User:Raine Valen/Musings/Dartboard

Hi, Anet. Firstly, I'm going to say that I'm basing what I'm about to say based on the "leaked" update, operating under the assumption that they are factual and accurate. I sincerely hope that they're horribly, horribly wrong, but, unfortunately, I'm no longer at any place where I can say "anet probably wouldn't do that". On the contrary, every skill in the notes all but screams "Arena Net Was Here". But, if this is not the case, please disregard what I'm about to say. With that in mind, I thought about some of the things you've done in the past and I believe I understand why you're making these changes that several players would label "grievous mistakes". Initially (when Izzy was the lead of skill balancing), I assumed that you simply didn't know what you were doing. However, a lot of the "random" aspect of the changes has disappeared in recent updates. Now, it's clear that you're systematically moving toward some end. That would be a good thing. I say "would" because I don't like where that end is. See, it's pretty evident now that you and I have one huge philosophical difference: you believe that everything should be easy. It's not that you don't know what you're doing at this point; it's that you've, after some introspection, decided that you didn't want to continue to stand for what you claimed to early on in the game's life. I think you summed up your early beliefs pretty well when you said "skill should matter more than skills". I'm going to assume that, at some point, you learned that most players were terrible. You, as a company, have said more or less the same thing in interviews (i.e. "People can't even build comprehensive skill bars"), and I can't say that I disagree. I RA regularly now because HA has degenerated into a meta that I frankly want no part of, so I see the bad that some players are capable of. The difference between you and I, though, (and this is important) is that you seem to believe that these players should have the same chance as everyone else. They should be able to succeed on the basis of... Well, I'm not sure what basis you've come up with to justify this. Regardless, you feel that the game would, indeed, be better if everyone were given a more-or-less equal chance. I, on the other hand, believe that "fair" and "equal" are not the same thing. I believe that "fair" means that players are given a chance at a result proportional to the effort they put into attaining it. Let me repeat this for emphasis: I do not think that "fair" and "equal" are the same thing. I don't think that a Seeping Wound assassin should be able to create the same pressure as a warrior with half the effort. I don't believe that mesmers should be able to generate more damage and shutdown than rangers with less effort. It wouldn't be fair if you bought a lottery ticket for a dollar and the person behind you got one for fifty cents (even though everyone's given an equal chance to win this way!), would it? Does that make sense? I can hope that you are striving toward a fair system and not an equal one, but, if this is the case, then we're in a familiar situation: I'm forced to believe that you don't know what you're doing. And so I'm going to draw it out for you. See, it's simple, really. There are three kinds of skills: there are (1) skills that any target player can do something about (Bull's Strike is a very strong skill, but anyone can avoid its effects by not moving), (2) skills that the target may/may not be able to do anything about, but others easily can (Rodgort's Invocation is a very strong skill, but almost any interrupter can hit it), and (3) skills that no one can do anything about (Seeping Wound can't be interrupted, blocked, avoided, or, in hexways, removed reliably). They're in order of player skill promotion. You're creating tons and tons and tons of the latter two, and very few of the former. Accordingly, you're moving further and further from a game where skill matters more than skills. Again, I sincerely hope that you're not intentionally doing this. But I wouldn't bet on it, at this point. Good luck with your game, guys.
 * [[Image:User_Raine_R.gif|19px]]  is for  Raine,   etc.  02:26, 18 May 2010 (UTC)