Project Lore

If you can drown out all the players on the official WoW forums QQing about how their class is underpowered, QQing about how easy new content is, and QQing about the price of Goldthorn Tea in Teldrassil, you may hear players QQing about things that were once difficult becoming too easy - such as obtaining mounts. You used to have to get to level 40 to get a mount, and it was a serious chunk of change to do so. And once you hit 60, you had to grind out quite a bit of gold before you could even consider getting an epic mount. For most players these days, its hardly become an afterthought to pick up their mount at level 20 for five gold and upgrade it to an epic mount at level 40 for pocket change. Flying mounts at 60? Only the norm. And with the Tome of Cold Weather Flight, the joy of first flight just isn't what it used to be. What is the value of being on the cutting edge? There is the notoriety of being a great player and the fleeting rewards, like the Plagued Proto-Drake. There is also the assurance that you will experience content before it is changed or removed, such as the classic Naxxramas or old world content before Cataclysm. But, for the most part, content becomes easier as time goes on. Some players did Ulduar weekly to get Emblems of Conquest, which are now farmed in heroics. Mr. Pinchy used to take players days to farm, and now you can get him in just a few casts. I got mine just yesterday in 5 minutes:

Speak with Mr. Pinchy and be granted a Wish! Maybe something good...maybe something bad.... Mr. Pinchy does not know!

What used to be difficult, cutting edge achievements, like Sarth 3D, are now puggable. Instead of spending dozens of hours being the first to down content, why not wait? I think Blizzard answered this question long ago when discussing the declining participation in arenas - players will go to where they can get the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort. While the amount of effort to do content when its new is much higher than when its months older, the relative reward is much higher. Hardly anyone would give you a second glance if you were in gear from Naxxramas 25 now-a-days, but it used to be a stamp of a pretty decent player. You could breeze through today, but if you struggled through it last December and reaped the rewards, you had the best gear available. Even though the gear is still the same, the fact that it was the best you could obtain gave it special value. Its hardly a good reward for something that is still a bit of effort. I personally spend a lot more time doing older content. I prefer to breeze through older content than spend lots of time being among the first to accomplish something. I like getting the stranger achievements and doing long-abandoned quests, like the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline. Are you one to be on the cutting edge, or do you wait awhile before you attempt content?

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