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<blockquote data-quote="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost" data-source="post: 3617570" data-attributes="member: 4720">Party-based balance doesn't work for the general audience in the U.S.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; Only high end guilds embrace it, and though they are the audience most games preferentially cater to, they are not responsible for the bulk of the revenue.&nbsp; You have to at least allow basic gameplay viability to those who don't want to build &quot;proper&quot; parties.American MMO players don't want to rely on a party for PVP purposes.&nbsp; They want to be able to go it alone.&nbsp; Heck, there's a VERY large segment of solo PVE players in the States, which is nonsensical to my way of thinking, but is part of the audience to consider.Essentially, level 20 casters would be wiping the floor with everyone.&nbsp; PVP would devolve to mage-duels, because everyone else would be dead before they had a chance to feel effective.&nbsp; Plus, a high level mage can situationally be a better rogue than a Rogue and a better warrior than a Fighter, with the right spells.&nbsp; If you don't have any chance of affecting the outcome of a battle in a meaningful way, you'll take your business elsewhere.PVE would also have problems.&nbsp; I play WoW, and there's more flexibility in party structure than in D&amp;D, IMO.&nbsp; Sometimes, you just can't get the &quot;right&quot; classes.&nbsp; That's not crippling in WoW or EQ, because there's more flexibility built in.That might be a viable model in Korea.&nbsp; American gamers need simple carrots.&nbsp; They pitched fits until Blizzard gave them the option to skip all the quest text.&nbsp; There's a substantial majority who don't want to read lore.&nbsp; So politics and allegiances and so on reduce to &quot;what phat lewts do I get from them?&quot;If someone did something like that right, it might catch on, but attempts at even 1/10 of that tend to get ignored in favor of simple reinforcement models: i.e. &quot;I press the bar enough times, and I get [EPIX]&quot;&quot;Different&quot; has not been given a fair try, perhaps.&nbsp; But MMOs are not a place for experimentation.&nbsp; They're too costly.&nbsp; The attitudes and stated preferences of the average players argue against even trying your ideas.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost, post: 3617570, member: 4720"] Party-based balance doesn't work for the general audience in the U.S. Period. Only high end guilds embrace it, and though they are the audience most games preferentially cater to, they are not responsible for the bulk of the revenue. You have to at least allow basic gameplay viability to those who don't want to build "proper" parties. American MMO players don't want to rely on a party for PVP purposes. They want to be able to go it alone. Heck, there's a VERY large segment of solo PVE players in the States, which is nonsensical to my way of thinking, but is part of the audience to consider. Essentially, level 20 casters would be wiping the floor with everyone. PVP would devolve to mage-duels, because everyone else would be dead before they had a chance to feel effective. Plus, a high level mage can situationally be a better rogue than a Rogue and a better warrior than a Fighter, with the right spells. If you don't have any chance of affecting the outcome of a battle in a meaningful way, you'll take your business elsewhere. PVE would also have problems. I play WoW, and there's more flexibility in party structure than in D&D, IMO. Sometimes, you just can't get the "right" classes. That's not crippling in WoW or EQ, because there's more flexibility built in. That [i]might[/i] be a viable model in Korea. American gamers need simple carrots. They pitched fits until Blizzard gave them the option to skip all the quest text. There's a substantial majority who don't want to read lore. So politics and allegiances and so on reduce to "what phat lewts do I get from them?" If someone did something like that right, it might catch on, but attempts at even 1/10 of that tend to get ignored in favor of simple reinforcement models: i.e. "I press the bar enough times, and I get [b][COLOR=Purple][EPIX][/COLOR][/b]" "Different" has not been given a fair try, perhaps. But MMOs are not a place for experimentation. They're too costly. The attitudes and [i]stated preferences[/i] of the average players argue against even trying your ideas. [/QUOTE]

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