Project Lore: All Things World of Warcraft

Professional gamers. For all the sponsored tournaments, unwarranted merchandising, and red-eyed luminaries that now swarm around the nexus of competitive gaming, you'd think it would amount to more than a footnote in our sporting culture. Currently, they're lucky to get a mention on ESPN 2, somewhere in-between Punkin Chunkin and the ailing World Poker Tour. That's certainly not to knock the players themselves. I mean, what kid in the past two decades hasn't dreamt of living out their years on a fat stack of cash earned from mastering the joystick? "The Wizard" dazzled us with that vision, and a shelf full of "How To Win At Video Games" books gave us hope that, one day, we too could be the first person in the world to find the hidden Warp Zone. To date, few have been able to take that journey, let alone make enough green to retire by the age of thirty. But that's not to say the industry isn't booming, or that it doesn't have a history. When we think of professional gamers, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Quake or Counterstrike. Pure competition in the spirit of the world's greatest sports; human versus human, even if its facilitated through the a computer screen. The story doesn't begin with the explosion of the old 'tubes in the early '90s, though. No, digital athletics have been chronicled for at least as far back as 1981, when Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day began recording the high scores he found on local arcade machines. I'm talking asynchronous competition here: nohead-to-head matches, just a battle of points, a battle of progress. And the cottage culture has created its share of rivalries, too -- the one between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell over the world record for Donkey Kong, as portrayed in the documentary "The King of Kong," being the most notable. Accusations have been thrown about that, for all its seemingly hard and fast rules, that Twin Galaxies has problems with showing favoritism. In the film, for instance, they go to great lengths to test Wiebe's arcade machine for a hacked circuit board, while they allow Mitchell to send in "legitimate" scores via video tape (where the rules say record attempts must be done in front of officials). Records? World firsts? Scandal? Does any of this ring a bell, Warcraft fans? The recent controversy concerning Exodus and their Yogg-Saron + 0 kill may not seem like something worth getting up in arms about, and perhaps it isn't, but it did get me thinking about the implications of the existence of high-end raiding guilds. Where did they come form and what do they represent? Is there value to be found in winning a war against a machine, or does the accomplishment seem puerile next those that involve defeating another human? Do they breed cheerleaders or jealousy and are they ultimately healthy for the community at large? As I continue to mull over these questions in my head, I begin to see these guilds -- Ensidia, Exodus, and the like -- as the modern Twin Galaxies crew, and all the potential problems that could bring along with it. If they're taking advantage of game-breaking bugs to get ahead (the e-sports equivalent of juicing) and slinging mud at each other, that's a sign that competitive progression truly is serious business.

[/caption] Their existence is of no surprise, coming from humanity's need to define a "best." From the minute we are born, we start building hierarchies and classifications, sliding different people, organizations, and things into them like blocks in a pyramid. Quite simply, given anything, there are those individuals that will seek ways to be, make, or facilitate a standard. High-end raiding guilds just represent the capstone of the WoW universe. I don't think it matters whether or not a particular goal is worthy, merely that it exists to be conquered. But what of it, then? How do we measure the importance of a world first kill? As a long-time gameplayer myself (and I'd pretty much have to be, if I were blogging for Project Lore!), I'm not about to call it a waste of time, but it feels to me as though there's something that needs to be sorted out when your "win" seems to consist of nothing more than learning and executing a set pattern. If that were truly it, then we'd all be able to do it given enough time. No, you need skill, mental and physical dexterity. A quality rig and decent connection doesn't hurt, either. There's little doubt that your average high-end raider is playing at a completely different level than you are. And as many of these top-tier progression guilds are also home to rock star PvP teams, you certainly can't knock their expertise. I suppose my concern arrives at the point of content, and what is being "conquered" in WoW. Most of those old Twin Galaxies records are endurance trials. Arcade games have a history of running indefinitely (or at least as long as the programming let them), allowing your average record attemptee to play and rack up points until they run out of steam. On the contrary, a world first in Warcraft amounts to a race to see who can reach a benchmark first. But once it's accomplished, that's it. As it is, everybody gets to sit on their hands until the next dungeon comes out. So perhaps it is the mere nature of the competition that makes it seem so fruitless on the surface. What can be done to remedy this? I'm not entirely sure, but the measurement likely needs to be changed. Currently, MMO-Champion keeps a log