Ghostcrawler leaving WoW

[paralleluniverse]

This was semi done in TBC and completed in WoLTK. However since Cata classes feel too close to each other and some even play like gimped versions of class mechanics (Demonic Fury = Rage, Holy power = Rogue combo points etc) This has also increase the problem of ability bloat which lots of players are not happy about. It is like they did want this to happen, but unexpectedly the redesign is partly to blame for this issue



Yeah, choosing between 3 different speed buffs, 'heals' or CC is meaningful especially when its almost the same among all 10 classes (DKs are exempted)...Not.

Cookie cutter builds will always exist no matter what Blizzard does

Cookie-cutter builds do not exist anymore. They're not on SimCraft, they're not on EJ.

Choosing between a DPS increase, smaller DPS increase and a utility spell is real meaningful. Oh wait, it's not. There's no choice, the DPS increase which is higher according to simulations always wins. Choosing between 3 different speed buffs is the only way to give choice, otherwise, everyone will just choose the higher DPS increase.

The previous talent system was flawed beyond all repair because of cookie cutter specs. The MoP talent system has killed cookie-cutter specs: Mission accomplished!

[Amerissis]

I'll just post what I posted on the front page...

It upsets me.

It upsets me that the one guy who tried to connect to his audience the most is leaving. It upsets me even more that I feel that, somewhere along his decision-making, he left partly because he'd had enough of being the face-man for Blizzard and having to put up with so much shit from the fans who ultimately believe -- even to this day -- that he was the sole proprietor of what happens to WoW.

Even now people bash GC and say "good riddance" and "now WoW will be good again". It's a damn shame that retarded people like them like to sit in blissful ignorance and think that everything Blizz done was in the name of Ghostcrawler, not even realising -- or perhaps WANT to realize -- that everything Blizz had done has been because of a collective agreement, and not because of one man.

Ultimately, I give my best regards to Greg and hope that wherever he goes next he'll find a better fanbase to talk with. And I feel absolutely bad for the person who will take his place. My guess it being Tom Chilton.

I was wondering how to put my feelings into words and then I read yours. Sums it up very nicely.

Greg, I wish you well and hope you will love your new job as you loved your old one.

And to the people being happy that he left, I kind of hope WoW dies, just so I can laugh and point at you for thinking that everything is Greg's fault and that things will improve now that he left. Of course I don't really want WoW to die, because it's still a fantastic game with millions of people enjoying it, but still...

[Deleted]

bye bye mage time to nerf after 8 years

[MoanaLisa]

The major change lies within the content of WoD.

Which is my point to those who seem to believe that WoD is going to be better because Ghostcrawler is exiting. GC has nothing whatsoever to do with determining content. My post was a very specific reply to those who think that GC has had little to no input on WoD. Which is ridiculous. From a systems design standpoint this will be his last expansion but it's very much his expansion. And if you approve of the design of WoD......well, there you go.

[Pyromelter]

I'll just post what I posted on the front page...

It upsets me.

It upsets me that the one guy who tried to connect to his audience the most is leaving. It upsets me even more that I feel that, somewhere along his decision-making, he left partly because he'd had enough of being the face-man for Blizzard and having to put up with so much shit from the fans who ultimately believe -- even to this day -- that he was the sole proprietor of what happens to WoW.

Even now people bash GC and say "good riddance" and "now WoW will be good again". It's a damn shame that retarded people like them like to sit in blissful ignorance and think that everything Blizz done was in the name of Ghostcrawler, not even realising -- or perhaps WANT to realize -- that everything Blizz had done has been because of a collective agreement, and not because of one man.

Ultimately, I give my best regards to Greg and hope that wherever he goes next he'll find a better fanbase to talk with. And I feel absolutely bad for the person who will take his place. My guess it being Tom Chilton.

You know, there is a phrase used in American football, that goes, "The quarterback gets too much credit when they win, and too much blame when they lose."

The thing of it is... 98% of the time, it really is the quarterback who wins or loses the game. With a good quarterback, you always have a chance to win. With a bad quarterback, you have zero chance to win.

What does this have to do with GC?

Well, I believe you, and many others, are mis-attributing credit. He was the Lead Systems Designer. Meaning, other than the actual plot of the game, he was the head honcho. The quarterback, the coach, the ceo. He was THE guy. The talent system we have right now ultimately falls under his responsibility. Every spell in the game, every talent, every profession - he is the guy sitting in the director's chair who has the ultimate responsibility for the entire game. And while his job did not specifically include encounters, dungeons, and raids, it would be foolish to assume he had no influence there.

