The Triumphant Return

After the worlds-shattering drama following their announcement that flying would not be happening in Draenor at all, Blizzard has changed their minds and decided it bring it back, but only if you really want it.

At the heart of the initial plan to restrict flight in Draenor (even after players reach level 100) lies the design goal of providing the best moment-to-moment gameplay possible in the outdoor world. From navigating the lava flows of the Molten Front in Patch 4.2, to breaching the Thunder King’s stronghold in Patch 5.2, to reaching the heights of the Ordon Sanctuary on Timeless Isle in Patch 5.4, to uncovering secrets deep within Gorgrond’s jungles on Draenor, World of Warcraft is full of memorable moments that are only possible when players explore the world by ground. And as we’ve continued to develop content over the years, we’ve focused more and more on providing players with these kinds of experiences.

There will be chores to do; exploring, collecting, rep grinding, and so forth. It’s a little reminiscent of the attunements we had in BC, to be honest, and I like that. I’m not one for collecting piles of non combat pets I’ll never look at or mounts I’ll never or rarely use at all. I’m not as much an achievement monkey as some.  Give me a grind that will get me something tangible, however, then you’ve got my attention.

Naturally, no matter how you slice this, there will be mighty drama around this announcement as there was around the last. Where before it was all “Blizzard doesn’t care about what the players want raaaaeeeege”, now instead it’s “Blizzard gives in to every little whine raeeeeege!”  Blizzard can’t win with this bunch, and personally I think they should just do what they think best and shut down the forums, but that’s me. 

I’m still not missing flight in Draenor. But to some, the mere inconvenience is an insurmountable obstacle to inner peace, or something like that. This is not to say, I won’t use it if it’s there.  As I’ve said before, I won’t put myself at a disadvantage on mere principle.

The haters will always be around because they need an avenue to vent their frustrations in life in, and a bunch of nerds writing software is just the perfect target.  Well, people at Blizz get paid to read their drek, but I don’t. 

So flush twice, it’s a long way to MMO-C.

The Sound of Silence

A certain gaming website recently ran an article in which it noted that a LOT of people were piling on the pro-flight side of the scale with regard to The Great Grounding. Notable here was a complete absence if the pro-grounding camp.  Why? 

Well, the obvious and probably intended conclusion you could draw was that there weren’t any.

But given that I know for a fact that that’s not true, I’m entertaining another theory.

See, people that are basically okay with the status quo rarely speak up. Why would they? Everything’s fine! What is there to blog about? 

I am thoroughly content with the pace of content patches.

Or

I can’t find the words to express how perfect I find Garrisons as they are.

Nobody blogs how they think that the weather is perfect, or their soup was just the right temperature last night. Contentment isn’t interesting.

Bloggers, if we wish to aggrandize ourselves a little bit, are basically story-tellers.  And one of the core features of a story is conflict. Nobody wants to read how Frodo got to Mordor without incident, or how Harry caught Voldemort flat-footed before he had any real power, or how Kirk raised shields when the Reliant failed to respond to hails and Khan got clapped into irons right off the bat.  Nobody gives two shits about a story with no tension in it.

So my theory is – and I hasten to point out, it’s a theory – is that people that are okay with this aren’t really moved to express that they are, and thus it’s kind of hard to count them. 

But I suspect the number of people that this describes is somewhere north of where you think it is.

The Flip Side

Having rankled for more than a few people, I’m sure, my thoughts on flying in WoW remain unchanged, but I want to give the flip side of the argument some air, because it is very valid.

My friend Zel brings up the way this impacts herb farming, as an example. I do hasten to point out that herb farming isn’t the lucrative endeavor it once was.  Making flasks for resale is just silly given current prices (I expect to see them go below 10g before too long); farming for glyphs doesn’t outweigh the convenience of buying herbs off the AH – the herb prices just don’t impact your profit margin that much. And selling herbs outright doesn’t (as implied) really bring a lot of cash to the table – hardly worth trolling SMV for choice cuts.

There’s this thing that you’re either for or against flying, by the way.  I think the angst and anger between the two sides at this moment is greater than that between Alliance and Horde. And that’s pretty silly, considering that one can be on both sides of this.

I have my own problems with flight-less WoW, and most of them resolve down to inconvenience and annoyance.

It is very inconvenient and annoying to, for example, try to get to some of the more obscure corners of Draenor right now. Why? Because you have to navigate these huge mountains and ravines just to go from A to B, much less the obscure Point Z. And the maps are not very helpful in this regard. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a set of convoluted zones as I have in Draenor. It’s a perfect storm of angsty goodness that makes even me want to rezz up the old roflcopter and fly on over there.

