Want to see a bunch of guys getting left behind?

Categories:

a. MMORPG

September 20, 2011

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Then head over here.

Leaving all comments on agreeing or disagreeing with (some of) the sentiments Syncaine shares aside, I was left with the distinct feeling that this is the type of player that  the MMO industry is forcing out.  And I’m not talking about just Syncaine here, just to be clear, but he represents a type of player that’s become less and less relevant to game designers. Comments like this really sum up how “2004” that point-of-view really is:

The signs are all over the place; some companies are catering to people with 15 minutes to play, and with only five of those where they can fully focus.

EQ1 had what, a 2000 hour leveling curve? 7xGM in UO was not exactly an overnight process (even with massive exploiting), and grinding to the cap in DAoC was tough, let alone getting high in renown ranks. Hell even WoW in 2004 had a much, much longer 1-60 curve than what most games have today (hi Rift).

 In Global Agenda last night we ran our first two Ultra Max missions. The first one STOMPED us, and the second we did a little better but still got rolled by the boss. It motivated me to play the game more than anything else to this point.

Now look, I’ve waxed nostalgic about how meaningful all those long-standing goals we’re as much as the next guy; been there, done that. I’ve even talked on the Multiverse and expressed very similar ideas. Here’s a simple truth, though. The market’s only followed the money. The average person does not get more time to game as they get older. As husbands and wives, careers, kids, bills, and mortgages enter the picture, gaming time tends to slide until it either disappears  or the classification on your gamer card changes entirely. MMOs are becoming more casual because, you guessed it, we’re becoming more casual. In this case, Syncaine and everyone else upset are the outliers — myself included for the certain opinions I do share. The reason people look at teenagers with free afternoons, weekends, and summers and say “must be nice” is for this very reason: We all have to grow up. Most adults simply do not have the time to play for more than an hour or two a day and I suspect that’s pushing it.

It’s a good thing there are plenty of niche games out there, because I tend to think the days of AAA MMOs trying to simulate worlds are over. It’s a shame but it’s pretty obvious that most gamers have no interest in wildlife scripts and NPC AI beyond what it takes to get to the next level. If it doesn’t serve the gameplay in a way that fits those short, “need to find someway to be satisfying” sessions, it probably isn’t worth the time to develop. Financially speaking, of course.

And at some point, we have to quit denigrating players who started playing a few years later than we did. In 10 years, they’ll have their time to wax nostalgic, too. For now, why don’t we quit complaining about how entitled and “carebear” they are, stop reminding them how easy they have it, and start showing them what this community was about in the first place. Trolls will flourish or fail in the environments we create. Do we make it easy and play the jaded old vets, or do we highlight how poor they really are? Sometimes I think we all need to remember, there is no more boring conversation than one with only one side. Every player deserves respect, whether they started playing in 1999 or 2009. And on the real side of things, did most of them miss anything that was so “fun” anyways? We’re all playing the same games anyhow, because I don’t see many rosey eyed ranters hopping back into UO or EQ1.

I’d like to end with an excerpt from the final comment of the post. It comes from Azuriel, whom I’d never read before, but has made a dedicated reader out of me.

As for the Twitterification, that debate is long-settled by industry metrics: only 10-20% of games are beaten. Even 20-hour ones. I am totally with you when it comes to enjoying an epic experience, but that is an era unlikely to be coming back particularly soon. And why would it? There are enough (free) alternatives out there that the average gamer can coast along in the gaming sweet spot (no grinding, no restarting, no toiling for a win) indefinitely.

Honestly, at this point we’re reduced to shouting “It builds character!” from our rocking chairs.

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15 comments

The Worst and Deadliest Spy [Deus Ex]

Categories:

b. Console, c. PC Gaming

September 9, 2011

by

If I had no arms, I'd look that good too. Exercise has got to be easy when you can just program yourself to do set after set until you're ripped. ON: Crunch like hell. OFF: Kiegels.

I got into the PC gaming scene late. As a result, I missed a big chunk of classic games. Deus Ex was one of these. When Human Revolution started advertising, I pretty much wrote it off as another Square Enix non-RPG. (Their history isn’t very good in this regard). Without knowing anything of the franchise’s pedigree, I can honestly say that the most resounding part of those commercials was the music track, which, while pretty darn good, is no reason to buy a video game. Then, internets, you all started raving about it. Finally, hearing Casey talk about it on Player vs. Rift, I decided to give it a shot. Holy. Friggin. Crap. That’s a bad thesis statement, so let me try again: Since diving in, I’ve found it one of the most entrancing and unique game experiences I’ve played this year.

Can I tell you, though, that I was extremely hesitant when I actually looked at the game? It’s a good thing this is a bastion of pure honesty, reader, because otherwise I might be tempted to hide the fact that graphics mean something to me. I might gloss over that great gameplay probably takes a backseat when the visuals look like they’re from 2004 and the game costs more than $15. I might hedge my bets and not mention my habit of cringing when facial animations have more in common with bad martial arts flicks from the 1980s than modern video games. It’s a good thing, because that’s pretty much Deus Ex in a nutshell.

Honesty, my friends.

Following that theme, let me also say that the voice acting is ranges from the surprisingly good to the eye-rollingly bad (I didn’t ask for this), animations can be stiff and the camera jarring, and the world will undoubtedly cause you to wonder first, why there are so many damn boxes everywhere, and second, why you can pick every one of those up and not the pop bottle spilled on the desk. In these ways, the game feels like it’s from a previous generation.

Long neck, tiny head.

Now let’s swing to the other direction. The world is static but generally non-linear. Even though you can’t interact with everything, you can interact with just enough to feel something real behind the surface. And detail, oh the detail! This is a world where everything has been placed with care, from debris, to vents, to NPCs, to sound effects. It is atmospheric enough to OVERCOME the graphics and that’s huge. You look the first time and see a game that’s not cutting edge. You look the next and see the world as it may someday be.  And there’s simply so much of it. Eidos Montreal gave us the ability to break into apartments, hack into computers, climb to rooftops, and invade gang territory, all aside from the main story. You can do these things simply because you’re able to, and you will, because it reveals more of the world and adds to the atmosphere which propels you forward.

But, let’s talk about actual game play, the main reason I sat down to write this.  Where Deus Ex succeeds and is in providing options. I absolutely LOVE that there are multiple ways to solve each mission and conversation tree. I LOVE that I can be a ruthless killer or a silent spy. I enjoy that I’m rewarded for every single thing that I do, no matter how I do it. Character customization is real and impactful and only ever provides options for how to complete missions instead of taking them away. If you’re patient, and willing to overlook boss fights, you can play through this entire action-RPG without every killing a soul. Or you can kill everyone and pick their pockets when you’re done. There is no one path to completing a mission. You can go in guns blazing or sneak through a ventilation duct, robbing offices along the way. You can tranquilize your enemies, disarm them, and move on, or climb into the rafters while their backs are turned. If you can think of a way to do it, you probably can. It’s that good.

How many games allow you to do that? Not many. When I first started playing, it felt like Fallout or Borderlands; first person, big guns, iron sights. I shot my way through the first mission. Then the game startled me and I was responsible for a room full of hostages being suffering from poison gas. It shook me out of my first-person-shooter mold. When I got to the last room and the rebel leader held an office worker hostage, I stopped and talked. I played mind games with him and saved that hostage without ever firing my weapon. Since then, I’ve discovered how much fun it is to stealth and tranq. until I’m spotted, then to fight my way out of a tough situation. I am the deadly but not-so-secretive spy.

What I love about Deus Ex is that it’s the RPG player’s shooter; it is the thinking man’s a stand-off. It isn’t your story but it is Adam Jensen’s, and you’re guiding him on an intricate path of conspiracy and intrigue, deciding when to kill and when to save. The narrative forms around you, conforms to your decision making. In short, it has me hooked.

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How Schools Create Tomorrow’s Gamers

Categories:

a. MMORPG, b. Console, d. Everything Else

September 6, 2011

by

Raise your hand if you remember Oregon Trail – the original Oregon Trail. How about Where in the World if Carmen San Diego? Math Blaster? Probably a lot of you do. Where did you first encounter them? If you said “in school” you can happily stand beside the majority of twenty-, thirty-somethings as the first generation of gamers to be produced by the modern education system. Since those days in the early nineties, schools have played an increasingly important role in grooming tomorrow’s gamers. The reverse is also true, games have become an important tool for educators, too. Wrapped with a bow: gamers breed learners and learners breed gamers.

