New Documentary about WoW players

The realm forums are far from exciting most of the time. Their main reason for existence is for recruitment or for organizing of the more ambitious sort of PUG raids. But sometimes you can pick up miscellaneous pieces of news, little gems that you want to help to keep spreading to wider circles. And this happened today, when someone posted a link to a new documentary movie.

It's called Avatar Days and it isn't long - just a few minutes in fact. However, the quality is absolutely superb. This isn't any ordinary amateur home video, this is at least on a semi-professional level. Even if you normally don't follow random links that bloggers provide from time to time, I urge you to make an exception and look at this one.

The plot is simple. You will listen to four players who talk about their game play and their characters. It's only one thing that is different to normal documentaries: most of the time you will see them as their avatars, in very ordinary situations in Dublin city. Waiting for the buss, standing in a queue, driving a truck, being at their job.

The movie is great for two reasons. One is from a technical point of view; the 3d models melt into the background very nicely and it looks just so cool to see them walking the streets among normal people.

The other reason is the low and serious tone in it. It was about time that someone made an effort to picture gaming like this, without pointing fingers or exaggerating in any direction.

The movie makers aren't trying to sell in some sort of political message for or against gaming, they're not trying to market anything. They're just quietly documenting a phenomena, a little piece of modern culture, saving a testimony about one example of modern urban culture in 2010 for the future.

I know that it isn't likely that anyone of the creators ever will see this blog post. But if it will happen for some reason - maybe as you google the movie name - and accidently stumble into my inn, I just want to grab the opportunity to tell you how much I loved your work.

Now please head over to the bar and we'll offer you any drink of your choice on the house, as a little sign of our appreciation.

Cheers!

Why the "Community" word doesn't make sense

The Community. Everyone seems to be talking about it these days.

We've seen a stream of well thought out posts discussing just how bad the WoW community is - verified by for instance dickish behavior in pugs, sewer level conversations in the public chat channels and the Gearscore mentality plague.

I'd especially like to point you to a recent post by Brian Psychochild Green, who talks about how ageing and growth has an impact on the game community, arguing that Blizzard might not be able to do that much about it. It's a very thoughtful post and I suggest you go ahead and read it if you haven't already!

Another post I liked particularly was Ixobelle's response to Wolfshead's anti-WoW post, where he reveals the nature of the oh-so-good community back in the days of EverQuest. The truth according to Ixo was that the game was full of design flaws and tedious endless periods where you did nothing but sit around and just wait and chat together. Sure, it created a great community - nothing can get you come together as well as a common experience of misery. But as it appears it was at the cost of what I would consider an enjoyable gameplay. Way to go?

One Community - really?
Nevertheless, there's something more I'd like to say about this community issue. You see, I've got second thoughts about the way we talk about The Community as one entity.

I'm the first one to admit that I'm doing it myself. I've probably written a good many posts where I've generalized wildly, putting everyone in the same box, mindlessly applying the C-word label on everyone, either they deserve it or not. And I'll probably do it again. But nevertheless I think it's about time that we stop up and think for a moment.

Wouldn't we come further in our discussions if we would acknowledge that with a game of the size of WoW, you can't really talk about The Community in singular anymore? There are dozens, of them, or I'd rather say hundreds, and they have so little in common that every attempt to pull out an average from it and expect it to represent every player, will be so false and misleading that it's pointless.

Shouldn't we rather address the issues and potential improvements we can see in the different respective subcategories? That would be more constructive and interesting than the current I-want-everyone-to-view-WoW-the-way-I-do attitude, which is a bit strange when you think about it.

As it is now, it seems as we've suddenly all been incorporated into one big mechanism, void of any aspirations on individualism and variety, making you think of The Borg of Star Trek.

I don't quite buy the concept. I never did.

One game - many communities
Actually I wrote about this in my very first blogpost back in February 2008. I was still something of a newbie at that time, and I had many things yet to learn about WoW and the people who are playing and talking about it. But in my ignorance I got that right from the beginning. I wrote:

"When you think about it it's not ONE game, but many, there are so many ways to see it and play it."

Yep. I still have this view. Lume reminded me about it the other day as he commented on my post about how famous players can get TCG cards named after them.

