Incoming Wall o Text.
The primary problem with twinking in 2015 is not the bracket being chosen, it's the attitude that has spawned since the implementation of starter accounts. What do I mean by this? Simply put, post 3.2 everyone had to re evaluate what they valued in twinking. Every single bracket had to figure out how to make games happen within the new rules of bracket segregation which resulted in twinks spread around on separate battle groups. Most people recognized two basic values: the want for games and the need for community.
The sudden paradigm shift in low level pvp meant that in order for there to be activity in a bracket, people had to consolidate on one battle group and put the community above all else. This worked for several brackets who saw quite a few revivals since 3.2 and the 'death of twinking.' Fast forward to 2015, and we've seen a staggering amount of paradigm shifting changes happen to the part of the game we hold so dear:
- Battle group merges.
- Bracket splits to reduce the gap in power between players.
- New pvp formats (war games, skirmishes).
- New BGs made accessible to lower brackets.
- Gear, enchant, and player scaling.
- Bracket merges to increase pool sizes for the queue system to draw from.
- Account wide heirlooms.
- Significant class design changes.
- Merge of older expansions into the battle chest.
- The displacement of naturally capped accounts into XP off BGs.
I'm sure I'm missing some. One I intentionally left off the list was the creation of starter accounts. This change was the single worst change this game has ever seen for twinks. Why do I say that? I say that because now all of a sudden twinks got to have their cake and eat it too. No longer did they have to make a conscious choice between beating up on noobs or having their XP disabled. They got to have both. What's worse, is that instead of having to prioritize things like community and quality games, they could completely ignore both of those things and just roflstomp new players in a bracket that continuously fed unsuspecting players into XP off games like cattle down a cute in a slaughter house.
The result? Attitude. Egos. Players who are so threatened by any change in their 'way of life,' they talk down to everyone they deem unfit to be in 'their bracket.' Gone are the days of community. Dead are the movements that led to pure, unadulterated twinking activity. Everyone and their mom plays the 'free to play' bracket. Who is actually left to revive 39s, 49s, or any other bracket that used to have good players and great games? 29s might as well light the massive funeral pile built on the dead bodies of level 20s who shunned every other bracket so they can drink the kool-aid of 'I don't have to pay for the game anymore' starter account bullshit.
Video killed the radio star.
