An Apology to the Community

[Deleted]

I'm not exactly sure if the OP was in fact a blizzard dev or not, but if you were, you shouldnt be posting on comunity forums outside of blizzard unless blizzard specificaly stated they would allowed you to talk about inside information here (wich i seriously dougt it) - it's called sharing privileged company information...

But if blizzard allowed it, then they are just naíve because a case like this would happen sooner or later...


So because i have no idea wich case is true, i'll just wish you good luck in whatever you do now, being it either continuing fooling people or trying to aproach the gamming community in your own way.


Cheers

[paulywally]

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson "If at first your don't succeed, never try again."

lmfao.

ok.jpg *walks away*

[Celista]

Blizzard would be a hard company for me to work for due to the fact that I have played this game so passionately and for so long (although only recently started posting on mmo-champ) and some of the changes that have been made since bc/wrath have left me shaking my head. I'd probably have a tendency to mouth off during development meetings, or otherwise have a less than stellar attitude because some things the company does just simply seems to indicate poor management. So you have my sympathy OP (assuming you are who you say you are), Blizzard would be a hard company for many players who are truly passionate about the game to work for.

The last two expansions have brought some notable quality of life changes to the game, but when it comes down to handling class changes, class design and other pvp/pve related changes I have a hard time gauging the direction the company wants to take the game, and that is a bad thing.

[Faroth]

While you might still disagree, I suspect working within Blizzard you have much different views and insight on the reason behind the decisions, Celista.

Always sorry to hear about a situation like this, but hopefully it proves to be best for the OP and Blizzard in both their endeavors going forward!

[Celista]

While you might still disagree, I suspect working within Blizzard you have much different views and insight on the reason behind the decisions, Celista.

Well, obviously it is difficult as a non-employee to gauge all of a company's reasons behind its actions. And not all of their decisions turn out to be bad ones. I still play the game after all....

for now....

....but I die a little inside every time things like this happen.

Always sorry to hear about a situation like this, but hopefully it proves to be best for the OP and Blizzard in both their endeavors going forward!

Agree.

[Deleted]

Wait, are you saying that GC is actually TRYING to balance the game? You mean that he isn't joking or fooling with us? My IQ just dropped to negative.

[Medieve]

Blizzard would be a hard company for me to work for due to the fact that I have played this game so passionately and for so long (although only recently started posting on mmo-champ) and some of the changes that have been made since bc/wrath have left me shaking my head. I'd probably have a tendency to mouth off during development meetings, or otherwise have a less than stellar attitude because some things the company does just simply seems to indicate poor management. So you have my sympathy OP (assuming you are who you say you are), Blizzard would be a hard company for many players who are truly passionate about the game to work for.

The last two expansions have brought some notable quality of life changes to the game, but when it comes down to handling class changes, class design and other pvp/pve related changes I have a hard time gauging the direction the company wants to take the game, and that is a bad thing.

Oh, I agree completely. I've been passionate when posting against Blizzard, and just as passionate defending them in the past. I couldn't imagine bringing that to work. I feel that alone is reason enough to communicate solely through the community managers. Eventually, the forums are going to get to you.

Although, if you're ever looking for an easy LoL loss, or a hard win, feel free to look me up. I haven't played competitively for quite some time now, but I'm pretty sure I'm not food....yet. Throw a ^ over the i in my name, and you've got yourself a goddamned game .

[Deleted]

It was always my impression on blizzard class balance development that it doesn't flow on the same path nor does it make much sense most of the times, it seems that each class balance meetings are discussed "in a team" by 50 people that:

10 actualy are masters in that class X and have good ideas
30 know the class but realy don't know it all that well so have some "meh" ideas
10 have no idea what is class balance of class X but realy like class Y so they come up with realy stupid ideas for class X

And then, instead of those 10 masters reaching a conclusion on the class they are experts, they instead all vote on a particular idea but since they have so much diferent people all working together sometimes the realy crappy idea wins, it's like a russian roulette.



At least this was always my feeling, but yes, ofc i have no idea of what i'm talking about, i've never been there lol.

[Nikijih]

So fail once and then stop trying? Good luck with your life, you're going to need it.

Fail once?

You *ARE* aware we are talking about EA here, right? Are you? Because you don't seem to be, and its really worrysome...

Let me put it this way: there is no "once" here. EA has a *terrible* track reccord. Also, if you had played War you would know exactly why most of us lost faith in Mythic: when shit hit the fan, instead of working their asses off, their mega PR team suddently vanished overnight. It went from massive hype to communication blackout and stacking bad decisions over bad decisions.

"Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity"

[WakeUpC22]

Registered just to post this.

