I think it is also important to make a distinction between time and effort invested vs. “work”. I consider my accomplishments in WoW to be a result of the work that I put into the game. I dedicated myself to raiding as some other individuals dedicate themselves to model cars or collecting baseball cards. In every hobby there are limiting factors, be they physical, monetary, or otherwise. Do I feel slighted that with the release of WotLK my hard work became largely irrelevant? Most certainly. Do I think that its fair to exclude players from content much like AQ40 and the original Naxx did? I’m not sure.

I am digging the multiple levels of dungeons based on both raid size (10 or 25) and skill (normal or heroic) and the idea that you have to attune (beat the normal first) to earn the right to attempt the heroic. In my mind this opens the content to those players that lack the large guild or the best gear, but still presents a challenge to those who seek that “elitist” feel.

All in all, I thought you made several good points and my mental cud is being chewed as I type. Excellent response and great comments! Thanks for supporting this shared topic!

Personally, I don’t want to ‘work’ in a game. I want to have fun. Sideshow and I both are of the mindset that once something starts to feel like work or a job or we ‘have’ to do such and such, then it’s time to stop whatever that is. (Probably why I’m such an altaholic – I hit a point I don’t want to grind on Syrana so I take a break from that until it doesn’t feel like a grind anymore, then return to it.)

I certainly don’t propose that everything should be an easy walk in the park, but even as gear etc. becomes more attainable – those things still require time. There is content I want to see, but I know I’ll never see it on hardmode or get the very difficult achievements or titles… so who cares if I have the same tier gear as someone with The Undying title… months after they got it (for example)?

And then there’s the whole other topic of people being boosted and carried through content – and that happens at all levels because “casuals” aren’t the only ones that get a helping hand from better geared players.

I think I’ve said enough now lol Thank you for your comments and discussion!

I don’t mind people having uber gear I will never see or get because they are better at the game. That’s fine. I just don’t want the “coolest” areas/dungeons barred from me cuz I basically ’suck’ at the game. I want to be able to see/explore it all. I’ve only seen Kara about 2 times cuz I’m not ‘geared’ but it was amazingly beautiful in there and I felt punished being basically locked out of content.

In regards to the previous parts, I think in a lot of people’s heads, yes, more epics + more time /played means, in their head, they’re “better” than me or you and are therefore special unique snowflakes who deserve more. What no one seems to get is that the actual “deserve” list in this game is very, very short, in my opinion.

Did you down a boss or bosses, be it in an instance or a raid? Then you deserve a chance at some loot from said boss. That’s it. Having said loot, or downing said bosses, does not automatically mean you (the hypothetical you, not literally you) deserve something special and new that no one else gets access to – you already have something, and if later a group of 10 of Those Damned Casuals Who Are Ruining The Game waltzes in and kills the boss later, so what? It doesn’t diminish your accomplishment in any way.