The thing is, I find that as I give myself time to develop tactics to deal with little annoyances like this, the less annoying they become. And that’s part of the problem, here. People have not developed these strategies internally because they either feel they haven’t needed to (i.e. “flight is coming”) or shouldn’t have to (“fuck Blizzard”).

But it also comes back to the problematic skills that the terrain designers have. Instead of a stick – “no flying, you’re not paying attention to our bootiful landscapes” – how about a carrot – make the ground route a nice place to be, something enjoyable and maybe somewhere south of 50% annoying.

So while I completely get and embrace the no flight evermore approach – for limited reasons – I also get very much why this is frustrating and, believe it, I am feeling those same frustrations.

Let’s just say that if it weren’t for WoWHead, I’d’ve given up and moved on to another game by now. And that’s a very strong indication that you have issues with your terrain design. It should be possible to sort most of this out with in game resources.  I agree that parts of the map should be reserved for those that have a lot of Dora in their veins – those that enjoy the exploration part of the game – but nothing important should be as hard to get to as the Time-lost Glade, not when it’s a key part of a major component of the endgame gearing circle-jerk.

So, pro-flight people, don’t for a second think I don’t empathize and agree, but also don’t think for a moment that I think it’s worth pitching a fit over. It is what it is. The minute that becomes too annoying to pay 22000 gold for, I’m back to playing marathon sessions of Sins of a Solar Empire or Civ 5, like I was before WoW even came out.

Bottom line here is that, regardless of which way this goes, Blizz done messed up and removing Flight is their version of mayonnaise, which cooks use to cover their mistakes.  All the anger, all the ragequitting, all the angst belongs squarely on the shoulders of senior game management, and nowhere else.

Sadly, I doubt they’ll ever understand that.  They will say the words, but they will never, truly, own their mistakes.

And that’s the greatest disappointment.

Wrong

This interview with Watcher has set the WoW social universe on its ear.

The first big bombshell is his statement that Flight will not only not be back in 6.2, but may quite possibly not reappear in-game ever again, going forward.

I am mixed on this.  I’m pretty much in favor of this because of the way that flight disrupts the quest design mechanics, but I want to state for the record that if Blizz had designed the quests with flight in mind in the first place, this wouldn’t be a problem. 

Let’s  consider the example that Watcher gave: without flight, you have to “fight  your way to the NPC you’re rescuing” to complete the quest, but with flight you can “just fly over there, land on the hut he’s in, and you’re done.”  And: agreed, that’s a lousy thing.

But why aren’t there flying Mobs around the hut?  This is a design failure in the quest, not a problem with flight per se. But, since Blizzard is apparently incapable of grasping that simple concept and fixing the problem, the simpler solution is just to ground everyone.

The quest designers done screwed up, so everyone has to get out of the pool.

And now, a moment of gloating.

Watcher confirms that 6.2 is not the final patch for this expansion.  There have been a number of intensely strident people swarzing up and down that this was the final content patch for Warlords, despite the fact that they had not a single fact to support this.  I have set aside a vat to collect their delicious tears, and have set aside an area for them to furiously backpedal without endangering innocent lives.  Because, sure as Moira’s got an agenda, these people will be claiming they said no such thing as soon as they can, as often as is legal in their home state and/or country, and and as loudly as local noise ordinances allow.

Let’s say this all together once again: MMO-Champion is not the gold standard of Blizzard predictions. They got it right exactly ONCE (Cata), and ever since then, Blizz has alternatively bought their silence with access bribes, or fed them misinformation.  Reddit isn’t a lot better, but at least there you don’t have a central point of failure like you do with MMO-C.

Honestly, the louder and more strident they are, the less likely they are to be right.

I myself haven’t made much in the way of predictions in this regard other than to express extreme doubts that 6.2 was the final patch.  For a number of reasons.

• Two patches is atypical for Blizzard’s history.  Three to four is the general rule of thumb.
• The story that I’ve been able to discern so far doesn’t really seem to be end-gamish.
• e.g. I strongly suspect there’s a real WTF moment in our future, either at the end of 6.2 or in a future patch.
• I don’t see the ultimate end-of-expansion time-waster-zone that we’ve seen in every expansion including BC (e.g. Money Island / Tournament / Firelands / Timeless Isle). Until they roll out that zone – which, you realize, will be yet another new and innovative way to while a way the post-expansion blues! – we’re not looking at the final patch.

