Raiding Less Fun? or What Everyone Else Is Saying

Lately, I've seen a lot of blogs showing up expressing the sentiment that raiding is less fun now.  I realize that in many cases, one blogger writing about it may start a cascade of blogs agreeing with their ideas, so that may have something to do with the reason there have been so many.

I think several of the bloggers have some good points, so, rather than sit here analyzing and rehashing everything they've said, I'll just link to their blog posts.

Herding Cats:  Why Is WoW Raiding Less Fun Now.

One of the things which struck me about this page was way down in the discussion which followed in the comment section.  Borsk brought out this point, which I thought was very well-stated: 

Many guilds didn’t finish Sunwell before 3.0, many didn’t finish Black Temple, and many more didn’t finish TIer 5. Blizzard focused on this and were upset that people “didn’t get to experience content.” That was a misread of the population. Many players, no matter the difficulty, will not finish a raid. What’s ironic is that their moves were to open up raiding…and it did, but they lost 900k subscribers.

WoW Insider:  The Overachiever: Why Icecrown Was Less Fun Than Sunwell

Although this one focuses primarily on Wrath versus Burning Crusade, the points are valid in Cataclysm, as well.

Borsked:  Tap Out

This is a sad post, only because it's the death of 25-man raiding for a long-time guild.  Borsk examines the current trends and contributing factors which led to the guild's decision, including recruitment issues for the dying 25-man raid format and the effect Heroic mode raids have on morale.

Kurn's Corner:  Why I Hate Heroic Modes 

Kurn references Borsk's "Tap Out" post in this examination of  . . . well, why Heroic Modes are not necessarily fun.  I could empathize with this quote, in reference to downing Heroic bosses: 

I still hate them and I do them because that’s what’s expected of me and because, by golly, I CAN do them. I try to view them as new fights and I get psyched to get them down, but it’s not the same as clearing an older instance. The pure elation I felt when we got Lady Vashj down for the first time or when Archimonde died, none of the experiences these days are comparable to that. My reaction, instead of “YAY, WE DID IT!!!” is usually “Oh thank God, it’s over,” and then I slump in my chair in relief. 

It seems kind of ironic.  My husband and some others think World of Warcraft is getting too easy.  Several of these bloggers think the raids are simply becoming too tedious, without a good, definable end goal.  And yet, back in Burning Crusade, the complaint was that the raids were inaccessible to a large percentage of the player population.  So where's the happy medium?  How do you make raids accessible to most of the players while giving the more dedicated players a challenge?

To be completely honest, the pure elation I felt when we downed Archimonde, or even Yogg-Saron or the Lich King, has never been matched in my reaction to downing any of the Firelands bosses to this point.  Whereas I used to come bouncing out from behind my desk to tell my husband excitedly we had downed a new boss, it's now something mentioned casually as I climb under the covers after brushing my teeth.  "We downed a new boss today."  "That's nice, dear."

Maybe I'll be elated when Ragnaros falls in 25-man.  But then again, maybe not.  Our vanguard group killed him in 10-man last night, which was the well-deserved culmination of a lot of hard work on their part.  But you see, he's now been killed by the guild.  We've all seen the Firelands Guild Run achievement flash across our screens.  Taking him down in 25-man is a repeat.