Sunday, March 28, 2010

less XP required :: always a good thing?

I am by no means a "hardcore" gamer. Don't get me wrong, I would be if time allowed, but at this point in my life there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Over my almost 5 years of playing World of Warcraft there have been many changes. Mostly good, but others are questionable at best. One such change was when Blizzard lowered the amount of XP required to level. I know what you are thinking...HOORAY! Well, for me, it is a blessing and a curse. Let me explain...

The first 4 years I played WoW I chose to be a part of the Alliance. Lots of fun was had. Many real life friends and VoIP software added to the fun. Fast forward to November 2009 when I decided to give the Horde side a try. I wanted to see how the "other half lived". I thought that if I truly "loved" this game I would want to experience all it had to offer. I wanted to take a look inside the Horde's capitals, cities and villages and wanted to relish the entire "Horde experience".

I have found, over the last few months, that with the lower amounts of XP required to gain each level that I am blowing through content without seeing a well-rounded picture of what the Horde side of WoW really is about. I mean, I have seen the inside of many of the places I had missed while playing Alliance, but alas my drive to get to 80 has gotten the better of me. In fact, I am already level 65 as I type this and it appears I will get to 68 before I even get out of Nagrand.

At this point I know you are all thinking, "What is this guy complaining about?!" Frankly, you're right. However, I guess that part of me deep down in the geekiest recesses of my soul cry out for the gameplay and leveling to take me through all of the Horde towns and territories at a gradual pace while I level. I suppose I will just have to wander around and do a bunch of unnecessary quests to get to the bottom of what being a member of the Horde is all about.

Wish me luck!
- Alan

4 comments:

  1. I have had these same feelings about recruit a friend.

    When my friend did recruit a friend with his wife I knew he was going to miss out on a lot of the game by leveling too fast. By the time he got to 60 he was still wearing level 40 gear.

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  2. I know what you mean!! I have felt this way for awhile too. My husband and I did a similar thing. We played Alliance from launch, and we switched to Horde a couple of years ago. I tend to feel a certain nostalgia for a lot of the Alliance content that I don't feel for most of the Horde content, and I think it has a lot to do with the game changes. Blizzard seems to be continuously making the game easier and easier, and I think in doing so, they are taking something valuable away from the experience.

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  3. nunwin - Couldn't agree more. You completed my thought. That is precisely how I feel. The nostalgia lies on the Alliance side for me as well. I wonder if I will notice much of a difference at all when Cataclysm hits due to my lack of care/concern for the early Horde levels. I am sure I will notice the geography change, but will I notice much more? I guess we will see.

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