Disagree to Agree

There's been a lot of discussion about the Tamer dailies and using them to power level companions up to level 25. When I say "using", it's probably more accurate to say "abusing" these dailies.

It's been hotfixed, but it was possible to pick up the dailies, win the battle, abandon the quest, and then pick it up again. You could essentially keep doing this and earning a significant amount of experience for your pets, as there was no penalty for doing so. Simply swap in a low level companion to take one hit, and then finish off the battle with a higher level pet. Many players were utilizing this method to earn easy pet experience.

Since this was fixed and you can no longer do this, it's obvious that the Tamer dailies were not designed with this type of gameplay in mind. Developers never intended people to use dailies in such a manner. In the end, it's what could be called an "exploit".

Some players are relieved that this bug has been dealt with, as it was a pretty cheesy way to level up pets. But others are none too happy with the change. For the latter, leveling is a long tedious process, and the dailies trick helped ease that grind.

I can definitely empathize with those that utilized the dailies inappropriately. This isn't an activity I took part in myself, but I do understand the desire to quickly level up pets and get that goal out of the way.

If there's an efficient and fast way to do something, it's only human nature to seek it out and then make use of it to the fullest. We're simple minded creatures like that.

At the same time, I understand where those that felt it was "cheating" are coming from. Abandoning, picking up, and then abandoning quests again and again is a pretty cheap way of doing things when everyone else is going through the "proper" gameplay.

So why the clash between the two mentalities? Why not just agree to disagree and go separate ways?

Well first off, no one likes to be called a cheater lol. That in itself is something any normal person would object to, even if what they're doing is pretty much the definition of "cheating".

Secondly, this isn't something that some collectors can just let go of because of the competitive nature that collecting has taken.

Normally, in an individualistic minigame such as collecting, it wouldn't matter what your fellow player is doing. Cheating, cheesing, manipulating the system, etc. It doesn't really affect how you play, right? Someone could go about it one way, and you could go about it another. In the end, the result is the same. It's still YOUR collection and no one else's. How you attain your ultimate goal is your own concern.

But now there are Pet Battle rankings on Wowprogress, so the "how" does matter to some. How people reached the top or are climbing the ladders is important because there's a much more competitive atmosphere to pet collecting. With any competition, fairness is a factor, and if some feel as though the scales are tipped too much to one side, it's going to be called into question. It SHOULDN'T matter, but when a leaderboard and competition is involved, using a method to rise in ranks that's not condoned by developers does mean something.

While we can try to continue doing our own thing, and attempt to brush off what we now know, it does have a psychological impact on how you play. Even simply knowing that X person is above you on the meters might cause you to unconsciously step up your game. It doesn't generate the same reaction in everyone, but we're all affected by the concept of competition/rankings in some way.

Anyway, Blizzard has made the call on this one. Exploiting the Tamer dailies should no longer be possible, and everyone will have to go about the intended route to reach their goals. But this is something I'm sure some people won't forget.