Balancing is one big illusion that people tend to believe in. I'm playing MMOs since Ultima Online now and I haven't seen a game that is actually balanced. Some are more, some are less, but that's it. How much of a joke the whole subject of balancing actually is you can see in WoW still being not balanced after over 3 years of tweaking. Or do you honestly believe that the game is balanced atm... cause I don't. But then again I'm not someone who gives a damn about balancing.
The game is never balanced because of what I pointed out in my last post - that people will exploit strengths and weaknesses of myriad elements to the detriment of other players. This is on-going, it always will be, because there are a ton of resourceful number-crunching powergamers out there who will always find a way to adapt. It's normal. And so balancing is persistent, which I appreciate because game balance (in all games) is something that is very important to me.
Plus as they are raising the level cap again the game will be even more unbalanced after the release of Wrath of the whatever, just as it was after TBC. So why not introduce several hero classes at once, or even better introduce something which actually makes more sense then the shadow night nonsense? The answer is: Tatatata - money! If you release them all it once there is less money in it as if you spread it over 3 or four expansions.
I've never claimed that money isn't an issue, that'd be a ludicrous assertion. Why not introduce more hero classes at once, well, it's likely a combination of reasons. One would be to see how this one does in-game, what the effects are and so forth. I do think it's a bit chintzy of them to bring in one class, and, really, I think it'll be a game balance nightmare with just one.
If it works successfully though, I'd be pretty irked if they just go with one hero per expansion as it's of limited use or appeal. Why give some players something and deny others similar benefits.
And mate, with all due respect, just because you don't care for hero classes does not mean that Blizzard wasn't talking about them for ages. I guess, and the previews back me up here, that nearly everyone anticipated something else than just another class.
There's tons of stuff that I'm sure they're still talking about. They don't have to add everything at once or as soon as they come up with it.
Does not compute. You're kinda condraticting yourself here.
How so? I do not take games seriously. I have fun with them for a while but eventually I get bored of them for various reasons. It's not like the game is a spouse or something!
There are lots of games I own that I don't play anymore, not because I suddenly think they're crap but because they are, for the moment, played out as far as I want to play them. I go back to plenty of games long after my initial run through them...
Because Blizzard does not pay me for kissing their asses or being positive, but I'm paying them to play the game...
Right, because it's all about you.
To fix such a trivial problem Blizzard needed over a month - I can't give you the exact time, but it could well be that they even needed two months. It's absolutely laughable... and please don't tell me this was a complicated thing to fix. I won't even begin to go into details how long it took them to fix the problem of poisons wearing off when zoning.
Do you design high-level software? If so, then fine, I will accept your argument. But unless you do design complex software, I don't think you can pass such judgment on how long it takes to accomplish something in the software code.
And we shouldn't forgot that Blizzard are not three guys in a garage. These guys have over 8 million subscribers, if you can believe them, and somehow you would imagine that a company that is metaphorically drowing in money since the release of WoW would manage to offer a better service, and especially more content updates to their players than other MMORPGs.
Of course Blizzard is doing well, but that subscription money does not fall completely into Blizzard's coffers. It's Vivendi, the game's publisher, that rakes in that subscription cash. They are the ones literally making billions of dollars.
As for Blizzard's service standards for WoW, I seriously see nothing to complain about.
I honestly cannot compare Blizzard's MMO service with those of other companies and their games as I don't play those other games. But both LOTRO and Vanguard are new, and with recognized problems, which clearly needed fixing so it's good, and not surprising, that they had a flurry of updates. But, for me personally (and that's the only perspective I've taken in this conversation), Blizzard's work on WoW on an on-going basis is quite satisfactory.
I think we are two very different kind of players. For me MMORPGs are more than fun... and should be. In fact what I like most about them is that sometimes they are hard work. I don't consider it a job or a lifestyle, but it certainly is connected with responsibility, at least if you're raiding. For me raiding is an essential part of a MMORPG. I hardly play WoW apart from the times that I raid. I'm not someone who spends his whole free time on playing WoW. But two, sometimes three times a week in the evening I log in for three hours and raid with friends. Which brings me to the social component. For many people, though not for all, this is a major aspect of WoW. And it is for me. This turns into a problem if you're suddenly realizing that you still like the social aspect of the game, but don't enjoy the game anymore as much as you did in the beginning. So for many people it's not that easy to simply quit playing.
Which is quite sad, really. A game should never become a responsibility, and if you enjoy the social aspect of the game then shouldn't that element be enough to keep you having a good time? I mean, even dreary everyday stuff can be made much more fun with friends or acquaintances.
I rather suspect that the real issue is that so much time and energy is devoted to WoW and the perceived responsibilities and in-game social relationships, that when interest does flag, there's a sudden feeling of emptiness and regret. A person has put so much into an unreal situation, that when that situation dissolves, there's a big miserable hole of all manner of things like regret.
I really don't want to get into this... I don't know how often I made clear in the past how much I think that this is some kind of alibi argumentation. This argument comes predominantly from players who are not casual players at all, bot players who simply don't want to raid.
Not sure what you're saying here. What's wrong with not wanting to raid, and where do you consider the line to be between casual and non-casual players? When I played a lot, I didn't raid and didn't do a lot of instances, and because I didn't invest so much into the game, I consider(ed) myself casual, particularly when I compared my involvement against other players and even guildmates.
But anyway... I was aiming at something different. What I was criticising that gear becomes obsolete through new and better gear being thrown into the game. So why should I even try to invest time in getting some decent gear, when I know that with the release of Wrath of the Lich King I can shard the whole stuff again because most greens will be better than what I acquired by raiding, PvP, questing, crafting, you name it...? This has nothing to do with hardcore or casual gamers but affects both sides.
Because it's a carrot to get the player to continually strive for the next best thing.
Personally I've never seen the appeal of raid and pvp gear; I much prefer the blues and random greens as my characters can look a bit different. At the high levels everyone looks the same because they've got the same bloody kit, it's absurd. This is one thing that irked me about TBC, actually.. All the characters of a particular class looked the same even without doing instances or raids, but just through regular questing.