Originally Posted by
Brouhaha
There are so many people in this thread who aren't playing WoW for healthy reasons, at all.
Comparing WoW to major league sports? Jesus christ, really? No. Just no. If you gave me a week, I could probably list all the things wrong with that comparison, but let's just stick with the biggest and the worst--WoW will never, EVER be something you can be good enough at to make a living off of. Anyone who does is an extreme statistical outlier compared to the demographic in this discussion thread, so don't even try to use them as justification for some sort of counterpoint to this FACT.
As such, this game should be a HOBBY. You should play because playing it is FUN. Examine your carrot-on-a-stick arguments. "PvP sucks unless we have some progression in better gear! That's the only reason I play!". Seriously? You want the main focus to be progressing to get better gear. Okay, so say you've got your gear. Now what? Well, I guess all that's left to do is...PvP some more! It doesn't unlock any new content. It doesn't bring you anything new. All it is is some empty treadmill to keep you running, making you think there's a point to it all, when really, there isn't. You're left doing the same thing you were doing when you started, only you have some better stats. Congratulations.
This kind of progression is toxic. You want to progress in PvP? It should be about getting better as a PvPer, not getting better gear to give you an edge. You should have an edge because you worked to become better at your class, not because you have higher stats than someone else. You mad someone who has a new 90 killed you, bro? Ideally, it's because he's more skilled than you. Leveling the playing field more brings us closer to that ideal.
I'm sorry, but one of the MOST sickening things about what video games have become is people don't play them for simple enjoyment anymore, because they're not designed that way these days. Hell, RPG elements are practically a "seasoning" tossed in to every game type, even FPS games, because developers know they can skimp on quality and creativity if they add some sense of "progression" to keep people hooked. Case in point: Call of Duty. Same fucking game, every time, the progression elements just get changed up a bit with the gameplay remaining stagnant and stale, yet people keep buying it. I wish I was dumb enough to enjoy what gaming has become.