Wouldn't it be awesome if Blizzard tried this?

[Drakile]

You know what I would like to see for 6.1, but doubt will ever happen. Blizzard electing 11 representatives, one for each class, who would sit down and release which classes they felt were having current issues, or where they intend to make tweaks. Not everyday, maybe something along the lines of once a month. At least in that world it would not feel like suggestions, and 'cries for help', in some cases, would not fall upon deaf ears like they seem to now, also it would make the changes we see in patches less of a surprise,

I would just like to see how they make their decisions frankly, the more knowledge we have on that the less confused we are to why certain spells get nerfed into the ground or completely taken away, besides the general 'Spell Bloat Trim'. I miss the old Warlock Dev, (not assuming there is only one dev per class, I am sure there is a whole team) who used to be on the forums over at MMO-Champion and sometimes would grant alittle insight into what is going on with our class, what they plan on changing or fixing etc.

What is your guys opinion on this? Personally I feel like it would not require an extreme amount of effort on Blizzard's part and might quell some of the outrage in the community.

tldr; I wish Blizz had class representatives that would sit down and chat with the community once in a while and actually discuss what they feel are issues and why.

I posted this on the official forums, I would just like to see what our lock community over here has to say about it.

[Moggie]

Thankfully, Blizz would never be a fool to implement something as silly as this. =P

[Drakile]

Thankfully, Blizz would never be a fool to implement something as silly as this. =P

I find that comment to be a little rude and more than lacking sufficient information, what about this do you find silly?

[Charge me Doctor]

I think not.

First, these 11 people will be doing more work than they assigned by contract and they can demands pay increase, Blizzard wouldn't want this without enough evidence that this will actually get any profit.

Second, your idea looks like anarcho-syndicalism, i don't think that it's a great way to "fix" balance.

Third, Blizzard will unlikely publish their internal information, it means that you won't know how they make their decisions unless your work there.

In my opinion, Blizzard made wrong and right step at the same time when they tried to make isometric game feel balanced. It will never be balanced, spells will always be patched to do more/less damage and tweaked, the only way to make isometric game balanced is to make it not isometric. There will always be encounters favoring one class/spec over another, their goal is to make this difference to not make big impact, but by doing this they make classes more similar to each other.

And it won't solve any problems. You don't need any sooth-talkers on forums, its counter-productive.

There is no need to make "class representatives", they do have blue posters, it's better to keep these people who could be "class representative" and who would spend their work time on explaining their decisions to community, to actually work and explain their decisions to their chiefs, vocal minority who cries out loud about things can, seriously, suck it up. Gap between classes is almost non existent, there is no more "unplayable" specs, all specs are viable in raids and, to some degree, PvP (which is never meant to be balanced)

[Drakile]

I think not.

First, these 11 people will be doing more work than they assigned by contract and they can demands pay increase, Blizzard wouldn't want this without enough evidence that this will actually get any profit.

Second, your idea looks like anarcho-syndicalism, i don't think that it's a great way to "fix" balance.

Third, Blizzard will unlikely publish their internal information, it means that you won't know how they make their decisions unless your work there.

In my opinion, Blizzard made wrong and right step at the same time when they tried to make isometric game feel balanced. It will never be balanced, spells will always be patched to do more/less damage and tweaked, the only way to make isometric game balanced is to make it not isometric. There will always be encounters favoring one class/spec over another, their goal is to make this difference to not make big impact, but by doing this they make classes more similar to each other.

And it won't solve any problems. You don't need any sooth-talkers on forums, its counter-productive.

There is no need to make "class representatives", they do have blue posters, it's better to keep these people who could be "class representative" and who would spend their work time on explaining their decisions to community, to actually work and explain their decisions to their chiefs, vocal minority who cries out loud about things can, seriously, suck it up. Gap between classes is almost non existent, there is no more "unplayable" specs, all specs are viable in raids and, to some degree, PvP (which is never meant to be balanced)

I can understand that, I appreciate you actually providing reasons sir. Although this was less of a way to fix balance, and more of a better communication with the community, that being said I sadly agree with the rest of your points.

