Thursday 10 September 2009

Plz boost me Hercules!

Help-beggars and their alts...

Do you have an alt? I do own a couple, largely built from the desire to have same level characters to play with levelling friends, or the rare moment of hunter fatigue. But these days my alts rarely see the light of day.

I don’t often feel inclined to play an alternative character for two reasons:

1. I am quite immersed in experiencing things through the eyes of my main.

2. Given that I exist outside of WoW as a family member, employee and student, it is hard to find extra time beyond keeping my main character up to date. Especially right now when Emblems of Triumph can be farmed every single day, so priority one is often getting that daily heroic done no matter what.

However, many others do enjoy alts and are able to split their attention better than I. If you play an alt then feel free to comment why, so I can grasp the appeal better.

However, there are a proportion of alt-players who expect their friends to do the work of levelling that alt for them, through frequent boosts and assists. This is approached with a sense of ‘entitlement’ that is often part of the psychological make-up of any anti-social person.

Our usually worthy Guild-Chat was bought low by one such help-beggar recently. I was this player's Guild Master once, suffering about a year of their lazy antics. This week, having failed to beg a boost, they exclaimed; ’20 guild members online and no one can help me?’

How does this translate into what is understood about the mythical journey of the hero? Certainly the classical hero had helpers on his or her journey, people who provided crucial advice, or even fought side by side for similar ends. However this help appeared because the hero was on the path and attracted cosmic assistance, or inspired others to their cause. Not because they begged and whined about it.

Jason and the Argonauts - Deleted Scene:


Jason: Can anyone boost me to get the Golden Fleece plz!!

Hercules: Sorry mate, I’m a bit busy doing my dailies at the moment.

Jason: When will you be finished?

Hercules: Not sure. Why not get a party, similar level, and challenge the quest the way it’s meant to be challenged? That way it will be more fun and you’ll get the learning.

Jason: I can’t be bothered. Plz boost me Hercules! Plzzzzzzzz!

1 comment:

  1. You know I have a Rogue Alt, Dags. I rolled him back when there were no dual specs (seems so long ago, like a dark age) because at the time I was a Holy Paladin and really needed a break from 'who has taken damage?-target them-cast heal-who has taken damage in the mean time-target them-cast' repetition and really wanted to do some damage.
    It's best if two friends level alts together, it allows for challenging the content together and it still means boosting each is available, in case you want to get some dungeon quests done or specific loot from a dungeon.

    That said, I did a Zul Farrak run on my new alt shaman with a correct-level group and it was Awesome.

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