Post by chirality on Jun 18, 2020 0:47:49 GMT
When I was playing HC, I was inspired to play more because I wanted to move up on the list.
Yeah. We know. There's hardly a need to explain, in a thread literally about a top score list, that a top score list was your primary motivation for playing hardcore mode.
The disconnect is jarring. I don't enjoy channeling or creating negative emotions, contrary to popular belief, but it's almost as if you want me to go here...so I will.
You know, when you get accused of ego-stroking, probably the worst thing you can do for your case is to respond with anecdotes of past ego-stsroking. On top of that, the anecdote in question displays a time when ego-stroking brought quite an unnecessary amount of stress, work, hassle, and grief to not just the hardcore community at the time, but the game and developers in general. The direct result of a desire to "win" hardcore mode, was a devaluation of hardcore mode itself, the accomplishments of past players, and the hardcore list as a prestige metric.
In fact, there was so much "inspiration" going on that it actually resulted in cheating to the point of forcing the dev team to waste precious zots (at a critical time in the server's career, I may add, but let's not sidetrack) to prevent the exploitation of various hardcoded rules, accepted norms, and common-sense etiquette that comprised the definition of hardcore mode. The direct consequence of gaming the system (to "beat" hc mode) was an enormous bag of bullshit that splattered smelly residue across the entire server. Just this week we had new player #3456486 post about gold loss from bartering, just one example of completely ridiculous anti-exploit that was primarily, or at least in part, created to combat the despicable xfer exploits used by some players in their insatiable quest to "conquer" hardcore mode and appear on the only list in the game.
Thanks to an onslaught of exploitation which spat in the face of hardcore mode (made up for, so it seems, in the minds of some players, by the "progress" created along the way), not only did hardcore mode finally and completely become a joke, but the entire playerbase suffered. Players and devs (both of whom had far better things to do, believe it or not--like enjoy their own game) collectively paid the consequence of actions motivated by a desire to top a list (and not just the hardcore list--the Conqueror of HG list--of which conquering hardcore mode was merely the final trophy).
Using normal mode toons to do everything from clear maps, to anchor, to give gold, even complete entire runs, there was hardly an exploit left untested, hardly a rule left unchallenged. No stone was left unturned in the quest for hardcore supremacy, and I would similarly expect no stone to be left unturned in a quest for normal mode supremacy either (especially given the "higher stakes" and "competition" in a "bigger pond").
I don't think I need to delve much deeper into this subject matter, and I would highly recommend you to just drop it. Suffice to say that you failed to not only take my previous post at face value, but you also failed to take the out I subtly offered, by easing up on the ego-stroking and choosing to graciously accept a compromise focused on "data" and "value", which was the supposed basis for having a
I know of others who have had similar experiences.
Well, I'm sure they're waiting with bated breath to chime in with their support, once they've been given permission to post.
I'm sure any of them could put me in my place about hardcore mode and ego-stroking and BS. Let's hear it?
No, really, I bid all supporters to come and defend the basis of this thread and the history of hardcore mode used as a counterpoint to me saying (in essence): "prestige list is something that we collectively don't care about".
Not sure how else to deliver the message other than "maintain your own list for your own satisfaction"; this is literally starting to resemble Conqueror of HG:2020 edition.
If I wanted to be a dick, I could add that some forum posters would be against any sort of lists because they are not players.
Well, thanks for not being a dick, that was generous of you.
I'm not sure of which forum posters you refer, since you didn't specify. Speaking as a forum poster that is not a player, however, I would respond that I am only against a "prestige list" as presented. I don't think it's necessary to say more, but for the sake of the discussion, I can quickly come up with some ideas for lists that I'd fully support (notice "Number of Toons per Player With XP Over 125 Million is conspicuously absent):
-Number of Accounts per Player
-Number of Canos per Account
-Number of XR Subs per Account
-Number of XR Weapons per Account
-Number of XR Books per Account
-Number of L80s per Account
-Number of L80s per Player
-Number of L80 XRs per Account
-Number of L80 XRs per Player
-Number of Limbo P2 Hardmode Wins per Account
-Number of Limbo P2 Hardmode Wins per Player
-Gold (total) per Account
-Gold (total) per Player
-XP (total) per Account
-XP (total) per Player
Actually, you could volunteer to start the list. Care to share this valuable data? I think we could get a good sense of current trends based on your statistics. Let's compare it with other posters' amassed prestige and see who's #1? Heck, this thread could be The Prestige List, starting with the very next post.