» Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:48 pm Basically, I want to post why it is important for people to state their opinions, even if it feels like repeating yourself, and especially when it is in response to overly blunt, hate filled random bashing of anything that makes an IP stand alone, you know, as an IP. I copy/pasted it from my response box.
I hope this topic is different enough from the "venting" of the other one that it wont be locked out.... anyway, paste!-
I want to tell a short story, about LOTRO. I was a beta tester, i got involved there on the pre beta forums, I actually wrote up the concept for the legendary weopons system in the early beta(which they released with Moria, after "tweaking" the concept to fit with timesink MMO play and kinda ruining it, but I digress)
That game was under severe strict watch by the people that held the estate of Tolkien. As such, there was not going to be LOTRO: EQ with Hobbits. The game started out really, really true to lore. There was no tank, healer, DPS, there wasnt even really "wizards". The class designs simply were taken out of the book. A swaord and shield type, a duel wield type, a ranger/archer, the strong leader "captain", and a sage/loremaster that was based on Gandalf to a point. You could make a character, pick the type of combat you liked(or combat support, or support combat if that makes any sense) and succeed at the game solo, or in fellowships. It fit with the book. I cant emphasize that enough.
then, second stage beta came around, i think in like late late january or so. Revisions! The sword and shield? TANK. dual wield, archer, even the stealth characters? DPS. the rest? HEALERS. Why? because an extremely vocal minority wrote stuff about it, like " Me want Tankz" and "My healz0rz cant keep the whole team alive! I want more heal spelzz and less stupid attacks!" See, when stuff like that shows up, the dev team is mostly like "pfft, go back to EQ" but Corporate money backs see it, and they say "ONOZ my WoWz money is mad at us!!" and then send emails to the devs saying "you cant make a game thats so unorthodox! the players are mad!! Fix it!!" so then they made EQ with Hobbits.
I wrote a thread at the time of the changes. This is how I put it-
When the fellowship was in Moria, and trapped in that small room, with hoardes of goblins and a huge rock troll trying to bust the door down, what happened? Did Gandalf prepare his sword arm and staff to manipulate some fire? Did Gimli brandish his trusty ax to kill as many hated goblins as he could? did the hobbits brandish their small swords to defend themselves? Yeah. They did, they fought, all of them, as hard as they could to survive and escape. That was early beta.
Here was late beta, and eventually release-
Gandalf: "Gimli, get your shield, and stand in front and insult all those goblins! You can fight in between, but make sure you make them mad so the entire hoarde fights only you!! I will stand in back and healz you!!"
Gimli: "Dangit ye old sage! how'm I supposed to kill more goblins then Legolas if all I do is taunt!!?"
Legolas:" Hahaha, Gimli I am the DPS, It's my job to kill them all!!"
Gandalf: " just make sure you hold aggro on those goblins Gimli, or I will kick you from the fellowship! Hobbits, you stealth and backstab that Rock Troll when he busts in!"
Sounds just like in the books!!(not). But, thats what happened. The "tank" class went from a slightly safer, slightly less dmg class(you know, like a stout, hardy dwarf maybe?) to a safe, but so little dmg you couldnt solo after lvl 10 class. Rangers got a huge archery dmg buff. "heal spells", I forget what they were called in game, got a huge bump. The dual wield class went from less safe, but more dmg to REALLY less safe, in fact you will probably die unless you are lucky, but like more then double dmg of the tank type class.
Because, you have to have roles in team play for an MMO. And I mean really well defined concrete rolls. or else. (sarcasm)
And so, threads like what the OP put here, they are important. if you want to make sure the TES skills system or the like in TESO resembles anything remotely close to the flexibility of the SP games, you cant let the loud annoying hater trolls be the only voice.
End paste.
Basically, even when blatent trolls arise, the voice of reason must be turnd to their direction. Annoying as it can be sometimes, a sensible, non-hostile retort must be made. If only the fans of the most basic, bland over used gameplay/content design voice their opinion, then that is the opinion that will get read. the squeeky wheel gets the grease(or kick if you remember Minsc!)
I hope this has some value.
