Doolin-Dalton

 

"They were duelin', Doolin-Dalton
High or low, it was the same
Easy money and faithless women
Red-eye whiskey for the pain "

 

The Eagles

 

I was hoping not to have to revisit this topic, but here I am with another story of duelling. I am currently taking some time off from gearing up, reputation grinds, commercial farming and all the other things that I am required to do on a daily basis. Right now I just want to have some fun in the game without any pressure.

 

My baby Panda Monk is levelling at a fairly rapid pace at the moment and that is another story I will revisit in the next couple of days. In case you have not levelled a monk, you get an occasional summons to bring you back to Pandaria for training, and it tries to teach some of the fundamentals of the class. In return you get a nice Blue item that is vastly better than your levelling greens. Also there is a XP buff called Enlightenment, which just in case you are not levelling quick enough gives an additional bonus, "Increases your experience gained from killing enemies and completing quests by 50%.  Lasts 1 hour."

 

I was handing in my quest at level 30 and surveying the options when that bloody annoying Duelling announcement appeared in the centre of my screen. I declined and turned round to find not surprisingly a male Panda level 29. I turned back around to carry on with my game, when the orange emote "XYZ is laughing at you".

 

Every few seconds a new one appear. This time I chose to be more mature and just said "Grow Up".

Funnily enough he stopped his antics and did just what I had asked. It would appear that I hit a suitable nerve, and the disapproving stern words of an adult, in this case a Female Panda.

All those times he would have heard those words from his mother and female teachers was enough to rein in his actions.

 

Now it is not the laughing, the clucking around or the /rude emotes that bothers me. It is the imposition of the duelling system. There is nothing stopping some idiot from spamming duels every few seconds, and I have no faith in Blizzard to police anti-social behaviour in the game. The question is why is the function there at all on a PvE realm. These servers are full of people who either do not PvP at all or like it separated in a Battleground or Arena.

 

When the Brawlers Guild was first announced, I assumed that it was going to be setup as a Fight Club, with league tables for those that like strutting around e-preening and generally lording it over their victims. In my opinion this would have been a better proposal than the strange club that Blizzard eventually made. Cross-Realm e-preening that could have been out of sight of the general populace.

 

I would love to know what percentage of the player base duels, and why nobody ever issues duels to max level characters. It seems to be rite of passage, and people wanting to test how good they are at their current level. I think I prefer not to see and I am more than happy to let them use Goldshire and the Dalaran Sewers. Brawling in the sewers, I think we have finally found its place in the game.