This is precisely why WoW shines. Regardless of what type of player you are, you are bound to find a large base which is willing and able to do precisely what you want to do.

That being said, and going back to Gordon’s point about death, one of the things that does irritate me immensely is the senseless penalty (or lack thereof) for dying in the game. You die, you eventually end up paying 3-4 gold in repairs per death. Given that a daily quest, which you can complete in about a minute, will give you 12-18 gold, repair bills are made utterly trivial.

I remember a time, especially in vanilla WoW when dying was a bad thing, not only because of the fail factor, but also because you sank so much of your pitiful small reserves of gold into repair bills, especially on learning new boss fights that death was a dreaded concept.

In a contemporary WoW which showers you with gold at every turn, dying is effectively pressing the reset button inadvertently with no tangible cost associated.

Which I think highlights the problem with putting harsh death penalties into a game like wow: death, when it comes, is swift and brutal. Getting two-shot by trash just doesn’t give me any time to avoid the death penalty.

Consider though if you were to take your lvl 80 into Stockades or Rage Fire Chasm … and it was tweaked such that mobs would aggro at a greater range, and there would be lvl 80 loot if you completed within a short time without a death. Stack the table like that, and it’s hard to say a harsh death penalty there would be unfair.

Contrast with: flip a coin, if heads you die, you lose a piece of gear, 50% of a level, and kicked out of the game for 15 mins. Totally unfair and totally Not Fun.

So … can we please have a conversation about how a game can be designed such that death isn’t so swift, arbitrary, and brutal? Painful, yes; instagib, no.

I’ve played WoW with people who hated PvP, and people who hated everything except PvP. I’ve played with people who loved to group, and people who refused to group. I’ve played with terrible players who were enjoying themselves immensely in the easy levelling game, and with hardcore players who were well challenged by the endgame raiding. People who play ultra casual, and people who pursue the most tedious and punishing reputation grinds, etc.

There is plenty there that is “super-easy-breezy, I-heart-carebears casual,” but don’t forget this is the game which gave us the original “shiftworkers playing 24-7 or GTFO” honour grind; the unkillable C’Thun; the original Four Horsemen that the best guilds in the world banged their heads against for many weeks; the “Insane in the Membrane” feat of strength; and more recently Yogg+0 and hardmode Lich King.