Play the Fucking Game

I am so fucking sick of gamers using the word viable when they mean optimal. "Is this spec viable?" Can it complete the content? Yes? Then it's viable. What you're actually asking is whether it's the best. Whether it tops the meters. Whether some spreadsheet says you made the correct decision. And I'm just exhausted by this shit. At some point, people stopped playing games and started measuring themselves playing games. Everything needs a tier list. Everything needs a ranking. Every dungeon needs a timer. Every PvP match needs a rating. Every class needs to be compared against every other class so you can make sure you picked the mathematically correct one before you even log in. Play the fucking game. We used to play Halo and spend an entire night trying to ramp a Warthog over some stupid pile of shit. There was no achievement for it. Nobody gained rating. Nobody uploaded a parse afterward. We did it because launching a Warthog across the map was funny. That's why I'm so happy WoW Forever seems willing to leave some of this shit behind. I don't need ranked dungeons. I don't need rated PvP. I don't need the game constantly assigning a number to me so I know exactly where I sit compared to everyone else. If you want to be known as some big badass DPS player or PvPer, then go do it. Make a name for yourself. Be the guy people remember from battlegrounds. Be the healer everyone adds to their friends list. Be the tank people whisper when they need somebody good. Join a guild. Talk to people. Help somebody. Get into rivalries. Become a legend on your server because people actually know who the fuck you are. You shouldn't need a number next to your name to tell everyone you're good. That's probably what excites me most about WoW Forever. Your most powerful stat might not be DPS, gear score, rating, or whatever else people inevitably try to turn into a leaderboard. It might be charisma. And I desperately want to play an MMO where that matters again.