seeing, it's partly due to the Destruction players in question making use of (exploiting?) a bug wherein they gained access to the central part of Altdorf via the 'back door'. Said door is supposed to only be accessible by Order players. Not only that, but the raid took place late at night, when most players are logged off, taking full advantage of the fact that Destruction players seem to outnumber Order players as a rule. Apparently, it was little more than a gank-fest as the Destruction players rolled over what little PC defence there was.

As much as I wish I didn't care about this, I do. I don't play WAR, and I'm not likely to start any time soon – my hectic, playboy lifestyle simply doesn't afford me the time. Still, I am immensely disappointed. Are we at the point now where games are either being released in a state where players are able to burn their way through content at ridiculous speeds, and reach end-game in a matter of days? Or is it simply that we, as players, have somehow fallen into the way of thinking that if you're not at the end-game, then you're just not playing the game properly?

I'm swaying towards believing the latter there. WAR obviously has bugs, what MMO release hasn't? Some are worse than others, obviously, and while WAR is afflicted, I doubt that the bugs are such that they can shoulder all of the blame here. At what point is it that we started thinking of MMOs in terms of the end-game being the be-all and end-all? Boss kill videos, world and server first kills, and speed-levelling records grab huge numbers of page views and plenty of attention from gamers, but is that all there is to MMOs? At what point was there a sea-change in thinking that dictated that if you weren't progressing through the end-game, if you weren't downing bosses, then you were almost like a second-class player?

I don't mean to get all Norman Rockwell on you, but what happened to taking the time to foster a sense a community in the game? Exactly how many guilds in WAR right now are simply taking the time to get to know one another instead of ganking the other side? How many people playing right now have stopped using the term 'guildies' and settled on 'friends'? Where are the stories about people taking the time to help out strangers for no reason other than it being the right thing to do? I'm reading a lot about how Public Quests make the grind a lot easier, but less about how you can kick them off and make a few impromptu friends when said quest gets a bit hairy.

The answer is either that these things just aren't happening, or that they are happening and that we - MMO players in general - don't want to hear about it. I'm not sure which of those options is less palatable, quite frankly.

I've suggested before that I'm being naïve, and perhaps I'm simply being so again. I realise there are plenty of players out there who have no problem with this. There will be people who think nothing of burning through content as fast as they can, never stopping to enjoy the game around them. That's fair enough – I suppose there's something to be said of picking up an MMO, and shooting straight for the end-game before your free month is up. It's just not the way I play MMOs. Putting that aside, there are probably a fair few people out there who are already firm friends with their guildies, and that's fair enough too.

And yes, I am of course aware that the game isn't 'finished', and that Altdorf being razed on one server does not spell the end of the game in its entirety, but it still doesn't stop me from being disappointed that it happened so damned quickly.