Taking Theorycrafting To An Entirely New Level Of Nerdosity

That’s cute, the WoW players have come up with a fancy word to describe finding the rules and formulas that the developers thought their simple casual audience would be too overwhelmed by to be given up front.

Drey :
Bitter much, Geldon?

What’s there to be bitter about? It’s actually pretty cute they’ve taken simply discovering the rules and spiced it up by calling it “theorycrafting.”

It doesn’t really matter of it originated in Starcraft or World of Warcraft, it’s just that the words “theory” and “crafting” don’t seem to have anything to do with finding out how the somebody else’s game mechanics were coded so you can min/maxing them.

When you get right down to it, it’s downright adorable that this word has come to be. It’s like your 6 year old has invented a cute word for a Bronx cheer because they figured they discovered it on their own.

I didn’t comment much on the Opera thing because, well, it’s skin and link set for Opera. What more’s to be said?

I’m fairly sure you have no sense of whimsy since you don’t see the self-deprecating irony of a silly word like ‘theorycrafting’.

On the contrary, how could anything but whimsy provoke calling theorycrafting cute/adorable? I wasn’t putting a bitter ironic spin on the words when I said them, I’m slapping my knee and saying, “I like that this word has caught on, it’s so self-deprecating and silly – cute/adorably so.”

Bah, forum threads, nobody understands eachother.

Granted, there was a little bitterness in my original post. It wasn’t directed as people who use the word “theorycrafting.” It was directed to a current state of game development that feels people are too stupid to be trusted with this information up front to devise intelligent strategies on their own, and so force them to craft their own theories on how the game works (hey, I fit the words in).

Though, to some extent, this can be just trying to preserve the mystique of the game, I still prefer not to be forced to live (in virtual confines) by rules which are not clearly outlined.

Adam :The “how cute those kiddie WoW raiders learned some math” attitude

That’s not it all, really. It’s the word itself I thought was cute: “theorycrafting.” I’m not even rendering judgment against those who use it, I just thought that, as far as words go… well, I’ve already said enough on that.

Anywho, yes, I’m aware sometimes you can get information out of the developers off the forum. However, the fact that these formulas are not right in the manual or accessible somewhere within the game (without the use of third party add ons) is about the line where I draw, “the developers have chosen not to inform the players.”

Thus far, the chosen dissenting sentiment has been, “yes – players are too dumb, it was a good call that they shouldn’t be informed about anything.”

Well. I suppose that was the way we handled the surfs in the dark ages, and this is a fantasy-based game…

Once again, I think it’s best I leave this comment thread for a bit of geldonyetich-free time. 2 days, unless I’m called out, per usual.