"Famous" WoW players really depend on what areas of the game you follow and what communities you're a part of. And there's a LOT of communities. Arena, raiding, machinima, humorous videos (that aren't really machinima), tanks, specific classes (and specs of classes), etc. And then you have to COMBINE some of these categories for even more niched communities."

You're spot on, Lume.

So why don't we start to try to map out, describe and und understand all those sub-communites? Once again I come to think of Tim Howgego's brilliant attempt to draw a map.

I would like to see an expansion of it. Make it more fragmentized, more detailed, add multiple dimensions, point out the connections. We need more work along those lines if we want to understand the complexity of the game and the varying expectations the developers have to consider.

What Community is to me
I dare say that the Borg image of the Community is a hoax. Forget about it for a moment and recall all the different kinds of players you've encountered over the years.

Stop listening to the "The community is horrid" talk! Refuse to judge every player alike! Wake up and look around you!

There are fantastic, lovable subcommunities everywhere, if you investigate it a bit further.

The Community isn't just some drunk idiot rambling in /trade (which you by the way can turn off at your own will any second - issue solved.)

The Community is also Big Bear Butt assembling the raid-for-the cure event to support a guildie suffering from breast cancer.

The Community is a bunch of silly gnomes enjoying their epic journey from the starter area to Ironforge, thanks to their own imagination (and a glorious general).

The Community is Tamarind having a serious talk with one of his guildies.

The Community is to ignore Gearscore nonsense and naysayers, take charge over your own game time and create the kind of game play you want to see, in cooperation with other players.

The Community is made up by all those wonderful bloggers and podcasters who keep entertaining us, informing us and making us think, laugh and cry day after day - all for free.

Room for all?
There's such a huge diversity among the millions of people who are playing World of Warcraft that it doesn't make sense any more to talk about The Community as a singularity. Stop doing that! Stop bashing the "WoW Community!" Start looking for solutions where you can let different kind of players co-exist peacefully, without breaking the game for each other!

Azeroth should be big enough to have room for us all.

Right?

Ooops, I exploited Karazhan and Ghostcrawler takes the blame

The title of this post is somewhat intriguing, isn’t it? To be fair the two events are only remotely connected. They’re both findings from the official forums. And yeah, they’re both appearing in the “Larísa-lets-her-thuoghts-wander-freely-since-it’s-Friday” column.

Cheating or exploring
Let’s talk about my exploit first. There’s something shady or even dirty about exploits and I’m a little bit torn in my vies on it. I suppose it depends on the circumstances.

Some exploits are equal to cheating and that’s a touchy issue, especially if there’s competition involved, such as racing between top guilds. (No, I’m not going to talk about THAT piece of news once again, move on people, this post is not intended to be some pleasant, thoughtless ranting, not food for flame wars.) A wise raid leader makes sure to stay on the safe side, to avoid bans and removal of achievements. If the thought crosses your mind that this might be an exploit, it probably is.

At the same time I can appreciate and sometimes even admire exploits that are results of people using their brains and creativity. Those players are like fearless explorers, always stretching the boundaries in their refusal to do things as “they’re supposed to be done”. They don’t let themselves be dragged into any dull quest- and achievement grind, they don’t mindlessly take their seat in the theme-park attraction, watching what they’re supposed to watch. What they’re looking for is the unusual and unexpected. It’s like a little uproar, where the players take control for a while, until the warning system has been alerted and Blizzard mends the glitch. But by then, they are already far away, exploring some other godforsaken corner of the world that the QA team never visited properly.

The Karazhan exploit
However, even if I can approve of some exploits, I’ve never been an exploiter myself. I’ve just regarded it with curious eyes from a distance. At least I thought so.

But the other day I realized that I exploited Karazhan on a regular basis throughout the entire TBC. It’s true! I was a full-fledged exploiter. Admittedly it was by accident – I didn’t have a clue. But that’s what they always say, isn’t it?

What made me find out about it was a post in the bug report forum. A player complained that after completing the Opera Event, you couldn’t go out and enter Karazhan through the side door, as you always used to. After some investigation from the community managing staff, he got a blue reply: this was intended. That door was never supposed to be opened from the outside. This was an exploit and it had been removed as by patch 3.2.

I was just perplexed by reading this. Why make the door in the first place if you weren’t supposed to enter it other from the inside? And why would anyone want to go out from the castle through that door? To have a stroll in the delightful garden? You have to help me out in this, because I don’t quite see the reason.

