Breakfast Topic: Gaming the game
by Jennie Lees 
Apr 10th 2006 at 12:00PM
It's a late breakfast today, and the topic is play styles. What do you do when normal WoW playing becomes too easy
for you? You start creating meta-games, challenges within the game that add new levels of achievement and complication
to the equation. Whether you've roped in some friends to see who's the first to 60 on a new server, or you're trying to
beat your own high scores in terms of number of pulls or HKs, there are times when we all set arbitrary targets for
ourselves ingame.Especially if you've already taken one or two characters to 60, the game content becomes less of an interesting distraction and more a means to an end. You know all the best grinding spots, areas with decent drop rates and fast-spawning mobs that are especially susceptible to your class skills. You're gaming the game -- plotting the most efficient route through a minefield of quests and levels. If you don't level by the end of today's session, you consider it an inefficient use of your time.
Do you find you fall into this behaviour? Do you try to beat your own times to level 10, 20, etc? Or do you sit back and enjoy the ride, whichever character you're on, not caring much about what you get done in a single session?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cdiggy Apr 10th 2006 1:16PM
I'm somewhere in between. I set goals for how much I want to accomplish in a session, or day, but I don't try to race thru the game. If I level up today then great, if not, then it was still a fun session. The social aspect of WoW slows down toon progression, but the social aspect for me is what makes it more fun.
Take last night for example. My guild rallies the troops over to Westfall for a 'photo shoot'! So we hop on top of the vendor wagon by Sent-hill and start taking screen shots for the website.
I was like 5 bars away from level 50. I could have grinded that time and reached it, but instead I decided to have some fun with my guildies. So, I'll hit 50 today instead, knowing that I'm in a great guild that likes to have some fun :)
tibbsy Apr 10th 2006 3:31PM
On the server that I play on, there's this twink war going on in 10-19 WSG. Everyone is toting bright glowy weapons, and essentially tearing apart anyone who isn't equipping a solid handful of blues. So a buddy of mine made a rogue to combat these twinks and I helped him out with my own level 60 rogue by doing lightning runs of the Deadmines so that he could be decked out with sa pair of Cruel Barbs, Defias gear and the like. We'd go in, and he'd kill the first guy and then stand there. Then he'd start a timer as I soloed my way through all the way to VC to kill him. The timer stopped when he saw the loot window for VC's drop. And I just tried to get the best time possible. So far it's at about 6 minutes (from start to loot) - see if you guys can do better!
Mike Apr 10th 2006 3:36PM
Same here. Yesterday, a couple of my guildmates and I were "raiding" Westfall. But when the lvl 60 Allies crashed our party, we just moved on to Astranaar and tried to take out the Gryphon master (unsuccessfully, I might add). Then when we had enough fun there, we marched on up to Auberdine, into the harbor, and proceeded to put Water Walk spells on ourselves and dance on the ocean. Then, when the sentinels were called down upon us, we died under the dock, rezzed on top of the dock, and made a mad dash to the boat to Teldrassil. The end result of all of this being an ill-fated trip to Teldrassil with about 2 of my guildmates which ended quickly and violently. I hardly gained any experience or gear, I racked up like 31 HKs (and one DK... grr....), but it was a hell of a lot of fun.