As I have proven to myself a number of times, predictions are a tricky thing.  Smart people will couch these guesses as guesses and not FACT (actual quote).  There’s nothing wrong with speculation as long as it’s presented as such. But stating categorically with great authority on these topics is just silly.

Unfortunately, these people won’t learn, probably. They’ll just get shriller, louder, and more frantically self-defensive as this unwinds.  I’m not sure what the point of all this is – some weird form of territorial marking or something – but it’s lead to some serious paring of my social media feeds, let me tell you.

But I’m more interested in where this is going, lore-wise.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Grommash / Guldan story resolves this patch, or if it gets marched out to the next one.  I personally don’t think one zone and one raid is enough to include that and Archimonde, too. I’m interested to see what they do with that, too, and whether we get to see Kil’jaeden as well.  And will this all end in tears as Draenor Renewed gets blown up again?

All I know is that we are free of the tyranny of prophecy once again.

No fate but what we make for ourselves.

Finding Gara

I haven’t engaged on a good Rare Pet journey since I tamed Gondria all those years ago in Zul’Drak. I made a few half-assed attempts in Firelands and was always looking out for the Flaming Turtle in Hyjal, but I never really tried.  Gara, however, is another matter.  This beastie was put there for nobody but Beast Master Hunters. How could I not?

Of course, since I’m not a mighty theorycrafter, beta baron, or suffering from delusions of adequacy, I relied on this guide, which Tome reminded me about long after I had forgotten it.

Ironically, the most difficult part of this was the newbie area … Frostfire Ridge. WoWHead to the rescue once again, explaining the seemingly single route into that place from friendlier lands. Oddly, once I got in there, it was somewhat easier than Shadowmoon to navigate.

The final battle didn’t even require me to dismiss my pet, so I was able to beat Xan into a pulp, then dismiss my attack!kitty, and tame me up a nice pet.

As you are no doubt aware, I am a deeply abiding fan of InfosecTaylorSwift, so I named my new friend in honor of her most recent videyo character.  Maybe I’ll continue the streak by naming my fire turtle Arsyn.  Whaddya think?

On Retirement

As I’m retiring the blog, I hate to leave the various inhabitants of this blog in limbo. Here, then, is the resolution of each thread of their existence, virtually speaking.

Floramel

Flora eventually retired from adventuring, having never achieved green fire, refusing to run anything but Demon spec. By “retired” we mean, of course, that she took out Milo Oddcog, the leader of the criminal underground in Stormwind, and promptly assumed his station and ran things the way she saw fit – starting with, of course, a huge shift in how the syndicate dealt with young orphaned girls, especially as they achieved womanhood.  She died thirty years afterward from buffalo wings that were so powerful, they projected her soul into the wrong dimension and it was eaten by demons.

Jasra

Jasra retired from raiding and settled in at the Legerdemain Lounge in Dalaran, where she worked as a barmaid in the day and relished life to the fullest with her lover Amisi Azuregaze and her husband, Arille. While she freely donated healing and services to the Dalaran orphanage, she never healed in anger again.

Faiella

Faiella finally burned out the rage and pain gifted to her by the Lich King on Icecrown Glacier, fighting the remnants of his forces near the Well of Souls. She died never having betrayed the trust of her family, and that was a gift beyond measure, for her.

Slithmere

It’s complicated.

For many years, he courted Illume, as he was smitten. She rebuffed him, saying she was in love with a man in Gilneas and she would not turn her back on that.  When the Graymane Gate was shattered, he used his resources within the Syndicate to locate said person – who was still alive, though Worgenfied – and hired assassins to end him.

Illume was not without her own resources and, upon discovering this chain of events, had Slithmere put to death in the city square of Gilneas. He did not appreciate the irony that she hired the same assassins that he had earlier.

Illume

After settling matters with Slithmere, she seemed to decide that instead of explaining things to the rest of the clan, she would go into exile herself. She was last sighted exploring the ancient libraries of Eldre’Thalas, learning from the masters of the High Elves remaining there, and generally trying to keep a low profile. She rebuffed many attempts at renewed contact from Grimm, Flora, and Jasra, and either died or disappeared in those halls.

Kutath

Kutath settled with the Dwarven shamani of the Twilight Highlands and married an impressive dwarven lass named Magenta Ironcask, herself a capable student of the elements. He dedicated his spare time to the art of brewing fine ales, and was renowned as far away as Shadowforge for his talents.  When asked why she married him, Magenta claimed that she fell in love with is penchant for drinking songs.

