"Gotta Catch 'Em All:" How I Play Warcraft
We all know that everybody seems to tell everybody how to enjoy their movies/books/games/competitive disco crochet. One of the most annoying manifestations of this phenomenon takes place inside of that behemoth of a MMORPG, WoW! What people always seem to miss is that it's (1) a game, and that (2) people enjoy their games in completely different ways!
For instance, I have a pretty unorthodox approach to my WoW gaming. THIS IS PRETTY RAMBLING, BUT HERE GOES:
(1) I like pretty things!
Not too long ago, I told someone that I played a cat druid because I liked turning into a panther and leaping around with feline grace. The response I got was... less than favorable. "That is so dumb! You should do it because you like doing melee damage with certain mechanics!"
Seriously, my main character is a cat druid because I like the aesthetics of the cat form. And my primary alt is a discipline priest, because I like the pretty spell effects that discipline priests have (force fields and that arcing sparkly rainbow spell). And yet I refuse to heal on my druid, because I hate the "old man broccoli" look of druid healers.
And my main is a night elf druid simply because I like the aesthetics of night elves better than tauren, and the aesthetics of night elf cats better than tauren cats.
And you know what else? I spend a fair amount of time collecting cool looking outfits and putting them in the bank, even if the stats are terrible. And for my gear that I wear when I need to get business done, I make sure that I pick out shirts and tabards to try color coordination.
Oh, and you know what? Screw the haters; blood elves are awesome! I have two blood elf characters because they're pretty and awesome, and their inns and cities are the best ever.
Hardcore players would probably dismiss me because I base so much on aesthetics. But on the other hand, CASUAL players would probably dismiss me, because... well... read on!
(2) I like stories!
Story is so big to me. I don't think Warcraft has the most amazing story in the world, and there are parts of it that make me cringe. But that doesn't matter, because there are still parts of it that I do enjoy, and I love role playing this druid living out life in a colorful world.
When I heard that you could get the title "Loremaster" (and a letter from Tyrande to go with it), I immediately wanted to get it. It's not something I work on all the time, obviously, or I'd already have the title by now, but I like to enjoy all the quests in the game and just savor them and take them one at a time, reading all of the quest text carefully. So I have Loremaster of Northrend, Outland, and Kalimdor; only the Eastern Kingdoms are left before I have the title. But there are still more quests I'll want to do even after getting the title. And I skip a few quest here and there when my druid would find them abhorrent (though unfortunately I can't always do this).
(The FIRST title I insisted on getting, though was "Explorer." And I got that title even before I could fly in Northrend... which is no easy feat, believe me! I went so far out of my way to explore everything.)
The other side to that is that I heard a while ago that the quests in Northrend represent the best storytelling in the game. That is absolutely true. There is absolutely no comparison between the old world quests (or even the Outland quests, for the most part) and Northrend. There are actually cohesive themes to the Northrend quest chains! I never ever expected to get to max level, but I actually did, just from my love of questing and exploration.
Annnnd, let's see, what else? Well, I figured that in my druid's eternal quest to fight evil and preserve balance (and explore everything), she would want to go into all the dungeons and raids! So to my surprise... I'm... I'm actually one of those people now? A raider. Most of my current gear is from the endgame raid, Icecrown Citadel (with some pieces from Trial of the Crusader hard modes). So I have to actually bother to hone my tactics and so on, in my quest to stop Azeroth's villains. I'm usually in Icecrown 1 or 2 nights a week, so I'm a casual raider, I guess, but my guild is able to do 10 man hard modes.
Maybe the best example of my "storytelling governing gameplay" thing, though, is the fact that I like to idle and log out in weird places! I don't hang out in Dalaran, and I don't like logging out in inns. I like to stay in natural jungles and forests as much as possible, and my ultimate favorite zone in the whole game is Zangarmarsh. (I have no words for how much I love Zangarmarsh!)
Oh yeah, and I like to log out in bird form, perched on some ledge. (By the way, I don't like hovering in one spot in bird form, since it's just unnatural. Instead, I soar in circles or perch.)
