Since the freezing events have begun, there has been a deluge of discussion and argumentation over the merits of the events, the motivations behind them, and what effects the changes will have on the game as we know it.
Thesis: The most pertinent problems Battlemaster is having stem from an identity crisis: namely, that it has lost some of its humanity.
What do I mean when I say 'Battlemaster'? Do I mean, the players, or the devs, or Tom, or the game itself (even though it is not a living being)? Well, this being a social game, I mean the people. All of the people, including me. Because that's what it is: it is people interacting with people, and through the dehumanizing buffer of the internet, it is easy to forget that. It is easy to treat people as just facets of the game, but they aren't.
I have spoken often about the fact that players don't all play for the same reasons, and that that should be tolerated (even powergaming). I think this is a central part of the problem: you play the game a certain way, for a certain reason, and invest a certain amount of time and emotional stake in it, and then assume that everyone else plays it the same way. But that is a logical assumption- you never see the other players or devs, and, unless some of you know each other IRL, you never meet them, interact with them; you have no stake in their existence whatsoever. Therefore, we need to remind ourselves often that everything in this game happens because of your humanity; our differences and similarities, our virtues and flaws are all expressed in a sum total of worldbuilding.
Tom said something I found really interesting (and which obviously sparked a lot of comments from other players):
This is the part of the community I don't get. As soon as something - anything - happens, everything suddenly becomes all peacenik. Why? Why stop fighting and do some peaceful migration? Why not throw everything at them now that you have nothing to lose?
This is the one area where BM could never match real life. In real life, when the going gets tough, people get more aggressive, not less.
What's interesting to me here is that Tom seems to be assuming that there is no real life component to Battlemaster. No, I don't mean to say the game is "real" in any way, but that the players are real people that make decisions to play the game a certain way. People will play the game the way they want to play it- I'm not saying it's good or bad, or even that I understand it, but it
is, by definition, human. And that is pretty real to me.
To sum it up:
-the devs seem to have forgotten that the players are humans, and rolled out a fixer event that, while it may be mathematically and technically sound, is demoralizing and psychologically jarring to players.
-the players seem to have forgotten that the devs are humans, and that any "fix" they come up with will not be anywhere near perfect. A lot of players were expecting some kind of neat, tidy solution that would be fine with everyone. But development is not part of the program; it's not going to compile in the most efficient way possible, because it's people. People making a guess at what will be best, and then having the balls to go for it.
I've given my reasons why I don't agree with the way this was done, but I'm still glad they did it. Now we all just need to remember that we're humans, and that the game is about humanity, and that it will succeed or fail depending on that principle.