It’s probably been a while since you’ve spent a week in an elementary or high school classroom, but let me assure you, games are a pivotal part of modern education. In the morning, a struggling reader practices phonetics with a talking squirrel on the library computer. Before lunch, a senior studies for his history exam with a rousing game of jeopardy on the class smart board. That afternoon, a fifth grader supplements his math lesson with a first-person shooter where aliens hold up multiplication problems as a form of defense. A second grader “reads” an interactive storybook and “helps” the main character by answering comprehension questions. Games become a part of every subject, at every grade, at some point.

School’s have finally caught on: Games have an uncanny knack for making the mundane interesting. Students of every age prefer games to work and are far more likely to invest in something competitive than compulsory. In a way, schools were the first major institutions to embrace gamification. Reading competitions, behavior competitions, school spirit contests; they’re all effective game-based ways of guiding students towards a particular set of actions and rewarding them when they do.

Moving those principals into specific content areas, wrapping them with fun graphics, animations, and sounds, instantly makes the topic more accessible to children (or teens). And they love it. They look forward to it. They ask for it. The current generation of students is being taught to love games at they same time they learn to read and study. It’s rather remarkable that so many teachers seem oblivious that their own actions are indoctrinating kids into the “time wasting” evil of video games – or that this very thing shows that gaming has an immense potential for depth beyond their own derision.

Their disdain is made especially contrary considering how uniquely suited games are for enabling teachers to know and, well, teach their students better. In the education field, we place an immense emphasis on differentiation and tailoring our lessons to the individual student. Games are an incredibly powerful tool in meeting that very goal. Take the phonetics game, for example. Sure, it helps the student learn her phonemes, but it also collects data on every answer she provides, as well as every other student who uses the program. At the end of the week, it puts those results into graphs and charts and sends it back to the teacher so she can change the difficulty or focus for next week. The teacher can then use that information to see where her students succeed and struggle, where they’re at grade-level and where they need extra help. It allows that teacher to know her students better and focus on what will help them most. It’s incredibly empowering, and equally important, allows the teacher to spend more time teaching and less time collecting that data herself.

It’s a common refrain in school break rooms that kids today spend too much time plugged in. It’s games and computers and text messages. Yet very few teachers ever take the time to look at why they approach life in that way. It’s not just the march of technology or poor parenting, it’s that for years we’ve shown students that games – and especially video games – are fun. It’s that they’ve finally caught on to how immense and limitless the internet really is. As teachers, we have to bear the responsibility of our methods and not shrug it off. More importantly, we have to look outside of our own little corner and realize: Gaming is anything but worthless, and if that’s not so, why have we created a system in which it’s a central part?

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A 3DS Revision Already? [What About Current Owners, Guys?]

Categories:

b. Console

September 2, 2011

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Despite claims to the contrary, there’s been some speculation lately that the 3DS may be in line for a hardware revision. Think “3DS Lite” or “3DS XL.” Given that the system only launched a scant six months ago, this would come as a big surprise. The thing is, the system has pretty much bombed. If Nintendo had an “Oh Poop” button, they’d be hitting it now — and they have, with the huge price cut. The fact that the system priced dropped $80 in those six months also came as a big surprise.

My question is this, though: If Nintendo does surprise us again, how do they compensate early adopters this time? Should they have to?

The hardware is admittedly flawed. The battery life is abysmal. The hinges get loose. The top and bottom screens rub together, prompting some people to remove the feet from their Xbox 360s and stick them between the lids. There are a handful of less disastrous problems with the design too: strange stylus placement that almost always means stabbing your cartridge, oddly positioned d-pad and buttons. I’ve personally taken to not using the d-pad at all because it causes hand cramps.

So a revision would probably be the best thing.

Except that it will piss off everyone who’s already purchased one. I’ve read comments all over the internet where early adopters are decrying even the discussion of new hardware. Inevitably, someone comes along and reminds them that they chose to buy that 3DS and they got what they paid for. This is true, except for the screen, and hinge, and button placement problems, which are only revealed in time. All of that aside, let’s assume for a minute that none of these problems exist. People would still feel cheated out of their money.

When a better designed, more functional, and less expensive version of the same console releases so close to the original hardware they bought on faith, people feel tricked. Given how far out design changes are usually planned, they may even be right — should these rumors be true, of course. So the impetus will be on Nintendo to convince these customers they weren’t shafted; that their $80 more expensive hardware wasn’t a stop-gap money grab version of a beta test. Can they even offer enough to prevent that? Will Mr. Fils-Aime take a salary cut like his counterpart in Japan?

Even though we’re talking about their most dedicated, most faithful fans here, short of an exchange program, I really don’t think so.

