So honestly - Whatever was the drive to Twink?

[Knight Meta]

This just hit my mind the other day and I figured what better place to start a discussion regarding this subject than the MMO Champ forums as the official Blizzard forums is about as lively as the Diablo Franchise at the moment.

Twinks - Whatever in the world was someone's drive to first create one?

It just hit me the other day. Like most people do something in the game because it provides a challenge or a fun experience. People don't do something if it's boring or holds no meaning. I mean some will say that mount farming is boring but to an achiever and collector; it may just be the opposite. But certain things no matter how you look on them just can't be twisted into being fun or a challenge - One of these things being to roflstomp something without having earned the build up for it.

Like for an example how guilds that progress raids they struggle with will eventually reach a point where they can steamroll parts of the raid since they cleared the whole thing, learned the inns and outs and everyone got more geared - Allowing the process of getting the remaining gear pieces to reach "Full BiS" to become easier while still giving that satisfying "Look at how we now stomp this foe that once held us back" feeling.

This is not a line that can be drawn for Twinking however so what was ever the intention?

Now I am speaking of the good old level 19 / 29 Twinks. Not the 101 Twinks we saw come with Legion as that honestly looked like something that people could have a fun time with. Reaching a point where you can take on a dungeon solo and see if you can handle your way trough it is posing a challenge upon yourself which in turn makes for an interesting and fun experience while holding a challenge bar which you can aim to breach. These 101 twinks were no more complex to set up than 19/29 twinks however. You gained the levels and bought the gear of the AH / farmed it and that's about it - the process was the same except the level difference but the the pay off is miles apart.

101 Twinks could stomp the world but most of them seemed to challenge themselves to solo the Legion dungeons and had a blast doing so - But what about the 19/29 style twinks?

GG You bought your gear and now you can oneshot people in BGs - Woop de do?

There is nothing of a challenge nor an entertaining value in that - Unless we already back when Twinking became a thing had sunken so low that we looked upon Ganking as a fun or rewarding experience which let us be real - is not the case no matter who you ask.

So how did this level 19/29 twinking become a thing?

Was it just some bloke that did not have the brain capacity to level up which invented it? The sodd kept pulling 6 mobs at a time or did not realize that "Red" quest logg means "Go somewhere else and discover yellow quests" and as a result of not being ABLE to level up due to sheer lack of method and logical thinking: Invented a way for someone who was not level cap to "Get something" out of the game?

Was it maybe someone at level cap who was so horrible at the game that he / she was tossed out of every dungeon / raid / got flamed in every BG for being the biggest waste of space ever that came up with this idèa? Surely he / she did not need to get better, the game should obey their rules - Not the other way around. So they realized that if they did not have the talent to do anything at cap level - Maybe something could be done at a lower level?

Did some poor sodd just think that "Ganking is entertaining" and thus twinking became a thing?

Like I am honestly curious since as I said with the 101 twinks - I can see the drive behind locking your level there and spending money on gear to give yourself a challenging solo dungeon content experience.

But the only end result of the same process for a level 19 Twink was that you destroyed everyone who was not a twink in WSG / AB. How did that ever become a thing? How did essentially what is a baby version of cap level ganking become something people thought of as good / fun?

[derpkitteh]

to basically play with cheats on.

it's fun to shit down someone's neck and there's nothing they could ever do to stop you.

it's the same reason i used to get up on the inn in goldshire and kill people pre-cata, it's fun to be a dick that can't be killed while you kill others.

[siskokid21]

But the only end result of the same process for a level 19 Twink was that you destroyed everyone who was not a twink in WSG / AB. How did that ever become a thing? How did essentially what is a baby version of cap level ganking become something people thought of as good / fun?

Same reason pures exist in runescape, people want to min-max the advantage they get over other players. It was satisfying playing a rogue in full blues that could just 1-shot anyone in a BG. It was also satisfying to play a hunter who could destroy anyone at ranged.

[valax]

Pwning n00bs was the primal reason , optimizing gear to annhilate new players who are clueless, nothing special.
Especially in vanilla/tbc at 19 you would surely find people with only a couple greens and most white vendor gear. The twink with enchanted stuff green and blues would dominate his opponents

[Boricha]

It was basically like playing with cheat codes, which was a very popular thing back when twinking was at its height. If you mean why people twink today, there's lots of DH twinks that sell carries to 120.

[Deja Thoris]

So shit players can feel good.

[TheWorkingTitle]

I was the first player to twink on my server in Classic. I played a 19 human rogue (Sergeant), a 19 gnome mage (Corporal), and a 29 night elf hunter (Private).

For me, it was born from what was called "Pure PK'ing" in Runescape Classic. The idea was to maximize your damage in one form of attack -- melee, ranged, or magic while keeping the other two forms low. What you'd end up with was a grossly overpowered character for their overall level, and you'd then take said character into the player v. player areas and kill unsuspecting players your level thinking they're in for a balanced fight. This was one hell of an endeavor, as it required a substantial amount of grinding and the ability to gain rare armors through pve or trade. It was also high risk high reward, because at such low levels it didn't take much to die from a player or two and you only kept your three best items and lost whatever else was in your inventory.

The way I translated that into Classic WoW was with that same type of meticulousness, dedication, and effort. I researched what I thought might be a BiS set of gear for that level, and with help from a close friend we made it happen.

