What does Holinka actually like, you know... Do?

[Klingers]

Serious question here because I've always wondered this.

The guy's in charge of the PvP team. The last time we got a new instanced anything out of him was 21 May 2013 when 5.3 came out with the last released battleground. That basically means his total output for the last three years is Ashran and a new talent PvP system we won't see for another few months.

What has this guy actually done to justify his salary? Has there been some more iteration or community work I'm not aware of? Genuinely interested to know.

[Nevcairiel]

Aren't there two new arenas in legion as well? Of course those also won't launch until legion launches, together with the new honor system and the new PvP talents - almost exactly 2 months from now.

You can watch the PvP Q&A on Thursday for any further plans.

[Klingers]

Aren't there two new arenas in legion as well? Of course those also won't launch until legion launches, together with the new honor system and the new PvP talents - almost exactly 2 months from now.

You can watch the PvP Q&A on Thursday for any further plans.

Good point about those Arenas. Still though, the question was really on the last three years. Is the kind of output we're receiving really something he should be able to stand back and be proud of?

[Aeula]

He makes coffee for the art department obviously.

[wombats23]

He makes coffee for the art department obviously.

bs. anything anyone does at blizzard is absolutely made public!

seriously op? i hate holinka as much as the next guy, but what are you expecting? holinka to make a youtube channel where he vlogs his day to day activities?

how would someone from mmo-champion know? you want an answer? post on the official forums. where, you know, actual blues post. (not that you'd get an actual reply. but at least posting on an official forum has the slightest of chance, unlike a fan forum.)

useless thread

[Rorke]

Holinka is part of the dev team. He works on the game outside of pvp, he's just the one out of all of them that's saddled with the title of being the "PvP dev".

[heelflip]

Well in my opinion he doesnt have the same respect or power as the other idiots, like Jay Wilson.

I mean, he dont defend or dont have the power to defend PvP interests, its really not clear what he does, but one thing is sure, the PvP Balance team if exists, sucks and its his responsability.

Look at Ptr and Beta, they implemented templates to be easy to balance, and yet, almost 1 year of beta and things are broken.

[Aleax]

He is busy with pvp balance. Once again in Legion, everything is changing, so he worked hard. Not saying that everything will be balanced, or has been perfectly balanced since he is the pvp dev, but this is mainly his job, he has the final say when a new spell is introduced, and if it won't be OP in pvp.

As for the last three years, he was also probably very busy with Ash'ran, and is maybie the creator of the Nemesis quests.

I would like too though to get MORE pvp content, the game is 11 years old, and we still have the same bunch of BGs. This game needs more BGs and more outdoor pvp content. The two new arenas are nice, but this is very slim addition imo.

Also I would never compare Jay Wilson to Holinka, Jay was the boss of diablo and failed, Holinka is an employee of a bigger game than pvp only, he certainly can't do everything alone without the other devs of the team. Ability pruning, this is the idea of the devs as a whole, and pvp is sure simplyfied as a result, and people don't like this.

Though I dislike that Arena Master is going the way of the dodo as from the recent news, bad idea imo. Content should not be removed :/

[Caolela]

Hoelunky is busy posting snide, condescending remarks on Twitter - if he even replies at all - and watching the so-called "high rated" teams' VoDs and Twitch streams, (while conveniently ignoring the fact that they cheat like drunken sailors).

That's about it.

[Jakisuaki]

Apart from ruining the game?.... hmm.... I don't know, jerking off to Ashran probably.

[Deleted]

he probably spends most his time:
-listening to people that identify problems to him (GM teamleads, CM forum summaries, game metrics, design team decisions, etc)
-looking at metrics from the game (participation, trends, less/much usedthings, etc) to confirm those problems or find them himself.
-in a big ass balance spreadsheet to adress those problems.
-telling other people to do the same
-minor coding/bugfixing
-meetings at various levels
-playtesting

[Eroginous]

Serious question here because I've always wondered this.

The guy's in charge of the PvP team. The last time we got a new instanced anything out of him was 21 May 2013 when 5.3 came out with the last released battleground. That basically means his total output for the last three years is Ashran and a new talent PvP system we won't see for another few months.

What has this guy actually done to justify his salary? Has there been some more iteration or community work I'm not aware of? Genuinely interested to know.

Here's the thing: Holinka is the face of the pvp team because he's the lead designer of it. But, then there are groups of devs under him who are actually tasked with working on pvp. Holinka is what you would call a 'supervisor' in the truest sense of the word - his job is to help the rest of the pvp devs complete their tasks, and that's about it. He's not the one calling for changes or even forcing them. He's just another guy who gets all the negative feedback because we don't know the name of That Guy Who Ruined PVP on the pvp dev team.

