Poster: Zhak at 4/23/2006 4:00:45 PM PDT
Subject: Socially Defined Class Roles |
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I am upset by the evolutionary turn that WOW has taken on its own through player norms.
By that I mean, I think that the player community has really hurt itself in some ways.
Socially Defined Class Roles are the bane of many good players, and many alternative play-styles.
For example, I have a warrior friend that has completely built is character for DPS. He has the Lionheart Healm, Stronghold Gauntlets, and a whole host of other dps gear. His main stats are Agility and Strength. He is an arms/fury spec.
And if you've ever seen my friend play, He is a DPS machine. He regularly out DPSs rogues, hunters, and mages, and by a wide margin too. But in dungeon groups, other players can't seem to bend their minds around the concept of a DPSing warrior. They think Warrior:Tank, and ask my friend to go defensive stance and wear a shield.
In my friend's case, you could easily not have a rogue in the group and get another person to handle the tanking. My friend is *not* a tank. He is a master of DPS.
He has had a hellova time with raid guild recruitment too, because raid leaders can't seem to understand the concept of a DPSing warrior. Let me remind the reader: A warrior who often-times out DPSs rogues, hunters, and mages. And guild recruiting officers tell him that he has to respec to Protection. What a waste of his talents.
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Another example: Hybrid Classes.
Why is Secondary Healing *the only* accaptable raid function of Druids, Shaman and Paladins? What's wrong with a druid who has played from level 1-59 as feral, and has built his character around that playstyle all of a sudden expected to get a new set of healing gear and be a heal b!tch for some raid guild?
And what about Elemental or Enhancement Shaman? They can pack a pretty serious punch, but yet in raids they are expected to heal.
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This is no fault of Blizzards'. They designed these classes to be very versatile, but the player community has determined that if you're a warrior, you are a tank, and if you have heal spells, you are a healer. And I think that is just plain wrong.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8011409&p=#post8011409 |
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Poster: Tseric at 4/23/2006 4:08:07 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Socially Defined Class Roles |
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Player mandate is a tough thing to counter through game design. The lingering effects of the "Holy Trinity" will be felt to some degree for what I think will be a fair amount of time to come.
The devs have certainly tried to "hybridize" every class to allow them flexible playstyle, but this will probably never counter the desire of the min/maxers who want optimal performance in an encounter. "Yes, a druid can tank, but is it the best tank?" will probably always be put forth by someone, no matter the situation.
It is an interesting topic you bring up...[ post edited by Tseric ]
My other sig is a rejoinder
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8011409&p=#post8011472 |
Poster: Tseric at 4/23/2006 4:23:04 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Socially Defined Class Roles |
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Q u o t e:
is it really that interesting?
you roll a class from the start.. and you see its a warrior.. you really think to yourself im gonna be a primary DPS class..
or a druid.. you think im gonna be doing the best caster damage and i can tank when i want to?
priests really thought to themselves i should just do damage... ?
i think those are design flaws not really players problems... if the design of the game allows for players to take certain classes to do things like that.. then whos fault was it really?
i think blizzard developement could of put an end to this stuff a long time ago
What you are arguing is stricter roles. The validity of this has already been demonstrated in other games. If the role is too strict, players feel like the game is telling them how to play. A priest that can only heal feels pigeon-holed and their game experience is greatly diminished.
We would effectively be trading one set of complaints for another as players would be under the impression we are telling them how to play.
The current overlap of roles between classes helps for combination of groups and allows players to play rather than waiting on the "missing class".
My other sig is a rejoinder
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8011409&p=#post8011593 |
Poster: Tseric at 4/23/2006 4:28:34 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Socially Defined Class Roles |
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Q u o t e:
Unforunetly Blizzard designed the encounters in such a way that this min maxing is necessary.
Min/maxing is and will be a choice for many players in any game. Frankly, it is a type of play style that is ubiquitous in gaming and I seriously doubt it can be removed through game design. There is simply no way to tell players that they should play less effeciently or stop crunching all of those numbers to get the most performance of your class. You are trying to attribute a natural behavior of gamers to a company's design decisions. The connection doesn't really hold.
My other sig is a rejoinder
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8011409&p=#post8011630 |