Orlee

Orlee took up the shield and died on the battlefield in Draenor Renewed, finding more than enough Orcs to sate her lust for revenge.

Amusmoses

Amus never left Grimm’s side when he wasn’t off serving as a soldier of the Light. His greatest battle is yet to come.

Yarley

Yar never gave up trying to save Azeroth from the corruption of the Horde, and died fighting the Horde in Warsong Gulch, trying in vain to save one more tree from their vile axes.

Wojo

Wojo eventually left Khaz Modan to take up studies with the high Monks of Pandaria. She didn’t return until Gnomeregan was finally retaken.  When  she did, she dedicated her life to bringing harmony to the troubled city, and lived out her days doing just that.

Grimmtooth

Grimm settled on the outskirts of the Twilight Highlands, as close to Grim Batol as he could manage, and spent most of his time helping with the effort to rehabilitate the city. Mogdug’s curse still prevails, but he has hopes of some day seeing the forge refired and reclaiming his family’s legacy. 

He married, having been proposed to by the Widow Holly Hearthstone on the occasion of his fifth Brewfest in the Highlands. It is said that the two of them made a wedding present to Kutath and Magenta of his grandpappy’s lost ale recipes, but nobody has ever confirmed that they even exist, and nobody’s telling.

Once a year, the remnants of the clan, excepting Illume and Slithmere, gather together at Grimm’s place and toast those that have been lost; those that are absent; and to celebrate those bright days of yore when we gathered together to fight giants, dragons, and legends.

Some say that they speak of doing again, someday.  Some say they already have. But everyone agrees that the land is brighter, the moons shine fairer, the ale is sweeter, and the songs are merrier when the whole clan comes together.

Those were the days of legend, friends. None shall see their likes in Azeroth ever again.

On Untold Stories

I have a post ready to go that tells the story of where each of the inhabitants of this blog end up, but some of them are dependent on stories yet untold. To provide a bit of context, I’d like to provide a précis of those untold backstories.  Most of these stories are already written to the greater extent, but I’ve never really been ready to publish them, and now that’s not going to happen at all.

Floramel (Human Warlock)

Flora’s origin story involved her – as a young girl – working for a character I had introduced before, a fellow named Milo Oddcog, the head of the criminal underground in Stormwind, who also happens to be a warlock.

She had been teaching herself the ins and outs of being a warlock using “borrowed” tomes from his office when she fell in with one of his old rivals, who offered to train her more fully in exchange for certain bits of intelligence on his business. 

It all came to a head when Milo brought her along on an exchange between himself and a Dwarf named Grimmtooth. Her erstwhile teacher ambushed Milo, got torched for his troubles, and Grimm got accused of trying to double-cross Milo.  Thinking on her feet, Flora changed the balance of power in the ensuing standoff, in favor of Grimmtooth. 

Which earned her the gratitude of said Dwarf, who put Milo in charge of her Warlock training in exchange for his life.  She became the first of Grimm’s “adoptees” and was instrumental in establishing his estate in Ironforge.

Illume (Human Mage) and Slithmere (Night Elf Rogue)

One cannot discuss the story of Illume without also discussing Slithmere, for, you see, he fell in love with her and attempted many times to woo her.  She rebuffed him, however, being betrothed to someone in Gilneas who she had not yet given up on quite yet.

When the Graymane Gate was shattered, Slithmere used his contacts to locate this person, who he found had become “worgenfied”. He hired assassins to kill this worgen.  Even so, news of his death (minus context) was not sufficient to earn her love.

When she found that he was the one that hired assassins to kill her fiancé Effington, she spurned him, and the clan at large expelled him from the group. He has been on his own, a lone wolf in he darkness, ever since. Nobody knows what his intentions are.

Faiella (Dwarven Death Knight)

We know Faiella’s origin as a Death Knight, but her defining moment has yet to be described.  As she wandered the frozen wastes of Icecrown Glacier, she encountered the ghost of Mathias Lehner, the alleged lost innocence of Arthas Menethil, who brought her face to face with her fear of slaying her family at the command of The Lich King. This has been her greatest fear since her Enlightenment. She lacked conviction that she was not, in fact, a ticking time bomb, and feared that she would, at the worst possible time, slay all those who she loved.

She came to some level of peace with her inner demons during this episode, but remained aloof from her family ever after.

