December 2 Hotfixes, A Day in the Life of a Community Manager, Blue Posts, TCG Art

[VanishO2]

Its not a lame excuse man.Its a completely understandable one even tho we dont like it. They have a bunch of games and a expansion to work for. Lets say they hire 10 more ppl for art work and troubleshouting for the 4.3 patch. after its done they cant alocate em to other projects because the other projects are full. So they will have to fire them. I find it better not to fire someone than hire him for a very small amount of time. The game isn't as important as real life issues.

You know when we complain about they wasting resources on a damn pet and they proudly say that they have many teams working on diferent things, so modeling team has nothing to do with anything else and can spent all the time they want modeling anything? So yes, it's totally stupid to screw that even for a "stupid 5 man". They want to tell the story in the 1st place, they want to explain most of that crap to ppl that don't know it. So they should make things coerent. That's not the Blizzard we now from Vanilla, TBC (or even Wrath) that paid attention to little details in their game (like breadcrumb quests to even explain what the hell is happening when new 5mans/raids are relasead) that diferentiate from other games in the market.

It's that or they just show that when it comes to $$$ from pets, mounts, etc. they spent the "little" resources left in wow on them instead of fixing the game. So you don't have updated player models because they're using the resource modeling tyrael's chargers and all for store/anual pass $$$ instead.

Live with that now: Guardian Cub, Guardian Mount, Tyrael's Charger... all that ate up good things they could have implemented in the game alread.

[ohmygosh]

And I love how Bashiok says his position isn't about spending the whole day in the foruns, yet he spends the whole day in the foruns, twitter and facebook, of course, except when hes doing hula loops.Money well spent!

Oh yeah, he also spends his time playing games from the game library, and listening to music!

[BarosanuNr1]

The Q & A is kind of saddening.

Basically, everything is on a back-burner due to expansion, then when MoP is released, the same thing happens since they start work on the next expansion...

Deja-vu. The S4 pvp sets where recolours of each other because the team was working on gear for Wotlk... gear that ended up being a bunch of recolours too (until you got to 80 at least).

[F-Minus]

The complains are mostly pathetic, but the answers are even more so.... New mounts?

I've yet to see a new mount, maybe that one model of the golden/chromatic drake, everything else was in the game from 4.2 and before (striders, bears, legendary staff dragon, nether drakes, normal drakes) Who are they fooling, really.

I really couldn't give a rats ass if they have new mount models or not, but when they outright lie in the face about new mount models you have to wonder if they think we're stupid. Re-texturing doesn't equal new model, a texture can be created in few hours, especially by talented people. If the new texture is just a recolor, it can be created in 5minutes playing with sliders in Photoshop, Gimp or whatever software you're using.

[Deleted]

"The resources don't exist" as in time and manpower. They have the means and abilities to, but at this point Blizzard is busier figuring out how to keep all the whiny kids happy, than actually creating content. Stop crying, use your imagination. It's a fantasy-based lore game after all.

Here's a wild idea, hire more people!..it's not like the could afford it?..

[alturic]

Patch 4.3 Hotfixes: December 2

• The Looking-For-Dungeon / Looking-For-Raid system should now properly assign classes to the roles that are most needed, as long as those roles are selected. It should no longer confine them to Tank/Healer/DPS priority if other roles are in short supply.
  
• Master looter can no longer assign items in Looking-For-Raid groups to players that are already locked to that boss for the week.
  
• Players should be unable to trade loot they obtained from Looking-For-Raid encounters to players that are loot locked to that boss.
  

So, I thought when this LFR thing came out they said you wouldn't get locked to an instance, you could essentially run it forever? Did they change their minds on that or what? If I somehow got lucky and got alot of nice pieces on my first run why would I want to run it again the same week if I can't get loot from that boss again?

Maybe I'm confused what the exploit was and how it worked but honestly I thought when they announce LFR they said these things:

1.) No tier
2.) You could run it as much as you wanted, there was no save

So, unless I'm confused what am I missing?

