January 2017 - Page 3 of 5 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Welfare Epics

January 18, 2017January 18, 2017 by Belghast

Anyone else remember the term "welfare epics" from back in wrath?

— Samantha C 🔥 (@ktjnwow) January 17, 2017

This mornings topic is going to veer off in an odd direction, but stay with me. Yesterday I saw the above tweet and I have to say the term “Welfare Epics” is one that bothers me. Not that I mind the above tweet mind you, but the fact that it is apparently still a thing bothers me. For some background I remember when I first heard the term was during Burning Crusade. When the Arena system was introduced it also opened up a new gearing path, in that so long as you played a minimum amount of matches each week you got some points based on your current arena rating. As a result raiders like myself saw this as a quick and easy way to augment our gear, or at least mitigate the bad luck in getting drops. I remember that by the time we started Gruuls Lair, several of our more pvp centric players already had most of a set of gear… or at least two or three pieces and it prompted the rest of us on the deeply carebear spectrum of the world to quickly form teams and start getting our weekly allotment of points. Instead of using it to gear my raid main, I instead saw it as a great way to deck out my Paladin for whom I was attempting to go healer mode. Our team scheduled our arenas like a raid… and met in Nagrand once weekly to play three or four games hoping we could win most of them and wind up with a decent arena rating for that week. So every other week we would get some piece of gear, or it might take a little longer if we were going after a weapon… but all the same we were constantly inching forward.

To the best of my knowledge the term “Welfare Epics” comes from Blizzard itself, reportedly from a developer… but the only reference to this I could find is a now long dead WoW Insider post that has been mirrored on Engadget. There is no source cited but references the same urban legend that I recollect, however given that I have never attended Blizzcon and the stream didn’t exist at that point… I have no evidence other than speculation. (EDIT: Special thanks to Nyn for providing the evidence that apparently it was none other than Jeff Kaplan who said it I think joking… but nonetheless thrust the term into our vocabulary) The term however has been applied to any system that a certain fragment of the player base does not deem “worthy” of the rewards that are handed out. When Karazhan and Zulaman were release… they also got called this term as did all of the gear that you could purchase with Justice Points. In Wrath of the Lich King, the end bosses of the various heroic dungeons had a chance of dropping a much rarer epic quality item… and these were called Welfare Epics. It simply became a way of one segment of the population diminishing the achievements of another segment of the population. MMOs in general have always had rampant gate keeping, with various ways to tell other players that they are not tall enough to ride the ride, and this term just became another tool in that arsenal.

Where it frustrates me the most however is that it generates this sense that MMOs are a zero sum game. It creates the fallacy that if I am getting ahead, you are falling behind. The fact that a level 110 can walk into a world quest and get a level 865 item, does not diminish the sense of accomplishment at every piece of gear I got in a heroic raid, or through beating the timer on a mythic plus. Ultimately at the end of the day what we are actually battling is not other players, but instead the eldest of enemies… the random number generator. The problem is that there is a lot of bitterness that pools up when your luck never plays out. I have friends who still have not seen a decent legendary this expansion, whereas I got my third last night… and for extra salt they dropped at level 940. I got this legendary from an emissary chest, so I am sure that folks are going to refer to it as a “welfare legendary” but I really don’t care. I simply see it as a useful item that will make me perform better for my raid when we start doing Nighthold tonight. Instead of getting salty, I get happy when I see orange text appear in guild chat and congratulate folks with an open heart and friendly smile instead of a bucket of bile. My friends getting awesome stuff is almost as good as me getting it… and in many cases better. As is always the case in these games I tend to shoot up in item level pretty quickly, so when I started to see my friends catching up… it meant that I could then do interesting things with them. them getting gear was helping to fuel my fun, which is largely derived by doing the stuff that requires a well geared party.

Essentially in my experience if you are of the opinion that only the hardest of hardcore should have interesting stuff… then you are wrong. That is a recipe for a dying game, and a game that has a massive population surge and purge cycle. Please note that I absolutely raided Naxxramas in vanilla, which put me in the hardest of hardcores at the time… and the fact that the content was so grossly inaccessible was a travesty. During Burning Crusade I was a raid leader that suffered through the rampant poaching of players that occurred as folks checked out and slots needed to be filled. When Tier 6 required you to do a string of attunements that involved clearing both Tier 4 and Tier 5, finding a replacement for someone who simply needed to stop raiding because real life got a little too real was pure hell. You had two options… either grow your own raiders, or steal them from another raid. The growing option was painful because there are a fixed number of nights in the week, and trying to get folks who are knee deep in Tier 6 interested in running the content they long cleared and abandoned was pure hell. That didn’t even take into account the real problem that was you needing them to be geared enough to actually do the content. As a still sometimes leader, I would far rather have a system that allows players to get to reasonable item levels on their own, and stand as viable replacements that can make their way into the raid proper… rather than having to orchestrate a plan to direct the entire guild to help catch a single player up.

