Reflections of Raiding
Posted 06/04/08 at 6:29 AM by Kordansk
So, today I began to reflect, and I learned something about myself that I probably shouldn't share, but since it's a blog why the hell not.
Have you ever asked yourselves why you raid? Why you put up with the pain, the frustration, the anguish and the annoyances? Or perhaps have you ever thought: "Damn, you know what sounds like an amazing idea. Lets assemble 24 other schmucks, go fight a boss that will try to kill me in every possible way, and when I do die 36 times over the course of 4 hours, let's call it good, and then COME BACK TOMORROW." I thought I knew the answer to that question. But before I answer that, lets first delve into the idea behind raiding.
Raiding...
What is it? From the Blizzard standpoint, the mechanic of raiding which is oddly similar to Everquests model is that of building a massive group of varying classes, organizing them into smaller specific groups to accomplish a greater goal of killing some amazingly difficult encounter while attempting to not get yourself killed by random boss mechanics that can include falling rocks, adds, random spots on the floor that cause massive damage, raid curses, pulsing AoE damage, strange demons that shoot a beam of light at you and then travel really really slowly until they reach you and then eat your soul, and finally my personal favorite: assholes who can't click tears at the right time even though they are priests who have levitate, which should make it damn near impossible to crater.
So let me get this straight Blizzard. You want 25 random people, all with varying personalities, different skill sets, and varying amounts of patience to all hang out together and die all for some cool purple pixels and some compliments from random people in town and the occasional nerd rage screams of a new kill. Are we nuts? It's like asking yourself if you want to get together with your friends and try to build a tree house... drunk... and without any sort of plan. It sounds like an awesome idea at the time, but then your buddy falls out of the tree, you smack your thumb with the hammer, another dude shoots a nail through his foot. You get the idea. But in the end (after hours of work), you get a sweet tree house that your friends can look at, and you can sit in it (when its not raining, remember you were drunk, there's holes in the roof), and when you aren't playing WoW, because anyone dumb enough to do that is probably an end game raider who likes to drive himself crazy for the smallest of satisfactions.
So, why do it at all if that is all there is. Well the nerd screams are a large part of why many raid. Being a small percentage of players that can say wow, look what we just did, stands out as well as a great reminder that you can succeed at something. Mainly I do it because I just enjoy sitting in vent with a few friends laughing about what we are doing, wondering what's going to happen, and sometimes taking bets on who's going to die first, crater, or wipe the raid with constructs. Can you ask for a better time than hanging out and laughing about silly things that really mean nothing in the long run of life? Hell no, because the game is supposed to be fun. And that is all there is in life. A small collection of memories from times in your life when you had fun and did something you will always remember.
So I leave you with this EJ Bloggers: What is your motivation to raiding? Sappy moments where tears flow from the satisfaction of being the first guild in the world to beat a boss, or perhaps those moments where you just sit back, relax, and bet your other three fellow raiding buddies in vent that you can get 5 people killed on this next shatter?
Have you ever asked yourselves why you raid? Why you put up with the pain, the frustration, the anguish and the annoyances? Or perhaps have you ever thought: "Damn, you know what sounds like an amazing idea. Lets assemble 24 other schmucks, go fight a boss that will try to kill me in every possible way, and when I do die 36 times over the course of 4 hours, let's call it good, and then COME BACK TOMORROW." I thought I knew the answer to that question. But before I answer that, lets first delve into the idea behind raiding.
Raiding...
What is it? From the Blizzard standpoint, the mechanic of raiding which is oddly similar to Everquests model is that of building a massive group of varying classes, organizing them into smaller specific groups to accomplish a greater goal of killing some amazingly difficult encounter while attempting to not get yourself killed by random boss mechanics that can include falling rocks, adds, random spots on the floor that cause massive damage, raid curses, pulsing AoE damage, strange demons that shoot a beam of light at you and then travel really really slowly until they reach you and then eat your soul, and finally my personal favorite: assholes who can't click tears at the right time even though they are priests who have levitate, which should make it damn near impossible to crater.
So let me get this straight Blizzard. You want 25 random people, all with varying personalities, different skill sets, and varying amounts of patience to all hang out together and die all for some cool purple pixels and some compliments from random people in town and the occasional nerd rage screams of a new kill. Are we nuts? It's like asking yourself if you want to get together with your friends and try to build a tree house... drunk... and without any sort of plan. It sounds like an awesome idea at the time, but then your buddy falls out of the tree, you smack your thumb with the hammer, another dude shoots a nail through his foot. You get the idea. But in the end (after hours of work), you get a sweet tree house that your friends can look at, and you can sit in it (when its not raining, remember you were drunk, there's holes in the roof), and when you aren't playing WoW, because anyone dumb enough to do that is probably an end game raider who likes to drive himself crazy for the smallest of satisfactions.
So, why do it at all if that is all there is. Well the nerd screams are a large part of why many raid. Being a small percentage of players that can say wow, look what we just did, stands out as well as a great reminder that you can succeed at something. Mainly I do it because I just enjoy sitting in vent with a few friends laughing about what we are doing, wondering what's going to happen, and sometimes taking bets on who's going to die first, crater, or wipe the raid with constructs. Can you ask for a better time than hanging out and laughing about silly things that really mean nothing in the long run of life? Hell no, because the game is supposed to be fun. And that is all there is in life. A small collection of memories from times in your life when you had fun and did something you will always remember.
So I leave you with this EJ Bloggers: What is your motivation to raiding? Sappy moments where tears flow from the satisfaction of being the first guild in the world to beat a boss, or perhaps those moments where you just sit back, relax, and bet your other three fellow raiding buddies in vent that you can get 5 people killed on this next shatter?
Total Comments 4
Comments
|
For me, it's the satisfaction of knowing that I am in the top half a percent of players in the game in terms of achievement. It's also that fact that a raider can do so much more than a non-raider. We can solo lower level instances that other level 70s would wipe on, and we can make a undergeared group survive in places like Kara.
It's a strange phenomenon... |
|
|
|
I think that I raid for my own satisfaction, I can't really think of any other reason that i show up every night to raid other than to be able to say that I've accomplished something that so few wow players do.
|
|
|
|
|
I raid because it allows me to screw with 24 other people.
|
|
|
|
|
e-fame
|
|
|
Total Trackbacks 0
Trackbacks
Recent Blog Entries by Kordansk
- Reflections of Raiding (06/04/08)
