Blizzcon 2011: WoW Open Q&A
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
As a 10 man raider there is a lot of difference between 10 and 25 man. When heroic magmaw came out 25 man raiders couldnt do it in 10 man heroic, when are we seeing the difficulty for 10 man being higher?
That's pretty fun because in Korea the 10-man guilds are usually the ones considered hardcore while the 25-man are considered easier. They are definitely hard to balance, 10 players might not always have the buffs they need like with 25 man.

Is there a chance that youll go to a 10 vs 20 man to make balancing easier?
I honestly think that wouldnt make stuff easier, we would still have a lot of problems.

Do you have any plans to implement some sort of spectator mode for raids or battlegrounds?
That's something we've wanted for a long time, spectator mode and replays, but it's just a question of getting around to doing it so ... some day, hopefully.

Do you have any plans on adding more options to the guild leaders UI? So as I can give more options to a banker or to my different officers since Im the only one that can turn guild repairs on and off
Yeah, thats definitely a good reason why we would want to do that. We need to make sure how much control we can give to people that are not the guild leader. It sounds like something that can be useful.

Wouldnt that be the GLs decision?
It is but if something goes wrong it comes back to us to fix it

With the upcoming expansion coming, are all the purple you get from Firelands going to get replaced with greens on first day?
Green is the new purple, so yeah. The problem is if we don't upgrade equipement too much we are cheating those players from the leveling experience, so usually by the 2nd or 3rd zone your gear should be replaced to make sure the content is still a challenge for you. Hopefully in the future we will have a way to "track" your progress in the past and make sure there's a way to record your accomplishements in each expansion to make sure that all your progress isn't "lost" at the beginning of each expansion.

How are you guys going to fit Draenei and the BEs getting monks?
We will probably throw it in like its always been there.... We'll make it work!

Hunters and Crowd Control: Currently with Wyvern Sting having a DOT it makes it a little difficult to quickly Wyvern Sting and then trap something after. Before Cataclysm we had the option of removing the dot with Scorpid Sting but it was removed, is there going to be a way to remove that DoT in the future?
It's probably something we're not going to do in 4.3, and 5.0 is such a big reset for all the talents that I can't really answer that now. It's definitely a problem but we also don't want everyone dotting up their characters before they crowd control, we don't want crowd control to always break on things like that and we'll see in 5.0.

Wind Shear change shouldn't hurt enhancement shamans, but most don't take Reverb. It also hurts Resto Shaman, any plans to fix this?
Raids usually have enough people, so it won't hurt the raid. PvP might force you to make the choice, but it is still an interrupt with a longer cooldown.

Do you hate enhancement shamans? DPS sucks, in PvP they suck, any plans to fix them? / Any plans for Illidan to come back?
Lets answer the Illidan question. Do you want to see Illidan come back? We will think about that.

This is a problem, just like frost mages dont do well in PvE but the difference is you can't tell an enhancement shaman "hey just go elemental". In PvP it will be much easier in 5.0 but for PvE we will try to adress some of the issues in 4.3

Do you want combat rogues to use cooldowns more often or hold off until 30% and use all the cooldowns at once?
You should follow the guidance from Restless Blades.

Is the guild name change service going to be in 4.3 or 5.0? Will it fall to the wayside like Dance Studios did?
One of these days we are going to unleash Dance Studios to the world and it will be awesome. But not today. We are releasing the new guild services within two weeks.

Your design in MoP are you bringing more healers into 25 man raids because there is a new healing class as a monk healer and 25 man guilds will usually have two people per class. Are you going to design your raids to bring more healers into raids?
I dont think we will change the number of healers needed for a raid.

Will challenge modes put us under the hit cap or affect core stats when the gear is tuned down?
There are some details to work out, people should be able to do roughly the same DPS and Healing as everyone else.

Are we going to see account bound mounts?
Hopefully some day, i dont think that will happen in 50 but somewhere down the line its likely.

Can we have an option to require auth on login every time
Soon.

What are your plans for the moonkin form, are you going to do the same thing you did for warlocks?
We are going to update the art on the moonkin form as we see fit. Its too early to tell what we will exactly be doing.

Race changing breaks quest progress for some quests, any plans to address this?
We might try whitelisting some quests, like the important legendary quest. We need to be careful to not bog down CS with this kind of thing though.

In the future are you going to make BoA items actually transferable account-wide?
Maybe some day! Probably not in the immediate future. The databases dont do the best job of talking to eachother right now.

