PST - Episode 113

This week:
0:16 - Is WoW something I should put on my resume?
4:47 - Is the lack of a need to run heroics affecting the skill of the average pug?
10:59 - What does Blizzard mean when they say "the tech just isn't there?"
15:03 - How can I teach someone to play MMOs who has no prior experience?
21:52 - What would happen if there was no PTR testing of encounters?
30:05 - Are there too many currencies in MoP?
34:06 - Doesn't the 5.2 LFR buff have basically the same problems as the ICC buff?
38:21 - Are fights nowadays as epic as they were during classic?

Lore, you're so rude.

Stop interrupting Lore.




I'd add the 'epicness' of a fight has a lot to do with personal experience as much as the design of encounter itself.

For example, for one of my guildies, the most epic fight for her was heroic morchok, because that was the first raid boss that she was able to kill on heroic.
i know most people would probably gloss over that opinion because the fight was barely a challenge but for her, the first heroic achievement was something to be cherished.

"Is WoW something I should put on my resume?"

I wanted to provide my opinion on this matter, as it is something I used when interviewing - and eventually ended up with a great job as an engineer.

First, imo, I would not list "WoW" in a resume. Instead, use it as a conversation topic during the interview. Make sure you are a solid candidate WITHOUT using WoW, such that you can use it as a bonus. This is great for engineering positions where management is a bonus, not a requirement.

Second, make sure to CLEARLY understand the links and analogies between what you did in WoW as a guild leader and how they applies for the workforce. This is critical if you are going to make a non-gamer understand.

For example, I deal with a lot of "Logistic", "Management", and HR type work. Logistic being how I setup raids and write out strats ahead of time using planning, while management is more on the leading raids via excellent communication skills and knowing my resources - i.e. raid team and how they operate. Finally, HR type work is in the recruiting process, where I understand my the my target audience and have know how to ask important questions during an interview process.

From the example, you can see how I took my wow experiences, and tied them to those "action" or "skills" sections on a resume. THIS IS WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT TO SEE. If you can not clearly articulate and tie your skill set from WoW to the real world, do not even bring up WoW.

I agree with what Squirrels has to say about it using WoW as a resume item. It depends greatly on how you present it so that it doesn't reflect poorly on you. For example putting it along with your work experience as if it were a real "job" would definitely be a bad idea. If there's an area to list additional skills or experience you have you could simply state that you organize/manage a regular group activity in a social (or some other non-professional) environment X days a week for the past X years, then it would probably be fine (again, focusing more on the specific skills you used/acquired and how they can be applied professionally, as Squirrels explained), you don't even have to specify that you're referring to WoW/MMOs, if they want to know the specific activities you organized they can ask and you'll have a chance to again explain it in an understandable way.

If the person reading it understands and appreciates that type of experience then they will see the value of it. If the person reading it doesn't see the value in that sort of experience then there's a good chance they won't really hold it against you since you presented it as non-professional experience in the first place (sort of like saying that you grew up working on cars with your dad without formal training, at worst they'll just ignore it rather than holding it against you).



And on the subject of "the tech just isn't there", another thing it can mean is that it's not just that they haven't coded/done it yet, but it can also mean that it's just not feasible/reasonable to do it at a given time. For example if you want to get technical high-definition 3D graphics were possible back in the 70s when games and computers were extremely young and simple, but it wouldn't have been even remotely feasible to do it. Extreme examples aside, it's really not as simple as just "they just haven't coded it yet" (because when you say that you tend to get responses of "then they should just go code it" when it's not as simple as "just coding it"). Just like when they refer to some issues as "technical limitations" sure those are limitations of their implementation, and it could probably be fixed if they just completely redesigned whatever it is that has the issues, but that task is generally not a trivial matter or they wouldn't have called it a technical limitation in the first place.

In regards to epic feeling content, I'm getting that feel for the first time in quite a while in MOP. My guilds not super hardcore, cleared every raid since forming during IC bar T11 and Rag Heroic. T14 has been the most epic and / or satisfying to me, though I think a lot of that is due to no creeping nerfs. Heroic Will was fantastic, Vizier was incredibly satisfying. My only worry is not being able to get far enough before 5.2 comes out, I'm really hoping to get Empress down, but it's a race against the clock, but better that than a race against constant progressive, effort devaluing nerfs.

I interviewed today for a 6 figure development leadership position. I have other credentials and mentioned those first, but I mentioned my wow leadership experience in passing in a joking manner. The person I interviewed was impressed. Mentioning wow leadership skills alone isn't good enough it has to be coupled with other things. Talk about your studies, leadership training, things you've learned and how you've applied them. Have other skills, then your guild leadership experience can make an impact.

Pretty sure I'll get the job and will find out tomorrow.

I wish I could put my WoW experience in a resume. Not in community service and counselling. However, when I'm talking to or counselling young players regarding career options I ask what do you enjoy most in the game? This gives me an idea where their passions lie or where their natural strengths are. I have actually noticed now after so many years of playing that raid leaders and guild leaders tend to end up in leadership jobs, antidotal as that is. Wouldn't mind doing some social research into that.My son works in IT he has his WoW guild and raid is in his Résumé his company also asked him to write an article about the value of skills learned in his MMO and how they have been transferred into his role as test manager. His university lecturer advised him to put this experience in his résumé.

