07-05-2012, 06:17 PM
I have a hunch that Blizzard may have been sucked into the trendy pseudo "social" hype epitomized by the success of Facebook and eBay. The degenerate model they promote is of a hollow product that contains minimal creative content, while exploiting and manipulating the content contributed by its users. Following this design philosophy, Blizzard has created a generic farming system that generates randomized content recycled by its users within a closed system managed by Blizzard as well.
Where I think this really hurts the game is with two of its most unbalanced aspects: items and elite mob skills. In both cases, attribute modifiers are randomly combined to produce unpredictable results. With items, the game generates enormous piles of worthless trash, a small percentage of useful gear, and a miniscule number of grossly overpowered prizes. The existence of extremely rare uber-items distorts both game balance expectations and AH market values.
Randomized combinations of elite mob skills wreak havoc on gameplay progression. The extreme, and in some cases impossible, difficulty spikes make the game both too hard and too easy, no matter what level you're at. What's worse is that out-of-control elite pack encounters often upstage the predictably scripted Act Boss showdowns that follow. This further trivializes the thin creative story content and produces a sense of anti-climax that emphasizes the randomly repetitive lowest common denominator of the game environment.
The cure for these maladies is for Blizzard to put some serious work into both item design and elite mob skill sets. Rather than unleash these things in obliviously random combinations, they should apply parametric controls that produce predominately interesting results, and eliminate the worst game-imbalancing abuses. In addition, Blizzard should hand-craft the most significant Legendary items and boss pack skill combinations, and reserve them for meaningful occasions. Players don't appreciate utterly random lethal encounters and completely unpredictable loot. We want a sense of relentlessly escalating danger and ferocity, culminating with correspondingly impressive rewards.
Where I think this really hurts the game is with two of its most unbalanced aspects: items and elite mob skills. In both cases, attribute modifiers are randomly combined to produce unpredictable results. With items, the game generates enormous piles of worthless trash, a small percentage of useful gear, and a miniscule number of grossly overpowered prizes. The existence of extremely rare uber-items distorts both game balance expectations and AH market values.
Randomized combinations of elite mob skills wreak havoc on gameplay progression. The extreme, and in some cases impossible, difficulty spikes make the game both too hard and too easy, no matter what level you're at. What's worse is that out-of-control elite pack encounters often upstage the predictably scripted Act Boss showdowns that follow. This further trivializes the thin creative story content and produces a sense of anti-climax that emphasizes the randomly repetitive lowest common denominator of the game environment.
The cure for these maladies is for Blizzard to put some serious work into both item design and elite mob skill sets. Rather than unleash these things in obliviously random combinations, they should apply parametric controls that produce predominately interesting results, and eliminate the worst game-imbalancing abuses. In addition, Blizzard should hand-craft the most significant Legendary items and boss pack skill combinations, and reserve them for meaningful occasions. Players don't appreciate utterly random lethal encounters and completely unpredictable loot. We want a sense of relentlessly escalating danger and ferocity, culminating with correspondingly impressive rewards.