[F-Minus]

So, I thought when this LFR thing came out they said you wouldn't get locked to an instance, you could essentially run it forever? Did they change their minds on that or what? If I somehow got lucky and got alot of nice pieces on my first run why would I want to run it again the same week if I can't get loot from that boss again?

Maybe I'm confused what the exploit was and how it worked but honestly I thought when they announce LFR they said these things:

1.) No tier
2.) You could run it as much as you wanted, there was no save

So, unless I'm confused what am I missing?

1.) You can kill each boss unlimited times per week.
2.) You can loot each boss only once per week.

You can get loot from bosses only the first time you kill them in a weekly fashion. Even if you are unlucky and don't win anything on your first weekly kill, you can not obtain loot again from the same boss, but you can kill him over and over again if you so desire.

[good diu bro]

You couldn't have taken a random black dragon, increased it's size... Gave it more texture, etc? Heck, you could have taken the current model of Deathwing and modified that.All of those were possible courses of action, sure, though I suspect that using a different existing model would likely had the same result. Slight modifications to an existing model may not even have been noticed, given the light show going off in that scene. Also, as others have pointed out, he was already wearing the armor at that point. In the end, we're currently having a long discussion about a single model which appears for a few seconds, and is wreathed in gold lightning for much of that time

We have lived with this

or even this

for years.
A generic dragon model certainly make more sense than the current one with metal.

[MasterDinadan]

Here's a wild idea, hire more people!..it's not like the could afford it?..

They don't have an unlimited budget. You can't run a business by spending money frivolously just because you have it.

Spending a lot of extra money on something which would have very little impact on customer satisfaction is not acceptable to Blizz.
Delaying the patch significantly for an extra model would not be acceptable to the players.

I definitely feel like they made the right choice in not making a new model. Could they have re-used a black dragon model? Maybe, but it would reduce the impact of the scene as there are players who don't know that Neltharion and Deathwing are the same.

[ZenX]

They don't have an unlimited budget. You can't run a business by spending money frivolously just because you have it.

Spending a lot of extra money on something which would have very little impact on customer satisfaction is not acceptable to Blizz.
Delaying the patch significantly for an extra model would not be acceptable to the players.

I definitely feel like they made the right choice in not making a new model. Could they have re-used a black dragon model? Maybe, but it would reduce the impact of the scene as there are players who don't know that Neltharion and Deathwing are the same.

...and that is the exact kind of player that is ruining the game for everyone, why? Because not knowing that Deathwing is Neltharion the Earth-Warder implies that they either skipped or didn't pay any attention to Cataclysm quests(80-85, mainly Deepholm and Twilight Highlands ones).

In essence, the problem really lies in how Blizzard handled the storytelling of Deathwing, with Arthas you had we had the Culling of Stratholme as a dungeon with the addition of Icecrown quests telling how he became the Lich King in WotLK.

Now if this approach would have been followed in Cataclysm, there would have been need for models of Deathwing's uncorrupted and midway corrupted versions. Why? Those should have been the things thats should have been told in 4.1 dungeons rather than a poorly done Rise of the Zandalari story arc, which was rather out of place.

Cataclysm with regards to its storytelling component was plain poor, compared to what previous expansions have done...

[Volden]

Why is there so much hate on this particular post? Are there some flaws with Cataclysm? Yes. Are there some flaws with Deathwing/Well of Eternity Lore (at least aesthetically)? Yes. But In my opinion, I truly believe they are taking a great game and making it better with all the features they've added since WoW 1.0. If you've been there from the beginning as much of you have I'm sure, I think it would be hard for you to disagree that How this game is run is far superior to its humble origins. The endless 5-man Dungeons that took both an ample amount of time to set up and get everyone there and the sometimes 4 hour+ time to complete come to mind :P.Most important to me (even as a Lore buff) is the Gameplay.

If you want the back-story of Deathwing, read the War of the Ancients trilogy. Myself, I am very happy with the direction they are taking WoW as well as the decisions they are making to keep the game play aspects ans fun as possible. You are all welcome to your own opinion as I am and I won't try to convince you to see things my way. I just find it funny that so many people set expectations up for one thing and when Blizzard deliveries something different (albeit just as amazing) they recoil to a place of negative criticism instead of finding the silver lining in such a great game.

