Bo is back with another balancing act and this time he's teetering on the edge of class-balance insanity!  One of the largest and most vocal problems MMO's have always faced is the concept of class balance. No one enjoys playing a game where they feel useless because another class is simply better at their "job" then them. How would you feel if they hired a new guy at the office with a brain twice the size of yours and an extra arm? No matter what you do, you will not be able to match his speed and proficiency. It's not about how much effort you put in or how well you know your role or even the mechanics of how things work in the office. You are simply inferior. Now there is no-one in your office trying to make everything nice and happy. In fact, I'm sure many corporations would grow workers with enlarged brains and extra apendages if they could get away with it. However, in the happy world of MMO's we do have people dedicated to making the environment fun, friendly and exciting: the development team.
Here is the major problem as I see it. A vast amount of players are completely ignorant of specific class mechanics beyond their own class or even overall game mechanics. These also tend to be the most vocal. Add in the existence of "trolls", people who are basically just attempting to start a fight over a specific subject, and human nature and you have the equivalent of a bomb scare. Many people don't know WHY a class needs to be nerfed (beyond what someone breifly told them or they read it on a site/forum) or they assume because their class has a problem with them they must be completely overpowered. The first part is just ignorance then second part is a misconception. Now we come to everyone's favorite term: rock-paper-scissors. Rock-paper-scissors is a system of class balance just like the little kids game. One type of class beats another class. That class beats a different class and so on. Why do developers use a "rock-paper-scissors" system, even though there are massive amounts of players who despise this system? Well, that's kind of simple. Class-level balance is impossible. Get over it and move on. What I mean by class-level balance is balancing every class so that they are all equal. Sorry, this won't happen. Its impossible without making the classes too similar and completely doing away with the concept of class roles. What developers generally try to accomplish is a system-level balance. The entire system as a whole is what needs to be balanced, not the individual classes. There are too many situations to even begin to balance the game at the class-level, 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, Group vs Group, Raid vs Raid, Zone vs Zone, PvP, PvE and each one has to be looked at while considering talents/specialization and gear. In World of Warcraft and given class can actually be played 3 distinctly different ways. In Age of Conan, there are two different ways for each class. Warhammer Online is offering three. In World of Warcraft for example, if you want to PvE you will probably have to be one spec. If you want to PvP you're going to most likely have to switch to a different spec to be really effective. In Age of Conan, your specialization changes depending on if your soloing or if your doing large group battles. Certain abilities that were awesome by yourself seem to lose their luster in a large scale battle. However, certain things you couldn't use by yourself because they were too incredible. Too many variables are present once you add in player skill for these types of games to ever be balanced at the class level. Back to system-level balance. This means that the system as a whole is balanced. Think of it as the surface of the ocean and your player-base is a cruise ship in the middle of it. What you would like is a nice calm ocean so the players can enjoy their Mojitos. However, when an imbalance occurs a wave is produced. This wave has a crest, the imbalance, and a valley, the parties effected by it. As long as the wave isn't massive, it's not really going to upset the ship as a whole although it might spill a few drinks or at worse pitch a few people into the sea. Now sadly this is where the metaphor breaks down because this is where the difference between player base and development team comes into play. In a balanced system there would be another wave that effects the party that was the crest of the first wave. In other words, if class A is imbalanced and effecting classes B-D. Then there should be a class E that is imbalanced and effecting at a minimum class A. This pulls the previous imbalance back into line and gives the impression of a calm ocean surface with no waves. The second wave cancels out the first because it hamstrings the imbalanced party. For a WoW example, lots of people in PvP gripe about warlocks. However, show a warlock a decent rogue and watch how much they gripe. This is the precise place this metaphor breaks down. One party, the development team and anyone viewing this system subjectivel,y will view the ocean as calm. While the player base (those in the valleys) or those viewing it subjectively only notice a typhoon breaking out. To them the waves don't cancel each other out because they are not the other imbalance that effects the imbalance effecting them (whoo!). In other words, what does a mage care if a rogue can render a warlock worthless if there isn't one around but there is a warlock destroying the mage? Well... sorry I never said the system was perfect. However, at the moment it is one of the few systems that actually "work" (by work I mean they are possible and effective since you're still playing). I've seen countless concepts thrown around on forums and other places of discussion and alot of them sound good in theory. They are kind of like communism. Damn that sounds like a neat idea... too bad it can't be implemented. This has gotten long enough... ...for now. Post your comments or any questions! Given enough response we might have to continue into Part 3.
