My favorite blizzard post to date:

[Barkloud]

They have said some wild things over the years. I finally think they have snapped. I think it shows a real detachment from their community. I think their community relations team needs to have a retreat or something.

Anyhow, this is the quote I read this morning: Many people enjoy being upset and arguing about ifs, ands, or buts (or in the case of character models, actual Butts)

I hate being upset by this game. It is quite silly actually, it's a video game. Yet I read many of the changes and shake my head. I do not understand their logic. Removing flight paths from leveling then turning around and selling 90's. Do not get me wrong, I think the selling 90s thing is great. That said though, if they wanted to ease the leveling, why remove flight paths we had for years?

Blizzard, so you know, I think people get angry because they are disappointed, not because they enjoy it.

[Lovestar]

Naw, let's be honest, sometimes on the Internet we just like arguing and debating because we can. He has a fair point, IMO. You're not wrong, either, though. Both cases are true.

It's best not to read too much into any @Bashiok says, though. He's got a track record for very strange choices of words and extreme piss-taking when the whim strikes him. This quote is honestly fairly tame.

[MrLordDariusCrowley]

They have said some wild things over the years. I finally think they have snapped. I think it shows a real detachment from their community. I think their community relations team needs to have a retreat or something.

Anyhow, this is the quote I read this morning: Many people enjoy being upset and arguing about ifs, ands, or buts (or in the case of character models, actual Butts)

I hate being upset by this game. It is quite silly actually, it's a video game. Yet I read many of the changes and shake my head. I do not understand their logic. Removing flight paths from leveling then turning around and selling 90's. Do not get me wrong, I think the selling 90s thing is great. That said though, if they wanted to ease the leveling, why remove flight paths we had for years?

Blizzard, so you know, I think people get angry because they are disappointed, not because they enjoy it.

Flight paths still exist, you just have to pick them up.
And wasn't it a bug that you got flight paths as you leveled?

[tauntor]

I have no idea which part is the quote from a blizzard employee. Please put quotes around it or something

[-Superman-]

Flight paths still exist, you just have to pick them up.
And wasn't it a bug that you got flight paths as you leveled?

Yeah, was a bug with Cata that they fixed 18 months later after people were used to it. But most were still pissed about "Have Group, Will Travel" being removed and suspect it was less of a bug, and more of an excuse to get people out of the city and flying places again.

[Duravian]

OP, I didn't catch what exactly you were upset about. Regardless, I believe Blizzard is one of the few gaming companies that is still community driven. You can see it in the way they make their games. Example, Diablo 3 2.0.1, they fundamentally changed the game for the sake of their fanbase (and yes for more money of course). You mentioned selling 90s in your short list of.. things you don't like I guess? And then turned around and said you liked it.. So what's the problem? Flight paths going away? That's the first I've heard of that.

[Darsithis]

Blizzard, so you know, I think people get angry because they are disappointed, not because they enjoy it.

Are you kidding? A lot of people love to be annoyed by everything. They really enjoy getting their hackles raised and causing drama. If they didn't, we wouldn't need moderators. He's absolutely right and if you read the clarifications you'd have realized he was saying that people like to argue every point over something, negative and positive. He wasn't saying people like to be angry and hateful.

But he's right. People really do enjoy arguing about everything they can, especially online. Honestly you're proving it with your thread.

Flight paths still exist, you just have to pick them up.
And wasn't it a bug that you got flight paths as you leveled?

It was a bug

[Feindy]

Do you mean when you autodiscovered all the flight paths in every zone that was around your level? Thats was cata only stuff and they called it a bug later on.

[Manthis]

Flight paths still exist, you just have to pick them up.
And wasn't it a bug that you got flight paths as you leveled?

Wasn't a bug. Was a feature that came with the release of Cata (think it came with the prepatch). Was reverted when MoP came out.

[-Superman-]

Wasn't a bug. Was a feature that came with the release of Cata (think it came with the prepatch). Was reverted when MoP came out.

http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/wow-flight-path-bug/

Here is the site explaining it. It was a bug.

[Dvaldin]

People really do enjoy arguing about everything they can, especially online. Honestly you're proving it with your thread.

What more needs to be said?

[miffy23]

God, the irony. This thread is the perfect example of what the blue said. This forum is the PINNACLE of people enjoying wringing their hands in desperation over pretty much anything. And the best part is that people go apeshit and cry over features not even in beta yet without knowing the whole picture or how it'll be implemented. And yes, people actually complained about butts on models.

They haven't lost it, they are very well aware that the majority of their players on forums enjoy whining about the game without having a clue, that's all.

[Byucknah The Red]

They have said some wild things over the years. I finally think they have snapped. I think it shows a real detachment from their community. I think their community relations team needs to have a retreat or something.

