Iceclad

“Wow, never seen that before!”

Kuron had been hearing that a lot lately. Between his new magical items, the drawings of the weird creatures of discord he’d been showing people, that one time his pants unexpectedly dropped in the bazaar, and most recently when he’d showed the strange black ore to the smith Korbuk recommended.

The smith ran her scaly fingers over the ore and went on to describe it’s remarkable density. She tossed it gingerly between her hands like a carnival juggler and shook her head. Kuron stiffened his lips. Everything running through her head had already tired its little legs in the heads of Korbuk and Kuron only hours ago. Why was it so light? How was it so strong while being so light? How could it have come from an Ukun’s……leavings?

The smith didn’t ask these questions, however. Kuron was thankful for this, and was glad Korbuk had recommended her now. It’s hard to find smiths who don’t ask questions when you bring them strange minerals from other planes of existence. Go figure. With a grin, the smith grabbed Kuron’s canteen from his belt and headed for the forge.

Smith: “Pardon me, but I am REALLY thirsty all of a sudden. I think I have an idea of what Korbuk is looking for, but frankly I’m just really interested to work with this! I’ll be right back.”

Kuron waited only a short while for the smith to return. Kuron hadn’t dealt with many Iksar, and had dealt with even fewer females regardless of race, but the look in the eyes of the smith as she sauntered back up to him could not be mistaken. She was giddy.

Smith: “This metal was….amazing! There’s no describing how easy it was to work with. I’ve never seen or worked with anything like it! The way the hammer and flames worked this metal was…otherworldly! It’s like it was MEANT to be in the form it is now!”

She presented a blackened sword blade to Kuron. Although unadorned and in the most basic of shapes, the blade had something very special about it. It was like staring at a slumbering beast. Although at rest and in the most unimposing states a great power was still present – hidden and dormant. The craftsmanship was flawless. The blade was perfectly straight, wondrously sharp, and both cold and hot to the touch at the same time. Kuron thanked the smith, who would accept no payment other than to be allowed a moment to caress the blade one last time. Much to Kuron’s discomfort.

When Kuron returned to Korbuk he seemed annoyingly unimpressed with the wonderful craftsmanship. He rolled it around in his large hands as if inspecting a child’s broken toy.

Korbuk: “Oh it’s done? Yea pretty good work. Dat’s what I was thinkin’ of when I saw da ore, but dis definitely isn’t da sword I was lookin’ for. We gotta finish makin’ it I guess for it to be…”

Korbuk’s eyes rolled back into his head as a knowing grin slowly crept over Kuron’s face.

Kuron: “Where to next?” he chuckled.

Korbuk: “Heh. Dis vision showed me a wicked gauntlet holding da magnificently-jeweled hilt of a powerful sword. It’s grip tightened as it swung the sword at an opponent, cleaving trough its shield and helmet in one blow. I couldn’t see anyting of da weapon but da hilt and da hand holdin’ it – but when da sword struck it made dat same ring of metal we both know pretty well by now.”

Korbuk tapped his gauntlet on the newly-crafted blade and nodded, the ring sounded even more loudly this time.

Kuron: “So we need more of th’ ore t’ make a hilt now?”

Korbuk seemed unsure, and pawed at the base of the blade as if for an answer. A flicker of his eyes showed Kuron he had found one.

Korbuk: “I see a creature… bloated… loathsome. Da guy wit da sword is fightin’ it… he ain’t doing well. Every time he slashes at it da thing consumes shadows and heals instantly. I see him trip… he’s getting worried… he’s scared. Da ting is feeding off somethin’ now… eating shadows… eating his fear… I see it’s mouth getting closer… wider…”

Korbuk grimaces and comes to his senses.

Korbuk: “Da hilt… is inside dis creature… in a place called da Bloodfields…”

Kuron stared at him, confused and a bit worried.

Kuron: “I guess we’ll need some friends?”

In the past games came out and people enjoyed them, and then in addition to enjoying the game people also played the PVP version (assuming it had one). Today, this is no longer the case. New games are announced to be in development and are instantly bombarded with questions about PVP, balancing, and freedoms therein.

I have a problem with this. It used to be that in a game you used your skills playing that game by it’s own inherit rules and guidelines to show said skill in the field of battle against others. Now games are developed wholly with PVP in mind right from the get-go. No longer do we see a finely tuned game with optional PVP. Now we have a half-assed single player experience because the game was built with balancing in mind for PVP.

This is one of the major issues I had that made me quit WoW. At WoW’s introduction, PVP was a joke. It was an optional thing you did with very little to no reward. And yet, still it was fun. You’d run into a specific class and, based on your own class or gear, know IMMEDIATELY if it was even worth trying to beat them. Sometimes you decided you’d stick around anyway to discover they have no idea how to play their class, and even though their class has a huge advantage over yours, their lack of skill seals their fate in your favor. THIS IS HOW PVP SHOULD ALWAYS BE MEASURED – IN SKILL. You win some, you lose some, and it’s not always the person’s class, abilities or gear that is the determining factor.

People who felt they had the AUTOMATIC RIGHT to solo anyone and never be damaged, challenged, or have their feelings hurt started huge petitions to cure the “injustice” Blizzard had handed them. The forums exploded with unwarranted bitching (the only way to describe it). Blizzard responded with revisiting/rebalancing classes and abilities so that situations like “Oh, he’s a Paladin, I might need help” would never exist again.

Here’s where I became angry: THEY WERE UNIVERSAL CHANGES. Allow me to clarify – The changes made effected both the PVP and PVE environments. Suddenly some of the abilities I used had extra little stuns, bleeds, procs, and other effects that had absolutely no application in the PVE experience whatsoever, and in some cases made the abilities annoying or pointless. Of course the changes kept coming, and in some cases whole classes were entirely revamped turning them into something completely different – ALL for PVP reasons. That’s just inexcusable.

I have presented the point many times that WoW could be JUST AS POPULAR IF NOT MORE if they’d only separate the two aspects of the game. Make PVP only and PVE only servers so that you can be free to balance/revisit any class or ability you want and the changes to the two aspects won’t effect each other. The PVP in WoW is shoehorned in at best as it stands, it doesn’t fit with any lore in any believable way I can fathom, and it crowds PVE servers with useless kids that have no idea how to play their class in raiding.

Another way PVP has adversely effected PVE in WoW is in the armor models and weapons. Before the PVP infection took over you were able to look at someone’s armor and know EXACTLY where it came from, how hard someone worked for it, and who dropped it. Nowadays the models for armor are shared between 3 or more sources. PVP armor looks exactly the same as high-end raiding armor. There is NO excuse for this at all. The only way you could get away with this and not present the feeling of wasted efforts – IS TO SEPARATE THE REALMS! EUREKA!

I quit WoW for the second time almost 2 years ago now, and it has changed even more since I left. My friends that still play tell me that classes are basically turning into generalized clones of each other. All classes are getting some variety of the same ability. “This class gets “A” so we should also get “A” because that’s an unfair advantage!”. So ignorant. And that’s what’s happening to nearly every new game I’ve been following the development of – rabid PVP infections.

PVP can be a lot of fun…if it’s actually based on skill. Everyone needs to realize that during PVP someone is going to die, and that it’s ok if it might be themselves. It’s just a game, kids. Instead of complaining because “Class A” has an ability that can “instantly kill you” – how about you find a way to work around that using YOUR OWN abilities instead of trying to change the world so you can feel better about yourself? If you can’t handle the fact that classes are diverse and that you MIGHT have to think about what you need to do as well as actually be good at your own class in order to defeat someone in a PVP situation – shut your computer off and go read a book, you damn kids.

Darwin!