Example of How Failing to Uphold Meritocracy Ruined WoW

World of Warcraft for example had this principle ironed out in the first few expansions. Even an average player could reach final level and see most of the game. However, if you wanted more, then you had to do dungeons and then raids. Best item rewards were reserved to those who could beat raids. Desire to obtain these best-in-game items is what motivated people to do raids in the first place. They looked the best and had best stats. Wielding them showed yourself and everyone that you are the best. A just reward for great effort. They looked best in the league, otherwise why grind some tough raid boss for an item that looks like shit.

However eventually Blizzard began to experiment with dodgy looks for items. That eventually created demand for trans-mog so that one can have actually powerfully looking items on them. Then they implemented stats and level squishing, which felt like taking away the progress, people put a lot of effort to get. Finally, they decided to make levels of monsters' scale with your own. Now no matter how much you level, you cannot start smashing old monsters like flies. Sure, few people spent a lot of their time in low level zones to stroke their ego by killing grey mobs, but the very fact that you could always do that was one of the reasons people were leveling their characters.

People hate "modern WoW" precisely because it fell into Mario Wonder logic. You no longer get to stand on top of the world with godlike powers after you killed the strongest people in the universe.

Arthas and Illidan were the strongest out there. Other characters, unable to beat them themselves, humbly asked you to save them from these two. Once you achieved that, you can feel that you are the strongest person in WoW. Also, you get to wield Twin Blades of Azzinouth too. Finally, you can feel that you did a good thing and once again saved your fraction and race from being utterly exterminated by Illidari or the Scourge. The only reason Stormwind does not look like Strathholme is because you did the Ice Crown Citadel Raid and killed Arthas. You were the savior, most NPCs worshiped. 

That changed since Mists of Pandaria. Now game treats you as nothing more than a scrub to run errands for some big shots. There are still raids but beating them no longer gives you the same power feel as before. Raid bosses are no longer threat to Azeroth existence, they are just some outcasts your bosses want you to get rid of since they cannot be bothered themselves.

One of the reasons to play video games is to feel having unlimited power. One does not want to be a gofer for others. One wants to stand above others like a boss or champion. A least I want to stand above others. That is why people hate games that treat them as errand boy.

Meritocracy in Games and in Real Life

 

Watching this video about difficulty level in Mario games got me thinking about principle of meritocracy. It is alright if you make variable difficulty in video games to make it engaging for different players. However, there is a fine line to cross into absurdity. One thing is when better players get to experience more of the game as well as get extra bonuses as a reward for their ability to beat harder parts. The other is if you start rewarding poor players with bonuses, while keep making game increasingly difficult for good players. The former will indeed work, however the latter will remove all motivation to do any hard things at all.

People are fundamentally selfish and greedy.

If being loser gives rewards and excelling at things only increases the challenges one has to face, then why excel at anything in the first place, in game or in real life. One reason communism fail is because it's failed to incentivize people with material rewards for excelling at things. 

As much as some might think that superyachts and all-inclusive 5-star resorts are wasteful, and people do not need them. Reality is that it is these things that encourage people to do better at things and excel. People will not work hard for community or any such abstract things, people will only work hard for something they want for themselves. If you fail to incentivize them with selfish material gains, they will not work.

s.CRY.ed Review

Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - Overall great show, with only a few flaws.

I recommend watching.

This show is from the same director, who also did Code Geass, Infinite Ryvius and Planetes. 

Just like Code Geass it has two contrasting main characters who often fight each other. They too eventually join forces to fight against common enemy. 

However, similarities end there: Ryuho is neither Lelouch, nor Suzaku. So is Kazuma. Lelouch and Suzaku had deep and profound ideological and worldview differences between them. Code Geass went to great length to outline them. 

In contrast Ryuho and Kazuma have a lot more in common with each other compared to Code Geass leads. Other than the fact that Kazuma is wild, and emotion driven while Ryuho is calm and collected, the two can agree on many other things. They both believe in autonomy for Lost Grounds and want people there to prosper. Their differences are mostly emotional and not conviction based.

Nonetheless both of them make for rather great leads. There are occasional cliches about strength and such, but overall, they are much better than many other protagonists. They are stars of the show, and most people around them admire them.

The rest of the cast is mostly likable as well. I made a separate article about girls of this show. However male cast is likable as well. Straight Cougar starts out as clueless show-off with obsession with speed but ends up being voice of wisdom who guides the rest of the cast to victory. Kimishima is a friendly sidekick. Martin Zigmarl wise in his own way. Mujo Kyoji makes for an interesting real antagonist. Tachibana, Urizane, Elian, Unkei and Kigetsuki are interesting in their own way.

A nice touch is to make episodic characters who seem long gone to suddenly return to the show. Ayame, Hammer guy and Tachibana's girlfriends are great examples of that.

Alter power is often random and more of a show than logic, but despite that many battles are interesting and creative.

The overreaching pollical drama around politics of the Lost Ground is not as detailed as in Code Geass or Infinite Ryvius, but well written. Its cohesive and logical enough to be believable and engaging.

The few flaws are somewhat excessive use of simple rustic wooden homes, ruins and scarcity. Show showcases struggling people too vividly. Rubs in the wrong way in these austerity times. I am not a fan of simple things or poverty. 

