The Daily Grind: Are you a fan of attunement?

I don't mind "attunement" as long as (1) there is no grind (i.e. get 2000 boar hides) and (2) the quest involved is well done and entertaining.

Meh, not really. If made interesting enough it can be a nice change of pace every now and then (I'm thinking of the old Onyxia event in Stormwind) but usually they're, like you said, a hassle put in place to keep you from doing the content you want to do. They're one of those things that don't serve a purpose outside of wasting time, but if you omit them you get that group of gaming masochists that accuse you of dumbing down the game for instant gratification kiddies. Usually the same people that fondly look back to their EQ1 days and claim, with a straight face, that hour/day long mob spawn camping sessions is good gameplay.

Only a bit.
Not as a gating method, but as a way to develop the story (so they should not be uberhard).
Taking WoW as example, TBC attunements were fine up to T5, T6 ones were a real PITA.

I did enjoy attunements, especially when doing it with members from my guild where it brought us together for doing them and working on team work prior to raiding.

The Onyxia chain was fun, the Karazhan and beyond chains were as well. This was, of course, prior to the emphasis on item level. Now instances are gated off based on a players average item level, not for completing a quest.

Sometimes it makes sense, like that Tempest Keep 5-man instance in TBC, it's a prison, the door should be locked, you should need a key to get in. Though it wasn't hard to obtain, i believe it was two fragments, or just two other bosses. And it was nice being the one in the group with the key, as a mage like i was, you appreciate any opportunity to be of other use than the pew pew guy.

Not all or most of the dungeons/raids of course. One or two with an attunement requirement for sensible reasons is enough. Just to add that little bit of variety.

Attunement, no. Key quests very much yes.

There's something that's just intrinsically satisfying about finding the key to unlock a door. It just feels like a natural thing to do.

I'm not a fan of making the process long and drawn out for the sake of it, and I would make the keys Heirloom, but I'd actually prefer to have to find the key to get through a locked door and then see the door open rather than just automagically zone through it.

Gating is just a way to slow people down and hold them back due to lack of content, well in the way it works in AoC i.e. in it's simplist form. complete this mission before you can do this content.

If used in some of the better ways mentioned above then maybe.

I prefer attunement and quest chains or rare mats for end-game items and raids. Getting the Drakefire amulet to access Onexia's lair was a logical story-line goal and extra sense of achievement for those who did it. Getting the mats for my Pally's epic mount, etc. I don't think it should be the *only* way to progress or have a sense of achievement, but there is nothing wrong and everything right about providing optional and special rewards, raids/experiences that are accessible only by acquiring items that require more dedicated questing.lore following/mat gathering etc.

Simply rolling out the welcome mat to every item and experience for every player no matter what their achievement level is simply cheapens the overall experience for everyone else. Put some rare fruit out there that is accessible by a variety of epic means (whether crafting, exploring, grinding, questing, or whatever) and reward the intrepid that achieve it by those means.

i like them in the sense that they provide a story leading you to the content they open. I don't like them in the sense that they keep you out of content.

SOlution? keep the quest chains, lose the locks

Because of the attunements, TBC will forever be one of my fondest gaming memories.
Even after getting my keys and reaching beyond SSC I enjoyed running the dungeons to infinity. Karazhan, Gruul, Maggy, TK *sigh*
I remember many other folks enjoying the crap out of running the old dungeons right up to the last patch before WoTLK.

Back in the day... TBC WoW, Dark Portal on Heroic was actually difficult, and you HAD to do it before getting into Karazahn - it made people up their game and get gear from other heroics/regulars and crafting.

In essence, you had to prove you could hack it before you could start to take on the game's more challenging content.

Umm... duh? Brilliant idea am I right?

We had a couple of the few tanks (me) and healers on the server who could get people through Dark Portal on heroic, so we'd make sure all of our DPS was up to snuff by using Dark Portal and Arcatraz as their pre-raid testing.

Now?

Just mindlessly lose PvP bg's and inflate your item level so you can waste space and other people's time in heroics!

Much better system... yeah...

WOTLK taught bads that all content was for them too! Hurray! Easy content for everyone!

But hey, as long as everyone gets a Gold Star and everyone feels happy and no one is offended... right Western culture?

Current WoW - hard modes for top 2% and the other 98% share the rest of the game... which means a very good player without the time I used to have (me) is lumped in with the mouth breathers (huntards, retadins) in the other 98%.

3 DIFFICULT MODES -

1. Casual (lol what's CC and focus fire?!@?)
2. Normal (hey I remember this game!)
3. Heroic (wall? Meet head - start bashing)