Part 1: Gear vs. Skill... FIGHT!by BoA player's equipment or a player's ability; which should decide who is victorious? Some would argue that its unfair if gear plays too strong a factor in a fight. They want the game to be based off of a player's ability to play the game. The funny thing is, I really haven't see the other polar side of this argument. I have yet to meet someone who honestly argued that they want gear to be the deciding factor in combat and player skill to be only a minor factor. You may be asking at this point how is there an argument if its completely one sided?
Well, to be honest, there is no argument here. Its one side complaining that someone has better gear then them because they logged the time, sometimes months, to get the gear that gives them the advantage. You show me a game where equipment is only a small factor and I'll show you a game with even more whining. Why bother to get equipment at all if it holds only a slim value? Look at new games that come out with incomplete stat systems or the wrong bonuses on gear (*coughAgeofConancough*) and be deafened by the sound of the ranting. You would think this would make at least some of these people happy. However, I've yet to see anyone praise a game with equipment that only minimally effected the outcome of fights. Why bother to put in equipment if it serves no purpose? Why should anyone bother to pursue gear that gives them a +.0000000001% chance to critical strike only on the third Tuesday of an in game month?
Rethink your argument, gear has its purpose. Everyone wants new shinies and everyone wants new useful shinies. These games aren't built on things being static. They thrive off improvement and development. You would quickly tire if there wasn't something to work towards. Adventure is cool the first time. Leveling is awesome, but the end game is what makes people keep playing a game for years, not the leveling process. Progression, Gear and PvP these are the things that make people put the time in after they are done with the leveling.
No one likes fighting a complete idiot who completely owns them because he has better gear. On the other hand, no one wants to play an MMORPG where everyone is exactly the same, except for their skill and ability (the closest example I can find is Guild Wars, which is technically not an MMORPG). The problem with this is that a large portion of the most vocal complainers think everyone they fight in PvP is a complete idiot. If they lost, that dude was overpowered or he just had the gear. If they won, he was a complete "noob" and should quit now or DIAF (if you don't know what this means then there is still hope for you - run quickly and save yourself).
Here is the main problem. Not everyone's skill level is equal. Not everyone's equipment level is equal. The people who are going to complain the loudest generally are the people who are at the bottom of both ladders. Even in World of Warcraft, a person with better gear wasn't the problem except in extreme cases (imbalanced arena match ups come to mind). The problem largely was coming across a better geared player who was actually better then yourself. Of course, the common gamer could never admit that this combination could exist in a complete stranger, but it did occur. Another interesting concept is player skill has a ceiling. Theoretically, there is a level at which a player's skill cannot increase anymore. There is also a point at which the differences between two players skill levels will be meaningless. Technically, the same thing exists in gear. There is a point in which two players cannot gain new gear. There is also a point when the differences between two players' gear, even though they are not identical, is not significant. The problem arises when the gear ceiling is raised. The disparity between players now increases again, and the people who were behind are even further behind. However, the ceiling on skill never really rises. Changes occur to skill systems and new skills are added but the people who have reached either the skill ceiling or their own person ceiling will quickly recover their previous positions. The skill distribution never really changes as long as the basics of the system stay the same.What are your thoughts? Do you think gear or skill should play a bigger factor or are they two sides of the same coin? If gear didn't make a big difference, would MMORPGs lose some element of their RPG roots? What could take it's place - and should something take its place or is the progression of gaining additional skills and increased power enough to give you a sense of accomplishment? Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon to a Greenskin blog near you!
