All Numbers

One of the things I have trouble accepting in the game is the degree to which it's all about numbers. I was reminded of this yesterday, though, cause when Skrah bumped over the 50 mark, all of his vital stats (stamina, strength, smelliness, etc.) went up with him. It's a game of pushing buttons, and those buttons are all about increasing numbers.

Here's a quote from wowinsider.com just to demonstrate how mathy the game is:

Previous to TBC, 50 Stat Points = 50 Stamina or 50 Strength. So an item that was "worth" 50 stat points would have 50 points of a stat. Combining stats would increase the number, though, so that an item worth 50 stat points would have 34 Stamina plus 34 Strength. This way, the value of the item isn't reduced too much by spreading the stats around. Combining three stats reduced each stat even more to 26 points a piece.

I like to think it's a game of skill, a game of quickness and agility, maybe even a game of talent. But it's really a game of talent points, of calculations, and of numbers. Push the button, get some numbers. The other day, for instance, I got into a button-pushing battle with a lvl 31 ally, and no matter what that poor slop did, he couldn't get my health down. Too many numbers on my side. He pushed his buttons, I stood there, and nothing happened.

So when we quest, we quest for numbers. When we battle, we battle for numbers. And all we do, we do with numbers. I guess this adds a certain mystery to the game for those of us who aren't all that numeric, but at the same time, for the bean-counter players, the game prolly has a lot more transparency than it does for me.

p.s. (a total aside) Skrah rode a flying lion from Hammerfall over to the beach in the Hinterlands yesterday. Can you say vertigo? It's the best ride in the game, as far as I know, going straight up and then straight, straight down. Fwoosh!