Argent Coliseum

If Warcraft Sues is any indication, a lot of people running around on role-playing servers like mine are there for shameless attention gathering and “mature” role-playing. Prime examples are this, this and dear God, this monstrosity. This could just be me, but I think that the role-playing bit of a role-playing game should be more than that; one’s role-play should inform their decisions in game and vice versa. Case in point: the Argent Tournament dailies and my hunter, Gilrandur.

Gil’s a straight-forward sort of person. He’s loyal to his blood elf heritage but doesn’t have much tolerance for pretentious bullshit from either side of the Horde/Alliance conflict. He’s just as disgusted with the upturning of most other blood elf noses at everybody not as pretty as they are, as he is with human King Varian Wrynn’s racism and dickish attitude. It’s not even the funny, reasoned dickishness of Gregory House, it’s the kind of dick behavior that drags an orc out back by their topknot for a good curbstomping.

Anyway, Gilrandur wants to make sure that when he goes forth to combat the threats to Azeroth, he does so as a representative of the entire Horde, not just the ones with fabulous hair. The Argent Tournament has presented him a fantastic opportunity to prove his desire, by competing for the right to represent every Horde race as a champion. This is a daunting task, requiring a great deal of work and forging his jousting skills in the rings of honor.

In real-life game terms, this means doing dailies. A lot of them.

I know some people consider daily quests a massive waste of time. When gear drops for no cost other than time and the occasional repair bill, the need for stacks of gold seems superfluous. The high-cost optional extras such as the skill Artisan Riding that opens up one to even faster flying mounts might also seem unnecessary. Flight routes from one settlement to another are already pretty rapid, cost a lot less, and get you where you need to go for most things unrelated to daily quests, meaning that faster flying mounts only let you do daily quests more quickly. Better land mounts, vanity pets, materials for powerleveling an alt character’s professions – all of these things require the cash that comes from dailies, and if you don’t need or want them, you won’t do dailies.

I’m not disputing these points. In fact, I don’t want to turn this post into an endorsement of daily questing. If you don’t have fun doing dailies, don’t do them. It’s your money you’re paying to play, after all, and nobody’s going to force you to do dailies, stay in a guild you don’t like, or keep playing a class you’ve come to loathe. The point I want to make, however, is that working on dailies inches me closer to several personal goals.

I do, in fact, want the improved flying mounts, because they’re fantastic to look at in some cases and appropriate for my character. Out of game, my thoughts on achievements have been documented, while in game, Gilrandur earns titles and accolades that coincide with his goal to represent a united Horde rather than a disparate one. Meeting NPCs on the field of honor not only gives Gil stories to tell, provided the human mind behind him can flesh out something as repetitive as a daily quest. This fleshes out his character and gives him more depth, more than can be conveyed in a pithy description dumped into the saved variables of an add-on by any one of the innumerable crowd of Mary Sues stinking up my server. Finally, jousting Alliance toons wets my whistle for returning to the PvP content in Arenas.

I’m aware of the fact that daily quests may not be the most efficient way to spend one’s time in Azeroth. But it does feel more productive than standing around Silvermoon looking for someone with whom to have a wank.