Musing: Gender Locked Classes: The New Sexism

I hate games that do this. I thought this world was becoming more progressive. Certainly doesn’t FEEL that way when you still got games that do this. This is ass backwards and as far as I’m concerned there is no feasible excuse for it. Mothers tell their little girls that when they grow up they can be ANYTHING they want and yet they can’t even get on a good deal of games and be what they want. Maybe little Susie doesn’t want to play a Priestess. Little Susie wants to go Xena on people and be a warrior. She finds out that only boys can be Warriors. Susie gets disappointed and uninstalls the game since girls can’t be warriors. Sure, the game LOOKED good, but she just can’t stand the gender barrier.

The problem also hits the male set too. Maybe little Timmy wants to be a Priest instead of a Warrior. He wants to play a boy Priest, but apparently only girls can be Priests. Timmy also uninstalls since he can’t be what he wants to be. Both Susie and Timmy think the developers are unfair and stupid for this choice, and so are a bunch of people. I had a talk with my mother that this was a practice in certain games and she was mortified. Sure, she doesn’t play any MMOs, but the very thought of this Gender Locking made her (figuratively) sick to her stomach. ALL THE CRAP women take and such a misogynistic practice not being halted in the virtual world. It could be a case of short sightedness on the developer’s part, but let’s face it…it looks pretty fucking sexist. The only time such a practice should ever be permitted is if the race only has ONE GENDER or you’re playing a premade character from the ground up like in Rusty Hearts. If it’s not a One Gender Race or a pre-made character then it can be argued that the person in charge of these things is either a wife beating man or some crazed man hating woman.

This sort of thing has stopped me from even checking out Aika, Prius and a few others that escape my memory at the moment. Why do people think this is good? Why aren’t people yelling at the development teams about these issues? Why are publishers agreeing to host games like this? WHERE IS THE MASS OUTRAGE!? Are people just so passive that they don’t think they can make an impact? Are these games really so good that anyone can just look past the underlying unfortunate implications of this? I know this sounds crazy to some of you, but I believe that more impressionable people will be left to believe that this kind of gender bias is actually an acceptable practice, and that frightens me to no end. I was hoping that sometime in my lifetime that we would be nearly finished sweeping gender bias off a cliff for good. This is just unacceptable.

I’m not going to go around chasing people off games that have gender locked classes, but I would at least want them to take notice of these issues. Even if I can get them to reconsider (no matter how briefly) supporting games with this “feature” I’ve done my job. This practice needs to stop. People need to spam the hell out of the inboxes of the developers and publishers of such games. Even if the publishers cannot do anything about it, you can be assured that they’ll get on the developers about it if enough people scream at them and keep screaming until it’s corrected.

I’ve heard some people reason that this is because they don’t want variety in classes is to ease up on the lag of the servers. I declare that these developers are lazy and cheap (you expect me to give you money and you can’t bother to give me a good amount of customizable options?), but that’s an issue for another time.

Tell me. What’s your stance on this?

P.S. I'll be starting this topic on as many places as I can think of to get some scope on this.

Musing: Fun Should NEVER be Sacrificed For “Balance”

As some of you might know, I have been playing League of Legends for about two months now. In those months I haven’t been playing ranked games (for those who don’t know to play in Ranked matches you must be Level 30 and as of this post I’m Level 15) but I have been feeling the overall effect of the changes made to them for the sake of “balance”. Why do I use “balance” in such a condescending way? I do so because it’s very hard to do no matter how you set the game up from the beginning.

Let’s take Pokémon for example. Sure, I would LOVE to see my Jigglypuff stomp the face of Legendary Pokémon but statistics state that it’s impossible in higher levels of play because the numbers don’t support it because they just have too great a curb in power between them. Sure there are some examples where true balance can be attained, but these are so few they are pretty much the stuff of legends (Chess and Go are the best example I can think of, and from what I hear Starcraft 2, but since I never played that game I cannot comment on that facet). Gamefreak wouldn’t want to put in the work, otherwise we would be talking about another programming change so drastic that our Pokémon couldn’t be transferred to the next game (or so I hear, don’t quote me on that) thus alienating a large batch of its player base, so Weedle will NEVER be able to defeat Zapdos, but let’s get back to the point I was trying to make.

