This weekends bonus event is the arena skirmish event where you need to win 10 arena skirmish matches for 500 conquest points and you get double honor from each skirmish you do. Being I do not PvP often this is basically a non event. It is a non event I am extremely happy to see. I am actually happier to see this weekends arena event than I would be to see an event I would actually participate in.
At first I, like many others, did not like the idea that there would be weekends where there would be nothing for us. PvPers did not like the PvE stuff, nor did they have a use for it. PvEers did not like the PvP stuff, nor did they have a use for it. And anyone that does not pet battle, or in the case of a guild mate already has every pet in the game at max level, the pet battle weekend event is useless. So the people that liked whatever it is they like did not like the idea they were being left out some weekends.
It wasn't until I actually participated in a weekend event, like I did last week and the week before, that I realized I do not actually like these events. If anything they got in the way of other things I had wanted to do.
Sure it was fun doing some throwback time walking BC dungeons the first few times, but as you approached 10, 15 or even 20 dungeons, it started to get more annoying more than fun. Even more so if you were a DPS and did not have a guild group, having to wait in queue for these things was no short event, it was a long and drawn out thing.
The apexis crystal one did not bother me as much because I was there anyway as it was new content and I was bringing new characters in there anyway, so bonus apexis crystals, yes please. But even while getting my bonus crystals I thought, this is going to suck in a few weeks when I am done with this place and feel as if I have to come back just to grind crystals on a specific weekend.
It is nice to have options, sure, we all love that and the game needs more of them but these bonus weekends are not options always options. Not if they fit in your wheelhouse of the thing you wish to do.
At this moment if you are a raider you "need" to get that 4th coin for the week. If you are gearing up through apexis gear and want to do it as best and as fast as you can you "need" to grind on T2 during the apexis event. How exactly is that an option?
For me this weekends event is an option. It is something I could do, if I wanted to, but being it does not benefit me in any way it is completely optional. With that said, I shall be opting out of this weekends bonus event and I am so very glad that this weekend it is an option for me to do so.
In time the "need' will go away and even the ones we might feel like we "need" to do them will also become optional, they just aren't right at the moment for some.
I'll end up sitting on 10 coins at some point in the future and will not feel the "need" to do the time walking dungeons to get my 4th extra roll for the week. The people gearing up with apexis gear will eventually get every slot done and no longer feel the "need" to grind like a mofo during the bonus event. The pet battler that wants to level pets will eventually get all the pets they want leveled so they won't feel the "need" to take advantage of the pet bonus event.
At the moment however, for me, any time walker event or dungeon event that pops up that will allow me to get an extra roll feels mandatory on any character I intend to raid with. I might even go so far as to say I would be more inclined to grind for crystals while the apexis bonus event is going on now that the fragments to upgrade the gear is BoA.
So I am welcoming a weekend where there is nothing I feel I "need" to do. I am really liking that it is an arena event. The idea that I would get conquest from completing the quest and bonus honor from participating in each skirmish means nothing to me. Sure it is bait, bait to try to get people to PvP, but it is not working on me. My free time is more important to me and I am really glad to not have an event I feel I "need" to participate in.
For those PvPers out there, have fun with the event. I hope for you and what you are aiming for it is less "needed" than getting a 4th coin is for me so that you can only do it if you really want to where I felt I had no option. But for me, I am very happy to see this bonus event because this bonus event means I have no bonus event telling me what to do this weekend and I am free to do whatever it is that I want.
Was it their intention that I feel happier when the bonus weekend event is something I do not want to do than I do when it is something I want to do? I am sure that is not working as intend.
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Completely agree.
ReplyDeleteI was actually looking forward not doing the Wrath dungeons either (so who's gonna know I don't have a 4th coin shhhh), but now they added a Hellfire cache. Blasted. Still might not do it.
I might make some effort to do them on alts for a cache. But I would do it on my main for the coin anyway. Alts, did not so much care for the coin, they will all be sitting at 10 the whole expansion anyway. But free gear, I might have to do them now.
