Getting there versus being there

I noticed that among players of World of Warcraft there are two classes of approach to playing this game. One is concentrated on playing, on the process of getting there. The other approach is more concentrated on the result of being there. For example somebody more focused on the process might decide to go to Scholomance, just because he has a quest there, or because he hasn't visited that place for some time and thinks it would be fun. Somebody focused more on the result would check his equipment, find that he needs the tier 0 headpiece to complete his set, find out that the tier 0 head drops in Scholomance, and go there with the specific purpose of getting this piece.

I generally prefer focusing on playing, and take the results as they come. Which probably explains why I never completed any set. :) The advantage is that if you visit a dungeon for fun, you are more likely to have fun. While if you are only interested in the final result, it can be frustrating if the final boss doesn't drop the item you want, or somebody else wins it.

But currently I am wondering whether this approach was such a wise choice when creating my last new character, the human priest I leveled the last couple of months on a new server. The reasoning behind my choice was concentrated on having fun leveling that character. I choose Alliance because there are more Alliance quests that I've never done. I choose a new server because I wanted to visit dungeons in groups, and preferred a younger server population with more people of my level. And I choose a priest because getting into a group with a priest is so much easier than with any other class. And this last choice was probably a mistake if you think of the probable result instead of focusing on the way there.

My Alliance priest just hit level 55 last night. Which made me think of visiting BRD to get attuned to Molten Core. I'm not all that far any more from being able to participate in raids to Zul'Gurub and Molten Core. Even before that I will soon be visiting Dire Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, and Blackrock Spire. At which point I realized that I am not really looking forward to all that. Visiting these places with an Alliance priest will be largely identical to visiting these places with my Horde priest. Even the dungeon quests are mostly the same for the two factions. Having a second priest doesn't add to my options, if I wanted to heal a group in Scholomance, I could already have done that without leveling the new character.

I will still continue to level to 60, too late to give up now. And the first visits to the level 60 dungeons will probably be fun, as I haven't been there for a while. Even the first raids might be interesting, just to see how a different guild does the same encounters. But I don't think I will be spending hundreds of hours on my Alliance priest after he reaches level 60. In hindsight it would have been better to play another character class. Something which is still popular in groups and raids, like a mage, but would have given me the option of visiting the same places in a different function.

Well, I'm still planning to play a mage some day, but after the expansion comes out, and I can play him with one of the new races. Both blood elves and draenei can be mage, and I really wouldn't want to start a character of one of the old races again, I know all the old low level quests inside out. I don't know when, if ever, I will get around to doing that, I'll probably first level up my Horde priest to 70.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:22 AM Permanent Link