Encyclopedia Gevlon And The Case of the Broken Gamer

I was hoping to avoid commenting on the whole RMT for pets imbroglio but I just can't resist responding to Gevlon. Gevlon declared today that he has only a single mount and explained, in true Gevlonion fashion, why this makes him a better person than everyone else :

Did I ever missed some other mounts than my wolf and flight form? Never. Did I ever missed a minipet? Actually I barely call upon any of my existing ones. Let's face it, they are completely pointless.
...
people want to own these things because they believe that the Joneses doesn't have them yet, or even worse, they already have one and will look down on us if we can't keep up.

If you're like me, you wonder why Gevlon is wasting his time writing a WoW blog when he could be making the big bucks with his powerful psychic abilities. Maybe he's also telekinetic and blogging is the only thing that keeps him from going all Carrie on us.

I kid, but Gevlon's frequent resorts to ad hominem is more than a little tiring -- you wonder why other bloggers can tolerate him when he never argues in good faith.

But mostly I wanted to point out they irony of Gevlon saying all these things. In the world according to Gevlon, people who collect in-game pets are only trying to impress others. People who are social in the game are "those who want acceptance, connection, love-and-be-loved stuff" and "lack any useful skills". Hardcore players, on the other hand, are just looking for a "sense of superiority".

Evidently everyone that plays WoW, from pet collectors to casual players to the hardcore are all broken. They are playing the game for the wrong reasons. In fact, everybody is broken but Gevlon.

These people have something in common though. The people who collect pets in the game, or play socially with a guild, or play casually with friends, or are hardcore raiders, they area all alike in a way -- they are playing something Blizzard gave them to play. Blizzard put pets in the game so people could collect them. Blizzard put easy dungeons in the game for casual players to play through, and difficult raids to challenge the hardcore players. So despite what Gevlon thinks of these people, Blizzard is clearly catering to these people, and has been supporting a game for them for five years. When these people achieve their goals they are given something in the game -- i.e. the game was made for them to play.

I feel like I'm leaving a playstyle out though. I'm missing something. Oh yeah : I know. What about the guy who is so obsessed with making money in WoW that he doesn't stop until he hits the gold cap, which is about twenty times more money than he would ever need? Who is it, that even though he poo-poo's about every reason for spending money in WoW, still has as much as any player in the game? Who not only insists on making money and not spending it, but is rewarded in no way by WoW for his 'feat'? A guy who is truly playing the wrong game?

Oh yeah, I know a guy like that.



Say hi, Gevlon!