Rant,Rambling and Drivel: Is it Fun Yet?!

[Xystic]

The OP is just ranting on what he feels would make the game more fun for him. It involves very little mechanics/design talk.

For example:

The OP argued that we should have larger scale raids because they were successful in other MMOs.

He talks very little about the underlying mechanics and issues arising from large scale raids and ways to deal with it. In a simplified form, he wants it because large scale raids are fun. Yes, they were indeed enjoyable but at a very costly price which the OP mentions nothing of.

The truth is, they weren't successful in other MMOs. World of Warcraft the largest MMO out there had the ability to truly create large scale raids and groups but however, changed from 40 man raids to 24/10 man raids in the release of their first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Due to a huge amount of issues and I'll list some of the really big ones.

1st: You need to acquire and recruit the required amount of players to attempt content
2nd: You need to recruit the equivalent gear/skill player to replace leaving players
3rd: Devs have to have to try to figure out what is a reasonable size of error of margin for large scale raids.

Is one mistake a raid wipe or is two a raid wipe and so forth?
Is 50% dmg output of the maxmium 100% dmg output enough for this boss or not?
But if the dmg output is set at 50% you technically could bring 50% less dps classes to optimize the number of loot drops.
Do see where I'm getting at? Mechanics wise, the larger the scale raid, the more difficult it becomes to deal with

Many factors start piling up in large scale raids. The bigger they are, the bigger some of the mentioned problems become. Large scale raids had to be reduced to make the game overall more enjoyable for the overall population. It also helped pushed more people thru progression then large scale raids. You have to remember that when you were short members, odds were, you weren't going to do any content. The smaller the required number, the easier it was for people to meet those numbers and do content.

Don't get me wrong, I loved huge raids but the underlying problems that came from them were nightmares with very few solutions. Otherwise, the largest MMO to date would still be using 40 man raids to this date but they aren't. Large raids are hard to mechanically design and are terribly hard to manage for players.

So if the OP was really looking to argue such things to such a degree, I would be seeing numbers and calculations, margin of errors per "X" amount of players, mechanics or game designs to promote players from leaving guilds or joining guilds, mechanics or features to ensure a steady supply of players to be recruited and etc. However, all I get from the overall OP's post is pretty much consistent thru out.

I want it because I like it.

In the future anyone who would like to implement things, you need to really talk about mechanics and game designs, issues and implementation methods to deal with those issues and etc. This post was as its title stated, "A rant" and should not be considered well argued as others would claim it.

So lets not see flames flying left and right cause in truth this thread is not really flame worthy. It doesn't argue very much, its just an overly long, I want this and that so lets be civil here.

[Royze]

Classic Engineer perspective snip

You are either in logistics, IT, an Engineer, project management, finance or their peripherals.

You are like the typical programmer that I go to and say "I want the app to do this and this" and all I get back from him is a long monologue about the challenges and time needed to do so.

This is why Marketeers make the business decisions and Engineers implement.

You bring problems and challenges to table. You see the headache it may cause and justify as a reason to not deliver.
You would do well in a pre- 1960''s, product oriented, world. But the truth of the matter is everything you mentioned in your post about limitations and justifications for the current status are the problem and nowhere did you yourself mention any of the solutions.

There is a difference between spotting what is wrong and presenting the solution. I never claimed to be able to examine the limitations in resources and re-deploy them in a more efficient way or towards a more customer oriented end.

If anything is out of place, it is your assumption that those providing feedback should also be burdened with drawing up a new business plan.
But in your reality you would claim that anyone who pays for a subscription and comments on the quality of service provided should also have to take it upon themselves to explain to the service provider not just why it doesn't work, but also how to fix to the most detailed level.

This is why engineers are out-earned by Marketeers; You make a mess of things if left to your own devices.