This is it folks, the end of the golden age of raiding in World of Warcraft is upon us. As we advance further into Cataclysm we’re watching the curtains fall on everything that we know and understand about WoW and slowly march into the unknown that sits before us. As it stands, the bronze (vanilla) and silver (TBC) ages were advancements into where we stand now where the raiding dynamic allows almost everyone to play who shows a bit of interest in it. Yet, now, with the latest announcement we’re watching as the official forums have broken out into chaos; what civil discourse may have been there is now gone. Marshal Law has all but been declared as people are being temp banned left and right.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Be sure to read Cataclysm to Redefine Raid Progression to learn what the proposed changes entail.
As it stands right now, the game has a very firm line drawn between those that progression raid (the so called hardcore) and those that chew through the content at their own pace (the casuals). The hardcore are the ones who have Arthas down on 10 and 25 man and are working on the hardmodes as we speak. The casuals are the ones who were working somewhere at their own pace through the instances. Yet, with these coming changes, we may no longer have the term casual or hardcore; we may just be left with “raider†and “non-raider†as the content becomes trivialized.
Looking at the announcement it seems as if Blizzard is saying that they don’t want to punish those with a limited amount of time to raid. Yet, using that argument we can simply slide down a slippery slope. Should we be able to buy the best loot from vendors for gold so that we don’t punish the people who choose to farm gold all day (or even better, buy gold)? Should we be able to buy the best items for real life cash from the Blizzard Store so we don’t punish people who have jobs? Where does this argument end?
As Arthas falls to many progression guilds we’re finding ourselves looking to the future… one in which things will be changing drastically it seems.
Traditionally speaking, raiding has always been considered a hardcore sport for those who have the time to commit to it. Casuals are the ones who alt or farm gold or sit around chatting all day. The hardcore are those who take the time to go through the instances, down the bosses, and collect their rewards (and inflate their egos). The casuals use the game as an advanced chat client to talk with their mates and everything else is just a time waster while the hardcore are the ones who play the endgame in order to gloat.