 It has been a while since I have posted an article. I won't lie to you. I was playing the Enemy ( Age of Conan). As an avid MMORPGer, I believe it's best to see for yourself what new MMOs have to offer you as a player. I must admit the idea of a highly Player vs. Player oriented game did keep tugging at my inner PK (Player Killer). However, after a mere month, I have already set the game aside. There are many reasons as to why I ran screaming from all that is Conan, but this article isn't about why I'm still shaking from my experience. This article is about realism. Realistic MMORPGs are something that many gamers look for. Everquest 2 and Age of Conan are games that try to portray a realistic massively multi-player fantasy role playing game. Games like World of Warcraft and our beloved Warhammer Online are not realistic. They don't even really attempt to be except by the standards of realism their lore enforces on them. Now I have been constantly bombarded with the complaint that Warhammer Online's graphics look "childish", "retarded", "silly" or even "something my cat could have drawn." No one can really deny that compared to Age of Conan or Everquest 2 the graphics for Warhammer Online do look a bit silly. On one hand you have a Guardian holding a perfectly formed shield made of wood and metal. On the other hand you have a Black Orc holding what appears to be someone's door he tore off the hinges at some point that may or may not have a animals skull tied to it with twine (editor's note: which is totally awesome!). There is a problem I have with realistic MMORPGs. This problem lies in their ability to deal with the wants and needs of their players. In my opinion, non-realistic MMOs have the ability to deal with their player's needs much easier for one simple reason: It doesn't have to work in the real world. You want player mounts in a realistic world? Your going to need to find someway to get the mount onto the screen that isn't ridiculous and your going to have to set up mounting/dismounting animations that make sense. Wait... shouldn't you feed the mount as well if its living? However, in a non-realistic MMO, you spend a couple seconds blowing a whistle and... poof... you're now on your mount. These games are suppose to be entertainment first and foremost. I, for one, do not play these games so that I can harp on the intricacies of the real world. I play these games to become lost in a new and different world. You can keep your Realism. I will stick with the silly looking game that can roll with the punches because simply... its not real. On a side note: Has anyone noticed that every single piece of WAR concept art has a virtually identical in game screen shot to go with it? You show me a realistic MMORPG with that. -Bo
 In the morning mist, two armies square off. The mass of greenskins is barely held in check by the threats of the warboss. Across the field, the dwarfen forces prepare to charge. A furious cry splits the air as the greenskin Waaagh! is unleashed. The dwarfen army immediately charges forth. The support lines of each army press forward behind their front ranks eager to unleash devastation on the opposing army and keep their allies on their feet. The cry intensifies as the two forces meet... ...or rather run right through each other and begin to slaughter the support lines of the opposing army. Generally, when people think of large scale warfare or even small skirmishes this is not what pops into their minds. What do the heavily armored juggernauts in your front lines do you if your opponent can ignore and run right through them? How do you defend a "choke point" if a mounted person can simply run through it? EA Mythic has decided enough is enough. It's time for armies to collide. Characters in WAR will actually be able to run into each other. You will hopefully be able to actually have a "front line" in group combat or hold a doorway against an enemy by filling the gap with your allies. This should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with the available WAR information. In fact, if you are active in the pre-WAR community you have probably either read or participated in the debate about collision. There are many people who think collision is a bad thing in an MMORPG. The argument can be made that it is yet another weapon in the griefing arsenal. Your enemies might be dangerous but in many cases your allies can be even worse. However, EA Mythic has stated that the collision won't exactly be like slamming into a permanent brick wall. Instead the experience will be more like running headfirst into a door and fumbling with the door knob for a bit before you finally get the door open and walk through it. This means that after a certain amount of time you will be able to move through the person you ran into. This should help to keep your allies from trapping you inside a room or other fun things collision might allow. Also, this lends some insight into what EA Mythic might want collision to be used for. If you've played another current MMORPGs you might notice it's kind of hard to stop a player from running by you. If you're a class gifted with a ranged snare, root, or stun its not always that bad but if you happen to only have a melee version of those abilities it can be a nightmare. Now imagine if you stood in front of them they actually stopped. Sure they are probably going to attempt to run around you and I've already stated that eventually they are going to be able to run through you. However, this is a perfect chance for you to force them to engage you or at least try to walk away while you beat on them. Hit them with a snare (which if you put any faith in the outdated unofficial skill lists most classes have) and at least they aren't flying full speed away from you anymore. In my opinion, player collision is a good concept to be reintroduced to MMORPGs. It might cause some additional problems but I feel the tactics it adds to RvR combat are worth the headaches. I'm eagerly looking forward to the days when armies collide. ~Bo
