That GW group just said "let them eat cake"
It's no small wonder that online game worlds have become a hot topic for sociology experiments. Take people out of real life and plop them into an online world where they can be a different person, and watch the aspects of real life begin to manifest themselves. A great example of this was a recent furor over a Blizzard moderator chastising a gay-lesbian-bi-trans-friendly guild for advertising their GLBT tolerance. They feared that advertising GLBT-friendliness would open them up to harassment from other, less worldly folk, within the game world. Common sense prevailed and Blizzard apologized.
My example, however, is far less personal a matter and likely less interesting (but you're here already, so you'll probably read it anyway), and it comes from a not-quite-MMORPG source in Guild Wars.
First, a little background on how the game is structured. Unlike most MMO's, Guild Wars is fairly rigidly structured: all outdoor areas are instanced (meaning just you and your group against AI monsters) and all PvP (Player vs Player) is distinctly separate from PvE (Player vs Environment, or "Role Playing"). PvP takes place in arenas that may or may not be directly connected to locales that you run into during the PvE story. It is also distinct in that you can play Guild Wars without ever doing PvP, or even PvE for that matter, as you can define a PvP-only character that is maxed out at lvl20.
This separation of PvP and PvE is what leads to the purpose of this post. There's an interesting caste system ("Let them eat cake"... get it?) in place based on what your primary and secondary profession is. For the clearest example, I'll look at the Monk.
Monktastic
In PvE, the Monk is the king of the hill. Every group needs at least one skilled monk beyond a certain point in the game -- you can get away without some other professions in your grouping that are also important (but not as essential), like the Warrior for tanking purposes, but you're basically sunk without a Monk. It's such a pronounced advantage that any time you walk into an outpost that is the starting point for a mission, you'll see 10-20 broadcasts that look like this within a minute: "GLF monk for mission/bonus!" (GLF = Group Looking For).
Monks get their pick of the litter, as it were.
And they're cocky for it.
On the flipside if you're a Ranger or a Necro or an Elementalist without intricate knowledge of specialized builds or without specifically useful skills, you're SOL. You may see one "GLF MM or Nuker" (MM and Nuker are specialized builds for Necros) request for every twenty Monk queries. Invite yourself into your average nearly-full group as a Necro -- I keep using that because my main character is a Necro -- and you'll be ignored 7 out of 10 times. Do so as a Monk -- my second char is a monk -- and you get in 9.5 times out of 10.
Reverse Discrimination
As one would hope, things do even out in the end. Switch to PvP after hours and hours of PvE as a Monk and you're in for a rough ride. Like a rich landowner walking through city slums, the Monk gets its comeuppance at the hands of the peon professions in PvP. Many strategies in the arena target healer classes immediately, often "spiking" damage on them with coordinated attacks.
From comfort into the teeth of the tiger.
I have no ending for this, so I'll take a small bow.
My example, however, is far less personal a matter and likely less interesting (but you're here already, so you'll probably read it anyway), and it comes from a not-quite-MMORPG source in Guild Wars.
First, a little background on how the game is structured. Unlike most MMO's, Guild Wars is fairly rigidly structured: all outdoor areas are instanced (meaning just you and your group against AI monsters) and all PvP (Player vs Player) is distinctly separate from PvE (Player vs Environment, or "Role Playing"). PvP takes place in arenas that may or may not be directly connected to locales that you run into during the PvE story. It is also distinct in that you can play Guild Wars without ever doing PvP, or even PvE for that matter, as you can define a PvP-only character that is maxed out at lvl20.
This separation of PvP and PvE is what leads to the purpose of this post. There's an interesting caste system ("Let them eat cake"... get it?) in place based on what your primary and secondary profession is. For the clearest example, I'll look at the Monk.
Monktastic
In PvE, the Monk is the king of the hill. Every group needs at least one skilled monk beyond a certain point in the game -- you can get away without some other professions in your grouping that are also important (but not as essential), like the Warrior for tanking purposes, but you're basically sunk without a Monk. It's such a pronounced advantage that any time you walk into an outpost that is the starting point for a mission, you'll see 10-20 broadcasts that look like this within a minute: "GLF monk for mission/bonus!" (GLF = Group Looking For).
Monks get their pick of the litter, as it were.
And they're cocky for it.
On the flipside if you're a Ranger or a Necro or an Elementalist without intricate knowledge of specialized builds or without specifically useful skills, you're SOL. You may see one "GLF MM or Nuker" (MM and Nuker are specialized builds for Necros) request for every twenty Monk queries. Invite yourself into your average nearly-full group as a Necro -- I keep using that because my main character is a Necro -- and you'll be ignored 7 out of 10 times. Do so as a Monk -- my second char is a monk -- and you get in 9.5 times out of 10.
Reverse Discrimination
As one would hope, things do even out in the end. Switch to PvP after hours and hours of PvE as a Monk and you're in for a rough ride. Like a rich landowner walking through city slums, the Monk gets its comeuppance at the hands of the peon professions in PvP. Many strategies in the arena target healer classes immediately, often "spiking" damage on them with coordinated attacks.
From comfort into the teeth of the tiger.
I have no ending for this, so I'll take a small bow.
posted by Paul at
3:29 PM
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