I was going to write something, about, like, the EQ2 Class Diversity, and the new skills/traits/etc that have been announced. It was, uh, going to be all scathing and stuff.

Then Cosmik did it for me.

Which makes my life exponentially better. Basically, from what I can see, what has been implemented under the banner of 'diversity' is looking to be more like: "we're giving you two Big Macs for the price of one!" Sure, you didn't want a Big Mac to begin with...

In other words, it doesn't look like players are getting the diversity they want. I suspect this isn't actually SOEs intention (to screw over the player) but more them running into the problem of not knowing how to offer diversity and balance.

So, them, being super careful, are offering 'more' but it's not really that diverse at all. In fact, more than anything, it's 'safe'.

And, as I've said before, the only answer to their problem is class balance be damned. It's true. Players DO NOT WANT balanced classes. Everybody wants to be useful yes, and if possible, the most powerful class. And they'll bitch about it for years if they're not.

That said, as far as player interest goes, what they really want on a 'fundamental' level is balance to be thrown to the wind. It's more fun to have a class with a hell of a lot of depth than it is to have one that feels like a paper doll cut out. And that's basically that.