Mudflation 4TW

Given the raging storm and fury about Blizzard’s balancing practices having all the foresight of sex-starved bonobo monkeys still thundering in the last post’s discussion, I think a link over to another view – specifically Damion Schubert’s insightful praise of TBC mudflation is in order.

So to say I was happy about getting something that was, objectively, about 5 times better in every way that actually matters to a priest is a vast understatement.

The gravy train didn’t end there – new robe, new pants, new pimp hat — one by one, all the new quests raise the level of gear. Why? It’s easy – it makes it POSSIBLE for the designers to actually balance the content.

Blizzard certainly hasn’t been shy about shaking up the state of the game in this Brave New Ver 2.0 World. As someone who played a warrior, I’m not wildly happy about the way things shook up for my little dwarf, but I also haven’t really delved much into the new content, either… been busy either slowly leveling up a Draenei and/or playing other games and/or insanely modding still other games. Oh, and I’m finally surrendering to the inevitable and picking up an Xbox360 this month. Expect me to whine about achievement points in 3… 2…

As Damion says, Blizzard’s approach is an interesting way to deal with a balkanized playerbase. Simply buff everyone up to 10% better than the highest tier. Free toys for everyone! It does cause resentment among the hardcore who earned that highest tier, but especially given the raw numbers Blizzard are dealing with? Not an issue. They lose 50,000 raiders and keep 3 million casuals. Hmm. Basic math.