Anyhow, this is the quote I read this morning: Many people enjoy being upset and arguing about ifs, ands, or buts (or in the case of character models, actual Butts)

I hate being upset by this game. It is quite silly actually, it's a video game. Yet I read many of the changes and shake my head. I do not understand their logic. Removing flight paths from leveling then turning around and selling 90's. Do not get me wrong, I think the selling 90s thing is great. That said though, if they wanted to ease the leveling, why remove flight paths we had for years?

Blizzard, so you know, I think people get angry because they are disappointed, not because they enjoy it.

Idk about most of what you said... but I do agree its a rather absurd statement. I mean... I am not even sure how they came to that conclusion... Are they lopping people who put out negative criticisms with trolls/spammers? It just seems like such a strange statement to basically come out and go "People who don't like something are actually just wanting to be upset for no reason". It basically speaks to me as "If you dislike something, we do not consider your view point as important because you just want to dislike our changes to dislike them." which really scares me but also makes me happy.

On one hand, it basically comes out and tells me that they don't listen to any sort of negative feedback at all and throw it out along the lines of trolling... which is bad because negative feedback is the best thing a developer can ever receive. Negative feedback is what tells a developer something is off, that the community(at least a portion) does not like something about the game and that it should be reviewed. Actually, I can give a good analogy here... Look at Garrosh Hellscream in WoW. Garrosh surrounded himself with advisers who were basically yes men, not questioning or debating any of his choices but instead just giving him nothing but positive reinforcement on his decisions. It eventually got to the point where he started pushing away and lashing out at anyone who spoke against him. With a statement like what they just put out I really feel that devs have gotten to the point where they no longer care about negative feedback from the community and would rather lump those voices in with the trolls... Thats a scary thought for an online game dev team moving forward.

On the other spectrum it also means that if they are turning away negative criticism as such, they are no longer considering community input and are focused on making the game they way THEY want to make it. This is a pretty big thing in my opinion since its one reason a lot of the indie games are becoming so popular and strong. Developers outside the AAA industry make games that THEY like, they make the games THEY want to make and build games that would be something those developers would want to play and it really seems to pay off big time even for their low budgets. The idea of the WoW dev team saying "Things have gotten too far out of hand, we can never please everyone, lets just go with a game vision that we want to see come true and ignore the feedback." could yield some interesting decisions that might take the game in a refreshing and exciting new direction. Yahtzee made an interesting quote in Zero Punctuation that I feel can apply here, paraphrasing of course... "If you ask someone what they like, they will always tell you something they already know. When you present them with what they already know, they are less likely to accept it because they already have it.". By ignoring feedback and basically coming out and saying "We don't care any more" it opens up the possibility of getting something we like but would have never known we had liked it because we constantly ask for more of the same and are given just that.

Really I am reading far FAR too much into the statement they came out with to the point of being at the furthest and broadest spectrums, but at the same time its hard to look at their statement and not blow it out of proportion. Its a statement that will obviously be expanded on quickly with just how much the community will jump all over it.

But he's right. People really do enjoy arguing about everything they can, especially online. Honestly you're proving it with your thread.

My, if that isn't the most blatant troll/flamer food I have seen in a while... coming for a moderator of all things. Really, that statement is kinda inviting the average "Lol, proving blizzard right" and "/thread" quality comments. The OP has a valid point of discussion that he is bringing up and seeing such a statement from a moderator really devalues the whole thread and invites trolling, flaming, and harassment posts which will lead to an eventual thread locking as well as possible bannings from opening the flood gates.

Moderators are people too, but do you not think that comment is a bit non-moderator in standards?

EDIT: And I may have also read that COMPLETELY wrong... Now that I look at your response again, it can go both ways... Either saying that the OP is proving Blizzards point with his debate on the statement OR, the way I had not considered, that the replies to the OP were proving blizzards point.

Still, I will not go back on what I said, that statement really opens the troll floodgates.

[miffy23]

Idk about most of what you said... but I do agree its a rather absurd statement. I mean... I am not even sure how they came to that conclusion... Are they lopping people who put out negative criticisms with trolls/spammers? It just seems like such a strange statement to basically come out and go "People who don't like something are actually just wanting to be upset for no reason". It basically speaks to me as "If you dislike something, we do not consider your view point as important because you just want to dislike our changes to dislike them." which really scares me but also makes me happy.

On one hand, it basically comes out and tells me that they don't listen to any sort of negative feedback at all and throw it out along the lines of trolling... which is bad because negative feedback is the best thing a developer can ever receive. Negative feedback is what tells a developer something is off, that the community(at least a portion) does not like something about the game and that it should be reviewed. Actually, I can give a good analogy here... Look at Garrosh Hellscream in WoW. Garrosh surrounded himself with advisers who were basically yes men, not questioning or debating any of his choices but instead just giving him nothing but positive reinforcement on his decisions. It eventually got to the point where he started pushing away and lashing out at anyone who spoke against him. With a statement like what they just put out I really feel that devs have gotten to the point where they no longer care about negative feedback from the community and would rather lump those voices in with the trolls... Thats a scary thought for an online game dev team moving forward.

