endgame-design
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The Nexus Telegraph: In which no WildStar injuries happened
My performance on the dance floor during PAX East 2013's WildStar party is the stuff of dark legends (in my mind, anyway), but it was not replicated this year. Indeed, when I tried to get into this year's WildStar community party, the entranceway was inaccessible due to the sheer mass of people. As I naturally handle crowds about as well as a Mechari handles knock-knock jokes, I opted to turn around and go back to my hotel room. There was a Ghostbusters marathon on, so it was still kind of awesome. This did not, however, mean that the convention was devoid of interesting stories; it just was devoid of stories in which I sustained injuries greatly impacting my normal hiking routes. So let's talk about what things really stuck out in my mind through the whole con. For my money, that comes down to the focus on the endgame and a really stupid statement. Where to start?
The Soapbox: How raiding turns you into a horrible person
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. I remember raiding at the start of Wrath of the Lich King very well. My Shaman was one of the first people in my guild geared up to run Naxxramas, and the oft-mentioned Ms. Lady was herself one of the first tanks to be ready to last through the boss fights. We were a casual guild, sure, but even in a casual grouping you have stars, and we were stars. We were experts on the content, we destroyed the fights, we marched around dripping in epics. I was the highest DPS in the guild, she was the tank there for nearly every session, and we were known and respected. It was absolutely awful. Of course, it didn't start like that. But there was a very good reason we finally decided that this was not only unfun but actively harmful to our relationship. We left and didn't look back, and we never moved back into raiding in a real way -- nor did we want to. Our time at the top made it very clear how raiding changes you and how you move from not caring about a stupid pretend sword to being absolutely livid when someone else wins a roll for that pretend sword. It's not a case of taking the game too seriously or not having a grip on reality -- it's the way that endgame raiding is structured that drives you, inexorably, to that point.
