GM Malkorix on automation, fairness, PvP balance...

[TheBigBB]

Seems to me some of these people that sport the "this game should be balanced based on players and not characters" argument should take some time to view there argument from the other side of itself. What if you put 25 humans in control of a 5v5 team. Equip them with all of the hardware, software, dedication, and class knowledge that multi-boxers have at their disposal simply because they put the time in. Despite the fact that 2 humans controlling the same toon through say 1 on keyboard 1 on mouse would be a violation of account sharing (lol). Then maybe they would understand the power that multiple humans control. Imagine how expertly a character could be played with one person in charge of line of sight and movement, one in charge of interrupts, one in control of targetting and strategy. All of that control on one toon could be arguably hard to deal with due to more than one person trying to use the same global cooldown, or your CC player targeting his sheep only to have your spell caster use his NS+CL macro expecting his damage target to still be targeted. Now that sounds an awful lot like me accidentally PoM+Pyroing my own sheep because of re-targetting lag. While given the time and equipment to master these issues, it could make that 25 player team seem mighty coordinated despite being only 5 characters, it does not mean that 1 toon with 5 humans controlling it should stand any better chance against 5 toons with 5 humans just like their 1 human 1 toon does not stand against our 1 human 5 toons. I'm sure people much more familiar with multi-boxing arguments could masterfully word this to help shut up the people constantly saying that their 1 shadow priest should be on equal ground as your 5 ele shaman simply because you are both 1 player.

Or maybe they would think you were agreeing with them and continue to chew on their shoulder.

This is actually a pretty interesting point. I've used this concept in other games. I easily passed a few impossibly difficult expert drumming songs on Rock Band by having another person focus on the footpedal and me on the sticks only. (Of course, I eventually learned to do it myself.) Anyway, It's a good thought experiment and shows why Blizzard is doing the right thing by focusing on character balancing only, regardless of how many or few people are playing the characters. You can make educated guesses about what's happening behind someone's computer, but there's no reason to. Balance the character skills and forget about it.

[hardcoded]

When was the last time you and your friend next to you got 1-shotted by 5 shaman in a BG that were being played by individuals, ie not multi-boxed?

In my opinion this is a sign that pvp in wow is not very advanced. When fighting other players, focused fire is the best way to approach things. In eve, this was the primary focus of pvp, and the reason we used ts. Wow has macros that would allow players to do this more automatically in pugs and premades, yet players rarely do. As a result, they have scattered fire and healing.

[Tidomann]

I've only gotten to the 2nd page, and I'm actually enjoying the blue posting something tangible, and some people actually agreeing.. It's as though things that have been said in the past, once turned blue make sense to the general public. Albeit, I was very pleased with his example of levers and gears his arguments about play style have been said before.. I guess it is nice for an official to say it, but at the same time frustrating since these are the points we've been trying to explain to people in the beginning. Once we realized it just fell on deaf ears alot of people had just given up. As of late, alot more people are more educated on the issue but it's amazing that some people cannot accurately depict the problem still believing it's a 1v1 situation, or realizing the arguments on each side.