I see a great number of threads appearing on these forums each targetting the same topic. This being that some folks in this community believe DA:O would be 'better' if more detailed combat stats, combat logs, better/more detailed tooltips were available, presenting the core machinations of DA:O combat to the player with openess.
I do not agree. Infact, I strongly believe that the only reason many players are asking for such things is because they are suffering from the "MMO Whiplash" effect. Here, let me explain:
1. What purpose do Combat Logs, detailed numerical tooltips and other such "embellishments" serve?
- Competative edge; In multiplayer games, you need to get a competative edge over your fellow player. A common method to achieve this is through "min-maxing". NB. In MMOs especially, it is never enough that you have killed the boss, you need to kill the boss better then the other guys did.
- Due to the above, players feel that unless they are "min-maxing" they are doing a diservice to themselves and the friends who they play with. That they are, essentially, being 'carried'.
- In simple terms, many of the people asking for combat logs, detailed tooltips, etc are MMO veterans. They have spent the better part of the past 5 years playing with combat logs, number crunching programs etc to gain that extra 0.002% performance.
- In fact, they have done this for so long, that they are incapable of understanding that you do not need to have these things for every game, and that there can easily exist games for which having all this insight into the combat stats would not only be superflous, but may end up having a negative end effect.
- When they approach DA:O with this MMO mindset, they suffer from whiplash, since they are encountering a game but are still thinking of it in a 'min-max' MMO mindset. They have, however, forgot a very key point. This being:
In DA:O, there is no concept of "I killed X boss better than you". In DA:O, there is no need to spend 5+hrs theorycrafting to gain that extra 0.02% better damage on your fireball spell. Even if you could, the gameplay is set up in such a way that gaining that performance would have no realistic effect in the outcome.
What all this means, is that even if we had combat logs, detailed tooltips, and could min-max to our hearts content, the gain from all this development investment would be almost nothing, since in DA:O you don't need to have a second by second combat analysis running to be able to beat a boss. I mean seriously, its a singleplayer game guys.
As far as what you do need to know to beat the game, that much is already there. True, you need to ensure your guys are properly geared up and skilled, but the information you need for this is readily available. Gear show which 'tier' it is. Basics, such as how much armor, magic etc, are clearly shown. Skills are setup in such a way that you are not really choosing one spell over another because it is the exact same spell as the other but with more damage and so you have to choose between them from an efficiency/DPS/DPM standpoint (plus, almost all have cooldowns). Instead, you are choosing which spells to cast because of their secondary effect. Maybe you need to freeze something here, sleep something there, damage something there, defend someone here, etc.
We need to realize that having full disclosure of the combat mechanics of a game is only a good thing for certain types of games. For others, it is unnecessary and can end up being detrimental even.
As an extreme example, look at FPS type games. Not only do you not have combat logs, but health bars, gun damage amounts, enemy armor types and mostly all such things are not needed, simply because, at the end of the day, if the zombie running towards you dies, then that is good enough.
In my humble opinion, DA:O has given us just the right amount of combat info to keep us going and keep the gameplay fresh and intersting. So I would have to vote no, we do not need combat logs, detailed tooltips, armor penetration vs strength graphs and realtime combat simulation models.
It would all be overkill.
DISCLAIMER: Since it is obvious that there will be some people that will misinterpret what I am saying, let me be clear. I am not advocating that we do not need any combat stats or information in this game. I am just saying that we already have the required detail of such things to not only enjoy the game but be complete effective in what we do. I assert that having detailed second by second combat logs and all that jazz serves no purpose in this game since there is no need to 'min-max' to the point where you are dealing with 0.03% performance gains.
DISCLAIMER 2: Just a quick point of clarification.
A few people are interpreting this post from a slightly different angle then I intended. Please understand, while I used MMOs and behavior commonly found in MMOs as a convex point of the original idea, I am in no way trying to imply that min/max behavior, powergaming, theorycrafting, sim modelling are ideas first born in MMO gaming. I fully understand that they have existed as niche playstyles for a long time now. However, please understand that this thread is about how numerical min/max gaming (with combat logs and detailed combat models) fits into DA:O, and not a conversation on the origins of min/max gaming.
In this way, let us please understand that my term "MMO whiplash" as well as my comparison to MMO gaming was but a conduit to explain the core point of this view, nothing more. Enjoy.
Modifié par kelsjet, 20 novembre 2009 - 07:18 .
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