I always thought that Blizzard had handed us the two different paths to take through Karazhan after Opera on purpose, offering the players a choice. The further progressed we were, the better gear we had, the more likely were we to take the inside way with the corridor leading from the stage, also known as the “gold way” since some of the trash you missed by taking the way from the outside were dirty rich. If you had Karazhan on farm you didn’t mind the extra effort, since you would clear the instance in one night anyway. On the other hand – while we were still progressing, the side entrance was the natural choice, saving us approximately 30 valuable minutes, time that we’d rather spend on mastering Netherspite’s beams or learning the Aran dance.

What took them so long?
Everyone did this. And all this time it was an exploit, until Blizzard recently stopped it. I can’t help finding it a bit amusing and intriguing. What on Earth took them so long? It reminds me a bit of when they suddenly posted a huge chunk of information about Sunwell island on their website when we were way into Wrath.

You may ask why they’re even bothering to do this at this point of the game. For some reason it never became top priority on their to-do-list, so why not forget about it altogether?

I wonder if there’s anyone at all who clears Karazhan the proper way these days. I thought the instance was mostly inhabited by level 80s who never went any further than the bottom floor, since all they want to do is to roll the dices for the mount. A few might finish it for nostalgic reasons. (I hope to do it myself anytime soon; after not setting my foot there for years, I’ve suddenly got the itch back, longing to see it once again.)

Would it really be that harmful if someone at this point takes a slightly shorter route through the instance?

Sometimes Blizzard’s priorities puzzle me. On the other hand, I find it kind of reassuring that they care about even such a small detail. If there is a bug anywhere they will do whatever they can to find it and remove it. It may take forever, but they will come to it eventually.

Blaming Ghostcrawler
Now over to the second part of this post, where Ghostcrawler takes the blame for everything.

Yeah, it’s true! Read for yourself his comment in a thread in the healing role forum, where they’re discussing where Blizzard is heading. This thread is long and has grown a bit wild, and when we come in there have just been some complaints about how they treated Incanter’s Absorbation, which was heavily nerfed.

“We designed Incanter's Absorption. It's our fault that it worked the way it did, our fault that players assumed they were supposed to stand in fires, and our fault that they assumed their dps was balanced around the assumption that they stood in fires. :)”

OK, Ghostcrawler, I’m with you so far, this might have been a design error, even though it provided a bit of fun for all arcane mages as long as it lasted. But in the next paragraph he extends his sense of responsibility.

“I'm not quite sure of the origin of this recent sentiment that GC blames everything on the players. Let me be perfectly clear. Everything we don't like about WoW is our fault and our responsibility to fix. I like to use the first-person plural to remind everyone that ours is a very large team all working together, but in this case I'll make an exception and take personal responsibility for plenty of the criticisms we have with the game right now.”

Aha. We can all stop blaming the community! Stop blaming the greedy shareholders of Blizzard Activision! Stop thinking that the state of WoW is a team effort. It isn’t. Ghostcrawler just stepped up and offered to be the scapegoat for just about any criticism we have with the game.

Hey there GC! If you happen to dwell somewhere in the shadows, I tell you: How heroic it may sound, aren’t you pulling this a little bit too far? Have a pint, my friend. Cool down. You’re actually doing pretty fine. For all the grumpiness in the community, it’s still a damned good game. Don’t put all that weight on your shoulders. Oh? It was a joke? OK. Got it.

It’s Friday night and my thinking is a bit slow, especially after the sad news the other day about our GM stepping down. But I’m alive. And I’m actually smiling, because we had one of those awesome raids last night, which you can read about in Tessy's lovely report. Two more first kills in ICC hardmode (Rotface and Blood Council), one achievement just-for-fun (read: Tessy) and as some sugar topping I got a lethal dagger and the shiniest necklace you’ve ever seen.

What more could a gnome possibly wish for?

Cheers all!

The Call from The Grey Havens

Sometimes I feel like crying. Doesn’t everyone? It’s like breathing, sleeping, eating, drinking and getting a physical hug once in a while. A basic human need, I suppose.

We all have our methods to release our gathered tears. I have one that never fails me, namely to read the final chapter of The Return of the King, you know the one with the final breakup and departure, where Frodo heads off with the ships from the Grey Havens and Sam goes back to his family.