[Shiennar]

Im not for this either, not only because of personal bias, but they have the very exact information right here if they were to need it. As a Development team they should, and are, looking up information from players on the most viable sites. As for warlocks that would either be here or on the icy-vein forums (which was surprisingly good), where the entire community can supply information and prove eachother wrong where needed.

[Bathory]

I'm assuming this is how it happens anyway, just not 1 person to make all the decisions for their specific class.

[Moggie]

I find that comment to be a little rude and more than lacking sufficient information, what about this do you find silly?

Rude? You just more or less proved why it wouldn't work. One person "representing" an entire class, means that one person would be taking the blunt of any distain or animosity away from the people actually being paid the big bucks to make the changes. If that one person doesn't give you the response you desire, then it'll be considered "rude" no matter what they did. Not happy with my response? Will you demand a new representative now? There's already people who act as carrier pigeons between departments to the public. Sure, it's lacking but no more lacking than any other of the 10+ years they've managed to keep their games afloat....somehow. What exactly does it solve to bring yet another person in to do the 'job' you want done? One word: Nothing.

Also, you merely said:

I would just like to see what our lock community over here has to say about it.

I expressed my opinion. I might be blunt, but rude I was not. If you wanted only a certain kind of response, then be sure to make clear exactly the kind of format you want and include how you want a drawn out thesis type of post and then throw it out cause that'll never happen on a public forum, representative or not. =P

[evertonbelmontt]

Thankfully, Blizz would never be a fool to implement something as silly as this. =P

Thankfully no one shall ever take you serious. <3

@OP
It's kind of like this already, unless they changed it going into WoD.
Xelnath said he was in a team and had meetings with all the others 'class leaders' and discuss about overall balance. In HIS team (lets call it team warlock) he was the boss, and would pass any good ideas ahead to the meeting.
Problem with this is that, according to him (not exactly in these words): "how hard is it to convince your boss your idea is good enough to pay for 2xx testers and technical work".

We either have an incompetent class designer now (most of the changes mechanically speaking @WoD are awfull) or the big guys hate warlocks. Seems silly, but I just can feel the hatred coming from them sometimes on twitter. Celestalol being the most obvious.
I have a theory that the guy in charge now is the one Xelnath argued with and now he's destroying all the good work we had. That would explain a lot.

[Diamonium]

Rude? You just more or less proved why it wouldn't work. One person "representing" an entire class, means that one person would be taking the blunt of any distain or animosity away from the people actually being paid the big bucks to make the changes. If that one person doesn't give you the response you desire, then it'll be considered "rude" no matter what they did. Not happy with my response? Will you demand a new representative now? There's already people who act as carrier pigeons between departments to the public. Sure, it's lacking but no more lacking than any other of the 10+ years they've managed to keep their games afloat....somehow. What exactly does it solve to bring yet another person in to do the 'job' you want done? One word: Nothing.

Did your mother starve you of affection?

[iriecolorado]

This is a horrible, horrible idea.

[Ramahan]

I wish Blizz had class representatives that would sit down and chat with the community once in a while and actually discuss what they feel are issues and why.

Want to know why this would be a terrible idea? Just jump on the official forums and take note of who Blizzard has chosen as a MVPs and you'll see why.

[Deleted]

You know what I would like to see for 6.1, but doubt will ever happen. Blizzard electing 11 representatives, one for each class, who would sit down and release which classes they felt were having current issues, or where they intend to make tweaks. Not everyday, maybe something along the lines of once a month. At least in that world it would not feel like suggestions, and 'cries for help', in some cases, would not fall upon deaf ears like they seem to now, also it would make the changes we see in patches less of a surprise,

I would just like to see how they make their decisions frankly, the more knowledge we have on that the less confused we are to why certain spells get nerfed into the ground or completely taken away, besides the general 'Spell Bloat Trim'. I miss the old Warlock Dev, (not assuming there is only one dev per class, I am sure there is a whole team) who used to be on the forums over at MMO-Champion and sometimes would grant alittle insight into what is going on with our class, what they plan on changing or fixing etc.

What is your guys opinion on this? Personally I feel like it would not require an extreme amount of effort on Blizzard's part and might quell some of the outrage in the community.

tldr; I wish Blizz had class representatives that would sit down and chat with the community once in a while and actually discuss what they feel are issues and why.

