With as many years as warcraft has been around and having seen countless holiday events, patch releases, expansion launches and other major events come and go it still amazes me how completely oblivious to the obvious the people that create this game can be.
Once more winter's veil is upon us, a day meant to represent and celebrate good will toward man (and orc too I guess) but we end up filled with frustration as we quest to see what greatfather winter has thought kind enough to give us this gear.
Setting out to the tree to see which gifts are under it with our name on them we are filled with excitement and joy only to find ourselves met with people on giant mounts using toys and gadgets to make themselves even bigger. They stand, in packs, on top of the tree and all the presents below it. You hope there will be a few with your name on it, because you have been a good little boy or girl, and you start playing with camera angles zooming all the way in trying to see that one with your name on it to collect your present.
Maybe you are able to get to it and have mastered the click on the item under the huge mount dance but many don't. Either they have not mastered how to manage to still to click their gift among the gathering of huge mounts or they get too frustrated too quickly and give up and resort to anger or even rage.
People yelling at others, people being jerks and standing on their huge mounts having fun by the process of annoying others, people that just go in and get their stuff and leave having to be subjected to the ill feelings being thrown around by both the frustrated ones and the halfwits on mounts. It makes for a good time for none, except for maybe the person who wants to watch the world burn.
You would think after all these years that blizzard would get it right, just once, and put the dismount aura around the winter veil tree so this would not happen. So that this time that was meant to spread cheer and good will toward man would not turn into spreading hate toward your fellow gamer instead. But no, once again blizzard has failed, as they always do, to make what is intended to be a fun event that grants happiness to those that participate into another thing that not only shows how toxic the community is sometimes but actively encourages the community to behave toxic.
It makes one wonder, when this has been going on for so many years and blizzard knows it goes on and does nothing to fix it, what are their true intentions. Does blizzard actually want a toxic community? Because when push comes to shove not putting in a dismount arua around the winters veil tree can only be for two reasons. Blizzard either wants to create a toxic community, which if that is the case they are doing a wonderful job, or the failed once again.
Either way, what was once again meant to be a happy season of presents and joy turns into an unhappy one of anger and frustration for many.
Perhaps one day blizzard will open their eyes and stop being willfully blind and ignoring easily corrected problems, even if small, like this one. That is my winter's veil wish for next season. That blizzard reads this post and learns, for once, and never lets this happen again.
My advice to those that have not mastered the zoom and click would be to wait until later in the week to get your presents. Greatfather winter will wait for you and they will still be there for a little while. Do not let the jerks on large mounts and blizzard troll you. Enjoy the season and the day and stay away from the winter's veil tree.
Merry winters veil all.
The Queue: “Hope” is the thing with feathers
1 hour ago
Belated seasonal greetings!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the still-not-fixed Mammothapalooza: it's a hotly debated topic on the official forums (esp. the US) , the skinny being that many pose that same question regardings Blizz intentions (in the current climate) and Blizz apparently FINALLY giving people temp bans etc. for these antics (understandable given the current climate; anecdotically, I seriously see more WoD commercials on the Dutch telly now than before the launch).
It would be easier if they just made it so people could not mount there and it would be a non-issue. Not sure why they have not done that after all these years when it happens every year like this.
DeleteWelcome to a world without consequence. In real life those people would be drug down off their mounts by angry mobs and beaten. I engage them, call them out, use open chat to question their humanity and remind them that they ARE their avatar. I ask them if they need friends or attention. They sputter and grief and spam for a while but i am relentless. The goal is to make the mob question them as human beings-to strip away their avatar to reveal the ugly person behind it. At that point they turn tail and flee.
ReplyDeleteThey think they can do anything they want because it is not them. But I agree, your avatar is an extension of yourself. Unless you are on a RP server and RPing something, your character is who you are. If you are a jerk in game you are a jerk outside of it as well.
DeleteA story about of one of those who was yelling at the assholes, they were "yelling" about getting off Grandfather", cussing up a blue streak - even made me blush! I whispered to them, this is pretty normal and instead of cussing, maybe use shrinking powder on them. I get back in a whisper "EAT ME!", all in caps. At that point, I realized, that not only those who are being big are 12 years old, but so are the ones screaming their fool heads off and cussing. The game has become (maybe it was all these years) a place for small people (in attitude and pretense) to pretend that they are big and smart.
ReplyDeleteI truly would like to put a rifle in their hands, drop them behind enemy lines - not far, just 5 klicks or so, and see how long they last.
Thanks again for a thoughtful post, GE.
-roo
Happy holidays Roo.
DeleteYour story just goes to show there are not only one type of jerk, there are many. So it is not only the people on the mammoths but the people yelling at them for being on the mammoths sometimes.
The game is a place for small people to pretend like they are big people. Sometimes I feel bad for the people acting out in game because I always think of them as these people that get crapped on all day long in real life that makes them feel this is how they can make themselves feel better, more important. Funny part is, it just shows how pitiful their real life might be, it does not give them the strength they are reaching for acting out like that.
I like your idea. I would bet they do not last 10 minutes. Lets see how long that tough guy attitude lasts in the real world.
Definitely an annoyance and an easy one to fix. Only a minor annoyance compared to how unfinished professions are though! I know you've posted on this before Grumpy, but it's only now that I have my alts coming up that I see how broken professions+Garrisons are and this is as good a place as any to vent!
ReplyDeleteJC has the Small Pouch of Coins for extra Secrets of Draenor books, Engineering does not (all profs should have this).
My non enchanter hunter with Garrison building has access to all enchants (except the weapons). My enchanter with the Garrison building does not! and has to buy each recipe before he can make them (please tell me I missed something here!).
Some professions require the cooldown mats to level up easily, others don't.
Regular changes in recipes because they were so wrong to begin with...
Really unfinished... I guess they'll be cleaned up by the next major release...
Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.
DeleteA lot of people are finally seeing what I was talking about when I said professions were in a bad place. Over all I think they were at a "still in development" stage when the game was released and they never finished fine tuning them.
The thing you mention about the non enchanter being able to make everything but the enchanter having to buy all the patterns is really a huge issue. How can someone without the profession make everything from the second they have the building but the person with the actual profession needs to wait 70 days + to get all the patterns. That was poor design. They should have made the building need books too, and then with books you can teach the people in the building the pattern, same as the person needs to learn it. That would have been more balanced.
The whole everything being tied to cooldown materials is horrible. I believe if they were not soulbound it would not as huge of an issue, because you can buy them or have alts make them for you to speed it up. But otherwise it is horrible being locked to cooldowns for everything.
In their effort to fix professions they destroyed them. I am not looking forward to the next expansion when they have to take a step back and try to fix this mess they made.