Game Journal Entry 1 - Sat, Jan 10: WoW Grind
Background Info
I've been playing WoW since Dec 6 with a static group. we decided to to create our characters on an RP server and selected Hoard for our faction. We wanted to create comical evil characters, and so selected Turens as our race for our band, The Nerd Herd. We play every Saturday 1 to 4pm.
Nerd Herd Visits the Orcs
My friend Dennis is starting to see that i'm already getting bored of the game. So he tries to spice it up by suggesting that we hike through the Orc's main city. I totally forget the name of the city and I hardly remember how we got there. I just remember passing through Crossroads on foot and binding my stone there. We're all around level 15-16 so, we decide to attack one of the instanced quests in the Orc city. I can't remember the quest because I have to race through the dialogs -- the other two players have been here before and get impatient. I play a Druid and primarily heal and buff the group. Its a dull job and i have about 4 to 6 buttons to hit. I rarely get to hit the fifth & six buttons which are tied to my DOTs and energy spell damage. Most of the time I'm stuck with heals, HOTs, and buff buttons. About 2 hours into the session, I start falling asleep.
Why do I find this game boring? Its very repetitive. I often feel like I'm working at a job and not getting paid for it. When I level, most of the I don't get anything new, I just get a power increase of what I had before -- powers per increase in level simply just do more damage, heal more per use, etc. Interaction with other players at my level seemed rather scarce. General, chat seems flooded with for sale notices or mundane chat. No RP chat like I would expect from an RP server. So far the game isn't fulfilling my needs:
Game vs Grind
It seems to me that people get more fun out of playing with other people. That interaction can be direct such as players in the same quest or indirectly, such as public player created buildings. I'm just surprised that developers haven't come up with a way to a player to go through a game with minimal grind and heighten their sense achievement and interaction with others. Why do developers feel justified to create a game system that requires grinding? It seems to go against common sense to include it.
I've been playing WoW since Dec 6 with a static group. we decided to to create our characters on an RP server and selected Hoard for our faction. We wanted to create comical evil characters, and so selected Turens as our race for our band, The Nerd Herd. We play every Saturday 1 to 4pm.
Nerd Herd Visits the Orcs
My friend Dennis is starting to see that i'm already getting bored of the game. So he tries to spice it up by suggesting that we hike through the Orc's main city. I totally forget the name of the city and I hardly remember how we got there. I just remember passing through Crossroads on foot and binding my stone there. We're all around level 15-16 so, we decide to attack one of the instanced quests in the Orc city. I can't remember the quest because I have to race through the dialogs -- the other two players have been here before and get impatient. I play a Druid and primarily heal and buff the group. Its a dull job and i have about 4 to 6 buttons to hit. I rarely get to hit the fifth & six buttons which are tied to my DOTs and energy spell damage. Most of the time I'm stuck with heals, HOTs, and buff buttons. About 2 hours into the session, I start falling asleep.
Why do I find this game boring? Its very repetitive. I often feel like I'm working at a job and not getting paid for it. When I level, most of the I don't get anything new, I just get a power increase of what I had before -- powers per increase in level simply just do more damage, heal more per use, etc. Interaction with other players at my level seemed rather scarce. General, chat seems flooded with for sale notices or mundane chat. No RP chat like I would expect from an RP server. So far the game isn't fulfilling my needs:
- a chance to role-play in a social environment
- feel accomplished for the work done
- have fun doing work while trying to archive something
Game vs Grind
It seems to me that people get more fun out of playing with other people. That interaction can be direct such as players in the same quest or indirectly, such as public player created buildings. I'm just surprised that developers haven't come up with a way to a player to go through a game with minimal grind and heighten their sense achievement and interaction with others. Why do developers feel justified to create a game system that requires grinding? It seems to go against common sense to include it.