[Arjaen]

10 reasons to embrace the weakening of your class


1. Trivialized content is boring. I don't like easy victories, I only think I do...until the game becomes mundane. I want to earn my advancement. I want my level to mean something.

2. Challenging gameplay is more fulfilling. It is the hard-fought battles I remember most. I carry with me the story of battles barely survived. Those are the stories worth sharing. I forge my character’s history through tales of hair’s breadth successes, not easy victories.

3. If my overpowered class is nerfed, the less dedicated will flounder. Players seeking Flavor of the Month gratification will move on and leave me to my class.

4. If my class is nerfed and it makes me want to quit my character, perhaps I haven’t found my class yet after all. Thankfully the nerf made me realize this, and I can continue to search for a class I will I truly love to play.

5. The weakening of my class will make me more dependant on other players. While I enjoy being self-sufficient, I understand that interdependence among the classes will lead to a stronger community. I will enjoy participating in something larger than myself, even though it may be a challenging transition.

6. A game designed around group-dependency affords me a greater opportunity for recognition. When I played Everquest, I remembered the competent players I grouped with. A skilled cleric or tank was a commodity and capable players were added to my friends list. If I earn it, I can be recognized as a skillful asset to a group, and my character will be a welcomed and valued member of a party, not an easily replaced part.

7. Adapting to changes will make me a stronger, more skillful player. My dependence on an overpowered ability makes me weak. Nerfs to my class challenge me to re-examine what I know, and help me gain further insight into developing an effective play style. While painful in the short-term, in the long-term I become better at my class, which is something I want.

8. Imbalances that are beneficial to me personally may be damaging to other players or to the overall health of the game. I understand that the need for a fun, balanced game is more important than my personal want. This is a sign I am a mature gamer.

9. Developers nerf my class for a reason. Developers that choose the long-term good of the game and that are willing to face criticisms - mine included - for doing so, are exactly the type of people I want working on the game I play.

10. I understand balancing a game so immense will take time and mistakes will be made. There are a multitude of factors to consider apart from the class I happen to play. This will require patience on my part, a trait I could use more of anyway.


Arjaen

[Addrio]

You're still avoiding the key issue here, which is Fluoridation of the water supply.....

[Varjun]

Originally Posted by Addrio

You're still avoiding the key issue here, which is Fluoridation of the water supply.....

That was grade A funny right there. lol

[zensaber]

Originally Posted by Addrio

You're still avoiding the key issue here, which is Fluoridation of the water supply.....

hehe nice, but also I've played so many mmorpg's that nerfing does nothing to me anymore like it use to.

[Forgale]

But what about my precious bodliy fluids?

[Baseline]

We must not allow, a class nerf gap!

[CrimsonEdge]

Originally Posted by Forgale

But what about my precious bodliy fluids?

MEIN FURHER!

[Ceros]

I'm pretty numb to nerfs now. I accept that all classes will continuously evolve which is something I've come to like contrasted to some other mmorpg's.

My belief is that Sigil planned to rigorously balance post launch as even the open beta couldn't tell them everything they needed to know about how a more general audience would actually play the game, and what they're willing to tolerate. I'm glad that they're fine tuning, but I look forward to when that calms down preferably within a couple of months -- especially so they can put some work into high end content.

I hope class balancing remains give/take or even take/take in some cases rather than give/give/give/give as it became in EQ, trivializing the game.

I think there are at least a couple of other big class balancings around the corner.

Personally, I'll take the game in an evolving state live over another phase of beta and a May release date.

[Xylemis]

Great post Arjaen. All these cry baby posts make me want to gag... unbelievable.

[Blitzburg]

Originally Posted by Arjaen

10 reasons to embrace the weakening of your class
Arjaen

Are you politician? Or do you work for one? Thats some of the best spin/rationalization I've seen in some time...

[Molitoth]

Good post.

[Kelenvor]

/shrug

I guess that I'm alone in thinking that most major class balancing should be done in beta. Not I believe that classes shouldn't of been nerfed. Just should of been done earlier.

[CrimsonEdge]

Originally Posted by Kelenvor

/shrug

I guess that I'm alone in thinking that most major class balancing should be done in beta. Not I believe that classes shouldn't of been nerfed. Just should of been done earlier.