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3 comments

F2P STO Means I’ll Play It

Categories:

d. Everything Else

September 1, 2011

by

So there’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on right now about Star Trek Online going F2P. First off, let me just say: Wilhelm is right, why wasn’t this game free-to-play already? It’s for that reason that I entirely agree with a big part of said fuffle: The game simply wasn’t worth $15 a month. Free with occasional purchases, now that’s something I could see myself doing. Despite how much the game has grown (those season episodes are a great idea), the breadth and variety of content was seriously lacking at launch, and I find myself struggling to overcome that initial impression. Despite wanting to play for the last couple months, I justify spending $15 just to check out a game for a couple of hours.

That’s where the subscription model breaks down for Cryptic. STO isn’t a bad game, it’s just not the deep, polished experience most people look for in a $15 a month fee. Remove the monthly sub, however, and you have a game that’s far above a lot of other F2P offerings. STOs problem was never that it wasn’t fun, it was that it wasn’t fun for long enough at a time. You can see jaggies for so long before you start to think of how much better some other game does it. For all of that, though, the game is a blast to play off-and-on. It’s kind of like that girl (or guy) you date for a while but wouldn’t want to marry. Take away the fee and you don’t have to worry about those awkward phone calls anymore. You’re done? You’re done.

I’m happy at this news. I’ve said for a while that I’d go back to STO if it was F2P and assumed they must have been doing alright to have not made the move already. They probably were and this is a lateral move to get in line with Perfect World’s other F2P titles. I bet this makes them do better, though, and honestly, I really hope they do. STO always deserved to do better and to be more than what it was. This will help get them there.

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6 comments

Like a Leper, We Try, Try Again

Categories:

a. MMORPG

August 31, 2011

by

Dragon quintessence makes tartagons mossy.

It’s an interesting thing, being limited in what you can play. My motivation to hop into MMOs has dropped to next to nothing, yet my interest in doing so has skyrocketed. When I’d usually be logging on RIFT, I’m instead logging into a match of Call of Duty: Black Ops on my PS3. Inevitably, matches either go very good or very bad, and the entire time I’m thinking of how I’d rather be grinding footholds or invasions for my next source machine – RIFT’s built in stat augmenter. I’m a sore thumbed contradiction, gov’nah, and methinks it’s time to end the fast.

If you read my last post, you know that I’ve been battling PC problems not dissimilar from a leper trying to keep his ear attached. Despite everything I try to do, the damned thing just keeps falling off. Or in my case, turning blue and tossing out a cryptic error message. I finally woke up and said to hell with it. I write this post from work – hey, man needs coffee and coffee and I need our alone time – having just checked Newegg for a tracking number on a new motherboard. Free at last, free at last, in two days time I’ll be free at last. Or so help me I might just break something. … Eff you, Gigabyte.

Anyways, what time I have gotten in on RIFT has been delightful. Trion is literally letting me collect dragon tears. From “motes” that look strangely like eggs. Yes, we’re killing baby dragons, “none the wiser” and turning in their still-wet tears for loot. Aren’t you a strong warrior now. Then again, it’s loot. Warcraft once had me collect butterfly dust to coke up a Goblin in a pirate hat and THAT was only for little gold. You probably did it too. Low standards, we MMO players.

Oh and a final note, driven entirely by a total hour of play since last Friday: Thank the sweet Lord and checkerbox boxers for free-and-instant server transfers. Whoever decided it should cost $25 to escape the PvP hell that is grief-centric PvP should be flagged and feathered in the opposite faction’s capital city. Faeblight, where have you been all my life…

 

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7 comments

Techies! I need your help — which RAM should I keep?

Categories:

d. Everything Else

August 29, 2011

by

Hi Guys, I need your help. This post isn’t about MMOs but if you have some tech know-how, I’d really appreciate your opinion. I need all the input I can get.

This weekend has been trying. I put together a new motherboard/CPU/RAM combo and made the mistake of not checking what RAM the motherboard manufacturer had certified. Since yesterday, I’ve been getting loads of BSODs and it has absolutely been driving me nuts. — At this point we break to thank Ferrel for his unending patience and advice — Most of them have the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT message, which indicates bad drivers or RAM. I ran memtest for about 10 passes and got nothing, so I proceeded to format and re-install windows, then updated everything possible through the manufacturer website. Next load up, blue screen with a random driver message. Little later, same thing; random driver message. I was frustrated, so I rolled my BIOS back to its earliest version, the one that shipped with it, and I seemed to be stable. Hour or so later, you guessed it, BSOD but now we’re back to the PFN_LIST being corrupt. Ugh.

