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The new emblem system

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Well, this has been done to death already, but I had a few thoughts:

1) I thought this would happen earlier. Heroics were getting deserted within a couple months of the Wrath launch, as there was no reason to run them. The solution Blizzard has landed upon is in fact what I would have done from the start--i.e., keep the lower tier raids and heroics one badge level below the cutting edge stuff, so that people will be able to get a bit of gear just from grinding. This was basically how it was in BC. For my part, I see this as a reason to keep people online and running stuff with their friends on off nights. As it is, for a top player or near top, there isn't much reason to get on when it isn't raid night.

2) Calling these "welfare epics" is missing the point. Blizzard has made the lower tier gear pretty easy to get in Wrath (Naxx), it's just now the gear has inflated a bit. Elite raiders will be rocking full tier 9 way before the 5-man grinders can get 8.5. Not really a huge change, IMHO.

3) Gevlon has an alternate idea: make an economic solution from crafted epics so that people could grind out gear in the context of the AH rather than heroics. Honestly, that doesn't seem like a bad idea--though I wouldn't discount that, especially for the new player, heroics are pretty good practice for raiding. No doubt Gevlon would scoff at that, and probably blame something on the poor in the process (global warming? I wonder if he even believes in that).

On a side note, I take issue with this sentence:
"The first argument is true in some way. Actually that's exactly Keynes suggested against unemployment during the Great (in two years "Small") Depression: "pay people to dig holes and other people to bury them". Too bad that there was no WoW back then. The government could pay subscription for the unemployed and pay them money for AoE-ing down 5-mans."
Keynes' famous sentence is what's known as hyperbole, meaning he wasn't serious, and in fact may have been thinking humorous thoughts in the back of his mind. He was making a rhetorical point; only a fool would actually suggest digging holes and filling them back up again as a response to recession. Government stimulus is always directed toward projects like rail, bridges, schools, etc.

But if you're looking for horseshit Randian economic mumbo-jumbo draped over the WoW world like some reeking Satanic napkin, Gevlon's your man.
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