But is there truly any other way to achieve real balance other than to do so?

 

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*All the BS cut out*

To sum it up we took out customization, cut down on the theory crafting, and made it so you can press 4 buttons to be successful. Please now purchase our newest in-game pet, the bobbing water bird. Each bird also comes with a real bobbing water bird so you may have it play for you!

 

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Since when did perfect balance make for a fun game?

 

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I am not advocating one way or the other. But what is one of the most common complaints in every MMO you have played over the years?

Class balance.

So do you just ignore it or do you cycle which class is the most powerful every so often? Or do you make everything the same with different skins/names/graphics?

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

 

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I dunno, their previous subscription rates never really spoke 'damned' to me. Certainly not over class balance issues.

 

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Neither do their current really.

 

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Fair enough, sort of... although, most everyone can agree that Cataclysm was the beginning of a noticeable and near immediate subscription decline for WoW*. Considering the watering down of talents, knee-jerk and heavy handed class balancing and rebalancing, and homogenization of all roles has been a large player in the Cataclysm expansion (I'd say it's fairly center stage as this expansion's major focus), I find it tougher than you to just say 'they're damned if they do and damned if they don't'.

I don't believe for one second they would've been this damned if they just hadn't.


* Taking into account all other expansion releases had Blizzard releasing a new press notice with at least 500k more subscribers than previously reported within 6 months of the expansions release, except Cataclysm, where it's been reported they've taken at least a 600k subscription hit since Cata released.

 

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Some would argue that the reason for that increased drop is because of the changes to healing in cataclysm, others would argue the increase in difficulty and time in cataclysm, others would point to a successful competitor in Rift releasing, while others would claim it is due to the game simply being almost 7 years old.

Who is right?

Beats me, but I do know this. No one can claim any of it with any real certainty since there is no data to back any of those claims up.

 

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Well, I will give you that the reasons for people leaving are probably as numerous as there are cancellations. Their current development direction has still had a pretty obvious impact.

Funny enough you had similar arguments when ToA infected DAoC, and you were entirely wrong in that case as we can see now (Mythic has even apologized for ToA now, a few times over), and ToA really did end up driving DAoC into the ground despite the blinders you wore to that situation.

Oh, and those first two arguments you toss out are related exactly to what I'm speaking on (ie. Class changes). The other two...

As far as WoW declining simply because it's old. Funny that that would occur right at the release of a major expansion, No?

Also, Rift really isn't THAT successful. WoW has yet to have a competitor release something even remotely close to being able to compete on WoW's level.


But no, since I don't have all the data, and/or since there could be other factors, problems and reasons affecting WoW's subscription rate, I must be completely off base here...

 

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Well I would certainly hope so lol. It is common sense.





You think I defended ToA? I think you have me confused with someone else. I knew during beta of ToA that it was a huge mistake to introduce all the abilities they were planning in master/artifact abilities, many of which were grossly overpowered and I stated such openly on the DAoC forums.





Uhh one does, healing. The other was a change in dungeon length and difficulty. The latter being why I myself took a 3 month break from the game. But I am not foolish or self centered enough to think that just because I stopped playing for that reason that it is the reason for the decrease in subs lol.





There is a decrease after every expansion, it just so happens there was a larger than normal one after Cataclysm. Again the reasons why the decrease was larger this expansion are debatable and pretty much impossible to prove unless some sort of data is released explaining such.





Rift got to a million accounts created a month after it released. I have no idea where they are at now, but I would say that is pretty successful (making them the 2nd largest non ftp MMO in NA) and out of all he reasons for the larger decrease probably the most logical and the only one with some sort of evidence supporting it (although circumstantial).





*shrug* I have no doubt that people have quit over frustration to the changes in classes, just like they do in every MMO. Whether that portion is significant or any more significant than it has been at any other point in time can't really be said with any certainty can it?

 

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