azwing wrote:
iddigory, I think one very important aspect is missing from your analysis:
Arenas.
In my opinion, the introduction of arenas really snow-balled the problems with balance. They've been dealing with the aftermath of it ever since. Everything from CC to healing, to dps, to tanking...you name it. The rock-paper-scissor balance of larger scale battlegrounds just didn't work with the small-scale arenas. It forced Blizzard to make compromises on one side or the other (i.e., PvE or PvP) that usually made no one happy (well, except for the flavor-of-the-month crowd). A change to PvE made something OP in PvP, or vice versa...and the crying would begin again. I think between the homogenization of classes and the latest talent system, Blizz has just thrown up their arms and given up.
At this point, I'm only dabbling with leveling. Raiding just doesn't have much appeal anymore. From a leveler's perspective, the new talent system is really disappointing. Even it was only a psuedo-choice in the past, I liked the idea that I would get to pick something regularly...now, not so much.
azwing wrote:
iddigory, I think one very important aspect is missing from your analysis:
Arenas.
In my opinion, the introduction of arenas really snow-balled the problems with balance. They've been dealing with the aftermath of it ever since. Everything from CC to healing, to dps, to tanking...you name it. The rock-paper-scissor balance of larger scale battlegrounds just didn't work with the small-scale arenas. It forced Blizzard to make compromises on one side or the other (i.e., PvE or PvP) that usually made no one happy (well, except for the flavor-of-the-month crowd). A change to PvE made something OP in PvP, or vice versa...and the crying would begin again. I think between the homogenization of classes and the latest talent system, Blizz has just thrown up their arms and given up.
At this point, I'm only dabbling with leveling. Raiding just doesn't have much appeal anymore. From a leveler's perspective, the new talent system is really disappointing. Even it was only a psuedo-choice in the past, I liked the idea that I would get to pick something regularly...now, not so much.
Oh I completely agree with you. I was just trying to discuss the state of the game from player perspective and experience. The idea that Blizzard failed to give PVE players the PVE experience they wanted them to have and this being due to arena balance issues are not at all incompatible. But I don't think it's realistic to pardon Blizz on that part (which certainly hasn't been the policy of posters on this board in patch note threads, ever).
At the end of the day, someone who is bored or frustrated with a dungeon isn't going to rationalize their experience in terms of Blizzard's struggle to balance content. If they're thinking about it at all, it's just going to **** them off more.
And at the end of the day, they're bored/frustrated with the content, and that's Blizzard's fault. It's not required of the player to pay for something that bores/frustrates them. And since Blizzard is the one who
wants them paying, it's Blizzard's job to give them an experience to pay for.
In some ways, I do feel bad for Blizz's position. Well, I feel bad for the DEVS' position. The game grew really quickly, and then Blizzard was bought out by Activision. That adds a LOT of corporate pressure on them to make decisions from a business perspective.
If it was up to the Devs, Cata would never have launched in that unfinished state, and I'm perfectly willing to believe they could have pulled off the transition back to a CC model quite well. But business decisions forced them to release the game before it was finished, something directly contrary to Blizzard's approach to pretty much everything for most of their history, and the entire game.
And, honestly, that's probably the same thing that happened with arenas. The devs wanted them to be dungeon-level content. But esports were getting big, and business-side pressure forced them to gain more of the spotlight. And I'm sure that did make Blizzard a LOT of money.