Kaiganeru's Journal: WoW -- Teaching the wrong values in gaming?

I've been reading a great deal lately on Slashdot about games, and WoW in particular. I'd like to submit a different angle, one I've read about elsewhere and concluded has a great deal of merit.

The premise is: WoW teaches the wrong values in gaming (and by extension, in life in general as many of the players are teen and pre-teen).

Aside from the messed up economies and the boredom that many people have pointed out results in the gold buying (that entire issue is another topic entirely) there is the very question of "What does this game really teach?"

Do players advance in relation to the time and effort they spend? Can a player obtain the very best "Epic" gear - Tier 1 (Molten Core) Tier 2, (Blackwing Lair) and Tier 3 (Naxxramas) on their own?

No, they can't.

Blizzard made a point of assuring players that they would be able to achieve the goals of the game, be able to experience all the game offers and advance their character/s on their own or perhaps in a group of several people.

This isn't the case.

The only way the game will allow a play to obtain the highly sought after Tier 1-3 epic gear is by joining an "Endgame" guild.

Endgame Guilds are groups of level sixties who typically consider themselves superior to the rest of the players, and who "raid" the endgame instances on average 4-6 times per week to take advantage of all the instances.

Since endgame instances are reset one a week (and more often for the "easier" ones)"Casual Endgame" doesn't work, I've seen it time and again, players who don't want to spend every night of the week with 40 people they generally don't really like, try to create a "casual" endgame guild and it falls apart -- it has to. A group cannot learn the strategies and complete an instance (and when I say instance in this article, I am referring only to Endgame) without a great deal of trial and error -- and if they only play "casually" running twice or maybe three times a week, they will never reach the point of getting to the end of the instance before it resets - leading to frustration and the members going to "real" endgame guilds.

One of the problems is that anyone who has 5 hours to give every evening, 5 times a week (and with a non-mandatory 6th and often 7th) is generally not the sort of person I'd choose to spend time with; we are talking about kids and adults who don't have any sort of real life.

Aside from that problem; what is actually taught? "Hone your skills and improve and you'll get the best that there is to offer?"

Or... "Stick with a group, wait it out, accumulate the DKP (points that are used to bid on gear) and eventually you'll have the items you want." Not because you're a good player or did anything right, but merely because you waited it out.

Is this the idea, or "lesson" we want to convey? WoW is a microcosm; so we really want to teach that having the ability to stay quiet and keep a low profile in a large group of people, usually folks you don't really like -- and who rarely assist each other (There are exceptions to this, of course) and keep slugging away, and you'll get the rewards.

Blizzard tried to implement a better set of gear for the so-called casual player.. but to obtain it, one must expend a great deal of money, and a do things that do require the assistance of others.

Where is the single user content? Shouldn't a player simply by dint of his or her own abilities be able to obtain the best the game has to offer without spending all of his/her gaming time in a huge group? Endgame raids are tedious in the extreme -- once you experience the "ooh" and "aaah" and "Wow, isn't that cool?" it becomes a GRIND. Day after day, grinding to get something you want.

This isn't my idea of fun. The only other option is to go the PvP route -- and spend tremedous amounts of time doing that; literally 10+ hours a day to reach the point where one can obtain "epic" gear -- and these epics aren't CLOSE in quality to what one can get in the Endgame instances.

There are a great many players who are hardcore, but just don't want to do Endgame, not the way it is put together now. Those players end up making alts, and becoming experts on the "blue" instances, the regular level 60 dungeons where five person groups are the max (and two in which ten people are the max) -- getting better and better at these and becoming experts.

But there is no reward for that; these instances don't grant the "epic" gear -- a brand new level sixty can obtain in a few months what a seasoned player of a year and a half will never see -- unless he or she is willing to become one of a large mass of players in an endgame guild.

I've observed (and joined one or two) of these guilds... There is generally not a lot of friendship going on; there is, however, a good deal of greed and immaturity.

Yet Blizzard keeps introducing new Endgame content to keep the level 60s interested.. raising the cap to 70 with the expansion, new races, and of course, new ENDGAME instances.

Never any real attempt at implementing new quests for gear that single players can obtain. If you want it, join an endgame guild; Blizzard has very little interest -- and this is financially shortsighted since the majority of players are NOT in endgame guilds -- in creating HIGH END content for single players or smaller groups; the people who make up the majority of the players.

As for the many 14 year olds who play and progress to endgame? I'd rather have a game "teach" that the best things are obtained through diligence, working on progressing and bettering your skills, than simply sitting it out until it's "your turn" to get the items without any particular effort on your part other than the ability to "wait your turn" with a sense of entitlement and superiority.

Which skill set is better suited to real life? -- And for those saying "it's just a game" be aware that there are millions of teens who play this "game" for most of their waking leisure (and non-leisure) hours.