I am not the best player of this game... but nor am I the worst. I am medium. I dabble in all areas... I master none. I've raided, I've pvp'ed, I've collected, I've achievement-!@#$%d. Many have done these things better than I, but still... I've at least done decent at all of them.
That said... today I have finally killed an expansion's final boss within the life of that expansion. Within his first week of life no less. Something I, an average player... never did in the previous expansions.
He may have been a sissied up version of himself... but I do not care! I am thrilled and more than pleased with the LFR tool. Leave the harder versions and the fancier loot to the people who care for such things. This is all I need.
As someone who played Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3... but never any MMOs before this. This is all I've ever wanted.
This game has never been about the loot or the prestige for me. I've always just wanted to SEE the content. I want to SEE the characters. The cutscenes. The story. I want to meet them, talk to them, kill them. Whatever. Just wanted to do it. Loot was always just a means to that end for me. I wanted to see how the world of warcraft unfolded... in its entirity. FIRST hand. Without watching videos second hand on youtube, or reading about things on WoWWiki...
That said... LFR takes everything I've ever hated about raiding and makes it go poof. No more guild politics and BS. No more people yelling in vent. No practicing and grinding for months and months only to wipe and wipe and never even get to see that final boss. No more obligations. No more schedules. No more cares! I AM FREE! From here on out, I can kill EVERYTHING and owe NOTHING TO ANYONE! HOORAY!
I can finish a raid on my own time. On my own terms. I am warm and fuzzy inside.
My only complaint is that it wasn't backward compatible to the old Cataclysm raids... which I still have yet to see. A slight dissapointment... but oh well. Guess I'll have to see these later... once I've outleveled the content, just as I did so many others in the past.
But I can't tell you how excited I am that every tier of raiding moving forward into Mists of Pandaria will have this feature. I'll once again be excited for each and every patch day!
You'll note from my achievements... I didn't do one damn ounce of raiding in Cataclysm this past year... like many... I was growing tired of this game. And trying to do and see new things became more of a chore than a fun time... so my interest simply faded.
But today Blizzard, as I smote Deathwing with only minor headaches and a reasonable amount of wipes... I found myself having fun again. Well done!
There are kinks to smooth out to be sure... but I am very pleased with the LFR tool... and I will never go back to normal raiding again. The hardcore raiders have their hardcore raids... and I the average person, now have mine...
Hip Hip Hooray