The "P" word!

by: Kiara

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Ah, the "P" word. The power of the "P" word is remarkable. Amazing, even. It causes otherwise normal people to turn into ravening lunatics. The not so normal people tend to froth at the mouth a little.

The "P" word starts to get thrown about and the flames rise. They rival the ancient bonfires of yore when people were sacrificed to the gods for favors.

Oh, great and all knowing Kiara, what pray tell IS this mighty word, which shakes the very foundations of the gaming world? I'm so very glad you asked. The "P" word, my friends, is progression. Whether it comes as levels, gear, advancement points, guild status... It's a hot button.

Progression means different things to different people. Some folks think they have to level and raid the high end mobs and have the uberest (yes it's a word) gear to progress. Some people view progression as completing every possible quest they can get their hot little pixels on.

Still others view progression simply as anything that furthers their enjoyment of the game in general. To each their own, I say. What progression really is, is whatever advances your character within your playstyle.

There are those, who cannot understand the concept of a playstyle that is not their own. There are also those who, while they can understand other playstyles, have difficulty wrapping their minds around the mentality that feeds playstyles so wildly differing from their own. All reasonable points of view.

Unacceptable however, are those who insist that their playstyle is the one, true way. Now, we all know, this is completely untrue. There is no one right way. If there was, the world would be boring as hell, and we'd all be doing the same thing.

The game is designed to try and accomodate as many of the diverse playstyles as possible in the broadest possible ways. There's your high end content to challenge the hardiest of hardcore players. Stretching them to their tactical limits.

There's content available for the soloists. For the questors. For the crafters. For the lore junkies. There's something for everyone. And all was right with the world, and the lord did grin.

Problems arise, however, when folks chew through the available content faster than the great and powerful devs can churn it out. Cries of "More high end content!" and "Raise the level cap!" abound. Protests and whines of outrage when the news goes out that there will be no rise in the level cap. OH NOES!! ZOMG!! No raising the level cap?? Whatever shall we do? We'll all quit the game and ruin it, because as we all know, the uber guilds are the backbone of the playerbase!

Horse puckey. There isn't anything wrong with how the hard core folks play, anymore than there is with how the other people out there play. There is no, one, right way. However, there must be consideration there for what is and is not possible content wise. Putting out new content every three weeks for the people who have to rush for the end and win the race, isn't possible. Putting out new content every nine months for us slow pokes who want to savor things, isn't possible. There's a happy medium and everyone needs to learn to live with it. Some folks will always have the end game just out of reach because they play slowly. Some folks will always be at the end waiting for everyone to catch up because they shovel their food and wait impatiently for the chocolate mousse at the end.

The devs try to make sure we all get to the chocolate mousse. Is it better to get there slow? Is it better to rush? Who the hell CARES?? I mean really. Does it matter what anyone else does as long as you are having fun and love the game? Nope. Not a jot. So the next time someone starts telling you that you're playing the game wrong? Tell them where to shove it. And if you have the time between crafting events, help them do it.