of world firsts called the Hall of Fame, which records only the time, date, and guild associated with an initial kill. We could go the route of cataloging reams of personal data (things such as DPS, healing effectiveness, and so on), but that almost seems too complex. Personally, I'm a fan of the speed-run, something that's been a stock measurement of finite-end video games for awhile now. You can find loads of them all over Youtube and other video sites, covering everything from Super Mario Bros. to Final Fantasy. It's a convenient mark of efficiency that's even started to creep its way into the World of Warcraft. A few enterprising individuals realized that they could still squeeze some fun out of Naxxramas before the release of 3.1 by completing it as fast as possible. Watching them, I was amazed at how the players handled certain encounters or deftly side-stepped trash mobs in ways that I hadn't conceived of before. The downside of speed-runs is that they're ultimately susceptible to the same foul play as world firsts, by means of taking advantage of bugs and glitches to achieve faster times, but they do offer a wider range of accomplishments to be had. But whatever measurement might ultimately be employed down the road (and it will have to be as the field of eligible guilds expands), there's still the issue of competitive progression on the WoW playerbase. Having browsed forums, fansites, and in-game chat, I've seen everything from cheerleading to vitriol. Whether you hate them or love them, there's little doubt that these guilds are community touchstones. Even Project Lore's own iTZKooPA claims to "live through them vicariously." While I lean just a tad towards the critical side, I've caught myself referencing the timing of world firsts as standards by which to judge the difficulty of the content. Stepping back for a moment, common sense sets in, and I realize that talent is a greater factor in these accomplishments than a lack of complexity, but that sort of mindset is dangerous for content developers. Namely, Blizzard. Perception, especially when combined with the mob mentality of the internet, can quickly and easily trump the reality of things. If the community sees a difficult boss kill achieved within the first few days of a dungeon's release, they're going to start questioning whether or not Blizzard's given them their money's worth, and that seems to be one of the major problems they've run into with providing content in Wrath. On the other hand, top guilds can be a huge boon for the game's popularity. After all, how pervasive would most professional sports be without the cult of personality? All the pomp and circumstance associated with teams and players does amount to something. As the proletariat of Azeroth, guilds like Ensidia, Exodus, or Premonition give us rare insight into the inner workings of upper-level game mechanics. They might even inspire us to play better or to become something ourselves, just like little Jimmy did in "The Wizard." *cue Stan Bush* The controversy associated with high-end raiding guilds, however, will not go away, and it may even metastisize as more and more join them at the pinnacle. I'm honestly not sure what to make of Exodus' response to their own banning. Their complaints, citing past game explotation by rivals, may stink of butthurt, but are nonetheless valid. The blatant flag-waving, though, whether or not its tongue-in-check, leaves a real nasty taste in my mouth. If this is a sign of things to come, I'm not sure I like it, and it's most certainly not something that Blizzard, a company founded on fair play and a commitment to quality, would want to be associated with. To close out this post, I'd like to emphasize that despite some of my skepticism concerning the phenomena of high-end raiding and competitive progression, a lot of the guys and gals involved are ultimately classy and well-respected players. They've mastered elements of the game I can only hope to one day in the distant future and consistently proven their dedication to a product that many have waned on out of sheer frustration. Their knowledge and input may just make World of Warcraft a more fun and interesting game to play. But my concern remains. After years of observing (and in some cases, even help running) gaming competitions, I'm all too familiar with the complications and inconsistencies that can arise. Organizations like MLG are doing their best to create a standard set of rules which we can all play by (though I don't believe they currently cover the brand of achievements I've talked about here), and if "professional gamers" are seeking to live up to the first part of that title and gain more mainstream acceptance, it is in their best interest to follow them. "Another lengthy post by Amatera, right? What is this guy thinking?! This is a blog! Posts are supposed to be bite-sized and easily digestible!" Well, I'm sorry for making you all sit through my verbal torture, but I hope you've enjoyed what you read, and I'm especially interested to hear what you all have to say about this topic. It's one that I think rarely gets taken seriously, but has the potential to explode in the future. What do you think of the existence of high-end, competitive raiding guilds, and what kind of effect do they have on the community? Do you believe that their accomplishments have honestly influenced WoW's development over time, or is the whole affair of world firsts completely pointless? Readers, the floor is yours. Click to read more ...