Of Death Knights and QQ (Protip: QQ represents two crying eyes)

Nerd Alert: the following post deals with Warcraft. Sweet, addicting Warcraft.

Anyway, there are a lot of people bitching - the WoW forum term is "QQ-ing" - about how easy it is to be a Death Knight. About how overpowered the class is. About how only fools and bad players roll Death Knights. Mentioning how their guild refuses applications from all Death Knights and how they ignore people who post on the forms using a Death Knight avatar.

Seriously, and I realize that I'm writing this to a bunch of serious, hardcore nerds, get a life and quit your whining. Yes, the DK is a very powerful class. You might even call it a "Hero Class". It can do a lot of things. It is very easy to kill and very hard to die as a Death Knight. Quests often requiring three people can be done by a single DK. But how does this differ from any other class? A skilled Mage player can solo group quests. So can a skilled Paladin. Or Warrior. Really, anyone who can play their class well will appear overpowered to a bad player. Admittedly, the Death Knight makes this a little easier, with its high armour values, incredible critical strike ratings, and extremely high base DPS regardless of build. So? It's a Hero Class. That's the idea. It might make things a little easier for less-skilled players, of which I am one. Is that so bad? Maybe - just maybe - the experience of making and playing a Death Knight will improve their skills on other classes. Being good at something tends to boost your confidence, which in turn makes you even more skilled at the activity in question.

Once A Year, Every Year

I really should write more often. It always seems like I want to do this around my birthday. Is it just that I feel so much older every year, then pretty promptly forget and start acting like a twelve-year-old again?

Either way, tonight's rant is about the NHL All-Star Game. Why? 'Cause all of this pissing and moaning about "unworthy" players being voted in by the fans is starting to annoy me.

First, a basic truth: most people are stupid. Moreover, most people should not be allowed to vote precisely because they're stupid. For some reason, we make people take a test to drive, but we allow them to influence the direction of the nation (and the world, in some ways) without even the most basic of intellectual examinations. There's something seriously wrong with this. Remember, many voters are people who actually enjoy American Fucking Idol.

But I digress. The long and the short of it is that the NHL allowed fans to vote the starting lineups for the All-Star Game. As a result, the starting Western All-Stars are made up entirely of Chicago Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks, whilst the starting Eastern All-Stars are Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins. There is a great hue and cry about this. First of all, this means that only four of the thirty teams in the league will be represented in the All-Star starting lineups. Second, players like Alex Ovechkin had to be named by the league as a reserve. Thirdly, some of the players "don't deserve" to be there. Players like Alex Kovalev and Mike Komisarek.

Going back to my earlier point, people are stupid. Should Ovechkin, who is probably the best all-around player of our generation, have to be named as a reserve? No fucking way. Should Mike Komisarek, a stay-at-home defenceman who is a great team player and excellent leader, be named to a one-shot roster where offence is rewarded? Nope. And I say that as a Habs fan and someone who believes that Komisarek is the odds-on favourite to be captain of Les Glorieux in the next few years. But if the NHL wanted the best players to start the All-Star Game, they should have just appointed them. Instead, they opened up the process to fan participation. Hockey fans are dedicated sorts, particularly those who are desciples of Montreal and Pittsburgh. We voted often, we voted for players who we wanted to see.

That's the core of the matter. People are stupid, too stupid to be allowed to vote. And the NHL is stupid for assuming that talented players would be voted in on merit alone and with no consideration to the holy emblem on their chests. In fact, the NHL themselves has had a part in this: does anyone else remember the ad campaign that mentioned that the important thing is the logo on the front of the sweater, not the name on the back?

To take another tack at this issue, though, I must say that in some ways the voting system worked. Mike Komisarek and Alex Kovalev might not merit All-Star starter status in a lot of ways. But the fans really, really want to see them there. If the All-Star Game is supposed to be all about fan participation, the NHL, and the blogging wags who populate the internet, have to be prepared to accept the results of the vote.

The NHL should not have allowed fans to vote for their players if they wanted the highest-quality All-Star Game possible. It's just that simple. They either have to accept the fact that people are dumb or they have to eliminate fans from the selection process. Or do the easiest thing and just get rid of the All-Star Game. I still don't entirely understand why they do it. I mean, it's hockey, making it much more entertaining than most other things on television, so I watch it. But I wouldn't cry if I slept through the entire thing.

As for Komisarek and Kovalev? Good on 'em. Kovalev's incredible level of talent is going to shine like a diamond when he's playing with some of the best in the world, and Mike Komisarek is one of the hardest-working players in the league. It will be a joy to see them at the All-Star Game.