It must be like walking on glass for the developers of this game

[Djuntas]

Humans are ungrateful, We never appreciate what we get.
I enjoy the slightest thing they add, even if it's not going entertain me for longer then 5 minutes, i appreciate it.

If they update a random chair at a random place because the texture looks outdated, i appreciate it.

I could never understand how much people are bothered by something, it's just a game and blizzard is doing their best to make it happy for everyone.
Don't complain on forums 24/7 because you don't like everything.

With the budget, staff and know how Blizzard got, its not wrong to exspect something off blizzard. Besides, sub fee shoulden't just cover acces to the game.

[Arkenaw]

I don't have any problem with Blizzard, but I certainly don't feel sorry for them. If they were a small, indie company, then MAYBE.

[Beergod]

Really, I can imagine how it must feel for the developers, how every day they have to face contrivances, complaints, negative backlash, and even when something good does come out of all there planning and designing, they don't get given appreciation for it.

So often, wow and its developers receive negative complaints more then positive ones, the dissatisfaction given from players who want the game made there way rather then appreciating whats given to them. And well the devs could just break down and tell the constant ungrateful bitching the players give them, they carry on, keep trying to make this mass of people happy, doing what they can to try and balance issues, but only being able to do so within the limits of there capabilities.

Blizzard and its devs are the parents, and the players are the ungrateful kids, never knowing the stress and hard work the grown ups do for them in trying to make them happy, the time and effort put into it, and yet the kids never giving them respect, only yelling at them from not getting there way.

And well you could argue 'there a company, they are meant to listen to the consumer', from all I read of dev posts and all I read of players and there 'feed back', it often just looks like so much bitching and moaning, never getting there way, or understanding the limits they have.

Take for example the whole horde and alliance balance issue, the devs are often trying to make both sides happy in what they do, but to do that, they can't give both sides 100% attention, often it has to balance like 60-40, but well still trying to work on making each side happy. As they said recently, they can't alienate one side for the sake of making the other 100% the focus.

Then take pvp, always the complaint about balancing classes, you try finding means to balance 11 classes so everyone is evenly matched, well trying to keep those classes fresh as possible. It can't be done 100% of the time, and yet the moment something slips, you can be sure players will flay there arms everywhere saying how blizzard doesn't love them.

And many other countless issues of the players never showing any satisfaction for what the devs do.

1. Every game is like that not just WoW, people complain and will never stop complaining.
2. People will be people
3. This is true.
4. It is really hard to balance 11 classes when most of them are nowhere close in comparison mechanics wise, and people don't understand that, they think it's a couple buttons or couple lines of code and it's balanced which is not the case.
5. Again, people will be people and people complain about a lot of stuff.

[bionics]

Taking criticism comes with the territory whenever you create something. You aren't going to be able to please everyone, no matter how hard you try. Usually, negative reactions are going to be what you see more often too as an artist/writer/developer as well because anger is often the impetus for action when it comes to that kind of stuff on the internet. (Impunity to making fun of somebody or calling them "talentless hacks" as well.)

On the plus side -- whenever you get a sincere compliment it can often elate you to no end and make you feel like all the hard work you put in was worth it.

[schwarzkopf]

It is all about maths.

You may play 8 or 9 games on a regular basis, and WoW has 8 million subs.

That means - your opinion is 0.0000125% to Blizzard, but Blizzard's opinion is 11% to you.

[Deleted]

It's quite annoying when you see the amount of players who scream & throw their toys out of their pram when they implement something they don't like. It's simply being ungrateful, especially with the amount of hard work that was put into it. Even if you don't like something in the game I think players should be a little more civil and actually give constructive criticism instead of ranting & raving, telling everyone how they've cancelled their subscription.

[Blur4stuff]

Blizzard has made many changes to the game that are at least similar to requests and suggestions by players.

Care to name some specific changes that Blizzard hasn't made that someone proposed? Would be nice to know if it was something crazy or sensible.

[Erolian]

Honestly its more like driving a truck through a glass mall. You can tell by this point that a lot of the developers don't exactly "care" about what people say on forums and rightly so. Not that they don't take or consider feedback but if they REALLY cared about everything said on forums about them they'd have already quit or killed themselves. As immensely important as player opinions on the game are we somehow manage to exaggerate its importance over and over

[Azrile]

All that shit comes with the pay grade bro. I don't feel bad for the wow developers at all.

