Blizzard team has undergone "restructuring"

[BobAwesome]

Pssst.

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/o...raft/all/all/1

Be the change in the world(of warcraft) you want to see!

[TheVaryag]

https://twitter.com/devolore/status/818592380022423553

First it was training the larger team, then it was then it was the holiday season, Blizzcon, delays, and now it's "team restructuring".

In a recent tweet, Lore mentions that the sloppy patch notes release was due to "team restructuring", and he anticipates that future patch notes will be "MUCH better".

Do you believe that this team restructuring will improve communication with the community? Or will things remain at the status quo? Personally I'm a bit sceptical.

You should ask, do you believe them? I think their team has no idea what they're doing In the first place, and team restructuring just seems like more excuses. Larger team sure doesn't mean better, or we'd have the difficulty of TBC In Legion and the gear and story progression of Wrath. I wouldn't believe them one but and their only Importance Is to milk the game as much as they can before It goes to "Endgame" status forever.

[dope_danny]

Also, an argument about Celestalon being "not that bad" is an argument you are going to lose. I can think of countless examples of him fucking up despite a brazen show of arrogance on the forums to try to convince people otherwise.

Isn't that the guy that tweeted a while back he plays with a graphics tablet instead of a mouse?

[Sae]

they communicate plenty already don't know why people want to know every time a dev takes a shit.

I don't think that asking for something less vague than "Increased the damage of some abilities" is too much to ask.

That slope just leads to one line patches that just say "Yeah we changed some shit or whatever, figure it out. But don't trust datamining!"

[dope_danny]

https://twitter.com/Celestalon/statu...03778441469952

Good lord.

[shonist]

https://twitter.com/devolore/status/818592380022423553

First it was training the larger team, then it was then it was the holiday season, Blizzcon, delays, and now it's "team restructuring".

In a recent tweet, Lore mentions that the sloppy patch notes release was due to "team restructuring", and he anticipates that future patch notes will be "MUCH better".

Do you believe that this team restructuring will improve communication with the community? Or will things remain at the status quo? Personally I'm a bit sceptical.

who gives a damn? what are you talking about???

[Gadzooks]

Well, I can't speak for Blizzard. I can only speak from my perspective when I worked in the industry. Their blue posts on the forum seems to indicate they use a very similar process, although I don't know the exact details.

But in principle, yes, this is how large studios works. It's just impossible, even with a dedicated team, to know everything 200+ employees did and compile it without their input.

And since the dev team is going through severe restructuring, getting employees input can be quite challenging.

It depends on who you're listening to. Lore says "restructuring". Onyrx says "key people sick". My Corporate Spidey Sense says "They're covering their asses on something".

[burzian]

I think it's useful to pull back a little bit here and look at the big picture. The expected standards for business-to-customer communication seem inappropriately high for Blizzard. They have no obligation to give us full class-balance details prior to releasing a patch. I can't think of any other piece of software (including the software my company produces and sells) that has expectations like this. Class balance isn't game-breaking in any real sense. Not telling you exact skill changes to Elemental Shaman is not at all the same as releasing an unannounced firmware update that ruins a customer's workflow. The $15 buys you guaranteed uptime (up to a certain threshold) and access to the service. Not a seat at the table to vet design changes.

The fact that Blizzard communicates at all about these changes - and, in my opinion, has done better this time around than at some points in the past - is them choosing to do something they don't need to in order to keep players informed. Some of the rhetoric about incompetence and dishonesty seems a bit overblown to me.

[rda]

I think it's useful to pull back a little bit here and look at the big picture. The expected standards for business-to-customer communication seem inappropriately high for Blizzard.

Oh, yeah, totally.

For example, it's totally, completely unreasonable to expect them not to sneak in changes that ruin months of play at the last minute - see news regarding artifact power in PVP.

So entitled, these players. Reverting on their word, going counter to their claimed purpose, and do that with nary a hint turning gameplay of tons of players into trash overnight is totally a privilege of the great devs. /sarcasm

[Blayze]

"Restructure" is code for "management securing their own jobs by sacrificing hordes of minions."

[burzian]

Oh, yeah, totally.

For example, it's totally, completely unreasonable to expect them not to sneak in changes that ruin months of play at the last minute - see news regarding artifact power in PVP.

So entitled, these players. Reverting on their word, going counter to their claimed purpose, and do that with nary a hint is totally a privilege of the great devs. /sarcasm

Glad you added that sarcasm tag or I'd really have been confused. Your post is pretty much exactly the attitude I'm talking about, so I appreciate the example.

[Army Dreamer]

"Restructure" is code for "management securing their own jobs by sacrificing hordes of minions."

Absolutely true.

[rda]

Glad you added that sarcasm tag or I'd really have been confused. Your post is pretty much exactly the attitude I'm talking about, so I appreciate the example.

You are new, that's all.

[burzian]

You are new, that's all.

I'm not new to WoW, WoW-related forums, or to the software business. If it helps you justify your attitude to yourself, go ahead and run with that though.

[rda]

I'm not new to WoW, WoW-related forums, or to the software business. If it helps you justify your attitude to yourself, go ahead and run with that though.

You are new because you don't even know what I am talking about yet you are trying to talk about WoW devs as if your toothless abstract theories are a substitute for what they actually are doing. I don't doubt that you aren't new to the software business, but to WoW and their dev team - yes, you are. That, or you have been living under a rock.

[Kotenk]

The restructuring that Community/PR/Etc. is having is that previously the Americas team was the global anchor, with other teams following their lead as appropriate, and the US team making sure consistency happened. Now there is a global team whose specific job is to be the anchor and ensure consistency, and handle global issues, while the US/Americas team will focus on US players and environment. In a company whose audience is global, it only makes sense.

Source: I spoke to US PR/Community leadership about this change.

[klogaroth]

There are several times a restructure can occur, not just when you're getting smaller.

Sometimes it's because you've gotten bigger and now each of your management team has too many staff under them to effectively manage.
Sometimes it's because you're splitting up the work differently. Extremely simplified example: you have 5 tasks and 5 teams. You could have 5 end to end teams, you could have a team for each task, you could have 2 teams that each handle 2 tasks each and 3 that do one each. It all depends on how related the tasks are and which way works best.

[burzian]

You are new because you don't even know what I am talking about yet you are trying to talk about WoW devs as if your toothless abstract theories are a substitute for what they actually are doing. I don't doubt that you aren't new to the software business, but to WoW and their dev team - yes, you are. That, or you have been living under a rock.

How long have you worked on WoW's dev team? Or do you just have a lot of experience trashing them on the forums? Get some perspective.

Edit: I assume you're talking about the reversal on traits over 34 working in PvP. Either way, you are still making a mountain out of a molehill.

[rda]

How long have you worked on WoW's dev team? Or do you just have a lot of experience trashing them on the forums? Get some perspective.

Edit: I assume you're talking about the reversal on traits over 34 working in PvP. Either way, you are still making a mountain out of a molehill.

I am a software dev myself, I knew / know people who were on the WoW team, plus I had the privilege of looking at their decisions and so-called processes over the years as a player.

Mountain of a molehill, oh, sure, absolutely. Why am I not surprised that you just ignored what I wrote as nothing. Do you PVP? Do you understand what their changes do? Did you see the size of the ladder lately? Yeah.

[God Save The King]

Looking forward to improvements from Blizzard. Nice to see them addressing the smaller concerns along with the large ones.