Raiding is the part of gaming I’ve been asked the most
questions about. Usually it’s a very simple question, why do you do it? From
the outside looking in, it’s a strange thing. Large groups of players, meeting
a set time and place too battle through a dungeon. Sometimes spending an entire
evening achieving nothing, just for it all to reset next week. What’s the
appeal?
Well for all the time it consumes, it is the best co-op
experience you can have in gaming. Taking on the most difficult content the
game can throw at you, and beating it with a group of friends is epic. Every player in the team has a role to play.
Be it simply damaging the boss, or keeping its attention with taunts and taking
the heavy blows. It all counts, but a few mistakes can lead to disaster. No
individual can make a difference to success. You have to play as a team,
sharing victory and defeat.
But surely you’re just fighting an AI, what’s so difficult
about that? Well the best raiding content adds new game mechanics. This makes
each boss fight feel unique whilst providing extra challenge. Using WoW as an
example: I’ve flown dragons, driven steam powered siege vehicles, invaded volcanic
lairs, battled on airships and list could go on. All whilst prodding ginormous
bosses with a pointy stick, which by rights should just squash you. Each mechanic
adds its own twist, which keeps the game feeling fresh and provides new
challenges.
The best boss battles are designed around overlapping abilities.
They are carefully controlled to avoid unfair scenarios. But the added element
of randomness keeps you on your toes. Pushing your reactions to their limits;
creating some tense gameplay that can last a good ten minutes or longer on big
final bosses.
The only problem with raiding is the human element. No not
the part where you sacrifice your evenings. Despite popular belief, MMOs are
highly social games. Games are played by a wide variety of nationalities, and
being on a European server lets you meet a large mixture of people. However
raiding requires a large group of players on a regular basis, which creates a
logistic nightmare. Some poor soul always has the task of managing spread
sheets. Keeping track of who’s done what, when people are available, and most
importantly who gets the shiny loot.
And it’s not easy. You’d think a group of adults could all
play a game together, but make one error and you have a world of drama. The simple
act of handing out loot from a boss can spark a silly disagreement. Watching
grown men argue over an entirely fictional object is embarrassing. But the lure of the best gear in the game is
part of the hook of raiding.
If you can spare the time for raiding it provides incredible
and memorable moments. Finding the right group of people to play with is
important. In doing so you can find yourself making some enduring friendships, but
only if you can afford the time. It would be interesting to see large scale PvE
content in games outside of MMOs. Not an easy design concept to translate to
other games. At the moment it looks like raiding will only existing as long as
MMORPGs are popular, which is a shame.
