Why Do People Bother Raiding so much?

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Yeah, I have the same query about PvP that I do for raiding. Kinda the same thing. Except in PvP you don't face the same boss over and over.

That is the point though, most people who raid and do PvP aren't doing it for gear. They are doing it for the challenge and social aspect of teamwork.

[Feali]

It's like playing in an amateur league sports team. You meet with people, you have fun with them. Just enjoying doing things you like with people you can relate to.

[wariofan1]

It's fun. The only reason I care about gear is so I can make it into the next tier and try the next raid, see how fun that one is, and then just keep on going.

It's like watching a TV series of a sort, where tiers are seasons and bosses are episodes. You rewatch the episodes in that season until you don't feel like it anymore or the next season is out, then you'll have newer and fresher episodes to watch, at least until they become boring to sit through, and eventually the next season is out. Then it just keeps going and ends up full circle.

[Cosmic Janitor]

1.) Story (first time per faction)
2.) Making other gameplay less tedious with better gear.
3.) Making your character look less shitty (wow is a doll clothing simulator for all intents and purposes)

It's like watching a TV series of a sort, where tiers are seasons and bosses are episodes. You rewatch the episodes in that season until you don't feel like it anymore or the next season is out, then you'll have newer and fresher episodes to watch, at least until they become boring to sit through, and eventually the next season is out. Then it just keeps going and ends up full circle.

Do you actually rewatch every episode every week for months until the next season comes out? A TV series lives from its visuals and narrative, wow has neither in such an abundance that this argument would actually make sense. But neither does a TV series and I'd wager most do not rewatch every breaking bad episde 30 times before moving on to the next season.

[Deleted]

I quit bothering about loot a long time ago. But when I get some I'm really happy with it.

We currently raid Flex with the guild and normal 1st part SoO. We have a raid group from 10-15 people so we often choose Flex and occasionally a normal run. I have at least 528 gear in every slot so I stopped with LFR. I cant be bothered anymore spending a lot of time for little extra value. I do LFR MSV sometimes for the fast VP now.

For our guild raiding is:

1. Fun
2. Team effort
3. Great laugh on Vent
4. Doing stuff together

[Adam Jensen]

Most people don't do it for the gear. Some do it for prestige, others its just a social hobby. Raiding in WoW is probably one of the hardest co-op things you can find in video games.

LFR doesn't offer any of this, in reality offers no more "see the content" than a PTR fly through. Most people who run LFR do it for gear, not fun.

Yeah, I never did it for gear myself. Well, gear was a side objective, I wanted it so I'd be able to do better and get to the next raid, but my ultimate goal was to have fun and socialize with guildies. Gear was never the main motivation for me.

[Szemere]

Because I like it.

-Seeing the content is fun, innovations in bossmechanics, bosslooks, nice raid environments, etc etc.
-In higher difficulties, progressing through the content can be a nice challenge.
-It's a great thing to do with guildies/friends that also think it's fun or like the challenge.


If you do it for the gear, yeah raiding isn't really that fun for you. Gear for me is more a bit of a help to overcome the challenges, as well as for the looks (collecting transmogsets) as well as fun/useful trinkets. Sure there's a good group of people who like to have good gear with nice numbers on them, but if that's the only reason they raid (to acquire more/better numbers), they will likely lose interest quite fast. And that's okay!

[Rivellana]

I haven't done any serious raiding this expansion unless you count a few months of normal mode raiding at the start of MoP before my guild fell apart. Since then it's been all LFR.

That being said, when I did it with a guild, it wasn't so much to get gear as it was because I found it fun and I liked spending time with the people I was raiding with. I liked seeing how competitive I could be and progression just feels good...when you're working towards downing a boss and you finally kill it it's a good feeling.

I do enjoy LFR too when it's not a complete wipefest, because I get to challenge myself.

I plan to get back into raiding more than LFR in WoD.

[wariofan1]

Do you actually rewatch every episode every week for months until the next season comes out? A TV serious lives from its visuals and narrative, wow has neither in such an abundance that this argument would actually make sense. But neither does a TV series and I'd wager most do not rewatch every breaking bad episde 30 times before moving on to the next season.

