Stranger (not verified) on April 26, 2008 - 10:42.
An MMO (or, at the very least, an MMO like WoW) is inherently incompatible with anything resembling an eSport. By definition there will be tiers between players, in terms of levels, gear, and so on, and the advancement of XP/equipment/etc. is what ultimately drives the game mechanics. A fair deathmatch environment is directly contrary to this, requiring players to be on a relatively equal footing; similar equipment levels, balanced classes (or at least ways to swap class/spec with little to no downtime), and so on. WoW will never be Starcraft or Guild Wars, and further more, should not be, and the more development time is spent trying to make it so, the worse the whole becomes.
I have a personal grudge against arenas in general, as there isn't even a token effort to fit them into the rest of the lore and gameplay. It's lazy and metagamey design, and that sort of suspension of disbelief is impossible to recover.
Honestly, it makes me wonder what idiot at the high end has a hard on for eSports. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same incompent who continues to keep the LFG system from being remotely useful...
Re: P.S. I was right again
An MMO (or, at the very least, an MMO like WoW) is inherently incompatible with anything resembling an eSport. By definition there will be tiers between players, in terms of levels, gear, and so on, and the advancement of XP/equipment/etc. is what ultimately drives the game mechanics. A fair deathmatch environment is directly contrary to this, requiring players to be on a relatively equal footing; similar equipment levels, balanced classes (or at least ways to swap class/spec with little to no downtime), and so on. WoW will never be Starcraft or Guild Wars, and further more, should not be, and the more development time is spent trying to make it so, the worse the whole becomes.
I have a personal grudge against arenas in general, as there isn't even a token effort to fit them into the rest of the lore and gameplay. It's lazy and metagamey design, and that sort of suspension of disbelief is impossible to recover.
Honestly, it makes me wonder what idiot at the high end has a hard on for eSports. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same incompent who continues to keep the LFG system from being remotely useful...