Strange feelings wash over me as I follow along with the BRK / AC / Ratshag / Ego saga.
In the recent-ish installments of the story, you've basically got a player who, through hugely colorful personality and a very unique style, caught the eye of a pretty advanced raiding guild, although they'll swear they're casual. lol. Then the player rolled a brand new toon with that guild, did a great job zipping on up to 70, and only a short while later, is downing boss after boss after boss, donning T4 and if not yet, then I'm sure its soon to follow, T-(insert tier number most folks wont ever see) gear and is now heading on into Mount Hyjal for some progression runs.
You tell me...welfare? or no?
Did it take hard work to get his toon to 70 and grind out all the proper reps and gold and other assorted things necessary to be a successful raider? No doubt.
Did he, and everybody else involved, tell an interesting and creative story via their blogs along the way? You bet. I've enjoyed reading every bit of it. They form the heart of the WoW community I read every day, and hope to hear more as the story unfolds.
But it surprises me that people cry WELFARE over epics available through Arena or BG, but nobody looks at this scenario and considers it the same thing. At least not that I've seen.
Am I jealous? A drop. Their's is a story of what seems to be a good bunch of respectable people who all approach the game with a similar zest and level of determination, and also have a talent for sharing their thoughts and experiences with their reading audience. If given a chance to do the same thing, would I take it? More than likely. And if I happen to be in a dungeon, whether on farm or progression, and epics drop that would be upgrades for me and nobody else wants, do I grab 'em? Oh, yeah!
As much fun as it is progressing "the hard way" through bosses, wouldn't it be more fun to experience more of the game, and still get to have that progression feeling, just in Mount Hyjal rather than in Kara and ZA. Truth be told, finding the right leaders and players to enjoy the game with in a 25-man setting is more jealousy-worthy than the actual content is. I'll tip my Gladiator's Chain Helm to anybody who's able to find that type of environment.
So who is a bigger recipient of welfare? The guy who shows up to 10 arena matches a week for a month and gets a sweet axe? Or the guy who finds the right group of friends, and gets run through farm content that's more advanced than most guilds will ever see, and gets access to every epic drop along the way?
Not that welfare is a bad thing. I'm on it too, a different kind.
I'm just sayin'
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3 comments:
I think I kinda associate with the scenario where I get to run through farm content with my guild. Granted, I'm not an old WoW player who's levelling an alt, which probably makes it more welfare than anything. I do admit that it's a bit of different experience when you're going through Karazhan in a group that farms it because you can essentially one-shot every boss and get almost all the gear drops because everyone else has better gear.
I could PvP, but I don't, so raid farming is basically my most common source of epics. I'd imagine I wouldn't be this far if I weasn't being helped by guildmates because I've been digging my feet deep in T4 content, and it hasn't even been a year since I've started playing.
At the very least, I think welfare helped me catch up to current content as a new player. I remember coming into Outland with greens and blues and having a hard time killing some regular mobs even for questing. In hindsight, I think this welfare stuff will help make the transition to Wrath a bit easier.
I have always thought the word welfare in warcraft means "I hate that you get rewards doing an activity that I don't like to do!"
Come on, welfare PVP epics may come from a grind of BG's and arena. You mean to tell me doing 50 kara runs and buying BT level items from a vendor with badges is not welfare too? They are one in the same, just a different way to grind the rewards.
I guess what I am trying to say is this: there is no such thing as a welfare epic. Pvp players earn their keep same as raiders. To each his own. If you don't like to pvp, then that doesn't mean pvp players are getting unfair easy to buy toys. It simply means they are getting toys from Walmart while you shop at Kmart. It's surely not their fault you don't like to shop at their store.
I do not believe I have ever seen any of this as welfare. AC didn't gear him up just because he's an awesome person and they wanted to play with him, but they also needed his class. Originally they needed a holy priest, and then they needed a shadow priest. He's the only Shadow Priest who they raid with, at the moment. They needed him at a certain gear level.
Guilds do this all the time. They need something, they find one, and if they can't find one at the appropriate level, they help them through content until they're at the proper gear level to succeed. This includes alts, recruits and friends.
Everything takes time and work. Welfare is characterized by not doing work and still getting something out of it. You cannot afk through Kara as much as you would like to. And those who AFK through BGs get their gear stripped away and their accounts compromised.
There is no Welfare in WoW, just different levels of progression and different requirements. Everything takes time and some modicum of effort.
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