Dear Ghostcrawler - YOU Are The Problem

[Faroth]

WotLK had hard heroics? ....Mmmk at least now we know you never played WotLK. Neeext.

They were pretty well tuned for quest blues at the start. I wouldn't say they were harder than Cataclsym's tuning, though.

But you could head into Naxx in Tier 6 gear pretty much, so if you raided in BT or Sunwell in TBC, you were set to stomp heroics in Wrath.

[zeropeorth]

on point 1; it is a good thing, to some extent. It is nice to be able to still play if your guild/friends aren't online. Problem is, point 2, they try to implement in terrible ways. They want you to interact with the wrong things, stuff like crafting, where the average person will just use AH anyway, not 'trade'.

But, they do have interaction. Raids, now challenge modes and heroic scenarios. You actually see people LFM sometimes for these.

The players focusing more on gearing (partly fault of carrot on the stick idealology pushed on them), and feel they all need to be on the cutting edge of progression, is part of the loot pinata feel to the game. They want the game to last, because it takes you 6 months to have a chance to be geared, not gear like you did in wrath ... bad rng, buy non-tier and off set pieces, hope for tier in future drops. Now with upgrades, even your BiS becomes no longer BiS, more for you to 'work' for.

LFR isn't BiS, in any form. It is just token pieces for non-raiders to feel a sense of progression, since they took out non tier and off set piece badge vendors ... which was the non-raiders progression before. It may have been epic loot on par with 10N, but raiders would always have better, working on either 10H or 25N/25H gear sets.

Btw, he isn't the one calling all the shots ... he is the PR guy that takes the heat for all the shots called, and does his job by trying to be the voice or mitigate for the company ... whether he agrees with the changes personally or not. He makes mistakes, and doesn't always have the best ideas ... but no one is perfect, and the folly of the sub loss isn't on his head ... it is on the ones who decided to do so little with Cata (and 'we gave you heroics' that is why your tiers were small is bullshit; ZA/ZG were remakes, less resource time, still only a 7 boss tier).


the 10/25 lockouts ... overall most didn't have a problem with it ... specifically, people did have a problem with it for ToCr/ToGC. They were running it a ton of times on each toon, across many alts ... ToCr burnout was the problem, not the raid or the lockouts. It shouldn't have been a tier of its own, but a filler raid and most of the problems would've been solved.

Cata heroics NEEDED to be nerfed. They lost a ton of subs because people couldn't get anything done. CC itself wasn't the problem, it was random groups who you were paired with ... WITHOUT CC abilities. How do you CC without CC? Good players ran guild groups, the rest suffered ... for loot that wasn't as heroic as the effort they put in to finish (30+ min queues, 90+ min runs with many wipes for lack of CC). Add to the fact a lot of healers were adjusting to a massive overhaul of how their class played and horrid mana efficiency at low gear levels, with random pugs standing in everything, nothing getting interrupted on time (new instances, people learning) plus the lack of CC in a group ... and it was just a wonderful disaster.

MoP heroics ... maybe you quested more in the past ... because if you had, you'd at least know where every heroic is, and why you are doing it. Your quests either took your there, or took you through an instanced quest version of the instance zone. While there was no Kael'Thas end boss to these dungeons, the lore as a whole was new.

Here is a hint for you ... heroics are the max level gearing plan ... you want a challenge; challenge modes. Heroics are made for fresh 90s for a mild challenge (and if every one is at minimal ilvl, with minimal skill ... there are still tons of new players, not everyone is a veteran), and it can be for some groups. It also rewards gear that fits the challenge of the content ... not even good enough gear to get into LFR. Challenge modes on the other hand, are designed specifically for you, the organized veteran players, you can't outgear them, just improve your skill. They may not be perfect, but constructive criticism and input on how to fix them would be something to consider giving them.

Dailies weren't a problem, but gating dailies behind other dailies, and gating the gear was (as you said). It was complete BS as well, since they basically said they removed the head/shoulder rep chants so you didn't have to grind rep, then put needed gear and recipes behind rep that you had to grind. Complete BS and led to unneeded daily burnout. It was the reason why people hated dailies, not because there was a ton of them, because it felt like a 'no option' option.

