How we Play: Part 2

In a game like World of Warcraft there will be differences in the amount of time individuals invest in the game and the content upon which individuals focus. Some will play for three hours a weekend and others will play for thirty. Some will focus on PVP and others on PVE. The inevitable result of this is that there will be differences in players in terms of gear, items, funds, etc. These differences are not unique to World of Warcraft or at all unexpected.

Think of Guitar Hero. There are certain limitations within the structure of reality that will result in some players being better or worse than others. If one cannot play Bark at the Moon on Expert then certainly one can practice and attempt to do better. It may be the case, however, that one simply cannot play Bark at the Moon on Expert despite how hard one may work or how much one may practice. This is simply reality.

When these differences are made evident usually an individual will redefine success for their self. An individual who cannot play Bark at the Moon on Expert will embrace Hard or Medium difficulties and ignore Expert. An individual who does not want to invest thirty hours a weekend in World of Warcraft will focus on content which requires a much shorter time investment. Rather than Raid, for example, an individual will embrace Battlegrounds or Arena and so accumulate gear that way.

Others, however, will ceaselessly bitch and whine and demand that the game change to accommodate them. And these people need to fucking die.

When I wrote my How we play rant this is the idea I failed to communicate: The idea that one's desires need to be in harmony with one's level of commitment and abilities; individuals need to desire what they are able and willing to obtain.

I have participated in a plethora of frustrating conversations of the following format:

Dipshit: I want better gear.
Me: Raid.
Dipshit: I don't want to raid.
Me: Then you won't get better gear.
Dipshit: But I want better gear!
Me: Then Raid!
Dipshit: I DON'T WANT TO!

Feel free to replace those particulars with other examples. The "I want higher level characters but I don't want to do quests/play more" discussion. The "I want to do better in pvp but don't want to respec" discussion. The "I want to play Guitar Hero on Hard but I don't want to fret with four fingers" discussion.

Much as we might hate it there is a structure to any given context which dictates the process by which a given goal or objective can be obtained. While there may be multiple paths to any given goal or objective within a context these paths and structures exist. And not in some other-worldly, mysterious, or ethereal form but rather in empirical, observable fact. One will not level in World of Warcraft unless one does what is required to level. One will not get better gear unless one does what is required to get better gear.

This is not a videogame specific revelation either. There are processes by which things happen. If one is not involved in a process which results in X one will not achieve X.

I think that rather than bitch and whine it is best to objectively assess the situation and determine whether or not one is willing to do what is required to achieve that which one desires. If one is willing to do what is required then fucking do it. If one is not willing to do what is required then abandon the goal and find another.

Just don't desire what you are unwilling or unable to obtain and then bitch about it. You look like an idiot.