FilthMcNasty wrote:
Torrence wrote:
Blizzard realized that LFR was SUPER popular. Everyone wanted to play it, but in order to get loot for one of your specs you had to actually play as that spec. This meant that the few tanks and healers HAD to queue as DPS to gear out those specs, and believe me, there are a lot more 'main' tank\heal characters that off DPS than DPS characters that off heal\tank.
I'm not sure the ratio of off dps to main dps matters. WoW locks your class to your character, but allows you to specialize up to 3 unique roles. XIV allows you to play any class, but the classes are generally restricted to one role. There is a large difference between off-spec and off-class when you compare the two games.
I was just explaining the process Blizzard went through when they looked at this issue to clarify what I am suggesting here. You are right that Blizzard locks characters down to 2-3 roles, but allowing a single character to play as any job in XIV (and XI for that matter) hasn't changed the ratio of people willing to be tanks and healers versus people wanting to glue their eyes to parsers.
FilthMcNasty wrote:
I don't personally care if people are allowed to pick their class and get personal loot, but it doesn't translate back that way in WoW. I can't farm hunter gear on a warrior. There are a few accessories and crafted gear you can use, but you still have to 'earn' it by going through the associated content to collect it on the correct character.
Actually,WoW is moving toward more *Bound to Battlenet Account* gear. Practically everything on Timeless Isle was Bound to Account, so actually, I *could* go there on my Paladin and farm up gear for my Death Knight, which I could then use to skip a lot of content and immediately play current content with. That's why we want to gear other jobs, right? So we can then bring that job to current content or do other content outside of the group with that job\gear eventually?
This is another situation where Blizzard has already gone through the growing pains for us. They already figured it out.
People were starting to grow weary of this very system of needing to do EVERYTHING 1-90 when starting a new "job", especially since the 1 character\all jobs model is so superior and people are hearing about it now and asking for better ways to gear their "alts". As XIV gains traction I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard tries to find a way to implement more of SE's ideas and we start to see this sea of alts disappearing entirely.
Anyway, I don't care anymore what happens in that game. I care what happens in this one.
The main takeaway of my post is:
There are three *main* roles in any mmo game. This is that formula
Tanks < Healers < DPS
What does this mean? Developers have to be very careful when they work on these systems. Design a system that *forces* the people who are naturally inclined as tanks and healers to run content as a DPS, and watch queue times skyrocket. Forget about building parties, unless you get someone who is just gearing out their tank or healer. Your geared and experienced ones will decline content because they won't be able to get anything from it. Or you will pressure them into coming anyway which, in turn, leads to burn out because they will never be able to get into a group on their other job, so they will never be able to gear it, and they will forever be stuck on the job YOU want them as. I can't tell you how many friends I watched leave XI over the years because they just got burned out on a job.
Other option? Just leave the system as it is where the players decide who gets what, and keep watching these discussions happen because someone hit a button they weren't allowed to. PUG groups become even more of a nightmare because anyone could be a ninja. BG player warning forum will be reborn and you'll have to check the threads before inviting someone to your group. Or just not PUG, and wait for your FC to do it, but that usually means adhering to a schedule where you have to abide by the lotting rules, suicide kings, etc., (which is way more administrative work than was necessary for leaders who already have the burden of keeping a community flowing and ensuring content gets completed).
And eventually come to the same conclusion in 5 years that Blizzard did
anyway.
They don't have to copy the system exactly, but there are a LOT of good lessons in there that SE could benefit from so we can skip some of this ******** and just enjoy playing the game. Loot drama is one of those things that can absolutely be eliminated, and all it would take is a little extra thought and careful planning on Yoshi-P's part. He's got a pretty good track record so far, so hopefully he will look at what the others in the industry are doing and give us his unique take on it.
One can only hope.