The currency caps are complete BS, both weekly and max. This is another reason why Wrath had things going for it. Before, you could decide to work on a specific toon, and your effort = your progress. Now, you are artificially gated ... and for no good reason, there isn't much to spend it on anyway lol


As much as you'd like to think LFR needs to be harder, it doesn't. What we need is LFR pretty much the way it is ... difficulty should proceed as follows:
LFR -> 10N -> 25N -> 10H -> 25H
LFR should be relatively easy. People still die in LFR. Groups still wipe. More communication on WHY they wiped given to the players would help to better train them. Too bad there isn't a fair way to analyze participation, to prevent leechers. I'd rather someone stand in fire an participate, than afk/autoattack; or have all your healers queue as heals, then try to dps. Even with the dungeon journal ... for some, it isn't enough communication on what exactly to do ... and not everyone know to look up strats and vids, nor do some have the bandwidth to do it (some people play on a 2G/3G service or monthly limits of a few GBs), while others, doing you learn more than anything. Overgeared people will always ignore mechanics, whether it is end of wrath aoe fests and stacking on boss (Loken when released caused people problems, but barely needed to be healed by the end).

I've never heard anyone in LFR say they don't have to avoid a mechanic ... some just don't know or see the mechanic ... you'd assume a portion of them click their abilities ... a portion of them are just overwhelmed at the fights in general. It is a big step up from questing ... and truthfully, it may be their first chance to experience the MMO part of the game. They may have done everything solo, or maybe a 5m or few. This is where YOU (as a community member) need to step as a representative, and be calm, dominant, helpful, and patient. Nerd raging, bitching, complaining, and being a douche, will usually get negative responses or none at all. Vinegar and Honey.


You know where your problem with loot doesn't happen? Raid groups. That is right, form a raid and you/your group sets the loot rules. Very simple solution.


You are misusing casual players and instead you have a problem with players with apathy and or leeching players. You, are casual to a world first guild. You may be also considered casual to a R1 Gladiator. You may think someone who farms nodes all day is casual, but they still may put in 10x more play time than you a week.

You are really just upset about what everyone here to play the game is, the ones who go on follow and don't participate ... welcome to the club ... but those aren't casuals, those are just assholes.


You want the massive and multiplayer back? Start with helping make it happen on your realm. Be friendly. everywhere. Be the change in the community you want to see.

Cata Heroics DID make people quit, in mass. You don't have to agree, but Blizz immediately changed, and they have both empirical data, and the 'reason you left' notes from cancelled subs to make those decisions. T11 had 12 bosses, 13 including Sinestra. That is a big tier, and it was a fun one as well. They had a ton of heroics to do, especially compared to MoP. People who knew lore, knew EXACTLY who Deathwing was; if you payed any attention to the game the whole time. He may have not had a huge presence in game, but that was after people said LK was in the game too much during questing.

People danced on the rooftop of Org in wrath too, they just couldn't fly around the city, they ran around it and dueled outside the gates. People were also more spread out, because you could set your hearth in Dal, and CHOOSE which capital you wanted to sit in. My wife and I frequented SMC a lot on our Horde, some I knew, chose UC as their main hub. With Cata, portals gone, portals to xpac content only in SW/Org, guess where people will flock? You want people spread out, bring at minimum, a portal to the main capital next to the portal to Blasted Lands. People will then not be so 'inconvenienced' when wanting to spend time in their preferred capital. That, or a second hearthstone. BTW, Mages do what they want, they doesn't care about anything!!!

Know what the worst part is? Wrath had a ton more people than Cata. Even on 'dead' servers, you had a lot of pugs going on, even 9 months into ICC.

Hell, if I was a care bear, I'd be grumpy bear, with a thunderstorm on my belly ... and have partaked in my share of 'trolling' ... but it gets old, as the giver and as the viewer after a while. I keep the trolling to friends mostly now, or as a joke. It used to be BRUTAL in guilds and trade though, and that was bad for the game.

Lastly, either reactivate your account, and get on a popular realm, to see the sky isn't falling like you think ... to post your 'thesis' on the official forums yourself ... or take a deep breath, take a leave of absence from the game and its news ... and if you want, come back once you've calmed down. Don't resub just because a new patch hit (which one just did), come back because you WANT to. Maybe you'll see that how you want to play the game over time changes ... and you'll be more open to them developing the game to try and fit everyone in, not excluding people for the sake of it.

