Dear A-net,
I have played your game since release and have witnessed first hand as its history unfolds itself upon us, your customers. I’ve seen it all: smoke bomb nerfs, triple cantrip eles, HGH, illusion of life, empathic bond clearing all condis, heartseeker hitting for 16k, time warp, BM rangers, hambows, dhuumfire, spirit rangers, minion mancers… The list of bullkitten goes on and on.
Now I’m not here to rag on it, I’m here to do just the opposite. I believe that there will always be overpowered things in this game no matter what changes are made. Even in the best of metas people still complained about things that, in retrospect, weren’t nearly as broken as what they thought. It’s the simple nature of the playerbase of any game; if there’s something that makes them lose they’ll QQ about it. It seems like you understood this already, dear a-net, because you’ve adopted a style of balance that relies on patience and the ‘slow and steady’ approach to let things smooth out before you make any changes.
That said, I’m here to warn you that your style of balancing has choked this game out from day one; I’ve seen dozens of my friends quit this game out of frustration because of it. It’s the same song and dance every balance patch: something gets broke, people begin to realize and excessively play that which is broke, the broken thing doesn’t get fixed until too late to stop the hemorrhage of players (sometimes multiple balance patches later). It’s getting old awfully quick to all of us and is extremely damaging to our morale. A lack of activity and inane secrecy over balance issues combine to create a not-so-good reputation for you, a-net.
It’s demoralizing to see balance take the back-burner when it’s on the forefront of every PvPer’s mind. Let me try to use your favorite analogy; You don’t want to play whack-a-mole with balance, but when there is a mole, every player out there sees it and exclaims “Yo a-net, there’s a mole over here! Whack it!”. All the while you sit there and wonder if it’s actually a mole or a mole in disguise. How can you be sure it’s not an overreaction by your players? While you’re pondering, the mole has transformed into mole-zilla and is rampaging through your PvP smashing the kitten out of everything fun and balanced for months on end. When you finally get off your butts and whack that mole it isn’t to much celebration, but rather a collective sigh of relief is heard throughout the mists while we all wonder, “what the hell took so long?”.
This is a major issue that will remain a plague on your game’s PvP until you make major changes to the speed of balance. History has a funny way of repeating itself, and I’ll be kitten ed if this game isn’t the same way. Given that we have a MAJOR balance patch coming in half a month it’s inevitable that a mole is going to rear it’s ugly head once more. I simply ask that you learn from your repeated mistakes and whack it before your game suffers once more.
I can’t offer many solutions because the nature of the problem lies in your company itself, of which I have no knowledge of its organization or operation. All I can offer is lofty suggestions that might not be possible in reality. Minor tweaks to balance every living world release would be optimal. My only hope is that something will change, otherwise this game will never be as good as I know it can be.
Much love, Ostrich Eggs
@$20 an hour! It’s worth it!