As I was saying earlier I felt the effect of these changes even though I had not played in the upper levels in League of Legends and have no desire to play at such a level because I hear they can ban Champions, and God help me if the three the opposing team bans are the only once I feel I’m really good with, then I become a liability to my team! I felt the effects with the re-works of Champions I had gotten the hang of (it was a SLOW process). Annie’s damage was nerfed all around, Sona won’t really be healing much after the next patch and the Support role is becoming more “action packed” while still leaving them too squishy for this to work. So in a short amount of time, Riot has basically told me to go fuck myself three times in two months while wearing a shit eating grin (Annie & Sona were the first Champions I felt good with and I liked playing the Support role), and I found out WHY Riot had decided to do this. I would like to quote a Summoner named Quantumprophecy because he or she said it in a way that hit me.

“Before I begin let me say, this will be fairly long and there will not be a TLDR. If you aren't here to read a well thought critique of Riot's design philosophy then go somewhere else please.


The Normalization of Champion Power Curves

In the last few months we have seen a fast growing trend in Riot's champ design. We can see it in both the new champs released and the reworks and/or buffs of old champs. What is this design philosophy? It's the normalization of champion power curves. And believe it or not, this philosophy is one of the contributers to many of the other problems we are seeing in the game at the moment. Junglers being to strong in lane, support+AD bot, and many other problems are either directly or indirectly being caused by this.

Now before I go further, let me clarify what a champion's power curve is. A champion's power curve is a term to decide how strong a champion is at different points in the game. Champion's such as pre-rework Tryn would have a low power curve early game, and a much higher one late game. Leblanc on the other hand would have a very high curve early game, and lower later. It's important to realize though that this is all very general. It's not like there are power levels or numbers associated with it. It's all very general and relative.

So where's the problem you may be asking? Well Riot seems to be moving away from varying power curves on champs and normalizing them across the board, with copious amounts of proof to support this. Consider practically all new champs released, regardless of OP or UP. Yorick, Leona, Wukong, Skarner, all incredibly normalized curves. They don't excel at any point in the game, or blow at any other. Now consider champs such as Vayne. Her primary role is meant to be that of a carry, a role characterized by having a bad early game in exchange for much stronger late game scaling. Vayne doesn't fit that definition at all. Vayne is incredibly easy to do well with early game, while being an extremely viable carry come late game.

We can see even more evidence in many of the reworks Riot has put out. Looking back at Annie's rework, one of the reason's given for having it in the first place was to make Annie more viable late game. Look at Allistar and Gangplank. Do either of them have weak points throughout the game? Consider Kayle's rework as well. Another case where one reason given for the rework was to strengthen her early game in exchange for less power early game. Similar reason's were given for Tryn's rework. Even looking into the future, there has been minor talk about Poppy getting nerfs, with reasons behind it being that her late game carrying ability is to high, and in exchange (again) she will have her early game buffed some.

So you might be asking, how is this philosophy destroying the game? Well beyond the obvious fact that it's creating less interesting features between champions, it's also part of the reason we are seeing support+AD bot all over the place. Ranged AD champs will almost always be necessary. But what lane are we to put them in? They can't solo top. They will get demolished by a whole slew of tanky dps with normalized curves, excellent early games coupled with fairly high carry potential late game, such as Jarvin and Irelia. Mid? Nope, can't do that either because of AP carries all with normalized curves. Brand and Annie? Incredible lane presence early, monster burst late game. So that leaves 1 place. Bot lane. But how do you keep the enemy team from sending a strong duo lane against them? Conveniently enough, you make their lane mate a support champ, in a sense helping to strengthen the Ad champs early game.