Orlee (Draenai Warrior) and Kutath (Draenai Shaman)

Orlee was originally a priest in Karabor, but when the Orcs invaded and sacked it, her spirit – but not her body – was broken. When she awoke on Azeroth, she eschewed her priestly upbringing and embraced the way of the warrior, claiming that the worlds would never be safe until every damned Orc that ever existed was dead.  She has dedicated her life to this goal, and it has made her perhaps a little less balanced than one would expect from a Draenai. Not that she cares. There’s murdering to be done.

Kutath, her brother, tried as hard as he could to rein her in before she turned her back on her upbringing completely. He does his best to smooth out any conflicts she may cause amongst the group, or Azeroth in general, but otherwise he is fully dedicated to the Shamanistic path, and has become fascinated by the Shamani of the Wildhammer Dwarves.

Yarley (Night Elf Druid)

Yarley’s family was in Warsong when the Orcs invaded, and what she saw has forged her as an extremist Druid; basically, anything the Horde does is viewed through her very narrow point of view of whether it is good for Azeroth or not. With that in mind, she has concluded that pretty much everything the Horde does – including the Tauren – is destroying the planet, and thus she has concluded that the only good Hordie is a dead Hordie, nurturing the earth with their rotting remains.

Wojo (Gnome Monk)

Our newest member has an inherent curiosity that drew her to the Zen philosophy of the Monks of Pandaria. Grimm adopted her when he found her stowing away in his luggage on the way to The Jade Forest, and promised her a place among the Hidden Land if she would apply herself and gain the experience necessary to survive in this new land without an escort. She has been doing so every since, in the land of Khaz Modan.

Her curiosity makes her a lot less prone to judgment, and thus she is the sole member of the clan that maintains contact with Slithmere. Her main point of inquiry: what makes someone like him tick? Was it love alone or something more sinister?  She’s yet to draw conclusions.

To all things, an ending

I’ll have wordier things to say in the month yet to come, but I want to make An Announcement.

Namely, that in a month’s time, this blog will be going offline.  I’ve decided that it’s no longer worth $100/year for what amounts to essentially a vanity project.

I’ll still be playing WoW – I have enough gold to buy tokens for years to come – but as time goes on I see less of interest to blog about, and certainly not worth paying real money to blog.

I may open something on a free platform, so I’ll make the announcement as to where it is, if I do.  grimmtooth.wordpress.com isn’t available, as I once opened it then closed it and, apparently, that’s irreversible. Go figure.

My gratitude goes out to those of you that have taken the time to read, comment, argue, scoff, laugh, and celebrate this strange world that is World of Warcraft with us. It is very much appreciated.

 

As you know, the subtitle of this blog is “Say hello to the voices in my head.”  This is a reference to the sort of internal roleplay I do with my toons in order to develop some internal sense of consistency in how they behave, dress, craft, and fight.  While Grimmtooth (/wave) is more or less a direct channel to my daily internal monologue, the others – Jasra, Floramel, Illume, Faiella, Slithmere, Orlee, Amusmoses, Yarley, and Wojo – all more or less inhabit some crevasse of Grimmtooth Actual’s brain.  And as such, I intend to write up a send-up for each of them, collectively or individually, I haven’t decided.  More for my internal peace of mind than anything else.  I’m pretty sure nobody else really cares that much where Floramel ends up when she retires. 🙂

Peace out, friends.

Small World, but I’d Hate to Paint it.

This being Bizarro Outland, Draenor is replete with familiar faces. You just never know who you might run into.

Today I ran across the former warchief of the Horde, just hanging, as former warchiefs are wont to do. He let me take this sweet selfie.

I found this evil looking axe laying nearby. Asked him if it was his, he didn’t say it was. 

Left it, though. The stats were all wrong. 

Kicking myself, now – I could have DE’d that for some decent pixie dust for Jas.  I bet someone came along and grabbed it already. No point in going back for it now.

By the way, don’t let the brochures fool you. Nagrand might look familiar to the old one, but it’s a lot more humid. Pack accordingly.

Point of View

My adventures in Elite: Dangerous and Eve Online ((Not shown.)) have highlighted some things that have come out, albeit peripherally, in  research.  Namely, that third person perspective and first person perspective have profound effects on the immersion that one experiences when playing a game – and how one approaches playing that game.

A while back a guy did an experiment with a VR harness coupled with a camera and a shoulder-mounted scaffold that gave people the viewpoint they would have in an MMO in third-party – say, for example, WoW ((Alas, I’m missing the link to the actual research video – it was before the Oculus, I can say that for sure.)).

