It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Wednesday, November 30, 2022, 21:13 (723 days ago)

Long video (a bit too long, it could definitely be more efficient in communicating the ideas), but interesting and definitely applicable to Destiny.

TL;DW

•There are different types of play. For the experience, and for the goals.
•World of Warcraft ostensibly supports both these. For instance, gear chasers, but also role players (example given was someone who played a dwarf and never put on boots, to remain barefoot).
•Playing for the goal leads to optimization.
•The best players set the strategies, and this meta becomes the norm through social pressures.
•This pushes out playing for the experience. Folks yelled at the dwarf to put on some boots to boost his stats, and one healer got kicked out over a 0.9% difference in healing.
•Mod support for WoW feeds into the optimization, as players create mods to alter the game interface, and what metrics are displayed. For instance, threat level, realtime DPS, etc. This exacerbates not only the social pressures, but the encounter designs themselves, since it's assumed everyone is using them. The mods themselves either trivialize certain mechanics (threat), or destroy the aesthetics of the game. Aesthetics are further destroyed when players turn down graphical options to give themselves an edge.
*Thus, over time social pressures push players toward the 'meta' and leave little room for experience oriented play, and undermine the game's aesthetics through the mod use. Stats are used for WoW classic, vs WoW in the past. Everyone is classic is essentially playing the meta and is hardcore.

Everything in the video SEEMS correct, however I've never played WoW so I can't say for sure. But the arguments are certainly logical, and demonstrably apply to other games with goal based or competitive multiplayer elements.

I suppose the big question is WHY such games have to be so goal oriented versus experience oriented. There's an answer I suspect, but am too lazy to examine further right now.