Into The Matrix

(This was originally posted by me as a response to a comment on a thread on my Guild's forum.)

Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place? - Morpheus

This place is built on rules. – Morpheus

The analogy between World of Warcraft and the Matrix is an easy and obvious one, but with some important limits. Unlike the Matrix, the World of Warcraft(WoW, henceforth) is a video game world and is therefore defined by and limited by mathematical models and logical rules. In the Matrix, we had to suspend the rule that all computer systems have an upper bound on computing capacity, and that the human mind, and its interface to the computer, were explicitly unlimited by the rules of the system within which it operated. Specifically, the humans in the matrix were not limited by their interface to the system, nor were they limited by the rules of the system itself, so that they could beat the system simply by thinking faster than, or ignoring the program rules. In WoW, however, the rules define the limits, and the goal is to perform at the upper boundary allowed by the rules.

This is why I have been thinking about UI's, add-ons, keybindings, and mice lately. Let us start at the beginning, with some basic premises.

1. The World of Warcraft is a mathematical system defined by rules. Therefore, virtually every possibility can be factored in and calculated.

2. Every class has an optimal spec and rotation that has been mathematically tested and proven for, say, maximum dps.

3. Random events such as trinket procs can be modeled and factored into our understanding of the world model.

4. Situational and world variables require the player to act and react appropriately, and this is where skill is primarily a factor.

5. Knowledge of the rules and limits, as well as understanding their implications and acting on them, can also be viewed as skill.

6. The characteristics built into your gear define a mathematical upper bound on a player's performance.

7. I include reflexes, effectiveness in using the physical UI, and other factors in player skill. For good or ill, everything from the wall to the chair is part of 'player skill'.

Given the premises above, it stands to reason that two players of the same class and spec should be using the same rotation, and if they are equally geared and executing their rotations correctly in a Patchwerk-style fight(which is used because you mostly just stand there and shoot) then they should have very similar dps output. Hopefully my fellow warlocks won't mind my using our class as an example.

Assuming for a moment that Demoncam, Lanfear, and Ayonel (all 0/13/58 destro locks in the same raid group, although with a few talent point variations) are doing our jobs correctly, and factoring in distractions like getting hit by fire bomb or some other thing that requires us to interrupt spellcasting, any difference in dps should be attributable to gear. The longer a fight lasts, and the more fights you participate in, the greater the convergence should be.

In the case of Wednesday night's raid, I was comparing Lanfear and myself. While there was quite a bit of variability from fight to fight, and he usually does more dps than me, over the course of the evening we were generally within 100 dps overall. Since we are roughly geared the same(he is ~100 gear points higher, has more spell power and haste) any differences in performance that are not attributable to gear can be attributed to skill, less some adjustment for situational variables.

My reason for making this comparison is not whether one of us is better than the other. Rather, I'm thinking: if there is something that I can change to become better, then he can do the same, and vice versa, and the whole group is better for it. Therefore, if someone is using a particular mouse, keybinding setup, add-on, or other tool that works better than mine, I want to know about it and try it out. If there is a secret sauce, I want it. Once we get to a point where each person is using equivalent tools, optimal specs, and efficient interfaces, then we can attribute other differences to situational awareness and skill of execution. While I can concede that Demoncam may be a better player than me, whatever differences between us are not attributable to gear or skill, I should be able to replicate to remove controllable variables.

A bigger gun

This brings us to the next issue, which was, obliquely, the point of my post. I don't think that the team analogy is a perfect one here, although it does highlight many valid points. I think of it rather as a combat troop analogy. Let's look at the following scenario:

We are a group of 25 soldiers going into combat to take out an enemy position. If we fail, we all die, and our base gets destroyed. If we succeed, some of us may die, but some or all will live, and the base is safe. So we organize our squads such that the best combat fighters go in as the combat team, and the least experienced fighters lay down cover fire as a support team. The support team may be more expendable, but they are less likely to succeed if you send them in, so you make the counterintuitive decision to send in your best people in hopes that the support team can give them the time they need to succeed.

So the solution is to give the support team bigger guns. In real combat, this would be a bad decision because a guy who is incompetent with an M-16 could be absolutely devastating to our own troops with a grenade launcher(It's funny, but it doesn't seem like friendly fire when your own people are shooting at you). But in our game world, since our weapons don't hurt each other, everyone can have nuclear weapons for all we care. This allows the support team to have the biggest impact for as long as they survive, and increases the likelihood of overall success.

