Let's get an example rolling to help explain the situation. It's no secret to my nearest and dearest that yes, I do play World of Warcraft. I play it, my friends play it, my girlfriend plays it, and wouldn't you know it - so do millions of other people.
As a game that has millions of subscribers, ten different classes from the warrior, to the mage, to the rogue, and each class containing three "talent trees" as a means of customisation and specialisation, balancing the game can be pretty hectic. From watching the changes over the past few years of the games' lifetime, the focus of the developers can be best determined as "You cannot please everyone, all the time."
Some people, however, take this as if it was some sort of personal attack against their rights as a player, and as a customer, and guys, it's our own fault.
You see, in order to keep the game balanced, the developers frequently (although not as frequently as the vocal minority of the fanbase would like, if you believe the official forums) have to make adjustments to the abilities of the classes. If X ability is too powerful, you can guarantee that it will recieve what is called a "nerf" - a downgrade, weakening it in some way or form. Usually the reason behind this is that the ability in question trivialises the current content, or provides too much of an advantage in given situations. Sometimes an ability is just the opposite - it's too weak, or too expensive to use, or has little to no utility value and the developers would like to see more said ability get more mileage. We call this a "buff".
Here's where things get sticky.
With the integral function of talent trees comes the issue of trying to balance 30 different playstyles to keep them all interesting, and able to comply with their roles. The intent is quite simple - to keep each of these playstyles engaging to play, but wouldn't necessarily lead to a direct advantage over one or the other in an attempt to discourage a "rock-paper-scissors" mentality.
![]() |
Not so fun to play, is it? Trust me, it was once like this, but much, much, much more complicated. |
So where am I going with this? The latest patch notes have made it off of the player test realm, and boy is the time ripe for complaining! My main's class in particular, the Warlock, is recieving an at-best controversial mix of buffs and nerfs to several abilities. Instead of finding celebration in the fixing of broken mechanics and glaring issues with scaling attributes that would only end up biting us in the arse several months down the line, I find nothing but consistent, petty whinging and an extreme focus on the watered-down abilities. Including, but not limited to, players insisting that they will stop playing their Warlocks in favour of another class that can perform the role better - in this case, dealing damage in order to defeat enemies before the healer is too exhausted to cast spells and the tank, the guy at the front with the enemies' attention protecting the rest of the group, falls down dead.
Guys, I'm sorry, but... What the hell?
It takes a certain mindset to come to the conclusion that the reason for consistent nerfs is that "the developers hate the class" or "none of the developers play the class". This is absurd. It doesn't matter whether or not the developers play the class outside of testing their changes (or better yet, allowing their massive potential tester pool - the playerbase - to do it for them), because they're already intimate with the classes on a much larger scale than the players are, simply by virtue of designing their abilities and attributes. This goes for any computer game. Is "Gun A is more powerful than Gun B because the developer likes Gun A more and never uses Gun B" a sound, logical reasoning behind changes, or is this just paranoid guesswork at the motives of allegedly sinister jailors of our leisure time?
The fact is, any developer with the amount of money and success as Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of World of Warcraft, has a much better idea of what's going on than we do. Sure they do - because they have knowledge of what will be implemented in the future, and how these little tweaks now will help things fit together into the bigger picture. This isn't rocket surgery folks. They've been doing this for years, and have a much better idea of where things are going than Johnny Q. Complainer over there. Where is all this whinging coming from? Entitlement syndrome.
What really pisses me off is a subsect of any and every gaming group that believes that no matter what, for some arbitrary reasoning, they deserve to be the best of the best. This is nowhere more evident than on the World of Warcraft official forums. Well here's the thing, guys - you didn't earn it. In fact, it's all smoke and mirrors. What it comes down to is a pretty neat 50/50 divide. The first half is individual skill. If you can play well, you will do well. This is true for pretty much any game, or sport, or hell even work. If you carry out a task well, the result will be that much better or more satisfying. If your execution is clumsy or you're not willing to put the effort into the task, then the result will be lacklustre.
This half is on YOU. This is you "pulling your weight" as the phrase goes. That is until Entitlement syndrome kicks in and you start to side with the reasoning "I want the best results at the lowest possible expenditure". See the term cutting corners.
The other half is related to factors only marginally under the player control. Static changes and tiny tweaks to the mechanics of the game that may, if fortune smiles on you, give you a little nudge. It's a performance boost, giving you a slight edge you may need in order to be better at what you do. Sometimes the developers overestimate these things and have to rein them in a little. Hence the nerfs. But let's talk serious for a moment here:
![]() |
This is Thane. He is always serious. |
You are something more like this:
And if you decide that you want to sacrifice the personal enjoyment you get for playing as one character or using one weapon in the name or "being the very best", then I can only feel sorry for you, and hope that maturity comes around and kicks you right in the arse. I love playing my Warlock. It's fun, it's as challenging or as simple as I want to make it, and I play well enough as the role for what I'm aiming to get out the game. I would never, ever ditch her just so I can get a lead with what players affectionately call "Flavour of the Month" classes, and neither should you. Have some integrity, and stick with it. Prove them wrong. Be better at what you're doing even if lady luck isn't smiling on you and you've been downsized.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying more of what a game has to offer, but wouldn't you rather focus on having a small number of things you know you enjoy and playing them really well, compared to... Well... This?
![]() |
The guy in green is your recently-nerfed Hunter. The guy in red is the Death Knight. It's just an example, people. Remember - context. |
- Balance is not easy. The larger a game is and the more customisation it has for players to tinker with, the more difficult it becomes to keep it fair and equal for everyone, but that's still their overall goal - to keep the game fair and fun for everyone involved.
- It makes you look ridiculous to jump to paraonoid conclusions that the developers are somehow "out to get you" when your favourite whatever is nerfed for the sake of balance.
- You look even more ridiculous when you act outraged on their official forums.
- You are not entitled to being at the top of the damage meters, or most kills, for whatever arbitrary reason your deluded little mind can come up with. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose, that's just the way it is. It doesn't matter whether you think this is because you bought the game, bought the previous game, bought the novels in the expanded universe, saw the film, have the soundtrack, have the collector's edition... You have the same footing as everybody else.
- Play as what you enjoy playing. There is no yard stick for how totally awesome you are on the internet, brah. These are games. They are there for amusement, and downtime. They are not there to coddle you and make up for years of social neglect and stroke your king complex. So, play as what you find fun, not what will make you the best, because that is a hollow victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment