balance
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Loot balance
Alright, this might just be me, but leveling my Rogue in Outland, I noticed one thing: there's a lot more Druid leather than there is Rogue leather, as far as quest rewards go. It seemed like for every Rogue piece, there were three Druid pieces, one for each talent tree. Never one to go with speculation where math would do the trick, I looked through 200 quests available to Alliance in any Outland zone to count the number of rewards for Rogues, Feral druids, Balance druids, and Resto druids. (I chose the first 200 quests in alphabetical order, which should be reasonably random.)If a reward seemed fairly viable for both, I counted it for both -- many pieces would work for Rogues and Feral druids, for instance. I'm only looking at leather armor here, not weapons, cloaks, or jewelry; arguably, this is a bit of a flaw, as weapons are a pretty big deal for Rogues (and a less big deal for Druids). But, well, let's see what the numbers say: Rogue: 11 pieces Druid: 21 pieces Feral: 11 Balance: 10 Resto: 1 So it seems my pre-math impression was a little off -- the ratio of Druid to Rogue is 2:1, not 3:1. But the point that really gets to me about this data is that Balance druids have almost as many rewards available as Rogues as a whole. That's one spec, as opposed to an entire class. Does that seem right to you?
BT trialing motion-powered computing
As if the influx of products like the Wiimote, SIXAXIS controller, and DoCoMo D904i series of handsets hadn't yet convinced you that motion control is the future of PC input (well, either that or knuckle rapping), BT is currently field testing a USB dongle that promises to bring the excitement of gaming to boring computing tasks. Like other implementations before it, the so-called Balance technology uses a small accelerometer to translate various tilts and movements of a connected laptop or UMPC into certain commands, letting you violently shake your expensive gear to do something as simple as empty the trash. Actually, the current trials aren't meant to enable an even lazier lifestyle for your average geek -- at least in the short term -- but rather to give disabled individuals a way to hop on the mobile computing bandwagon without having to deal with finicky trackpads, control nubbins, or onscreen thumbboards. While no specific plans for a commercial launch have been made, BT anticipates that a product stemming from this research will hit the market in two to three years, just in time to be replaced by the thought-controlled input devices that are once again being trailblazed by the cutting-edge gaming community. [Via Reg Hardware]
Behold, the power of moonkin
I agree with myrch over on Livejournal-- there's been a spec creeping up in the DPS charts lately that we might not have expected to get there. Slowly but surely, these players have been finding a niche of gear, talents, and class choice and exploiting it to the fullest. While their class is known for the other two specs, a third is definitely coming to light as one of the best DPSers in the game. The class is druid, and the spec... is moonkin.Laugh if you want (and I certainly do when I see that dance), but moonkin (or Balance-specced) druids are doing well for themselves lately. Druid tanks have been getting all the press because of the new feral gear in Outland (and more recently, a few solid nerfs), but moonkin have been slowly building up their buffs, and using the best gear in both cloth and leather to max out their DPS. While the spec is really meant for PvP, it seems, they can definitely shine in PvE-- everyone loves Innervate, of course, but moonkin give that great crit bonus that adds a lot to any DPS raid group (definitely useful for Shaman, too, despite the Clearcasting nerf). They've got a nice armor bonus, so while they have to really be careful about managing aggro (they so far have no threat-reducing abilities), they can still take a few hits, and they have a few nice roots (Cyclone and the Tauren War Stomp, and Entangling Roots if they happen to be outside) that can hold things down until the tank intercepts. Not to mention that if need be, they're just a gear change and a shapechange away from becoming respectable offhealers, if not main healers.Myrch lays out what moonkin need to do to really shine-- they've got to really concentrate their focus and load up on the spell damage gear (a guildie of mine, a moonkin who routinely fights mages and hunters for the top DPS spot, often wears cloth just for the spell damage), add a little mp5 to the stuff they wear, and of course watch that aggro. But more and more, we're seeing that a well-geared, well-played moonkin is a really great class to have along in almost any situation.
Breakfast Topic: Why do you keep playing?
Some people call them "nerfs." Some people call them "balance." (And usually this is exactly proportional to how the change impacts your own class.) But however you want to phrase it, gameplay in World of Warcraft changes -- and it doesn't always change for to the benefit of your playstyle. So how do you keep yourself playing when you seem to have hit the bottom of the nerfing/balancing cycle? Reroll? Play alts? Explore areas you've ignored in the past? Tell us, why do you keep playing?
BC's effect on the census
The Burning Crusade has been upon us for two months, and already, as I'm sure you've all observed, it has had a dramatic effect on the race/class balance of the game. First off, due to the massive influx of Blood Elves -- they are now the most popular Horde race! -- the Alliance:Horde ratio is more even than ever at 1.3:1 (though of course individual servers do vary substantially). Draenei have not been quite as winning as our love-to-hate-'em elfly friends, placing solidly in the middle of the pack for Alliance races (between Gnomes and Dwarves on the one side and Humans and Night Elves on the other).How about classes? Well, the stereotype is true: more Blood Elves are Paladins than are any other class (35%). This has made Paladins 6th most popular class for the Horde, which is kind of surprising for a class that just became available recently. Who thought so many Hordies had been secretly longing to bubble-hearth? This having been said, Draenei Shaman are even more popular, relatively speaking, than Blood Elf Paladins -- 49% of Draenei are Shaman. That's a lot of space totems. This also means Draenei represent almost half (48%) of all the Shaman in the game; 39% of Paladins are Blood Elves. Due to the relative unpopularity of Draenei, though, Shaman is still the least popular Alliance class, as it has been for the game's history (not entirely by choice for most of it, of course).All of this data is from the ever-lovely WarcraftRealms.com census data, and ignores characters below level ten. Head over there if you want more detailed stats of any kind. How is your realm doing?