Concluding with the sports team analogy, I agree that our goal is to have everyone strive to be the best player possible, and while recognizing that some people are and may always be better than others, we want to give everyone the incentive to be a better player, be as effective as possible, and improve their play, so that the average players are better than most.

And giving them bigger guns doesn’t hurt.

How Joining a Hard-Core Raiding Guild Saved my Life

I've heard it time and time again. The story about the guy who got so addicted to WoW, or World of Warcraft, in the incredibly unlikely case someone who doesn't play reads this, that his life fell apart. He lost his job, his family, his kids, his girlfriend. He had to go into therapy, stop playing altogether, and now he haunts 12-step programs and hangs around Dunkin' Donuts all night telling everybody just how fucking happy he is in that shrill, vindictive tone that tells the world he knows he isn't fooling anyone.

So yeah, maybe I play WoW a bit too much. Maybe I play it a lot too much. But what are the alternatives?

1. Watch TV 5 hours a night while drinking enough beer to make a grizzly bear comatose. Well, this has obvious downsides, and besides, there ain't a damned thing on. Plus, it costs a lot of money if you like good beer.

2. Develop internet porn habit. This gets expensive once you start paying for it, it causes marital stress in many cases, and if you have kids you are definitely going to get in trouble when your 6 year old daughter asks Mom if she likes double chocolate DP and if it is good with jimmies. And then there is the issue of just how much one person can masturbate, and whether you want to find out...

3. Have an affair. Okay, let's get this out of the way. It really isn't for me. My life is complicated enough with one woman in it. The last thing I need is another one. In this scenario, everyone is unhappy and it costs you a lot of money.(Besides, I actually love my wife. And she isn't make-believe, or inflatable.)

4. Get into politics. That's right. If I wasn't worried about getting the daily done or watching the timer on Wintergrasp, I might start paying attention to how badly the Democrats are screwing up everything they touch, and then I'd have to get involved. Don't make me write a letter.

So, having discussed at least some of the more obvious alternatives, let's conclude that playing WoW isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that the issue is how much time you spend playing it.

For many people, they feel compelled to play constantly because they don't want to miss anything. Even long after they have done their dailies, worked the Auction House, and run a few battlegrounds, they stay on because they are afraid that a raid might come up and that could drop the best-in-slot Hammer of Ura Pente, which would make them the most uber-est of pallys in all of pally-land.

Basically, they are in a crappy guild, and can't run any decent raids, so they play constantly in hopes that they will find a pug(pick-up group) of people they can raid with. Only it doesn't happen because almost everyone in a pug is hoping that you will carry them so that they can get the Hammer of Fucking Uber. Do you see where this is going?

So enter the Hard-Core Raiding Guild. Ostensibly, this is a group of assholes and jerks who are so good that they treat everyone like crap and are no fun to be around, and none of them actually enjoy playing WoW because they are focused on 'progession'. At least, this is what all the scrubs, M&S, or whatever other term for loser you prefer, say. This is the standard mythology that the majority of WoW players buy into in order to justify why they aren't running end-game content and HC guilds are. The alternative is to admit that they suck. Or at least, that the majority of the people in their guild suck.

Let's be clear about this. WoW is a fun, and incredibly complex, game. You can spend hundreds, even thousands, of hours playing and never do all the things that can be done.

And yet...

In order to become one of the highest ranked players on my realm, I press, on average, 6 buttons repeatedly. Yes, I have read extensively on my class, and have built my character around the most powerful configuration possible. But all of the information is available on-line, none of it is more complicated than you want it to be, and once set up, 6 buttons.

In my old guild, I was a good player, and I did my job, and we wiped all the time. I was a top-dps player. In my new guild, I do my job, and I am average dps. The difference isn't anything I do, but that everyone else I play with is that much better. I am doing the best I can as a warlock, and am roughly in line with the other locks, taking gear and experience into account. But all the other players are also doing their best with their class, and they simply do more dps than warlocks.

But back to my point. Playing WoW constantly is, I think, a function of not getting to do the things that you want to do. For me it was. Now that I am in a top-ranked guild on my server, I raid the nights that raids are scheduled, and the other nights I can play or not play, do what I want, and enjoy the game.

The key thing is that I know that on raid nights, I will be running content that is sufficiently challenging and rewarding that it is worth the time and effort, and I don't need to waste my time looking for something more.