 Taunt. Taunt is what makes the PvE world go round. It is the cornerstone of tanking for MMOs everywhere. Aggro pulling DPS classes take it for granted. Healers praise it as it saves their behind. It has come a long way since the first MMOs. It started out as simply something you spammed to generate hate or aggro and evolved into an ability that instantly put you at the top of a creature's hate list and forced it to attack you for a couple seconds. However, throughout it's existence there is one thing it has never been: a PvP asset. Click your taunt button all you want at a fellow player and the biggest reaction you'll get is probably from someone on your own team calling you a noob. WAR is changing all of that. That’s right, Taunt will now not only be a staple of the PvE world but it might actually end up being one of a tank's greatest PvP skills as well. Straight from the Black Orc skill list thanks to the guys at War Resource: Skill name: Da Challenge
AP Cost: 50
Range: 0-65ft
Description: A shout that taunts your target, making them hate you more and reducing the damage they deal to everything else by 50% for 30 seconds. If you haven't guessed yet, this is a very big deal for the tanks of the world. This is the equivalent of finding out something your grandmother gave you for Christmas was actually worth money. As great as this is for tanks everywhere, it probably won't do what many people are thinking it will do. In numerous forums I've seen this referred to as a way to make someone attack you. This is probably, sadly, not going to be the case. The odds of your average player even noticing he was taunted let alone finding and targeting the person who taunted him are pretty slim. You've probably noticed on a large portion of the time people PvPing around you fail to notice their target it being chain healed by a healer standing off to the side or they are being nuked by a caster standing a little ways off. If you play WoW you may see things like healers failing to notice Unstable Affliction, trying to cleanse it off and getting their rear handed to them or a bunch of people swinging wildly at a bubbled paladin even though there is a non-immune target standing 5 feet from them. I haven't exactly decided why these people do things like this. I don't know if it's laziness, the fact they are probably watching T.V. or blaring music, or if they just flat out have no idea what's occurring around them. As long as they are having fun I guess it should be ok but for their teammates it can be... upsetting. Even if they did notice they were taunted and knew who did it, would they really stop attacking your healer to switch and attack the screaming behemoth dress like a Panzer tank? I seriously doubt it. They still have a better chance of killing the healer that is taking 50% less damage then killing the armored giant with his own personal healer, and if this isn't the case then there are other issues that need to be discussed. What will most likely end up happening is this would be another addition to a PvP tank's arsenal of "ways to make the squishies not so squishy." There are abilities that will increase an ally's armor for a certain amount of time as long as you stand near them. This is the basic concept taunt will operate on. You may not be able to force your opponent to turn and face you but at least you can hinder his ability to scatter your healer or caster buddy's remains all over the battlefield. This coupled with the Black Orcs "dirty fighting" combo abilities should be enough to, if not decimate your opponent or force him to turn and face you, at least make him curse your name and wish you were never born. Even though it might not be what you hoped for, I for one can't wait to try to tank a player for once, and failing that, make their life miserable. - Bo
This is the first post featuring contributions from The Greenskin's newest writer, Bo! We thought this collaborative piece might be an interesting way to introduce him to the community as it will highlight some of our similarities and differences of thought and opinion. Say hello in a comment! After reading an interesting article over at Massively entitled, MMOGology: Gear of War, I was left with a burning question: Why are MMORPGs so obsessed with a gear model that introduces such an insurmountable disparity between the haves and have-nots? I can't think of a single MMORPG I've played or followed that didn't include gear as the ultimate deciding factor in a 1 vs. 1 or group vs. group PvP battle. Levels and skill were always important, but if you had the gear, you were almost always certain to win... Take the two most highly skilled 8-man raiding guilds in DAOC. Give one group pre-ToA gear and the other group post-ToA gear. Who do you think is going to win? Take the two most highly skilled level 29 rogues (or any class) in WoW and face them off against each other in WSG. Give one the basic gear he'd earn from questing and the other a full auction-house set bought by a level 70 alt with deep pockets. Who do you think is going to win? The same goes for SWG, EQ, PotBS, and all the other mainstream MMOs I can think of. I haven't tried CoH or LotRO but I would guess they're the same. The only MMO I can think of that values skill over gear is Guild Wars, which is apparently more about the abilities you've