See, I believe that Beta should mainly be for fixing bugs that relate to class skills, bugs in general, and creating the world and making sure that it isn't buggy. Balancing should be done once people figure out how to abuse the classes.

[Kelenvor]

Originally Posted by CrimsonEdge

See, I believe that Beta should mainly be for fixing bugs that relate to class skills, bugs in general, and creating the world and making sure that it isn't buggy. Balancing should be done once people figure out how to abuse the classes.

That's for closed beta.

Open beta should be for class balancing.

[hawkeye_pierce2]

Sweet alternative view point credits to the original author, kudos indeed. I just hope all the sentimental rhetoric about groups (and grouping) holds true. Especially after a nerf that makes a given class look inferior to its cousin classes of the same ilk...take care and nice work!

[Carguard]

Arjaen, you are god.

[Isobel]

Originally Posted by Kelenvor

That's for closed beta.

Open beta should be for class balancing.

It was for class balancing. They are currently continuing the process.

[Vryce]

How long should open beta (the class balancing beta) be? If I remember right, EQ1 was still doing class balancing, oh, 6 years into release. They never stopped.

EQ2? Still class balancing.

WoW? Yep...classes still get tweaked on occasion.

SWG? They changed the entire game 3 times.

DAoC? HAH! No game has seen more balancing passes.

AC? No classes.

AC2? No players.


The classes were constantly being tweaked, changed, nerfed, tweaked again, revamped, etc etc etc in beta. Beta had to end.

[Sedek]

Originally Posted by Arjaen

10 reasons to embrace the weakening of your class


1. Trivialized content is boring. I don't like easy victories, I only think I do...until the game becomes mundane. I want to earn my advancement. I want my level to mean something.

2. Challenging gameplay is more fulfilling. It is the hard-fought battles I remember most. I carry with me the story of battles barely survived. Those are the stories worth sharing. I forge my character’s history through tales of hair’s breadth successes, not easy victories.

3. If my overpowered class is nerfed, the less dedicated will flounder. Players seeking Flavor of the Month gratification will move on and leave me to my class.

4. If my class is nerfed and it makes me want to quit my character, perhaps I haven’t found my class yet after all. Thankfully the nerf made me realize this, and I can continue to search for a class I will I truly love to play.

5. The weakening of my class will make me more dependant on other players. While I enjoy being self-sufficient, I understand that interdependence among the classes will lead to a stronger community. I will enjoy participating in something larger than myself, even though it may be a challenging transition.

6. A game designed around group-dependency affords me a greater opportunity for recognition. When I played Everquest, I remembered the competent players I grouped with. A skilled cleric or tank was a commodity and capable players were added to my friends list. If I earn it, I can be recognized as a skillful asset to a group, and my character will be a welcomed and valued member of a party, not an easily replaced part.

7. Adapting to changes will make me a stronger, more skillful player. My dependence on an overpowered ability makes me weak. Nerfs to my class challenge me to re-examine what I know, and help me gain further insight into developing an effective play style. While painful in the short-term, in the long-term I become better at my class, which is something I want.

8. Imbalances that are beneficial to me personally may be damaging to other players or to the overall health of the game. I understand that the need for a fun, balanced game is more important than my personal want. This is a sign I am a mature gamer.

9. Developers nerf my class for a reason. Developers that choose the long-term good of the game and that are willing to face criticisms - mine included - for doing so, are exactly the type of people I want working on the game I play.

10. I understand balancing a game so immense will take time and mistakes will be made. There are a multitude of factors to consider apart from the class I happen to play. This will require patience on my part, a trait I could use more of anyway.


Arjaen

/salute

This has fairly much always been my feeling on 'nerfs' ... yes some do sting ... and yes sometimes they hit a tad to hard but they usually address that fairly quickly. And, frankly, I can usually see them coming (I've been expecting the Disc 'nerf' since late Beta)

[Sedek]

Originally Posted by Kelenvor

That's for closed beta.

Open beta should be for class balancing.

Actually open beta is usually more for stress testing and gathering mass data for, yes, class balancing.