Gearing a low level character was an incredible undertaking. Not only did it still take 15+ /played hours to get to level 19, you had to do massive quest chains (Seal of Wyrnn etc. Defender of Westfall, Morladim/Abercrombie/etc.), level fishing/engineering/mining/cooking, obtain incredibly expensive enchants (Crusader, +15 agility to weapons, +4 stats to chest, +Frost dmg to gloves and other AQ 40 enchants, etc.), and obtain incredibly time intensive or expensive gear/weapons (Fishing hat/boots, Shadowfang, Assassin's Blade, Feet of the Lynx, etc.)

Beyond that, you had to have a high level character that could get the Libram enchants for your legs/helm (+100 HP, libram of constitution). This meant Dire Maul and rep grinding. Then you had to have a high level character run you through various dungeons across the two continents (Venomstrike, etc.) This was filled with ganking and griefing due to being on a PvP server. As an Alliance, every time I wanted a run in BFD, Wailing Caverns, Scarlet Monastery, etc. I had fight my way there.

I really glossed over it all, leaving out a ton like downranking spells, consumable farming/usage, quest item reward usage, rep grinding while dead like in Timbermaw hold, the incredible grind to obtain all the various BiS items, etc.

So you're doing all of those things, all while making sure your twink doesn't level too high. Nothing was an exact science then. It was trial and error, and you had to deal with things such as the Onxyia questline mobs getting tagged by accident and some lvl 19 only a few xp points from leveling (there was no "turn off xp") in a premade group queing up in the Stormwind Keep accidentally leveling up to level 20. You'd also deal with downranking in your honor grind thanks to dishonorable kills while raiding Crossroads, Tarren Mill, STM, etc. And this was without flying mounts and very few portals. We took boats, flightpaths, and the tram. We had to que up in Silverwing Grove in Ashenvale originally, which was on Kalimdor.

As the months went on, this idea caught on and became more mainstream. Eventually, we premade v. premade groups with the best twinks on the server. Many were full time raiders/pvpers looking for challenges or fun in new ways and had tons of capital to burn.

OP, your post is quite offensive. It's dripping with ignorance, so I hope this post clears it up for you.

[SinR]

Roflstomping

[Mosotti]

So shit players can feel good.

Exactly. That's why it abruptly disappeared when Blizz put them in their own BGs. All the other reasons are laughable, otherwise people would still be doing it.

[SinR]

OP, your post is quite offensive. It's dripping with ignorance, so I hope this post clears it up for you.

All I hear is typical Twink Propaganda of "WE LIVE FOR THE TWINK VS TWINK FIGHTS!"

[Rendark]

Low level pvp is more fun then high level sometimes.

[Eveningforest]

Gearing a low level character was an incredible undertaking. Not only did it still take 15+ /played hours to get to level 19, you had to do massive quest chains (Seal of Wyrnn etc. Defender of Westfall, Morladim/Abercrombie/etc.), level fishing/engineering/mining/cooking, obtain incredibly expensive enchants (Crusader, +15 agility to weapons, +4 stats to chest, +Frost dmg to gloves and other AQ 40 enchants, etc.), and obtain incredibly time intensive or expensive gear/weapons (Fishing hat/boots, Shadowfang, Assassin's Blade, Feet of the Lynx, etc.) ...

This was the best part of twinking for me. I had twinked several characters over the years, some of which I didn't even play all that much once they were BIS. It was more about the journey, not so much the destination for me. The amount of time and effort it took to get them geared up was enormous but that is what an MMORPG was. You needed time, friends and determination.

Of course it was fun to take them to the BGs too, but it was more about competing with other twinks over HKs, going 1v1 with them or defending a node against 4-5 (my 29 surv hunter specced improved traps was excellent at that). Blindly killing toons that have no chance against you gets old pretty quickly.
Countless fun situations with higher level toons underestimating you out in the open world. Have many good memories of those scenarios.

[Baroclinic]

I used to twink at early levels as I purged WSG and Arathi into wins to rep grind pointless reputations. I would push to exalted then move forward.

If your going to spend the time in the bracket, might as well prep the best you can to make it as easy as possible.

[Super Kami Dende]

The same drive as ganking people 50 lvls lower than you. Domination without the threat of retaliation.

[Schattenlied]

Exactly. That's why it abruptly disappeared when Blizz put them in their own BGs. All the other reasons are laughable, otherwise people would still be doing it.

That's not really why it disappeared... There weren't many of them to begin with, even when they were in the same games as everyone else you rarely ever saw more than one or two in any given match on either side, anyone who was paying attention would have told you there weren't enough of them to sustain their own queue before the change was even suggested, and that's exactly what happened.

When I twinked my Rogue and Hunter (and when I say twinked I use the term loosely, I put basically the bare minimum into them because I had no gold at the time) I did it pretty much to hunt other twinks, and I had fun doing it... When the queues got combined I enjoyed what few games I got into, and everyone in them with me seemed to as well, but sitting in queue for 45 minutes was absolutely not worth it, and those wait times were day 1, and as the people like me who didn't feel the queue times were worth it left, they only got longer.

Do you think a 45 minute queue is a "laughable" reason to not do it? If so you're the single most patient person I've ever met.

[Aerisot]

I would say Utter domination was the point of twinking.

[Alopex Major]

Back in the day I used to run WSG at level 39 druid forever, because it was a blast being able to outrun everyone. I didn't do it seriously like get all the best enchants and stuff, but I don't begrudge anyone who wants to play that way. I did a lot of things in-game that people didn't, like pet battling and RP. There's no wrong way to play WoW.

[gushDH]

It's like getting that Peugeot 106 and put some huge bumpers and a huge exhaust pipe on it. Just a kinda cheap way to look cool.

[Belloc]

You know how raiders try to get the best gear so they can get the best parses and stuff? Well, twinking is essentially the same thing.

[Temp name]

Same reason people gank. They want to feel powerful