The High Cost of No Consequences

On this week’s Blue Plz!, TotalBiscuit pontificated on the worgen and goblin racials for Cataclysm, and proceeded to inform everyone how great it was they were overpowered. He reminded us how in most RPGs, there is a cost associated with your decisions, but WoW has, interestingly enough, really removed penalties for any major decision you make in the game.

A Lost Philosophy

I have a confession to make: WoW is my first MMO. It is one I thoroughly enjoy, but it is unlike any RPG I have ever played before. My first RPG ever was Final Fantasy, the 8 bit masterpiece released on the original Nintendo. It was a game my dad had gotten for me from one of his friends at work who didn’t enjoy it, and he even gave me the official strategy guide. Even today, it has playability and will always have a special place in my heart.

One of the reasons FF has stood the test of time is because of the associated cost of the team you assemble. One of the first things in the strategy guide was an explanation of the classes which included their strengths and weaknesses. WoW has become a game where weaknesses aren’t accepted, but rather treated like roaches needing to be stomped out.

Pull your original WoW guide from all those years ago when you purchased vanilla. You will find class weaknesses listed. There was the hunter dead zone. Guess what, it no longer exists. There was a description of the warlock class and it essentially informed you that in exchange for a meat shield, you would be forced to kill things over time instead of blasting sons of bitches Inglorious Basterds style like the mages seem to like. Now, you can spec destruction and play very similarly to a mage with a little imp buddy to help do your dirty work.

The problem here is weaknesses are an integral part of an RPG. Just like in real life, an RPG should have an opportunity cost associated with the decisions you make. RPGs are special because the next best alternative is defined differently by every single player. As a paladin tank, I give up things like death grip, intervene, last stand, or role versatility, in exchange for bubbles, an entire second stand, and buffs to help every one of my allies. Why in the world should I feel privileged enough to rant and rave until get all of those cool abilities the other tanks have? The short answer is I shouldn’t.

Everyone Gets a Trophy

Astrella talked about the welfare epics, but at its core her post referred to a bigger problem. I call this the phenomena the “Pussification of America.” Its things like handing out participation trophies, having villains in Disney that don’t scare the holy crap out of you, or parents who think their kids shouldn’t read things like The Jungle because it’s too graphic. After all, who wants to have to explain to their kid they suck, Cruella de Ville was actually one crazy broad for wanting to skin puppies, or workers early in the 20^t^h century really were subjected to such horrible conditions?

Group removing class weaknesses, Astrella’s welfare epics, and TotalBiscuit’s comments on the current crappy racials, and you will find our phenomena has rooted itself deep into the mechanics of World of Warcraft. There are no choices with clear consequences. Of course, the lesser consequences turn into the great consequences. Eventually, if Blizzard follows their model of removing all consequences, the only thing we have to look forward to, as TB pointed out, are 10 classes grouped with 12 races all playing the same and the only thing differentiating them would be spell names and graphics.

The Answer; Stop Missing the Forest from the Trees

Surprisingly, the solution is ordinarily simple.

Give us both overpowered and balanced racials. A racial which is valuable in situation x, but “bleh” in situation y is overpowered and balanced. You can have both. In fact, I would contend having both is what makes RPGs so great. You will not be able to exploit your abilities in every situation, but when you can, your opponent betta’ watch da fuck out!

Define mandatory abilities. When Wrath launched, almost every dps class was given some form of CC. It felt like Blizzard was telling us they thought CC was a mandatory requirement for a successful DPS toolkit. Tanks have amazing cooldowns because Blizzard has decided they should be a defining characteristic of tank game play. With 3.2.2 now live on the servers, I even applaud Blizzard for the separation they have created with deathknights. They have tweaked the tanking cooldowns yet again; this time shortening them. The overall intent feels like Blizzard is telling us good DK tanks should manage their cooldowns effectively multiple times in an encounter. It’s a great philosophy touting a unique approach to tanking. It took Blizzard almost a year from the launch of Wrath to get it right, but, hopefully, they did get it right this patch, and in doing so DK tanks are as equally effective, yet tastefully unique with regard to tanking encounters.

Build on the turret effect. The turret effect is the term given for certain specs like the survivalist hunters and elemental shaman. One is a class rewarded with standing still through a talent and the other needs to stand still to build up their DPS to remain competitive. If you were an elemental shaman who jumped from Naxx to Ulduar, you probably found your DPS was hurting. It was acknowledged by the developers, addressed in the shaman Q&A, and then partially adjusted with a lightning overload buff. The trade off should be classes who are able to move or, as Stars reminded us, even turn away to DPS, should be able to sustain much higher DPS on fights requiring lots of movement, but they should not put out more DPS than the turrets DPS in stationary fights.

Balance should be defined by a big picture. So many players have gotten out of control with their desire to be the best, most forget they didn’t actually think they would be able to do everything well back when they installed WoW and chose a class based on its description.

A Plea to the Developers and the Players; Celebrate Diversity

It’s time we all acknowledged the need for unique races and classes with abilities which help us to perform under optimum situations. In doing so, we will all need to also acknowledge other races/classes are going to perform better in different environments. If we refuse, we will pay, as TB kindly pointed out, a much higher price; the complete homogenization of every race and class until the only thing that makes us different are the names we choose and the cosmetics of races at the character creation screen.

Time for an Ambien

Rhab