Oh yeah, another weird thing I like: I like the idea that my druid is kind of paranoid and wants to be friends with lots of different factions that she can run too if things go bad! So I try to become exalted with as many factions as possible. I actually became exalted with the Frostborn and the Explorer's League back when there was literally only one daily quest you could do to get your rep up to exalted.
I HAVE SO MANY QUIRKS, I GUESS IS WHAT I'M SAYING.
(3) I really, really like animals!
This last one is partially based on #2. I love seeing everything, and role playing, and so one consequence is that I try to collect every single mini pet and mount in the game. Wouldn't a druid want every animal?
Of course, much of it is really my OWN love of animals. As you uh... might have guessed from my tumblr. ; ) And I actually keep lists of all the species of animals I've seen in the wild.
Of course, the only mounts/pets I DON'T want are the undead ones. Even if I somehow got the Deathcharger from Strathholme, for example, I would actually rather delete it. For one thing, I generally despise "undead" in stories, finding them just weird and gross and nonsensical rather than scary and interesting.
(But I am VERY inconsistent on this point. I like ghosts, and sometimes skeletons, and sometimes vampires & mummies.)
(And there is NO way a night elf druid would let an undead thing to continue existing. So... yes... I would delete that skeletal warhorse if it ever came into my possession).
For the longest time, I also wrestled with having MECHANICAL mounts/pets or not. I eventually decided on getting them.
This is how far my dedication has taken me:
ANYWAY, SO... UH... yeah. This whole thing was super long, and if this jumbled list was at all interesting to you, I'm glad. But the point is, I play WoW how I like, and that's okay.
And the OTHER main point (haha) is this: I'm going to try to eventually post every single mount and mini pet I have (on tumblr, not here). IT SHOULD BE FUN.
What's YOUR game?
For instance, I have a pretty unorthodox approach to my WoW gaming. THIS IS PRETTY RAMBLING, BUT HERE GOES:
(1) I like pretty things!
Not too long ago, I told someone that I played a cat druid because I liked turning into a panther and leaping around with feline grace. The response I got was... less than favorable. "That is so dumb! You should do it because you like doing melee damage with certain mechanics!"
Seriously, my main character is a cat druid because I like the aesthetics of the cat form. And my primary alt is a discipline priest, because I like the pretty spell effects that discipline priests have (force fields and that arcing sparkly rainbow spell). And yet I refuse to heal on my druid, because I hate the "old man broccoli" look of druid healers.
And my main is a night elf druid simply because I like the aesthetics of night elves better than tauren, and the aesthetics of night elf cats better than tauren cats.
And you know what else? I spend a fair amount of time collecting cool looking outfits and putting them in the bank, even if the stats are terrible. And for my gear that I wear when I need to get business done, I make sure that I pick out shirts and tabards to try color coordination.
Oh, and you know what? Screw the haters; blood elves are awesome! I have two blood elf characters because they're pretty and awesome, and their inns and cities are the best ever.
Hardcore players would probably dismiss me because I base so much on aesthetics. But on the other hand, CASUAL players would probably dismiss me, because... well... read on!
(2) I like stories!
Story is so big to me. I don't think Warcraft has the most amazing story in the world, and there are parts of it that make me cringe. But that doesn't matter, because there are still parts of it that I do enjoy, and I love role playing this druid living out life in a colorful world.
When I heard that you could get the title "Loremaster" (and a letter from Tyrande to go with it), I immediately wanted to get it. It's not something I work on all the time, obviously, or I'd already have the title by now, but I like to enjoy all the quests in the game and just savor them and take them one at a time, reading all of the quest text carefully. So I have Loremaster of Northrend, Outland, and Kalimdor; only the Eastern Kingdoms are left before I have the title. But there are still more quests I'll want to do even after getting the title. And I skip a few quest here and there when my druid would find them abhorrent (though unfortunately I can't always do this).
(The FIRST title I insisted on getting, though was "Explorer." And I got that title even before I could fly in Northrend... which is no easy feat, believe me! I went so far out of my way to explore everything.)
