Aestu wrote:
Speaking as someone who's sig is that I acquired the Ashes of Alar, without ninjaing them (the latter being the operative phrase given how rare THAT is), I suppose I'm obligated to offer my opinion about the Dark Phoenix, which will be a guild reward in Cataclysm.
I think it's despicable.
I don't feel it undermines me personally that other players get the same mount I do, or one with the same model at 85 - after all, I myself farmed it at 80, when it was already trivial. I don't begrudge this any more than I would begrudge everyone potentially having an ICC drake or a 310 mount or whatever, provided they did whatever it took to get to that point.
My issue with awarding the Dark Phoenix as a guild reward is that it's a shameless capitalization on a pre-existing item that has prestige attached to it partly because of its visual appearance and partly because of the sheer amount of effort and luck required to obtain it. What makes awarding it as an easy-to-acquire guild reward despicable is not that it undermines my sense of accomplishment, but that it is a sop for what has become a very negative force in WoW - players don't really enjoy the game, but are driven to seek loot and prestige in the most superficial ways possible.
The same players who will think the Dark Phoenix is awesome and will ride it everywhere are the same players who mindlessly zerg ICC and farm heroics for hours, in dead silence, with total indifference, so they can say they're good based on their I AM A BAD PLAYER and shiny welfare epics. These players are the bane of the community; they have no real enjoyment of the game, and they're a menace to players who actually do enjoy the game and play for fun.
They are humorless. They refuse challenge. They are childish and unreliable. They have no interest in interacting with the game world or those around them. They log off as soon as the loot train stops.
The only reason that anyone cares about having gear in this game is that it used to mean something: accomplishment, commitment. The attitudes we see with some players about having a full, trivially acquired tier set today are nothing more than a capitalization on how other players used to feel about having done the same, back when it mattered. The Dark Phoenix is the same - cynically capitalizing on attitudes in a different context.
Now you really want proof this sort of disgusting cynicism is what's at work? Consider this: The Dark Phoenix is completely inappropriate as a guild reward. Why not give guildies a faction mount - a gryphon, hippogryph, copter, bat, wind rider or dragonhawk - that can be tricked out in guild colors and fitted with a guild standard? Wouldn't that be a wholly more fitting guild reward? Wouldn't it be more appropriate if the Dark Phoenix were a reward for Glory of Grim Batol, you know, with the Twilight Dragonflight and all?
The only reason, therefore, to choose this a guild reward over something that's actually appropriate for the purpose is to appeal to a base love of cheap bling. The players who are won over by this sort of thing don't enjoy playing the game for itself, least of all the conceptual continuity of the experience.
Blizzard thinks they are making the game more accessible to casuals. They are wrong, and this highlights why they are so gravely wrong. "Casuals" don't get emotionally invested in the game; they play it for fun. Creating something that appeals to the community's most negative and increasingly problematic elements drives them away. Never has the game been less casual friendly; new players, those who don't have the time or inclination to "keep up with the Joneses", who simply log on to have fun and not be innundated by spam, security warnings, and idiotic pre-teens in trade channel have never been at a greater disadvantage, have never had less reason to play.
This sort of profound wrong-headedness has, for me, sealed that I will not play the expansion. This is not the game I want to play.
So basically, you're whining that a game is just that, a game. You didn't receive your ashes when it was difficult, or required skill, yet you're treating it like you did. Monotheist already touched upon that, though.
It's RNG. Shit happens. Sometimes you shit, sometimes you get shit on.
It really just breaks down to this: Your statement earlier about convincing people that something you want is worth their time by deception.
Clearly outplayed.
