Terminally Online
This is Terminally Online: PC Gamer’s very own MMO column. Every other week, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we’ve all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.
I’ve been having a pleasant time with WoW: Forever (and by that, I mean it has consumed nearly every waking moment of my life). One thing, however, has been made pretty clear: Mob tagging, that is, only giving kill credit to the first player (or group) to damage a mob, is divisive.
One side of the fence—my side, I’m afraid—does see mob tagging as a necessary evil in an MMO that’s trying to drive social interaction. Videogames, particularly ones that are incentivising you to group up, are kind of meant to be a pain in the butt sometimes; if you’ve got a “kill 20” quest and there another person there, the fact you might get in each other’s way if you don’t group up, and have a jollier time if you do, is a net good.
I have more complicated thoughts on item drop quests being bad in a group, sure. And I’d like it if Blizzard’s layering technology was a little more merciful. But, overall, I’m all for it. Nearly every single person I’ve thrown an invite to has grouped up with me, and I’ve even (gasp) had conversations with strangers. Pleasant ones!
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Some of them are even on my friends list now, and it is, I think, a point in my favour that I would have largely ignored every single person I am now regularly chatting to if mob tagging wasn’t a thing.
However, I do get the other side of the fence, in that it is absolutely a pain in the ass. Particularly in a game that’s just launched, where the playerbase is nowhere near as spread out as it needs to be. There’s a thin difference between good social banter being encouraged and “for the love of god, I just need one troll fetish, why are these mystics spread 30 feet apart, thank god I farmed my mount before I did this”.
A difference, it’s important to state, that is more often broken in a game that’s so wildly popular as Forever is right now. Mob tagging holds up when it’s you and a handful of other players in a questing environment: It’s less defensible when there’s 30 of you and it’s a “loot X” quest so grouping wouldn’t help, anyway.
So I ask you, fine readers of Terminally Online: Do you think tagging mobs is fine in an oldschool MMO, or is it an archaic thing of the past to be done away with?
If you’ve got deeper thoughts on this, let me know in the comments below!