"4:47 - Is the lack of a need to run heroics affecting the skill of the average pug?"

I think this was a reference to the HC pugs, rather than the Raid pugs. By making Lesser Charms drop from HCs/Scenarios, people that currently ignore HCs/Scenarios might then return to it. I know I would run more of them.

I know Blizzard wants people to be outdoor a lot more, but it's not exactly social. Dailies are often done alone. When I wanted to run some HCs early in the expansion, and asked my friends to join me, the usual answer was "Sorry, no time. I have dailies to run for my rep." Now if I ask them, the usual answer is "Sorry, but I don't need anything there. I'm valor capped from Raiding and dailies for my lesser charms." So far in MoP dailies did a good job of preventing me from playing with my friends.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thels

So far in MoP dailies did a good job of preventing me from playing with my friends.

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This has been my experience as well. During Cataclysm (even before the dungeon nerfs) my little guild would nearly always hit the 7 dungeons/week challenge for guild bank gold, now it's not unusual there to be 0 dungeons runs in a week and maybe 2 or 3 scenarios total. No one needs the loot, and even to group of LFR allstars like us, they're already a bore.

My guild's social activity now is our one night a week of raiding.

5 months in, Hunter not understanding that their pets are dying becuase they're growling on CD. Locks doing the same with Threatening Presence, or complaining tank threat is shaky whilst they're in Dark Apotheosis; LFG pugs have gotten horrendous.

Ask if your boss has seen the TED talks on gamification. In the tech sector gamification is a serious buzz word, and you just may be able to move those skills across to your job. Watch the speeches first, they would help you translate a lot of what you do with games into business jargon words for those skills.

Base UI has the ability to hide older currencies. You don't need an Addon to hide older tokens/charms/whatevers lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tengenstein

5 months in, Hunter not understanding that their pets are dying becuase they're growling on CD. Locks doing the same with Threatening Presence, or complaining tank threat is shaky whilst they're in Dark Apotheosis; LFG pugs have gotten horrendous.

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This has been an issue since vanilla. It is just noticeable atm due to the high volume of beast hunters and demo warlocks, as their pets are actually able to hold the aggro after the taunt. Threat management is definitely nothing new to the game.

I will say that a PuGs ability to communicate, both relaying of messages and following those messages has diminished greatly, as there is very little commutation that goes on in your typical dungeon group. Most of my groups are in complete silence with the exception of "hello" at the start and "tks for the group" at the end.

i lol'd hard at the CSI reference.

"Can you get into their mainframe database?"
"Just.....onneeee...momenttt..."
*click click click*
"I'm in."

"YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH"

You have to shift the binaries.

I found these talks to be awesome. Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squirrels

Most of my groups are in complete silence with the exception of "hello" at the start and "tks for the group" at the end.

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That's often how my 5 mans go too, when I'm with randoms that is. Say hi, chain pull the entire instance, say bye, leave the group. It's only when things start to get messy when there's need to discuss stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lore

You have to shift the binaries.

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Man I shift binaries all day long. I had to buy a new shovel yesterday because of all the binaries I needed to shift had worn out the old one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thels

That's often how my 5 mans go too, when I'm with randoms that is. Say hi, chain pull the entire instance, say bye, leave the group. It's only when things start to get messy when there's need to discuss stuff.

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And i don't mind that. When everyone has the attitude of "lets get this over with a minimum of pain and time" you don't need to communicate. I've got a an addon that prints to /i everytime a pet taunts, and i have a /i macro "please turn pet taunts off" but they don't. I didn't need either of them in wrath or cata. And whats worst even when the addons blaring that NoobyMcHunter's pet is taunting they'll deny its them, they'll say "its off/it's not me"

I'm a fairly good tank, I understand that Surv hunters need to have mobs in the Explosive trap for LnL procs so i keep them in it or pull them onto it, if i see a non-growling stampede, i put shattering throw up, i keep the mobs ass out of the fire so pets/melee don't have be parried or burn. If i see 3 minute CDs i pop skull banner. I try to maintain 3 stack sunder armours on all mobs at all times. I don't care if the DPS are pulling low numbers or could put up another buff. All i ask is they don't frikking taunt off me.

Well i'll never apply for a 'management' job in my life, but I can't imagine in my environment even thinking of putting World of Warcraft as a resume item. I wouldn't even mention it as a hobby if asked since a 'hobby' in a job interview is really just a backdoor way of asking if you do things to progress your career outside of work hours (i.e. you're supposed to say something along the lines of 'i write open source code' or 'i run a side business setting up networking for small businesses' in my spare time). Even the most open-minded manager isn't going to value WoW raid leadership as much as real job experience, and the question is going to be 'why did you spend that time playing a game when you could have been doing the same type of thing as a real job?'

I guess i'm the only one but I run dungeons and scenarios all the time. It definitely seems faster for valor-capping than doing dailies as long as you only do one of each per day. I don't have any set time in which I can raid at the moment and pugs are effectively dead since the start of MOP (at least compared to Cata), so its just LFR for me and that only gets me to 450 on the first toon and 675 on the second (with bonus). That leaves a big chunk of valor to get somewhere and its hard to motivate myself to do dailies when I am done with all of the factions.