#10 - July 8, 2011, 1:08 a.m.
Sorry for all the WoW-talk in advance, but I gots'ta throw down on Grug! ;)
Q u o t e:
I read a few days ago that WoW is getting a Dungeon Guide feature.
(It's already in the game with patch 4.2.)
Q u o t e:
Every player will have access to the loot tables
Correct, although there have been player-made mods (which most people use) providing this same information for years. Alternatively alt+tabbing out to search on a database site works similarly well.
Q u o t e:
and strategies for every boss of every dungeon while in-game, directly from the developers.
Incorrect, it does not provide any strategy. It provides ability information. What spells and/or abilities a boss uses. Not how its used, when, how to deal with it, or the best way to overcome it. Considering that even with the Dungeon Journal now available, the new raid (Firelands) is insanely difficult for the vast majority of players, we have absolute proof that the information can be helpful to players understanding how they're being affected by abilities in the chaos of battle, but without giving them any real advantage to how good of a player they are. (Dungeon Journal doesn't make bad players good.)
Before the Dungeon Journal, and definitely since, the majority of raiders are watching videos of how to beat the fights posted by cutting-edge groups that killed the bosses months prior on our test servers. What they watch is actual strategy. What the Dungeon Journal provides is basic boss ability information, what you choose to do with that information is up to you. Most importantly though (and the reason why it exists) it keeps people from having to alt-tab just to see what the hell that huge fireball was that just hit them in the face. How to best avoid it is still going to be up to them.
Q u o t e:
It makes me wonder what the situation will be like in Diablo 3. I know they probably won't give up boss details like in WoW, as there's more room for freestyle (and it doesn't have to cater to 13 year-olds and housewives that want to play End Game). But what about other parts of the game? What about item enchantments? Will Blizzard provide an in-game widget that explains the names and level range of every Fire Damage or +Crit modifier? What about drop chances? Possible quests in a zone? I'm fine with this information being available somewhere, but don't put it in the game itself.
I think that we would totally agree that the Dungeon Journal is a horrible idea and would ruin the game if we were talking about it being included when World of Warcraft was first released. But it's almost 7 years old. That doesn't stop people from wanting to figure things out, and that's why we specifically don't provide them strategy, but sharing information like boss abilities really isn't that big of a deal when that kind of information is not only readily available from many sources, but has become a part of how people play the game.
Also it shows a 3D model of the boss, their loot, their location in the raid, and is just overall really helpful. It caused a stir before we released it, but as happens so often, since it's actually been in the game people realized it isn't an "I Win" button and now think it's just a helpful tool.
But anyway, no, nothing you mentioned will be in Diablo III, but who's to say 7 years from now?
