Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Cuz, You Know, It's a RARE Epic



Here is John Big Booté talking to the dude in the middle of nowhere in Winterspring. This guy is THE guy you have to go to get the quests that let you grind the rep. from neutral to exalted with the faction that will let you buy ... are you still with me ... the epic purple striped tiger you see in the photo, which you can then use as your epic mount. And, this is a long and boring grind.

Which brings me to the question, why do we do this stuff? Well not all of us do. And some of us do it in other ways for other objects whose scarcity or rarity marks us as special... or nerdy. The first answer most people will give you, and perhaps their only answer, is that it's "cool." That is, the object is sufficiently desirable in itself to motivate the time commitment. The second answer is about differentiation. This is a game of mass customization. Yeah, you can customize your toon, from this limited set of choices. We've all stood around talking to the wrong n'elf because it looked like our friend who was just standing here... Night elves all look alike to me. Heh heh. But going for a rare epic sets you apart. There is one guy, one guy, on the server who is riding the golden phoenix mount. It's a very very very rare drop. He got it. Now he spends a lot of time in Shattrath hovering on his epic mount in front of the very busy thoroughfare between the Scyers bank and the FP. Why? Cause he's special now and he wants to enjoy that specialness.

So... yeah I'm grinding for a purple mount. What makes this especially nerderrific is that the distinguishing characteristics are fairly subtle. It can look like yet another one of those tiger n'elf mounts. Only those who have tried to grind will know. Some more observant people might ask, "hey, where do you get the purple one?" thinking they have missed an option. Then I get to say, "oh, it's a rep grind out in Winterspring." And thus I display my überosity.