Do the developers' personal preferences affect class balance issues?
Reader Paul wrote in this afternoon because he was curious about the WoW community's views regarding class balance issues and how they are handled by developers.
He feels that people become very emotional about the topic, and points out that developers are people too, and proposes that their feelings play a major role in how the classes are balanced.
Considering how many developers there are, I highly doubt that changes are implemented that don't support the vision of the entire group. Of course people have preferences and feelings, and that can never be fully separated from anything we do, but it is important to keep in mind that the developers are paid professionals working together, not alone.
Their jobs depend on balancing the classes as much as possible, and I doubt any one of them is going to risk their (awesome) job just to try to give their class a boost. In addition, even if one or two developers favor Boomkin, the rest have other favorites and are not about to let any one class get out of hand.
Personally, I think it is the players who become too sensitive or worked up about class balance issues in testing phases. Changes are made just so the developers can see the effects on a broader scale to give them a better idea of where and how things need to be tweaked.
How do you feel about this issue? Do you think that a developer's personal preferences and feelings have a strong impact on class balance issues? If so, how? I'm interested to hear the opinions of the community, and I know Paul is too.
