[betterth]

What BS. Why on Earth should games be sterilized down to ensure that all players receive an equal treatment? That's not how it works, not at all, because primarily: You can't control players, and players affect each other's experience.

But even past that, you seem to be saying that all MMO's should be designed for the lowest common denominator.

Why make guild raids when casual players can't get into top tier guilds?

Why make 40 man dungeon raids when casual players can't find groups larger than 5?

Why make the game have 80 levels when casual players, on average, will only reach 60 of them?

My real question is: Why punish avid gamers by condescendingly referring to their passion as unhealthy?

It seems to me that attempting to force every player into one paradigm is a great way to alienate everyone except players who that paradigm was designed for.

If you make a game that appeals to casual gamers -- do not be surprised when hardcore gamers skip it!

This is the beauty of the MMO: content for everyone and theoretically, the hardcore gamer's contribution to the game world will ripple out and affect other gamers, not only psychologically (I want to be that good) but materially, as they affect economies and other systems...

[jiggy2011]

That was not really my argument at all.

The GGPs point was that by creating incentives to play the game a lot and by that I assume meaning 10+ hours per day you are incentivising what any sane person would class as unhealthy behaviour.

The GP suggested that a balance could be struck and I mentioned what I perceived the difficulties to be.

I am not suggesting dumbing anything down.

[ben0x539]

"Lowest common denominator"? Really?

After listening to this kind of argument from World of Warcraft players for ages, I have a serious problem with equating time investment with being more deserving of having fun. It's about taking pride in the ability to put up with arbitrary timesinks that serve the game in no way but to prolong it, and that rhetoric is ultimately justifying game design that is designed to waste the player's time as much as they will put up with.

Somehow Blizzard managed to brainwash people into rationalizing their sunk time, and now they really believe that having to spend hours not having fun before you can have fun is necessary to make a game rewarding, because there's no other element of the game that is rewarding to them anymore.

[betterth]

Your reply once again proves that you're incapable of understanding the players, and instead of attempting to understand, you're judging and insulting them and how they freely choose to spend their time.

Seriously just because you don't like something doesn't mean people who do are brainwashed. That's extremely pretentious and offensive and I really have nothing more to say to you.