Time and Tide « Rawrcast

“Time and tide wait for no man.”

If this quote is true in life, then it’s doubly true in WoW. Patches, class changes, and new raid content seem to be coming out every couple of weeks to change the core game play of WoW. Getting left behind is a real concern for WoW players, especially since the introduction of new and powerful loot can quickly leave players lagging (forgive the pun) in their class roles.

After showing up late to the party for the last patch, I was bound and determined to be on the “Bleeding Edge” of the new 3.2.2 patch content (or at least as bleeding edge as I can be without playing on the PTR… we’ll call it the Oozing Edge). I logged on, jumped into a ten man Onxyia raid and promptly had the retro Nemesis Skullcap to show off to other jealous locks on my server (due to my stunning DPS…and the fact that I was the only Warlock in the group). I felt, at least for the moment, that I’d gotten the monkey off my back.

This pressure of “get in and play while it’s still new” is facilitated by “leaked” patch notes, WoW podcasts, Blue Posts on the official WoW forums and WoW news sites all working together to drive an incredible amount of traffic to the game on patch day. It’s often theorized that Blizzard times their releases to cannibalize the player base of other MMOs (see WOTLK coming out around the same time as Warhammer and Patch 3.2.2 being released in the same month as the launch of Aion and Champion’s Online). Whether or not this is true remains unclear (although coincidences abound).

What is clear is that the massive amount of hype swirling around patches drives home the opportunity costs of playing other games. Whenever I steal a few hours in Fallout 3 or try to revisit saved games in Fable 2, I’m constantly thinking about what I could be doing in WoW. For myself (and I’m sure many other players), WoW has obliterated my interest in other games. Time in Fallout 3 doesn’t translate to hours, it translates to lost instance runs and missed battlegrounds. The pressure surrounding patches simply drive home how deeply Blizzard has their claws sunk into their players and how easily we can dance to Blizzard’s tune. Fortunately for Blizzard and myself, I love the song they’re playing.