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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8588087" data-attributes="member: 6790260">As someone who roleplays pretty heavily, and yet also thinks about this sort of stuff, I would like to make a defense of what I will call "healthy" optimization.That is, before I begin, I do recognize that optimization can be a problem. It can suck the fun out of an event by turning it into a pure plug and chug numbers game, or by inducing a feeling that "all that matters" is the numbers and everything else is just ignorable faffing about. I do not mean to defend that kind of behavior, and I 100% understand why folks would oppose it.The problem is, that isn't anywhere near the only form of it. That is simply the most faulty, problematic kind. To judge ALL optimization (and, thus, all optimizers) by this standard is equivalent to judging ALL roleplay (and thus all roleplayers) by the standard of the jerk who constantly stokes PVP conflicts and does things to antagonize the other players and affrontedly says "but it's what my character would do!!"I engage in some, relatively mild optimization, because I get worried about not contributing enough to the party. No, it won't help for you to tell me "it doesn't matter, just do what you enjoy!" I will feel anxious about failing to pull my own weight. By doing some research, surveying the options, and picking things that are relatively reliably useful, I will be comfortable enough to do things like taking risks, occasionally doing something unwise because it's what would make sense, and generally be a lot more willing to get engaged. I do not make a nuisance of myself. I may provide small suggestions to others if I think they have missed something they would like to have, but I know that people often find any such commentary extremely annoying so I try to do that sort of thing very carefully.By "optimizing"--not absolute hardcore "MUST BE 110% PERFECT" optimization, just mild optimizing--I actually roleplay more and, generally, better than I would if I actively avoided any optimization.Would you consider that treating the game as though it were something to "win"?</blockquote>

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