Forums Watch: DPS meters, Gear-score, etc killing WoW?

How many times have you been asked for a link to your armory before being invited to a pug? How many times has someone complained or compared your gear score? How about the DPS meter junkies who end up fail-boating the raid because they are trying to make the top 3? Maybe it is that achievement junkie who has to get that achievement even though you are still learning the encounter and ruins it for everyone. The question we are asking is the addition of DPS meters, gear scores and achievements hurting World of Warcraft or it is the players?

Here is an opinion from Serket on the forums: Link

I should rephrase the headliner to DPS Meters, Gearscore, Achievements, Armory etc. making WoW community in game less about community and more about stats and individual achievements?

To those of us who started in the first year of WoW it felt more like a community. Everyone was willing to group up with one another, regardless of stats. Now it feels like the racial divide we had in the mid-20th Century in the US, geared vs under-geared characters. Instead of race, its all about statistics of each character. If your character doesn’t match what the raid leader is looking for then you are SOL.

WoW feels more anti-social. If you don’t have the right gear, DPS, HPS, DEF cap on a tank, achievements etc you are not part of the in crowd. Of course, I’m mainly referring to raids but in any case small other nit-picky things apply as well. It varies by server.

Blizz what can you do to change this? I want WoW to feel like it was in year one where we can communicate with everyone. We want a real community back not a segregation. Please bring back the feel of joy again. I’m sure everyone at one point or another in their WoW experience have been singled out due to one of the above mentioned. I’m sure you devs and mods have too. Too many times I hear:

1. No “vent”rilo, no loot

2. Whats your DPS?

3. Checking Armory/Geaerschore before invite

4. PST w/ achievement and stats or no reply

5. Must have DBMs or some other type Boss add-ons (isn’t WoW easy enough?) To those that say WoW is easy, conquer raids without using any add-ons or DBM type programs. Then we’ll see how easy this game is.

Etc etc…..

I suggest WoW devs create an achievement that detects the whole raid not using any add-ons when completing a raid. That would be the true “Tribute to Insanity” achievement. No DBMs, no custom UI’s, no DPS meters, threat meters and so on. They are basically the cheat codes of WoW (up up down down left right left right). Bring the player not the add-ons.

Players mentality are too reliant on the above mentioned. I hope a mod or dev sees at least the point of my post and understand what I’m trying to say. Make WoW feel like a community again and not dependent on statistics. Thats all I am asking.

Personally I believe, like most things in a MMO, it is how the community uses it that defines it. Some people believed 40 man raids were too much, then once 25 man raids were added some thought it was too much, some too few.

I like the achievement aspect because it does allow for more choice and I believe there is room to go for an achievement once you have learned the encounter and have a group willing to do it. As for gear-score, I understand the horrible nature of pugs, after all, I am an Alliance player on Altar of Storms, nuff said.

However, I believe players should be given a chance to fail (not succeed, fail) and then if so they get the boot. How many times have we seen a well geared player who just sucked and an under-geared player who did his or her job and helped out the team?

Things like DPS meters can be helpful if used right. It’s like your girl breaking it to you that your sexual skills are lacking; she can do it the kind way or pull your sack out from your nostrils with a harsh critique. If someone is using a bad spec or does not know their rotation sometimes they can be coached and sometimes they really did not know what they were doing something wrong, but you have to have tact, if not you come off looking like an elitist douche and that isn’t good for anyone.

Here are some opinions from that thread:

Pentoly writes:

Epeen stroking is in fact a huge problem with the community at the moment.

Unfortunately there is nothing Blizzard can do about it. They can’t solve a problem that is at it’s core the fault of the players.

The players can, so I ask you, what is Serket doing to solve the problem.

I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I’m starting heroic PuGs (on Mitissix, my resto shaman) where I find a tank, and then grab the very first three DPS, regardless of gear score, regardless of DPS, regardless of it even being the dreaded hunter with stam gems, I take the first 3 people to send me a tell. I then go into whichever heroic was chosen and I keep that tank alive.

Now I will stress something real quick and that’s that the tank actually must have 535 def. He can have 24k health, but I won’t compromise on 535 def. My main is in a mix of 25 Ulduar, 10 ToC, iLevel 245/232 badge gear, and Ony’s healing dagger. I can pick a bad PuG up, put it on my shoulders and carry it to the last boss in a heroic if I have to.

The reason I do this is to show that not everyone who is “geared” is an elitist prick who only wants to get what they want and screw everyone else. I do this to make WoW more enjoyable for people who come into contact with me. I do it in the hopes that my being nice will cause them to reciprocate it.

Basically, I try to treat others in game as I want to be treated (unless of course they’re horde, then red=dead). It seems to work fairly good too.

So what about the SpoonCraft community? What is your take? Are these things killing W.O.W or is it in the hand of the player.

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