The game as it currently plays is Ghostcrawler's more than anyone else. The story belongs to Metzen, and almost the rest of the game belongs to GC at this point.

This can only be good for the future of wow, in my opinion.

[Thallidomaniac]

D3 is the most unbelievable fail of the gameing history.

Do you not recall the game failures that are Action 52, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, E.T., and Superman 64?

[Pyromelter]

Which is my point to those who seem to believe that WoD is going to be better because Ghostcrawler is exiting. GC has nothing whatsoever to do with determining content. My post was a very specific reply to those who think that GC has had little to no input on WoD. Which is ridiculous. From a systems design standpoint this will be his last expansion but it's very much his expansion. And if you approve of the design of WoD......well, there you go.

Agreed, and case in point, I'm sitting out at least the first part of WoD. Want no part of it. Will probably wait to see what wow 7.0 brings, hopefully with a completely refurbished talent system.

[Zka]

he was frustratingly arrogant

He wasn't, some people are way too sensitive.

[championknight]

Cookie-cutter builds do not exist anymore. They're not on SimCraft, they're not in EJ.

Cookie cutter builds do not need to exist on SimCraft, EJ or any other website, and you don't have to follow them . The choices here are much more limited than before with only 3 choices per 15 levels and not being allowed to go back

Specced as a Shockadin during Vanilla and raided as a pally healer just fine.

Choosing between a DPS increase, smaller DPS increase and a utility spell is real meaningful. Oh wait, it's not. There's no choice, the DPS increase which is higher according to simulations always wins. Choosing between 3 different speed buffs is the only way to give choice, otherwise, everyone will just choose the higher DPS increase.

Because the system enforces you to choose speed buffs, you are forced to take a speed buff (I can't choose to forgo the speed buff for 3 types of stamina buffs instead). The game already helped you to decide because you as a player can't properly decide with you want for your character.

Then they had to duplicate it to almost all classes, good move there

There are more choices in the old talent trees (because you can spec any amount of points in any tree). What the new talent 'trees' accomplished is limiting the choices so people can only have 3 choices at each level and never go back (this is handholding which I hate, but this is my opinion).

[Deleted]

New hope for Retribution maybe?

[Deleted]

New hope for Retribution maybe?

They're already overpowered enough as it is in PVE, especially for such a simple spec.

[Deleted]

don`t let the door hit you on the way out! Drop Metzen too and maybe we`ll have some decent lore in the future

[Raiju]

He wasn't, some people are way too sensitive.

I can't honestly believe someone who followed him could believe that. You must have missed his more arrogant responses.

[Deleted]

I can't honestly believe someone who followed him could believe that. You must have missed his more arrogant responses.

My responses to those people would have been way harsher than his, those people more than deserved what they got.

[Sorshen]

They're already overpowered enough as it is in PVE, especially for such a simple spec.

Yeah, extremely overpowered. So overpowered that worldwide top DPS WOL counts 1-3 Rets. Meanwhile, tens of warlocks and mages.

[Raiju]

My responses to those people would have been way harsher than his, those people more than deserved what they got.

Even when people tried to be reasonable and got know-it-all answers where changes were made a patch later?

Community management has never been an easy job. I expect him to have been a bit more professional. He was passionate sure, but he was also an absolute dick likely provoked by an unrelated issue at times. THAT is the issue.

[Deleted]

I am literally sickened, appalled and downright disgusted at the sheer arrogance, ignorance, pettiness and blindness of the majority of posts here and on the official forums. I am shocked that the WoW playerbase could contain such outright naive people who honestly think that ONE guy made every single decision in regards to gameplay.

Well, I believe you, and many others, are mis-attributing credit. He was the Lead Systems Designer. Meaning, other than the actual plot of the game, he was the head honcho. The quarterback, the coach, the ceo. He was THE guy. The talent system we have right now ultimately falls under his responsibility. Every spell in the game, every talent, every profession - he is the guy sitting in the director's chair who has the ultimate responsibility for the entire game. And while his job did not specifically include encounters, dungeons, and raids, it would be foolish to assume he had no influence there.