For the doubters of WoW who are thinking of leaving: Cheer up, This game is evolving and growing in new and exciting directions. And if you've been there since Day one like many of you have, I'm sure you don't want to miss the ride! ^_^. The experience has been well worth it for me and I can say the same for a majority of others in my guild, family and friends who are also very happy to continue playing.

[Deleted]

and it will be laughably easy with next to no end game content just like every other mmo...so your point? If they try to make it a challenge they won't have enough subscribers to keep the servers running..

Just watched a lvl 10 dungeon in SWTOR... also played in last beta...

This is the equivalent to RFC mind you, it was longer, more engaging, a heck of alot harder from the looks of it, I mean... RFC is practically soloable in its current state, even at the intended level.

Anyhow, my point being, they will probably lack end game content, as all new MMOs does, BUT, saying it will be easy, when all I've seen is the opposite, thats just taking it a stretch. WoW is piss easy, so claiming another game, which is clearly harder btw, will fail because its easy?... wait what?


That said, Im an avid WoW fan still, and Im planning to be playing SWTOR only untill MoP hits the shelves, as I have no more intrest in cataclysm.
And hell, the story alone makes SWTOR worth playing through.

[Rolly]

Please don't suck SWTOR. Please don't suck SWTOR. Please don't suck SWTOR. Please don't suck SWTOR. Please don't suck SWTOR.

This lack of resources excuse is the lamest thing there is. Blizzard has made literally billions of dollars. If there's a lack of resources it's from their own mismanagement.


edit: Their Activison Blizzard financials http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:ATVI almost 1 billion in net profit over the last 3 quarters, Lack of resources my ass.

[Deleted]

The accent Tyrande has was bad.

---

The same voice actress is responsible for her voice then and now.

This made me smile.

[frozenkex]

Srsly, why would Blizzard of all things would have budget cuts. In terms of quality Firelands or even Icecrown citadel patches were much better. I wouldve liked to believe that the patch that was skipped got absorbed by this new last patch of expansion where you kill badass dragon but noo, its just treated even worse. "Oh we lost 10% of subscribers, guess we'll cut the budget by 30%!" I wouldve also liked to believe that game that makes money for company also gets money put into it as much as it needs but no - they just put that money in other projects, and spend as little as possible on wow...

[Kragragh]

OK, it's funny because....I didn't even realize that was not current day Deathwing until I read this blue post. I thought he followed us back in time or something. So basically, by trying to make it "recognizable", they undid the point they were trying to make, at least to me, and I can't be alone. Yes I noticed it was named "Neltharion" but...I went with what I saw...the same guy I've been seeing for months. It's like having "present day" Marty McFly be his own father in the future, but putting absolutely no aging effects or makeup on him. It...doesn't make any sense. Should've just made a larger black dragonflight dragon...like he mentioned. They just made the wrong choice. And again, BS on limited resources. The CEO probably made $xx million dollars last year...can't throw a mill or two back into the company to hire 10 people to work on nothing but models to make your games actually improve in quality instead of deteriorate?

[Profanity Lock]

Fury Warriors lost a huge amount of DPS this patch. Fury was double nerfed, amounting to close to 10% if not more. Look at the Simcraft rankings now.

[Leat]

I don't see anything in here about the bloods on deathwing. We got madness to 3% within 5 tries, and then the rest of the tries for the night were impossible due to us taking an INSANE amount of damage on each platform after the bloods came out. On our first 5 attempts, our healers were at about 16k HPS. On our last few attempts with the bugged damage, all 3 healers were above 26k HPS in a 10 man. That just shouldn't happen. We were going OOM by the third platform, where before I had 90% mana the entire fight.

[Granyala]

Cataclysm with regards to its storytelling component was plain poor, compared to what previous expansions have done...

Agreed.

Tyrande didn’t have her own model for seven years

Well, it was worth the wait. Her bow = *drool* (And I'm not a hunter)

[Kaelynath]

I just want to know...Where the hell was Malygos in Well of Eternity?