It will be hard for you to read this without thinking I'm an annoying snob who lives in my parents' basement and has no life. Suffice it to say, I'm a grown man, with children and a full time job. I'm a little out of the ordinary, because I have been playing video games for close to 30 years, and MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) for about 20.

I don't want to make this whole thing a history lesson, I just want to say that I take games like Warcraft seriously. It's how I define the word "fun". When I was playing one of the first online-role-playing games you've never heard of called the Shadows of Yserbius back in the early '90s, I didn't take it so seriously. I was there to meet people and have a little fun at the same time. Not that I don't do the same thing now, but back then it was a new universe no one had explored. Chat rooms (bulletin boards we called them...ask your parents about them), and even non-graphical games like Trade Wars existed where you read what was happening to you and your equipment, and you could respond by hitting hotkeys. Then Sierra came out with Yserbius, and I was hooked. Graphic representations of dungeons, dragons, and friends from around the world to enjoy them with.

This was my first foray into online Role Playing Gaming, The Shadows Of Yserbius. Trust me, after all-text adventures, this was amazing.

There were a few games in between, but Ultima Online was the game that changed my video-game life. The world was HUGE. There was player housing, guilds, an economy.... It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't played games all their life what it means to have a community of millions of gamers who are doing the same thing you are when you log in to the game. Everyone wants to go into dungeons and take out the big baddie. Everyone wants the coolest looking armor, the best weapons...to max out their professions like Blacksmithing to make things other people will want to buy. To be a part of a living, breathing, virtual world.

I'm sure Everquest was exactly the same, but alas, my computer was never good enough for that world so I played Ultima Online for 10 years instead.

The game that changed the MMO world forever: Ultima Online. If you weren't playing it, you'll never understand how revolutionary it was.

Then came World of Warcraft. We've established I'm a huge nerd that has been playing games for about three decades now. One of the first Real-Time strategy games I ever played was Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. All three Warcraft RTS games and their expansions were great. Was it necessary to play any of these to enjoy Blizzard's Warcraft MMO? Of course not. But to see places and characters in 3-D terms you had only previously played in a 2-D top-down view was amazing.

Blizzard had somehow come up with a completely solid three dimensional game engine. I guess this is why I never became a game designer, but I still don't know how they did it. The game just feels right. There's a gravity to you and all the objects in the game. Chatting, messages, all of the social parts of the game are easy to see (I'm looking at you Star Trek Online) and use. Whether you like the game or not, you have to admit that World of Warcraft is the pinnacle and standard for online Role Playing games, even after being in the market for six years.

The point of this entire lesson in video-game history is this: out of the millions of people who play these games, there is a group of us who take this game seriously. It doesn't mean we don't have fun, but we have played games like this for years. Now we are residents of Azeroth. All of us may not play for 15 hours a day, but most of us play every day for at least a few hours. When we do play, we are after the best items and gear the game has to offer. Blizzard, at some point, decided that rewarding "weekend warriors" was the way to go. They decided that most of the weapons, armor, and items the game has to offer should be attainable by players whether they play casually or really work hard. Does this make us hardcore players quit? Hell no, I just got my 5th character to level 80. It is sad though.

I'll give one example. When I started the game, I chose Warlock as my class. I thought it was cool to be a magic caster that also had the ability to summon pets who could fight along side you. When you hit level 60 (which was the highest you could be back then) you opened up the quest to earn your epic mount (an epic mount looked cooler and moved faster than the regular mounts you earned at level 40). This was a massive undertaking that involved collecting artifacts from all over Azeroth (which cost upwards of 600-800 gold -- not an easy feat in the early non-expansion days of WoW) and fight in an epic battle in a dungeon called Dire Maul to earn the right to ride a Dreadsteed. This meant that if you saw a level 60 warlock on an awesome looking firey mount that they had EARNED it. In 2010, when you turn level 40, you walk up to a vendor and pay 40 gold to buy it. This is just one example out of 100 of how Blizzard has dumbed down this game for people who don't play very much. The newest "every person who takes part in a raid should earn the same gear" mentality is just the most recent example.

Will most people who started playing World of Warcraft after 2008 know or care that this was the culmination of hours of work earning an awesome epic mount? Nope.

The recent story here on Bitmob to show up on the front page, "Raid Changes in Cataclysm: Why the Sky Isn't Falling" misses the point completely. The author says things like "having the ego-stroke of superior gear" and "The 25-man raiders that are screaming are only screaming because their gear will no longer identify them as such." Is it wrong to think that because you have a guild that is serious about end game content that they shouldn't earn more than a guild that isn't quite there? Then why give guild achievements as Cataclysm will institute? Why not say that anyone who takes part in any dungeon or raid is exactly the same whether they play an hour a week or 100? Your gear and equipment SHOULD identify how much you have put into the game. There's nothing wrong with that.
The editor comments of the "Sky Isn't Falling" story say: "I agree with Daniel. I'm a long-time World of Warcraft player, and I've never understood the constant struggle to have better gear than the next guy. Let's bring the focus back to enjoying the new content and not on the epic struggle of organizing 25 other people in an effort to maintain digital superiority." Again, this misses the point entirely. The whole point of having this virtual world is competition. Building your character from level 1 to level 80 is a struggle. You earn new talents, new abilities, and new gear to try and be better than the guy next to you. Otherwise why have levels? Why have instances that will kill you if you don't have the right gear?

Icecrown Citadel is the baddest instance in the game right now. By defeating the Lich King, you can earn a weapon (in a roundabout way) no one else in the game can get. You can bet your ass that the guy who got that weapon is running around with it equipped showing it off and basking in the glory. If you think that's wrong or should be looked down upon, then I'm afraid you don't understand that competition is part of what makes games like World of Warcraft fun. To say that the never-ending quest for "digital superiority" is wrong is wrong. New content is a big part of that. You have to earn your place in that Icecrown Citadel raid. You have to show that you have played as a Mage, a Paladin, etc. long enough to have the right gear and skill to take on those bosses. You have to earn your spot in that 3-man arena team so you can compete and earn new titles and possibly real-life money and prizes. That takes dedication and learning what your class is all about. That's online gaming my friends...like it or not.

Wait, this guy is way too hard. What we need to do is make him easier to kill and allow 10 people who down him to "earn" the exact same gear as when 25 people kill a much harder version. Perfect!

If you want to play for a couple of hours a week and you get enjoyment out of it that's great. Meet people, pick flowers and build armor (not meant as a put down...I do it every day myself!) and take part in the occasional dungeon crawl. But please, don't think you should be walking around with the same gear as that kid who spends 15 hours a day earning emblems and killing Arthas because no matter how bad Blizzard nerfs the game in your favor, it just ain't gonna happen. They will always be superior to you and, let's face it, that's the way it should be.