"Grindy is not difficult": the lazy player's excuse

A line that's repeated practically every time someone brings up the fact that WoW was "harder" in Vanilla and Burning Crusade is this: "Vanilla and BC weren't hard, they were just huge grindfests." It seems that many people like to draw a line between skill and dedication.

Two points to be made. The first is that the distinction is artificial. There are many dimensions to "difficulty", and a task that requires more time than another is obviously more "difficult" in that respect. Many forum posters seem to think that it is not a legitimate type of difficulty, however. They often deride the people who are willing and able to spend a lot of time in the game as "virgins living in their moms' basements".

That is an obvious and worthless ad hominem that oozes envy with every syllable. Not unlike what you would expect from school children trying to establish themselves as "the cool ones" in an attempt to offset a perceived inferiority somewhere else. Or people who believe they are better than others, and find ways to diminish the merit of those who have climbed to greater heights.

It's very simple: the more effort you invest into something, the better you'll get at it, other things remaining equal. You spend a lot of time at parties? Have lots of friends? Never stay at home in the weekends? Good for you. Your social and sex lives must be a bajillion times more interesting than mine. But when you log into WoW, don't expect your success with "the chicks" to translate into being superior to a nerd who plays 6 hours a day. Just like he shouldn't expect women to be attracted to him for playing WoW and living in his mom's basement.

But of course many in either field (and others) don't accept that. They believe there is one right way to live (their own way) and those who follow it must be rewarded with every amenity available to man. It's curious, really; it would make more sense from a practical standpoint to acknowledge one's limitations and focus instead on one's strengths. I suppose it doesn't work like that because humans are social creatures, always struggling to appear smarter and righter than the next fellow in every possible way.

Anyhow, back to the point. If you can't commit several hours a day to the game, which would be necessary to achieve something, then that is a barrier, and therefore difficult. Difficulties are named that way because they can't be overcome without sacrificing something - in this case, one's time. If you were unable or unwilling to pay the price, then you failed to beat this difficulty. Instead of swallowing it and learning to live with one's inferiority (or trying to get better), a member of the entitled generation will be quick to come up with a story that explains:

1) why his failure was the result of "bad luck" or the world conspiring against him, and not his own lack of competence;

2) why those who managed to become better than him didn't really deserve it;

3) why his preferred style of play deserves to be propped up by Blizzard.

And this brings us to the second point, which is that these complaints are not arguments, but excuses. The wrongness of long grinds is just one that's been repeated so often and for so long that it became accepted as truth. But there are plenty of others.

For example: one day, the "gimmicky" mechanic that needs to be abolished is the necessity of grinding reps, consumables and resist gear (excuse: "I have a life"). The next, it's challenging trash (excuse: "I play for the bosses, not the trash"). Then boss mechanics (excuse: "it's not fun to be one shot"). Which leads to mana management (excuse: "we need to heal bad players"). And downhill from there.

Bottom line: that old adage is very true. Those who want to get something done find a way to do it; those who don't find an excuse.

This isn't really an argument against nerfing things, although since excuses naturally tend to flow from the laziest amongst us, it usually works that way. Still, it's perfectly reasonable to think that a particular difficulty is overtuned, because they can very well be, by a variety of subjective standards. The problem is players who believe that anything they don't like or can't do must be wrong in a cosmic sense, and anyone who thinks differently must be evil or pathetic or in some way worthless.

I like to think that nobody really listens to these people who can't keep their overgrown egos in check, but you never know. In many ways Blizzard does seem to expect the worst from a large portion of its player base.