Hell is other people

[dragovianknight]

The joy (and I mean that will full sarcasm) of Twitter is making a post about how those WoW raiders who claim nobody would raid if other content gave comparable gear are just admitting they don't raid because they like the content, they raid because they like having the best rewards, and immediately getting a reply touting how FUN raiding is because of the teamwork and overcoming challenges and being rewarded with the best gear.

But just engaging in teamwork and overcoming challenges wouldn't be rewarding by itself.

Apparently the shiniest cosmetics, the achievements, and the exclusive mounts also won't cut it.

Nope, the real reward is having the most powerful gear so you can complain how easy and boring the world is, and tell the people who primarily play in the open world that they "don't need gear" because "nothing can kill you in the world anyway."

Comments

[cmcmck]

That said, my 17th century soldiers always wanted the best gear........

[zero_pixel_count]

Ah yeah those guys. PoE has a lot of them. They have to have the best gear (and in PoE the most 'meta' build) so that they can sustain their sense of superiority in the face of their actual mediocrity.

[maureenlycaon_dw]

Yep.

I wish game designers would ask themselves: "If this thing in the game didn't reward any gear, would players still do it? Is it fun?"

Roleplay gives no gear, yet people do it. Something to think about.

[dragovianknight]

I wish they would, too. But look at all the times Blizzard has taken something that got popular response, like the original version of Torghast, and ruined it because they were so afraid people might not do it. Their need to tie everything into the power loop - which, between balancing the fun out of it and making it mandatory, turns everything into a chore - absolutely fosters the toxic meta mindset, even as they claim they want players to have choices and not be bound to the meta.

It's why I can't get too excited over dragon riding in the upcoming expansion, because I'm not convinced that they won't meddle with it until it's ruined. Especially since they've spent the past decade convincing players that flying (and convenience in general) is bad for the game.

[dragovianknight]

(Look at me, remembering DW two months later.)

I often feel this way about raiding. Specifically, every time a Real Raider™ starts spouting off about how LFR or other "trivial" content shouldn't reward gear, I want to give them shit about how if they're only raiding for gear, and not because they enjoy it, they should probably find something they DO enjoy. But most of that type frankly aren't worth the oxygen wasted in talking to them.

[maureenlycaon_dw]

Look how long I took to react to this. ;)

But yes. The real reason they raid is for status. It's the in-game equivalent of owning a Jaguar or something. The idea of "fun" is opaque to them.

There's a great, if ancient website on this:

http://www.l2pnoob.org/