Packing up

I'm getting ready to move this weekend. Not the blog, or my hearthstone, etc, but actually packing up my physical stuff, getting in a truck, and driving across several states. (Aside: Updates will probably be sparse for the weekend.) In some ways, the process of packing is not unlike cleaning out a bank in an MMORPG.

- There is some stuff that I'm saving just in case (e.g. heavy winter gear I probably won't need, much like healing and ret gear on my prot Pally).
- There is some stuff that has purely sentimental value, but would be hard or impossible to replace (e.g. souvenirs from long ago sporting events, cosmetic rewards from the latest in-game holiday).
- Storage space is finite, and getting more would cost more money.
- There is stuff that I'm holding onto because it is, in principle, worth money, even though I have zero interest in spending the time/effort to sell it (e.g. an old, but technically still working, stereo, that pile of miscellaneous crafting goods).

Of course, games aren't bound to realism. In the real world I have to commute, and can't jump off tall buildings because I don't feel like taking the stairs. (I also can't cast fireballs or fight with a sword and shield.) That doesn't mean that the game must follow suit. I don't have a problem with games limiting your storage space (more storage space can be provided as a reward later, and it encourages you to clean out your bank occasionally). There are two places, though, where I think the devs could stand to do a better job:

-Stuff you actually might NEED down the line and won't be able to replace if you get rid of it.
Again, hybrids like my Pally suffer greatly for this. He has a heal set, a tank set, a spell damage set, and a ret set, and many of these are made up of quest rewards that I actually can't get back if I have to sell them.

-Tokens, Marks, and other currencies
I don't object to marks etc on principle, but WoW has gotten pretty out of hand. Off the top of my head, there are the four basic battleground marks, World PVP marks in Hellfire Peninsula, Spirit Shards in Auchidoun, three separate tokens related to Halaa (and a fourth reputation token elsewhere in the zone), and Badges of Justice. All of that is JUST the soulbound ones that are relevant to level 70, AND generally you need to save up a bunch of all of the above before you can actually spend them. There are additional currencies and tokens that you can, at least, mail to a bank alt because they aren't soulbound. Apparently this game has so many pseudo-currencies that it needs to have a coin purse to go along with the keyring.

My Fury Warrior is wrapping up in Felwood and he's got a total of five soulbound inventory slots devoted to plant salves (the beacon, the salves, and hunting/skinning/mining tokens to turn in for salves). That said, these are quick to gather, and easy to spend (i.e. the rewards don't cost 20, 30, or 100 salves). So, I'll spend what I can and destroy the rest. It could be worse (cough *Argent Dawn* cough), but it could also be a lot better.

I'm just saying, this is one of those places where the game could stand to look a bit less like real life.