Opening Day

Hello, and welcome to Pandaren Pub, a blog created specifically for World of Warcraft and all its cataclysmic goodness. I will go over patches, blue posts, and controversies as they arise, giving out the hardcore information in your everyday English. With a lack of anything more to say, let's go over an important aspect of WoW, currency.

We all remember the old days. We would get DKP, and then we were given Badge of Justice. Back in TBC, we were still using DKP regardless of the new currency, but these days, DKP is largely out the window, save for some old time guilds. You can call this a good thing but is it? There are two sides to this argument these days.

Many players since the beginning of WoW complain that the game has become more casual friendly. Surely, in TBC, Badge of Justice was created to help raiders who were just getting screwed by the DKP system. However, in WotLK, not only are we given badges for raiding, but for 5 man dungeons and even dailies. Players end up with many methods to obtain the top gear. Soon after ToC 5 was released, Ulduar gear was obsolete. Any raider would be frustrated, as all that time raiding just flew out the window.

And now we have the casuals, who state that the endgame is too elitist, and requires an unreasonable amount of time to participate in. And in their defense, trying to get a 40 man Onyxia together back in the day was like trying to get a win off of Horde in WSG. You just looked silly trying. And looking at World of Logs just brings up a ton of magi and warriors. Anyone would feel compelled to take a class reputed to deal more damage.

Blizzard have been trying to make both sides happy. But is it worth it? Is it even possible? The two sides are macrocosms of the conservative vs. liberal fight. The conservative side does not want Blizzard sullying their achievements by handing out epics like candy. The liberal side wants everyone to enjoy their 15 bucks a month. See where I'm going with this? When Blizzard fixes this problem is when they run for government positions. They're scrapping the WotLK currency come Cataclysm, and they're giving us a system much like honor points. In that case, they might as well scrap that and just let us use money to buy our gear, as it is more flexible since you can sell the gear you obtain but do not need in order to buy a gear you want.

Personally, I am economically conservative. I want to be able to work for the satisfaction that comes with clearing a boss. However, as a ret paladin in TBC, I know how it feels to be cast down in the process of clearing a boss.

I believe the currency system should not be used to balance the game for casuals and hardcore gamers, but to reward raiders who get shafted when loot drops. Raiding has become much more time efficient. There is no reason anymore to give currency that one can use to get top gear to players who don't raid. There should be no fine line between casual and hardcore anymore but a gradient. The currency system as it is right now creates this fine line.