I always knew that a large segment of the RS player population was composed of foolish players who will scream and carry on over just about anything. But I must say that even with that in mind, witnessing the sheer extent of the ranting and hysteria associated with the Hitpoints/Constitution change made by Jagex has been simply breathtaking.
Let’s leave aside for now the small immediate benefits associated with the change, such as effectively higher maximum hits, and the ability to get incremental increases in damage when boosting one’s stats. And we’ll be able to add to that whatever Jagex is able to do with this in the future.
No, let’s look simply at the change as it has been presented at face value: health and damge have been increased by a factor of 10. Is this REALLY such a calamity?
I mean, I know that change is difficult for a lot of folks, but too many people seem to have lost all perspective here. I’ve seen comments from players that while getting hits in the 30s or 40s is “natural”, seeing numbers in the 300s and 400s is “unnatural”.
What a load of bunk. The truth is that what seems “natural” is entirely a matter of conditioning — what you are accustomed to.
In the United Kingdom and the United States, we use currencies that have fairly high values — pounds and dollars — and so we are used to seeing item prices a particular way. After years and years, we expect a candy bar to cost a figure somewhere in the low single numbers, often with a decimal fraction. We expect an Ipod to cost something in the hundreds. We expect a car to have a price like 10,000 or 30,000.
Well, what about Japan? Their currency, the yen, has a lower inherent exchange value. This doesn’t mean that the currency is weak, just that it is denominated in larger numbers. So in Tokyo, a candy bar doesn’t cost 1.25; instead it might cost 150. An Ipod could go for 20,000. And cars are priced in the millions!
Does this change anything about the candy bar, the Ipod or the car? Of course not.
Are Japanese people somehow inherently more clever than their Western counterparts because they can deal with these larger numbers? I don’t think so. Do people who move from the UK or the US to Japan find themselves bewildered and overwhelmed and unable to deal with the change in the currency? How silly.
Look, I find the new system a bit strange myself. Hitting an 80 on a bat takes some getting used to. And when I got breathed on by a dragon for a 76 earlier this evening, my first instinct was one of panic.
But really, folks, this is just because it is NEW. In a few weeks, we will get used to the new numbers, and they won’t seem like anything strange at all. Pretty soon we will start to expect hits in the hundreds, and we’ll view hits in the tens as being glancing blows — just as we currently view hits in the tens as solid contact and hits in the single numbers as near misses.
Everyone just relax, okay? It will be fine. I promise.