Originally Posted by
Eroginous
Using Tor as an example, even just here on these forums, anyone who brings up anything that would show Tor as being less than flawless, gets called a troll and flamed as such, no matter how diplomatic they go about discussing the issue. That's the 'pass' that he's talking about, and it's obvious that people refuse to take an objective look at certain things, namely MMOs.
Personal preference? Really? When we are talking about combat in a game, what makes it enjoyable is how well it is executed. In most games you will end up in situations where you have a small window in which to make a huge difference, and unresponsive abilities ruin that experience completely. Hunters in Wow were revamped for the launch of Cata to use a new resource system. For people who are used to having mana as a hunter resource, it does feel awkward and clunky. After some time spent working out a good rotation, it is perfectly possible to get to a point where hunters feel tight and responsive again. It all depends on the player.
However, in Tor, this is not the case. No matter how I go about my rotation as a player, combat system is restricted by the duration of ability animations. There is no way to play around it, and when faced with combat that is literally not doing what I need it to do when I tell it to do it, players like me are more than likely not going to give that game the time of day. It's not a matter of GCD, rotational choices, or personal preference.
It's a matter of this being the new MMO on the block, everyone (including competitive players) wants to give it a test drive. By having combat that is bound by animation duration, BW is going to alienate a lot of people unless it gets fixed. So why Tor gets a pass for things like this, are beyond myself and the OP.
Unbalanced how? I find it funny that most people who want to bring up balancing issues in Blizzard games tend to think that Balance means 'everyone being able to do the same things regardless of circumstances in game.' In Wow, classes are balanced around team play. In SC2, races are balanced around map play. In those regards, both games are almost perfectly balanced.
So you're saying that Blizzard should have been psychic and known that their game would not only sell out the first week of release, but that there would be an overwhelming number of people concurrently online? By that logic, Blizzard should have launched with enough server space for 13 million people. Damn you Blizzard, damn you for not being psychic. [/sarcasm]
All sarcasm aside, there is no way they could have known that their very first MMO venture would be such a hit that everyone and their mother would be buying it out and overloading the servers over the holiday weekend. There was no precedence for it, there was no way they could anticipate that happening. If a companies biggest flaw is that they just didn't expect to be so popular, that's just modesty, not tragedy.
Blizzard isn't lucky, they had the dedication of hard working employees that worked tirelessly around the clock to make sure things were smoothed out, post launch. These individuals sacrificed sleep and time off with their families to make sure they could bring the Wow experience to all those that expected it.
Let's just assume for a minute that Blizzard knew exactly how popular their game was going to be, and launched with enough server capacity and game copies for 13 million players. 95% of the problems you would go on a tirade about, wouldn't have ever happened. What Blizzard experienced with the launch of Wow had everything to do with being unable to anticipate the success and popularity of your own product, and nothing to do with game design or bugs that break the game.
Also, Wow didn't get a pass back then. It got heavily criticized by anyone and everyone for it's flaws, and Blizzard worked hard as they could to fix everything and bring players the kind of gaming experience they expected. I don't see your points as holding any merit, as we are talking about two completely different scenarios at two completely different points in the MMO industry.