---------- Post added 2013-05-26 at 09:55 AM ----------

They were pretty well tuned for quest blues at the start. I wouldn't say they were harder than Cataclsym's tuning, though.

But you could head into Naxx in Tier 6 gear pretty much, so if you raided in BT or Sunwell in TBC, you were set to stomp heroics in Wrath.

You are right ... but people only remember what they want to ... and most people can't remember the start, only the end; then switch the color of their lenses to match their preconceived notions. Which was at end of wrath, heroics were piss easy ... but if you weren't in raid gear, not so much (as they were designed for ... heroics aren't for raid heroic geared players lol)

[ciggy]

I agreed with most of what you said, but I am still playing about 12 hours or so a week. Used to be 6-8 hours a day, I miss the days when it was wowcrack, it just doesn't feel that way anymore.
log on, do a few dailes, do lfr, repeat for 8 characters and i'm done.

Used to be log on, collect mats, make some flasks for the raid, talk shit with guild mates as I collect mats/farm a little gold in old heroics..raids. Do a raid on two characters, 4 hours of raiding 4 nights a week, and i got to know some good folks. Alot feel like you and have quit, hence me playing so much less.

pfft, sorry, I do agree with most of your points.

[HeedmySpeed]

I don't think it's fair to pin it all on Ghostcrawler as much as I hate the man.

He's just playing the politician and trying to be vague and keep everyone from smashing windows in the streets.
For that, in my opinion, it's deplorable of him that he can't stick to ideals and flip flops at every sub loss or pissy ass teenager in his tweets.

I liked his blog pots when "dungeons were hard" but that was closest he ever came to telling to the community to "stfu."
It may not be smart business wise (who can tell really) but I'd rather have a passionate developer than a business man running things.
So forget the majority, service the game.

[Arrowstormen]

Glad to see that you have conducted surveys and know what the majority wants.

This is horribly arrogant to believe.

[palamanian]

Misleading title, it really should read "I (OP), am the problem."

Seriously, Blizzard will make this game what they feel is the best version of the game possible. Of course, they will listen to community feedback to make certain decisions, and the rest they will make on their own. Deal with it, the game is what it is, and believe it or not, World of Warcraft doesn't owe you anything.

Now, obviously the endless stream of people complaining will never cease, this is just the nature of the industry, but it really is a drag. If you don't like WoW, then don't play it.

[Metallikiddd]

However, if the game keeps losing subs like everybody expect it to, somebody is gonna have to be the scapegoat for it and it sure as hell ain't gonna be Tom Chilton/Kalgan or someone else from the "Old Boys".

oh you better believe it will be. i will make sure he takes the fall for it. that failure should never have been hired.

[luckydevours]

like we care you left with 1,500,000 other players. you only need around 300k players to have a healthy mmo. so there still plently of players who can leave:P

By no means WoW can remain enjoyable with 300k subs considering the current server structure. Half of the existing realms are already unplayable on atleast one side because of underpopulation.

[leaks]

oh you better believe it will be. i will make sure he takes the fall for it. that failure should never have been hired.

These forums never fail to provide some of the most creepy and ridiculous people I've ever seen.

[Outofmana]

I agree that ever since this guy took over, he basicly ruined the social aspect of this game and many more things. Look at it this way, while he is destroying WoW he at least isn't working on Titan.

[The Penguin]

I agree that ever since this guy took over, he basicly ruined the social aspect of this game and many more things. Look at it this way, while he is destroying WoW he at least isn't working on Titan.

The problem I have is that I would of probably played Titan, but because Blizzard has let this individual run wild; I can't in good faith play their next MMO when there's a possibility he eventually may come over. I dealt with that on WoW, never again. When the current MMO runs it's course I'll just quit.



That said though, and I may be playing Devil's Advocate here..


Could any of us of done better? Sure I like to think I could of, but could we REALLY of done better? And also is this thread really going to solve anything? I just don't know if it's constructive. Criticism I'm all for giving, but the Thread Title feels empathically more like a rant post. :\

[Tripz]

What I don't get is it why everyone uses Cataclysm heroics as example.. WotLK had much harder heroics at beginning. I don't even remember cata heroics being hard at any point.

