The Magrams hate me an I have no idea why

I’ve obviously done something to annoy The Magram Clan Centaur. They’re really pissed off with me, even close hateful. I have no idea why. I can’t recall even seeing these guys. The Gelkis Clan Centaur on the other hand seems to like me. What have I done? Groomed their backs? Baked them a Chocolate cake? I’m clueless.

Today I’m going to write a rant about reputation and what I think about it, and the first place to go was obviously to have a closer look at my own reputation list in armory.

Never heard of fractions
It’s puzzling to say the least. There are so many fractions that I’ve never heard about, some of them with very exotic names. Like “The Shen'dralar”. It sounds a bit like the mythological “Shangri-La”, a place of wonders. I have no idea if I should strive to be hated or loved by them. So far I’ve done what we do where I live: I’m staying absolutely neutral. I just wonder how it comes that they have heard about me in the first place – I’ve never heard about them. But I guess it’s like a saying we have in Sweden: “Everybody knows the monkey, but the monkey knows no one.”

Now Blizzard gives us some help with information about some of the fractions. I hadn’t noticed it before, but most of them are actually linked to some further information. There’s a pretty long explanation about The Thorium Brotherhood, dwelling in the Searing Gorge, for all of those who forgot about them after we were done questing there. But it still is a mystery to me who The Ashtongue Deathsworn are – the link from armory only leads to a list of rewards. So I guess I’d better get on terms with them.

Some players like it
To some players reputation seems to be a bit deal. It’s a bit like levelling to see those bars grow longer and the messages in the log about every tick you gain. When they’re hated by all they want to annoy and exalted with the cool guys, I guess they get some sort of feeling of accomplishment. They have completed the game in once aspect. Revast at The Muffin Factory is one example. He recently wrote about what he had left to do until the expansion. And even though he hadn’t downed all raid bosses yet he didn’t care about it anymore. But getting exalted with Stormwheedle Cartel was a big thing, so now he’s running Dire Maul to get there.

What I think about it
And, no surprise if you’ve read so far, I’m just the opposite kind. I don’t care much at all. I just think about reputation from a practical point of view. There are two aspects of reputation that are valid to me:

1. To get access to privileges
If I can get hold on a special item I need, I’m totally willing to grind rep, like I did with Cenarion Expedition, to get the spellhit ring, which I needed at that point (now collecting dust in the bank vault). It made me accept to kill hundreds of nagas in Zangar, which was pretty boring, just so I could buy that transmute recipe. But it’s all related to that I get a reward that I need. I cared a lot about Honor Hold reputation as long as I wanted to buy the sword at the exalted level. Then I got a dagger in Karazhan and I couldn’t care less about HH.

Of course the benefit doesn’t necessarily have to be useful. I like vanity things as well. I totally understand anyone that sets for a Netherdrake mount for instance.

2. To display experiences in the game
Reputation doesn’t really lie. If you’re pugging Karazhan, or recruiting to a guild and a player claims that he’s got plenty of experience from it on this char, it’s SO easy to see if he tells the truth just by checking his rep with The Violet Eye. It surprises me sometimes that some players (probably kids) don’t seem to think about it – that experience is so clearly reflected this way.

If you look at me for instance you can see that I’ve obviously set my foot into Zul Gurub, being neutral with The Zandalar Tribe. But I can’t really have any in-depth experiences from there, which is true, since I’m a post TBC player.

So… now over to the readers. Do you care much about your reputation?