Whiny Post Day

Looking at the SAN’s guild calendar I discovered that today is the blogosphere’s official “whiny post day”. My initial thought was that this was perfect for me since I almost always have something to whine about, but I soon realized that choosing exactly what to whine about was quite difficult, so I looked through various blogs for inspiration. I came across this post made by Jaedia’s other half. I think I’ve found a ranting soul mate, I’ve even arranged (through Jaedia mind you!) man-date for us later! So here goes, short rants about everything that annoys me in WoW.

Language

I’ll be the first one to admit that I can be a bit of a grammar-nazi at times. I try to keep my own writing as good as I can without having to proof read. Since I’m considering to study English I think it’s good practice and something I want to make a habit. Naturally I don’t expect the same from everyone else, it’s just the extreme cases that get on my nerves. Text message language or exaggerated leet speak makes me want to introduce my forehead to my desk repeatedly. Is typing “y” instead of yes or why really that much faster? I can’t imagine it is. And secondly it can be very confusing at times if I ask someone if they like gnomes for instance, does “y” mean yes or why? I can see the use for this kind of language when you’re in the middle of a fight and haven’t got time to write a lengthy answer, but that’s the only exception. It’s probably a terribly silly thing to be annoyed about, I just can’t help it.

I’ve also developed a bad relationship with the word “lol”. Out of habit, probably from when I used to RP a lot, I used to either write “hehe” or “haha” I might even use emotes in OOC chat like *laughs*, *grins* or *giggles*. It’s not so much the word I dislike, it’s how people used it. I’ve come across those who seem to think “lol” is a form punctuation and will end every single sentence with the word, regardless if something is funny or not. The other thing that annoys me about lol, although not as much, is that I’ve got the impression that very few actually are “laughing out loud” when they write lol. Again, probably a silly thing to get annoyed about, but as I said I’m a grammar-nazi at times.

PuGs

Where to start. Gear score and DPS meters are probably the biggest pain in the arse when PuGing heroics. You don’t need to do 5k+ DPS to clear fucking heroic Violet Hold! Gah! I don’t know if these people are simply ignorant, get off on harassing others or just see themselves as the most awesome people on the planet and think that anyone who does less DPS or have a lower GS than themselves aren’t worth their time. The worst kind are the ones who complain when they obviously haven’t got a clue them selves. I’ve seen people in ilvl232+ gear mock a newly dinged guy in blues and a few epics when they’re getting out DPS-ed by them. A high gear score also seems to be an excuse for not moving out of the fire or even thinking about your own aggro. Apparently having a high gear score means that everyone else automatically must suck if you die.

Chores

Before I go on ranting I’d just like to say that I’m aware that most of these things are things I don’t have to do, but they are quite often needed if you are going to get anywhere in the game. I just lose all enjoyment I get out of the game when something starts feeling like a chore or a second job.

Handing out the most valuable badges through doing the easiest end game content on a daily basis is in my opinion one of the worst decisions Blizzard made in Wrath, they have even acknowledged it them selves. I won’t get into why I think handing out high-end gear to people with little or no raid experience is a bad idea, but how it affects my self and why I hate it so much. I used to primarily raid 10-mans. When ICC was introduced a week’s worth of heroic dailies was roughly half of my weekly income of frost badges. Not doing these would be to seriously nerf my self and I would eventually fall behind the rest of my 10-man group. I am “all or nothing” raider most of the time. Either I strive to make my character as good as possible in order to help my guild out or I don’t bother at all. If I’d like to raid Blizzard are “making me” do content that I’ve done hundreds of times before for several months in a row and that was tuned for those who just dinged lvl 80. It’s the raiding equivalent of Argent Tournament dailies. It’s a chore. The fact that I often have to PuG or semi-PuG these heroics doesn’t help one bit.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of things that annoy me about WoW is the same thing that keeps me playing. The people playing it. WoW would suck as a single player game. It’s the community that have kept the subscriber numbers increasing since WoW first launched. When you’re playing an MMORPG you’re not just investing time in a character, but also in people. Whenever I’ve tried a different MMORGP it’s always been the lack of people I know, old friends, that’s kept me from continuing to play that game. If all my friends and guildies were suddenly to vanish in thin air I would most likely leave the game then and there. After some time I might get back into it and find new people to play with or try a different game, but there is no escaping the fact that the people make the game, for good or for worse.