The children of Wrath
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 1st 2008 at 4:00PM
Starman over at Casual Raid Leader (is that the same Starman that does World of Warcast?) has a great idea. Right around college graduation every year, there's a study that gets nostalgic about what this year's students will never experience -- i.e. since this year's graduates were born in 1986, they've never known a time without Super Mario Bros., and so on. Starman suggests we do the same thing with incoming newbies and the new expansion -- the "children of Wrath" will never know a time when Onyxia was in the Stormwind throne room.Larisa has a few more: Children of Wrath will never have to go back and do old instances just for the achievement, or have to decide between keeping that noncombat pet or getting the extra bag space back. She was actually a "BC baby," and as she says, she's never tried to run 40 people through Molten Core, or known a time when there weren't any quest chains in Silithus.
What else will the children of Wrath have missed out on? And are there really that many? I imagine that there are still quite a few vanilla players around, and it doesn't surprise me at all that there are plenty of BC babies (I recruited a few people during BC), but how many new players are really coming in to Wrath for the first time? Are there going to be that many people who don't remember when you had to run once instance over and over for rep, rather than just champion it?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Bosses, Lore, The Burning Crusade, Raiding, Instances, Odds and ends, Fan stuff, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Cygerstorm Dec 1st 2008 4:04PM
They will never know a time when incompetent and unskilled player did not get the Epic Loot that should have gone to the better players.
Gnosh Dec 1st 2008 4:10PM
*rolls eyes*
The people getting epics before BC- these skilled, competent people- are these the same folks that mashed one button an entire instance to automatically decurse/heal an entire raid (or were carried by these people), back when addons could target and change keybinds, even in combat?
New players in general aren't even AWARE that scholo and BRD used to be 10-man.
Liel Dec 1st 2008 4:25PM
Yes because before BC only the most skilled players got epics oh wait I remember being the guild MT up through AQ40 and having afkers in the raid get drops nobody else wanted.
DanH Dec 1st 2008 4:30PM
Because perish the thought that less skilled players should get access to stuff that makes their character more powerful and therefore **makes the game easier**.
You realise that in most competitive recreational activities better players get *handicaps* right?
Complaining that the endgame is to easy is entirely fair. Complaining that the endgame being too easy means that people who don't "deserve" Epics can get them makes you sound like an idiot.
Insano Dec 1st 2008 6:21PM
I dont understand the use of the word "skilled" when it comes to WOW PVE.
What skill are you flatliners talking about? The skill of following directions? Or the skill of reading "how to" guides? Perhaps its the ever difficult skill of creating cast sequence macros....
Sorry to break it to you, but your not "skilled". A skateboarder is skilled. An ice carver is skilled. A wow player is color by numbers skilled. "Oh look i stayed in the lines, worship my skill"
This idea of skill when it comes to WOW is essentially made up by those that werent every really skilled in anything so, getting random drops off of bosses in instances you grind doesnt = skill.
PVP is the only place where I will allow the word skill be used. Simply because its not plug and play.
Skill in PVE, HA! Go play on a light bright.
Your not "better" at the game because you read the proper cast sequense for each raid encounter.
Your not better at the game because stacking your gear with certain atributes you think you discovered improved your DPS.
WOW was and is a kiddie game. PVP brought some hair on the testicles. See how much QQ goes on by the raiders too. Its pathetic.
uhit235 Dec 1st 2008 6:26PM
Yeah that would be me
BC baby! er... baby!
BooDizz Dec 1st 2008 10:30PM
I agree with Insano.
The only degree of difficulty ("skill wise" - if you can call it that) is the odd movement. Granted there are a few new cool mechanics in Wrath that take a lil learning, but if you must put 'skill' into wow then clearly
PVP > PVE
Aeneas Dec 2nd 2008 4:19AM
@insano:
Yes, I totally agree. I find that when in raid groups with pick-up PvP fanatics they are just so great at understanding Aggro, Dispells, Pulls, Focus, Mana Conservation...
There are people that PvP with no-skill, there are people that PvE with no skill.
You for example most likely would not understand how to get the best dps possible by varying your rotation to hug the tanks aggro limit.
Just as I don't know how to react in PvP against each class.
To say that PvE requires no skill just prooves that you either never tried, and just want to wave your PvP flag around a bit.
Or that in groups you're the one who causes hassle for everyone then claims it's "cause pve players suck"
Imo, declaring PvE or PvP above the other simply proves that you have not knowledge about the other part of the game.
Guapa Dec 2nd 2008 7:14AM
the same fact from another perspective:
I remember a time when epics where so rare and difficult to obtain that jerks immediately became elitist jerks once they got their first epic. Some of them still can't get over with it so today they sound like elitist jerks filled with bitterness.
Also I remember a time when you could not stay on a gryphon until you reached your destination. Instead you had to talk to the gryphon master again and again on each flightpoint in between.
I wonder how we arranged our bio breaks back then...
Anaughtybear Dec 1st 2008 4:07PM
I kind of miss the old days, when there were no belfs and space goats to annoy us with their smug laughs. What did that 30% of the Horde do before they were able to play hairdressers? Oh yeah, they were all nelfs that jumped ship to play prettier elves. Dammit.
Robert M Dec 1st 2008 4:16PM
I, too, miss a time when paladins walked only in the light and shamanistic pratices were exclusive to the Horde. Blizz did a nice job from a lore perspective of fusing the other class into it's opposing faction, but space cows and the david bowie army seem to have destroyed a little bit of WoW when they arrived.
Trevick Dec 1st 2008 9:57PM
Which brings up the point. Paladins won't have an automatic rivalry and hatred to Shaman, or vice versa.
Also, Northrend Newbies won't remember when Horde was jealous of Blessing of Salvation
g8rcody Dec 1st 2008 4:09PM
They never that Andorhol used to be a walled city, with Chromie living on the south side of town. They may never have even been to Andorhol.
They never knew that you could do the 5-man instances in giant raids, and could simply drop group to complete a quest, and get re-invited.
They never hung out in Ashenvale for hours, waiting for that one WSG to pop.
They never knew that Ironforge and Orgrimmar were the only cities that were worth being in, because they had the only Auction Houses, and cross-city communication wasn't possible.
Generic Dec 1st 2008 7:23PM
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
WhySoSerious Dec 1st 2008 4:10PM
They will never know a time when you get that wonderful feeling after getting your entire dungeon set 1. Astrannar raids, the TRUE Barrens chat, and the like.
Colin Dec 1st 2008 4:44PM
Ahh, the age of the Chuck Norris joke ended when true Barrens chat ended.
phr3qu3ncy441 Dec 1st 2008 4:11PM
solution for some of the problems...
add heroic to all classic WoW instances... with achievements (for both difficulties).
this will encourage some people to revisit old instances while giving a chance for newbies to actually be able to find people who want to run the instance (even if it means getting run through by a lvl 80) since the classic instances are pretty much dead (at least on my server).
Kor Dec 1st 2008 4:24PM
for some reason my friends and I even at 70+ love to kick Onyxia's tail all over the place we do it for fun and I think we will continue too.
Burroc! Dec 1st 2008 4:13PM
New little shamans will never know a time where reincarnating gave you resurrection sickness. New little Hordies will never know the joy of "LFM Healer LBRS Warlord's Command run" and the whirlwind tour that was the Onyxia attunement chain.
Gnosh Dec 1st 2008 4:18PM
I REMEMBER WARLORD'S COMMAND RUNS
I'd completely forgotten about that... never did get my beaststalker mantle...