Yes, you can go AFK for a bio or drink so you can spend your “dead” time doing something else, but when my Redemption takes 10 seconds and uses 64% of my Base mana, I’ll probably be able to Rez two people then have to drink before Rezzing the other two (unless the Priest can get them, I’m a Pally Tank). But then we have to drink before Buffing everyone, then we’ll have to drink yet again before the next pull can start.

Waiting for a Rez might let you get a drink or have a quick smoke but it does NOT save time, if anything it wastes time, other peoples’ time.

I levelled a feral druid alt recently. And whenever I go back to my main or another alt, I wish I had Dash, Prowl or instant flight (LOVE instant flight). I have just started levelling a mage alt and have fallen in love with Polymorph (and I’m sure Blink will be right up there with it once I get it).

Actually, now I’m wondering what special abilities my priest has that I miss on other characters (apart from bubble ofc).

Anyway – my point is that you have to draw the line somewhere as, like someone said, otherwise all classes will be much of a muchness. And I’d rather have those arbitraty lines that makes me appreciate the uniqueness of each class rather than having one class that can Dash, Prowl, Polymorph, Bubble and cast Heroism.

This should also force some people to behave better because they couldn’t assume to be resurrected after every pull.

Early on, I remember having to explain to groups that I could only rez once every 30 minutes if we have several go down. For whatever reason, in PUGs at least, this doesn’t seem to have been common knowledge.

Now, I’m happy to corpse run and rez away. First, I’m an elf and the whisp (plus my cat dash) means that I can get in more quickly than most. Second, I’ve noticed that rezzing is much more common in general now. I used to run almost by default. Now I’m usually getting rezzed before I can ask. The game’s shifted.

I wonder if this is why I’m fairly chilled out about whether people run back or not when I’m healing. I’m still so happy to have an out of combat res on my character (because I remember how miserable it was to be the only healer without one) that I’m happy to take the run back as the cost of entry.

This is how MMO game design works. Did you ever play any of those sim games like Populous, Majesty or Dungeon Keeper? Well the designer is like the player of a sim game. They stick an incentive on something and watch the ants to see if they change behaviour and how. If the outcome isn’t quite as desired they tinker with the incentive again.

One thing that is undoubtedly good for these games is friction. Without some friction the game is just banal and people get bored. No one says they want friction but they do leave games that don’t have it.

The not running back after a ress has been a source of friction and forum complaints for 5 years but has not been “fixed”. I think this is because it’s seen as a small element of friction that is not enough for anyone to cancel over but it keeps the game emotionally involving. It’s a form of death penalty that scales with the contrariness of the party. It’s like exp loss except that players blame each other instead of the “stupid game”.

I’m not as strict as Tam, I will rezz you once. At the same time I will tell you to run on your own next time. And I’ll give you hell if you don’t, because otherwise having the ability to rezz would really be a disadvantage instead of an ability. Can’t have that, can we?

Absolutely. MMORPGs need imbalance and reliance in order to create social interaction and interesting situations. Without it, we’d all be playing the same class and the game would be very, very boring.

The trick is balancing it though. Does relying on another class to “bind” you to a city make the game too hard and frustrating or more interactive and rewarding? Does requiring someone else to retrieve your corpse from a dungeon create friendship or impatience?

Newer MMOs are definitely going down the independance road more than the social reliance one. It’s been great in some areas but they’ve stepped over the boundaries in others. Human beings always take the path of least resistance and sometimes games need mechanics that block them and force them into situations they wouldn’t normally experience.