First he will be missed. Second I apologize for posting yet another TLDR post but we all have our own opinions, and as strongly voiced as mine is, it's my opinion and people are free to disagree. I judge blizzard as an entity and only make one other name call in the post (he asked for it and frankly I will never respect him again). That said I do feel there are un-named accomplices in this debacle and will not speculate on who and the true motives as honestly none but the insiders know what is going on.

I'm not renewing my wow sub because of this and MANY other things. But I think firing someone based on a very minor and trivial (imo) leak is retarded as it is also simply an opinion/criticism that is frankly personal. I'm an artist and have a teacher in the industry. He doesn't EVER air dirty laundry unless it's to his trusted students. And then WOW does the shit hit the fan and are we AMAZED at what he has to put up with!! Otherwise he has to maintain a poker face and realize he just needs to do his job.

I bet Xelnath is doing the same because let's be honest, the game is a joke in certain aspects now especially how the gameplay is bent not for fun and playability, but to be profitable for blizzard. (ie diablo auction house-esque)

I do not know what happened but an educated guess is as follows (and frankly this may just be blowing hot air)
I feel that Xelnath was frustrated with what was going on but he's always been very good about it and patient. But then one day he was upset and really confused with a proposed change and snapped during a meeting. When he realized he caused distress to his teammates he felt genuinely guilty and then went around and said it was his fault and his only for being fired. The powers that be CAPITALIZED on this admission and there we go. Blizzard feeling free of vindication for firing someone simply based on criticism and a (VERY MINOR) leak but then a sudden shit storm.

Now the one thing I hope that those involved will finally get through their thick skulls is that Xelnath didn't cause the shit storm, THEY did. Frankly he didn't say anything to elicit an OMFG locks suck so I will cancel my sub. No, instead FIRING him did just that as all of us has the ability to see through BS and frankly we've seen a lot of it. First a lot of forumers that are over the top pro blizzard and absolutely ravenous when it comes to defending blizzard are not only blind but idiotic. Game balance or not, I don't think many PLAYERS would cheer for a nerf for their class but DESIGNERS or EMPLOYEES would. Second, it's been PROVEN that devs are high on their own fumes and then put down OTHER devs and other players with lewd remarks and commentary. Jay Wilson is NOT alone. Lastly the devs openly and completely spamming their forum with "the game is awesome" self butt smooching (mop release) just completes the picture of what really is going on there. It's all there and that's just what was LEAKED and PROVEN. The stuff that's been hidden, and DELETED, or off line then unseen and swept under the carpet is not as known, but it's there too. We've only been privy to some of it.

Though I do believe that he may not have NECESSARILY been fired due to what others perceive as loose lips and disrespect, frankly blizzard's track record of taking criticism is piss poor with devs developing a "haters gonna hate" mentality. Eventually if you can't take ANY criticism from others or your team mates for that matter without throwing a little temper tantrum you can forget about making the game better. When you're high as a kite on how "awesome" you are the improvement stops and the game devolves VERY quickly. In truth Wow was built on a foundation created by the ACTUAL legends and then fine tuned with no shit sherlock improvements. Nothing earth shattering after the last major dev left to work on titan and that's a fact told by US ONLY subs. (remember that wow in china is $5 a month and as meh as the game is, it IS worth $5 a month hence buttloads of subs from china)

Anyways, if people are getting butthurt over such criticism, it is INDEED their fault for not LISTENING before it got to the point it was scathing.

The rules need to change and frankly a dev who has had a lot of experience on a game SHOULD be making a final judgement call ESPECIALLY if he's talking to the community. So Xel might agree with their decision to fire him for his leaks but I sure as hell don't. Not from a player's standpoint nor an artist's who needs criticism to improve.

[JOHNMADDEN]

Good luck out there man, you'll be missed. Stay big.

[Deleted]

i am speechless right now.....there are a lot of things i would like to say but i can´t, i just can´t.

Xelnath did more for THE PLAYERS, not just locks, in the last months here than any other blizzard member has done in years. He talked to us.
He explained things, he answered questions. Now we are left and lonely again.

Gonna miss you man, good luck.

[darkminaz]

a) he was a troll and datamined stuff
b) he realy tried to help us

even if there is just a 50% chanse i still say, thanks for trying, now lets watch Ghostcrab fuck it up again

[jackvii]

It's depressing that the amount of feedback and cross-development talk found on this forum eclipses the non-interaction warlocks experience all through beta. Worse that I only discovered it towards the end and wound up putting all my beta feedback on the official forums where we received virtually no communication.

It's too bad you got fired for trying to give us the same feedback and hand-holding that most of the other classes received throughout beta.

[klogaroth]

a) he was a troll and datamined stuff
b) he realy tried to help us

even if there is just a 50% chanse i still say, thanks for trying, now lets watch Ghostcrab fuck it up again

I wonder how long it's going to be before people start questioning their own existence thanks to forums?
I'm 99.99% sure there's no trolling going on here.

