WoW! I’m frustrated
I’ve written in my gaming log about the tension between casual and hardcore gamers and that casual gamers would like to be rewarded for the time they have to spend within the games they play. A game like Halo does this wonderfully. You always feel like you’ve made progress and moving on to the next level or cutscene (revealing more of the plot) is the reward. WoW, at the higher levels, simply isn’t rewarding a casual gamer such as me in a way to keep me interested. Levels 0-20 are incredibly satisfying for gamers I’ve spoken with–either those who have the time to group or need to solo adventure. I was even able to reach 45 mainly through soloing.
However, without doing hours of research in search of solo quests, I have to enter areas of the game that require groups. Last night I sat down and put aside 2.5 hours just for this. The first 40 minutes went something like this “LFG [looking for group] for Uldaman!” That’s me repeating the message over and over in the LFG chat channel. I eventually got 4 people together, but this was a poorly balanced group: 2 hunters, a priest, and a warlock. We met at Uldaman, where the hunter other members decided to go in the back door, allowing them to get to the section they needed for their quests–leaving me with no reason to be there since I needed something from near the other entrance. I continued on with hopes to get a few good drops. Things quickly fell apart, as the priest wasn’t very good at keeping the hunter’s pet alive–the pet that was acting as our tank. Eventually, the group disbanded–no one having completed anything.
