Most of what you said is pretty much nonsense, because:
- There’s no role playing to speak of in D3, unless you mean in the extremely limited sense of focusing on tank/dps/control. That’s not really role playing. Diablo games are ARPGs, where the focus is heavily on the “A” and not on the “RP”.
- With respecs in the game, you can still choose to play the way you want to… just don’t use them.
- D3’s current system of respeccing makes it possible–and quite enjoyable–to experiment with different builds and play styles without the heavy-handed cost of having to re-level the same character class from scratch, which frankly is pretty tedious and time-consuming, especially in most real RPGs.
- It’s pretty realistic that, say, a swordsman learns different styles of combat, but sticks mainly to one that they like… but then after some time switches to a different one, which might involve modifications to existing gear, or buying new gear (which mostly is what respeccing involves in D3 anyway). That’s what a respec is meant to simulate.
- So long as Blizzard continually makes changes to class/power balance, respeccing is 100% necessary, in order to keep a character you built from randomly and arbitrarily going from extremely fun for you to play to completely unplayable.
There are good reasons respec systems are included in the vast majority of modern RPGs, including ARPGs. You don’t like that? No problem… DON’T USE IT. Leave the rest of us alone. Your way of play need not be ours.
What’s that? You can’t stop yourself from using it if it’s there? That’s your problem. Don’t make it everyone else’s.
Fortunately, it’s a safe bet that the fine folks at Blizzard will not drop it based on your old, tired argument that inevitably pops up eventually in the forums of every game that offers a respec mechanism.
“That’s all I have for today. Go away now.” – The Critical Drinker