The past few patches brought Arcane Mages and Feral Druids that are two button classes, any plans to make sure the Monk isn't easy like those classes/specs?
AoE rotations weren't a big focus at first, we want to make it a little more interesting. Arcane mages do have some mana management gameplay, we are adding back Arcane Missles to their rotation.

Do you ever plan on altering spells or maybe adding a new spell to Arcane mages and maybe nerfing arcane blast a little bit?
In 5.0 Living Bomb is a spell all mages will have.

Will enchanters be able to make epic wands in the future?
Yes

What are your changes going to be for gathering professions in the new expansion? Crafting gives you the best stuff but gathering isnt very useful
No sweeping change has been planned for the perks of these professions but we'll look at it. We dont want people to feel like they need 2 crafting professions.

Will you be able to craft different quivers?
Little visuals like that is something we want to add to all classes, it isn't really clear on how we can add that just yet.

I have a priest with a benediction staff but the quest for that was removed. I am very excited to transmog that. But I am worried that you might open up the models for other players, which would be unfair to the players that worked for it at level 60
One way we have solved that problem in the past is to offer the model with a different texture or something. We did something similar with the ZA bear mount

Ret has one clear choice for the Level 90 Tier in the new talent trees, any chance to balance it better?
We feel like they will be balanced once we tweak the numbers.

You are nerfing wind shear for resto PvP, do you intent to make a trade off or to not let them have it completely?
Ideally we would not want them to have it

In that case why dont you hardwire it into the spec masteries so enhancement and elemental dont have any effect?
That would have been another way to go, but this is a fairly big change and we dont want players to feel like everything is being changed. In 5.0 it might be a good oppurtunity to take away Wind Shear completely but we have not made a decision on that yet.

Will MoP bring us mounted combat?
No

Will MoP bring more craftable mounts?
Maybe a Jewelcrafting mount.

Any plans to fix Heroic Leap?
Heroic Leap has a lot of technical problems, people keep trying to exploit it. Works fine when it is flat, not so much when there is a height increase

Where are the LGBT characters in WoW Lore?
Everything is gravy as long as its just a great character. There is the possiblity of adding them, as long as the story is compelling, might see it in the future.

It seems that in a 10 man model there are huge negatives with class representation and wasted loot. Is there a possibility to change the 10-man model to a 15-man model? If not, maybe make some kind of smart loot system that checks if the loot is useful for your raid?
It might be a good idea to make the loot system slightly more intelligent, but moving up to a 15-man model would be very hard for us seeing existing 10-man guilds would have to recruit 5 more members.

Are you going to add more visuals for druid forms? Will effects such as Fandral's Flamescythe be transferable by transmogrification?
Maybe, we are connecting them with items so that it isn't something everyone has forever. We don't want you to have to go back and get different forms.

As a hunter who has played that class for 5 years I want to thank you for the pet challenges that came out in 4.3, that being said and how much we are so proud of all the pets we have obtained. Its a shame when you cant use these pets in a dungeon without being spec'd beast master, i was kind of hoping this might be a change in the future
We'd like to let hunters chose any pet with Tenacity/Ferocity/Cunning in 5.0. It doesn't solve the problem of MM losing Beast mastery pets but BM DPS is pretty good.

Gallywix is in charge but he's the bad guy, what happens to him? Also, blinding shield for paladins, what happened to that?
We haven't had a discussion about Gallywix in a while, he's interesting but I don't know if we have a core decision about him. Most of our discussions lately have been about pandaren characters and how to make them interesting.

This is not set in stone but Blinding Shield is currently the paladin level 87 ability.

The new shaman talent points seem to be geared for resto and not to a damage point, I know you said you want hybridization is coming more into play but what about DPS?
There are DPS options there, some of the tiers are based around movement, totems, etc ...

In End Time, we kill Murozond, is this the last we see of the Infinite Dragonflight? / Any plans to add player housing?
No player housing anytime soon, too expensive in terms of time to make if you still want dungeons, raids, models, and other stuff.

Infinite Dragonflight is done, at least for now, but the concept is cool and useful for the world. The timeways will always exist and there will always be bad guys there, there's no current plans for it but we could bring it back if it's cleverly done.

Jewelcrafting endgame is boring, can we have trinkets, rings, or necklaces?
We want to add some items, not every tier though. We need to keep it balanced compared to the other professions.

