Remove the Party Experience Bonus!

[Rataxes]

1. Large games being created wherein there is no incentive to party leads to few to no people partying. That may not be all bad. However, in game mechanics, its leads to red x all over the screen, and a lulling of the wariness versus PK's in public games.

Actually I think the fact that it has become a common practice to always join the party upon entering a game has lulled players into a false sense of security and a belief that players who choose not to party are more likely to be PK's, which is false, at least unless Blizzard fixes current PK exploits such as Hydras and Triggerhacks. Breaking up the current party system would increase PK wariness, not decrease it.

That leads to better opportunity for a PK to slip into your act/screen during a leveling game. In HC, that is simply bad

If the party bonus was to be removed, so that there would be less parties and you would be more likely to be alone on the map, I doubt a PK would just be able to "slip in". If you hear the sound and then see a red cross closing in on you a few seconds later, what are you going to think? Does it even matter if there are any other red crosses in the neighbourhood, unlikely as it is? One would regardless of whether you have green or red markings surrounding you, have to be pretty thick not realize that it's time to either leave or fight at that moment.

That said, an advantage to the party system is that a nuisance PK is clearly tagged. A disadvantage is that if he just wants to kill one person, he has to hostile the whole group. Personally, I prefer it that way

I don't think PK's are clearly tagged with the current party system. There's no way to be sure who can and can not be a PK. If Hydra PK'ing, Triggerhack and the likes are removed in v1.10, then maybe you'd once again be able to somewhat trust your party members to not suddenly kill you. But elimination of those things will cause everyone to have to hostile someone at least a few seconds before he can actually move close enough to become a threat. Once you hear the sound, between the name and the way the PK will be acting/moving, spotting him is easy enough, regardless of whether there are other markings around and whether they are green or red.

2.  Sharing experience is a way to reward team play, or multiplayer games, which in turn reduces the number of games on a given server at a time, and hence enhances bnet stability and game availability.  If the Hostility system survives pretty much intact, you still have plenty of ways to deal with leachers.

There are plenty of rewards for team play, if the team members are willing to put their mind to it and work for it, so there is no need for an experience bonus, particularly not with the problems it causes.

There would not be more games created. People would still fill up a game to maximize the monster experience, but players would be spread out across the acts instead of concentrated to one area. I dare say that these exping parties made possible with the party bonus have caused far more games to be created. Cow- and Blood-run games are cleared in a matter of minutes because you have 8 people focusing their efforts on one area, instead of maybe even as much as 8 areas. So in the time it takes for a Pre-LoD Hell game to clear out, 3-4 Cow run games (which due to still probably exceeding 5 minutes, or because there's always one straggler left, would remain on the servers for at least another 5 minutes) would have been created and cleared out. I bet Cow running party exp games result in at least twice as many games up and running at any given time, than the old-fashioned Hell exp games where everyone cleared their own area.

The Hostile system, while indeed working against most leeches, is far more troublesome than all-out party XP removal. Lets say you have two leeches in your party, you did not invite them, but someone else did (because of the Party XP bonus, why should he care if there are leeches in his party?). Now you want to kill them, or at least scare them away. The other players aren't really backing you up, since the leeches really aren't costing them anything. If you want to do this you either have to make an agreement with all other "real players" in the party, and if you manage that you might as well just create a new party without the leechers. Or, you have to hostile the entire party, which, even if you try to explain everything to the rest of the party, will inevitably lead to shouts of "PK!!" and half the party immediately leaving the game.

The ironic thing with your statement is that it is precisely because of the party XP bonus that the hostile system is a very troublesome way of getting rid of leeches. When it wasn't a common practice to always join "the" party, scaring away annoying looters or leechers away with the Hostile function was the easiest thing in the world, no complications what so ever, since the looters would likely not be member of any party, and so you hostiling them wouldn't upset anyone or in any way disrupt the game.

3. Your love of the dog eat dog of pre LoD glosses over the problem of perspective: is Diablo a competition?

Yes, it used to be anyhow. I don't think I need to tell you that this competition added much more excitement to the game. It's a pretty general rule of life that making a competition out of something almost always adds to the enjoyment and excitement. While it may not add to comfort or relaxation, which is what some people value and enjoy, I frankly don't care about leisure players who for some reason want to play in the (supposed to be) competitive environment that is Closed D2.

Well, you don't have to share experience NOW, or did you not know that? Just unparty, and kill away. No one else gets the XP, and while you don't get the party bonus, you get all points for all kills. Leachers will at worst grab items.

You can't have competition without competitors :) It could be argued that the party is the competitor, but that makes it at worst 7 vs 1, which isn't really fair. Believe me, I'd be glad to unparty and fight with the rest of the party over the monsters and loot if I thought I had a fighting chance, but that's rarely the case.

I frequently leveled up characters in areas away from BH and got two benefits. All points for me, my merc leveled up faster, and whatever dropped was not immediately snapped up by someone else. Now, if you care about the ladder as a competition, and consider the XP over time is the goal of this game, then I can understand why you take the position you do.

Oh I do this almost all the time, solo in 8 player games in the untouched areas of Act 5 that is. The prime goal of the game can be argued about for ages, but the Ladder is surely one of top contenders, or used to be. The current ladder is pretty uninteresting, since one look at it reveals nothing but thousands of clvl 99 characters, but back in the classic days, the ladder did actually mean something and many were very interested in the progress of the top ladder runners. I don't at all mind it's return, which is likely to come with v1.10. I care about anything that can make for a good competition. This includes both the experience Ladder, and PvP tournaments.,

Your suggestion is, in my view, a plea to increse the amount of hate and discontent on bnet, not change it.

I want nothing but for D2 to return to the exciting and competitive nature and atmosphere it had in the beginning. I don't see how you connect competition with hatred, are all sports also built on that emotion?