Same with MMOs who utilise both PvE and PvP game-types in their games.

Blizzard can't balance around the two of them, it doesn't matter how long Blizzard has been doing it, they still suck at balancing around both PvE and PvP. This is somewhat because they don't have faith in players but also largely because balancing around something that's ever-changing is bloody difficult, practically impossible, even.

Then other games go and take on this EXACT SAME JOB and think they can do it better? Hah, likely story.

Um... they don't have faith in players because we have proven, as a massive amoeba, to be selfish, exploiting, cruel, unappreciative jerks.

Sure, there are a thousand points of light in that dark mess, but you can't take a whiff of the player cornucopia and escape the scent of rotten apples.

"[W]e have proven, as a massive amoeba, to be selfish, exploiting, cruel, unappreciative jerks.

Sure, there are a thousand points of light in that dark mess, but you can't take a whiff of the player cornucopia and escape the scent of rotten apples."

This is the truest thing ever. It makes me sad, but it's true.

Mr. Tastix, an MMO fails at both if the developers have the delusion that Blizzard has, that it can balance one set of skills for both PvE and PVP.

Guild Wars doesn't suffer from that delusion, and it doesn't suffer from one skill becoming useless just because its overpowered in one setting and not the other. Arena.Net actually had the competence to create a "PvP" version of the skill, automatically updated to your bar when you go into PvP.

The irony is, from just playing Rift for a day, it seems like they spent a lot of time studying how WoW does things. I won't say Rift is better than WoW. I've been playing WoW for 5 years and will continue, but Rift has little things that I wish WoW had.