That chapter is pure sadness to me and any happy family awaiting Sam can't change that. I’m not joking, even when I merely think about the scene as I write this post, I get goose skin and tears well up in my eyes. I’ve read it tenths of times, but the words never fade away. They are keys that give me access to areas of my mind that I normally keep safely sealed.

Sometimes I feel like crying. Today is one of those days. You're wondering why? Because they’re going to the ships. They’re sailing away and there's nothing I can do about it.

The Balrog strikes again
Earlier this week I wrote about my furious fight against the Time-To-Quit-WoW Balrog. It turned out that he was a worthy opponent, tougher than I could have imagined and my struggles were futile. You see: now he has snatched our beloved guild master and raid leader.

Yesterday the ugly bald gnome (currently disguised as a night elf just so to make him easier to spot in the raid, but we all know where he's true identity is) declared that he's leaving the game within a couple of weeks, and so is our deputy GM. As for so many other players there are two simple reasons for this; the game doesn't hold its grip on them anymore and they need to put more time and effort into progressing in their real lives.

I know what you think and I hear what you say. Those things happen. All the time, to every guild, it’s more a matter of “when” than “if”. And by the way it’s “just a game”, right? Smart goblins don’t allow themselves to be attached to anything but gold, because everything else will vanish sooner or later – epic gear as well as people. Getting emo about the people in your guild is a bad investment. Don't trust anyone but yourself.

But I’m not a goblin. I’m a gnome and my skin is soft and thin and my heart is warm and throbbing and I can't stand to see them embark on that journey. So I cry.

The scary bold gnome
If you've followed my writings over the last couple of years, you've probably guessed that I've been privileged; I've raided under the command of a guild master with extraordinary qualities. Stumps.

To be honest he scared the hell out of me to begin with, having a slightly harsh, strict appearance at vent. He was demanding and disciplined and this was pretty shocking to someone with such a short raiding record as me. But he took a chance on me, and he never gave up about my potential to make better, even though I suspect that there was times when he tore his hair, wondering if Larísa ever would learn to move out of fire or cast while moving. After doing some 115 encounters under his leadership I don't fear him anymore, just admire and love him.

You see, Stumps had that sweet balance that it takes to lead a successful raiding team. He was the guy who took the unpleasant man-to-man talks that comes with the position and never hesitated to kick a player from the guild even mid raid if it was necessary. But under the rough surface he had a warm heart and fantastic sense of humour, which he generously showed through some bad wipe nights. I suspect that was what kept him sane while holding a position equivalent of fighting Yogg-Saron, as Tamarind put it.

For being such a youngster - somewhere in his mid 20s - he remarkably good, probably out of talent, for he didn't have any formal leadership training. And why am I talking about Stumps as if he was dead by the way?

I suppose he will be soon. Sort of. “Friend removed because the character no longer exists. Player not found.” He’ll be gone with the ships.

Now what?
So now what? What will happen to Adrenaline? Being who they are, Stumps and Sylvara wouldn’t desert us without working out a solid plan and making sure that they'll turning over the guild in good hands. The remaining four officers will now take the charge and run the guild as a team. And I'm sure they'll do just fine.

Following the plan presented to us, I think we've got a chance to keep the guild going quite strong, until Cataclysm arrives, although we may not do as many 25 man raids as we used to. I just hope there will be enough of them for our Shadowmourne wearer to finish his weapon. He has yet some 35 frost shards to collect before he can complete it with an LK kill.

I don’t expect to see a huge exodus, but it might happen that a couple of players decide to move on to one of the more progressed guilds on the server. Everyone is recruiting these days. Other guild members will probably take a longer summer break to reload their appetite for raiding. Under normal circumstances, you couldn't expect to have a raid spot waiting for you if you go on a long break and want to pick up raiding later on. But in the current situation, they've decided that anyone who wants to can stop raiding now and yet come back for Cataclysm. And I think this is a wise call. We're in this for the long run.

Everyone in the guild has been asked to think about the changes and then inform the officers about our intentions. In case the raid squad will shrink too badly, we'll switch over to 10 man hardmode raiding. And to me that’s actually just fine. Even if I love the bigger format, I can enjoy the smaller raids for what they are. As long as we keep raiding in an Adrenaline manner, which means a serious and focused approach and a sense of team work, I will remain a happy raider.