Throughout all this, I’d explored different memory kits Gigabyte’s certified with this board. To meet my 16GB 1600MHz goal, I have two options based on that list. Please click the links below for their full tel specs.

  •  A new 2x4GB 8GB total kit: To get to 16GB here, the most natural option is going to be to just buy two sets. As I’ve read repeatedly in the many RAM site’s I’ve been visiting, pushing two kits together can cause issues, though hopefully easy to fix.
  • A new 4x4GB 16GB  total kit: This kit isn’t listed on Gigabyte QVL list at all, though the product number is only slightly different, which leads me to believe their in the same series. There is a question lingering in my mind. It wants to know if the difference in product numbers has more to do with selling them as a set of matched four, rather than anything that would prevent it from running like its certified brother in point one.
The question then, is do I install two certified 8-gig kits, probably not tested to work with each other or across all four slots, or one maybe-should-be full 16-gig kit that should at least run amongst itself; how the system handles it is anybody’s guess. 
I’m leaning toward using two 8-gig kits, because at least they’ve been certified independently. What do I know, though. I’m throwing this one out  there to you in the hopes that someone might have a better idea on what would be the best choice. Once the new ones are installed, I hope to never see another driver or PFN_LIST bluescreen again in my life.
Thank you guys. Even if you don’t have a ton of really technical know-how, if you’ve been in this situation, or know just enough to share what you’d do in my shoes, I’d really appreciate hearing it.

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Sorry, Gamestop, That’s Not How It Works [Stealing Stuff You Paid For]

Categories:

b. Console, d. Everything Else

August 24, 2011

by

You know, I try to cut Gamestop some slack. Sure, I know about how they open games to keep discs behind the counter. I even know how they let their employees rent games which they turn around and sell as “new.”  This… this is something else. In case you can’t open the link, here’s what’s reported. Gamestop, probably the biggest game-centric company in the country, has openly admitted that they’ve been stealing free game vouchers from copies of Deus Ex (for OnLive), then turning around and selling them as new. Their excuse is that “We don’t make a habit of promoting competitive services without a formal partnership.”

Well, I’m sorry, but screw you. If they didn’t want to support a competitive service than someone at Gamestop should have passed on selling the game. It’s that simple. Someone messed up and they’re passing the  buck onto the consumer with a great back shaft up their backside and a middle finger to OnLive.

What eats me, though, isn’t that I won’t be getting a free copy of the game — I’m not planning on buying it for any platform — but that this is flat-out, brazen theft. I don’t care if it’s a competing service or not. Gamestop doesn’t get to decide what get included in their game box. It’s not their product to change up and modify. What’s next, they take the extra controller out of the 360 package because “good enough” is really good enough? To hell with that. Publishers and manufacturers get to decide their products, Gamestop just gets to shill them.

I was never one to hate on Gamestop. I prefer them over the cheapness that is Walmart and the giant openness that is Best Buy. They are small, and concentrated, and have what I want at a discount with trade-ins, plus a bunch of stuff the big guys would never even consider carrying. That’s a good formula. This, though… this makes it worth going somewhere else to buy they game. At least there you’ll get what you pay for.

OnLive and Square, I hope you sue these A-holes.

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5 comments

Everybody Hates Rogues [RIFT]

Categories:

a. MMORPG

August 22, 2011

by

I’m sorry rogues, but we really don’t like you very much. You’re quick, you’re stealthy, and you have a penchant for leaving things lodged in our backs. Not to mention, what’s with all the shadow and smoke? 80s horror movie fan, are we? Here’s another thing, who wears leather these days? Again, I’m getting the sense that someone is stuck in the 80s. This just in: Patch 1.5 to add sleeveless-denim tunics.

All of that said, I rolled a Rogue last week and have pwned absolute face with it. If this is what leather pants gets you, I’m sold. (Though the dwarf has some serious muffin top).

Here’s how a day in his life goes.

NPC: Welcome, young rogue! I have a quest of epic propor—
Rogue: BAM! SLASH! Dead.

(Yes, he shouted it out with each step. If Emeril can do it, so can he).

I met a spider kindly writing my name in a dewey bit of web. Dead. I met a frail girl beset by goblins. Dead (after the goblins, of course). I met a mage in PvP. Yep. Dead.