The fact that others are getting nice things does not diminish the fact that you cleared mythic and got a whole slew of shiny baubles to show for it. If you need a souvenir to prove that you were somewhere and did something “before it was cool”, then you might need to adjust your own motivations. Sure to some extent or another, we all do content to get the shiny loot… that often lets us then go on and do more content. However the experience of doing the content really should be the reward. When I look back on my raiding career I don’t see a string of loot drops… but instead I see a string of events that involved the people that I was raiding with. I think of moments like our first Sindragosa kill… where Thalen got the killing blow seconds before being frozen himself and we had to run back to see what had dropped. I think of hanging out in front of the Throne of Thunder with everyone using their shiny new Sky Golems like some sort of mechanized infantry. I remember the excitement this season when we managed to finish up Heroic Emerald Nightmare and clear Trials of Valor in the same week… not because of the achievements themselves but because I love the people I raid with. If you don’t have warm memories like that, then I question why exactly are you raiding? Raiding is about the people and the places and the things you did… not pencil sharpener that you walked away with because you needed to find something to spend your tickets on. The fact that someone else got something and it took less time than it took for you to get it… should not tarnish the memories of the things you did along the way to get that same item.

Honor the Green

January 17, 2017 by Belghast

Last night I managed to wrap up Greenshade and move on to the next zone Malabal Tor. The funny thing about “leveling” through content in the post 50 game is that you lose all focus of how far you have actually come. When I started playing again recently I was sitting about Champion rank 115, but at this very moment after doing the introductory quest line in Malabal Tor I am sitting at 141. Both numbers seem like utter nonsense in the grand scheme of things, other than the fact that I am constantly getting incrementally more useful. That said the mobs around me are getting incrementally more crafty at all times as well, but I am uncertain where the theoretical “max level” at least for gear advancement sits. As of right now the highest level thing I have seen on any of the guild vendors is 160, which doesn’t really tell me if that is the actual max, or just the maximum that is reasonable to craft. I have done a shockingly minimal amount of research so far during this return to Elder Scrolls Online, because in truth… I had a path laid out before me already and that is to simply keep questing. It might be madness but I really would like to finish up Aldmeri Dominion and then quest my way through all of Ebonheart before starting any of the DLC content. Considering that the DLC lets you start it at literally any moment… I am guessing this is pure madness and not something most players do.

Back to the whole having no basis on how far I have actually come in progress… I was absolutely thinking that Malabal Tor was going to be the last zone in the AD content, and apparently I was completely wrong. After this zone I still have Reaper’s March which is fine by me because I am actually enjoying myself in this content way more than I ever thought I would. It is not exactly a surprise to anyone who has read my blog for very long… but I am not a huge fan of elves. My friend Tam has this theory that every player is inherently either a Dwarf of an Elf and the two paths rarely cross. I am absolutely a Dwarf and I tend to love all of the normal aesthetically wonderful things about Dwarfdom. That said the Elder Scrolls setting as a whole does some weird things with what is and is not an Elf… since technically both Dwarves and Orcs are elves in this setting. Essentially in Elder Scrolls you have the races of “men”, the races of the “mer”, and then the beastmen which probably have a similar name or at least should. Now in Skyrim… I go out of my way to kill Thalmor on sight… even if it is ultimately going to cause me issues. In The Elder Scrolls Online I find out that the Thalmor are largely a militant group of “Elven Supremacists” that most people don’t like… and often times actively hate. This subtle difference makes it significantly easier for me to actually like the elves while playing through the elf dominated content.

