^ Not Useless. Welcome Aboard Guys - Via CNN.com |
Of course this would happen. I take the day off for some "house work" and am greeted by not just maintenance, but extended maintenance. At least by x o'clock - who knows when the servers will be up AND playable - I can wade through all the changes for v3.0.8 that
Bastosa mentioned the other day. Until that time, we always have the
patch notes to
drool over/shake our fist at.
Yesterday's escapades into level 80 didn't go as well as one may have hoped. Apparently few people have off on Martin Luther King day, making it incredibly difficult to find a group to run with. I managed to swing only a third of the dungeons I wanted to do before I got fed up with spamming the channels. Despite the few runs, I did catch myself doing something unexpected.
Since the early days I have always used gear to compare myself to other players. Although gear != skill, it can show how dedicated you are to your toon. The assumptions made through the technique aren't always accurate, but in general, a toon with good gear while
lacking enchants or sockets means that the player just got decked out, doesn't have the money, or does the bare minimum to look good. While checking how bad I looked in front of the PUG groups, I found another not-exactly-accurate way to measure players, Achievements.
I am one of the
few people around these parts that isn't too found of Achievements. Aside from being an Xbox Live rip-off, I just didn't see much cause for them. Personally, I would rather something like WAR's Tome of Knowledge, a personal diary of sorts, rather than these arbitrary points. That being said, it can serve a purpose beyond bragging rights. Paired with a simple gear check, an Achievement check can lend you extra knowledge about your new teammate, partner or prospective guildmate.
There are actually a ton of ways this can be used, but here are a few examples.
- A player has good gear, but their achievement score is pretty low for a level 80 and lacking numerous dungeons. One could reasonably assume that the character is an alt or new player in general.
- A Druid has average gear, but a very high score, including most of the quest based objectives. Player probably enjoys the game for the universe and may intend on finishing everything the game has to offer. Likely to continue to subscribe for the foreseeable future.
- Character is decked out in an odd mix of PvP, PvE and crafted gear; has most of the PvP achievements completed. Get this player on your 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 and PvP guild ASAP, likely a min-maxer based on his eclectic gear choices.
I am pretty shocked that I never really thought of this useful aspect before. Perhaps I was blinded by my
hatred of the Achievement system as a whole. At least we don't have to pay $50 a year to use it though. Anyone have some real-world examples? I know there has to be some GM's out there that have used this as part of their recruiting measures.
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