(I originally posted this on twinkinfo.com some time ago, but can no longer find the link. This post has been recreated here.)
I could see the stress
of war on the faces of old friends around me at stark contrast to the
nervous shifting of the young ones. Yet they all act with honor,
courage, and commitment. But that whole world fades away even as the
earth tones of a hostile desert give way to the warm colors of home
once again. Many of us switched from the fast paced life to more
family oriented “jobs.” Life slowed to what seemed like a
standstill.
1. Enter Warcraft
1.1 Battlegrounds Introduced
1.2 Dabbled Twinking
2. There: Vulcano
2.1 Our Falling Away
2.2 My Falling Away
3. Back Again:
Deadvulcano
3.1 Twinkinfo
3.2 Videos
3.3 PvE, PvP
4. Toons, Gaming
5. Summary
1. Enter
Warcraft
A particular individual kept
talking about a game that was coming out called World of Warcraft.
Many of us had played previous Blizzard games and decided to give
this one a shot. We made a guild “DoD” but it was painfully
obvious progress that WoW and varied schedules just don't go
together.
1.1
Battlegrounds Introduced
When battlegrounds were
introduced it gave a whole new way to play. But the most shocking
thing of all was how “good” some of these players seemed to be.
I don't remember which server I was on when I was introduced to
twinking, but it was probably Spirestone.
There was an Undead rogue named “String” that used just about every engineering item possible. But I believe
it was a Horde warrior that first made a toon on another account to
congratulate us on a win. Completely different community then I know
:p. That was really the first time I learned about how what twinking
meant, as far as gearing is concerned.
1.2 Dabbled
Twinking
This gave us a new way to
play together without the problem of scheduling large blocks of time.
Level 30 twinks ran rampant with gear and a signature talent point
all over random people. It was never anything “serious”, just
playing around and having fun. It is likely that most of the people
there were honestly in the dark about twinking had no clue about why
they were losing. This is another vast change in community. “Twink”
is part of the vocabulary of just about every player in WoW today.
Unfortunately not with a favorable light in most cases.
2. There:
Vulcano
My first “serious” twink
was a level 19 blood elf mage named Vulcano on
the server Lethon. I had certainly made other twinks before, but no
twink was ever as complete as Vulcano. Different gear sets for fire,
frost, arcane, fc, etc. I played a 19 lock there called Majhacker. Level 29 Shaman Element with +81 healing on weapon :). Level
38 Mage for lawls, 39 Warrior. Tidal Charm is great fun. Level 49
Lock.
2.1 Our Falling Away
Lots of people I know stopped
playing sometime before Wrath. People were getting back to their
pre-WoW lives again. It was a great distraction in the mean time.
Both my wife and I quit, but not until after duo'ing SFK on low level
priest/rogue. My mage /played was immense over all brackets. Its
things like seeing that /played time and thinking in terms of
development time (programmer since before GNOME was a foot) that
drove me to the next step. Vulcano, my most played toon the
character that represented the bulk of my mage game play, was
deleted. Twinking was a nice distraction between raiding events, but
once we quit raiding there wasn't really a point anymore.
2.2 My
Falling Away
Like most players, I never
got involved in forums. I never really used any guides for twink
gear either, I generally just did the math and worked pvp/pve models
to determine the best setup for me. I still looked at sites like
pwndepot or twinkinfo on occasion to see some twink vids or see
changes about once a month. Didn't really like listening to most
people vent in general. Though I still talk with a few ppl I met
from raiding guilds to discuss things like leadership, management,
etc. I didn't leave “completely” really. I just spent time
soloing raid content while down gearing until it was sufficiently
challenging. Very easy to find an hour or two for a solo
raid/dungeon session.
3. Back again:
Deadvulcano
Eventually I saw the news on
twinkinfo about F2P. This was intriguing for a number of reasons.
But ultimately Vulcano was “resurrected” as Deadvulcano. I enjoyed helping ppl in pugs
again and still pulled off a strong win percentage. I played a few
pug games with Çer (I don't believe he was on AP at the time? I
don't remember really.) Eventually he would invite me out of the
blue and we'd do a game or two. Maybe invite another player from AP.
He mentioned something about twinkinfo, but I wasn't really familiar
with it at the time. Once I saw that he was an MVP there I figured
that twinkinfo must be a pretty good place. Maybe I'll finally join
a game a forum.
3.1
Twinkinfo
It started well enough. I
was certainly interested in helping other twinks in much the same way
that I help guilds through content or 3 letter organizations through
regional inspections :p. I'm actually reviewing my topic history as
I write this to try to pin point where the problem that many old
gamers feared, I'm talking D&D players here, first appeared.
That didn't take long, third topic. I won't go into detail in this
now but its a serious concern that is largely the fault of
developers, and partially the fault of users.
