Knock, Knock!
Posted 02-19-2008 at 12:43 PM by ttocs
I haven't really had a blog since my not-so-frequently-updated livejournal, but I've made a few wall-of-text posts here that have had me consider just starting one.
I guess, to break the ice, a little bit about myself the person and myself the tank. If its TLDR, theres actually something worth a little discussion at the end of the post.
The person:
I'm Scott, a 24 year old programmer (zzzz). I've had this job since 2 weeks out of high school, and through all of college. I graduated from Rider University with a 3.65 GPA in 2006, as a Management Information Systems major. I want to do something in IT, but I'm pretty sure programming isn't it. I've been surrounded with computers all my life, and I enjoy working with them (and playing on them!). I just don't know of one field yet that I would want to spend 40+ hours a week working on. That search is in progress, and who knows what will come of it.
Hobbies? You mean theres other things to do besides WoW? Well, I like to read a fair amount. Most of it is on the internet now, but growing up I liked reading suspense novels (Lois Duncan is one of the authors I read a fair amount of). I also like tinkering with computers and networks, and our cars. When it's not 20 degrees outside.
The tank:
I'm Ttocs (see what I did there? oh man, so original...), a Level 70 Undead Warrior on Norgannon (US). I'm one of 3 Prot Warriors for Blood of Vengeance.
Before WoW, I played several games - I started in '95, playing the original Command and Conquer online via MPlayer (on our K5-133!). Went through a 10 hour trial in 2 days. That was put on hold until Spring of 1998, when I played X-Wing vs TIE fighter. Then I went into various games (in squads, clans and teams), including: Quake 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Call of Duty 1 and 2, Counter-Strike 1.6 (and prior versions) and Source.
At one point, I wanted to play games professionally: Get on a sponsored team/organization, get flown to places, win money, make a living from playing a video game. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out, and I got tired of the same thing. While I miss the competition, I enjoy the PvE aspect of WoW. I haven't quite warmed up to PvP as much as I'd like yet - while I'd say I'm "decent" at it, there are some things that bug me about WoW PvP. One thing I like about FPS's is that one person can pick up the slack of others. If, in a round of counterstrike, my 4 teammates are dead, and I'm the only one alive vs 5 of them, I have a shot to win the round. That is nigh-impossible in WoW PvP, because of sheer class imbalances.
I saw the WSVG China video, where the deciding round was between a Paladin and a Frost Mage. What a joke. He could be the best holy paladin in the game, but he's not going to kill that frost mage. Well, this was pre-2.3. But still.
Anyway, I started leveling with friends that I played other games with. After dealing with a whole bunch of stuff, from inheriting the MT role in the guild, to inheriting the RL/GL role in the guild, to server transfers, to Horrible Tanks that Can't take Criticism, to "Guild Leader's Wife from Hell"... I'm in Blood of Vengeance.
I joined without having either vial - and we ran through SSC and TK one week, got me (and some of the other guys that came with me) keyed. Because of schedule issues with their other two Prot Warriors, I was asked to MT all of Mount Hyjal on my first day in it, and most of BT. I met some expectations, and exceeded others. Doing this made me feel a little bit better about getting loot, because I wasn't totally along for the ride, though I wasn't there when they were trying to progress on it.
Overall, I'm pretty proud of being able to make that transition fairly smoothly, because I was worried about getting the negative feeling from people whenever a new tank is doing content - "Oh man, we're going to wipe a bunch of times while this guy learns the fight". To have one shot most of the bosses (Including RoS Phase 3 and Flame tanking), I think I surprised a lot of people...and myself. I'm probably my worst critic when it comes to this.
After having been in the guild for a month, I'm still a rookie/trial (and will be for another 2 months). We'll see what's in store at the end of my trial period.
Anyway, enough about me, I suppose, and I'll post something to discuss.
This is a quote made by a former guildmate of mine in response to my guildmates complaining about the free attunement in 2.4:
I strongly disagree with this - organizing a guild and a raid is comparable to a manager in a store: Determining schedules (who gets in what raid), dealing with drama, and in some cases I'd say it's worse. Some tasks are easier than others, but in WoW, it seems like the tolerances for 25 people to perform in a project (or raid) are tighter than they are in the workplace.
But maybe I'm wrong, and I just haven't experienced enough in the workplace yet.
What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Don't feed the Troll?
I guess, to break the ice, a little bit about myself the person and myself the tank. If its TLDR, theres actually something worth a little discussion at the end of the post.
The person:
I'm Scott, a 24 year old programmer (zzzz). I've had this job since 2 weeks out of high school, and through all of college. I graduated from Rider University with a 3.65 GPA in 2006, as a Management Information Systems major. I want to do something in IT, but I'm pretty sure programming isn't it. I've been surrounded with computers all my life, and I enjoy working with them (and playing on them!). I just don't know of one field yet that I would want to spend 40+ hours a week working on. That search is in progress, and who knows what will come of it.
Hobbies? You mean theres other things to do besides WoW? Well, I like to read a fair amount. Most of it is on the internet now, but growing up I liked reading suspense novels (Lois Duncan is one of the authors I read a fair amount of). I also like tinkering with computers and networks, and our cars. When it's not 20 degrees outside.
The tank:
I'm Ttocs (see what I did there? oh man, so original...), a Level 70 Undead Warrior on Norgannon (US). I'm one of 3 Prot Warriors for Blood of Vengeance.