That said… I have also found a certain Kinship with the Khajiit… which was to be expected, but also the Bosmer which I was not entirely prepared for. I mean I have always liked the concept of the Green Pact and the existence of cannibal elves. However while actually questing through the Bosmer centric story content, it has been interesting to struggle with the same weird thin line that they do… of choosing what is common sense and what is honoring “The Green”. It is a testament to just how damned good the storytelling is in this game to get a notorious elf killer like myself… to convert to if not love… but at least a begrudging respect for the folks that don’t belong to the Thalmor. Of note… if given the chance I would still absolutely run around cheerfully slaughtering Thalmor. I am extremely happy though that the game has given me ample opportunity to at least embarrass a few of them for showing them to be the unsteady zealots that they really are. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen the game do… is throw in additional options for acknowledging the fact that you are an outlander while questing through the other two factions content. The highlight of yesterday however was dealing with Hermaeus Mora, one of my favorite of the Daedra… but also one of the more deadly. He presented me with a deal that I could not refuse… that I really wanted to refuse but felt the ramification of not taking it would be far worse. While at some point I know turtle mode will finish… I have a feeling that I will still remain engaged to the storytelling of this game for the near future and this is about to be my “off night” game of choice.

Deep Turtle

January 16, 2017 by Belghast

Lately I have been going through an anxiety ridden period where I just find it super stressful to be around people on a regular basis. This started over the break, and for some extent I pulled myself out of it a little bit around the time I went back to work. However increased stresses in that realm seems to have caused a relapse. As a result I am firmly back in what I refer to as “turtle mode” where I duck my head into my shell and largely forget the world exists. As a result I am taking every possible excuse to avoid doing things that have lots of people involved with them, and I missed both raids this week… both with completely reasonable reasons but reasons that I probably could have avoided were it not for my anxiety desperately clinging to them. Sure I had a window to fix, but I could have probably been done in time for the raid. Sure I dozed off on the sofa, but had I drank a monster or some coffee I probably would have been fine there too. The excuse was too convenient not to take it when the reality was I am simply having trouble processing existing around other human beings.

When I am in deep turtle mode it is all I can really do to exist on a daily basis, let alone have to pretend to be a normal human being. Which I realize is a bit odd given that I am generally a gregarious and welcoming sort, and have become famous for opting people. There are times where I just can’t be “rockstar bel” as one of my friends has referred to it. There is time when I just need to hide out and pretend the other human beings don’t exist. Generally speaking when I am in this mode I play a lot of Minecraft or Skyrim… or in the case of what has happened over the weekend return to playing an MMO that I really don’t have much of a social structure in these days. Awhile back I reinstalled Elder Scrolls Online and this weekend I stared playing it extremely seriously. I am enjoying myself immensely and other than the occasional message from folks who are also dipping their toes in as well and just happy to see a familiar face.

I have to say the game feels amazing coming back to it after a significant time gone. The game has released a ton of DLC/Expansion content since release and there are basically two ways of playing it. Either you buy the DLC outright, where there is a deal that can be had that includes the four major DLC packs for 5500 crowns… which is $39.99. The other option is to subscribe to the game which immediately unlocks all of the content… so long as you keep an active subscription. However there is another reason to go for the ESO Plus subscription option… because it magically fixes your bag situation. At launch one of my key problems was trying to keep enough bag space to be actively looting crafting ingredients, while at the same time picking up gear that drops from things I was killing. With the subscription plan it adds what seems to be a separate bottomless crafting inventory, that items simply go to automatically when you loot them. This means you can finally afford to loot all of those random crates and barrels full of fish and berries because it all gets whisked away off into the ether into a storage bin you never actually have to mess with.

The other awesome thing that has happened in the period of time I have not really be playing is that they have shifted the Veteran Rank system to be the Champion Point system. At first I thought this was a one for one swap over to a sort of Skyrim-esc celestial system based around the Thief, Warrior and Mage. However it seems to be way more than that, in that they are essentially an account wide system of alternate expansion much like the Planar abilities in Rift or Paragon points in Diablo 3. That means if you log into your level 7 alt like I did yesterday… I had 130 champion points to spend making me able to do some pretty insane stuff at low levels. Sure this greatly trivializes the leveling process for alts… but I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing. In truth it makes me far more likely to level alts knowing that I have a lot of the same benefits, on them as I do on my main character. That said the collections and cosmetic systems also exist at an account level so you can keep using your favorite mounts and pets… or anything you have unlocked through the crown shop. All in all I have been happy to fade quietly back into a game that I still fine immensely immersive at least from a single player level.

