From the Onyxia Wipe Animation to the infamous Leeroy Jenkins videos, each represent the frustration and anger when it comes to unsuccessful raiding in WoW. Take for example, the Onyxia Wipe Animation video. The video depicts a high-stakes raid taking place and the "leader" of the guild barking orders at the "welps". As the raid goes underway, some of the welps aren't fulfilling their roles as well as they should be. From there, the raid becomes a complete disaster and the leader of the raid becomes irate and starts yelling at everyone. In comparison, in the Leeroy Jenkins depicts a guild preparing for a particularly challenging raid, when all of a sudden Leeroy, a member of their guild, rushed into the dungeon before the rest of the guild had time to fully prepare. As you might have guessed, the raid becomes completely unsuccessful and everyone dies. While everyone's characters are dying, they begin to yell obscenities at Leeroy for ruining their entire preparation for this raid. Both this example from Leeroy Jenkins and from Onyxia Wipe Animation are fairly common occurrence, in varying degrees, when it comes to unsuccessful raiding. That being said, when all things are said and done WoW is meant to be a form of entertainment and is in fact a game. So then why do players sit through this beratement from their fellow guild members when they "mess up" or fail their raid attempt?
Well, in my experience it's all about the reward (loot) at the end of a long night of raiding. In some ways, being in a guild is a little being in an informal army. When you're the new kid, you get treated like garbage until you can prove to other people that you're capable. As time goes and you rise in rank and get more reward. In the end, it's up to the player to decide the level of importance and commitment they have to playing video games. Some will play it casually, others will consume all of their free time. My only hope is that no matter how dedicated you are to games, that you don't end up looking like the boys from South Park when they got caught up in playing WoW.
Photo Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OYueIdI_2L0/maxresdefault.jpg - WoW
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/southpark/images/c/cb/WorldofWarcraft11.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100303001128 - South Park
I really like this article, because it brings up some interesting points and arguments. I think you posed an interesting question when you asked "does there become a point where the amount of time spent playing the game outweighs the rewards"?
ReplyDeleteI think its fair to say that gaming can be viewed as a hobby, much like other recreational things, such as playing sports or doing something artistic such as painting. If someone spent most of their free time painting, others wouldn't view this as a 'waste of time'. Like gaming, its simply something that some individuals are passionate about and get personal gratitude from. Sure, if the amount of time you spend gaming or painting starts to have a negative influence on your outside life or relationships, then the rewards are probably being outweighed. But if its simply a pass time that you are passionate about, the rewards will be on a personal level, and its hard to outweigh that with time spent. In my opinion, time spend enjoying yourself cannot be considered time wasted.
You also asked another question, saying "why do players sit through this beratement from their fellow guild members when they mess up or fail their raid attempt"?
Well, you could ask the same question to individuals who spend their free time playing a sport. Your team mates are going to get angry when you mess up, and failure is an inevitable part of life. But you learn from failure, and you shouldn't let the harsh words of others stop you from doing what you are passionate about. If you enjoy gaming, and it isn't a detriment to your life outside of the game, then why stop? because people are going to get mad at you sometimes? HELL NO! Move past the negativity and continue doing what you enjoy.
P.S. The southpark reference gave me a good chuckle.
You use of quotes around the words "leader" and "welps" leaves me wondering how you interpreted the Onyxia Wipe video. Whelps, are baby dragons that are a part of this dungeon. Because one of the raiders' mistake, the whelps (monsters within the game - not players) came out and threatened to wipe the group. There is no reason to think the "leader" of this raid was not in fact an actual leader within this group and so the quotes are for what?
ReplyDeleteBasically, what I'm saying is that I think you may have interpreted this raid leader as being even more aggressive than he actually was (which is amazing considering how aggressive he actually was).