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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-03-2010 @ 9:49PM
Keeva said...
School of Hard Knocks is the one achievement that will go unfinished in my log, and I'll never ride on a violet drake, as a matter of principle.
I don't like PvP achievements, but I do them, usually. But this one is just a horrible series of bottlenecks, collusion, and standing in the flag room, passing and repassing the flag. It's a bit of a joke, really.
I think it's nice that people are creating guides to help others do the achievements. But whenever I see those guides I can't help feeling that we're settling for bad design, and putting up with it for a week by explaining the best way to go about dealing with it, despite loathing it. It might seem melodramatic, but I just refuse to take part in it.
(It's bad enough at xmas time when feral druids have to respec, else they're doomed to run around as useless elves, punching things to death or tossing weak moonfires or lifeblooms around to try to grab credit.)
It's a terrible design for an achievement. There are plenty of other ways to encorporate your orphan into BGs without making them horrible bottlenecks that turn games on their heads and go against the spirit of the game. Win X games of WSG, kill Y players in AV, etc. Participate in X number of BGs (of any combination of the 4). Get X healing or Y damage in a single battleground. Win WSG 3-0. Over the course of the week, be on teams that defend a total of 20 AB nodes. Or recycle some of the existing achievements, things like defend your faction leader in AV by killing 50 invaders, or finish in under a certain amount of time, etc. There are so many options that don't involve horrible bottlenecks and having to "be nice" to the opposite faction so that everyone "can get it over and done with."
It should encourage players to play the battleground as it's meant to be played. I'm not a PvPer, but I can say with honesty that I would actually ENJOY doing the BG achievements if they were created in a way that encouraged the games to be played properly.
Blizzard won't change the achievement, I know. I'm not trying to be a one-man picket line. And I know it's wholly my choice to miss out on the achievement and the meta if I want to make a futile little stand against it. But I just refuse to do it on principle, because I think it's a terrible achievement that encourages people to ruin battlegrounds - even if "it's only for a week".
Blizzard could do so much better. The PvP achievements could actually be FUN for everyone, rather than an annoyance for PvPers and a "let's just get it over and done with ASAP" chore for everyone else.
Reply
5-04-2010 @ 6:19AM
TR said...
I totally agree with you. Blizzard dropped the ball (flag?) and could have done a /much/ better job (and should for next year) on this one. Don't remove it - retool it so it involves aspects involving the /spirit/ of a battleground instead of one thing that rarely more than 2 or 3 people in the group are able to successfully do. Cap the flag, capture a base, or defend a base in EotS, perhaps? And at the very least lose all achievement-related points if you desert or go AFK. Sorry, you may not have to kill, cap, etc. but at least be part of the group for the whole damn battleground!
While I did successfully get For the Children in the 24 hours, and I'm only a Flame Warden away from my Violet Proto-Drake, I'm a PvE player. I'm not into PvP, and have no interest. Not because there may or may not be something wrong with PvP (I don't really have the experience to judge), but because the achievements Blizzard's created to introduce me to PvP were awful; they made no sense even in the context of the battlegrounds. School of Hard Knocks is the perfect example of what they need to change.
5-04-2010 @ 7:41AM
Possum said...
I agree totally. These are terrible achievements. Terrible for the people who are trying to get them and terrible for the people who just want to play BGs. I don't tend to pay much attention to the holidays so it took a few games of "WTF is everybody doing? Have they gone mad??" before I noticed all the bloody orphans running around D: and it clicked.
5-04-2010 @ 8:16AM
Alternator said...
My thoughts as well.
It simply isn't fun, which I think breaks a tennant of Blizzards??
From my perspective, this is either a very badly designed Achieve, or Blizzard intends for it to irritate and put players off BG's... You just need to look at the comments people are making about this one along with the guides to subvert the play mechanic of these mini games.
5-04-2010 @ 12:52PM
clundgren said...
I enjoy School of Hard Knocks. I enjoyed doing it, and I enjoy the chaos it brings to BGs. I do a LOT of pvp; obviously, I enjoy it. But it can get to be a bit of "same old, same old" strategy-wise. This achievement breaks up the monotony.
Also, it actually improves AV, which has degenerated into a pathetic zerge-fest. For this achievement, folks will actually try to take and hold towers. What a concept!
As for forcing non-pvpers to pvp...good. "It's a Long, Strange Trip," by its very nature, should be for players who are willing try the breadth of what the game has to offer. I had to learn to bake a stupid cake for it.
I like all aspects of this game, but I find that there is a certain intolerance that comes from specific factions in the community, specifically hardcore PvE players, and hardcore arena players. Not all, but a vocal minority, are very derogatory about the aspects of the game they don't enjoy.
A "badge of honour" for refusing to try something? In a video game? Okay.