I'm pretty sure I understand how you pick Alliance and Horde as a Pandaren, do you guys have any idea how pandaren's factions will be distinguished at higher levels?
We have seen in arenas that the only thing that really matter is the Red Text and stuff, the UI is primarly the biggest indicator to see what faction they belong to. We explored going down the path were Horde Panda's were more feral and wild but it come to that they don't look like Pandaren anymore.

Will we see raid leaderboards, including wipe and kill counts?
There is a lot we could do to track player accomplishments, we could see it being extended to raids in the future.

Theres lots of people wanting the reskinning for old races, I was over at the art panel and the pandaren just looked so amazing. They were talking about being 10-20 in the fact alone, is that also something they are looking into for reskinning the new races?
Its the one thing we really want to see brought up to the pandaren level. There are about 10 times more bones in the pandaren models compared to the current character models. We dont know when this exactly will happen, because we are still not unsure how to roll this out because some people might not like the new models as much as they do the old models.

What will the theme for raid art and gear going to be?
Brewing, bamboo, everything crafted, respecting the Asian feel we have in the starting zone and expanding on that
This article was originally published in forum thread: Blizzcon 2011: WoW Open Q&A started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 137 Comments
  1. shadowdasher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by blacklamb View Post
    Tyrande and Malfurion. Thrall and Aggra. Arthas and Jaina. Rhonin and Vereesa. All the dragon Aspects and their consorts. I could go on and on. There are tons of heterosexual relationships in WoW, they are the default. Asking for a little representation isn't a crime, as much as the spoiled majority would like it to be.
    Who says homosexuels exists in WoW? Hell why aren't there any left handers in WoW? I don't recall many blacks, asians, arab, indian, polish, swedish, french... The list can go on. What I do and what you do in our own bed rooms is no business of anyone else. I don't go blurting out I'm straight, nor do I demand that blizz tells me which npcs are straight.

    Oh and FYI I'm not against homosexuality, in fact I plan on voting against the proposition to define marriage as being between 1 man and 1 woman in MN. I've had many guild mates that are gay.
  1. Dacia Ultan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowdasher View Post
    Who says homosexuels exists in WoW? Hell why aren't there any left handers in WoW? I don't recall many blacks, asians, arab, indian, polish, swedish, french... The list can go on. What I do and what you do in our own bed rooms is no business of anyone else. I don't go blurting out I'm straight, nor do I demand that blizz tells me which npcs are straight.
    Oh, wow. Derailsville much?

    Oh and FYI I'm not against homosexuality, in fact I plan on voting against the proposition to define marriage as being between 1 man and 1 woman in MN. I've had many guild mates that are gay.
    Good on you for not being a bigot, I suppose.

    But, as I asked Lemontime: in light of the fact that you're not a bigot, and especially in light of how proud you are of not being a bigot, how is it any skin off of your nose if the game doesn't cater exclusively to you?
  1. Zweistein's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Farseer Lolotea View Post
    So, again: why is heterosexuality so ubiquitous?
    because, without err a great portion of heterosexuality (our ancestors' heterosexuality) we wouldn't be sitting infront of computers today and discuss wow via the internets on this forum? just a thought~
  1. shadowdasher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by
    But, as I asked Lemontime: in [I
    View Post
    light[/I] of the fact that you're not a bigot, and especially in light of how proud you are of not being a bigot, how is it any skin off of your nose if the game doesn't cater exclusively to you?
    First I'm not "proud of not being a bigot", I just know how the internet works when you discuss certain topic and how you will be flamed.

    Second, it's no skin off my nose if the game doesn't cater to me, nor should they cater to anyone else other then the creators. What I'm trying to say is why did she need to ask that? Why did she feel the need to push the hot button of Homosexuality? Why must WoW be about whos banging who? So some npc is in love with another npc and they happen to be straight. Must every real world problem be in the game? And if she wants inclusion why not ask why there are no blacks, asians, arab, indian, polish, swedish, and french along with LGBT characters.

    Lets keep the game focused on the story and fun and not on who's banging who and what not. If blizz wants to put homosexuals and what not into the game, good for them, I'll still play. But the subject doesn't need to be pushed. We get enough of it day in and day out. She was just another "I'm going to throw my lifestyle in your face and ask why you don't like us?" She was looking to start an argument, she succeeded in the forums.


    And I just watched that clip again. She made it a point to state that "this was for her girlfriend". No one else blurted out whether they had a significant other or not. And you could tell she was not satisfied with the answer she got. And the answer she got was a great one. plain and simple, she was looking to start a fight so to speak.
  1. Dacia Ultan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowdasher View Post
    Second, it's no skin off my nose if the game doesn't cater to me, nor should they cater to anyone else other then the creators.
    Hate to break this to you, but a successful game has to cater to fans, to at least some degree.

