Originally Posted by
Deathpony
This thread had me thinking a bit more about WoW and more specifically what got me into raiding in the first place.
It was during an UBRS run (Upper Black Rock Spine) back in Classic. During this time, this dungeon was a 10man dungeon. Classic had dungeons that, in a sense, had progression to them - a concept carried into tBC. UBRS and 45min Baron Run in Strath, were at the top. You had to be geared enough and know wtf you were doing to complete these without wipes or not achieving the bonus objective in Strath for bonus loot.
I was in a PUG doing this 10man dungeon I'd done many times before. I was there specifically to acquire pieces for my Dungeon Set. Remember those? We haven't seen them since tBC. The 'dungeon tier' gear sets for people who didn't raid, or were thinking about getting into raiding. So there I was, working with this PUG, progressing our way to the final boss. It was going slowly but surely, and then someone had to leave just after we downed the Beast. Someone invited a friend/guildie they new, and in comes this rogue. This guy was in T1/T2 wielding Perdition's Blade off Rag from MC and the BWL Dagger in his offhand.
Being all decked out in raid gear, he looked very cool (those tiers were very well done art wise), which I thought was cool at the time. Freaking epics in every slot. But what blew my mind, was the insane damage he did in that dungeon the rest of the encounter. This guy just MURDERED IT.
What is important to remember is, back then you ran a lot of different dungeons to get your 'Dungeon BiS' items, and even then the fights were decent and close. So to see someone just plow through the content doing just massive numbers, and I took pride at the time in my capabilities by reading up on guides and such to max out what I was doing, but to just see what this guy was doing..
That's what got me into raiding. That's what made me see those trade chat yells for ZG and finally jump into one to see what it was like. I didn't want to be mediocre anymore. I wanted to be a badass, and if I had to put in a lot of time and effort to work for it, like anyone else, and further separate me from others, all the better.
The raiding bug bit me hard.
Classic and the Burning Crusade had that 'tier' of content to them. The pre-raid progression dungeoning, which did prepare you for the raids at the time you'd first start entering, especially UBRS. We had the Dungeon Tier sets. We had some hard boss encounters for the gear level (remember, people were running around with level 45-60 gear in those dungeons). It wasn't just gear preparation, but also encounter preparation.
This concept was given a vicious blow in Wrath of the Lich King and annihilated in Cataclysm, and we have not seen it since. Instead what we have in it's place is a concept that leaves players with no options but to start participating in 'walk thru' raid content that does nothing to inspire people to greater levels of play (skill with toon, and human interaction wise).
Previous to LFR and LFD, when we wanted to Dungeon or Raid, we had to spend time forming a group, getting there, and learning to deal with more personality types then perhaps we'd like to. This made us less prone to 'instant annoyance' which is rampant now, even in myself, with the current scenario. I used to be grateful when I got something going PUG raid or Dungeon wise before. I used to be tolerant of mistakes people made. Now in LFR and LFD I see I am not the only one who lacks patience with others.
It's not because I'm old or have been playing this game so long. It's because getting those groups requires no real effort. It requires patience, which quickly turns into annoyance. Seriously, I don't get wait times, especially PvP wait times. I just jumped on Guildwars 1 yesterday and I had 30-45 sec PvP queues in a game that's deader than shit.
The thing is, I have always had a thing for working with new players. Before it was the content that got them interested. Now? Not even. It's the guild/raid/social environment that hooks them for me. That's odd to me. It's not the game that keeps them logging in and coming back, it's who they are playing with.
That kinda says something about the current state of the game. Doesn't it?