As it was said in another forum thread, going to repost here again for that person:
They don’t. They just want to continue their ilvl progression… which is highly ironic… We’re morally reprehensible because we’re asking for ilvl progression, yet their morally appropriate while also asking for the same ilvl progression.
@Rigg: Here’s the thing… in a vaccuum… I don’t care whatsoever what you’re wearing. No I really don’t. You could be in full 425 gear and I would not care. Specifically because (I’m assuming here), you and I? We’ll never meet in game. You’re not interested in my content. You’re never going to even enter into my world. I do not care about what you’re wearing if you’re not even impacting my gameplay.
The problem is… We’re not in a vaccuum. That awesome gear that’s available to you? That’s also available to EVERYONE… that includes people who DO impact my world. With this gear, you’ve raised the relative ilvl base of the player base. That means loads of people are walking around with bazooka’s on their back, yet many of them would rather melee with those bazooka’s than actually figure out how to use them correctly. It’s why things like IO have come about. It’s why things like parses no longer even matter. The entire competitive scene has been reduced to: Who can clear the content fastest and who can push the highest key. All so you can defeat a WQ 5 seconds faster.
Devise a system that doesn’t impact the competitive scene, but STILL gives you meaningful progression (hell you could even get stronger than me) and I will not care. But it’s precisely because the current gear iteration DOES impact the competitive scene that I do care.
Check that out again. Gear does not exist in a vacuum. If a person can get BiS max iLvl gear from pressing a button, then that impacts the entire playerbase and game itself.
MMO’s will not succeed when they make gear easier and easier to obtain. Every game needs challenge for the rewards. If you remove the challenge then the rewards mean less and the game is diminished.