    What I'm trying to say is why did she need to ask that? Why did she feel the need to push the hot button of Homosexuality?
    Better question: why does it seem to bother you so much that she asked the question at all?

    Why must WoW be about whos banging who?
    But no one's asking for that.

    So some npc is in love with another npc and they happen to be straight. Must every real world problem be in the game? And if she wants inclusion why not ask why there are no blacks, asians, arab, indian, polish, swedish, and french along with LGBT characters.
    But no one's talking about "problems."

    Let's take Rift, a similar MMO. It's got a female/female 'ship-tease, which is only one aspect of the entire dynamic between two secondary lore figures. While the tease itself is touched upon (Uriel says things like "she likes me, she just won't admit it"), the fact that it's two women is treated as a non-issue. That kind of thing, most likely, is all anyone is asking for.

    Lets keep the game focused on the story and fun and not on who's banging who and what not. If blizz wants to put homosexuals and what not into the game, good for them, I'll still play. But the subject doesn't need to be pushed. We get enough of it day in and day out. She was just another "I'm going to throw my lifestyle in your face and ask why you don't like us?" She was looking to start an argument, she succeeded in the forums.
    I saw the livestream. I didn't see any of this alleged argumentative, hostile, what-have-you behavior from her.

    And I just watched that clip again. She made it a point to state that "this was for her girlfriend". No one else blurted out whether they had a significant other or not. And you could tell she was not satisfied with the answer she got. And the answer she got was a great one. plain and simple, she was looking to start a fight so to speak.
    Oh, gimme a freakin' break.

    If anything, she came off as apprehensive. The mention of her girlfriend came off more like "I was so put up to this." She looked a bit dubious at the end, but that was about it.

    The stink that people are making over her asking the question? It's not about how she asked it. It's about the fact that she asked it at all. The question itself made people uncomfortable.
  1. Lemontime's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Farseer Lolotea View Post
    That kind of thing, most likely, is all anyone is asking for.
    But what place does that have in a game? How does it make it better? Why is it so important to be represented in the game? People know they exist, we don't need a game to tackle some great social debate, it's a game.

    Re: We're uncomfortable. No, it's not that the topic makes us uncomfortable, we're all well educated about the debate and understand that it's someones decision, it's not our place to criticise (which nobody in this thread has actually done, no need to get offended). I think the greatest problem people have with it is "Why?". The question was unfounded and a waste of time.
  1. Dacia Ultan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemontime View Post
    But what place does that have in a game? How does it make it better? Why is it so important to be represented in the game? People know they exist, we don't need a game to tackle some great social debate, it's a game.
    No one's talking about "tackling social debates" here.

    Re: We're uncomfortable. No, it's not that the topic makes us uncomfortable, we're all well educated about the debate and understand that it's someones decision, it's not our place to criticise (which nobody in this thread has actually done, no need to get offended). I think the greatest problem people have with it is "Why?".
    Hey, the closest I'm getting to "offended" here is exasperated that people feel the need to freak out about how she dared ask that. And yes, people are freaking out.

    And as for no one "criticizing," I suppose accusing her of just doing it to stir up trouble doesn't count? You can't deny that that, at least, has happened. And yes, in this thread, even.

    The question was unfounded and a waste of time.
    To you, it was. It doesn't directly concern you, so it's easily dismissed.

    To her (or at least to her girlfriend, who put her up to it) it wasn't. Why not leave it at that? I couldn't care less about PvP, and you don't see me going off about people asking PvP questions, right?
  1. gutnbrg's Avatar
    Living bomb for all mages? wtf? why?
  1. shadowdasher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by
    I couldn't care less about PvP, and you don't see [I
    View Post
    me[/I] going off about people asking PvP questions, right?

    Because PvP is part of the game! It has been from almost the begining.

    Mage powers, part of the game!

    Not nerfing or buffing ret pallies, part of the game.

    Remodeling characters skins, it's part of the game.

    Raiding, part of the game.

    Who's gay, bi, straight or a tranny, not part of the game.


    And again, if she wants inclusion why is she only asking for gays and not other aspects of the world?

    And Lemontime is right, what place does that have in a game? How does it make it better? Why is it so important to be represented in the game?

    Why must everyone and everything be represented in the game?

