PvPing In WoW
Ah, the Grand Marshal’s Dirk. See how it glistens in the light as I sneak up behind an enemy and ruin that perfect shine with their blood. Listen to how neatly it slides into their back and through the tender muscles. How eagerly I, like a child in a candy store, gaze in admiring it from the other side of the glass as I slowly save up my quarters and dimes and daydream about what I could do with one of my own.
But you see, those quarters and dimes are sitting in the pockets of mine enemies, the Horde. Really, I have nothing against them. Some are pretty downright evil, while others are nature-loving tree-huggers like my little Night Elf. There’s just one little problem with my idea of world peace: they’re standing between me and my new dagger.
Back in the day, I loved fighting Horde between Tarren Mill and Southshore. There was nothing like hunting each other in the wilderness between the two, watching the waves crash back and forth as each side takes their turn to slam onto the other’s shore. That was then.
Now I have to put up with scenes like this in WSG:
(0: 00:00) The battle for Warsong Gulch has begun!
(0:00:01) Cheater has taken the Alliance Flag!
All PvP has been reduced to three instances, no variation in the way the dances are performed across the battlefield, and otherwise un-epic feeling battles between the two sides. Sure, there’s the odd match where both sides are equal in strength, skill, and tactics, but these jewels are few and far between cries of “Just let them 5-cap so we can get this over with” in AB or “Let them take the HS GY you nub!” in AV.
Even battlegrounds didn’t start out this way. I remember one AV in particular that I joined several hours in, had to go to bed eight hours later, and then woke up to find out that the battle had ended shortly before I awoke after a 21 hour battle that resulted in one hell of a win for the Horde.
Now?
Now if I want my shiny little dagger, I’m out there farming away as much HK as I can. I’ve tried to have fun, to break away and enjoy the thrill of the slaughter (both theirs and my own), but too often do people freak out when you try to break away from the delicate routine that people have trapped themselves in as they rush, like me, to get their shiny pretty objects of doom before BC docks. In an obviously lost match of WSG, I thought it’d be fun to just run and see how far I could get with the Horde flag. The moment I picked it up, I had no less than five teammates yelling at me because I wasn’t out on the field letting the Horde slaughter me. I still died, mind you, but I had a heck of a lot more fun trying to run like mad than I ever would have with the rest of the lemmings.
But PvPing isn’t about fun right now. It’s about getting the latest candy that will let us be more efficient when it comes to killing enemies. I mean really, who plays a game to have fun? –Rebecca Bundy
