Project Lore

Children's Week is only a few days old and I have already completed what I set out to do.  I have said in the past that I am not a big Achievement person, so what I wanted to accomplish is far less than many other people.  In fact, all I cared about was grabbing the pair of pets for escorting orphans all over Azeroth and Outlands.  After some creative travelling, tiring flights and a bit of hoofing it, I turned in my whistles and snapped up Sleeping Willy and that cute-as-hell Turtle.  I still think Egbert is the best pet ever though. I came across this little gem over on WoWInsider a scant few hours before I completed my mission.  I read the headline and knew that my fear of Achievements was coming true, if just a little.  One of them was ruining the gameplay experience for many players, while frustrating the others to no end.  My GM was actually on both sides of the issue, trying to score the achievement but becoming incredibly frustrated by everyone sitting in their base, hoping to return a flag with their brat out.  He was so irate that his wife had to leave the house to avoid the cursing, anger, frustration and likely the destruction of a perfectly good keyboard.  I can attest to extensive use of the Caps Lock key, and a nice selection of four letter words.  My poor virgin eyes. To elaborate, the way I view the Achievement system is to promote extended play, while enabling players to show off their feats.  In theory, its a very sound addition to any video game.  Instead, this "controversial achievement" has created a firestorm in the Battlegrounds, leading to selfish play and highly unusual experiences.  It wasn't since WSG was first released that I have been in a BG that was so long, unproductive and painful, and I wasn't even going for the achievement!  I queued up solely to experience some of the pain that my GM was lamenting about.  Sadly, all I ended up doing was helping the Horde players with their achievements.  The greenskins allowed me to walk to the flag, unstealthed mind you, and cap it.  At this point I was pummeled by ten angry players and their orphans as they spammed right click to pick-up the flag.  What violence the young minds have been tainted with. How have you found the Battlegrounds recently?  Are they as frustrating as my GM would leave the guild to believe or is he just having bad luck?  Has anyone become desperate enough to try to trade flag caps with the opposing faction?  This is the first time that I have been happy to not care about achievements.  What a terrible time to first experience a BG to boot.

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