The other side to that is that I heard a while ago that the quests in Northrend represent the best storytelling in the game. That is absolutely true. There is absolutely no comparison between the old world quests (or even the Outland quests, for the most part) and Northrend. There are actually cohesive themes to the Northrend quest chains! I never ever expected to get to max level, but I actually did, just from my love of questing and exploration.
Annnnd, let's see, what else? Well, I figured that in my druid's eternal quest to fight evil and preserve balance (and explore everything), she would want to go into all the dungeons and raids! So to my surprise... I'm... I'm actually one of those people now? A raider. Most of my current gear is from the endgame raid, Icecrown Citadel (with some pieces from Trial of the Crusader hard modes). So I have to actually bother to hone my tactics and so on, in my quest to stop Azeroth's villains. I'm usually in Icecrown 1 or 2 nights a week, so I'm a casual raider, I guess, but my guild is able to do 10 man hard modes.
Maybe the best example of my "storytelling governing gameplay" thing, though, is the fact that I like to idle and log out in weird places! I don't hang out in Dalaran, and I don't like logging out in inns. I like to stay in natural jungles and forests as much as possible, and my ultimate favorite zone in the whole game is Zangarmarsh. (I have no words for how much I love Zangarmarsh!)
Oh yeah, and I like to log out in bird form, perched on some ledge. (By the way, I don't like hovering in one spot in bird form, since it's just unnatural. Instead, I soar in circles or perch.)
Oh yeah, another weird thing I like: I like the idea that my druid is kind of paranoid and wants to be friends with lots of different factions that she can run too if things go bad! So I try to become exalted with as many factions as possible. I actually became exalted with the Frostborn and the Explorer's League back when there was literally only one daily quest you could do to get your rep up to exalted.
I HAVE SO MANY QUIRKS, I GUESS IS WHAT I'M SAYING.
(3) I really, really like animals!
This last one is partially based on #2. I love seeing everything, and role playing, and so one consequence is that I try to collect every single mini pet and mount in the game. Wouldn't a druid want every animal?
Of course, much of it is really my OWN love of animals. As you uh... might have guessed from my tumblr. ; ) And I actually keep lists of all the species of animals I've seen in the wild.
Of course, the only mounts/pets I DON'T want are the undead ones. Even if I somehow got the Deathcharger from Strathholme, for example, I would actually rather delete it. For one thing, I generally despise "undead" in stories, finding them just weird and gross and nonsensical rather than scary and interesting.
(But I am VERY inconsistent on this point. I like ghosts, and sometimes skeletons, and sometimes vampires & mummies.)
(And there is NO way a night elf druid would let an undead thing to continue existing. So... yes... I would delete that skeletal warhorse if it ever came into my possession).
For the longest time, I also wrestled with having MECHANICAL mounts/pets or not. I eventually decided on getting them.
This is how far my dedication has taken me:
- I have 84 mini pets! That's actually how this whole thing started... I really, really wanted the skunk pet (since it is SUPER ADORABLE, and has funny reactions to black cats). But the skunk pet is the reward for having 50 pets! And along the way to getting 50 pets, I was like, YOU KNOW, THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF NEAT ANIMALS. And thus, my interest in World of Pokemoncraft was born!
- I have 106 mounts!
- I actually dropped my professions and leveled up engineering and tailoring, just so that I could get the extra mounts (2 flying carpets, 2 helicopters, and 1 motorcycle. YES, I AM MAYBE A LITTLE BIT CRAZY.
- Some of the coolest mounts require you to do hard mode raids! I am SUPER CLOSE to getting one such hard mode mount: the rusted proto drake.
ANYWAY, SO... UH... yeah. This whole thing was super long, and if this jumbled list was at all interesting to you, I'm glad. But the point is, I play WoW how I like, and that's okay.
And the OTHER main point (haha) is this: I'm going to try to eventually post every single mount and mini pet I have (on tumblr, not here). IT SHOULD BE FUN.
What's YOUR game?