Earlier this month, when some World of Warcraft players were protesting massive nerfs to specific classes, MOP reader Sloth explained the problem superbly: The issue isn’t the nerfs as much as it is how those nerfs affect the people stuck in WoW’s toxic meta culture.
“I was kicked from a heroic raid guild for having the audacity to play frost mage instead of fire, which was the top pick at the time,” Sloth wrote. “It didn’t matter that I was consistently at the top of the meter; my playstyle was not flavor of the month. WoW players are hyperfixated on numbers and perception on ‘how good’ something is. Anyone playing a build that isn’t FOTM is probably fearful of a change like this affecting their ability to have fun in harder content.”
For this week’s Massively Overthinking, I want to talk about The Meta in our writers’ and readers’ MMOs of choice. Does your MMO have a similarly toxic culture when it comes to flavor-of-the-month classes and groups? Have you ever been booted from an MMORPG group because your class wasn’t the meta – or have you seen others passed over because of it? Do you pick your classes with this endgame issue in mind? How much of a problem is this in modern MMOs – or is WoW uniquely bad, and if so, why?
Ben Griggs (@braxwolf): In World of Warships, it’s kind of flipped on it’s head a little bit. Usually when someone is asking about a meta build for a ship, it’s because they’re not very good and trying to get better. The best players in the game are out there looking for sub-optimal meme builds. They’re wanting the additional challenge of being able to succeed, or even excel, in a build that others would consider stupid.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): The two MMOs where I can say I’ve seen at least a little of the toxic meta stuff this past year are City of Heroes and Guild Wars 2. For Guild Wars 2, it doesn’t really affect me since I stick to open world content anyway, but anyone can go to the build websites and quickly figure out which elite specs have no traction with the hardcores and why. Are people are as toxic about it as in WoW? Not that I’ve seen, but it’s certainly present. (I saw two dudes in chat fighting over Revenant specs literally today as I type this.)
Likewise, City of Heroes has a fairly small and nontoxic community, but it’s been abundantly clear to me over the last few years that the player devs have tipped the meta very far away from the original balance where control, defense, and debuffing mattered, which isn’t doing the community, fight design, or a significant chunk of builds any favors, not when entire archetypes have no endgame role anymore and all anyone cares about is doing damage faster and faster. I’ve seen some disheartening stuff on the forums and in-game about this, and it’s one of the reasons my playtime dwindled after I played so much earlier this year.
It’s bad enough when it’s coming top-down from the devs, but it sucks more when the game’s playerbase absorbs these bad ideas and makes them part of the community’s unspoken ruleset. Guys, there’s just very little content in the entire MMORPG genre that justifies this kind of hyperfixation on The Meta to the point of being little shits to fellow players. Stoppit.
All that said, I can’t honestly remember a time when I’ve personally been booted for not having the “right” class or spec. (I did experience explicit sexism when grouping, however, in the earliest days of MMOs; there was absolutely an era when raiders were extremely shitty about female main tanks.) But I don’t select my classes with an eye toward being picked for kickball. Call it a product of playing MMORPGs for a long time, but I know from experience today’s FOTM will be tomorrow’s trash and vice versa. If your class is at the bottom, give it a few months. MMO devs can’t resist picking at balance, ever. Just ask fire brutes and radiation fenders how their reigns went.
Carlo Lacsina (@UltraMudkipEX, YouTube, Twitch): I’m pretty sure Throne and Liberty has plenty of those “toxic” builds.
I don’t know, I have trouble buying into the idea that there’s something inherently toxic about following the meta for raids. Folks in high-end raid guilds had to sacrifice something in order to have the privilege to do these raids. If they’re happy to make the trade-off, then let them do it. MMO devs are inclined to give them content because those madmen are dedicating a massive amount of time, energy, and maybe even money to be in their game. Guild rosters for these raiding guilds are limited and coveted. It’s not going to be hard for guild leadership to replace members who aren’t willing or unable to meet their expectations.
I’ve been kicked out if BDO guilds because I haven’t been able to pull my weight. Do I think they’re toxic for that? HELL NAW. As I said before, the guild had a clear goal: to be on top, and I was holding them back. I was also starting to stress out over it, and I wasn’t willing to trade my relationships and work for a guild.
You know what does grind my gears? Guilds with no direction demanding people play the meta for some arbitrary reason. At the core of it, guilds with clear visions and missions will make forcing meta a more understandable ask. Oh, and people who demand meta in a dungeon finder PUG are dumb.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): The MMORPGs that have pretty hard requirements of class builds and are lorded over by meta-sniffing wall builders are the ones that are not installed on my drive. Of course, that’s not to suggest that the games I do play don’t have that sort of behavior – God help me if I ever want to try to learn any of the higher-tier raids in Final Fantasy XIV – but if there are systems that encourage or reward this kind of behavior, then I don’t engage with the game.
I’m here for my enjoyment and to do what I can to help my team in my way, and if that gets in your craw, then I’ll gladly part company with your salty dumb ass.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): The happiest I became with MMOs was when I stopped letting the game and community dictate how and when I should play. There needs to be a lot of diversity to keep things fresh and interesting and appealing to the widest possible base. So I don’t care if my builds are optimal or now — they probably aren’t — but I do care if they appeal to my playstyle and are personally exciting.
Honestly, because I no longer pay that much attention to the meta to guide my gaming, I no longer pay attention to the meta in others. I don’t care what the top 5% is doing in world-first raiding guilds. But I don’t think it’s just a WoW problem when every MMO with a heavy endgame does cultivate metas.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I haven’t experienced it much in raids, but in PvP it can be brutal. When a team composition is expected and players are not adhering to the comp, it gets really ugly.
Granted, I’ve always been a contrarian. It’s probably not something to admit openly, but I am. And when it comes to my builds, I’ve always tried to come up with something useful myself, meta be damned! Not that I won’t go meta if it’s really that great, but I just enjoy experimenting and constantly tweaking.
So yes, I’ve been booted for not playing meta. I think a lot of games try to prevent this kind of griefing, so I’ve likely more often encountered players just ragequitting or leaving the team themselves. And the amount of vitriol some PvPers can spew is nasty.
Tyler Edwards (blog): That sort of mentality is definitely more intense in WoW, but I’ve seen it in pretty much all the MMOs I’ve played to one degree or another. I find it’s best to just ignore it. Nine times out of ten that level of optimization isn’t necessary and the people insisting on it aren’t worth playing with.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