Another is shonen cliché about strength and 'conviction to fight and get stronger'. Here it is not as bad as in some AoT or Demon Slayer, where dumb protagonist will do anything. At times narrative even present a compelling message about reaching out greatness and excellence, just to get back to fighting for fighting sake. 

After all man indeed wants to stand above others and be admired by everyone. And its women role to admire, worship and serve man.

Overall, this is a good show that I can truly recommend for everyone to watch.

Aldnoah.Zero 2 Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Somewhat weaker sequel to original Aldnoah.Zero

I still recommend watching.

After rather dramatic end of the original where everyone is basically killed in a very dramatic way in the last episode, sequel would be hard to achieve. So, for plot convenience they all miraculously survived. 

However, that leaves too many inconsistencies with the role these characters. The story basically reached its conclusion too, plot with Seylum assassination is exposed and Count Saalzbaum is killed. Here Saalzbaum is alive, and Slane somehow became his loyal follower. 

Change in Slane is most regrettable and hard to explain. In the original he mostly tried to survive the whole mess. he accidently stumbled upon the plot to kill Seylum and wanted to save her because she was kind of his protector from xenophobia of Vers. Here he Saalzbaum and Lemurina instead work together to carry on the conquest. 

I guess they chose this path in order to continue Inaho vs Slane rivalry. However, the two do not have much time to fight each other. In fact, here story focuses more on court intrigue and maneuvering then on battles.

Somewhere in the middle they decided to make Slane into ambitious rank climber, to knife his way to power as he wages war against the Earth. However, then they change their mind and instead made him surrender just because Seylum regain consciousness and called the war to an end. A truly pathetic ending that lowered the score.

I would have likely given it 7.4 if Slayne Saalzbaum Vers Allusia Troyaird choose to ignore real Seylum and instead continued his conquest to the end with fake Seylum, played by Lemurina. That would have been good ending.

I did not like Lemurina at first, but later started to see her devotion to the cause. She would work for Slane and continue to disguise herself as Seylum to make his plans succeed, despite he clearly prefers Seylum over her. She is hopelessly devoted to Slayne.

Overall, it is not as good as the original, but decent enough. It does have interesting psychologically deep scenes here and there. It has rather capable authors that might have managed something better under different circumstances.

Still this overreaching narrative of sacrificing everything for some women, that screenwriters here like does irks me.

To Heart 2 OVA Review

Overall Rating 5.3 out of 10 - It majorly betrays your expectations compare to original.

I can only somewhat recommend middle episode alone.

Unfortunately, this OVA is not faithful to the original at all. It has three episodes in total.

First is about robot maid. I had high hopes for it, it mostly was about Tamaki's violence against Yuuji

Second was relatively better. Finally, mostly the best of the original cast and on the beach with swimsuits. Here however it still feels that new studio got characters wrong. They all are much less modest and humble compared to the original.

Final episode is about new Mary Sue type addition to the cast. Girl by herself is not too bad, but it was rather unpleasant how they wanted to trump up her credentials at expense of Manaka and the others.

Overall, there is clearly a different vibe to this show compared to the original. Original was much cozier, kinder and warmer. In episodes with its better characters, it managed to create a good atmosphere in which one can feel comfortable to interact with a girl. Here things are too chaotic and harsh to enjoy it. 

Girls are supposed to be soft, cozy and comfortable if I am to like them. This OVA fails to realize this fact.

So, I cannot recommend it, with exception of possibly middle episode on the beach.

Hopelessly Devoted to You by Olivia Newton-John

 

I like this song. I like girls just like her who are hopelessly devoted to me. Narcissism or whatever, but I am selfish enough, so I want girls to be devoted to me. That was the relationship will be about me and what I want.

Olivia Newton-John is also Libra so she probably knows well what I like and can deliver it. I wonder is she is a typical Libra girl. I like her other songs, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's a folk song, but she sings it as well.

.hack//Liminality Review

Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - It has some good ideas, but overall narrative is lacking.

I can recommend watching for those who are familiar with symbolism and literary fiction.

By episode 3 I figured out what Ryukishi07 was doing before Higurashi and Umineko. The style of narrative with its riddles is very similar to Umineko. That is episode 3 in particular and not the whole show, so credit goes to Hiroshi Morioka - Wikipedia

First couple of episodes were somewhat lacking. 3rd episode reminded me of Umineko with its riddles and investigations. Unlike the others it was more about expositions of ideas, by characters of the story. However, by itself it can only be taken as a prototype of what later came in Umineko.

Show overall gives a very mixed impression. I later found out that is because each episode had a different director. That does show. First episode nothing more than typical drama with cliche for the series story about someone falling into coma after playing The World. Second is some survivalist chaos, it's not really stupid, but leaves bad aftertaste. Third is the best one overall, sure characters are merely used to expose various philosophical ideas, but it works. It's like Planetes anime in that regard, but heavily condensed. However, style of presentation is much closer to Umineko than to Planetes. Final episodes somewhat connect all 3 characters together for their final mission of saving Sieg.

Overall show touches existentialist topics. Characters do admit that they do it because they find it fun. Seeking risky adventures are not my thing, but here characters talk about it in the words, I can understand.

Overall, a complex show, that is best watch if you have some experience and interest in literary fiction. Otherwise you will miss the point.