05-01-2004, 12:33 AM
I understand that some of the most annoying aspects of this feature (e.g. having to rest for a full 8 hours to get any benefit from resting) will be changed. With that in mind, I still look at this as an unnecessary complication. It doesn't add to the immersion of the game, and it does not appear to enhance gameplay in any useful way, and yet it is something to worry about and something to make balancing the game more complicated.
It seems to me that the only "benefit" of the system is that it gives Blizzard more headroom with high end content against people who would share accounts and play 24/7. However, no matter how the system ends up getting implemented, the account sharers will still be at least 3-5 times as far into the game into of equivalent hours compared to the oft-mentioned "casual gamers". For how many months will it make a difference whether they are 5 times ahead or 10 times ahead? Unless the end game is something that stays static for months and months, truly casual gamers will never get to it. Let's not forget, most casual gamers will not even get the game until many months after it is released. There is no way that they will ever catch up to the content the powergamers are accessing unless you simply stop providing new content to the powergamers for a long, long time. With that in mind, Blizzard should focus on making the game fun and interesting at all stages and all available character levels (which so far they have done a pretty decent job on), rather than trying to socialize the level of all characters so everyone can get to the fun areas.
The latter effort will most likely be futile, but people won't mind it as long as it doesn't detract from enjoyment of the game in the meantime. The current implementation has detracted from the game for many players, by forcing them to wait for the 8th hour to expire, or forcing them to backtrack to an inn costing valuable progress (would any casual gamer even think of logging onto WoW to play a 20 minute session in the current state?), or skewing the balance of quests and skill points so that people are doing them or getting them at very different rates with respect to level, or deciding not to group with friends of different levels because it will make you fatigue faster. These issues are being addressed, but I'm pretty skeptical about the whole deal.
It seems to me that the only "benefit" of the system is that it gives Blizzard more headroom with high end content against people who would share accounts and play 24/7. However, no matter how the system ends up getting implemented, the account sharers will still be at least 3-5 times as far into the game into of equivalent hours compared to the oft-mentioned "casual gamers". For how many months will it make a difference whether they are 5 times ahead or 10 times ahead? Unless the end game is something that stays static for months and months, truly casual gamers will never get to it. Let's not forget, most casual gamers will not even get the game until many months after it is released. There is no way that they will ever catch up to the content the powergamers are accessing unless you simply stop providing new content to the powergamers for a long, long time. With that in mind, Blizzard should focus on making the game fun and interesting at all stages and all available character levels (which so far they have done a pretty decent job on), rather than trying to socialize the level of all characters so everyone can get to the fun areas.
The latter effort will most likely be futile, but people won't mind it as long as it doesn't detract from enjoyment of the game in the meantime. The current implementation has detracted from the game for many players, by forcing them to wait for the 8th hour to expire, or forcing them to backtrack to an inn costing valuable progress (would any casual gamer even think of logging onto WoW to play a 20 minute session in the current state?), or skewing the balance of quests and skill points so that people are doing them or getting them at very different rates with respect to level, or deciding not to group with friends of different levels because it will make you fatigue faster. These issues are being addressed, but I'm pretty skeptical about the whole deal.