Well, turned out that the road to 60 wasn’t that hard, but could be terribly annoying. A couple of days when I tried to quest solo in my 50’s I ended up logging out completely angry at the groups of Alliances enjoying a cheap shot. However, the group instances (Uldaman, Zul’Farrak, Maraudon and Sunken Temple) allowed me to play with other people in a gank-free environment.

So at 60 now, free to run any high-level instances with the friends, the shadow of repetition and eventual boredom looms in the horizon, but until that happens, it is more fun than ever. Now, the jump from 5-man groups, 10- and 15-man raids, to Molten Core 40-man raids, must be huge. I can’t imagine the chaos, but we are hoping to give it a try this weekend.

The guild has expanded a lot in order to reach a critical mass of level 60 players that allows regular Molten Core runs. With that expansion has come a whole array of issues that I had heard about related to Everquest: players logging out in anger because they didn’t get the item they wanted, loot point systems like DKP, rules governing the use of alts, attempts at forcing specific talent trees in order to participate… It really is a weird dynamic when you see players switch attention, from playing for fun with friends, to obsession with items and statistics. The trend is terribly destructive in my opinion, but it seems inevitable. As an example, the guild hasn’t yet attempted a Molten Core raid, but there are arguments already about who should be allowed to go and who is not a "team player" because his only focus isn’t MC.

I remember telling a friend a few months ago that "purpose gets in the way of fun", on a completely unrelated topic, but it seems ever so true.