Don’t think I haven’t done my fair share of grinding in WoW. I was in the closed beta. At 10am PST on 11/23/04, I was creating my characters and off at a run. I did MC. I did BWL. Ony. AQ. ZG. I did open world PVP back when there was no reward. I remember when having a guild that could run UBRS was a big deal. I have been in the trenches, sludged through it. I have more playtime than 90% of the playerbase, even after taking a year off from the game. I own Collector’s Editions. I’ve been to two BlizzCons. I have every right to think that dedication and devotion to the game should be the sole merit for reward.

But I don’t.

I dislike Blizzard’s business model and their growing antipathy to their playerbase and hubris, but it’s their right to do so. We live in a capalist society, and they should see reward for their work. So if they want to do micro-transactions, more power to them. I don’t have to condone it, nor patronize it. But to villify someone else for taking advantage of that? Why? Because they haven’t earned it? They earned it. Just not through conventional means. Calling them cheap merely diminishes their RL accomplishments as well as insults their morality or ethos.

They’re not stealing from anyone. They’re not harming anyone’s game experience. Granted, the idea that someone might, gasp, have something they didn’t have to grind hours and hours for or get lucky on the random loog generator or be able to put up with a group of strangers with draconic guild rules or loot systems in raid encounters designed to be experienced by 5% of the populace or less — that might *threaten* someone’s position on a totem pole. I know from personal experience that those accomplishments are largely not based on skill, but TIME. With easy-mode trend of WoW, this is even more true than it was before.

And to judge someone based on that luxury, or lack thereof, quite frankly, is unfair, and unbecoming.

Angela, as I said in email, at the end of the day I’ve always liked you and respected you, and
will continue to even if I disagree with you. I don’t see you as some faceless, grubbing elitist nor will I ever; I know you too well to think so poorly of you. Furthermore, I like to think I can disagree with aspects of your opinion without disliking you yourself one iota. :)

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Personally, I think micro-transactions aren’t the problem in and of themselves at the moment, it’s that they are far from being ‘micro’. If the pets cost a few pennies I wouldn’t care, but the prices they are charging combined with not being able to get the pets any other way will likely generate rifts between players.
.-= pjharvey´s last blog ..Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions at Queen Elizabeth Hall =-.

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My point being, if I wanted Micro-transactions, I would be playing Runes of Magic.

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I just fail to see the fun in buying items on a credit card rather than getting them in the game. It doesn’t feel like much of a game if it’s a glorified version of dressing up a paper doll. I don’t mind not having the stuff I have to grind for a great deal – I’m pretty happy with my lot (and you would know just how little time I have as of late to spend in the game hehe… don’t even remember the last time I saw you online Gabriel!). Sure, I get frustrated that I don’t have time to get all the badges I need for gear and things. But little things like this? Eh.

And, yes, I know that this makes me look like an elitist. Hell, it is getting to the point where I may as well accept the tag, since I think that we should get things in the game because of things we have done in the game ;-)

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To think that I do any less ‘grinding’ than Joe LookAtAllMyEpicz is false. I just happen to do my grinding at a deskjob.

And by the same token of “oh look, that person over there clearly has a great deal more disposable income than I do” — how is that any different than, “oh look, that person over there clearly has more free time to play the game than I do.” How is that any more fair?

It’s all a matter of perspective.

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I don’t think it’s elitist to say that it feels ‘cheap’ to buy pets rather than grind them. Not that some pets even require grinding anyway (Hello most cat pets!) I just think it does create this awkward feeling between those who can afford to blow extra cash and those who can’t. Not to mention a nightmare for parents of children who play! I’d hate to have 2 kids with accounts who wanted these shiny new pets!

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Insofar as the pets though, I have to admit I find it disconcerting. Now, let me state that I hope you know how fond I am of you, and that I respect you very much Angela. Nevertheless, I don’t want to get on a rant here, but your words to me seem indicative of a growing sentiment in WoW that is elitist and insular at best: this demonization of micro-transactions and the players who patronize them. There is the implication that time not spent grinding for hours on end is time ill-spent, and that RL money spent in exchange for those hours is some sort of cheat or cop-out, but it isn’t as that currency was formed from the ether. RL hours were expended to earn those funds, why shouldn’t there be reward? I get 24 hours a day, same as anyone else: why should my time be worth less because I expend it at a job instead of in the game?

Granted some might argue that the inverse should be true: that time spent in the game should result in rewards in RL. Such an idea is simply preposterous, in my opinion. The game is entertainment. It is relaxation. It is a reward. It should not be a job of any sort and to equate the two is akin to equating Quetzalcoatl to a cricket bat. There is no corollary, and to attempt to force one is injudicious entitlement to an absurd degree.

Do I think that this advocates such things as buying characters or whatnot? No. There is no substitute for experience. But the simple expenditure of time does not equate to skill either. Just because someone spends 7 years in school doesn’t make them a doctor, but they may have still paid the same amount of money and hours of their life as one without that accomplishment. But that doesn’t mean the doctor should be thought of any less for their time and money spent, let alone for their successes.

In short, I am annoyed and ultimately insulted by this developing notion that because I have financial success, and would use that to improve my game playing experience and reward myself to compensate for the fact that I can’t spend the same hours in the game as others, that I deserve less game, less enjoyment, for it. That the defining structure and requirement of the game is grind, grind, grind, raid, raid, raid, and if someone can’t commit that, then they should gtfo or live with the stinking stigma of disapproval and noob.

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@Pangia – A Chupa Chup is a type of lollipop… and they are, without a doubt, the best lollipops in the world. The one I am eating in this video is a cola flavour chupa chup. ZOMG yum!

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You are gorgeous. :)

Also, I want a chupa chup.

More videos, please! I may not agree with you, but I loved watching it!

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