My first glimpse of Black Temple

The first time I experienced Black Temple, I wasn't a raider; I was a tourist.

Surreality was still working on SSC and TK when the T6 attunements were patched out of the game.  Many guilds at our level of progression leapt at the opportunity to skip ahead to Mount Hyjal and Black Temple, but our ragtag group of lore junkies and obsessive completionists was determined to see Lady Vashj and Lord Kael'thas defeated before retiring Tier 5.  (Besides, I had read on the realm forum that 3/4 TK and 5/6 SSC translated from WoW into English as "we don't do anything hard," and I didn't want Surreality to be looked down upon as one of those guilds.  The "months behind" badge, on the other hand, I wore with pride.)

Even with attunements lifted, Black Temple seemed a far distant goal.  It loomed over us, both literally and figuratively: an inscrutable monolith, mysterious, seemingly impenetrable — wonderfully, awe-inspiringly epic.  I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a daily ritual, but I often found myself veering north and east from the Sanctum of the Stars, putting my one-woman crusade on behalf of the Netherwing off for just long enough to hover in the shadow of the former Temple of Karabor and dream of the day that I would slough the mud and muck of Serpentshrine Cavern off of my boots and ... crawl through the mud and the muck of Illidan's sewer.

In those days, Surreality had become something of a haven for the alts of hardcore raiders, who enjoyed our relaxed guild culture and often hung out with us outside of raid times.  (Or at least, that's what I told myself.  Maybe they saw it as the equivalent of reading to kindergartners: WoW volunteerism, as it were.)

One night, the most egregious among them — a Tier 6 shaman many of us regarded with something akin to hero worship — offered to take us on a guided tour of Black Temple, using his main guild's raid ID.

To this day, it remains some of the most fun I've ever had in-game.

First, there was the sheer awe-factor.  I was in Black Temple!  Me!  Black Temple!  Sure, it's old hat now ... but at the time, Black Temple was the domain of the elite.  The <Fires of Heaven>'s and <Forgotten Heroes>'s of the world raided Black Temple — not me!  And yet here I was, a fledgling warlock in Frozen Shadoweave and that slutty red dress from Magister's Terrace, towing my imp around like a teddy bear and gaping at the ghosts of vanquished trash mobs.

And then, there was the light-heartedness of it all.  It was so. much. fun. to be running amock in the scariest zone in the game, pretending we were raid bosses and intrepid adventurers and erstwile heroes, telling each other that this is where Gurtogg Bloodboil will be and this is where we will save Akama — or die trying — and oooo, look, are those ghosts on the ceiling?

*  *  *

I've come a long way since then, obviously, but I was reminded of this experience yesterday when responding to Light's comments on a recent (and apparently controversial) blogpost. 

"The thing I notice the most about WoW players is that they expect Blizzard to hand them everything in terms of how to make the game harder or more interesting," Light wrote. 

I replied with the now-standard counterpoint:  "The thing I notice about WoW players is that they expect Blizzard to take them on a guided tour of all the content in the game..."

... and yet, ironically, my first glimpse of what remains my favorite content was — quite literally — a guided tour!

Why then, as Juzaba asks, do I begrudge others that experience? 

I don't. 

What I regret about Blizzard's paradigm shift is the knowledge that I will never again feel the kind of awe I did upon entering Black Temple for the first time — or the third¹, because when I returned as a bona fide raider (with a jagged shard of Kael'thas's soul tucked into the pocket of my robes to prove it!), it was just as epic.  But if every challenge in the game has an easy-mode counterpart, then the truly "new" experiences will be few and far between and every hard-mode victory will feel at least a little hollow.

Surreality is currently working on the heroic Twin Valkyrs.  It's a hard, fun fight.  I'm enjoying myself, especially because I can feel us progressing.  We're learning with each new attempt.  I can't claim that every wipe is productive (some are just dumb), but most are.  The fight hasn't clicked yet, but it will — and when it does, I know I'll be happy and exhilerated and relieved, all at once.

But, still, compared to my TBC experience ...  I can't help but feel that this is methodone. 

If the new model is working for you — if you find the easy-mode/hard-mode dichotomy a perfectly acceptable, even brilliant compromise — then I'm happy for you.  Truly.  I'm not asking Blizzard to re-tune the raid content to my specifications; I'm simply expressing regret and a vague sense of loss over the end of an era.