Nerf.... wait, who do we want to nerf this week?
The cries to nerf warlocks have been so loud on the forums lately that it's nearly refreshing to see them replaced by something else. This week's nerf cries seem to focus almost entirely on druids, as forum posters run back and forth about whether or not druids are overpowered and, if so, how to fix them. And, of course, the there's always the constant cycle of "nerf your class, buff my class" posts.Those claiming druids are overpowered say that druids shouldn't be able to tank like a warrior, DPS like a rogue (or, I suppose, a mage, depending on spec), kite like a hunter, and heal like priest. And the druids argue that they can't do all of these things at once -- and to be as good as any primary class, they have to spec for it and gear for it which limits their effectiveness in other areas.And in a massively multiplayer game like this, where major class changes can come unexpectedly with any patch or hotfix, I wonder which class will be overpowered next week, and the week after. Taking all bets...
World of Warcraft's list of useless classes
Elizabeth Wachowski over at WoW Insider put together one of the more definitive pieces ever done on the useless classes in World of Warcraft. Scrounging together the best of the worst threads from the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion forums, Wachowski shows that every class is worthless for one reason or another, or another -- or another. She lists the reasons, with multiple hyperlinks. Anyone who's ever read or listened to complaints about classes in WoW will get a good giggle, or fume with rage; adding more reasons to why Warlocks are overpowered and why Mages are worthless because they're being out-DPSed by shadow priests.Whatever Blizzard is doing with World of Warcraft, they're obviously on the right path. With seven million players currently paying $15 a month, that's a cool $1.26 billion going in the Ironforge vault every year. Burning Crusade launches on Jan 16 and we can't wait to see how Blizzard distributes the millions of copies necessary to satiate even 50 percent of players. Complaining about classes will be the last thing on WoW addict minds when they can't get their Burning Crusade fix at launch.
Making games "universally accessible"
Two people want to play a game together online. Person A has played the game non-stop for months and is almost preternaturally skilled. Person B just got the game and is looking to learn the ropes. Playing online together is bound to be a frustrating experience for both these players.That's where parallel game universes come into play. As described in a Gamasutra feature, parallel game universes allow two players of different skill or ability levels to each play their own, difficulty-adjusted version of the same game. In one downloadable example, a competitive Space Invaders clone gives one player a constantly moving, auto-firing ship, while the other has to maintain full control. The focus of the research seems to be on making games accessible to the disabled, but the techniques can also be used to bring together gamers with different skill levels or differently-powered machines (see image above).The eight-page paper is a little dry for a non-technical audience, but the ideas presented in it should be interesting to any newb who's been totally pwned by some lame camper online. How would you redesign your favorite online game to be more balanced?
Breakfast Topic: Fixing Faction Imbalance
Blizzard's announcement yesterday that the Horde would have access to paladins and the Alliance would have access to shaman has been getting mixed responses on the forums. Some seem to find this the most equitable solution to faction imbalances - now each side will have access to the same classes and abilities. Others, however, think that with this change there will be no longer be any defining difference between the Horde and the Alliance, and that you may well flip a coin to decide which to play. For myself, I remain undecided - and am adopting a wait-and-see approach to watch how Blizzard plans to run with this change.While this is one way to address the continued concerns of Horde players with regards to PvE imbalance, but it certainly wasn't the only way they may have gone about improving the situation. And so, readers, if left to your hands, how would you have addressed the issue? Is there another way to help bring a bit more PvP power to the Alliance and a bit more PvE power to the Horde, while maintaining their sense of uniqueness?
Gamer's Room 101: the argument FOR balance
The concept: During the 'Game Design Room 101' session at Develop, several developers brought out props to represent their pet peeves from games. If you've read the novel 1984 by George Orwell, you'll know where the concept comes from. In the UK, Room 101 is a weekly game/talk show presented by Paul Merton, who invites a guest to come on the show who then attempt to convince him that a certain annoyance in their lives should go in the bin, and never be seen again. This seminar (and series of posts) takes a look at certain elements of games that were nominated by the panel to go in the games designer's bin. Jen and I are going to take opposite positions in the debate. The point: Jonathan Smith of TT Games brought out a pair of scales to represent his nomination -- balance. Balance, according to Smith, is where a developer expressly sets out to tell the player "you can have this much fun", rationing the pleasure out piece by piece. My stance: Balance should stay. Jen's stance: Balance should go. You decide.
Gamer's Room 101: the argument AGAINST balance
The concept: During the 'Game Design Room 101' session at Develop, several developers brought out props to represent their pet peeves from games. If you've read the novel 1984 by George Orwell, you'll know where the concept comes from. In the UK, Room 101 is a weekly game/talk show presented by Paul Merton, who invites a guest to come on the show who then attempt to convince him that a certain annoyance in their lives should go in the bin, and never be seen again. This seminar (and series of posts) takes a look at certain elements of games that were nominated by the panel to go in the games designer's bin. Conrad and I are going to take opposite positions in the debate.The point: Jonathan Smith of TT Games brought out a pair of scales to represent his nomination -- balance. Balance, according to Smith, is where a developer expressly sets out to tell the player "you can have this much fun", rationing the pleasure out piece by piece.My stance: Balance should go.Conrad's stance: Balance should stay.You decide.
