Why People Think Wrath Is Easy
This was originally going to be a post bashing a PuG I was in the other night that unsuccessfully tried to run Heroic Utgarde Keep. I even had a graphic created showing my DPS compared to the other people in the group, with the names of the guilty blurred for their protection.
I realize now that a much better post would be to discuss why people think Wrath is so easy and why that might not really be the case.
This feeling that Wrath is so much easier than people thought it would be has a lot to do, in my opinion, with the fact that the majority of people crying out about this are not good representatives of the average WoW player. I hate to toss around the “hardcore” label but most people who would take the time to post a comment on a blog or write a post on a forum about how easy the game is and how awesome they are probably deserve to be called hardcore.
The typical WoW player, like those in my PuG the other night, are realistically a much better example of what people are experiencing playing the game. We struggled mightily just to get to the second boss in UK and we never managed to beat it. Three out of the five members of our party were just not geared well enough, or had enough of an understanding, to finish the run. That doesn’t mean that they’re terrible players. It just means that they don’t compare to players I’m accustomed to playing with. In time, that same group won’t have any problems at all finishing Heroic Utgarde Keep and that’s what makes WoW so great.
It’s not about how good you are compared to other people. It’s about how good you are compared to your former self. This is the backbone argument for casual WoW players who aren’t interested in the rat race of gear, stats and DPS charts. They don’t think Wrath is too easy or that Wrath is too hard and they know that, in time, they’ll be able to experience the entire game at their own pace and on their own terms.
Anyway, people who think Wrath is too easy aren’t looking at things from the right perspective. There are 11.5 million people playing this game right now and I don’t think even a small percentage of them would agree that Wrath is easy. The problem is that they’re too busy enjoying the game to let the “hardcore” players know they’re wrong.
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4 Comments
Nance on January 2nd, 2009
First of all, thanks for the comment and the link. I appreciate it.
This is really an issue about the Internet in general, I now realize. Complainers and dissatisfied people are usually the loudest group online. Wrath is far from perfect but I don’t think it is nearly as troubling as a lot of forum folks would have you believe.
A few minutes browsing the comments at WoW Insider or the boards at MMO Champion would make you think the end of the world was approaching.
Nassira on January 5th, 2009
Great post. I tend to agree with you. Back when I first started getting serious about the game, I remember how tough it was for me to get into the swing of things just to understand my own class and what it was meant to do, what stats I needed, etc. Now I whine saying Wrath is too easy, but I’m sure if I’d come into it around the time I was running Kara, I would’ve said it was just as hard. Sometimes ya just gotta take a step back and remember your noob days.
James on January 18th, 2009
True words!
When I started playing this game I was the epitomy of a casual player…
My warrior was using staves, I was wearing any old gear that “looked cool”, and didn’t know what tanking was until I hit level 60 and got asked to do it.
I whispered the party leader and he just told me to spam Taunt and Sunder ;)
Ah, it was a simpler time.
Now of course, after a few years of end-game and TBC, WoTLK does feel easier than I remember end-game feeling when I first got into it, hell yeah.
But no surprises there, I’m playing with a bunch of people who’ve all been playing similar lengths of time, and know their classes in-depth.
Rilgon Arcsinh on January 2nd, 2009
Well said. :) I have to deal with this on a lot of other communities I go to, and I don’t have a single bit of hesitation about smacking them into their place.
And now I guess since we’ve linked each other I’m going to be obligated to read you from now on, hehe. :P