srsbusiness

It seems our faction leaders have decided to lend their arms in the battle against the Lich King. Upstart horde leader Garrosh Hellscream and King Varyan Wrynn took their first steps into Icecrown Citadel yesterday. Though I’m glad to see these guys actually lending a hand with the heavy lifting, it does complicate things for the leaders of raiding guilds…

Icecrown Citadel and the Infamous Buff
Tuesday Blizzard turned on the Easy Button, a faction specific buff that gets bigger as time goes on. When ICC was announced, this buff was described along with the much maligned “Chill of the Throne” debuff. The activation of this buff has sparked some debate about it’s use and ramifications. Before we get our teeth in this thing, let’s talk about what the buff itself actually is.

The buff; Hellscream’s Warsong (Horde) or Strength of Wrynn (Alliance), can be canceled by any raid member by talking to the faction leader at the entrance of the Citadel. The buff is raid wide however, so individual raiders can not simply “opt out” for moral reasons. Once the buff is canceled it can not be turned back on without a reset. As we found out last night, you can clear trash (at least up to Marrowgar), zone out, then reset and turn the buff back on. The buff functions in both 10 and 25 man as well as both normal and heroic difficulty. That being said, there are concerns…

Easy Button Ethics
Innocuous as it sounds, the buff can actually be a MAJOR headache for officers of a progression guild. Tuesday night, before our first pull we held a vote (one of the many wonderful uses of Ready Check). Yes for keeping the buff, No for turning it off. Very simple. The results were an overwhelming twenty-two in favor of keeping the buff. Of the three who voted no, two gave a “Really? Lame. Well, let’s kill shit.” while the third bristled and stewed in his own juices. It became very obvious (very quickly) that the third dissenter was exceedingly opposed to the idea.

Since then, it’s come up several times. Some people have treated the situation a touch indelicately, but I think I understand why. Before I talk about the pros, I want to talk a little bit about the cons. As far as I can tell, the argument against using the buff is that it somehow cheapens the experience and/or accomplishment(s) of the raid. We used the buff to get our first Blood Queen kill, and have been using it in our attempts at Sindragosa. There is an overriding sense that “we are better than that” and that the buff is in some way “cheating” or the equivalent of using “cheat codes” in a console game.

To address the first, the experience is the experience. We all get different things out of it. Personally, I don’t find another week of wiping on Blood Queen that entertaining. And in all honesty, I’m fairly confident we would’ve put the bitch to bed without the buff. Did some people make some mistakes? Yes. Were they talked to? Yes. Would it have cost us an attempt without the buff? Maybe, who knows? In all honesty, it’s academic at this point, because we killed her. But the point is, we did well and we killed her. And I for one, am glad. I’m glad to be past her and on to something else. In past weeks, we’ve been at a point where we could’ve given Sindragosa a try… but it would’ve been half-hearted at best, with our limited raid time it would’ve been fool-hardy to rush at her I think. In the end, different people like different things. As any teacher can tell you, different people respond to different rewards. Some want only praise, others it is material (a gold star on your paper), and there are those who measure success by their own standards (these are often the most difficult to please). But on to the second issue…

It is a buff, it’s not “cheating” it’s not a cheat code that you have to enter at the character select screen. It is a BUFF put in by the developers of the game. Perhaps people feel it’s too much, too soon, etc. In which case, we could have a discussion about it. But, the fact is Blizzard put it in. Not me. So, I’m left with this problem. Do I make the raid harder for some self serving sense of pride? Do I purposefully make things harder on the raid itself to fulfill my own ego? When it comes right down to it, it’s about bragging rights. And as one raider noted in Vent, “You don’t get tagged with an achievement for feat of strength or anything for clearing the instance without the buff, the only thing that’s tracked is when the bosses are killed. So we’re already past the point where it matters, all anyone is going to see is that we killed Blood Queen, Sindragosa, and Lich King after the buff became active. So it’s our word against theirs on whether we used it or not. So why wouldn’t we use the buff?”

In some ways, the problem is an exercise in utilitarianism. It’s problematic because I really want all of my raiders to be happy, not just most of them. But there’s a point where you have to ask yourself, who’s in charge? And who’s more important, one raider or the other twenty four? I have the distinct feeling that there would be a lot more moaning and grumbling if the buff was taken off. And the person who wants it off desperately would be frustrated constantly saying, “Guys we can do this, we don’t need the buff. We’re better than that.” But worse, since he’s not an officer… he wouldn’t be the one dealing with multiple people complaining “Why aren’t we using the buff? It’s there, this is retarded.” It becomes a question of one strong will versus another (or others). One is absolutely convinced in the rightness of an action, while the other is absolutely convinced otherwise. In these situations it’s almost pointless to try to talk about it, because both parties really believe their right. You’re not going to convince the other that you are, so why bother?

My Conclusion?
World of Warcraft has been out for several years, as an MMO it has been unquestionably successful. It remains engaging and relevant. However, as the game manual itself will tell you “Game Experience May Change During Online Play“. Raiding in WoW was a different animal five years ago, so few people were able to muster a fourty man guild to raid back then. And even if you did have the requisite people, you still had a smaller pedigree capable of clearing the content consistently or at all. I raided back then, and before in games like EverQuest. So maybe that gives me a different perspective, to me raids in WoW in general are “too easy” by default. There’s an old bastard inside of me full of piss and vinegar saying, “in my day, raids lasted twelve hours minimum. It took at least four hours clearing trash to get to the bosses. And if anyone on the server killed the boss, you were shit out of luck for a week while you waiting on the boss to respawn.”

I can say that I miss being one of a handful of Warlocks walking around my home city with tier gear, one could truly stand out in the crowd back then. It’s certainly harder to stand out now, I think a big part of it now is earning a reputation. But the raiding experience has simply changed, not all for the better but certainly not all for the worst. I’m glad I can have a job and a meaningful relationship (with a woman, and I don’t have to pay her!) and still raid. Before, there simply weren’t enough hours in the day for all of those things. My sense of accomplishment is not diminished by the buff, Sindragosa is still a challenge for example. I want to see the rest of Icecrown Citadel, I want to kill the Lich King. But I don’t want to join a top 100 guild to do it. I want to do it with my friends, I don’t want this experience to pass me buy like Yogg 25 and Algalon did. To me, the buff is a lot like Yogg hardmode… in a way ICC is already at a higher difficulty by default, it’s up to you to decide if you want to play at the higher or lower difficulty rating. Do you keep the buff that heals you more, gives you more HP and damage. Or do you forsake it and go for the gusto! Maybe it would’ve been different if the buff had been active from day 1? Who knows.

For me, I’m all for the buff. It’s fun for me, and I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t use it. I can’t justify turning it off. In the end, the “other guilds” are going to be using it too. It seems foolhardy to purposefully play at a handicap without a real reason. Some may have that reason, I don’t. And so, my way of thinking is likely as alien to them as theirs is to me. My only hope is that the friction caused by the easy button doesn’t get out of hand.

To my guildies, I love you all… and you feel me.