Ahead of the Curve

This is my first real blog post!  And it’s longwinded, so buckle up.  I thought about splitting it into two, but it’s about World of Warcraft, and I didn’t want to blog twice about WoW.  Once is borderline too many for me.  So if longwinded blogs about WoW aren’t your cup of tea then cut your losses short now.  I can’t blame you.  Come back next Briday and I’ll post about something else.

I played WoW for about a year in high school.  During that span I racked up 120 days of play time.  Yup, about a third of my life was spent in Azeroth, which is impressive considering I was also working and going to school.  I took a break for about 6 years and came back just in time to save the world from Deathwing.  I’ve been playing on and off ever since then.  This is my character: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/hyjal/Tijuanajaxon/simple

WoW is addictive.  It’s actually designed to exploit your psychology.  Every session you feel like you’ve achieved something, but at the same time there’s always more to do in order to reach your next goal.  Blizzard has implemented the “carrot on a stick” very well, and it shows in the hundreds of millions of subscriber dollars that they receive every month from junkies like me.  The funny thing is it’s not really a very fun game.  Most of the time it’s like a second job.  It’s got ONE feature that I really enjoy, but that one feature is gated behind countless hours of fluff.  I begrudgingly did daily quests, ran dungeons, and dealt with some rude people just to access the part of the game that I’m interested in.  Blizzard is incentivized to provide this kind of experience because players pay for time.  The more time it takes, the more money they make.  It’s unnecessarily frustrating, and you wind up paying extra just to access the stuff you wanted to do in the first place.*

But I put up with it because I love raiding.  It's the reason that I continue to play an otherwise not-very-fun game.  While most of WoW is forgettable, raiding offers some really great experiences.  Raids require small armies of individually powerful players to join forces in order to face the game’s strongest enemies.  Groups of up to 40 characters team up to kill demons, dragons, and gods.  Even in a fantasy world the settings stand out as special.

The grandeur is accompanied by intense challenges layered with complexity.  Players need to execute their individual roles skillfully while also synergizing with their team.  When executed correctly, each encounter is like a beautifully choreographed song and dance.  It’s gratifying to bring order from chaos, but gameplay is only a small piece of the puzzle.

The greater challenge is managing other people.  Unlike WoW, the human experience is not carefully tuned to balance difficulty and progress.  Life’s not fair, and all raiders are NOT created equal.  Every player has different abilities, goals, emotions, obligations, opinions, and relationships.  This makes raiding a very demanding social activity.  Teams can implode in the face of failure.  Keeping the train moving forward is an exercise of communication, compromise, and responsibility.  Like a good sports coach, I love it because I hate it.  It pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to deal with difficult real-world scenarios.  It's not like other games.

Social frustration is countered by the shared joy of a team triumph, but the sense of accomplishment doesn’t just come from adding a notch to your belt.  It’s manifested from trust and hard work.  It’s a confirmation of your faith in your teammates.  It’s a reward for cooperation and continued growth.  Raiding offers a unique scale of challenge, and I love navigating the team from start to finish.  It’s nice to arrive at the destination, but the real satisfaction comes from just making the journey together.

Now that you understand what raiding is, hopefully you can justify your time spent reading this!  My friends and I recently completed a big milestone.  We earned our "Ahead of the Curve" achievement for clearing Blackrock Foundry on heroic difficulty.  It was a stretch goal for us from the beginning and I'm really proud of us for sticking it through.  We worked toward this for four months, so it deserves a little reflection.

When we killed Blackhand, it was rewarding for all the reasons I mentioned above but even more special because we didn't compromise from doing things our way.  We kept our group casual and lighthearted.  We didn't enforce any attendance requirements.  We skipped raids in favor of trips, parties, or even just to watch sports on TV.  I've been around the block a few times in WoW, and this was by far the best balance I've ever struck between work and play.  The average WoW player will tell you that raiding is serious business, but we were able to get the job done while still having fun.**

For those with a WoW stigma, it might be hard to fathom that these last four months of "casual hardcore" gaming have been a growing experience for me.  Not so much as a gamer, but as a leader.  Leading a raid group requires many real world skills.***  I've had to describe complicated tactics, make executive decisions, delegate tasks, settle disagreements, drive morale, and foster a culture that balances progression with patience.  I felt myself gain confidence every week, and I noticed my words carrying more weight as well.  I've always been young and unassuming compared to my peers, so I'm proud to now be the one that they trust with their (characters') lives.

My proudest moment of this campaign wasn't when we killed Blackhand.  It was the night before.  We had been working on him for three straight nights - something like 60 attempts, and we were nowhere near killing him.  I felt like throwing in the towel.  We were planning to take a break from raiding anyway.  I asked the team if they wanted to call it quits.  I was surprised to hear resounding "No"s across the board.  They wanted to schedule one extra raid day to get the job done - not for themselves, but for each other.  We had come too far together, and we deserved this.  It was like being in the locker room at halftime of the super bowl, trailing by a touchdown.  Everyone was fully vested.  If you play any other games that invoke that kind of emotion then I want to hear about 'em!

I'd like to say that my leadership guided us to the promised land, but that would be like saying Frodo carried the fellowship to Mordor.  Shout out to Phil, Jan, Casey, Niki, and Mike.  These five studs were the rock solid core of a special group from beginning to end.  Double shout out to Phil for being a glorious beacon of protection and friendship. And just like Frodo had his Samwise, I also had a very special Sam by my side.  Special shout out to my Sam for sharing the burden of leadership.  You are the real preciousss.

Without further adieu, check out our magic moment! Courtesy of Jan.



Thanks for reading and/or watching!
TGIB

*This kind of psychological manipulation is shrouded in moral grey areas, and variants on this business model have invaded many industries.  Take flying for example – you used to pay a flat price.  Now you pay the same baseline price for a crappier experience, and pay more for stuff you used get for free, like bag space, an in-flight movie, and a slightly larger seat.  Airlines are incentivized to keep you unsatisfied.  Unfortunately for average Joe it’s a successful business model.
**Raid optimality is part of a larger love affair that I have going on with WoW right now.  I play 7 or 8 hours per week, skip all the boring grunt-work, and I don't have to pay for my subscription.  (The game went 'play to pay' recently).  I'm having the fun I want, avoiding burnout, and keeping myself hungry for fresh raid bosses - and I only have to wait a couple weeks!  It's a miracle compared to my high school days.

***A quick google search produces many examples of people getting jobs based on WoW experience.  Check out this article, for example http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235053