Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Alts, will they ever be the same again?

I came >< this close to actually quitting the game entirely last week. I had a whole post written up and was ready to post on our guild forums that I would not be raiding that weekend, or in fact any weekend at all every again.

The main reason?

I am tired of waiting for change. The game to me has not felt fully fun since Wrath of the Lich King.

Cataclysm was one big annoyance to me. Not until the very end did it feel like more fun again. Mana management is what Blizzard wants, but I hate it. I hate not being able to heal when I should be healing. I hate not being able to compensate.

Mists has done a better job at that end, now when I run out of mana I know I need to tweak my approach, and mana management is not so tight anymore that no mistakes are allowed. Healing stress is slightly lower at least now.

But now I am so tired of the dailies, that I can only longingly look at the moment that my main is caught up and has no more reps to do and can actually just get her valor cap by raiding and LFR.

And maybe, just maybe I'll get to play my alts some. I miss my alts...

My favourite way of playing this game?

Gear my main through raid and a little bit of other stuff, like a dungeon or two. And outside raid time I want to play my alts.

What have I been doing so far?

Playing catch up on my main. Frantically trying to get the reps done so that I won't feel guilty when I spend time on my alt. Running dungeons, scenarios, and doing dailies, just so I can get the valor cap on my main.

I have levelled 1 alt so far. I miss my alts...

Thror kept saying just wait for the next patch, it'll be better. But what the hell. Blizzard has been designing this game for years now, they shouldn't need a next patch again just to make things 'better'. They had it spot on when they started Icecrown.

The only thing wrong with that expansion was that it lasted a bit too long at the end. And even there I didn't care all that much since I had alts that I could gear up and play for the necesary change of flavour. I miss my alts...

Last week I felt like the dinosaur that should've been extinct a long time ago already, like the way I like to play the game just doesn't match with how game design works any longer.

But then I finished the shieldwall reputation, and realized. Blizzard really did fuck it up with the reps and dailies at first. I loved shieldwall, I loved how the storyline drew me in, how it kept me going, and how I wanted to get to the next part. Even if it meant having to do some dailies for it.
I think this is how my druid must be feeling, sad, alone, and abandoned. 

So while the rep situation will really just fix itself by the next patch, I do think Blizzard has learned.

However, that does not mean that they are now saved. No, all my alts still have the mount everest of dailies and reps to go before they can even start thinking about their professions.

I don't want to do that again on an alt. I don't care if I have increased rep gain. I just don't want to do it at all. And the worst is that you cannot get to one rep before you have finished the other. (Golden Lotus > Shado Pan & August Celestials).

Fix this Blizzard, please? Fix it so I can feel happy about playing my alts again, instead of feeling like I just finished all the chores on my main and if I ever want to play my alts somewhat properly I have more hoops to jump through, instead of just have fun with an alt.

Please fix it, so that I do not have to dread playing my alts, level them to just before 90 because I know that the horror starts at that level.

Please fix it, so that I can have fun with my professions again. So that I do not have to spend hours and hours and hours before I can do anything with my alts professions.

Please fix it? I miss my alts...

3 comments:

  1. I wonder how a 50% rep spillover would turn out. That would at least put alts far along the path. Playing them would spill back to the main and not be entirely 'wasted'.

    Or bring back tabards.

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  2. I've thought for a while that alts should share reputation, at least at some scale. Sort of a "hey, rep managers, this is my cousin, once removed on my mother's side, I'm putting in a good word for him". You know, a *reputation* sort of thing.

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  3. Klepsacovic, what I would love is getting rep tokens that are account bound so I can spend them on whichever character I want. I could then go on my hunter and earn rep for my monk, and enjoy the taste of change of class while not feeling guilty.

    Tesh, yeah it has become easier with the revered badges, but especially the two reps that are behind golden lotus could benefit from a little change still.

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