The rise of the phoenix
Every guild has a life cycle. These are days of turbulence, but we'll get through them and once we're on the other side we can start to build the new Adrenaline.

It will be a bit different, since the bold gnome won’t be there to tell us off when we need it or give us a pat on the shoulder when that’s what we lack. But on the other hand, this will give room for our new leaders to step out from the shadows and show what they're capable of.

As one of my guild friends remarked, as we tried to grasp the situation – it will be like the phoenix reborn from the ashes. A new start. I think Cataclysm will be a cataclysm for us in a double sense.

But all of that is in the future. Right now, as I see our friends heading for the Grey Havens, I have to cry a little bit.

I couldn’t wish for a better place to let my tears fall then here at the inn. The soft light from the fire shields me from anything that can lure in the darkness outside. I'm surrounded by the murmuring voices from blogging and reading friends from all over the world.

Thank you all for hanging around here, listening to the sad rants of a very sentimental little pink pigtailed gnome! In case there won't be any Friday post, you know the reason. I'm just lingering a bit here in my armchair, contemplating the state of the guild as well as WoW in general.

"Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil".

Don't mistake my tears for despair. When I'm done crying I'll pull myself together and start looking forward to whatever adventures that may await Adrenaline 2.0.

At least he got a card

I don't think Ensidia got what they had hoped for from this expansion. First there was the mishap with the first kill of LK that Blizzard judged was an exploit and rendered them a ban. Then they had constant server issues, partly due to griefing, and they lost the race for the spot as the #1 guild of the world. And lately they seem to have had a huge exodus from the guild, veterans quitting the game.

Maybe it's a bit of a comfort to one of their leaders, Kungen, to hear that he now has entered the hall of fame of WoW players

Kungen the Thunderer
Kungen is the third player ever to get a game card in the WoW TCG designed after him. "Kungen the Thunderer" is the name of the new card, picturing a tauren warrior. And what could be more appropriate for a deck of cards? After all "Kungen" means "The King" in Swedish.

Who were the first two to get the honor to be immortalized as a game figure? Well, not surprisingly enough, the first one was the video celebrity Leeroy Jenkins, who appears as a card in a set called Heroes of Azeroth from 2006. As if that wasn't enough he has also got his own in-game achievement.

The second player to get a card of his own was a druid called Alamo. To be totally honest I had never heard of him before now. But apparently he ran a legendary forum thread, Alamo teeches U 2 play DURID! which seems to have been highly appreciated back in time, according to WoWwiki.

So Kungen will be the third player, as far as I know of, to appear as a trading card. In a comment at Ensidia's site, he says that he thinks it's cool and an honor and asks how many packs he'll have to buy to get himself. (A hint to Cryptozoic, the company that currently produces those cards: I really think you should send one to him. For free. Don't you think you owe it to him?)

Gutrot the naked
I recently noticed that there really aren't many players that are recognized by name. But let's try to stretch our memories a little bit anyway and give it a try to recall some of our heroes.

If I would make a trading card modeled after a certain WoW player, I think I would pick the legendary Gutrot, the troll who leveled all the way to 80 naked and unarmed while creating a nudist community around him. I loved the picture from their 80 ding celebration party! I think he deserves to be remembered - as a card or why not as an in-game achievement?

Have you got any further suggestions for players who should be recognized in this manner?

You Shall Not Pass!

The mighty Time-To-Quit-WoW Balrog keeps snatching players from our guild and raiding team. The last couple of weeks we've seen one or two leaving every week, each one taking a fond farewell at our forums.

They've all had every so good reasons for their leaving. Either they have got new priorities in life, a job situation that doesn’t permit raiding, or they’ve simply lost the interest for WoW as such. It’s never about us. It’s always about them. And it always ends in a lyrical Declaration of Love to our guild and its leadership:

“The past year in Adrenaline has been without a doubt the best in this game. I have seen all end-game stuff I wanted to see, I have met great people and I have been able to play this game on a level I never thought possible. The guild has been most of the reason why I have been in here for so long, without u guys I would have lost interest quite a while ago.”

”Adrenaline is doubtless the best-led guild I've ever seen….”

Of course the farewells are sad and sometimes even heartbreaking. I really hate to see people that I’ve been spending so much time suddenly be gone, just like that. At the same time the reads are somehow encouraging since they remind us of what a fantastic guild we are. We’ve got good reasons to be proud and grateful about what we have.