You may be familiar with this in WoW.  You’re sitting at the mailbox, going through the daily hate mail from Arthas and Deathwing, when some tool runs up to you, plants his pixlelly ass in between you and the mailbox, and proceeds to jump up and down.

And jump up and down.

And jump up and down.

And jump up and down.

And jump up and down.

And … well, you get the idea.

Turns out, a VR+Camera rig that gives you the same viewpoint on real life … makes you act exactly the same way you would in an MMO in which you play from the third party viewpoint. 

Now, I hasten to emphasize that the experimenter did not indicate whether hir test subjects were frequent gamers, which would tend to skew the behavior a bit ((After all, a familiar environment makes you act in familiar ways.)), but I have to say this: even if the only place you do that sort of thing is in an MMO, you’re still … kind of an asshole. Sorry.

Now, getting in someone’s face and jumping up and down is small potatoes compared to other things that people playing in 3PP ((Third Party Perspective – my keyboard is old.)) frequently do.  They tend to – apparently – not believe that the people they are interacting with are real, and thus they treat those people as if they are not people.  Now, personally, I tend to not treat non-people like shit just because I can because I’m not an asshole ((At least, not that kind of asshole.)) but there seems to be a lot of people that treat abstract entities online badly if they can, because they can.

And here, at last, I get to the point of contrast between Eve Online and Elite: Dangerous.

Eve plays constantly in a third party mode, even when docked. You’re actually viewing your SHIP in 3PP, not even yourself, in that game.

Elite, on the other hand, sticks you in the cockpit and leaves you there.  To view your ship in 3PP, in fact, is a DEBUG control. And you can’t do much of anything in debug mode.

If you follow Eve’s politics and drama even peripherally, you’ll know that in 0sec space, no one’s safe unless you have some sort of protection from the “corps” ((“Corporations”, or, to place it in familiar terms, the Eve analog to WoW guilds.)), you’ll probably end up podded ((Doing the monochrome marathon, in WoW parlance.)).  At the upper levels, there is constant backstabbing and outright crimes against fellow corp-mates, sometimes taking down entire corps.  Basically, everything goes, and while the game’s creators may not encourage this sort of behavior, they don’t discourage it, either.  Honestly, they don’t really appear to care.

In Elite, the same lack of constraints on one’s behavior exist, but running into this sort of situation is extremely rare.  I’ve been attacked by other players for no real reason from time to time, but it’s rarely malevolent in nature – i.e., just a pirate, doing his job. They’ve even offered to help me out before shooting me up for non-response.

The best example of this is the Goonswarm.  In Eve, the Goonswarm is a force to be reckoned with. They have taken over entire corps, terrorize 0sec space, and generally specialize in griefing.

Goonswarm exists in Elite, as well, but they are oddly ineffective.  They have all the tools they need to effect a system-wide shutdown – which they attempted – except, of course, the whole ‘corp’ framework, which can be replaced by an external framework like Mumble – but as it turns out, lowly CMDRs like me just skooched along and took care of business.  Eventually, the lack of dread and loathing from the general population caused the Goonies to lose interest.  When nobody reacts to trolls, they go elsewhere looking for attention.

The entire Elite community has, at least in-game, been extremely polite and helpful.  The worst behavior I’ve seen has been in system-wide chat, which is a newly implemented feature, and the behavior is consistent with the 3PP theory – people in a chat window aren’t people, so you can treat them like shit without repercussions.  ((Frontier hasn’t really addressed anything about chat channel terrorism at this point, and, given their track record, they likely never will.  Not on the roadmap.)).

There are dozens of potential causes for this disparity between the two games that are otherwise very similar, so I won’t draw a conclusion as to cause. All I want to do here is point out that research that I’ve mentioned before, and note that what we see in the skew between Eve and Elite tracks very well with those conclusions.

The message you get in Elite is that piloting a starship is a very personal thing. It isn’t an abstract thing involving armadas and ‘swarms’. It’s just you, your starship, and the Big Black.

Does this mean I would switch to FPP in WoW to try to replicate this experience?  Not likely. WoW is designed around a different paradigm than Elite is, and doesn’t enforce the other players playing the same way, so I don’t see any point to it.  Though, I will note, that it does suggest an interesting thing.

To wit: What if everyone in WoW was forced to first person perspective? Would the social dynamics of the game shift significantly?

Talk amongst yourselves.