My Life as a Gamer: Raiding is Bowling Night for Gamers

I took my main character in World of Warcraft on a pick-up group's raid, lead by a Twitch streamer that I am a moderator for, of the new (and final for Legion) raid: Antorus, The Burning Throne. We ran it on Normal Difficulty, and about three hours later we cleared it. We didn't run into raid-wiping issues until the final two bosses, but nonetheless we got it done and cleared the raid. (Heroic wasn't so good; got the first boss down, gave up after a few wipes on the Hounds due to fatigue.)

I expect that I'll clear Antorus on Heroic well before its sell-by date of relevance hits, and enjoy the Heroic (Mythic too, but I don't raid Mythic) reward of a purple bird mount that flies. (Remember the special moose mount from Hellfire Citadel? Same idea.) In the meanwhile, a few more clears of Normal should get my main geared enough to make Heroic my difficulty of choice to do thereafter.

The reason? Instead of beating my head against a wall three nights a week, I do it with a bunch of goofs on a Friday night while yakking it up all beer-and-pretzels style instead of Serious Business. If you're not Method, or one of the handful of other raid teams that eat their dust, going all Serious Business isn't worthwhile. One night, clearing it, is fine. This is a game played for fun, just like neighborhood bowling leagues are, and not Professional Bowling's MMORPG counterpart.

If want a second job, I'll go get one; so long as I read the Dungeon Guide, follow the raid leader, and use the proper consumables I should be able to clear Normal weekly this fast and eventually do the same for Heroic. (Mythic is Serious Business, so let them poopsock it.) In short, if you want Serious Business then cut me a fucking check for $50K+benefits a year and don't bitch at me for taking two weeks off a year.

That's the difference between bitchwork and challenge. I'm plenty capable of handling the raid, subject to technical limits, but I despise the bitchwork that is still too-often considered (falsely) necessary. I don't need to spend endless hours reading or viewing boss guides when all I need to know is what I hit, what to avoid, and otherwise listen for the Raid Leader or Main Assist to call out what I need to do. The rest is all in having my consumables on hand, my macros on my bars, and my gear properly gemmed and enchanted.

Raiding is bowling. Not Serious Business. If you can't do this while having a cold one with the boys and eating some nachos, you're doing it wrong.