Silenced...As in unable to cast his spells or unable to chat? If silenced means unable to chat I’m good with that...20% speed debuff as if I’m crippled? Sounds more like real life and not “Fantasy”. I would retire my character and reroll another and never step foot in the area I was inflicted again.
Permanently silenced means death for a magical user . I don't even start to imagine how and why this would happen . The only cure for that would then be the key "delete character" .
Being permanently slower is very annoying as one would need a magical enhancement (sow , potion) all the time but it would still be more or less playable . The already mentionned key would probably be the solution here too .
If silenced means you cannot use any abillities, ill take the speed debuff, as the other option makes me unable to play the character. If it means i'm muted for voice and chat. ill take the silence as there are many many ways outside of the game to communicatie with the community, where the speed debuff doesnt have an alternative.
I think i might go against the grain, I like the idea of perm. Silence unable speak, communicte effectively, and learn a new way to cast spells. Many books i read it is about the motion and intent of the spell not just the words. As a Ranger, i do not need to speak to wield a sword or shoot a bow. Could use the idea of reiki to infuse healing. As a Priest ... i do not need to vocalize my words of prayer to incite great wards and heal the wounded.
The big down size would be the beserking warrior and taunting. I think it is an excellent concept.
If you're asking about punishment for gold farmers/spammers, I know which option I would choose :)
If for my own character? I would rather take the movement debuff. This can be offset by SoW, or mounts. An annoyance, but not game breaking. A silenced character on the other hand? Game breaking for casters (probably).
Would like to hear a bit more about the background to this question!
20% slow across the board. Then you could cast potential speed buffs that counter it. duuuh =P
I'm confused. Why would a player ever have to suffer either one of these things? Are we talking about a boss/ raid mechanic, a punishment system, or just a general opinion to get people talking? I feel like this question is missing context.
If your asking in terms of a boss encounter then I think that both are unique and have potential. I think that there would have to be a way to remove the silence in an encounter (even if it's temporary), and also make the boss more vulnerable to spell damage at this time (to keep spellcasters relevant in the fight V.S having them overlooked in group content). I also think that a 20% speed debuff could see its way into an encounter and make it more challenging from a mechanics perspective.
If you are talking about a punishment system for players who exploit the system in some way then, the permanent silence is a lot more harmful to a character than a speed decrease. However, if you are really trying to punish the player, then make them suffer both. The silence could also affect their ability to chat with other players and this type of system could be used against gold farmers and bots who are constantly spamming local and trade channels. (Yeah I'm mean like this, but the gold spammers and trade bots that spam in many of today's games are one of the very few things that irritate me.)
If your asking in a general sense then I would rather suffer the slower speed than the silence. At least with the slow, my character would still be playable... slower... but still payable. However, I think that if I ever encountered a permanent debuff of any kind I would have to consider deleting that character. This might not be bad conceptually depending on how the progeny system develops and works out, but it would still be kind of annoying if I felt forced to re-roll my character after putting so much time and effort into that character. I know that personally, in the future, I would do my best to avoid whatever situation leads to this debuff. In my honest opinion, I don't think that having either of these debuffs is healthy for a games long term life span. Now if there is a way for another class to remove these debuffs or an alchemy potion that can remove them, then this is cool. I believe that it is good to promote class reliance and professional relevance within the game, but having them as a permanent un-removable debuff is bad in a general sense.
Permanently? Neither. Either would be catastrophic at least for a class that uses the sound.
I might well delete the character and if such *permanent* effects were more than trivially likely I would have to consider whether I wanted to bother creating a new one.
Back in my pencil and paper days with Dungeons & Dragons I saw more than one well established character abandonned because of the loss of one point of an important attribute such as strength for a warrior.
Permanent harmful effects should be exceptionally unlikely if not impossible especially in a game where a character might take a year or two to get to maximum level. Losing a level 70 in SWTOR might mean three days work to replace her - in Pantheon things will be different.
If you mean silence, like, unable to chat at all, send tells, or shout. Where emotes are non-text but rather iterations of character movements, where /point is not seen as text but rather you see the other player -Manouk points straight ahead-.
Where language is not a barrier, per se, (pardon the pun{?}) but where communication must be made with RL non-native language speaking players behind the character through...mime by the character on screen, through an extensive array of coded emotes?.
So if I bought the game in the US I would see "point" as an emote choice, but if I bought the game in denmark I would see "punkt" as an emote choice and if I bought the game in Finland I would see "kohta" as an emote choice but all three characters in game would - point- if silenced.
Wandering the in-game world like mutes, striving for the level of communication Jaime and Adam had on mythbusters when they tried getting out of car underwater and something went wrong and they had only gestures for which they commented afterwards how they knew what the other was intending because of their shared engineering/mechanical backgrounds and were able to resolve, quickly.
Then yes, silence. provided it can be cured and doesnt affect spell casting
better to be slowed than silenced, but what's the difference? oh i got a meme :D
Hmm that’s a tough one. I’m all for penalties though I think the speed reduction is more doable. :) #communitymatters
