Been noodling all of this for a while so it might come out a little complicated. Admittedly it might not have a bunch to do with XI but the topic will be breached a bit.
I'm not sure when my ideas about player versus player content changed. I was first introduced to it when I began World of Warcraft; I had already played XI and had experienced the unbalanced mess that was XI's PvP. I rolled Ralhasha on a PvP server but played only to level 20 or so and never really left a protected zone. Once I got started with Gerotgus, my Forsaken, though, I got to experience all that is Contested Territory on weekends and evenings.
I hated it. A game where people are expected to progress when you can be jumped by someone who is factually impossible to kill? I'd been corpsecamped by guys twice my level and couldn't understand why anyone would have fun doing that, because it was certainly no fun to experience. I chalked it up to 1337 WoW kiddiez and usually ended up doing something else.
I finally hit level cap as Alliance, much later, on a PvE server where being ganked and having progress stopped for the night because some teenager was bored was nonexistent. Mai ended up grabbing me for a Call to Arms: Alterac Valley. AV is a bit different than normal PvP, which comes down to, in no particular order:
Capture the Flag, wherein you seem to always get murdered if you approach a flag or try to defend one
Base Control, wherein you seem to get murdered if you try to capture or defend a base
and that's sort of it. Alterac Valley and another pair of battlegrounds though are more of a PvE experience with PvP elements. The goal isn't to kill all of the other team, it's objective-based. Destroy this wall. Kill these NPCs. Obtain this item hidden inside of a base. Occupy towers for 3 minutes to destroy them. That kind of stuff is more entertaining than "charge the opposition and wait to respawn."
Maybe I just suck at PvP. Anyway.
There was a long, hours-long pause here where I took a break from writing. Let's try this again.
My point was that my stance on something I hated for a long time shifted in a way that would have surprised me from when I first started the associated hobby. As I've come to embrace PvP in WoW, I've also taken some arguably controversial steps in XI, too.
I like playing fair. I wonder sometimes at what point I'm no longer abiding those rules, though. For example, for a long time I've had hard and fast rules about not taking someone's wiped monster until they are completely down. Recently though? It kind of depends on if I know the person. Sharing ??? pop locations is right out, and I told Mai that those galka who were wiping and unclaiming Itzpapalotl like made were lucky I wasn't there making decisions.
I wonder at what point I've crossed a line, I guess. It came up a lot on QCDN during the countless bot arguments: There were people who used them to win, people who would never use them and the in-betweeners, like those who wanted to compete fairly but could only do that by fighting fire with fire. I sympathized with that bracket since I figured I myself would have taken a similar path were I in that position. If I'd arrived to a game where the only way to be the best, and I wanted to be the best? If that required cheating? I'd have to heavily weigh the argument.
I don't know at what point I'm being That Guy, the stereotypical Cait Sithian, the BG Elitist Jerk, the guy from that transfer shell who doesn't care about the rest of the server.
To a degree, these points are accurate. I've made my own line in the sand though, and I still would prefer to not have to be the jerk. I wonder if my openness to competition at pop sites is because I know we have the best possible chance/system outside of outright botting. Would I be as willing to take a chance if I was still using a tab/enter method? Would I be so content with my group to always be pushed aside and have to wait for the big fish to finish eating? Would I be one of those insulting complaining people I now mock?
It's a bit of an internal battle. I've got my methods, my own rules, and while I hate to make it out that my time is more important than Shell Y's, I have to do my role for my friends and family. I still don't want to have to "steal" yellow mobs, but will I seriously debate it? Absolutely, because any time saved for my group is time we can be doing something else. Is this taking advantage of the downtrodden? Or is that very term and question just an enabler for gimp groups to pity themselves into an equal footing when they are in fact not equal?
I don't mind being the bad guy. Of the shell, I'm probably the best equipped to handle it. I've seen Claire be the target of idiocy and it rattles her, I've seen Ramp handle arguments and it is ugly in a way I don't like much. If I have to be the lightning rod for groups to latch onto, and I have to become That Guy? Worth it. I know my own rules, my own limits, and I trust everyone else to watch my back and make sure I don't tip over any edges. I also expect them to trust me to do what has to be done when people go too far. One less Kannagi for the world to behold and whatnot.
I've lost track of my thoughts for the umpteenth time this blog. Might as well pack it in.
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