Elitist Jerks - View Single Post - Progressive Nerfs - suiting instances for competion among raiders and casual friendly

Bixel · 02/19/08, 11:54 AM

As a note: I've been a raid leader, guild leader, a member, an initiate within end-game guilds, struggling to form guilds and newbie guilds across several MMOs. Right now, I'm just a plain old member in a small guild that is a group of friends. We're skilled players with limited play time. I prefer this atmosphere, though it's not without it's problems. This is my perspective.

1) Coordinating the schedules of 10+ busy people who enjoy playing with each other really is a problem for smaller guilds. It's sometimes a challenge to put together 5-mans with the right makeup. Putting together a 25-man is practically impossible for newly (i.e. 3-6 months) minted raid guilds. Those that last longer often end up with burn-out (lack of play, too much play, too much stagnation, etc.) from their core members. If they do not have enough momentum as a guild, they just won't attract the members to continue.

2) PvP gear right now is easier to obtain per time spent than pve gear. This contributes to the problem in (1). Why pve when I can spend time doing pvp and over time I'm guaranteed to pick up drops that are good. If I do pve content, I am not guaranteed anything. Badge drops are inferior to arena gear.

3) Right now pve is static, scripted content designed for a very limited set of class-makeups. This lets people optimize their raids, gear and guilds to handle new content -- which is generally familiar and similar making it easy to conquer. As noted by the more recent PTR news, top guilds easily chew through the "new" scripted content.

4) Fix should be to match the content and reward with the players' class, gear and skill level as an automated process. Content should dynamically adapt or map to the group in the instance rather than executing a contrived script that's tuned for a specific class makeup.

I realize that's ambitious. Maybe a first step would be to do as suggested and provide simultaneous content for every new instance at every level: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 40, whatever-mans with normal, heroic, timed, etc. at each level. However, if Blizzard can piece together (4), even as a guideline, tuning is not nearly as problematic for instance variances.

02/19/08, 11:54 AM	#78 (permalink)
Bixel Glass Joe Bixel Tauren Druid <Lost Cause> Malfurion	Player driven content As a note: I've been a raid leader, guild leader, a member, an initiate within end-game guilds, struggling to form guilds and newbie guilds across several MMOs. Right now, I'm just a plain old member in a small guild that is a group of friends. We're skilled players with limited play time. I prefer this atmosphere, though it's not without it's problems. This is my perspective. 1) Coordinating the schedules of 10+ busy people who enjoy playing with each other really is a problem for smaller guilds. It's sometimes a challenge to put together 5-mans with the right makeup. Putting together a 25-man is practically impossible for newly (i.e. 3-6 months) minted raid guilds. Those that last longer often end up with burn-out (lack of play, too much play, too much stagnation, etc.) from their core members. If they do not have enough momentum as a guild, they just won't attract the members to continue. 2) PvP gear right now is easier to obtain per time spent than pve gear. This contributes to the problem in (1). Why pve when I can spend time doing pvp and over time I'm guaranteed to pick up drops that are good. If I do pve content, I am not guaranteed anything. Badge drops are inferior to arena gear. 3) Right now pve is static, scripted content designed for a very limited set of class-makeups. This lets people optimize their raids, gear and guilds to handle new content -- which is generally familiar and similar making it easy to conquer. As noted by the more recent PTR news, top guilds easily chew through the "new" scripted content. 4) Fix should be to match the content and reward with the players' class, gear and skill level as an automated process. Content should dynamically adapt or map to the group in the instance rather than executing a contrived script that's tuned for a specific class makeup. I realize that's ambitious. Maybe a first step would be to do as suggested and provide simultaneous content for every new instance at every level: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 40, whatever-mans with normal, heroic, timed, etc. at each level. However, if Blizzard can piece together (4), even as a guideline, tuning is not nearly as problematic for instance variances.