| Author |
Topic:
Incoming Healer Changes [Locked] |
Aswakhtor  Posts: 135
Registered: 2005-1-18 16:44:43
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
If only Blizzard could make a whole new continent devoted to PvP. With each faction starting at a "portal keep" where everyone starts. In the continent are various castles scattered around, possibly 10 per faction. Each faction has 2 relics. In order to take a relic, the other faction has to take the other faction's five keeps, then assault the castle with the relic. Successful capture provides bonuses to the capturing faction. PvP continent would be a no fly zone, would encourage more zerg v. zerg fighting or group v. group encounters in an open, free roam area.
That would be fun 
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heiromancerdrackus  Title: Is, indeed, a fat ass.
Posts: 274
Registered: 2001-12-24 17:04:55
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
The_Korrigan posted:
The addition of the damned arenas is the worst thing that happened to WoW since its release in 2004.
The full moron at "Bliztard" who thought that "PvP in a bowl" would be fantastic for a MMORPG should be fired.
Its fantastic for an MMORPG if your server design can't handle world pvp. WoW can't handle world pvp on a massive scale. It just lags too damn much.
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Auenwing  Title: straightface
Posts: 589
Registered: 2002-12-27 23:23:12
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
Ugh_Lancelot posted:
zukat1 posted:
For those that can't afford more then one monthly script why not make it to where they are leaving one for the other soon possibly. Can't think of any other reason to put a B team on their moneymaker myself.
Well, really, I think we've probably mislabeled things with the whole "B Team" reference. At least partially. Let me clarify. This is the product model I'd expect for something like WoW:
WoW 1.0 release = success. Continues succeeding wildly for two years.
BC release = more success.
WotLK release = more success. New products at company require the primary talent. So,
Primary talent moves on to new products. Sustaining team picks up responsibility for WoW.
So, you have 14 million or so people playing the most popular MMO. It works. People love it. The tiny minority of hardcores are whining about "too easy" and such, but the other 95% love the game as is. More people than ever are experiencing end-game content (if not hardmode stuff). Life is good.
When the sustaining team moves in, their one and only job is to sustain the profitability of the game for as long as possible. If everyone and their dog is playing the current game, you think _VERY_ hard before making any fundamental design changes whatsoever. Your job is to _continue_ keeping WoW firmly in the black, not using it as an experiment to see if you can attract new players or "fix" bugs that 14 million people don't think are significant enough to unsubscribe.
So, as a sustaining dev, what do you do? You keep all major systems firmly on the rails of what has _proven_ successful. You add content that follows or very carefully tweaks the current, successful design. Buff a little bit here and nerf a little bit there to fix new/inventive stacking issues you didn't really imagine or didn't have time to fix in previous releases. Add some new bosses with some new combinations of abilities but that use the same base mechanics as the rest of the game does today. Fix cosmetic issues and long-standing bugs that haven't bubbled up to the top half of the priority queue. Add artwork.
As a sustaining dev, you do NOT fundamentally redesign the entire premise of the talent system, even if you think it will ease balancing things (which it won't). You do NOT attempt to "rebalance" the entire game via massive changes in scaling and heal-vs-damage-vs-health profiles. You do NOT add or remove mechanics that have been fundamental to how classes played over the very successful history of the game.
Where the "B Team" epithet might hit the mark is if you have the sustaining guys thinking they're all that and a bag of potato chips instead of the graveyard maintainers. Nobody wants excitement in the graveyard. It's been working fine. Don't f**k with it. You're here to make sure the game's decline is a fairly flat, predictable model -- not exponential because you jumped the shark repeatedly.
At least, that's my take on things. We'll revisit things this coming Christmas and see how the current model is holding up.
Dead on. Well said! 
I see you are familiar with fundamental business concepts. (I'm not trying to be snarky, that's a comment about Blizz.)
I would add: you do not completely overhaul the existing world, put in new quest mechanics and break persistent world contracts with paying customers such that they cannot turn in quests because somehow the universe has phased them into a different plane of existence. (Basic gameplay). You do not demand linear questing in an MMO that demands strict adherance that prohbits or eliminates questing if not followed exactly (again: do not break basic gameplay of a persistent world.)
-----signature-----
There are those who play tank classes, and those that tank.
The weapon is only as good as the person wielding it.
Free advice is often worth what you pay for it: nothing.
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-Peo- Title: Caveat Lector
Posts: 408
Registered: 2005-2-2 08:38:42
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
You guys don't get it.
You are all wrong.
World of Ghostcrawler says so.
-----signature-----
SWTOR, Maybe in a year.
Back to WoW for now.
With a lil f2p CoH.
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Ugh_Lancelot Title: Ooo...bouncy!
Posts: 766
Registered: 2002-6-17 14:37:05
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
-Peo- posted:
You guys don't get it.
You are all wrong.
World of Ghostcrawler says so.
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale;
to the last I grapple with thee;
from Hell's heart I stab at thee;
for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee!