unlocked and brought into combat. Then again, GW also removes all barriers to entry by allowing anyone to create a pure max-level PvP character from the get go, so they're obviously not too concerned with the standard RPG progression model. Bo: CoH/CoV doesn't have equipment in the normal sense. You learn an ability and then add enhancement token slots for it as your level. All equipment is in the form of enhancement tokens for your characters abilities. Your gear then is in the form of bonuses given to the skills you have, be it a shortened reuse timer, increased damage, longer duration, ect. By the time you hit maxed level you basically have the best equipment you'll ever need. This creates a problem at the end of the game. You end up with nothing to work towards. Gear isn't visible on your character so it has zero aethsetic value (this is a thing many CoH/CoV players enjoy because they can have they toons look exactly how they want them without having to use inferior gear). I found myself with no goals to persue at the end of my leveling. If you enjoy playing a game for the sake of playing it, its great. However, if you play the game to progress you find yourself not at a road block but simply with no road at all. Guild Wars has the same issue: the gear is more of an after thought to the game, or atleast it was when I played. I can't speak for the newer expansions. Skills became the new gear as my colegue said. You played the game to acquire skills. You then equiped your best skills and went into battle. It was a very fun game for a relatively short amount of time, then the aspect of your character looking like every other member of that class kind of sets in. Also, games like WoW may be ridiculed for having imbalanced PvP or arena combat, but Guild Wars at times feels like playing a game of Poker with the hand of your choice but the dealer keeps changing which combination of cards beats which. No one likes walking into a game with a royal flush only to realize two of a kind beats all. The way most MMORPGs look at gear these days is the same way they look at abilities, health/mana, levels, and at the very basic level, experience points. You build up increments of XP until you reach a new level. For each new level you gain more health and mana points. Additionally, each new level (or couple levels) will allow you to practice new abilities. This is the standard progression that almost all MMORPGs are built upon and it goes back to the pen, paper, and imagination days of Dungeons & Dragons. I don't see this changing any time soon because it's a fundamental concept upon which most RPGs are built. But why must gear follow the same progression, or if it must, why does it have to scale to such great heights? Why must there be such a huge difference between the trusty bronze sword and the flaming, bejewelled, mithril greatsword? A bit of difference? Sure that's acceptable, but giving the latter +100 to all stats, +300 DPS, mana-sapping, and 10% chance to insta-kill all enemies within a 12km radius? That's a little extreme...  I know the reason behind creating such powerful gear and I don't really like it. They want to motivate you to experience their end-game content and without the chance of earning great rewards, they don't think you'll bother. In other words, they don't think the "sense of adventure" is good enough. One would think an MMORPG whose primary endgame is to have their players locked in perpetual, never-ending RvR (WAR) wouldn't need to fall back into old habits, but you have to wonder... What kind of expansions could EA Mythic introduce for WAR that didn't include new PvE content for you to experience and new gear for you to obtain? Think about it... The easiest way for them to revolutionize RvR combat every year is to put out a new expansion that forces you to gain better gear and abilities (through PvP and PvE). Will they add a new tier (10 more levels) with each expansion? I sure hope not, but it isn't very likely anyway given that capitol cities are all in the T4 zones. What would a T5 zone include if the primary goal is to capture your opponent's capitol (master levels again... now that's a scary thought)? They could introduce new races and classes, which I'm sure is in their expansion plans for the future, but aside from that, it may all come probably down to a gear grind again. Bo: This is a very interesting idea and one worth talking about. How do you add to a game where the ultimate goal is burning your enemy's capital to the ground and killing its fruit venders? Would adding another zone and more levels shift the ultimate goal of the game? In my opinion, No. We can only assume if an expansion is released, then the storyline will advance. This means that someone made headway in the WAR, brought in bigger guns or new races joined the war effort. If any of that occured there is nothing stopping Mythic from raising the difficulty level of raiding the capital cities. If the cities are meant to be raided by max level characters, then when the max level increases the might of the capital cities should reflect this increase. Keep in mind that games like WoW's end game problems didn't come from increasing the level cap. It came from releaseing more gear that built ontop of previous gear. The difference between a Molten Core level 60 and a Naxx level 60 was incredible. When the expansion came and raised the level cap the gap became less and less very quickly. It is easier for people to get another 10 levels than it is to try to wade through high end raid content. Many people can't even devote the amount of time needed to be able to accomplish the task let alone want to deal with some of the individuals