DeleteGuess blizzard notice that people do not want to do these things, so they add to add more bait.
Someone said in Guild Chat yesterday that they were bored and had nothing to do. Several of us were aghast: we only get to do half the stuff we want to do, it's a constant battle trying to decide priorities and balance between the grinds we feel we have to do (Garrisons, rep, T2, etc) and stuff we'd like to do (pet or mount hunting, old content rep & achievements, etc).
ReplyDeleteAnd this guy only joined in WoD, he has all the back content to explore.
My point (yes, I got there eventually) is I think that Blizz brought these themed weekends in for the "I'm-bored-I-don't-know-what-to-do" crowd. (Failed here, but nevermind, I think the point is still valid.)
When I log in I pretty much know what I'll be doing for the next 3 - 4 hours. My time is limited so I plan it out, especially in the week.
Weekends are mine to explore the game, and frankly I don't need the added pressure from Blizz telling me I should do this or that this weekend because there's a special offer on Apexis crystals or whatever.
When I took my two months out earlier this year and started missing the game, I thought about what I was missing and what I wasn't. When I came back I made damn sure I was concentrating my efforts on the good, and only doing the bare minimum necessary of the bad.
It's like all those NPCs that are scattered around the Garrison: the dwarf, the gnome, Garrison Jones, etc etc. They all mock me with their yellow exclamation marks above their head. I felt pressure to click on them and add their quests to the long "to do" list that is my quest log. Levelling up conditions you like that, I was like Pavlov's dog and that bell never stopped ringing.
Since I came back from my hiatus I don't even look at them. I cleared my quest log of anything I didn't want to do, and I only put stuff in if I intend to do it soon. It's as liberating as keeping a clear email inbox. You have to be brutal, and a wee bit selfish, to make sure you get enjoyment and stop piling the pressure on.
I realised there is absolutely no way I can keep up with everything, so I just focus on what is realistically achievable in the time I have. I'm much happier now.
I understand where that person is coming from. Blizzard is at fault as I see it. They are not offering options. They laid out one path of one type of thing to do. It is either do this or do nothing. Even the bonus weekends fit that. "This is a limited time thing, do this".
DeleteI'll use valor gear (because I love to) as an example. In mists (and always) how your character achieved personal progression was through gear. The difference was in mists there were options for how you got that gear for the most part. You could do dungeons, LFR, quests, raids, scenarios, all to get valor. You could pick your poison. There were a lot of options.
Now we have raids. That is it. Raids. Even T2 gear is just gear intended to gear you up for raids. The only way to personally progress your character is to raid. If you do not like to raid maybe you could do grind apexis. But what if that is not your thing? It isn't most peoples things. So there are no options.
So playing devils advocate for the guild member. What if he does not want to raid and do not want to grind. What is there in game for him to do personal progression? Nothing. So I can see why he is bored.
I don't like when people say there is "nothing to do" because it is wrong. There is a lot to do. But if they were to do there is "nothing I want to do" I can 100% understand that.
I like to grind, I like to do quests and I like to raid. And even I am at a loss for things to do sometimes. I am doing things more so because I "have to" and less because I want to. So someone new like him, yeah, I get where he is coming from.
I, like you, do not have enough time to do everything I would want to. So I am in the same place, for now. But maybe he just has not developed the pattern we, as longer players, have fallen into.
I am beginning to learn, more and more, to be like you. Try to limit what I do to what I want to do and not feel like what I "have to" do. But it is a big change for me. I'll get there too. But for the moment, any time I see a quest, I do it. Because I like to quest.
Do you know, I didn't get that 4th coin. I couldn't be bothered. And this weekend's one, the skirmishes, I also couldn't be bothered because I was already conquest capped. I think the previous weekend's one I managed to do because I had already done my dailies. Like you I have enough things to do...
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about those 500 conquest points. What motivator is that if someone is already capped. It should not count toward cap for the week the way the coin does not count.
DeleteWell, with the coin I could use it now. But I am sure in time I won't and it will no longer be a motivating factor for me.