Breakfast Topic: Do you pay attention to 25-man progression?
I was having a discussion with my brother yesterday, and he was telling me that he really doesn't pay attention much to the raid game anymore. Back in Everquest, he used to be a pretty hardcore raider, part of a giant guild that could field raids of 100 or more people, ready to track down and kill bosses the minute they spawned (since they were never instanced, you only got kill each boss around once per a week on each server). Because so many people were needed, and you might not even get to kill some bosses some weeks because other groups would beat you, you might go months without loot.
Because of this, he says, he doesn't really care any more about server firsts or world firsts. The 25 man raids don't really interest him, and he doesn't feel like 25-man raiders are worthy of respect. They get loot at a much faster rate than he ever did, and even if they don't get the drop they want, they still get badges. There's probably other people like him. There's also other people who may ignore 25-mans because it really doesn't affect them. They run their 5 mans, maybe an occasional Karazhan, and they really don't care what people do beyond that.
Me, I tend to like to follow the 25-man raid scene. I enjoy hearing about world firsts, and I keep abreast of what guilds are doing on my server, as well. Our server forums have a progression post that almost everyone knows about and is regularly updated so that we always know who's killing what, and I'm always eager to hear who's killed what in Sunwell Plateau right now.
Why this is I can't really pin down in one reason. Perhaps this is in part because I used to be a raider, and still like to know what's going on in that part of the game. Perhaps it's because the main 25-man raid group of my guild alliance is one of the top on our server, having a few server seconds and thirds. But whatever it is, following raiding exploits has always been part of playing MMORPGs for me. I like to know what my server is doing, and how they're doing compared to everyone else.
So here's my questions: Do you follow world raiding progression? Do you follow your server's raiding progression? If you do, Why do you think you're interested in them, especially if you aren't taking part in them or aren't even in the raiding game? If not, why not? Is it just not your thing, or do you honestly think it's not worthy of any note that people have downed a raid boss for the first time?