that do have the time. Ideally, here's what I'd like to see (Snafzg):Between the low-end T4 gear and the high end T4 gear, I only want to see an increase of 5-10% in overall improvement. Why? The gap is large enough to be worth seeking out for yourself (to improve your character) but not so insurmountable that superior skill can't overcome it. Even if players are of equal skill, there's still a chance to beat someone in better gear if it's only 5-10% better. You can seed these items on the toughest of bosses, in the deepest and most frightening of dungeons and people will still go after them. Why? Because contrary to what most MMORPG devs believe, many people still play these games as a form of escapism and for a lot of players, the adventure IS enough. An item that is only "slightly" better than what they had before is just icing on the cake. The casual players and hardcore RvR-heads won't be completely gimped for ignoring this stuff, but they'll still be at a slight disadvantage. This system would please the most amount of subscribers IMO. Mythic should already know this. After all, the most popular cluster in DAOC right now is the one made up of CLASSIC servers. Many of their subscribers spoke up by abandoning characters they had spent years on, accumulating all the necessary gear it took to compete in a post-ToA RvR environment and threw up a middle finger to the system. They rolled new characters on servers that went back to simpler times when the gear disparity wasn't quite as bad. A bigger middle finger would have been quitting altogether, but then, people did that in droves too... Bo: Games like WoW have increased the player expectation of what gear should be. The days of UO and Everquest items are over. You can't simply give a player +1 damage for 3 weeks of work and expect him to be happy about it. However, even WoW doesn't really give as much people give them credit for. Yes, a season 3 gladiator geared toon will competely dominate a starting 70. However, the difference becomes much less noticably between season 2 geared and season 3 geared. Expecially if you consider the amount of time required to obtain the new set of gear. Many times while raiding I found myself going into a 25man raid every week for a chance of getting a chance to roll (if your guild did dkp then it gets even funnier, raid for a couple months just to be able to afford 1 item) on a piece of gear that really only gave me a couple of more points of damage or 5 to a skill. The first time you down a boss adventure is enough for me and many of the people I've played with to dive into high end content. However, there is no sense of adventure that would make me throw myself at it every week for a year. Sitting down after wiping for 5 hours straight and having to farm later to pay your repair/pot bills, you then wonder if the "glorious" gear is even worth it. My collegue gives the example of a twinked level 29 versus a level 29 with only the gear he can get out of his normal leveling, this is a perfect example of what WAR is already taking steps to overcome. The non-twinked character is at a loss because 95% of the gear he comes into contact with isn't for him. The problem isn't huge differences in the gear itself. The problem is a lack of itemization...period. One of WoWs faults has been the following claim, "The game doesn't really start till you hit level 70." and its true. You can't really make "sets" of gear untill the end of the game. Otherwise, you either outlevel instances to quickly to get some of the gear you would need or the gear flat out doesn't exist. There are large gaps in the game where they are no tanking gear, or fury warrior gear, or feral druid gear available at all. Also, many of the items you do have access to from quests while leveling are simply worse then an item you were given from a previous quest. At end game is where these sets of gear finally come into existance. Also, you do quest after quest for gear your character doesn't even need. I have a warrior that has received more Paladin gear from quests then warrior gear, let alone tanking gear. This is where WAR's new ideas come into play. Public quests that keep you from having to build a group and run an instance for a couple hours to have a chance at getting something you might be able to use from one of the three bosses if and only if another class doesn't beat you on the roll IF it even drops. You finish the public quest. You win the roll. You get to CHOOSE what reward you would like: an item you can use, gold, or both. That's right. The team over at Warhammer Alliance were nice enough to post a log of a recent dev chat that has this little gem:
muffin: How is loot alocated between the classes when it comes to quest, dose all classes chose from the same choices, or are the quest rewards diffrent for every class?
<[WAR]Josh>: We've been very careful to try and guarantee that players get rewards they can use. This comes in the form of relatively standard things like career-tailored quest loot, but also comes in more unusual forms like the PQ loot system that ALWAYS gives you a choice of an item you can use or gold or both. Nobody who earns PQ loot will ever get junk loot from the process.
They have hinted, in other posts as well, of there being many different sets of armor to obtain throughout your leveling career. A game without massive gaps in itemization means a game where gear disparities will play less of an important roll. Yes, the person with the "I play too much" gear will probably have an advantage over you but at least you won't be running around in gear that was only decent 8 levels ago.
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