Could someone make the dummies less dumb, please?

So, I’m back at the dummies in IF, doing my homework, struggling to become the swift, quick footed quicksilverish player I’ve always dreamed about to be.

In my imagination I can see myself running around like one of those buzzing rogues you see in the BG:s, just as quick, annoying and painful to meet as an enraged wasp.

I would be constantly on my move, at the same time mysteriously enough being able to toss off my 3-sec casting time nukes without stopping up at any point. (Don’t ask me how it’s done, but others do it obviously, so why not me?).

To be honest I’ve got quite a long way to go before I reach my goal. It’s so distant that I sometimes wonder if I’m not just lying to myself with my mantra “you can learn anything if you just determined enough”.

Tobold’s reflections
The other day Tobold had a post where he made a reflection about the combat system in WoW, and I found myself nodding, recognizing my own issues. Tobold calls it rather twitchy and says that the outcome of a fight often depends more on speed and reaction time than on tactical decision making. This suits teenage boys with a ton of experience from fps games better than all those middle aged people, who actually constitute quite a large proportion of the player base.

This post got quite a few comments, of course. Many readers want to declare the superiority of mouse turning compared to keyboard turning. And they also think the game would be less fun for many players without this feature. It would be too slow, too easy. But the best comment is actually from Tobold himself, where he highlights how the new player is introduced to the game.

“So why is there keyboard-turning in the game in the first place, if that is so "crippling"?

What use is first offering different control modes to your players, and then telling them: Ha, ha! Gotcha! Only one of these control modes is actually useable! If you chose the other one, you just gimped yourself and you'll have to start over!”

I’m totally with you on this one Tobold! I feel cheated. I had no previous experience of gaming when I entered Azeroth, so how was I supposed to know that one way of steering my toon was far inferior to the other one? Now I’m facing the painful and time consuming process of relearning. It feels like such a waste and I can’t help wishing I had gotten it right from the start.

The dumb dummies
But no matter of what relics of the past such as Tobold and myself think about it, the game is designed a certain way, and it isn’t likely that it will change shortly. Keyboard turning is OK if you think conquering the AH market is the most fun thing WoW has to offer, but if you’re a raiding junkie like me, there is no alternative but to adapt and learn how to move.

However, what I would like to see is a better tool for this than the dummies that are currently offered. Since I spend quite some time running back and forward in front of them, I naturally start to reflect upon their appearances. And I’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t only look stupid. They ARE stupid.

The dummies may be great for running live tests to check if Recount confirms the optimal gear set and spellrotations suggested by RAWR. But it’s not great for improving your hand-eye coordination, swiftness, reaction time and moving-while-casting ability. Not at all.

I try to picture that I’m not facing a defenceless, immobile statue, but something else that forces me to move. I pretend that this is the first boss in the Thorim gauntlet, randomly throwing fire at me, and that I have to move from side to side constantly, while still constantly nuking, counterspelling and switching targets. I imagine that I’m at Hodir, I’m just about to get an iceblock in my head and I must find the buffed guy or at least a decent beam to stand in – asap. I try my best to put myself into the right, stressful, adrenaline-pumping raiding mood. But it’s quite hard to be honest. When you don’t get any feedback on how you’re doing, like if you’re getting hit by the fires or not, how can you tell that you’re getting better at what you’re doing?

What I wish for
What I would like to see is dummies that give you an opportunity to practice and improve on your playing skills in somewhat challenging situations, without risking death penalty and repair bills as you get if you’re doing it on real mobs. What I want is the combat situation as such, without any loot or benefit from it, and therefore also without any punishment or cost for failure.

They have taken steps in this direction at the jousting area, where you first learn to joust at dummies that will try to hit you, but which won’t kill you. I’d like to see a development of this, but much more advanced (and not involving riding a vehicle).

Imagine there was a dummie that sent out a randomly rotating beam, resembling to the Mimron one. If you got hit you would see it, either by a hit-counter, stacking up a “buff”, or possibly by losing health, as you do in a duel. You could go down to 0 health, but never die. It’s a dummie after all, so no penalty. Another dummie could have some randomly appearing ability you’re supposed to interrupt or dispell. Maybe you could add a few “adds” around this dummy, allowing you to learn to apply a focus target and quickly switch targets.

I remember when the dummies were launched. They were certainly a huge improvement compared taking the long journey to Dr Boom, where you also had some annoying adds walking around which you had to make sure wouldn’t mess up your session. But now it’s time to take this idea a step further. It’s time to give people like me and Tobold a chance to improve ourselves without risking corpse runs or the ridicule of other players.

Dear Blizzard Santa Clause, please add this to Larísa’s wish list for Cataclysm!