I agree, Wrath heroics were fun and a good challenge. Especially trying to get the achieves. Still on Less-rabi :/

[KrazyK923]

Scapegoating is fun.

And your opinion about Activision is also just wrong, as has been stated by Blizzard several times. They don't have any direct influence on the game's development at all. At least not in the world of reality.

In the OP's world, Ghostcrawler is a tyrant forcing all of the changes of the game onto anybody, completely ignoring the teams of people they have, or any other lead developers. And Activision is directly telling Ghostcrawler what to do.

It, of course, is just absolute nonsense.

I could talk about the fact that time sinks have been in the game since Vanilla, or the faulty reasoning behind his LFR bitching. But with somebody who is just basically making things up to be upset about, its just not worth it.

Misleading title, it really should read "I (OP), am the problem."

This really hits the nail on the head. Basically since the OP posted this thread filled with fallacies and just incorrect information and has yet to post again in it. Leads me to think he has no desire to do anything other than bitch about a false perception.

---------- Post added 2013-05-26 at 05:58 PM ----------

oh you better believe it will be. i will make sure he takes the fall for it. that failure should never have been hired.

Because you have any influence in this at all, whatsoever, right?

My god. Some people, man.

[Syran]

I don't solely blame Ghostcrawler for the game's problems, he has evidently shown some common sense over the years but he and his team seem cannot seem to make up their minds on how to emulate the success of original WoW in today's day and age. I hope they at least learned that dailies are not the answer.

[Frozenbeef]

My biggest problem with wow at the moment is that is changes way too much - not in the terms of new content but in the terms of one day i work out my class, all of it's abilities then the next day they alter the rotation, remove abilities, change others and add new ones. Usually this means i just have to readjust (shaman totems) but sometimes it means i don't enjoy the class anymore and have to change (shadow priest no longer heals+mana battery) >.<

I hate that blizzard deciding to nerf a class has more of an impact on if i under or over perform than gearing up and learning my class -.-

[Saerise]

I was frankly kind of shocked to see no mention of Vanilla in this rant.

[killidan]

GC has ruined the game for far too long, firing him won't fix all the damage he has done throughout the years. It would take long time to repair the game...

[Csnyder]

you blame one person for the whole teams work, hes just a spokesman......you are the problem with wow, not him, its crying players who do nothing but whine who ruin this game. you can always stop playing but then what would you complain about....some life you live, enjoy it kid

[Conscious]

I think this hits all the usual points, right?

* Saying 10/25 should be separate again
* LFG/LFR sucks
* Cata heroics were good because they were "hard" like TBC
* MoP heroics are awful because they're "too easy"
* Dailies are terrible (okay I agree with this one)
* Use of "Activi$ion" as derogatory
* Ghostcrawler is terrible and should be fired

Sounds like every other "I don't like the game but think its my right to complain about things that the majority like" post. Nothing to see here.

If we didn't just lose millions of players I'd agree with you, but something is wrong with the game and anyone's guess is just as good as the next persons.

So you're just blowing smoke.

[Gamerguy3223]

OP I agree with your post 110%! It's about time someone else said it. However GC never did know wtf he was doing. He's a freaking Marine Biologist turned game designer..... Sure he worked on a few PC games..... That still doesn't make him a good fit for the position. While it's not only his fault.... Focusing a MMO game on casuals.....the people most likely to leave and never return. It's never worked and it's never going too. You focus on the players really playing the game and focusing on adding more new players like them.

Instead we now have World of Derpcraft.

Back in BC you didn't have LFR or LFD. Sure it took some time to find groups and guilds. However it was a journey and you made friends along the way. You had guilds progressing threw all different stages of the game. Everyone had a place. You got what you earned and you had fun at it. I'm still with the same 30 people I played with back in BC. I promise they will all agree.

I want WoW set back to BC standards. Keep the pet battles. Hell even keep LFD ( However make them find and complete the instance. Before ever being aloud to queue up for it.) Get rid of CRZ, LRF, and be done with it. Sure some people will leave. However you'll be left with a good strong player base to rebuild off of.