<<First comic <Previous comic | Next comic> Latest comics>>
Doing the Theramore scenario was a strange experience. As a piece of gameplay, I loved it. It was dynamic and challenging with a faster flow than the cc, pull, position, fight, heal up, move on staccato of dungeons. Coordinating with two other people was much easier than with four others and the scenario allowed multiple ways of accomplishing the same goals. I can’t wait to do more scenarios
As an experience for my characters, it was horrifying. My Alliance characters arrived at the scene of a horrible attack too late to do anything but stop it from getting any worse. By the end I felt like we had achieved nothing. (Yes, I know there’s some mumbo-jumbo about a focusing doohickey, but that has no emotional impact. I shouldn’t have to read a novel in order to understand what’s going on in my game.) It felt like one more crushing defeat for the incompetent Alliance. When I got home I checked my mail and got a tabard for a bombed-out hole in the ground. Great.
My Horde characters ran roughshod over the Alliance as usual and all was fine until the end. When the smug blood elf (really, do they come in any other variety?) explained about how our assault was nothing but a diversion for the real attack with a weapon of mass destruction, I felt both sick at the thought of what I had helped set in motion and angry that all the hard work I had just done had in the end been meaningless. I was not a proud warrior fighting for my people, I was the patsy in some warmonger’s game. I got home, checked my mail, and got a toy bomb. It made me sick to my stomach.
I suppose Blizzard could say that they wanted to provoke an emotional reaction, and they did, but I won’t be playing Theramore again soon, if ever. That’s not what I want in my games.
Away From Reality 