Another thing this philosophy has brought about, is the laning of great jungle champs. The need for strong laners has become so great that people have started bringing junglers out to lanes in an attempt to dominate early game.

So the final question to ask ourselves is, why is Riot doing this? Well, Riot is actively seeking to make the game more action packed(!) and in their eyes, playing a carry who doesn't start to do anything till late game, or an AP champ that dies off late game, isn't very fun. Okay, I can understand that. Maybe not agree with it, but understand it.


So that it's. My own personal critique on Riot's new favorite design philosophy. I'm not looking for upvotes. I'm not looking for red responses. I'm not even looking to start a discussion. I just like writing things like this up and getting them out to the community to hopefully open peoples eyes a bit about where this game is actually going.

Enjoy and thanks for reading.”

Click here if you want to see the entire thread (assuming it’s still there)

Homogenization (third meaning) is the word of the day, readers. While I can understand the need for it I can’t help but feel that “balance” wants to kill my fun to death. In Chess, it works because all the pieces are the same and it comes down to who’s smatter/luckier/more arrogant/short sighted, but in games like League of Legends or fighting games PEROID the characters are designed differently because they all fight differently, they effect the game differently. Some cases can be so outrageous that they MUST be bought into line somehow (Akuma, anyone?) while others stem from bad choices, ignorance of the character or just plain vindictive nature of people (Example: “I hate Annie, so I’m going to convince the Riot staff that she’s busted so I can stomp her more easily because I can’t suck she’s just busted! Never mind the fact she’s designed to be able to hit like a truck yet be squishy enough to die in under three seconds!”).

So because of the completive set I and those like me have to suffer for it. But they don’t care, and they never will because to a good deal of them think the “casual player” is a subspecies that doesn’t matter. Then you have the vocal minority that sounds louder than it is complaining on the forums about these things, and the egomaniacs on the site who flash drag there high ELO rating into the mess or your low or non-existent ELO rating into things in an attempt to discredit you just because you don’t spend as much time as he does trying to make his ELO rating big to compensate for his small dick. Even if you got a valid point it gets washed away in the mess produced by the circle jerking.

This is not helped by how Riot plans to just club Support to death. My idea of fun in this game is not to get killed repeatedly (but it tends to happen anyway if my Tank gets killed), so I pick support mostly so I can affect the tide of battle WITHOUT having to start fights, but my role is being made obsolete because of homicidal, psychopathic easily bored sociopaths that get pissed off if what they attack doesn’t die in less than five seconds. You want that kind of instant death gratification where Healers can’t stave death? Join the Army. I assure you that no Healer can sustain someone who got there head blown off by a sniper round.

I’m sorry if this seemed all over the place but it just came to me tonight after browsing the League of Legends forums. Anyway, feel free to post your thoughts on this.

Musing: In Game Cash Shops

This seems to be a hot topic no matter what MMO you encounter. These things are a way to keep the game afloat, and last I checked it was a nice thing. How else is your favorite pay to play game going to REMAIN free to play without resorting to a monthly subscription? Yeah, I thought so. I hate subscription based play as well.

There are several variations of items in these things:

Vanity: Or as I know it the “for people with more money then sense” crowd. Okay, let’s be fair, for some cases these costumes are reasonably priced. It only goes into “for money than sense” territory when the items cost more than a few ($5 or less) dollars. Even more so if these items are temporary. Why anyone would buy something that does nothing for $20 and expires is beyond me.

I myself would never purchase something like this (unless DIRT CHEAP). Got your game stocked with these to the gills with these? Well, I pray this game has plenty of people who like shiny things (I hear Magpies LOVE them. It’s an untapped market) I mean the pet rock sold well, so you should do well (that alone says bad things about the human race).

Acceleration: These items speed up the rate you get things like Experience Points, game currency and Random drops. The Experience points acceleration only helps if the EXP rate is generous enough (and you’re not picking on uber weak mobs) otherwise you might as well have spent that money on a costume.