I swear, there is nothing this fat little guy can’t kill, except for maybe Scott Hartsman. But then, if Dwarfie (yes, Dwarfie) is an Assassin, Scott Hartsman is like the Grand Assassin. He’s like Ezio with a bandanna and less hitch in his giddy-up.

Anyways, and I hope you’re sitting down, running the world with this little stealth bomber has also shown me just how much better Guardians have it than Defiants. They get color, and hills, and rivers, and caves. Defiants have a valley. And part of it is red. Seriously, Trion? Are you trying to make me go dwarf here? Because, you know, once you do dwarf, Defiants get wharfed. Or worfed, if you prefer.

Long story short, I have a gigantic cleric with two horns on his golden helmet, and I have a short, pudgy, ass-kickin’ rogue who would wipe the floor with him any time 35 levels from now. Yeah, he’s got some growing to do. Thankfully, there’s enough leather and denim to last me well into the next expansion pack.

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The Ron Popeil WoW Tank – Set It and Forget It

Categories:

a. MMORPG

August 17, 2011

by

This is interesting. (And thank you to Spinks for the tip). For as long as I can remember, WoW has suffered from a tank shortage. Over the years, Blizzard has done a lot to try to overcome this phenomenon with, quite generally, temporary results. According to this latest dev log, it seems that Blizzard has decided to remove threat and its management as a concern almost entirely.

We expect the community to gradually stop using threat-tracking mods as players realize they don’t need them. It’s an important distinction that the concept of “aggro” will still exist. If a DPS spec attacks an add the second it shows up, then the creature is going to come at her. However, if a tank gets an attack or two on a target, then the target should stick to the tank. Worrying about who has the creature’s attention should generally only be a concern at the start of a fight or when additional creatures join the battle.

Since tanks generate more threat than other classes as part of their normal rotations, these upcoming changes will essentially mean the first few hits generate more threat than anything a DPS can  do. White on rice. Stuck.

It would be very easy to cry out that this is one more way in which Blizzard is “dumbing down the game,” but that’s not the approach I’m going to take. Believe it or not, I support this change. Tanking has long been the singular role people avoid most. It carries the most responsibility, requires the most strategy, and the person playing is most often seen as the reason a group wipes; not to mention that it also asks the player to do much more research outside of the game.

Reading this, though, several thoughts comes to mind that we need to consider. Taking one of my favorite blogger’s leads, let’s move to bullet point format.

  • Without threat, what fun is there in tanking? Holding aggro is what defines every aspect of playing a tank. If that’s no longer a concern, how is playing a tank any different than playing a DPS? Management is what makes any class fun. What do we now need to manage? And don’t say cooldowns — yours or otherwise.
  • Tanks will be rated on comparative DPS. If threat management as a skill is no longer a consideration, it becomes a matter of survivability (which shouldn’t be an issue if the classes are balanced properly), damage, and buffs/debuffs. Since tanks have always been designed around being buffed first and buffing others second, damage will now be a primary differentiator. A whole new balance issue arises.
  • Will this really solve anything? I don’t think the tank shortage has a lot to do with the mechanics of tanking. More than anything, I believe it’s related to the perception of leadership. Not everyone wants to shoulder the burden of leading their group and being responsible for its success. I don’t say that to sound cocky, but the expectation of leadership is something every single tank has to face at some point. Most players, I firmly believe,  just want to “roll with it.”  Removing threat and reworking stats doesn’t address the underlying issue that DPS is simply more fun to the vast majority of players.
All that said, this is a big step in the right direction. I find tanking fun. Managing my threat, coordinating my pulls, and swooping in to save the clothie are things that I enjoy. If taking threat out as a consideration gets more people to try it out, I support it. For as many people that will be upset by this — and I understand why, see the first bullet — this is the kind of big change that needs to happen to shake things up. Bribes aren’t enough. Re-working mechanics, well, now we’re on the right track.
Still, there are some big questions to be answered here. How will Blizzard change tank classes whose rotations are nigh-entirely based on threat generation? I don’t know a single tank who’d rather be a shoddy DPS. How do they keep tanking challenging without re-hashing tank switches and dance circles in every encounter? More importantly, how do they convince people that tanking is something they would enjoy anyways? The culture of fear inherent in trying something new has no stronger place than in the pointman of the holy trinity.
Audio Blog Version for your web perusal: [audio: http://www.gamebynight.com/episodes/gbnab81711.mp3]

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