[Deleted]

Here's the thing: Holinka is the face of the pvp team because he's the lead designer of it. But, then there are groups of devs under him who are actually tasked with working on pvp. Holinka is what you would call a 'supervisor' in the truest sense of the word - his job is to help the rest of the pvp devs complete their tasks, and that's about it. He's not the one calling for changes or even forcing them. He's just another guy who gets all the negative feedback because we don't know the name of That Guy Who Ruined PVP on the pvp dev team.

thats more a producers task then a designers. he does make calls on changes.

designer: deciding what to do
producer: making sure it gets done

[Nurvus]

What has this guy actually done to justify his salary? Has there been some more iteration or community work I'm not aware of? Genuinely interested to know.

PvE is about adding open world and instanced content where you fight NPCs.
PvP is about handling different ways of having players killing each other, with focus on balance.
All the way we had a bunch of changes to skills for the sake of PvP balance, CC pruning, all the changes to PvP gear and stats...
...and you consider his "total output" Ashran & Legion PvP Talents?
ok...

[Soisoisoi]

bs. anything anyone does at blizzard is absolutely made public!

seriously op? i hate holinka as much as the next guy, but what are you expecting? holinka to make a youtube channel where he vlogs his day to day activities?

how would someone from mmo-champion know? you want an answer? post on the official forums. where, you know, actual blues post. (not that you'd get an actual reply. but at least posting on an official forum has the slightest of chance, unlike a fan forum.)

useless thread

Not that the chances are high, especially to a thread as silly as this, but... Blues do reply here. A few of them in fact. They have their own title like your "High Overlord" - called "Blizzard".


OT: I assume he oversees all the design and balance changes for PvP. Any new BG, Arena, Ashran, the PvP stat sheets, honour talents, how abilities work in PvP with DR etc. - It's obviously not enough considering we've gone a fair few builds with zero pvp tuning changes to the likes of tanks on Beta but... eh. That's his whole team, not just him.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Serious question here because I've always wondered this.

The guy's in charge of the PvP team. The last time we got a new instanced anything out of him was 21 May 2013 when 5.3 came out with the last released battleground. That basically means his total output for the last three years is Ashran and a new talent PvP system we won't see for another few months.

What has this guy actually done to justify his salary? Has there been some more iteration or community work I'm not aware of? Genuinely interested to know.

He's a game designer. He crunch a LOT of numbers. You only see the idea side of his job. Here's what he actually do: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company...tml?id=15000EH

[Eroginous]

thats more a producers task then a designers. he does make calls on changes.

designer: deciding what to do
producer: making sure it gets done

I have no doubt that Holinka works on miscellaneous overflow from his design team. However, a lead designer's job is to guide everyone else, not dictate work loads and changes (at least, not in Blizzard). Other lead devs in other companies might be ruthless dictators, but in Blizzard, they'd replace a guy like that pretty quickly due to the negative atmosphere that kind of management creates.

I wrote a post about this kind of design in another thread, you should read it.

[Deleted]

I have no doubt that Holinka works on miscellaneous overflow from his design team. However, a lead designer's job is to guide everyone else, not dictate work loads and changes (at least, not in Blizzard). Other lead devs in other companies might be ruthless dictators, but in Blizzard, they'd replace a guy like that pretty quickly due to the negative atmosphere that kind of management creates.

I wrote a post about this kind of design in another thread, you should read it.

if you word it like that it sounds a lot less like a producer yes, unlike your previous wording.

but i would be very very surprised if he doesn't have final say on design decisions if the team can't come to a decision.

[Talsar]

Serious question here because I've always wondered this.

The guy's in charge of the PvP team. The last time we got a new instanced anything out of him was 21 May 2013 when 5.3 came out with the last released battleground. That basically means his total output for the last three years is Ashran and a new talent PvP system we won't see for another few months.

What has this guy actually done to justify his salary? Has there been some more iteration or community work I'm not aware of? Genuinely interested to know.

I seriously think he spends all day every day trying to convince the PvE balance team to let him do his job and balance PvP.

Note the "trying" part

[Eroginous]

if you word it like that it sounds a lot less like a producer yes, unlike your previous wording.

but i would be very very surprised if he doesn't have final say on design decisions if the team can't come to a decision.

I'm sure he does have final say on things. I'm just also pretty sure the demands of game development force him into making a lot of less favorable decisions. Like the PVP talent system, how is that a good thing? Sure, it accomplishes the goal of separating pvp talents from pve talents... but we still use pve talents in pvp.

If design worked any other way than what I've already stated, I would be genuinely surprised.