I mean look at this, READ WHAT YOU JUST WROTE. You seriously believe ONE man made every single decision in a company of several hundred employees? You REALLY think that?! No, GC was not the quaterback AND the coach AND the CEO OR the GUY. He was a leader of a team, yes, he had some input, yes, but anyone who knows a single inkling as to how teams work in ANY industry is that everything done in a similar envrionment is made by a collective set of designs and decisions. Get your head out of your arses and realise that GC didn't sit there in his throne, madly pulling levers to buff and nerf classes as he liked. He was a guy doing his job, to communicate with the playerbase (whilst absorbing abuse from people from mentioned posts) and manage a team of designers for the game. That. Was. All. And guess what, there are actually people ABOVE his rank! MADNESS RIGHT? THAT THE MIGHT GC HAD TO REPORT TO SOMEONE ELSE. No, it's correct. GC wasn't the head honcho or CEO (-Really-? CEO? You -actually- suggested he was akin to the CEO of Blizzard?). God there is so much more stuff I want to say but I don't fancy getting banned.

he is the guy sitting in the director's chair who has the ultimate responsibility for the entire game

*facedesk*
*facedesk*
*facedesk*
*facedesk*
*facedesk*
*FACEDESK*
Urgh... and that's not even the worst post I've seen in relation to this.

don`t let the door hit you on the way out! Drop Metzen too and maybe we`ll have some decent lore in the future

This comes pretty close though, because GC -clearly- browses and responds to MMO-C threads, amirite?

[paralleluniverse]

Cookie cutter builds do not need to exist on SimCraft, EJ or any other website, and you don't have to follow them . The choices here are much more limited than before with only 3 choices per 15 levels and not being allowed to go back

Specced as a Shockadin during Vanilla and raided as a pally healer just fine.



Because the system enforces you to choose speed buffs, you are forced to take a speed buff (I can't choose to forgo the speed buff for 3 types of stamina buffs instead). The game already helped you to decide because you as a player can't properly decide with you want for your character.

Then they had to duplicate it to almost all classes, good move there

There are more choices in the old talent trees (because you can spec any amount of points in any tree). What the new talent 'trees' accomplished is limiting the choices so people can only have 3 choices at each level and never go back (this is handholding which I hate, but this is my opinion).

But cookie-cutter specs DID exist on SimCraft and EJ, before the MoP talent system. Now cookie-cutter specs have been removed from SimCraft and EJ, because cookie-cutter specs are DEAD. Dead because of the MoP talent system.

You used a suboptimal spec. Most people used better specs that were cookie-cutter specs. You talk about choices between stamina increases and speed buffs, but the old talent system didn't offer that, it offered choices between, say, speed buffs, stamina, and healing throughput and there's no reason to choose the former, only the latter.

Also, if you offer a choice between speed buff and stamina then this is a major design flaw, because all tanks will choose stamina and all DPS will choose the speed buff, and hence this isn't a real choice at all. The fact that you don't understand this simple concept is why you don't understand the failure of the previous talent system and why the current system fixes this error in design.

In the old talent tree, there are NO real choices, mostly only 1 cookie-cutter build per spec. The choice you're talking about is a illusion, it's a choice between gimping yourself or not gimping yourself, that's not a real choice.

The fact is this: the old talent system was plagued with cookie-cutter specs that offered no real choices. This means that it was fundamentally flawed. The MoP talent system has successfully killed cookie-cuttter specs and offers 729 real choices per class.

[MadBloke101]

In the old talent tree, there are NO real choices, mostly only 1 cookie-cutter build per spec. The choice you're talking about is a illusion, it's a choice between gimping yourself or not gimping yourself, that's not a real choice.

The fact is this: the old talent system was plagued with cookie-cutter specs that offered no real choices. This means that it was fundamentally flawed. The MoP talent system has successfully killed cookie-cuttter specs and offers 729 real choices per class.

I am hoping you do realise that all of that is the end product of many things... D&D trees etc. - game design changing over time due to people getting better at understanding game mechanics plus min/maxing in the game - with all that, only one "choice" remains... the choice illusion analogy you are talking about is only based upon a perception of min/maxing a toon... there were choices but the mindset did not allow you to "choose" anything.... it doesn't mean what is new is better only that they have built something that appears to allow choice in that mindset - in fact it really doesn't as it only allows very minor increases - mainly oh I can do this now...

[xindralol]

Rejoice my brothers and sisters. For today will go down in the anals of history as the greatest day eva!!!

pretty much this, only way too late. plus I doubt gc was the only 'bad influence' on wow the last couple years.