Time Management
So… I may have more or less played WoW constantly this past weekend week.
While I’m sure that I will, like everyone else, grow bored with the feature eventually, I want it on the record (a year late) that what Blizzard did with the Garrison is just shy of amazing. For players like me, anyway.
See, I had every intention of abandoning my Paladin and making my (sigh) level 89 Rogue my new main. Before doing so though, I wanted to get my Garrison decently situated with a few level 2 buildings and Followers manning the profession stations. Which means I needed to do a few Outpost quest chains. And hey, may as well do the other Outpost quest chains so that I can save 750g-1000g on the blueprints. Oh look, I can get some more Followers pretty easily by just going here and doing one or two more quests.
Azuriel is now 25% into level 99.
Granted, all my characters are now in full heirloom gear that scales to level 100, minus the weapon because fuck that 5000g price tag. I even have the Dread Pirate Ring from back in the day, so the full percentage is +50% XP. In fact, I pretty much out-level a zone the minute I finish the Outpost quests. I could probably be a bit more concerned about that than I am, considering that as a non-raider, non-dungeon runner, questing is likely to be the only real content for me (outside BGs). But in a sense, Dragon Age: Inquisition broke the final thread tying filler quests with zero plot development and whatever fucks I had left to give. It’s not that I find killing X mobs tedious, I find killing X mobs for no reason tedious. I need some kind of narrative here.
Killing X mobs for a Follower, on the other hand…
My current plan of action is to go ahead and hit 100 on Azuriel, then get level 2 plans for my DK and Warrior (both of whom are 92) so that I get Inscription, Blacksmithing, and Enchanting professions going. As for my new Rogue “main” I’ll get around to her eventually. And by “eventually,” I mean those 5-10 minutes in-between Follower missions being completed across 3+ characters.
The irony is not lost on me that nearly four years ago I quit WoW the first time because of games like Tiny Tower, and now I’m back because it more closely resembles all those time management games. Time truly is a flat circle.
Posted on April 23, 2015, in WoW and tagged Downtime Management, Garrison, Heirloom, Tiny Tower, Warlords of Draenor. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
In An Age 
Eventually the follower missions start coming with 4-8 hour time-durations so you have a slightly larger window in which to do other activities. Plus the climb of getting followers from 90-100 and then from 100-Epic is tiny compared to the SLOG it is upgrading their item levels.
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The item level thing didn’t seem too bad at first, as I had accidentally built the Dwarven Bunker before I should have, and thus got a dozen or so upgrade pieces before I even had a level 100 Follower. “Full set of 630 gear? This is easy!” Of course, I am assuming that once you get past those easy upgrades, you are stuck with the +3 ilevel ones.
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I dont think your position regarding garrisons is too different from the one i have heard most people express. A lot of people found the levelling experience in draenor really fun, the tie in with garrison story, the gathering of followers, finding ressources and building a base, etc. The problem comes once all the “new stuff to build” is allready build, when your garrison is “maxed” your followers are geared (or enough of them anyways), and you yourself is done with the questline in all the zones. Then the tiein becomes a bit weaker, and the feeling of progress in the garrison department changes a bit to a feeling of maintenance (which some people like, but most feel is less exciting than progress). This is where the masses began to complain about the garrison (again, preface, as i experienced it), not during the progress part.
If you can stay in the progress part (due to alts perchance?) or if you are one of those who likes the maintenance phase as well, then i presume the “garrisons just shy of amazing” will hold true for you. But if you get to the maintenance part, the feeling might change.
Shandren out :-)
(Nb: i almost deleted this again cause i sound like a freaking doomsday prophet prophesizing a decline in your fun, sorry… Decided to post it anyways, as i think there actually is a big difference in garrison play pre and post being “done” (or you know, close enough to done, as theres allways something you could do) )
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Ha, no worries. What you say is true: the inevitable end of all time management games is burnout. I just hit 100 on Azuriel and I’m already seeing the outline of the tunnel. Not necessarily because I’m not having fun anymore, but because I can see how none of the “progress” really matters or will amount to anything. It’s the beginning of an existential crisis, if you will. I experienced it with Tiny Tower, I’m in the thick of it with Clash of Clans, and long past it with all sorts of other mobile games.
But you know? Sometimes it’s okay to “waste” time with engaging diversions. Fun is fun enough, until it isn’t.
What I will absolutely say though, is that I prefer the Garrison over Daily Quests, even if they share the same mindspace. It’s more engaging despite technically being less engaging (in terms of killing mobs, etc). In that regard, Garrisons are a huge improvement IMO.
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This highlights a major difference between great games and decent ones. A decent game will get you to click stuff for a bit, but you will ultimately find that the result of clicking is just more clicking, with little or no growth (Farmville, basically).
A great game will result in that clicking leading to more meaningful clicking. In CoC the higher you go, the harder the game gets because the depth increases. Anyone can derp at TH7 and 3-star using dragons. Getting 3 stars at TH10 vs a good base is beautiful science that requires amazing mastery, which is a great rewarding feeling for said clicking earlier.
Gaming reflects this too, thankfully; there is a reason LoL is still the top game out overall, and why CoC is the consistent top mobile game out. Too bad that Excel Online aside, we don’t have an MMO version of LoL or CoC.
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For me it was the opposite. I have 3 characters that can get raid-quality purples now, 2-3 close, and about 5 more that probably won’t see 100 this xpac as I’ve stopped playing. The Garrisons-as-content and the fact that no new dungeons are incoming has pretty much soured me on playing so I stopped my sub on the 21st. With all of my alts is seems like I am doing constant maintenance and really not getting anywhere, very much the opposite of the last expansion where I finished with 9 legendary cloaks. But I tried a number of garrisonesque games for my phone and computer and can’t play them for more than a few hours before I get bored, so I may not be a good bellwether for how this plays out for others.
Also, I’m really really disappointed with the the stance on mid-xpac dungeons and the fact that I paid an extra $10 for an xpac that’s looking to have less content than almost any before it too.
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