Ion Hazzikostas: Why do you like or dislike him as a game designer?

[xanzul]

Um....$50 for the expansion plus $15/mo is kind of a lot when compared to other games. I mean, even the worst season pass pre-order collector's edition games are less than that, given the yearly release cycle of many franchises. Weighing in at ~$200 for the top end of those kinds of "deals", vs the $230 for the first year of a WoW expansion.

So yeah, I think it's not at all unreasonable for a dedicated wow fan who subs for most of a year to expect better from the game.

So stop fucking paying. jesus fucking christ. And most of a year? I mean you do understand people can see how many posts you have in certain flight threads right? And when you posted in them? It has been far, far, far more than "most of a year".

[ingsve]

He is arrogant selfish fucking asshole.

I think the words you were looking for is Elitist Jerk.

[dark666105]

I think he might have a gambling problem he is projecting onto the game.

[SirCowdog]

So stop fucking paying. jesus fucking christ. And most of a year? I mean you do understand people can see how many posts you have in certain flight threads right? And when you posted in them? It has been far, far, far more than "most of a year".

I wasn't initially going to respond to your post before you edited it, because I wasn't sure if you were speaking directly to me, or making a general statement about the response the theoretical year-long player that I brought up should take.

For the record(and you should know this since you seem to follow my posts so closely), I haven't subbed(though token or real money) to wow since the announcement that flight wouldn't be returning in 7.1. I didn't return in 7.2, and I'm not playing now. I didn't bring up flying in this thread.

Also for the record, I was not talking about myself when I brought up the point about how much a WoW player might spend over the course of a year as it regards to what a player should reasonably expect from the game.

Basically, to sum things up: Stop taking things so personally.

[Charge me Doctor]

Um....$50 for the expansion plus $15/mo is kind of a lot when compared to other games. I mean, even the worst season pass pre-order collector's edition games are less than that, given the yearly release cycle of many franchises. Weighing in at ~$200 for the top end of those kinds of "deals", vs the $230 for the first year of a WoW expansion.

So yeah, I think it's not at all unreasonable for a dedicated wow fan who subs for most of a year to expect better from the game.

And to be completely fair, WoW had the best quality+funtimes per currency point spent. At least for me. And game gets better and more interesting every year.
Off course its subjective feelings (enjoyment of the game) but you can look at objective things, like customer support, bugfixes, regular patches, in general game improvement (remember that wow runs on old as fuck engine? yeah). Stuff like zoning/sharding/cross realm allowed players to play MMO again instead of sitting on a dead realm or cursing yourself for not researching faction balance and rolling his main on 95/5 horde/alliance server (which is less the case since rerolling doesn't require you to start everything from a fucking scratch).

Don't even bring season passes or pre-order here, it's completely irrelevant to discussion. WoW was always designed as a game with subscription, publishers forcing this "it's a standalone game for 60$ but we cut some stuff off it and sell it to you for 5$ but it's just cosmetics also we promise that'll add some cool stuff later please pay us upfront" bullshit is no laughing matter

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Do you actually play this game?

Legion is the absolute best expansion for drowning in completely fucking USELESS loot.

If I was an enchanter I'd be rich. Instead I vendor 95% of the shit slot machine drops.

Do you actually play this game? Any loot is useless unless it's better than what you wear - it means that literally any dungeon you ran in cata for tabard rep grind was full of useless blues and greens, how is that any different? Or you imply that these world green drops were useful by any stretch of imagination? Do you even remember retarded loot tables when just after couple of weeks of raiding some bosses were completely DEd?

And what exactly stops you from rolling enchantment and becoming rich if you claim that it's what would happen?

[nodq]

No problem with him so far. Just with PvP design and choices, and I dunno how he is involved in that actually. He needs to change very much in PvP, if he even has anything to say for that. Or was ist just Holinka that was responsible for PvP stuff?

[Rageadon]

Have done a great job with pve, but pvp on the other hand....

[Izzyfurious]

No problem with him so far. Just with PvP design and choices, and I dunno how he is involved in that actually. He needs to change very much in PvP, if he even has anything to say for that. Or was ist just Holinka that was responsible for PvP stuff?

Only Holinka.

[Aggrophobic]

Well, he's not doing a good job and he tends to lie whenever he tries to communicate with players so theres that.

[SirCowdog]

And to be completely fair, WoW had the best quality+funtimes per currency point spent. At least for me. And game gets better and more interesting every year.

Do you stop caring about the game getting better because you're already enjoying it? Or would you like for the game to continue to improve?

That's all I'm really saying: Someone sinks a lot of money into the game and clearly enjoys it. So when they see it starting to go in a direction they feel is sub-part, it's not at all unreasonable for them to express their concern, and maybe suggest some solutions. It's also not unreasonable for them to get angry when a large portion of the community is saying "this is kind of not really all that great, maybe fix it?" and the devs come back with "Nope. It's fine. We're doing it even if you don't like it."

