Rank limits on gear

[Rutelor]

And what's so great about rank limits anyway?

Aren't limitations usually bad? (By definition)

I feel like it's kind of stupid to sacrifice people's freedom just to inconvenience them even more by making them auto-unequip EVERYTHING everytime they change class.

What people really need is a wank limit. IMO.

I'm aware I'm chiming in rather late in this thread's course, and also that I haven't read all posts in it. But I think it wouldn't hurt anybody to remind ourselves that LIMITATIONS are the very essence of games. All games.

Burdens, obstacles, hurdles are the quintessence of game rules from time immemorial to the latest videogame. Isn't it a hindrance on freedom, and "kind of stupid" to "inconvenience" football (soccer) players by preventing them from using their hands to move the ball? Or "sacrifice" their "freedom" when we impose strict rules on their positioning on the field? Isn't it "bad (by definition)" to prevent them from hitting each other to grab the ball? And why should my chess horse only move in an L shaped path, whereas my bishop will only move diagonally? Boxer's can't hit below the belt, when everybody knows those blows would be, perhaps, the most effective.

Player freedom is a marketing gimmick, not a premise of any weight in the history of gaming. Wei Chi, Tabula, Poker, Wrestling, Tennis, Halo, Crazy Birds... they all have a series of factors that channel player action through a narrow path; and through that path, and that path only, will you be able to win.

Gear is an essential component of the advancement path in MMOs, and imposing limitations on player's abilities to equip it is a fair, and often fundamental, trait of the genre.

Just saying...

R