Why I think devs don't communicate much

[Seefer]

From the beta forum

Saying they ran out of time is a BS excuse. There is no one putting a time limit on them but themselves. Total copout answer.

They take the time out of their busy say working on Legion to do a live Q&A and to talk to the community and get shit on for having a meeting or work to get done.........why the hell would you want to talk to people when this is the shit you get? He had a meeting to get to about how to deal with cheaters, this person had no idea why he had to go, and even still the Q&A is only 1 hour long.

Frankly I wouldn't waste my time.

[Kokolums]

If you get emotional for a moment and blurt something out at a presser, it can ruin your career.

[Seefer]

If you get emotional for a moment and blurt something out at a presser, it can ruin your career.

I wasn't talking about the devs getting mad and blurting something out, I am talking about why they don't talk much..........this community is ungrateful and straight up rotten.

[MoanaLisa]

I wasn't talking about the devs getting mad and blurting something out, I am talking about why they don't talk much..........this community is ungrateful and straight up rotten.

That's likely true and I wouldn't talk so much either. Most of their efforts now go to PR and dev interviews are essentially free for them. But I think they reveal too much of the game, thereby inciting customers to ask for ever more. And they always seem to be apologizing which makes them look weak. And maybe they are. After all it took them over a year to decide what to ultimately do with flying with a great deal of that being public hand-wringing and trial balloons. I've said before they should just make the game they want to make, not worry so much or pander to their forum inhabitants and let the game sink or swim on its own. It might kill it; it also might make it much better than it is now.

[Thrif]

I wasn't talking about the devs getting mad and blurting something out, I am talking about why they don't talk much..........this community is ungrateful and straight up rotten.

More news at 11.

[Deleted]

That's likely true and I wouldn't talk so much either. Most of their efforts now go to PR and dev interviews are essentially free for them. But I think they reveal too much of the game, thereby inciting customers to ask for ever more. And they always seem to be apologizing which makes them look weak. And maybe they are. After all it took them over a year to decide what to ultimately do with flying with a great deal of that being public hand-wringing and trial balloons. I've said before they should just make the game they want to make, not worry so much or pander to their forum inhabitants and let the game sink or swim on its own. It might kill it; it also might make it much better than it is now.

Pretty much this.

[Celarent]

When you enter a market, you engage with customers.

The entertainment industry's an emotional one.

Even small developers who communicate daily are treated like this. Blizzard has its own convention.

Not saying it's right. But: heat, kitchen.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

That's likely true and I wouldn't talk so much either. Most of their efforts now go to PR and dev interviews are essentially free for them. But I think they reveal too much of the game, thereby inciting customers to ask for ever more. And they always seem to be apologizing which makes them look weak. And maybe they are. After all it took them over a year to decide what to ultimately do with flying with a great deal of that being public hand-wringing and trial balloons. I've said before they should just make the game they want to make, not worry so much or pander to their forum inhabitants and let the game sink or swim on its own. It might kill it; it also might make it much better than it is now.

I think they should still communicate but they don't need to tell us the in depth in formation. It's also kinda flawed to say "Make the game they want." That is a dark road to walk on.

[MoanaLisa]

I think they should still communicate but they don't need to tell us the in depth in formation. It's also kinda flawed to say "Make the game they want." That is a dark road to walk on.

Pandering to users who have completely contradictory desires, many of whom will complain to the point of being insulting or abusive if they don't get their way, isn't working either.

[Deleted]

The internal company culture has probably become something similar to my own.

I live in a large telecom company right now and ever since I joined, the entire group has been swapped out and new people are in. Clueless folks basically, people you have to teach stuff. They don't bring anything but more burden to the existing folk on the table until they get up to speed and it takes nearly a year.

But alas, we're not that similar but I can compare, it's also the tech industry so yeah.

Blizzards issue in my mind honestly, is that they no longer have those bold dudes simply making the decisions, that here and now, this is what we do and we're sticking to it. "We don't give a fuck that they don't like it, it's for the better in our mind". And eventually it actually is/ or not but mostly is.

They just don't have that anymore. It has become a situation where they're trying to please everyone and everybody in the name of not losing that potential customer whilst screwing over the silent majority. A somewhat typical sign of a large long-lived business(Or for a better word, corporation).

(That aint the ultimate truth obviously but it is what is going on for the most part in my mind)

[Gadzooks]

That's likely true and I wouldn't talk so much either. Most of their efforts now go to PR and dev interviews are essentially free for them. But I think they reveal too much of the game, thereby inciting customers to ask for ever more. And they always seem to be apologizing which makes them look weak. And maybe they are. After all it took them over a year to decide what to ultimately do with flying with a great deal of that being public hand-wringing and trial balloons. I've said before they should just make the game they want to make, not worry so much or pander to their forum inhabitants and let the game sink or swim on its own. It might kill it; it also might make it much better than it is now.

A lot of what they say these days stinks of consultant-speak. "We need to get better" is what they say about everything now - but they don't actually DO that, they just talk. Of course people become skeptical and bitter over time when nothing changes.

