Now that the dog days of summer vacation are here, and anyone concerned about their sanity has bailed on WoW to avoid the "fun" of trade chat, I was thinking of the non-design decisions we have seen in the past. Specifically, the PR or "spin" pronouncments made by designers to justify their appalling, how-could-you-not-have-seen-this-coming, and generally "lets mess with the players" gameplay decisions.
My personal favorite comes from EQ, where every PITA was chalked up to "The Vision." Whether it was absurdly long camp times (cleric epic quest) or the very idea of rare mobs with rarer drops, this lame excuse was trotted out repeatedly, until it became a joke in itself. About the only thing it was not used to explain was why bards were broken in every patch, resulting in patching the patch.
Not looking to revisit the actual bad designs which have been noted elsewhere, just the entertaining excuses.
Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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