3.2
Videos
Some people liked the basic
videos, others still asked me to make them. I have enough video
content that includes whispers from ppl that decided to join AP
because of my videos, or conversations from ppl that found me outside
of orgrimmar, to make a movie on that alone. The majority of hits
currently are from random twinks searching for videos of what to make
or just looking for something different. Ultimately random twinks
are who I spent most of my time with in F2P. Its interesting to note
that when the videos are early and the traffic is only from twinkinfo
links that the videos get thumbs downed. This is interesting because
I do these to help the community. Even when supporting twinking we
have “trolls” that shoot positive twink publicity in the
foot.
3.3 PvE,
PvP
I don't solo raids anymore,
but can get a similar experience down gearing to solo dungeons. This
is fun and easy to set up. WC on lock was a good experience, but SFK
on shaman was my best F2P experience. As far as PvP goes, I prefer
the gameplay of zerg and the mechanics of SC2 in general. PvP in WoW
has always been about the people to me. If even one person was still
going to try, I'll do what I can to help them. Mostly I'm interested
in proper reads and knowing what the opponent will do before he does
it (I've worked on intelligence systems, so its fairly “nature”
way for me to think this way.) I've played great games with Çer and
pug games with ppl like Scripts, Cloudbreak, Spooch, Tashalah, etc.
But I also remember several games where I pugged and got in with 2-3
other AP members. They afk after the first ally cap, we get a few
good f2ps to replace them, and we win. Its part of the attitude that
just shouldn't be there, but it exists none the less. Credit to
those that stay throughout and fight when all looks lost. Never give
up, never surrender.
4. Toons,
Gaming
I tend to play a different
“personality” depending on which toon I'm on. My rogue is
definitely my rudest. Each one emphasizes something specific but the
details are really unnecessary. Just a throwback from better times
(D&D.) Its interesting to see how the incentives of gaming have
really pushed ppl into behavior that otherwise didn't exist. Some of
these incentives are not even really connected to the game. The
vocal minority, not even sure its a minority anymore, speaks a
different language. It is true that we're playing a game and/or
posting on a forum, but that is no reason to treat people like
anything other than people. Labeling it doesn't give you freedom
either, simply saying its the internet doesn't solve the issue of
what is happening. Its an unfortunate fact of modern gaming and will
continue to plague human interaction until developers can solve it.
There are plenty of TED talks about the subject of gaming or
interaction if this seems interesting.
Its about people
and their interactions to me. While winning is “important” due
to incentives, its the interaction and the character of players that
drives me in game. I'm not interested in the optimal “use” of my
time as far as the game mechanics are concerned. The people that
seem to adhere to these rules will /afk when things turn bad, or be
upset about prolonging the game. These individuals do not even seem
to like the game unless their incentive standard is reached. This is
the beginning of a difference in the language. The game within the
confines of the mechanics was boring many years ago. But the wealth
of information/fun from behavior and interactions is amazing. I may
make vocal an observation about player population. The view from my
side is a question about the quality of the population as a whole,
and which incentives are operating on the individual over their time
with WoW that lead to the current situation. Is there a way to fix
this problem within the mechanics currently available? What behavior
might people take to correct this? A real example of this
interaction will come soon enough :p
5.
Summary
Everyone
has their own story. My WoW story is summarized above. But “random”
players are simply not known at all. The last toon you killed/yelled
at/encouraged/belittled/etc is driven by someone with an entire life
story up to that point, and a story that will continue after that
point. All these interactions will vary in their impact, but the
impact is made regardless. Its our niche style of gameplay that is
on the line. Degrading each other does nothing productive to promote
what has been a great journey for many of us. Where is the fresh
blood? Where are the people sustaining the new players in their
respective brackets? The forums are a very small part of it, but we
often exclude people that may just be starting out. “Randoms”
from other servers, people that have never heard of twinkinfo, etc.
I'm reminded of a
discussion with another DM about building players. Its been awhile,
but in general: If you beat a new player to within a inch of their
life at the start of the game they will carry that with them for a
very long time. They will be cautious and may completely miss
activities altogether because of their first big encounter. BUT: if
you let them explore and reward the risks you can build a stronger
relationship where the player can help drive the game. Its not just
the player though. That interaction paints their discussions with
other potential players. What will they say to the fresh blood you
haven't even seen yet? Those people that are now impacted by a lack
of vision and may never come to enjoy the same things that we enjoy.
My time is
practically done here. I had a good time and learned a lot. I hope
the GuildWars 2 model will catch on and everyone will zone into pvp
with equal and balanced gear. Realistically however, many people
seem to just want to use their advantage by spending time/money to
exploit other PEOPLE. Some individuals don't want to share
information because then other people may enjoy the same benefits and
an advantage is lost. This is my primary concern with GuildWars 2,
can it attract enough people that care about a game that will strive
for PvP balance? Or will the allure of exploiting advantages keep
PvPers in WoW?
