Starting Off: I Hate Min/Max

Hello, again!

I'd like to start small and express my distaste for the specific group of people whose class/spec choices aren't what they're playing because they *want* to but rather because they will jump on the bandwagon of whatever seems like it's the best of the best at a given time and —this is the best part—they decide to put everyone else down for not doing the same, bragging and holding whatever arbitrary standard they've come up with at the time over everyone.

Okay, I understand that it's their money, their time, their choice.  However, when they cross the line into harassing others for playing what they wanted instead of just blindly going with the "xclass/xspec does xdamage/healing/mitigation more than xclasses/specs", they can go jump in a lake.

On my mage, not my first class but certainly my favourite, I have always been fire.  What's that?  Arcane is the leader in these specific scenarios for this current tier?  Don't give a flying [insert expletive of choice here].  I won't go into PvP because I'm sure many people have many situations they can go and do something other than the standard obvious choice for their own characters.  Besides, I really don't like PvP on my mage.  My blood death knight (different server), sure, since I don't have to change from my tanking spec.  Otherwise...eh, shaky ground, at best.

Anywhoo, it's my attitude towards this that makes me feel exceptionally lucky to be in the guild that I am.  After all, we sure as heck don't run with a min/max setup.  Why would we?  We play what we like and base our raid group around that.  It's not like we're going for any world/server firsts or anything so, really, what is the gosh darn problem?  We just simply make it work.

If everyone played as though you didn't have any choice whatsoever, filling whatever role in whatever manner that was most efficient, then why would there be any different specs at all?  Why not have Blizzard just make everyone one class with the exact same spells/abilities, the same rotation priority, etc?  It goes on and on forever.

We all know *why* that doesn't happen: because most (read: not all) people like choice.  If not for choice, the gaming industry wouldn't be compelled to improve their products because we'd be content with what we have and never bother thinking about ways to improve one's experience.  Forcing the industry to be creative, to push the boundaries of what it capable of being implemented is what drives production quality up.

Admittedly, though, there's a flip side to that.  As things become more and more innovative, the industry is going to lose steam at some point and probably has a few times already before gaining their second wind.  With all these new things that are introduced, we eventually take some things for granted.  Also, we begin to set our standards higher and higher, to the point where we get outraged that some thing or another couldn't live up to our ever-growing demands.

Now, how many times can you recall in, say, the last 5 years that the industry, as described above, lost steam and couldn't make a successful product because all they could make was simply "more of the same".  How many people got so ticked off at those points and made the most ridiculous fuss you've ever heard (at the time, that is)?  Yeah...those weren't pretty.

I mean, heck, you can see it even recently with the whole Mass Effect 3 ending nonsense.

Brace yourself, I'm going to go on a rant here that's pretty off from the rest of what I'm talking about, so please bear through it or skip to the end.



SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!  DO NOT READ PAST IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED MASS EFFECT 3!  CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN RISK!  DO NOT GET ANGRY WITH ME BECAUSE YOU HAD FAIR WARNING!





We're clear?  Okay, read on.

I watched a friend play through and choose the ending with the destroyal (deactivation? I honestly forget) of all AI, with the inclusion of destroying the mass effect relays in the process.  I wanted to see the ending with controlling the Reapers but y'know, I can just suck it up, now can't I?  =P

Anywhoo, so Shepard sacrifices him/herself to do that.  The Reapers, Geth, and all other such things are no longer a threat.  Additionally, Joker is, for some reason, going through a relay at the time (not participating in the battle or did EDI detect the pulse? never explained) and the EMP burst catches up with the Normandy.  The ship is struck down and an emergency crash landing must be made on the nearest planet.  It's presumed all of the crew happens to be on it at the time but upon opening the door, only Joker, Tali and Garrus step out onto a lush planet and...boom.  Credits.  After said credits, an older man (Joker? we have absolutely no freaking idea) is talking to his granddaughter and basically it's implied he told her the story of basically the whole plotline.  Something about her wondering about the rest of the vastness of space and being told that there are countless other planets, blah blah blah and she wants to hear another story about Shepard.

How is that a bad ending?  Yes, you don't know what happens to everyone ELSE but frankly, if this was a novel, it'd be a brilliant ending.  Apparently, in a video game it's crap that never deserved to see the light of day and whoever collaberated to agree on it as an ending to the entire series deserve nothing more than a slow, painful death.

Where do these people come from?  My goodness gracious, how are *those* people not committed to some sort of asylum?  How does any rational human being get so wound up over the ending of a video game that death threats or wishes to that effect are being spewed from every corner of the internet?

Yeesh.




OKAY, SPOILER ALERT HAS PASSED!  YOU MAY CONTINUE ON NOT BEING TOLD ANYTHING YOU MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED!






So, as you may have concluded, I truly hate to be judged on personal preferences nor do I respect any sort of oppression of the same fashion upon others.  I don't go to Dairy Queen and berate people who choose not to get their cones dipped just because I think the chocolate dipping is better in addition to the fact that you TECHNICALLY get a little more product for the same cost.  I don't go harassing others based on what colour of clothing they wear because it isn't as drawing to the eye as a different colour that I might be wearing to allow a more obvious impact on being noticed, etc.  I could go on and on but hopefully you get the point.

The class/spec choice issue is JUST as ridiculous as the examples described above.

I don't really know how to end this with a clean wrap-up so I'll just leave it here.

Thank you for your time and hopefully my first *real* post wasn't absolutely horrible.

Introduction: Welcome!

Hello!

I am your host, The Annoyed Mage.

I am an avid World of Warcraft player and ideas keep striking me in as to what I would love writing about in regards to the game but, sadly, always come up with topics based off of annoyances.  I really am striving to look at good things and comment on them, as well, but after 7 years of playing World of Warcraft, much of (read: not all) of my sense of innocent wonder and amazement of this massively popular game has descended into many complaints about some of the people who play it, with much sighing involved.

I apologize in advance for my less-than-fabulous attitude; I just notice far too many things because I am so analytical.  Do I claim that I'd be able to give unbiased arguments with a fully rounded out discussion of exactly why I think the way I do?  You haven't known me very long, have you?  Oh, wait...yeah, you've known me for about 2 minutes, so fair enough.

In all seriousness, I'd like to get back to what my objective is for this blog.  I want to be able to post my thoughts in an atmosphere that is not toxic and demeaning such as the official WoW forums.  If I happen to give off any vibe that makes you feel as though I came straight from there, please let me know.  I may be pretty annoyed, angry, confused, and believing there is no hope for a large amount of people to have any sense of decency in the slightest but I dare not let any of THAT nonsense become prevalent in the way I do things right here.

Seriously, let me know, okay?

So, to wrap up my little introduction: I'm not as positive as I'd like to be, I'll be commenting on things that annoy me more than anything, I will *try* to put in the occasional thing that's on a more positive note, I'm doing this to release my thoughts that won't be so horrendously pounced upon by the jackals of the official WoW forums, and if you feel as uncomfortable here as you do the forums (even though I'm only posting intial topics and not arguing things back and forth) please let me know so I can correct myself for future posts.

Yeah, yeah, I don't really do short-versions of many things but OH WELL.

Anywhoo, with that, welcome to 'The Annoyed Mage'.