On the other spectrum it also means that if they are turning away negative criticism as such, they are no longer considering community input and are focused on making the game they way THEY want to make it. This is a pretty big thing in my opinion since its one reason a lot of the indie games are becoming so popular and strong. Developers outside the AAA industry make games that THEY like, they make the games THEY want to make and build games that would be something those developers would want to play and it really seems to pay off big time even for their low budgets. The idea of the WoW dev team saying "Things have gotten too far out of hand, we can never please everyone, lets just go with a game vision that we want to see come true and ignore the feedback." could yield some interesting decisions that might take the game in a refreshing and exciting new direction. Yahtzee made an interesting quote in Zero Punctuation that I feel can apply here, paraphrasing of course... "If you ask someone what they like, they will always tell you something they already know. When you present them with what they already know, they are less likely to accept it because they already have it.". By ignoring feedback and basically coming out and saying "We don't care any more" it opens up the possibility of getting something we like but would have never known we had liked it because we constantly ask for more of the same and are given just that.

Really I am reading far FAR too much into the statement they came out with to the point of being at the furthest and broadest spectrums, but at the same time its hard to look at their statement and not blow it out of proportion. Its a statement that will obviously be expanded on quickly with just how much the community will jump all over it.

Here, great example. This guy even likes to argue about whether people are arguing about butts. QED.

[MrLordDariusCrowley]

Wasn't a bug. Was a feature that came with the release of Cata (think it came with the prepatch). Was reverted when MoP came out.

Even if it wasn't a bug they didn't revert it when MoP came out, they removed it in 5.2. I leveled a Monk between 5.1 and 5.2 so I got the benefit of getting all flight points.

[Darsithis]

Moderators are people too, but do you not think that comment is a bit non-moderator in standards?

EDIT: And I may have also read that COMPLETELY wrong... Now that I look at your response again, it can go both ways... Either saying that the OP is proving Blizzards point with his debate on the statement OR, the way I had not considered, that the replies to the OP were proving blizzards point.

Still, I will not go back on what I said, that statement really opens the troll floodgates.

I don't feel that my post is non-moderator at all. My point was exactly what I said: Blizzard's statement that people enjoy arguing about anything and everything is true, and the OP is proving that by arguing about it.

[Deleted]

So a GM makes a joke, y'know to remind everyone GMs are actually human... And you somehow link this to their logic being shit?

What are you smoking and pass it to the left.

[TirielWoW]

Are you kidding? A lot of people love to be annoyed by everything. They really enjoy getting their hackles raised and causing drama. If they didn't, we wouldn't need moderators.

Oh, that is not true. :-P People don't necessarily enjoy being annoyed or upset about things, even if they DO require moderation. People can get very passionate about a subject, can get very angry about a subject, and not enjoy it at all, and still need moderation. We need moderators not because people enjoy being upset and sad about things, but because sometimes people take it too damn far.

Are there trolls in the world? Sure. But I absolutely refuse to believe that the majority of people who get upset about something enjoy being upset about it.

He's absolutely right and if you read the clarifications you'd have realized he was saying that people like to argue every point over something, negative and positive. He wasn't saying people like to be angry and hateful.

I've read the post in question several times, and it honestly comes across as the latter.

But he's right. People really do enjoy arguing about everything they can, especially online. Honestly you're proving it with your thread.

Sure. People do like to argue. But to characterize the vast majority as enjoying being upset, scared, and sad is silly. No sane person enjoys those things. The most you could say is that there is a subset of the population that absolutely needs to be right every single time, and will argue into infinity because being right is more important to them than anything else. I'm still not sure I would characterize them as "enjoying" being upset.

It was a bug

I'm still not convinced of this. I do not recall them ever calling it a bug until they wanted to take it away. It seemed like a feature to me - part of their new "make things easier on newer players" thing.

[vinmmo]

Are you kidding? A lot of people love to be annoyed by everything. They really enjoy getting their hackles raised and causing drama. If they didn't, we wouldn't need moderators. He's absolutely right and if you read the clarifications you'd have realized he was saying that people like to argue every point over something, negative and positive. He wasn't saying people like to be angry and hateful.

But he's right. People really do enjoy arguing about everything they can, especially online. Honestly you're proving it with your thread.

No we don't. I hate arguing. You're wrong with what you said. I'm right.

[Deleted]

Flight paths still exist, you just have to pick them up.
And wasn't it a bug that you got flight paths as you leveled?

No it wasnt - Blizzard claimed 18 month later it was....