A typical MMO requires a large investment of time. In World of Warcraft, level 85 is guaranteed to take multiple days of in-game time to reach. It’s the repetition that siphons the motivation out of many players, especially around the late 40s. That’s when distractions like music and television are valuable for their ability to keep attention away from the monotonous clicking. As the level cap increased, and expansions released, Blizzard made an effort to shorten the lull by increasing the experience rate dramatically, but instead of finding a solution, they just relocated it to Northrend. It’s a tough battle to fight, but it gets a lot easier with a buddy around.
The WoW leveling experience can be desolate and dry of content, a generous friend can not only provide conversation, but they can make everything go much faster. A quest to kill 25 dwarfs will feel like 10, and the experience bar will lose its visual priority from the chat bar’s shenanigans. Other than a few bathroom breaks, the fun never stops. Entire camps of trolls will be slaughtered, and tougher, elite enemies will be slain, all during a conversation about the return of NBC’s Community.
The traditional way of questing starts to look dated and inefficient. Why not grab a friend from level 1 and rampage through 84 more levels? The teamwork method has been proven, but it’s not without its problems. Unless the friend is within sight, syncing eachother’s schedules can be difficult. Waiting in Ogrimmar for a few hours is wasting precious leveling time. Morale is important too, and it’s harder to keep up after seven days of playtime together. It’s better to think of partying up with a friend as a shot of adrenaline to get out of a rut, not a gametype.
Finding a complete stranger willing to help can be more beneficial than an existing cohort. It’s like MMO networking, they might have their own group of friends that know some people in the largest, most successful guild on the server. Later, at max level, a friends list full of a few tanks and healers eager to hit up a heroic dungeon or two or eight is a valuable resource to have. And during those late nights tearing through dungeons, its not uncouth to think of it as an application. With careful delivery of damage-dealing, tanking, or healing prowess, those acquaintances will spit out the Mountain Dew Game Fuel they were sipping on (because they were on sale and the Mana Energy Potion Drinks were not) and give a recommendation to to their friends in the high profile guild.
Before long, the epics and rare mounts will be bursting out of every pocket like a kid’s in the Skylanders aisle. Now, returning the favor and continuing the cycle with another unknown adventurer will be much easier. WoW may not be as single-player focused as Star Wars: The Old Republic, but when questing gets dull, it allows for loads of charm with a friend that might lead to an overabundance of beautiful, beautiful loot, and who could deny that?
No Comments