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WoW and DAoC - Too many alts to count
Charter Member - Altaholics Anonymous
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Sociop Posts: 264
Registered: 2009-12-8 15:10:16
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
Ugh_Lancelot posted:
zukat1 posted:
For those that can't afford more then one monthly script why not make it to where they are leaving one for the other soon possibly. Can't think of any other reason to put a B team on their moneymaker myself.
Well, really, I think we've probably mislabeled things with the whole "B Team" reference. At least partially. Let me clarify. This is the product model I'd expect for something like WoW:
WoW 1.0 release = success. Continues succeeding wildly for two years.
BC release = more success.
WotLK release = more success. New products at company require the primary talent. So,
Primary talent moves on to new products. Sustaining team picks up responsibility for WoW.
I think it was more like;
WoW 1.0 release = success. Continues succeeding wildly for two years and peaks.
BC release = wide spread normalizing and genericizing started the games slide down hill.
WotLK release continued normalizing and genericizing to the point that World of Warcraft became World of Clonecraft adding momentum to its slide down hill.
Primary talent moves on to new products leaving their snowball rolling down hill the sustaining team picks up responsibility for snowball, have that snowball careening down the hill out of control and are clueless how to stop it.
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Ferrydust Title: Iron Chef Jennifer
Posts: 938
Registered: 2002-9-4 20:32:54
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
Ugh_Lancelot posted:
zukat1 posted:
For those that can't afford more then one monthly script why not make it to where they are leaving one for the other soon possibly. Can't think of any other reason to put a B team on their moneymaker myself.
Well, really, I think we've probably mislabeled things with the whole "B Team" reference. At least partially. Let me clarify. This is the product model I'd expect for something like WoW:
WoW 1.0 release = success. Continues succeeding wildly for two years.
BC release = more success.
WotLK release = more success. New products at company require the primary talent. So,
Primary talent moves on to new products. Sustaining team picks up responsibility for WoW.
So, you have 14 million or so people playing the most popular MMO. It works. People love it. The tiny minority of hardcores are whining about "too easy" and such, but the other 95% love the game as is. More people than ever are experiencing end-game content (if not hardmode stuff). Life is good.
When the sustaining team moves in, their one and only job is to sustain the profitability of the game for as long as possible. If everyone and their dog is playing the current game, you think _VERY_ hard before making any fundamental design changes whatsoever. Your job is to _continue_ keeping WoW firmly in the black, not using it as an experiment to see if you can attract new players or "fix" bugs that 14 million people don't think are significant enough to unsubscribe.
So, as a sustaining dev, what do you do? You keep all major systems firmly on the rails of what has _proven_ successful. You add content that follows or very carefully tweaks the current, successful design. Buff a little bit here and nerf a little bit there to fix new/inventive stacking issues you didn't really imagine or didn't have time to fix in previous releases. Add some new bosses with some new combinations of abilities but that use the same base mechanics as the rest of the game does today. Fix cosmetic issues and long-standing bugs that haven't bubbled up to the top half of the priority queue. Add artwork.
As a sustaining dev, you do NOT fundamentally redesign the entire premise of the talent system, even if you think it will ease balancing things (which it won't). You do NOT attempt to "rebalance" the entire game via massive changes in scaling and heal-vs-damage-vs-health profiles. You do NOT add or remove mechanics that have been fundamental to how classes played over the very successful history of the game.
Where the "B Team" epithet might hit the mark is if you have the sustaining guys thinking they're all that and a bag of potato chips instead of the graveyard maintainers. Nobody wants excitement in the graveyard. It's been working fine. Don't f**k with it. You're here to make sure the game's decline is a fairly flat, predictable model -- not exponential because you jumped the shark repeatedly.
At least, that's my take on things. We'll revisit things this coming Christmas and see how the current model is holding up.
THIS THIS THIS! 
And no, arenas didn't ruin the game. We all played thru BC and WOTLK just fine. Also... I don't PVE I arena. Same with the few people in my guild. We are having the same basic issues as everyone else which is mostly summed up above. Leave your arena hate in another thread.
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I, on the other hand, prefer a command-line system 'cause i'm so hardcore
/north /north *You encounter an [Avatar of the god Set]!*
/cast sheild *sheild spell unavailable*
/csat shield *csat: unknown command*
*[Avatar of Set] beheads [Peasant]*
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-Aleister- Posts: 59
Registered: 2001-5-12 06:27:13
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Date Posted:
1/1/00 12:00am
Subject:
Incoming Healer Changes |
"We don?t find this to be a particularly compelling playstyle"
They could screw up everything and the kitchen sink and get away with it if they would stop writing stupid crap like the above in what are basically press releases to the player base. It basically reads as "Lots of you seem to be playing this model but we are changing it anyway because someone here said you aren't actually enjoying it" :/
I'll keep trudging along because grouping up with my guild is the real fun of the game...
but I could care less whether we were playing this one or not at this point.
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Excess - hellscream
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