But being a “the best guild ever” isn’t enough. You need 25 people online for your raid, that’s the simple fact. And this time must be about the worst possible in the lifetime of an expansion for recruiting.

I feel truly, truly sorry for our guild leaders. They’ve put so much effort into the guild over the two years I've been in it and I wish there could come a time when they could just relax a bit for a while, enjoying the community, being certain that there will be more than enough players for the next raid. They don't deserve this hassle, which has nothing to do with their own shortcomings.

If you ask me, it's all about Blizzard being too slow in putting out new content. It's no wonder that WoW will be downranked compared to other activities, when you've been stuck doing the same instance over and over again, three times a week, for almost six months.

On a brighter side: it’s not like we’ve been cancelling raids. So far we’re actually doing fine, still working on and conquering the hardmodes of ICC. But I can’t remember the last time I was benched for a raid and that’s somewhat worrying. I’d much rather see a healthy surplus of players.

I know we’re not alone. I know that this is right now on every realm there is. Players are leaving every day, leaving empty spots in their guilds. What you can do is to stick together, keep your raids going and your spirits high even if the margins are slim. Hopefully some other guild on your realm will give up, which will mean that some more raiders will become available and go guild shopping. It isn't pretty, but the fact is that guilds are a bit of scavengers. We feed on the leftovers from our dying neighbours.

We can only hope that Blizzard will get out Ruby Sanctum RSN (yet another expression from the science fiction fanzine community, meaning “really soon now”), which might give a well needed – if shortlived - injection to the game, making people prolong or even reactivate their subscriptions.

I think it’s a little bit too early to give up raiding in Wrath, putting down the weapons, especially since we don’t yet know the release date of Cataclysm. We have a bunch of goals that still remain, deeds to accomplish in company with others who still have the desire to raid and progress in Wrath.

I wish there was something I could do to help. I wish I had some real life WoW playing friends or relatives I could snatch from other guilds. I wouldn’t hesitate a second to headhunt (a nicer word for poaching) if I had some potential candidate. But I don’t. All I can do is to once again mention our existence and recruitment here at the inn, in the hope to get the word out here in Europe.

Please come and join us! Come on your own or why not bring your 10-man guild with you if you’ve decided that you’d like to see something bigger. This is an excellent opportunity to make sure that you are prepared for Cataclysm, already being in a good guild. We’ve got room! What we can offer is some really good raiding. In case I haven’t told you. If you're quick about it you might join us in our upcoming 2-year anniversary event, how about that?

And to you, Mr Balrog, I have only one thing to say:

You shall not pass!

I'm not entirely sure he'll listen to me or to anyone else. But at least we have to give it a try.

No, the MMOs aren't really that bad!

I really should start listening to my own advice. I should know better than to devour rants from burned-out players who have seen the "truth" and want to share it with the world, possibly to get absolution for all the time they've spent on WoW or other MMOs up until now.

I should have known better than to read posts calling me an "glassy eyed, brain addled denizen of an opium house", "just too stoned to care".

And yet I read it. Because the writer in question is Wolfshead and he's an awesome blogger - even when he's in a depressive mood.

By the way, if you're reading this you should probably consider yourself included in the opium house analogy - Wolfhead puts this label on the entire MMO community, and calls it lethargic, since we haven't yet reached the insight that the MMOs of today are so void of innovation that they should be boycotted.

Wolfshead's rant
After an eleven year long, passionate relationship with the MMO genre, Wolfshead declares that he has has fallen out of love with it, and now he's apparently mad. He's breaking up with a bang, stating that the MMO industry needs a Real Cataclysm, something that turns the world upside down in a far more dramatic way than WoW's upcoming expansion.

Exactly what this Alternative Cataclysm would consist of is hard to tell from the post. Only that it would be better. Absolutely not more of the same. And nothing in the lines of the new features Blizzard has launched the last couple of years.

If it wasn't for the fact that I've read Wolfshead for a while and know that he's passionate about games and gaming - even working in the industry himself - I would have drawn the conclusion that he must have joined one of the more hardcore circles of the anti-WoW/MMO-movement.

Some of his statements could as well have come from one of those ex-players who have woken up from their addiction and now commit their lives to preach about how WoW is an lethal creation from Hell, ruining not only the lives of families but our entire society. I'll give you a few examples to give an idea about the post:

"We are watching this apocalypse unfold before our very eyes."