Exactly. Most of it is aimed at GC, and I am sure he understands for the most part he is dealing with kids. At the end of the day, he makes a video game and spends his weekend out on the ocean in his yacht.. I am very sure someone calling him stupid or lazy on a fansite really doesn´t matter.

I don´t agree with every decision they make... but most of the ´positive suggestions´ made by players are very short-sighted and just would be horrible for the game. For the most part, players are not able to see the secondary repercussions of most of the things they suggest... and they also don´t see how something that is a 51-49 decision but requires a ton of dev time just shouldn´t be done. Players in general underestimate the amount of work some things take. I mean seriously, how many threads did we have where dozens of players thought that being able to see pet battles was similar to being able to view arenas. That sort of ignorance just makes most discussions worthless.

[Deleted]

Thats why they have some people with strong heads to read forums for them, also not every forum community is as toxic as mmo-c. There are some topics on some forums that say that they like what they get.

[rasako]

negative feedback is necessary. blatant abuse, constant bitching/whining on a regular basis with no real argument, and threats towards their company are absolutely uncalled for. I really hope the gaming industry cracks down on this type of bullshit behavior before the governments do, but since its all over the internet and not just in gaming, I doubt it will be totally snuffed out until it becomes a governmental problem and the internet will be slammed with laws.

[ManiMage]

I've been thinking about this at times, remember, they created this world. Don't forget that.

[Deleted]

The devs get paid tons of money. Fanboy abuse is nothing compared to what you'd suffer in some jobs while getting paid far less.

They screwed up with Cataclysm mainly by not updating it enough. I don't see what is so wrong about admitting it, which they did.

I am 100% sure that Blizzard know what is wrong with the game and where it needs to be improved, partly thanks to feedback and criticism, constructive or otherwise. They've just been slow to make the necessary changes.

PVP just drives me insane sometimes. They make one class/spec OP then nerf it into oblivion and then make another class/spec OP. That needs to stop.

[kenshinag]

Seriously? I don't understand how death threats to devs or their families can be condoned by their pay scale? Is human life really worth that little to you people?

[ro9ue]

It's just like any other business where you have customers/clients. Truth is, you can listen to all the feedback in the world, but you need to trust yourself as the professional in your respective industry to make the right decisions. I think it's starting to hurt the industry when the corporate publishers force their studios to please customers instead of trusting them to create a good product.

You don't go into the doctor's office and tell him/her your problems and then tell him/her what to do about it. He or she gets paid to act on their own expertise. I face situations in the art business all the time where a client sometimes wants to do things a certain way but it's not the right decision. It's my job to give them what they need, not what they want.

Also, a related good read:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222501

Edit: Also I think if you're working your dream job at Blizzard, it makes taking some shit a lot easier.

Edit2: Yeah, death threats and all that is just nonsense. That's extreme. Criticisms and negative feedback is just a part of the business.

[Deleted]

Seriously? I don't understand how death threats to devs or their families can be condoned by their pay scale? Is human life really worth that little to you people?

What death threats?


Blizzard are a for-profit business. They have to make a product that we want to buy. They know it. This was especially true during Cataclysm when Blizzard decided to screw us all by hardly updating Cataclysm while they were busy making a new expansion.

It's hard to feel sorry for people who not only get paid tons of money but decided not to invest that money back into the game.

Now maybe fans can go too far sometimes, but not this time. Blizzard deserved all the criticism they got for Cata and MOP.

[Zeras]

I don't think they have it thaaat bad. I mean just look at Cory stockton's twitter avatar. :P

Im pretty sure they forget about it all when they take a nose dive into the money bin.

[kenshinag]

What death threats?


Blizzard are a for-profit business. They have to make a product that we want to buy. They know it. This was especially true during Cataclysm when Blizzard decided to screw us all by hardly updating Cataclysm while they were busy making a new expansion.

It's hard to feel sorry for people who not only get paid tons of money but decided not to invest that money back into the game.

Now maybe fans can go too far sometimes, but not this time. Blizzard deserved all the criticism they got for Cata and MOP.

There was a link posted earlier in the threat about these threats to their lives and their families' lives. Here we go.

I can understand criticism. Everyone has stuff they like and don't like. Being respectful of those opinions and that feedback should be the norm and not a rarity.