Shai said:This thread has identified two types of nerf. I will name them:
- The Fix-Nerf - A reduction in difficulty due to unforeseen and unintended consequences, bugs, or abuse.
- The Access-Nerf - A reduction in difficulty intended to facilitate wider access to content.
The Fix-Nerf:
I don't think this is the kind that the OP was talking about, but the thread has spent a lot of time dwelling on it. Most people who object to the "Fix-Nerf" say they're unhappy because it's an indication of poor quality control. In their eyes, any nerf devalues sunk time, but maybe they see this kind as particularly irksome because it's not even for a good reason. To paraphrase: "You messed up by releasing buggy content and I solved it anyway. Now you want to diminish my achievement!? I am agrieved, sir!" Kilsin says: "expect it to happen in Pantheon." Because... of course it will. Come on.
The Access-Nerf
I think this is what the OP was talking about. This is the sort of Nerf where a studio releases difficult content designed for their "core" player demographic, then - after it's been consumed by the high-time users - reduces the difficulty in order to make it accessible by a wider player base. This gives the studio a greater return on their content investment, but there are other reasons too. Players don't like this either for the same reason as before; it devalues their sunk time. Kilsin hasn't directly addressed this as far as I can tell.
Hey, OP chiming in. Been so busy the past few days, didn't expect this to have so many replies.
If I wasn't clear, my main concern was "The Access-Nerf" as you described. A great example that I can think of is how World of Warcraft nerfed the Firelands raid in ways that was so absurd that it was literally the last straw that pushed me out of the game. The amount of time that I spent working on 25 Man Heroic Lord Rhyolith and 25 Man Heroic Baleroc to see them become laughable fights was so disheartening, I couldn't deal with it any longer. Those kinds of situations are what I fear. If someone gets better gear in the future, which enables them to come back and do content that used to be too hard, thats cool. I like that. I just hate seeing bosses being nerfed into oblivion.
For those that don't know, Firelands was a major raid in WoW. You could do it on normal difficulty and heroic difficulty. I'm not even saying that people didn't deserve to kill the bosses on normal. But taking the "heroic" out of "heroic difficulty" was too much for me.
I was just expressing that thought. From what I've seen from Pantheon, I would never expect that to happen.
There is never a good reaosn to nerf anything in the game for as long there is a way to come out of top. The only exception is if like only 5% of the people playing the game are the only ones that can defeat him/her. And im not saying to nerf him by much for more than likely if only that many can beat him simply just making him a tad bit easier could easily increae it from 5% to 25% simply cuase the ones that were failing might of only been failing to minor situatins that could simply be overcomed by doing 5% less damage overall, doing less damage during a certain phase of his mechanic, anything and simply with a little fix like that could make him to ones of the hardest, to a mildly tank n spank in comparasion, WoW was terrible at always giving the casuals what they wanted simply becuase they wanted to rock awesome gear with no effort they even made a casual raid queing system and everytime you wipe you can stronger and the raid mobs got easier, it was simply a joke and made me quit instantly. So i say no Nerfing of Raid Mobs like ever unless like i said if only like 5% of the gamers can defeat him and make it small to where once the patch comes out that maybe 15-20% and beat it once it comes out that way, their is still a need to know the mechanic of the fight, and still big conquences if you mess it up, cuase eventually a well balanced raiding party/guild will balance out what is needed, and who is needed to do what, either by watching videos of how other peope have done it or simple trial and error, and learn it mechanics to defeat the encounter, and its this people who have tried very hard to deserve what he drops, even if his drops arent very good shouldnt be a reason to make him an easy fight, maybe he is hard cuase he is a guardian to a boss that is in front of him, and if you cant kill him why should you be able to fight the person behind him which he is protecting?
Well thats my 2 cp, no nerfing, eventually the 5% will become 50% once his mechanic is figured out regliously through trial and error anyway, but if anything just if you do dont make him so easy he might has well have an unguarded treasure box with all his loot in it as we see him running away in fear with a sign i didn't want to be a free kill today.