The Queue: Why must we fight?

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for 15 years now, and I still want to know why we can’t just all be friends.

I have discussed this question thoroughly with Pidia because I don’t understand the point of it. Why is anyone fighting anyone? Do we have to fight? Could we just talk this over instead? I just don’t understand my motivation in this scene, which makes it hard to answer.

But because this is clearly an important question, I will attempt to answer.

From a min/max standpoint, 50-to-1 is ridiculous odds. The size differential simply isn’t large enough to overcome numbers, so the only sensible answer is to fight one Rossi-sized Liz.

Which is confusing! Why are we fighting? If we’re both Liz, can’t we just get along? Maybe we’d accidentally break the time/space continuum by being in the same place, but we’d at least get along, wouldn’t we?

Nothing makes sense, Pidia!

The only acceptable version of Khadgar is the Wondrous Wisdomball in Hearthstone.

They could just make Divine Steed a charge-style attack…

Absolutely. I feel like this expansion has been particularly punishing on alts. Sure, you can play alts casually, but if you want to run dungeons or raids with more than one character, getting your Heart of Azeroth geared up is crucial. And that means a lot of time grinding: both for AP and for reputation to get your must-have Essences.

Want to switch classes? You’re starting from scratch, with a brand-new reputation grind.

They’re making it less punishing in patch 8.3 by lowering Essence reputation requirements, so this will be less of a hurdle — but it will still be a hurdle.

The whole Essence system is an odd one to start with. I have to do M+ to get the best Essence for raiding. I have to PVP to get the best Essence for PVE. And if I want to switch things up by playing a different class, I have to start this whole mess over again.

I’ve done the grind once. I’d rather not do it again… which is why I’m not playing a single alt right now.

Leveling. There’s a soothing rhythm to it, of just running quest to quest without thinking very much about it. After a certain number of times playing through WoW, after a certain number of times playing through any MMO, you don’t really have to read the quest text and can just fall into the grind of “kill X things, return to questgiver.” Then you kill X more things and return to another questgiver. And another…

It’s monotonous. It’s familiar. It’s predictable.

And in that way it can be pretty comforting, like a favorite book.

Personally, I planned to play but just haven’t found the time. Classic is a commitment, and sometimes it’s hard to find enough time to get anywhere in the retail game… much less adding more to my virtual to-do list.

However, I do think its existence has, perhaps, done some good things. It’s reminded us all of the things we like about the game and the things we don’t like about the game, both past and present. I think, maybe, it’s reminded the developers a bit too.

WoW has gone a lot of places over the years, but there’s always been some back and forth to it. Each expansion is a response to the previous one, trying to strip away what didn’t work and improve on what did work. But in this process of evolution, the original idea has faded into an echo.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. WoW has made, in my opinion, a lot of iterative improvements for the better over the years.

But looking back at the original is interesting, because I see things in Classic that I really like, that are long-gone from today’s game. Iterated away through the years.

It’s good to know where we’ve come from, and I feel perspective is the most important thing we’ve gained from WoW Classic.

And that is all for now, my friends. Hopefully you are my friends and aren’t all just trying to set me up to fight 50 Liz-sized Rossis, because I’m pretty sure I’d lose.

But we can always pick that conversational thread up next week.