I don't know how many MMOs you've played, but I'd like to address some of these points.
'Pure grinding' - you can level up through pvp, questing, or dungeons, and currently can get a 35% increase in experience gained, meaning that you can fly through 'old content.
'No character customization' - Well, yeah, aside from facial expressions, skin color, and a haircut, you're right, they're just cookie-cutter clones.
'Uninteresting classes that are all the same' - Here, I have to wonder what your actual experience is, and how long you played. The classes may be the same at 10, but certainly aren't once you get into levelling, or run dungeons, and especially not when you're raiding. Playing a tank is obvious a gigantic difference from playing a healer - but even within classes themselves, there's a huge difference in playstyle between a mage and a warlock, or a rogue and a ret (DPS) paladin.
If nothing else, the fact that all of the classes in WoW have different trees, different abilities, and should be played (optimally) in different ways is something that's worthy of a lot of respect, in my opinion. Granted, if you only care about pressing one or two buttons, they probably don't feel different. But if for anyone that played the game and experienced some of the end-game content, I think it's a pretty laughable statement on face.
'Poor graphics' - I think there's a very deliberate art style expressed here, one that's cartoony but not overly so. But if it's not your cup of tea, sure, I suppose that could be considered poor.
I'm not quite sure what an 'old-school' feel is, and I don't deny that there isn't that much RPing going on in servers, though it can still be found (and on the forums too!).
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Fundamentally, I think Blizzard did to MMOs the same thing they did with RTSs with Starcraft and hack-and-slash RPGs with Diablo - they took a system, and polished it until it was the best offering on the market. Is it perfect? No. But within the confines of this system, they have always walked the fine line between atrophy through lack of change and driving your players away through too much (SW:G, anyone?). And they're still polishing it, still iterating and getting feedback on class distinctions and balance and ways to make challenges both accessible and, well, challenging.
Granted, people should always be looking beyond the system, and games like EVE Online and Guild Wars are fascinating and contribute to the future of the industry. But that doesn't make what WoW did any less great.
Wait, wait.
What you're saying is that simply because Google has not released a Chrome for Linux, you wouldn't recommend it? Isn't that both blatantly incompetent?
The software should be judged based on its own merits, not whether it runs on whatever choice of system you personally operate on; and if you're really a responsible recommender, you will take time to figure out what's best for the people that you are recommending software to.
Two as an EMT so far, and three as HelpDesk for a major university.
I have a running tally on encounters with the dregs of humanity...and so far, I agree with you, EMS introduces you to those that computer-idiots have nothing on.
But on the other hand, EMS also tends to be more fulfilling - 'I troubleshot his network issue' is not as feel-good as 'I saved her life'.
This should probably be divided into two groups: Casual players and hardcore PvPers.
A few comments overall, also: Armory takes a good deal of time to load, to maximize effectiveness you need be running either two screens or two computers, and this can't be used to track movement.
For casual players, there should be very little, if any impact on gameplay.
As noted in other comments, it's not a tool that will be useful for stalking -- Armory doesn't tell users where the person they're trying to find is, nor it is real time, so information that is displayed will be useless for anyone on the opposite faction repeatedly trying to gank a single user (not to mention, you can report them for that). Aside from that, there may be limited use in knowing that, for example, if you're a warlock, that the other guy had an Insignia of the Horde on and will dispell fear the first time, thus allowing you to get a jump on them, but this isn't something that wouldn't be obvious after meeting him in combat and fearing him anyway.
The post by jchenx covers everything on casual players and getting into good groups. 'nuff said.
For hardcore PvP players, this is slightly more complicated, but ultimately leads to about the same conclusion.
It seems likely that the top Arena players will want to utilize every weapon in their arsenal to win, so it can be pressupposed that they've gotten themselves set up to use Armory. Assuming they use it in the pre-combat Arena time, they will indeed find out the gear that their opponents are wearing and the talent trees that they've gone, giving them an (questionable) advantage. However, there are a few responses to this:
First, that the other team will be doing the exact same thing, and as such, an advantage will cancel out; they'll know that you're a Resto-druid and a Prot-pally, and you know they have a PoM Firemage and a Shadowpriest, for example.
Second, the top teams will presumably be facing each other more than once, and as such will probably (if they really are dedicated) be either frapsing or logging the results of their combats anyway, and so would gain any appreciable knowledge anyway.
Third, since it's not real-time updates, one could presumably wear, as another poster suggested, nothing until you get into the arena, at which point with Outfitter or such mod you could instantly gear up to all your necessary gear. As a matter of fact, if you're a druid for example, you should have multiple suits of gear, one for resto, one for dps, etc; as such, Armory will not be of great tactical advantage, and could even be used for deceit.
Finally, even knowing your opponents' gear does not present that much of a tactical advantage -- knowing they're going to do 140dps and have a chance on hit to stun is nice, but that tells you nothing of whether they're going to rush at you or wait for you to target to mage to charge you, and so on and so forth. The strategy that can be played in an Arena is, as CrazyJim1 suggested, much more vulnerable to watching a replay and copying than knowing their gear, although that is a factor.
As such, it seems that either way, the information presented is of limited harm, and can be of good fun. Would an opt-out be nice? Yeah, probably. Is it a gigantic deal and a game-breaker? Not so much.