I actually still rewatch episodes of series from many years ago, though I'm sure I'm not in the majority on that one.

And there's no need to go into detail on how raiding and a TV series bring enjoyment in different ways, they're both just simple entertainment jeez. Same thing for your little number count, what might be watching an episode 3 times could be doing a raid 30 times.

It's not supposed to be taken so literal, analogies don't work that way. Even then I don't see what the big deal is, it was just a fun little comparison to make it more understandable.

[mistahwilshire]

Umm. I raid because it's fun. Sorry if that blows some minds.

[dawawe]

I'm just curious. In my own personal, not pushed on anyone else, I am not claiming everyone who disagrees with me is wrong, or trying to troll... opinion, it just seems like Raiding is a carrot on a stick. You spend months and months grinding, farming, gearing, over and over just to hit the 553 ilvl, when 3 months later a new expac drops and you can buy better greens than the purples you spent months grinding for. It seems to me just running LFR to see the content would be sufficient enough.

Now, before someone goes flying off the handle with insults or suggestions like "go play something else", you should know I am:

A) Not complaining about raiding, LFR, or Flex. I am not a raider, and have not been since TBC/Wrath.

B) Not suggesting it be removed, dumbed down, made harder, or changed in any way, shape, or form.

C) Not personally judging anyone who does raid either Normal, Heroic, Flex, or LFR.

I am genuinely curious what the appeal is to raiding. For me, at least, it would feel less like a hamster wheel to see the content, and then wait til the next expansion for the new gear. Is it the sense of accomplishment or the need to win? Are you just interested in having the best gear, or clearing content faster than anyone else?

Then why do you play any game? You spend all that time playing it just for a new game to come out and all that work be for nothing.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It's not supposed to be taken so literal, analogies don't work that way. Even then I don't see what the big deal is, it was just a fun little comparison to make it more understandable.

Analogies are supposed to take key elements and transfer them to another, more relatable subject, to get a point across.

[Video Games]

I don't see the point of the game if you don't.

[Caladia]

I enjoy being social with online friends killing internet dragons. Pew pew.

I consider raiding my internet softball team. Just like my co-ed softball leagues, 9 people depend on me being there, same with my raid team.

[Chonar]

Yeah, I have the same query about PvP that I do for raiding. Kinda the same thing. Except in PvP you don't face the same boss over and over.

But you often face the same team setup (flavor of the month), which is often quite comparable to the last.

[uopayroll]

You spend months and months grinding, farming, gearing, over and over just to hit the 553 ilvl, when 3 months later a new expac drops and you can buy better greens than the purples you spent months grinding for. It seems to me just running LFR to see the content would be sufficient enough.

This is no longer the case. From vanilla to BC this happened, but Blizz now has top tier raid gear viable/better for a level or two into a new expansion.

[Azgarde]

Why do people play hockey, baseball or football ? Because that's teamwork and there's a feeling of accomplishment whenever you get something done as a team.

Hearing nerds scream on Mumble/Ventrilo when you finally clear an heroic raid, this is priceless. Heart pumping when you're close to getting a kill you've worked so hard for...
That's some kind of adrenaline people like to have.

[fooliuscaesar13]

I do it because I enjoy working as a team with 9+ other friends/guildmates.
I do it because I enjoy working out strats and seeing them execute.
I do it because I enjoy hearing my GM yelling at mistakes.

In general...I just enjoy it. I feel raiding is fun.
Everyone is different and raiding isn't for everyone. Can't recall last time that I replaced my heroic raiding gear with greens as soon as next xpac dropped, though. Even when you max out the current xpac level, despite gear iLvl usually the tier piece bonuses are good enough to keep tier sets until next-xpac max level.

Edit: Also, in a game with other players running around, it's fun to interact with them and raiding provides one of the mechanisms to do so.
/shrug.

[zephid]

Uhm...because it's fun?

[Deleted]

I don't raid for gear AT ALL.

I raid to kill bosses with my friends and feel satisfied doing it.