Torn on Switch

January 13, 2017 by Belghast

Last night was of course the Nintendo Switch reveal stream… that seemed to occur for pretty much everyone at an extremely awkward time. For me personally it kicked off about 10 pm, so I was able to tune in as I was winding down a night of running Nightfalls (and sometimes failing) in Destiny with Squirrel and Jex. I talked a bit yesterday about my mixed feelings regarding the Switch and its launch on twitter. Every fiber of my being wants this console, but there is also the logic center of my brain that keeps reminding me of the not amazing track record I have with Nintendo consoles. I will get more into that later, but first to talk about the details we learned last night. The Switch is in fact coming a lot faster than I expected with a launch window of March 3rd 2017, or for those who think in these terms…. if I am counting correctly 8 weeks from the Friday I am writing this post on. In the short term I will be able to play the console personally in a few weeks at Pax South, and there will be a series of demo events happening in “major” cities… which means nowhere event vaguely close to the fly over country where I live. They have confirmed two launch titles… the first of which is 1, 2, Switch which is another one of those Nintendo gimmick games like Wii Sports that while extremely fun is in large part a tech demo for all of the new “innovations” they have woven into the new system. The launch title that matters however is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Now yesterday I said that a lot of it was going to ultimately come down to price. The first leaked price of $250 seemed like a viable option and potentially even a day one and pre-order system for me. Shortly after that another price started circulating which was $350… and that was definitely going to be a wait and see price point. The final reveal targeted things at $299 which is a figure that I am not quite sure about one way or the other. I feel like ultimately… we are going to need to see more details about what actual titles will be available at launch. I am not sure if Zelda is enough to push this console for me at the start. However I also know if the Nintendo track record holds… this means that if you did not pre-order your console it is likely going to be next Christmas before there is a reasonable flow of units to the shelves to allow folks to make that late impulse buy. I remember when the Wii launched in November, it was late February before I even saw one on a store shelf, and even then it was probably mid summer before they were a regular enough occurrence to warrant not noticing. Nintendo is extremely horrible with supply chain management and producing anywhere near the right number of units to meet the current demand. This is evidenced by the fact that you quite literally still can’t find 3DS units on store shelves, from a drought that started around Thanksgiving. Similarly you essentially have zero shot in hell of finding a Nintendo Classic console yet.

Where my brain begins to temper my desire to buy this console is when I think about my general track record with Nintendo. Growing up I was absolutely a Nintendo fanboy, getting my Nintendo Classic shortly after release and my Super Nintendo a few months after launch as well. Similarly I saved up my money and purchased a Gameboy within the first six months. So when the Nintendo 64 launched in college I was similarly smitten with the console, and spent way more money than we should have been spending at the time for the unit given our already strapped college life existence. While enamored with the early titles through Zelda… an event occured that pretty much killed me caring about the later titles. PC Gaming got absolutely amazing, and I got my 3DFX 2 card which made everything that I was seeing on the Nintendo 64 start to look extremely sluggish and primitive. So instead of caring about Goldeneye, I was playing GL Quake. The other problem the Nintendo 64 had was the lack of role-playing game support, and when Squaresoft took the Final Fantasy franchise to the Playstation I followed it. That said I have so much nostalgia for those early days of Nintendo, so I keep purchasing the consoles hoping to rekindle some of that magic. In the end however of my consoles they tend to be the ones that gather dust.

The other huge problem that I have found is that my life really does not fit a mobile console that well. I have both a 3DS and a Vita and they maybe see some play time once a week as I am looking for something to do before falling asleep. The Wii U seemed like an awesome idea, but the limited range on the unit made it largely useless to me. My expectation was that I would be able to play the screen unit wherever in the house I wanted to, and maybe even out on the back patio. The reality however is that I need to remain within roughly 8 feet of the unit to keep a stable connection. So as a result currently the unit is set up in the bedroom so I can play it from bed… but that makes for awkward gaming any other time. Ultimately I think the real problem for me with Nintendo is that they seem to be extremely focused on gimmicks. The Switch as a console is a gimmick, and while I don’t think it will be the frustrating experience for me that the Wii controls were… I definitely think it is going to attempt desperately to function in methods other than your standard game console. This focus on gimmickry also seems to come at a massive cost in processing power and graphical performance. While Zelda Breath of the Wild looked gorgeous in its own way… watching the footage last night it definitely felt like a game that was not quite as detailed as the current generation of console games. While the Switch has courted Bethesda to put Skyrim on their new console… Skyrim is also a seven year old game at this point. In the montage of games… I didn’t see much in the way of modern ports which concerns me that we are setting up for another Wii U situation… where the console is simply not powerful enough to run the style of games that the majority of publishers are creating. That said… you buy a Nintendo console for the first party games and I really want to see some more firm times on when more of those are releasing before committing.