Before WoW, I played several games - I started in '95, playing the original Command and Conquer online via MPlayer (on our K5-133!). Went through a 10 hour trial in 2 days. That was put on hold until Spring of 1998, when I played X-Wing vs TIE fighter. Then I went into various games (in squads, clans and teams), including: Quake 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Call of Duty 1 and 2, Counter-Strike 1.6 (and prior versions) and Source.
At one point, I wanted to play games professionally: Get on a sponsored team/organization, get flown to places, win money, make a living from playing a video game. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out, and I got tired of the same thing. While I miss the competition, I enjoy the PvE aspect of WoW. I haven't quite warmed up to PvP as much as I'd like yet - while I'd say I'm "decent" at it, there are some things that bug me about WoW PvP. One thing I like about FPS's is that one person can pick up the slack of others. If, in a round of counterstrike, my 4 teammates are dead, and I'm the only one alive vs 5 of them, I have a shot to win the round. That is nigh-impossible in WoW PvP, because of sheer class imbalances.
I saw the WSVG China video, where the deciding round was between a Paladin and a Frost Mage. What a joke. He could be the best holy paladin in the game, but he's not going to kill that frost mage. Well, this was pre-2.3. But still.
Anyway, I started leveling with friends that I played other games with. After dealing with a whole bunch of stuff, from inheriting the MT role in the guild, to inheriting the RL/GL role in the guild, to server transfers, to Horrible Tanks that Can't take Criticism, to "Guild Leader's Wife from Hell"... I'm in Blood of Vengeance.
I joined without having either vial - and we ran through SSC and TK one week, got me (and some of the other guys that came with me) keyed. Because of schedule issues with their other two Prot Warriors, I was asked to MT all of Mount Hyjal on my first day in it, and most of BT. I met some expectations, and exceeded others. Doing this made me feel a little bit better about getting loot, because I wasn't totally along for the ride, though I wasn't there when they were trying to progress on it.
Overall, I'm pretty proud of being able to make that transition fairly smoothly, because I was worried about getting the negative feeling from people whenever a new tank is doing content - "Oh man, we're going to wipe a bunch of times while this guy learns the fight". To have one shot most of the bosses (Including RoS Phase 3 and Flame tanking), I think I surprised a lot of people...and myself. I'm probably my worst critic when it comes to this.
After having been in the guild for a month, I'm still a rookie/trial (and will be for another 2 months). We'll see what's in store at the end of my trial period.
Anyway, enough about me, I suppose, and I'll post something to discuss.
This is a quote made by a former guildmate of mine in response to my guildmates complaining about the free attunement in 2.4:
|
This is a video game. For Example: Football camp is hard work. World of Warcraft is not. If you think WoW is hard work, you have never done anything hard in your life.....ever. I mean...let's get real here for a minute. |
But maybe I'm wrong, and I just haven't experienced enough in the workplace yet.
What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Don't feed the Troll?
Total Comments 2
Comments
 |  There is a large difference between physical and mental labor. In some places, like football, the two intersect(strongest? fastest? most agile? great....what what do you do on Pro right, 426 Boot? what if you read a blitz?) and its clear, there's no real physical requirements for Wow. Oh, I suppose having quick fingers and manual dexterity helps but meh. That doesn't make it less difficult over all, but in some places yes, its 'easy'. I prefer to take the approach that you get out what you put in. The biggest problem is the negative connotation people have toward the term 'work'. Some people enjoy making things with thier hands, some might landscape thier yard, go fishing, build rustic furniture, collect comic books, baseball cards, coins, etc. All of those hobbies take work whether it be sweaty labor or sitting on your ass sorting things. Video games in general, perhaps because we grew up on consoles plugged into the TV which is the ultimate passive entertainment, attract the lazy parts of ourselves. Its the issue that holds up casual players and drives thier guild mates insane. I want to win/you want to show up and giggle and grabass. We both want to see content and earn rewards. Almost every loot system doesn't differentiate between the two and further supports the shunning of the term 'work' because isn't work the application of energy for an expected benefit? Work for pay? Work harder, get done faster, more time for leisure? And so on. Is playing Wow work? Isn't every hobby? I think people expect it to be too much like watching TV. To appeal to a wider player base, it trends that way. Passive. Click a few buttons and get cool stuff. I'd personally like to see greater emphasis on community events and trivial rewards like special mounts, clothes, vanity pets, etc because stuff like that can be content for everyone while they can continue to challenge more hardcore gamers. I suppose part of it is the instant gratification society. All that stuff is great but what people really want is the same thing everyone else has and once they learn they have to actually apply themselves, its not fair. I don't have to watch every episode of my favorite show to access the season premire coming up. I could ramble on but the bottom line is that anything worth doing is worth working at. People to a large extent have lost the idea of work being a good thing...its like a bad word. Wow =/TV. |
Posted 02-19-2008 at 02:37 PM by Horacio  |
| | I agree there. When I made my reply, after reading subsequent posts, that some people (though not that poster) operated under the assumption that "work" and "fun" are mutually exclusive. Just because you enjoy doing your job doesn't mean you aren't doing "work". I operate under the premise that I have to enjoy what I'm doing, or I'm not doing it - that's why I'm probably looking to get out of programming. I also felt that "theres no such thing as hard work in wow" trivialized the effort that GL's/RL's put into the game for the sake of everyone else. |
| Posted 02-19-2008 at 02:46 PM by ttocs |
Recent Blog Entries by ttocs
- Managing Boredom (03-06-2008)
- Knock, Knock! (02-19-2008)
