Maybe It Doesn't Need Saving

I just recently read the article entitled Ulduar can't save World of Warcraft's end-game at Examiner.com. Continuously, these types of articles irk me. Not out-right irritate, for honestly it's not worth the energy when I have so little to spare at the moment, but rather for the complete devotion to the writer's own opinion as signifying a trend.

"You’ve already done this hundreds of times before." The author seems to be complaining that WoW is still the same game. Literally, he says in the post that it doesn't matter what content was in the patch, because in the end, "it’s still the same game." I can't say for sure, but I'm certain if it added in a pinball machine and a guitar controller, the author would gripe it was trying to be something it's not.

A big point seems to be that end-game is flawed. Yet the only depth he goes into about these flaws is that it is a grind. Oh, and despite the four different ways to play Ulduar, mixing ten-man, 25-man, normal mode and hard mode, Ulduar is only for the HARDCORE. Funny, 'cause my Paladin in blues and a few purples managed to make a nice showing in a ten-man normal Ulduar last night.

My real problem with this post is that, besides taking his own opinion (one he says, however, that only three people hold while the rest of us are rabid wow fanboiz and gurlz ready to sacrifice our first born to the gods of Blizzard) as superior, he uses it to create "news," i.e. that Ulduar has somehow caused WoW to fail, and then doesn't talk about it. Eventually, the post seems to boil down to "this is so boring, why haven't you quit yet? Oh wait, you're addicted. Losers."

Still, he goes on to saying things like dual spec and no longer being dismounted in water are obvious leads into an eventual auto-pilot mode, where we won't have to play our characters anymore. This is the same guy who wrote briefly about the plight of healers and tanks being forced into positions they don't wish to be in in an earlier article.

I have no problem with his opinion, except that he waves it around like a club and talks about whatever it happens to smash into with some relevance. Posts like this are about on equivalent ground with those that highlight isolated cases of shut-ins who kill themselves power-levelling and use them to make broad generalizations about the WoW population in general. As well, the author's hostile approach to talking to his audience is just ridiculous.

I suppose the point of my own post is that I am really tired of seeing people write openly hostile posts about WoW and then invalidate rebuttal by saying those who disagree are of the "zombified population" a.k.a. "sheeple," making those who agree with him the privileged few. I can't disagree without being in a position that has already been compromised. It's actually almost sad that this sort of thing is put out by an author who is paid to write about video games. I suppose, though, "sensational" headlines (ZOMG ULDUAR KILLIN MAH WOW WUT) get more page views. I sent you there, didn't I?