Storage Expansion: This is the one I’m actually mad about seeing because it means the games storage is piss poor by default. If an item mall has this you better get used to poor storage space on hand. In some games its bearable (like if they only take up a single slot). In others it makes you want to shoot the developers in front of their families (weight dependent or items taking up multiple slots, God help you if they want to be dicks and do both).

Some of you might be saying “shut it! Just put the excess in storage!” Some games really want to stick it to you by taking in game currency to deposit/withdraw stuff. Some have piss poor storage capacity and the really stupid ones hit you with both barrels at once. I don’t tend to stick around too long in these. Not because of the weak storage, but because I would have to keep buying to expand my storage (these are almost always temporary and I have yet to see a game where it’s Permanent), not to mention these games have the annoying habit of having random drops eat up space via crafting quests so I feel like I’m forced to buy these. Not cool game developers.

Mounts: Yeah, these are those things you ride on to get from point A to point B because you don’t feel like walking there (not that I would blame you, generally it takes too long in an MMO to get anywhere on foot). Item malls will love to sell you these to make things easier in this regard (especially for those timed quests).

Weapons, Armor & Accessories: These are what I would go for in the item mall. Why wouldn’t anyone? We’re talking about stuff that affects your combat performance. If an item mall had to stock something to get me to spend, THIS would be worth my money (long as it wasn’t temporary, repair costs in game are enough as is). But this one is hotly debated because people see them as “unfair” and is viewed as such because they fear the game is or will become…

Pay to Win: In gaming communities this is a dreaded beast. It also goes by the name “Win Shop” in certain circles. Popular on Korean and Chinese MMO’s these shops have been known to “sell power” to those willing to buy it. One of the most infamous examples would be ZT Online which I read a rather jarring article on (HIGHLY recommend reading it, but its long so set aside some time for it) which shows how it can go TOO FAR. But does that mean a shop should never give stuff that gives stats? I believe not, on the grounds that it doesn’t COMPLETELY outclass the standard stuff in game. Some edge is fine but let’s not make it overwhelming (as in unable to progress the main game without investing into it).

The reason these, EXP and Drop increases are in stock is…well, for those who value their time over their money. I HATE grinding so these items would be quite attractive to me. My reasoning is thus. I can always get more money down the line. Time however is impossible to get back. If I can hop 60 levels for $30 I’d take it. Let that sucker grind for weeks on end.  I’m not going to waste time fighting the same mobs in frustration of either too little XP or too dangerous to kill and not have enough XP to be worth the hassle. Grinding Is Anti-Fun and I don’t want to wait till Level 50+ to get the cool skills and do cool stuff. Odds are if I do I’ll stick around till the 20’s, hit a wall, get frustrated and quit (to this day I cannot think of one MMORPG I have played that I have played passed level 20-24).

You don’t need grind, there are other ways to keep things challenging/fun without walling me with tedium. Life has too much of that shit happening as is. Isn’t it bad enough that we have to level grind in life to get to do anything like…

-          Get a promotion?

-          Make friends?

-          Learn a new skill?

-          Getting sex without paying for it/forcing/tricking someone?

-          Save for a house?

-          Cook a nice meal?

-          Advances in the field of medicine?

-          Powering through long enough to finish writing this article?

Point is, if I can barely tolerate it in life WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO DO IT IN VIDEO GAMES!? I play those things to ESCAPE the mundane, contrived, soul crushing beast we call reality, not play it in virtual form (Pokémon is bad enough thank you). Why should I be harassed by someone just because I decided to “buy in” just because I could? So I’m armed with the Infinity Plus One Sword of Awesomeness. You can buy it too! I got no patients doing raids for the chance I MIGHT get an awesome weapon (odds are I would have died a lot and it doesn’t work for me, or worse yet it’s not nearly worth the hassle of getting) and God help the development team has the gall to make it Level Locked Loot (If I went through Hell getting that, I better be able to equip it NOW)!

In the end its either time or money. I’d like to hear your take on it. Don’t be shy, long as it isn’t any attacks against anyone.