"[...] technicians who sold their souls at Blizzard Entertainment. For years they have been carefully and methodically concocting an addiction that is designed to keep you playing and paying long after there is any legitimate reason to do so.

"The WoW of 2010 is a MMO where community barely exists if at all. Players don’t even talk to each other anymore as they mindlessly farm so-called heroic dungeons. Players are happy to use each other like cheap whores in order to farm more emblems in order to get more shiny purple pixels."

"Blizzard has willfully programmed selfishness and avarice into the psyche of the modern MMO player via the mechanics of WoW. I’ve seen good people lose their souls and morph into ruthless Jason Bourne robots because of WoW."

"they are basically a numbers game heavily disguised by lots of polish and eye-candy. How many people do you know that played WoW 6 years ago are still playing? Most of them have figured out the equation and moved on."

"They’ve been serving us the same unimaginative crap for the last 11 years and putting a colorful bow on it. And you know what? We keep paying for it."

Some good points
I could go on like this forever. And I must admit that those sweeping statements put me off a bit.

There are several interesting points in the post though. His thoughts about the lack of independent and fearless gaming journalism that dares to take a critical position towards the industry would be well worth a discussion. He also brings up the risk that the design team might take bad decisions for the benefit of the players in the long run, just eager to get demographics that will please the stakeholders. This is underlined by a link to an excellent article by Richard Bartle from 2004, which was new to at least me.

However those golden grains somehow drown in the overwhelming flood of bitterness and criticism. It is a pity because as I said Wolfshead is a writer who has my admiration and respect. He's normally very intelligent, knowledgeable and well worth listening to.

He has been roaming around in the MMO field for a respectable eleven years, and maybe that explains this outburst. It's a long time, long enough for you to get tired with almost any other hobby. It happens all the time. You join a rock band, have fun a few years and then you move on. You take a course in sushi cooking and read up everything there is about that until you get blasé and something else catches your attention.

Is it really the MMO genre that has grown stagnant after eleven years? Or is the article more about his own, personal development, where the preferences will shift over a lifetime?

The lost paradise
I haven't been a part of the MMO phenomena for eleven years, only a little bit more than three. Eleven years ago, when Wolfshead started his exploration of the genre, I didn't have a clue about gaming and I couldn't imagine that there one day would be a game such as WoW. I remember how I for the first time heard about people who on an experimental basis arranged meetings in virtual rooms where they mastered avatars who represented themselves. I was told about it from a researcher at a university institution where I took a course in design of user interfaces, and I marveled at the idea. This was a glimpse of the future! Would I ever see such a thing myself?

I did eventually, in February 2007, when I took my first stumbling steps in Azeroth. A little more than three years later, my eyes are still wide open with amazement and enthusiasm, enchanted by this magical world.

I just don't recognize the description of the state of the game. Wolfshead talks about a lost paradise where he was a part of a virtual world, enjoying the "community, camaraderie, danger, player interdependence, role-playing and player freedom". This has now been opted for a "safe and scripted amusement park ride".

Is this really so? I don't deny that there is an amusement park open 24/7 in Azeroth with fantastic rides to enjoy. But surely that isn't all there is to do? As far as I can tell there's nothing that prevents you from creating your own game content, building your own world, using the world as a stage for whatever you want to. It still happens if you look around. RP:ers do it all the time.

"Too stoned to care?" Grumble, grumble. I beg to differ. Even if I've lost a bit of my newbie innocence, I'm not prepared to ditch the entire genre, preaching Doom and Gloom and "This is the End".

I'm want to believe that there's still a community worth the name. I want to believe that there's a lot of thinking and creativity going on behind the scenes and I have full confidence that we've only seen the beginning. Blizzard's secret MMO project might be the next step. And if not - there will be others. Who knows, maybe Wolfshead himself will be one of those who pushes the MMOs into the next phase?

He ends his article with a few words of wisdom:

"maybe I need to realize that there’s more to this life than looking at a computer screen and hoping for salvation from a virtual world."

Here's finally something we definitely can agree on. If you expect miracles and salvation from playing a computer game you're quite likely to get disappointed. It can't save our souls. But it can bubble us for a little while, distract us, entertain us and possibly give us a few friends.

And that's pretty well done if you ask me.