Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pike's quote of the Rifleman's Creed

Pike has quoted the Rifleman's Creed, which is apparently an element of the philosophy of the Marines. What little I read about them once suggested to me that nothing incites their anger more greatly than the appropriation of any element of their identity by anyone who is not among their own number, and quite justifiably so. I therefore will not join her myself in quoting that here.

However, what I will say is that I believe that, particularly as WoW loses integrity and cohesion to an increasingly greater degree, dedication to, and the practice of, the core principles of patience, delayed gratification, economy, redundancy, and simplicity, are vital in at least my own individual success with, and full appreciation of the Hunter class within WoW. They've enabled me to continue to play the game when others have found things increasingly frustrating due to the threat generation nerfs, as one example.

There is a sense, as I have tried to impress upon Rilgon I think, that ultimately, the gimmickry and various exploits which Blizzard have tried to introduce with other classes and specs are entirely hollow and meaningless.

If the practice of lucid, deliberate initial preparation, and then (with contextually specific adaptations, of course) a calm stance of stand and fire are followed, the size, power, and other characteristics of the individual enemy become entirely irrelevant. The end result of victory becomes consistent, repeatable, and largely predictable each time.

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