Wednesday, July 26, 2006

1.12 and DKP Capitalism

Alrighty. Some ... people... have been complaining that I haven't updated my site in a while. I guess I've been a little busy.

I've also been kinda out of topics. Yeah, everyone's covering the new 1.12 whatever patch and the rogue review, as well as the contention regarding alliance shamans and horde paladins. I hope to the gods they don't actually name their classes that, since "paladin" has a very specific connotation, especially in the World of Warcraft game history, that wouldn't really make much sense in the context of a Blood Elf.

Shamans? Eh. Not so much a history, and not so narrowly interpreted.

Obviously, talents and skills will be different, with similar themes. I'm not worried.

(Although I wish Blizzard would come up with something unique instead of ripping itself off).

Okay, well, you asked for it. Here's what I think about the rogue review:

1) 90% of what they're doing constitutes a "fix" to a vast number of problems that have been plaguing rogues since day 1, and should have been fixed much earlier, in earlier patches.

2) Classes that have already undergone reviews have been seriously upgraded. I played a warlock prior to the warlock review, and it was so difficult, I nearly quit the game (survivability was zilch). I even posted a guide here on how to pvp against warlocks as a rogue. It was something like: rush the bastard and just kill him. Now, I'm lucky if I survive a warlock encounter. They're tough as nails, and quite often top the pvp kill charts (aren't DoTs fun?). Anyway, what do rogues get? A slightly fiddled-with talent tree that really doesn't do all that much. How about a nicely revamped talent tree, some friggin tier armor that doesn't look like all the other tier armor (how many friggin shoulders have to look exactly like shadowcraft shoulders? even random, non-set ones look identical!), and maybe, just maybe, some rogue-specific quests that require a bit of stealth, pickpocketing, assassination (without having to fight through an army of mobs first), thievery, whatever? Heck, I just ruined #3 on, because I said it all right there.

3) Re-read #2. Also, read my mind. I'm not feeling very verbose today.

Thought of the day:

Is the capitalist society of today the equivalent of joining a classic DKP system WoW guild that has been running instances for 200 years?

Let me elaborate on what I'm talking about. DKP = dragon kill points, which is a system whereby members of a group earn points by attending instance raids. They can then spend these points to "purchase" dropped items. The higher the number of points a member has, the more that member can outbid other members for an item. The classic system allows stockpiling of these points, and "old" guilds tend to have members with so many points, that new members literally can never catch up in order to bid on anything at all.

So, does that mimic capitalist society? In other words, when you, a n00b in the world, tries to get into business, do you even have a chance in hell to acquire the kind of wealth the lead aristocrats possess based on years and years of being in the same "family"? I could name some names, but I'm sure you can figure out a few.

If this is the case, is there a way to beat the system? Should there be?

Your thoughts?

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