Are the devs right? Sometimes, yeah. Are they always right and people should shut up and stop criticizing? Hell no!

Don't even bring season passes or pre-order here, it's completely irrelevant to discussion. WoW was always designed as a game with subscription, publishers forcing this "it's a standalone game for 60$ but we cut some stuff off it and sell it to you for 5$ but it's just cosmetics also we promise that'll add some cool stuff later please pay us upfront" bullshit is no laughing matter

I only brought up the season pass/collectors edition because they are comparable in price, and somewhat similar in delivery. The season pass pre-order collector's ed just pays up front. Some people do that with WoW, also, btw. It was only to illustrate the point that, for how much people are paying Blizzard to pay wow over the years, they kind of do have the right to expect better.

Then again, as I'm sure many people would say, they also have the right to stop subbing at any time. So there's that. :/ I personally think that's kind of a poor solution. Accept everything the devs do quietly, or STFU and leave is how some of these people think. I'd much rather have better communication and devs who actually don't completely dismiss what large portions of their playerbase are saying.

Lately it seems like Blizzard has been less about communicating, and more about simply stating how things are going to be, like it or not.

[Achilles55]

Although I don't agree with every decision the Blizzard devs make I think that Ion is a very good game designer. he is very honest, well spoken, and seem very passionate about the game. He isn't afraid to admit mistakes which most people never do. No matter what the devs do or who's in charge people on mmo c are going to find something to complain about. Ion has done a good job.

[Musta]

The point is whenever Blizzard removes anything people throw a hissy fit over it especially since Wod. Are you claiming people would have been just fine with NLC being removed? Again remember not all players are you. I know its hard to imagine but its true.

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So scrapping is a-ok as long as it is stuff you don't care about? Good job continuing to spotlight the complete and total lack of awareness many people on these forums have about themselves.

Actually I was just pointing out that not every feature is baked on the release date, you are reading too much.

[berdrek]

his been great for the game in my opinion, could do more about the RNG in almost every aspet of the game now. i mean before i knew where my pre-raid BiS and raid BiS came from. now i have to run every dungone in the game and hope it rolls my stats like a diablo rift. other then that his done a great job. I mean in the conditions ghostcrawler left the class design and other aspects he influced was disgusting, a random inanimate object would be better then ghostcrawler, if you dont believe it look at LoL's state. a fucking joke.

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I kinda like him. He is a good leader. He failed horribly on WOD but succeeded in legion.

WOD wasn’t really bad at the start in fact it was the best questing experience in wow imo. After that, things went downhill.

he got promoted BECAUSE of WoD, he desgined the only good thing WoD had going for it, the raids. tom chilton was lead game designer, now his washing dishes somehwere where he belongs.

[Musta]

his been great for the game in my opinion, could do more about the RNG in almost every aspet of the game now. i mean before i knew where my pre-raid BiS and raid BiS came from. now i have to run every dungone in the game and hope it rolls my stats like a diablo rift. other then that his done a great job. I mean in the conditions ghostcrawler left the class design and other aspects he influced was disgusting, a random inanimate object would be better then ghostcrawler, if you dont believe it look at LoL's state. a fucking joke.

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he got promoted BECAUSE of WoD, he desgined the only good thing WoD had going for it, the raids. tom chilton was lead game designer, now his washing dishes somehwere where he belongs.

He got "promoted" because Kaplan left. Wasnt it? Ot Tom Chilton, IDR whom was in charge before Ion.

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And a shit ton of ppl left wow in the past 2 years and moved to other projects. If they dont change the RNG in the next expansion there will be huge implications I assume. Legion could have been one of the best if not the best expac if wasnt for the retard amout of rng. I never see so much of it in my life. Even diablo is not that bad.

[berdrek]

He got "promoted" because Kaplan left. Wasnt it? Ot Tom Chilton, IDR whom was in charge before Ion.

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And a shit ton of ppl left wow in the past 2 years and moved to other projects. If they dont change the RNG in the next expansion there will be huge implications I assume. Legion could have been one of the best if not the best expac if wasnt for the retard amout of rng. I never see so much of it in my life. Even diablo is not that bad.

kaplan got moved to overwatch, chilton and the others that "left" got either fired or demoted for the shit show that was WoD, it was obvious.

[americandavey]

If you want to talk shit about someone, at least get his job title right. Ion is now Game Director of WoW, been that way since Oct 2016. Chilton was Game Director and moved over to helm another project for Blizzard.

[Musta]

kaplan got moved to overwatch, chilton and the others that "left" got either fired or demoted for the shit show that was WoD, it was obvious.

I see what you did there, Taliesin.

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If you want to talk shit about someone, at least get his job title right. Ion is now Game Director of WoW, been that way since Oct 2016. Chilton was Game Director and moved over to helm another project for Blizzard.

I didnt. And I explicited said I didnt know whom was in charge.

[Charge me Doctor]

Do you stop caring about the game getting better because you're already enjoying it? Or would you like for the game to continue to improve?

