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<title><![CDATA[Breakfast Topic:  Earning your stripes]]></title>
<link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/09/breakfast-topic-earning-your-stripes/</link>
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<description><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/02/25/15-minutes-of-fame-the-overachiever/"><img hspace="4" vspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2010/08/highwarlsp.jpg" /></a></div>
<em>This <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/breakfast-topics/">Breakfast Topic</a> has been brought to you by <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/02/03/the-new-wow-com-guest-blogger-program/">Seed</a>, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.<br />
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A friend of mine and I were once playing <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/rock-band/"><em>Rock Band</em></a> (don't worry, I will relate this to <em>WoW</em> soon), and he complained that he wasn't doing so well. Granted, he's much better than most players, but he was struggling to play a moderately difficult song on the expert difficulty (the hardest difficulty in the game). He later revealed to me that the reason he was lamenting his "lack" of skill was that he used to be much better -- so much better, in fact, that he once beat the infamous "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert in <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/guitarhero3/"><em>Guitar Hero III</em></a>.<br />
<br />
For those who don't know, "Through the Fire and Flames" is generally agreed to be the hardest song in any guitar-based rhythm game, demanding complex techniques that no other song in the series requires. In response to this revelation on his part, I said to him, "No matter how bad you may think you are now, beating 'Through the Fire and Flames' gives you the life-long right to retire from the game without losing any of your former glory in the process." And I believe that. No matter how much his skill may atrophy, beating "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert means he will always be worthy of respect in the <em>Guitar Hero/Rock Band</em> community, or at least always worthy of my respect.<br />
<br />
This conversation made me wonder; are there any achievements in <em>WoW</em> that bestow similar prestige? In my own mind, anyone who got <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=433">Grand Marshal</a>/<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=443">High Warlord</a> under the old PvP system is deserving of this kind of respect. I would also like to think that <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=2144">What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been</a> would carry similar meaning, but that may just be me trying to think that my <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=44177">Violet Proto-Drake</a> is more impressive than it really is. As for <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=2336">Insane in the Membrane</a>, though I've never met anyone who has done it, I imagine that rather than respecting him, I might just think him very worthy of the title.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/09/breakfast-topic-earning-your-stripes/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Breakfast Topic:  Earning your stripes</em></a></p><p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/breakfast-topics/" rel="tag">Breakfast Topics</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/achievements/" rel="tag">Achievements</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/guest-posts/" rel="tag">Guest Posts</a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/09/breakfast-topic-earning-your-stripes/">Breakfast Topic:  Earning your stripes</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/09/breakfast-topic-earning-your-stripes/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/19584323/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/09/breakfast-topic-earning-your-stripes/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description>
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<author> (Owen Welsh)</author>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST</pubDate>
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