Raiding is nothing new to MMO gaming, it has existed in some form or another since the advent of the genre. But what was once a niche crowd inside of a niche market is now almost the accepted norm. Many WoW addons have been created to assist end game players in making the content more manageable, but was this ever the developer’s intent? Did they envision a behind the scenes data analyzer warning and flashing at players when something bad was about to happen? All that many of these mods are short is some form of GPS and auto pilot and they could play the game for you.
Prior to WoW most end game content in the few MMO games that offered it was done on a larger scale, more players versus larger content at a much slower pace. EverQuest was a prime example;, early raid content allowed for 72 players in a single raid in a non instanced environment. Most encounters were considerably lengthier than today’s standards and combat was meticulously planned with a pace that bordered on plodding. There really existed very little need for a high rate of data collection and extrapolation on the fly, most of the challenge here was winning a war of attrition (The first five years worth of raid content consisted of no potions or consumables of great value). Resource management and the ability to off tank randomly spawning adds were the main dilemmas faced back then.
WoW certainly upped the ante in the sheer amount of number crunching in a raid setting. The pace of this game is frenetic compared to most of its predecessors and most players struggle to keep up with it even with the additional help of the game enhancements. But where do we draw the line on helpful assistance and outright hand holding?
Raid Warnings
Raid Warning mods do just that, giving you a warning about important events or abilities
Modifications such as Deadly Boss Mods or BigWigs serve many purposes - they allow fast dissemination of information to a group or raid in a uniform manner which prompts players to action.I personally don’t feel that these addons are a cheat as they don’t act on the information, they simply relay it to you in an easy to understand format (i.e. a very loud beep followed by a voiceover or a flashing screen advising you to run like the wind). Many players repeatedly die to the same effects and abilities on attempt after attempt of the same content even with these aides. File these types of mods under the “useful tools” section.
Rotation Managers
A mod horse of an entirely different color is the rotation manager. While this style of mod, like the aforementioned raid warnings, doesn’t push the buttons for you, it certainly comes close.
Rotation mods advise a player which ability to use next. Turning WoW into whack-a-mole
FeralByNight and ShockAndAwe are two prime examples of a rotation manager. These mods monitor your cooldowns and use combat text scans to determine what the next spell or ability you should next trigger during combat. While these mods could be helpful to teach a new player the best rotation and help them identify patterns, they turn most players who use them into glorified whack a mole players reacting to an icon on the screen. I don’t think turning raiding into a glorified version of memory was what was intended at the onset of design, my kindergartener could easily match the box on the screen to the button on the bottom and that shouldn’t make her a bona-fide raider. Categorize this style of game enhancement as a borderline cheat.
Combat Meters
Combat meters are both the lifeblood and the bane of raid leaders. A highly useful tool for parsing your raids effectiveness as well as a means to determine individual strengths and weaknesses, combat meters often turn into nothing more than a massive scoreboard for nerd egos. While the desire to excel and be the best we can be is commendable and should be strove for, that same passion often creates careless mistakes as players put on their damage dealer blinders and forget to take notice of the game going on around them. Often times I wish this mod only worked for the raid leader and he or she could choose to share it as they see fit. One of the down sides of faster paced combat is the loss of the ability to judge individual performance in real time. Label these mods, sadly, as a necessary evil.
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