I posted this on the official forums, I would just like to see what our lock community over here has to say about it.

This sounds like a very similar sort of system currently in use on EvE Online. Players actually elect other players to represent their interests, whether that be PvE, PvP, "professions" etc. Blizzard should go for such a system as it helps the playerbase bridge the gap to the developers. Heck, if it works on EvE....

[supertech985]

The biggest issue about this I see is that if they start posting monthly or whatever what they "plan" to do, it's only gonna cause that much more outrage when they change their minds or implement the idea slightly different than originally stated. This just opens the floor up for way more animosity on the forums.

[Drakile]

The biggest issue about this I see is that if they start posting monthly or whatever what they "plan" to do, it's only gonna cause that much more outrage when they change their minds or implement the idea slightly different than originally stated. This just opens the floor up for way more animosity on the forums.

Yeah, I can easily see that, and agree that would not go over well, also I am aware at how sudden changes can come about and that would end up being more of a hassle than anything else, really this was just to try and combat the idea of 'Noone is listening' that was brought about with how they handled the WoD Beta feedback. That being said I can clearly see the several holes punched in the original idea, so I am not trying to cling to it but merely provide my reasoning.

[Leyl]

You know what I would like to see for 6.1, but doubt will ever happen. Blizzard electing 11 representatives, one for each class, who would sit down and release which classes they felt were having current issues, or where they intend to make tweaks. Not everyday, maybe something along the lines of once a month. At least in that world it would not feel like suggestions, and 'cries for help', in some cases, would not fall upon deaf ears like they seem to now, also it would make the changes we see in patches less of a surprise,

I would just like to see how they make their decisions frankly, the more knowledge we have on that the less confused we are to why certain spells get nerfed into the ground or completely taken away, besides the general 'Spell Bloat Trim'. I miss the old Warlock Dev, (not assuming there is only one dev per class, I am sure there is a whole team) who used to be on the forums over at MMO-Champion and sometimes would grant alittle insight into what is going on with our class, what they plan on changing or fixing etc.

What is your guys opinion on this? Personally I feel like it would not require an extreme amount of effort on Blizzard's part and might quell some of the outrage in the community.

tldr; I wish Blizz had class representatives that would sit down and chat with the community once in a while and actually discuss what they feel are issues and why.

I posted this on the official forums, I would just like to see what our lock community over here has to say about it.

This is a bad idea. I've seen this done in many video games in the past, ESO, Dark Age of Camelot, and others. The end result is that the rep has to choose sides, and either be one with "the people" or "the devs" and in either event is seen as a bad guy. It is a terrible idea. If he or she chooses the people, he becomes a martyr if Blizzard doesn't obey or dismisses them. If he chooses the devs, he becomes another corporate enemy of the people, and the people demonize them.

Trust me. I've already seen this happen. It doesn't work.

[Drakile]

This is a bad idea. I've seen this done in many video games in the past, ESO, Dark Age of Camelot, and others. The end result is that the rep has to choose sides, and either be one with "the people" or "the devs" and in either event is seen as a bad guy. It is a terrible idea. If he or she chooses the people, he becomes a martyr if Blizzard doesn't obey or dismisses them. If he chooses the devs, he becomes another corporate enemy of the people, and the people demonize them.

Trust me. I've already seen this happen. It doesn't work.

Well damn, so I guess we will just keep on what we are doing, they will keep on doing what they are doing, and hopefully the information reaches them, really that is my conclusion I have come to after reading through the many responses, I appreciate all in the information folks.

[Banzubie]

I seem to remember blizz trying something like this back in vanilla and it going horribly wrong. I think it was either the pally or shaman leader really screwed them over and there was a whole big mess.

[Leyl]

I seem to remember blizz trying something like this back in vanilla and it going horribly wrong. I think it was either the pally or shaman leader really screwed them over and there was a whole big mess.

And history repeats itself...

[Aggrophobic]

But then Blizzard would actually have to work on changes. Thats not their style at all. They buff and nerf stuff at random to make it look like they have a clue.