Thanks to Ugm for letting us know about some surprising news from the official Polish Battle.net forums. A fan asked about sharing MF in parties, and got a reply from CM Wuluxar. In Polish, of course, but the translation is clear enough:

Our developers have decided that bonuses + Magic Find, Gold Find + and + XP but will work differently for groups of players. These bonuses will be equal for each character in the group and depending on the sum of bonuses for all players. The group consists of four players. In total, their stats are 50% MF, +20% GF and 10% XP, each of these players will have a 12.5% MF, 5% and 2.5% GF XP being in such a group. Playing with a companion, available for rent, as at present receive 20% bonus to the statistics of type ‘adventure’ with a bonus companion visible on the panel.

That last bit of garbled translation was clarified by a Blue post today.

The amount displayed is your share of the bonus. You get 20% of your follower’s Magic Find, Gold Find, and + to XP. Currently, Magic Find, Gold Find, and +XP bonuses are averaged across the entire group.

This news prompts numerous thoughts and theories, and I’m definitely thinking we need a vote on it to measure the overall impact. A few different quick reactions:

1) It’s another design decision that waters down the game for the benefit of less-skilled players. Now any noob can get MF and +exp benefits from skilled players with better gear, simply by being in the same game. Does this give skilled players *another* reason to play solo in D3?

2) It’s an inevitable “fix” required by D3’s individual item drops, which would have rewarded back row MF leeches who didn’t pull their weight in games.

3) This is great for friends playing in parties. If you go all MF and ranged support while staying in the back, while your friend tanks and takes all the risks (especially if you’re playing Hardcore), you benefit from his killing speed, and he enjoys your MF.

Speaking as someone who has always enjoyed MF and did a lot to promote it with a number of huge strategy guides in the early days of D2, I’m curious to hear feedback on the change — especially from MF haters.