Slashdot Mirror
http://warpprism.com/ All the streams, all the time, always. That's all.
'Pure grinding' - you can level up through pvp, questing, or dungeons, and currently can get a 35% increase in experience gained, meaning that you can fly through 'old content.
'No character customization' - Well, yeah, aside from facial expressions, skin color, and a haircut, you're right, they're just cookie-cutter clones.
'Uninteresting classes that are all the same' - Here, I have to wonder what your actual experience is, and how long you played. The classes may be the same at 10, but certainly aren't once you get into levelling, or run dungeons, and especially not when you're raiding. Playing a tank is obvious a gigantic difference from playing a healer - but even within classes themselves, there's a huge difference in playstyle between a mage and a warlock, or a rogue and a ret (DPS) paladin.
If nothing else, the fact that all of the classes in WoW have different trees, different abilities, and should be played (optimally) in different ways is something that's worthy of a lot of respect, in my opinion. Granted, if you only care about pressing one or two buttons, they probably don't feel different. But if for anyone that played the game and experienced some of the end-game content, I think it's a pretty laughable statement on face.
'Poor graphics' - I think there's a very deliberate art style expressed here, one that's cartoony but not overly so. But if it's not your cup of tea, sure, I suppose that could be considered poor.
I'm not quite sure what an 'old-school' feel is, and I don't deny that there isn't that much RPing going on in servers, though it can still be found (and on the forums too!).
-
Fundamentally, I think Blizzard did to MMOs the same thing they did with RTSs with Starcraft and hack-and-slash RPGs with Diablo - they took a system, and polished it until it was the best offering on the market. Is it perfect? No. But within the confines of this system, they have always walked the fine line between atrophy through lack of change and driving your players away through too much (SW:G, anyone?). And they're still polishing it, still iterating and getting feedback on class distinctions and balance and ways to make challenges both accessible and, well, challenging.
Granted, people should always be looking beyond the system, and games like EVE Online and Guild Wars are fascinating and contribute to the future of the industry. But that doesn't make what WoW did any less great.
Wait, wait. What you're saying is that simply because Google has not released a Chrome for Linux, you wouldn't recommend it? Isn't that both blatantly incompetent? The software should be judged based on its own merits, not whether it runs on whatever choice of system you personally operate on; and if you're really a responsible recommender, you will take time to figure out what's best for the people that you are recommending software to.
Two as an EMT so far, and three as HelpDesk for a major university.
I have a running tally on encounters with the dregs of humanity...and so far, I agree with you, EMS introduces you to those that computer-idiots have nothing on.
But on the other hand, EMS also tends to be more fulfilling - 'I troubleshot his network issue' is not as feel-good as 'I saved her life'.
This should probably be divided into two groups: Casual players and hardcore PvPers.
A few comments overall, also: Armory takes a good deal of time to load, to maximize effectiveness you need be running either two screens or two computers, and this can't be used to track movement.
For casual players, there should be very little, if any impact on gameplay.
As noted in other comments, it's not a tool that will be useful for stalking -- Armory doesn't tell users where the person they're trying to find is, nor it is real time, so information that is displayed will be useless for anyone on the opposite faction repeatedly trying to gank a single user (not to mention, you can report them for that). Aside from that, there may be limited use in knowing that, for example, if you're a warlock, that the other guy had an Insignia of the Horde on and will dispell fear the first time, thus allowing you to get a jump on them, but this isn't something that wouldn't be obvious after meeting him in combat and fearing him anyway.
The post by jchenx covers everything on casual players and getting into good groups. 'nuff said.
For hardcore PvP players, this is slightly more complicated, but ultimately leads to about the same conclusion.
It seems likely that the top Arena players will want to utilize every weapon in their arsenal to win, so it can be pressupposed that they've gotten themselves set up to use Armory. Assuming they use it in the pre-combat Arena time, they will indeed find out the gear that their opponents are wearing and the talent trees that they've gone, giving them an (questionable) advantage. However, there are a few responses to this:
First, that the other team will be doing the exact same thing, and as such, an advantage will cancel out; they'll know that you're a Resto-druid and a Prot-pally, and you know they have a PoM Firemage and a Shadowpriest, for example.
Second, the top teams will presumably be facing each other more than once, and as such will probably (if they really are dedicated) be either frapsing or logging the results of their combats anyway, and so would gain any appreciable knowledge anyway.
Third, since it's not real-time updates, one could presumably wear, as another poster suggested, nothing until you get into the arena, at which point with Outfitter or such mod you could instantly gear up to all your necessary gear. As a matter of fact, if you're a druid for example, you should have multiple suits of gear, one for resto, one for dps, etc; as such, Armory will not be of great tactical advantage, and could even be used for deceit.
Finally, even knowing your opponents' gear does not present that much of a tactical advantage -- knowing they're going to do 140dps and have a chance on hit to stun is nice, but that tells you nothing of whether they're going to rush at you or wait for you to target to mage to charge you, and so on and so forth. The strategy that can be played in an Arena is, as CrazyJim1 suggested, much more vulnerable to watching a replay and copying than knowing their gear, although that is a factor.
As such, it seems that either way, the information presented is of limited harm, and can be of good fun. Would an opt-out be nice? Yeah, probably. Is it a gigantic deal and a game-breaker? Not so much.