Recently, Blizzard Lead Systems Designer “Ghostcrawler” made several comments regarding Blizzards efforts to balance classes in the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm:
Yes. We have made a few mistakes in the 3.X patch cycle where we over-buffed or over-nerfed a spec. Aside from the risk that we’ll have to revert some of the changes, it just sucks when, say, all hunters felt like they had to go Survival or all mages felt like they had to go Arcane. Ideally your spec would be a choice, but we feel like the second best scenario is to not keep changing which spec is on top (especially when that requires you to re-gear, etc.).
Players also tend to have different expectations for dps than we do. It’s typical now for anyone who doesn’t see their dps at 10,000 (or to see simulation output that suggests 10,000) to assume that something is wrong with their class.
…We believe you can’t just balance around the best players. It’s possible for a class to be too good among less-skilled players (perhaps because it is easy to play) or too good among highly-skilled players (perhaps because only they can get the full benefit out of it). You need to look at players at a variety of skill levels.
You also have to be very careful trying to correlate population with power. I’m sure there is a correlation, but it might not be a very strong one, at least in PvE. It is probably more true of PvP. In PvE, a lot of other factors can influence population. Most new players to WoW have a pretty good idea of what a warrior or mage is, but may not understand the mechanics or role of a shaman or warlock. Some players just gravitate towards certain mechanics and find others bland or frustrating. Players can make life-long decisions about their class based on things as non-power-gamery as art or possible races.
Where we tend to take notice is if something is really far out of whack. If players are abandoning a class or flocking to a new one, then there might be something going on. If particular classes or specs seem to fall behind in raid representation over time, it’s usually in our best interest to at least try and understand why.
Our community, especially the active online component, has become very obsessed with class equality over the course of Lich King. I’m sure some of that is the increasing sophistication and maturity (in the sense of understanding mechanics) of the player base. (Remember, a lot more players are running heroics and especially raids than ever before in WoW’s history.) I’m sure another is partially the fault of myself and other developers for being relatively more vocal about our design goals and intent. Overall, I think the community would be healthier if it focused more on boss strategies and less on intra-class competition, but I understand that a competitive streak is something that goes hand in hand with being a hardcore gamer.
Insightful words from Ghostcrawler always surprise me. Is it possible that Blizzard is learning to measure game metrics beyond SuperDudeBroXXSephiroth’s WoWWebStats post on the “ROUGES R TOO OP” thread? Truly, this is a delightful development for the player community. Ghostcrawler’s evolving perception of The Game becomes more apparent in threads occupied only by the delightful Troll tribes of the Horde, rather than ravenous comments of idiotic Internet trolls.
Maybe—just maybe—this is a sign that the community at large should stop bitching about Soandso’s DPS, or tanking, or PVP stun build, and let the developers decide what is balanced based on factual information provided in a concise and constructive manner. Your personal experience with The Game is not necessarily relevant to LeeroyCloudStrifeJenkins, the overpowered class X’s, experience. The Game is really a complex layering of perceptions that vary wildly between different players.
Should the trolls continue to excrete verbal diarrhea on the official forums? Is the implication that sociology plays into MMORPG development too far of a stretch? Is my STFU Trolls message one written in vain? Let me know what you think by registering or replying below.
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