(10-24-2011, 11:44 AM)Quark Wrote: The fact that someone can think this scares the hell out of me.
Okay. Why? You say much has been improved. Talents are in good, maybe the best, shape. Raid encounters are well-designed and fun. New areas are better than ever. Apparently ruining all this, to the point where it "scares the hell out of you" that I could think the game is in good shape, you point out two problems.
1) Levelling is too quick for the zone design.
Okay, yes, this is irritating. However, the overall benefits of fast levelling make it worth it for me. Besides, if you want (and I sometimes do), you can finish zones. It means you don't level optimally, but I'm fine with that. Is this a dealbreaker? More like a minor annoyance.
2) They're nerfing content too fast.
Also irritating. But there's always heroic content, for elite guilds. And only the very, very top of the raiding curve finishes, and gets sick of, content quickly. Even if I was still in the raiding game this tier, I can see where Terenas Lurkers are - we're not wafflestomping the content, certainly not on Heroic modes. Also, remember the history of the game, how quickly Illidan bit the dust after Kael'thas finally died? Blizzard has swung several times between bitchin' hard and laughably easy, at least from the high-end raider's perspective. Nihil novum sub sole.
Gear obsoletes quickly, and is available to n00bs. This, apparently, leads you to the "why bother" question, which doesn't concern me at all. I play because I enjoy playing. The shinies are there to help me see newer and awesomer things, not as an end in themselves. Content is the relevance, gear is the enabler. I downright love the idea of the challenge dungeon, where gear is normalized. I've been saying they should do this for years. Thought experiment: If I could press a button, get all the best gear, and block my characters from the content, would I press it? Of course not. But you seem to be suggesting doing exactly that, except the button is labelled "random heroics."
So, am I worried about these problems? No, not particularly. I hope they learn from their mistakes and do better, as always, but are they dealbreakers? Not even close.
-Jester