I don't know which areas of the game other than locks Xelnath has worked on, but I can say the work there has been absolutely fantastic from my point of view. I hope we see a continuation of Xel's work on locks.

Good luck for the future Xel.

[shooz]

Yesterday, I said some very disrespectful and selfish things about the class design team at Blizzard. They decided as a team that Cataclysm was the right spell to go with for Destruction, but in my pride, I made it about myself. I felt powerless to influence the meeting and took out my frustration publicly.

That has led to a series of correct decisions on the part of the Blizzard, as a game designer does not speak for the company and doing so, especially in a negative light about the team he works with everyday is extremely destructive to team cohesion.

I am no longer with Blizzard and I believe this was the right call for both of us.

Best Wishes,
Alex B.

Perhaps, Blizzard would have been better served, spending that energy and time on Security. Instead of going overboard on one person. (Dev's do what they do, being "yes" men isn't one of them) When your product is so screwed you're forced to have some absurd "authenticator" to log in. Fix your $h!t, Bizzard, and stop going mental over direct employee assessment of your new screw-ups. This is why we've stopped playing. Rift had more to offer. Better grfx. Better security. Less people with the IQ of a rock. And the list is growing. Hey, Alex..just go work for Trion. =)

[Subbversion]

This is sad, but understood. I work for an ISP and I don't go about making comments regarding my work - especially ones that could be construed as negative or ill of my company or peers. It's just bad business ethics. He knew he was putting his foot over the line by directly interacting with the community. Blizzard probably saw this way before he knew (or he was open about it and they preemptively knew). Regardless, it was most likely being monitored.

He had a lot of heart and gave two craps about the job though, I'll give him that. Props, not most would do that. It was more than a job to him, but a hobby and a passion. He'll find good work elsewhere, hopefully. He's got the right mindset, but probably learned a hard lesson. I don't play my warlock often, nor is he level capped, but I can take his attitude and mentality and apply it to my class. I wish him the best moving forward.

[Kriix]

Yesterday, I said some very disrespectful and selfish things about the class design team at Blizzard. They decided as a team that Cataclysm was the right spell to go with for Destruction, but in my pride, I made it about myself. I felt powerless to influence the meeting and took out my frustration publicly.

That has led to a series of correct decisions on the part of the Blizzard, as a game designer does not speak for the company and doing so, especially in a negative light about the team he works with everyday is extremely destructive to team cohesion.

I am no longer with Blizzard and I believe this was the right call for both of us.

Best Wishes,
Alex B.

Well its about time, cataclysm will be a great spell. This game is broken as it is Hunters 1 shotting. Warriors 1 shotting. I dont see what so bad about cataclysm. MoP could be better but sometimes I really do think if blizzard is smart or not.

[OhDiscordia]

Perhaps, Blizzard would have been better served, spending that energy and time on Security. Instead of going overboard on one person. (Dev's do what they do, being "yes" men isn't one of them) When your product is so screwed you're forced to have some absurd "authenticator" to log in. Fix your $h!t, Bizzard, and stop going mental over direct employee assessment of your new screw-ups. This is why we've stopped playing. Rift had more to offer. Better grfx. Better security. Less people with the IQ of a rock. And the list is growing. Hey, Alex..just go work for Trion. =)

I had to register just to ask, what? Are you daft? I am by no means a blizzard fanboy, but how in the hell is Blizzard supposed to keep YOU from getting keylogged? Do you expect a Blizzard representative to come to your house and tell you, "stop looking at porn and infecting your computer with malware, mongoloid. Also, stop falling for phishing emails." Are you really dumb enough to think that gold farmers get accounts by hacking Blizzard's database?

On topic, I'm incredibly sad to see such an awesome, communicative dev leave the Blizzard team, and wish Xelnath luck in all that he pursues.

[Medieve]

I had to register just to ask, what? Are you daft? I am by no means a blizzard fanboy, but how in the hell is Blizzard supposed to keep YOU from getting keylogged? Do you expect a Blizzard representative to come to your house and tell you, "stop looking at porn and infecting your computer with malware, mongoloid. Also, stop falling for phishing emails." Are you really dumb enough to think that gold farmers get accounts by hacking Blizzard's database?

On topic, I'm incredibly sad to see such an awesome, communicative dev leave the Blizzard team, and wish Xelnath luck in all that he pursues.

LOL, I was just gonna ask this. How the hell is Blizzard supposed to keep you from porn and getting viruses put on your computer that compromise all of your passwords? Oh wait, I know what they can do, sell an authenticator at manufacture price, or if you have a newer phone, a free mobile app!!! Oh, you want to use passwords and then not protect your passwords? Well hell, no one has that answer yet. If you can come up with it my good friend Shooz, you'll make billions.