That's all I'm really saying: Someone sinks a lot of money into the game and clearly enjoys it. So when they see it starting to go in a direction they feel is sub-part, it's not at all unreasonable for them to express their concern, and maybe suggest some solutions. It's also not unreasonable for them to get angry when a large portion of the community is saying "this is kind of not really all that great, maybe fix it?" and the devs come back with "Nope. It's fine. We're doing it even if you don't like it."

Are the devs right? Sometimes, yeah. Are they always right and people should shut up and stop criticizing? Hell no!




I only brought up the season pass/collectors edition because they are comparable in price, and somewhat similar in delivery. The season pass pre-order collector's ed just pays up front. Some people do that with WoW, also, btw. It was only to illustrate the point that, for how much people are paying Blizzard to pay wow over the years, they kind of do have the right to expect better.

Then again, as I'm sure many people would say, they also have the right to stop subbing at any time. So there's that. :/ I personally think that's kind of a poor solution. Accept everything the devs do quietly, or STFU and leave is how some of these people think. I'd much rather have better communication and devs who actually don't completely dismiss what large portions of their playerbase are saying.

Lately it seems like Blizzard has been less about communicating, and more about simply stating how things are going to be, like it or not.

Define "improve" here - you main class being buffed? I'll agree that game is improving when it gets patched regularly, old bugs get fixed, new content is added and common stuff is being change (for sake of balance, fun, consistency - whatever).

Stuff people complain about is usually irrelevant or subjective. Their beloved class being nerfed in a way they think is not justified (usually it is justified to be fair), minor inconveniences (daze effect, loot rng, flying, etc).
You also have to distinguish large portion of community from vocal minority. And we (as players) do not have any measurement tools to get any sort of average about player, but blizzard does have it and base their decision on it , and there comes a question of entitlement - some people here want game to be better for them, and worse for majority of players. Their "fixes" are flawed and we all can only hope that they won't end up at blizzard, and if they will their "fixes" will be heard only by meeting room walls.

No, they are not similar. Just stop, any non-ironical mention of season pass should be ridiculed and laughed at IMO. It's out of place for this conversation, it's not similar and it's really sad that people start to equal fucking season pass to a subscription.

Unsubbing is not a poor solution, it's a best solution you have as a consumer to show blizzard that you are not fine with what they do with the game. Shoving WoW down your own throat and expect that blizzard will do a 180° turn in their strategy because of your angry posts (or you silently not enjoying it) (just to clarify: these "yous'" do not point and you, but at a hypothetical player, so i hope no offense taken). Devs rarely do dismiss their own playerbase, them not doing exactly what you want doesn't mean that they are dismissing their own playerbase.


And just for context on communication - you probably don't remember but fire mage had drafted set of nerfs in early legion, that simply broke the gameplay for fire mage, i mean, these changed passed initial draft and other codes on blizzards side, then they communicated it to players, got feedback, changed it a bit, released (note: they didn't reverted the nerf, they ignored the "fire mage doesn't need nerf" feedback and only addressed "this kind of nerf puts us back into casting fireball 70% of time", second iteration was also shit, it addressed the problem they wanted to fix, it made undergeared fire mage a bit better than it used to be, but overgeared fire mage with proper set of trinkets was still locked to RoP cheese bullshit. Third iteration with them changing how "free crit" for fire mage is distributed, nerfs to RoP, nerfs to items and other stuff, while retaining ~50% "comfortable" crit rate value for fire mage (and addition of "more heating up procs" talent row, removal of icy veins and other shit that are objectively nerfs, but made gameplay of firemage way better than being one trick pony).

So yeah, it's evident that blizzard do listen to proper feedback and base their judgements not only on internal mathematical data, but also run tests on feedback from playerbase

[xanos]

I like him. His passion is clear.

[Spiral Mage]

I've had mixed impressions of him.

To me, it seems at the start of WOD, the devs were very interested and involved.
When Distracting Shot was going to be removed and outrage broke out,
it was Ion who stepped into the fray and said:
"Whoa, let's calm down here and back up. I don't see a practical use for Distracting Shot. Am I missing something here? Please help me understand why it is still valuable to you."

We made our case, and he said: "Ah, I see now. Okay, I'll see what we can do about that."
The following beta patch, "Distracting Shot has been removed", was CROSSED OUT.
Watcher/Ion over-turned that decision based on feedback.

He's kept a fairly open ear to bugs, issues and other concerns.
Unlike Celestalon who seemed to go from understanding to ignoring anyone who didn't praise him.
Ion has been willing to take negative feedback and still engage in the conversation.
This is becoming a rarity at BLIZ.

That said, I often found him someone who became harder to communicate with,
and he certainly does miss some broad and obvious points.
He's said things that have left me wondering what in the world he was thinking.

But this is fairly true of any BLIZ employee at one time or another.

So in the end, no real ill feelings toward him but he could do to learn some yet.