At least their tone has changed - the first half of WoD they were openly antagonistic and rude towards anyone who started pointing out flaws that they now admit to. That's when they started throwing "hyperbole" around (and the parrots here picked it up), and it just set up the battle between the devs and the players. The CMs were outright calling people liars on the forums - and it was disgraceful.

I also think they over-think everything, and refuse to take chances, in their drive for homenization and "parity". Ions comments more and more is just navel-gazing and hand wringing, and nobody will grab the reins and run with an idea.

[MoanaLisa]

The CMs were outright calling people liars on the forums - and it was disgraceful.

Well, I agree they shouldn't be doing that. On the other hand it's no secret that there are plenty of people who are less than honest on their forums and, for that matter, here as well. They shouldn't be given any attention at all.

[Seefer]

When you enter a market, you engage with customers.

The entertainment industry's an emotional one.

Even small developers who communicate daily are treated like this. Blizzard has its own convention.

Not saying it's right. But: heat, kitchen.

I have yet to see a company bow down to their consumers like Blizzard does, it seems all that has to be done is a mild amount of crying on forums to get them to do something, when they were doing their own thing the game prospered then people started crying and bitching and insulting on social media and the game is losing steam.........and don't blame it on the age of the game because there are older games out there with MINIMAL changes that still sell like hotcakes, it's a 50/50 to blame for the shape of the game, 50% players for being spoiled rotten brats and 50% to Blizz for caving.

They are trying to please everyone and pissing people off instead.

- - - Updated - - -

A lot of what they say these days stinks of consultant-speak. "We need to get better" is what they say about everything now - but they don't actually DO that..

Hard to get better when people aren't happy with anything they do, they could give everyone 1 million gold and people would bitch that it wasn't 2 million.

[Gadzooks]

Well, I agree they shouldn't be doing that. On the other hand it's no secret that there are plenty of people who are less than honest on their forums and, for that matter, here as well. They shouldn't be given any attention at all.

Of course - but they were accusing people with legit complaints, along with the usual suspects - and thankfully that seems to have been reigned in hard.

[Seefer]

Of course - but they were accusing people with legit complaints, along with the usual suspects - and thankfully that seems to have been reigned in hard.

There is maybe 2 complaints at most for every 10 QQ rubbish posts.

[WowIsDead64]

They don't communicate, cuz they know, that what they do - is crap, want this crap to be released "as is" and therefore try to pretend, that everything is fine and working as intended. Answering to discussion can get them into troubles, cuz any answer is treated as some kind of "promise" and put some obligations on them. Cuz there are two scenarios: 1) They say, that everything is right, players disagree - they need to provide solid arguments and if they can't - they're wrong and should fix things 2) They say, that everything is bad - they automatically put an obligation on themselves to fix this things. And silence = no obligations and no promises.

[Relapses]

There's no way the devs will ever please everybody. There's no way any game company will ever please everybody. More communication isn't always a remedy. You needn't look further than the foibles and follies of Riot Games to see that there's no real gain to be had from greater developer transparency. The fact that Blizzard often does shit that is well above the comprehension of the average forum goers' capacity of reasoning is further proof that they should be under no obligation to explain the moves they make.

Honestly, I'm surprised they're even doing the weekly dev interviews now. I feel bad for the guy who has to sift through the 10,000 retarded fucking "Y U NO MAEK LEGACY" questions I'm sure they're bombarded with to find the few legitimate questions asked by the community. (Hell, that's probably part of the reason some of the questions which are asked are so fucking stupid. Because the decent ones are buried under a pile of really stupid ones.) Do I think being completely tight-lipped about your moves is any better? No. But trying to reason why they aren't as vocal as other game developers isn't very productive when the common reasoning the community will surmise they're not is because "they hate their customers" I don't think they have a lot to gain with further transparency.

[Bullettime]

There is maybe 2 complaints at most for every 10 QQ rubbish posts.

Which is sad because it leads to a problematic cycle. Devs don't want to read crap so they end up seemingly ignoring even good quality feedback, which results in productive and constructive posters getting frustrated and either not posting anymore or posting crap themselves. The theorycraft community is at one of the smallest points its ever been and a lot of formerly great constructive forum posters have just seemed to have said fuck it the way they've handled feedback during the WoD and Legion beta cycles.

[clevin]

I think they (an the CMs too), don't really get how it looks when good, detailed feedback doesn't get a blue post but some off the cuff, silly post does. They can tell us until their, well, blue in the face that they read everything but it sends the wrong message when they say "Hey, we've invited you all to the alpha/beta to get feedback" and then don't spend time engaging with the good posts. I get that the devs are actively making the game, but the CMs could flag threads or posts that they feel a dev should look at and then they could reply either as a dev or via the CM.

[Varitok]

Why post about this here? Again with the "ungrateful" and "rotten" arguments. People are sick of being lied too and yes it is lies, All those promises at Blizzcon right before WoD launch, nearly right after it ended they started backpedaling on everything, especially the city hubs for each faction. I like the transparency of Legion, telling us why Thal'dranath was cancelled but you can't act as if Blizzard is nothing pure good to everyone, Its fanboyism and nothing less.