it also bugs me when the developers cave to that shit over and over, but sometimes it’s honestly warranted, even if i do hate parsetards.

For some reason I keep thinking of that scene in American Beauty where Annette Benning keeps slapping herself.

1) gold farmers
2) exploiters
3) anyone else who is flagrantly violating the terms of service

And, in fact, I’d be happy to make the game less enjoyable for all of them as well, because it makes the game more enjoyable for everyone else.

Yes, you do nerf things sometimes in the knowledge that it WILL make it less enjoyable for some people, but it’s always with the intent to make the game more enjoyable for the most possible people. In the world of MMO development, majority rules.

And yeah, I have seen some pretty idiotic changes by people I’ve worked with or by people who worked on games I was playing. These are generally mistakes or something born of misunderstanding (which I’d generally translate as a mistake).

As a player you have to learn to roll with the changes. This is something I did long ago. It’s self-centered and idiotic to think that developers just like to screw with you. I have been in that environment and I can tell you players that there is nothing further from the truth.

It’s a sign of the overall level of emotional maturity present in a game or class (either in lack or surplus) when you observe how they react. It’s a stretch but it still applies to say; “Tough times don’t build character, they reveal it.” It’s one thing to whine and complain (something I like to think I excel at) but another entirely to cast aspersions about someone that is building a game that “must hate my class.”

In all seriousness, both sides are right. Nerfs piss players off, and guess what? You shouldn’t nerf something unless you have to - unless it’s ruining the experience for other players. Especially when PvP is supported, that’s going to be true *a lot*.

In the end I do agree with both sides. My take is pretty simple - as developers we need to be aware that the players having fun is priority #1. It’s not a good game if they’re not having fun, no matter how clever your system is, how mathematically perfect balance is, how innovative something is (or conversely how well it meets expectations of established genre players)… if they’re not having fun it isn’t good, and those things are only tools for achieving that goal. It’s a delicate balancing act only because different groups of people like opposite things all too often and we’re responsible for prioritizing how we satisfy those groups.