A Perfect World…of Warcraft

When contemplating what would be the ideal WoW situation I come to a few enlightening conclusions.  All of these conclusions are basically derivatives of the opposite of what drives me nuts about WoW.  Basically, I’m easy like Sunday morning.  That is, if I’m not getting pissed I’m happy.  There are many people out there that operate on three levels – sad, content, happy.  I only operate on two – sad and happy.

If I find a PuG group that makes it through an instance without anyone talking in chat or being a douche I’m completely happy.  Most would call that boring but I call it a god-send.  Recently I’ve been getting the urge to tank on my druid during heroic runs.  I have 2 or 3 friends who consistently join me – rogue, spriest and sometimes a druid or warlock.  Unfortunately the druid is a tank so I end up healing when he goes with us.  When he’s not there, however, I get to be the bear.  GRRRR!

Two of the most recent PuG healers we’ve come across have said a total of 1 word for both runs.  Seriously, one druid, when asked if he would be healing, responded with:  “mhmm”.  That was all he said the entire time.  Even when asked a direct question he wouldn’t answer.  The other healer (remember I said 1 word for 2 different healers) didn’t say anything the entire time.  Not a single word.  It was lovely.  Heal, dps, tank and get out with some badges and a few extra gold.  Lovely, I say.

This got me to thinking.  My idea of the perfect MMO would be one where I didn’t have to communicate with the other players.  In fact, there was no avenue of communication whatsoever.  No chat.  No forums.  No websites.  No vent.  Nothing.  It would be absolutely amazing if everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do and I didn’t have to hear your squeaky voice over vent or read your piss-poor grammar in chat.

Side note:  Everyone I see who types some derivative of “you fail”, “oh hai”, “l2play” or “noob” gets launched to the ignore list with haste.  If only the ignore list didn’t have a limit of 100 players.  I’m sure there are well over 1000 players worthy of ignore on my server alone.

When I put my idea to brass tacks it comes down to this:  I can’t wait until A.I. is to the point that I can play an “MMO” game comprised of me and a bunch of really smart NPCs.  Granted it wouldn’t be an MMO but you get the idea.  I have very fond memories of a game that was very, very close to this – Oblivion.  Man, that game was awesome.  The NPCs learned, changed and interacted with you like a real player without any of the asshatery.

I suppose it just comes down to the simple fact that a person with a platform for free speech coupled with anonymity ends up being a complete prick.  Granted this isn’t an original observation but I find it interesting how so much of my online satisfaction stems from this.

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