What the PuG!?

In the last couple weeks, I've been in PuGs for just about every raid, except Sunwell. Some have been successful, some haven't. But it's still amazing to me that they exist. On a server where the top Alliance guild was selling chances at tier pieces mere weeks after first downing the bosses themselves, and most of the inhabitants are just looking to get "epicced out" - regardless of the stats on the gear, it's somewhat refreshing to see people have complete PuG runs where rolls are simply mainspec first, then offspec.

All this freely available gear has set rumblings in the foundations of some guilds. I've seen a few 25-mans break into 10-mans, 10-man guilds split into arena teams, and arena teams disintegrate into individual battlegrounders. Of course, this might just be the result of pre-expansion restlessness spreading wanderlust that makes people test the waters of what they can accomplish on their own.

I have some very mixed feelings about these PuGs. On one hand, they get the bosses down (sometimes), and that's where the phat lootz come from. On the other hand, they're terrible players who are so sub-optimal at their roles that even after the patch boss nerfs, wipes are vastly more common than boss kills. So while I enjoy reaping the benefits of killing bosses in Black Temple, it helps to have a movie to watch during downtime, and maybe a game of solitaire going to keep my clicking finger from locking up.

On the whole, I think that more PuGs can only be good. They stimulate the interest in raids and heroics, and keep the game from becoming stale. But I'd like to see a return of attunements with the increase in PuGs. As easy as this game is, some people just aren't good enough at it to perform at the level required to do high-level content. To me, this is the challenge of game design: invent a natural content progression that cultivates building skills that will help you later in the game. Of course, this would effectively "lock out" some people from the end of progression, but I'm conceited enough to believe that I can perform well enough to make it to the "end."

This ties in to how I think that progression should depend on skill intead of raid size, but that's a whole different post. Perhaps later this week.

In the mean time, enjoy the free PHAT EPIXX L00TZ0RZ flowing out of PuGs.

[Off Topic Rant] Incompetence at Its Best

Today is the day I was supposed to have shiny, new internet service. I say "supposed to" because I don't actually have it yet. 

I talked to the DSL people downtown on Monday about getting set up with a modem and service and was told that it would take until the 15th before my service was ready, but I could have the modem now and he would call if my service could be turned on any sooner. I received a call that evening saying that my internet would be ready and waiting for me on the 11th instead of the 15th. This was great! I could have even less time being overcharged by the cable company for spotty (at best) service. 

So today around 1 p.m. I set out to connect my new toys and get BLAZING ZOMG FAST internet. I kept getting errors telling me that the "far end" was not responding. Bad. I double-checked every setting on the modem and my router. Same error. I bypassed the router and jacked directly into my laptop. Same error. I call my brother (who knows way more about networking than I do) and he comes over to look at it. Same error. I finally call up the DSL help line from the card the salesman gave me. The non-native English speaker on the other end told me that I didn't have service because I wasn't scheduled to have it activated until the 15th. *sigh*

This wouldn't have been a problem for me at all if I had been told the correct date from the start. But when some underpaid salesman tells me a fictional figure to make him look better to me, and then can't deliver on that figure, it makes me irritated. I even tried to call the salesman on his "direct line" to try to get some information from him, and was forwarded to voice mail.

So now I have to wait until the original date (which I'm fine with) even after having been promised a connection in half the time (which I'm not fine with). Oh, well. Maybe I need to upgrade cities a little further before I can expect actual service.