Extreme Hardcore Guild Wins Wrath, Jumps the Shark
So Nihilum and SK Gaming merged, rushed to level 80, and then proceeded to clear all raid instances weeks or even months before the unwashed masses. Good for them.
When you pay a monthly subscription to burn to content which is meant to last other people a couple of months within 2 days, that’s your business.
Then something interesting happened in the PR statement released below (emphasis is mine):
“We are proud to declare that all WOTLK PVE raid content has now been cleared. This is both a moment of triumph and a cause for concern. The question in all our minds right now is if we could do this, how soon until the rest of the top guilds in the world clear all the raid content that WOTLK has to offer? Did Blizzard miscalculate in the tuning of these encounters? Or is this Blizzard folding under the weight of a large casual player base that demands to be on equal footing with end-game raiders?“
By that statement combined with the timing of the whole thing, Twentyfithnovember (that’s the new name of the merged operation) made one thing clear. They no longer represent anyone in this game but themselves. Not even what you would qualify as a hardcore guild.
Mind you, it’s not the fact that they rushed through content and cleared it all within two days, it’s the fact that they take this and act as if they were any reasonable measure of anything.
By their own words, Twentyfithnovember have just rendered themselves completely irrelevant. They aren’t even a role model for the other gamers, they’re just a cadre of people sponsored to raid and churn out world first.
The one thing which they have made crystal clear is that Blizzard should in no way listen to anything they could say in regards to content tuning or balance, in the best case they could be treated as an extended QA team to spot and test out bugs on the PTR. For anything else, their point of view is so far removed from the reality of the playerbase that they could just as well be playing a different game altogether.
And that’s actually what they are doing.
Couldn’t agree more, when I saw this I thought: “Why oh why? How sad!” I think 25Nov have really lost the plot here. Proud? Achievement? I think not.
[...] Gwaendar has a post on the news that WOTLK content has been cleared after only two days by the new merged SK/Nihilum. I [...]
I’m what some consider a hardcore raider, and I just have to shake my head at Twentyfithnovember.
Personally I’m 50% of the way through level 72, with a target raid date of Dec 14th…. and even that seems a bit rushed for my tastes – but it’s what guild leadership decided.
I have no doubt that it will take us a few months to clear the content, and that we’ll have an absolute blast while doing so.
It’s sad to see “pro gamers” trying to manipulate the designers into making crap that only appeals to themselves.
Perfectly put. I totally agree.
A game is meant to be played and enjoyed. To push yourself into a grind or strain your personal boundaries is your own business. But you should mind your perspective when issuing such statements. Like 25th Nov did not. ^^
Even so, the subscription model and Blizzard’s design focus are built around hardcore gamers. These guys are the epitome of what Blizzard has been aiming for.
I’ve seen some hope that the game play of Wrath is designed more for the “unwashed hordes”, and that gives me hope. Now, if the business model would adapt to match (charge per hour played, with a cap, or use the Guild Wars model), I’d be much more impressed with WoW.
Actually Tesh, if you look at Blizzard subscription model, it is geared to make the most money to them, and I believe it is the casual players that pay the subscription every month and play only a few hours a week that are the “cash cows”, because of the lesser loads on servers and so on.
If you want a comparison is a bit like the “all you can eat” buffets in restaurants, they are cheap but still priced to make a decent amount of money off the regular punter who eats there, while the loss sustained due to the few that eat for two people is covered by the rest.
[...] who have never heard of them period. There was a period when I wouldn’t have cared, but now, as Altitis so succinctly stated, I should think it better if people never heard from them [...]