Persisting High Level BETA Characters

What obligation do developers owe to players when they allow BETA characters to persistent through to release, have no levels caps restrictions and RMT upgrades may have taken place?  I have been thinking about that question a lot this past weekend.

Bundled into the Runes of Magic official release content was a whirlwind of class changes. A more detailed look at the impact to my own class, Battle Monk, is coming later in the week.  The Battle Monk class has a petition going to help save the class.  As it currently stands, this class is now pointless for group play.  Being pointless in a group is not that upsetting to me.  I’d already planned on healing end game since the other option, tanking, isn’t my thing. 

However, I can also feel the changes while solo questing too.  I’m going to use one of the free respec runes sent to all characters, once I decide on a new spec.  My previous behavior of spending talent points on buffs, heals and passives will have to change if I want my old DPS back.  The partial healing spec that was more off-healer than main but still do-able, is now doo-doo.  I’m going to have to make some tough choices that can't be overcome with gear stats alone.  I'm going to have to change my Talent Point allocations.

In addition to class and stat changes, buff behavior did a 180.  You can no longer buff yourself using your primary class then change to your secondary class and have the buffs persist.  I think this change upset many players, especially those who had selected their secondary explicitly for the buffs.  Anyone that selected a secondary class explicitly to buff their primary class is now ass-out as they say.  Yikes! 

Taken individually, none of the changes is game breaking.  However, all of the changes combined might make someone feel differently.  We all know class and game mechanics change in MMOs and no one is ever happy after their class is nerfed.  I am wondering however, if something more cautious was owed to the players because they placed no restrictions on BETA characters and encouraged RMT customizations which were of course, based on how the classes behaved during BETA.  The game releases and whoosh, drastic changes and max level players are not happy.

If I were playing a normal BETA character, I’d be at a low enough level that reverting to my original choice of Knight/Priest would be my reaction to the gutting of the Battle Monk.  However, sitting only a couple of hours away from level 30 is A WHOLE different thing and I’m not likely to re-roll now.

While we all know that MMO classes and mechanics change, it just seems a little odd for it to tumble out in the release patch.  I’m also questioning if the revenue earned during that short period was worth the double-edge sword they just wielded.  It has gotten quieter in the top tier, which could be coincidence – or not.  Good thing is that since its F2P, players can stop playing for a while, cool off then come back if they choose.  Based on this experience I think BETA characters should be restricted to prevent players from becoming too attached to the class mechanics before the release version.

I've played healers as a main before even when I soloed exclusively and had no intention of healing anything end game.  For this reason, my choices still stand even if the Battle Monk stays belly up for groups.  However, there are others who don't heal and aren't gonna heal, where all they wanted from the second class were the personal buffs to go with the one HOT they get from Priest secondary.  Sure, they can ask someone else to buff them but it leaves one side of their character marred and since you can't change that choice, they have to deal, re-roll or bail.  It would have been better not to have players exiting a BETA having to make those types of choices or leave with that negative impression.

Comments

[Nef]

I've pretty much stopped playing RoM. My Scout/Priest just doesn't feel the same anymore. Hope it'll get better in the future. :(

*runs off to The Chronicles of Spellborn*

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Nef - I hear ya. A whole lot of players are upset. The conversation surrounding these issues dominated chat while I was online.

For me, I'm just trying to find the best adjustment. Something workable for now in the hopes that some of this stuff is reviewed and tweaked.

[coppertopper]

I'm kind of shocked they didnt wipe the servers before release. Especially on the PvP servers.

[Sente]

I have barely logged on since release, but that has actually nothing to do with the changes - other MMOs have had more play time simply. How any changes affect me is something I have yet to discover.

They should probably have done something more than just a free respec and be more upfront with future changes (actual and potential) before they happened.

Essentially people have been paying to test the game for them. By running an open beta for so long and cashing in on stuff being sold for real money they probably have received some good data about character behaviour at all levels, but at the expense of perhaps some more devoted players.

I do not have much interest in maximizing my gear, so it is probably not particularly good compare to those that put some effort into it. I also generally tend to forget to buff myself when switching classes, so remains to be seen if there will be any significant impact for me.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Cooper - They couldn't wipe characters once they opened the Item Shop. The minute it was opened they committed in writing not to wipe characters to encourage people to spend before release. On the surface, I felt it was a win-win. They needed cash to continue and they had a large BETA of people that wanted to play thru to release. However, no one thought about significant class changes coming in a single patch, let alone the release patch.

I haven't spent cash in a way that the change makes it wasted since most went to my house and the talent point charms. Only real change I would have made had these changes trickled into the game is go with the Paladin combo versus Battle Monk.

@Sente - I don't mind so much that they may have been getting paid while we tested for them. I just think they owed the players a better way of having rolled out these changes and doing a complete reverse on how your main/secondary synergy.

[Tesh]

Idle rumination:

How would it change things if the RMT bit were just with a "monopoly money" allowance in Beta? Nobody spends real money, but they can get a feel for how the items change gameplay, maybe thirsting for them once the game goes live.

Sure, you don't get to use Beta as a cash cow, but that's really not what it's for in the first place.

[Iggep]

I'm also shocked they didn't wipe the server prior to release. It's not all that surprising that even major changes are introduced between an advanced stage of beta to release. That sort of thing happens in many games, with the issues causing consternation and intrigue on the forums and in the player base.

Personally I would like that sort of thing to go a little more smoothly, with a little more heads up than it normally does. People use the beta to not only test, but as a free look at what they will do when release happens. When studios make drastic changes at release it invalidates a lot of that heads up people want. And not surprisingly it upsets them.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Gotta love being caught up in the spam filter on my own blog even though I'm signed in as me, and it recognizes I own the blog. *sigh*

@Tesh - Monopoly money idea is very interesting and would be a fun way to introduce RMT items. It would be something like how WOW does PTR and places the new gear on NPCs for direct purchase and provides each character with gold to test things out. But as you said, they used that tail end of BETA to start a cash flow then pulled some huge changes.

@Iggep - I agree with the reason why people are pissing and moaning. They tested/played the characters for many levels unrestricted and then WHAM huge changes in a single patch, that was the launch patch no less. Yikes.

Anyone who had another game up their sleeve and was upset by the switcheroo might bail. I don't have another fantasy up mine so I'm hanging in there. There are some builds I'd like to try but without Talent Point calculators I can't experiment as much as I'd like.

I'm curious about how the class would feel & play as straight Priest where I only use the passive buffs from the Warrior and DPS like any other game's Priest class. It would be a HUGE change in TP allocation but worth a consideration.

I have "some" gear to try it out since I keep a few healer specific pieces. The problem is the lack of Talent Point tools for planning a large change, in a game where respecs cost real money. Hmm.