    And this is not Rift, this is WoW. If she want to see the strip tease go play Rift. WoW doesn't need to be Rift and Rift doesn't need to be WoW.
  1. Jacinda's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowdasher View Post

    Who's gay, bi, straight or a tranny, not part of the game.
    But it is part of the game. It's part of the lore. Part of the stories that are being told. It's being used in the questchain with Thrall (the love between him and Aggra). It's being used in ICC (Jaina and Arthas) and there are a dozen more that I am forgetting at the moment. Sexuality is part of the game. Always has been and always will be. All she asked for is if maybe we would see a story about characters of the same sex which has the same impact as the ones I mentioned. Heck, we all know the story about the the tauren en night elf in Hyjal and like Farseer Lolotea said it would be nice if they could confirm it.

    Anyway, on topic again, there are no 'dumb' or 'stupid' questions. Every question matters to the one asking it. It might not matter for everyone, but that does not mean that they are 'dumb' or 'stupid' questions.
  1. Ryall's Avatar
    Re: LGBT themes within WoWIt is really nice that people are standing up for minorities and the freedom of speech.This is a really sad moment for gamers though, as some realities appear to be eluding most of you.There are some concrete examples of why LGBT themes will never appear in WoW.Wow is a game made for young people. Sure, it says in the EULA that you need to be an adult in your territory to play, but thats a joke. It is a kids/young adult game. That is their target audience. This perhaps is nowhere clearer than the gradual reduction in complexity in wow, and the inclusion of mini-game pokemans etc. Any game with parental controls and a lockable chat filter should give you an indication of how blizzard are trying to please parents. Most players are from heterosexual households, be it single or dual parent. Many parents display a desire to control when and how their children are exposed to certain ideas, to a varying degree of success. These days, nothing can be kept from children online easily. However, if there was a game which they knew contained themes they consider adult, or not suitable for their own reasons, they may prevent access to that game. Even if Blizzard wanted to do this, Vivendi would not allow it. Shareholders would not allow it. The voting block of evangelical christians in the USA is over 30m people. They would circulate the fact that this game had these themes, there are scouting groups who do so, and suggest it be removed or advise their community to stop playing the games. These are the same people who think Harry Potter is a warlock and evil, so maybe they already don't allow WoW to be played. Including LGBT would be a bad financial move. In fact, it could create unwanted attention from conservatives.The way to further the cause of equality is by getting those who understand the issues to publicise them. Blizzard are not special experts on LGBT issues, and could easily create more controversy purely by how these characters would be depicted in WoW. If you wanted to make some cinema with lead characters who were gay, you wouldn't ask for their inclusion in the next spielberg blockbuster. You would make your own IP with your own control. Small independent films can do this, they do. Small independent games companies could too. The disney of the games industry could not. Neither will you see gay disney characters anytime soon. In the recent Pirates of the Carribean film, orlando bloom has to marry keira before he can get her pregnant and sail off. That is Disney. In the words of reverend love joys overprotective wife, "Won't someone please think of the children?".Lastly, someone needs to say, if you are LGBT then you are in an extreme minority. No, you will not feature in most media, especially any media seeking the largest possible audience.To conclude: WoW is a business, made to appeal to the largest audience. Real world is not relevant to fantasy, by definition. No explanation is required. This is like asking why there is only one girl smurf? It is simple over thinking of a fictional idea by applying real world issues. To a feminist, smurfette must be struggling to make do in a patriarchal society run by a single old man.
  1. Dacia Ultan's Avatar
    @ Shadowdasher: Your logic is flawed, but Jacinda has more or less covered why.

    @ Jacinda: Yes. Thank you.

    @ Ryall: Hmm...

    Nothing is "eluding" anyone. We believe—or at least hope—that you're wrong, and that we as a culture can overcome that sort of thing. Disagreement does not equal incomprehension.

    Gee, that sounded suspiciously like "think of the children." You'd almost think WoW was perfectly chaste and entirely devoid of romantic subplots. And snuck in a little complaint about the xpack there, I see...

    Yes, the bigger the company, the more scrutiny they're under. But, conversely: the bigger the company, the more pull they have. The more likely it is that they can fight back.

    And finally? Fiction doesn't happen in a vacuum. Social critique of it is perfectly valid.
  1. rectuss's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by GamerLCD View Post
    Ok...bloodelves and dranei can be monks but Dks can't be padaren..psssh does Lore even matter at this point?
    it's because pandaren were not a part of the war between the lich king and the alliance/horde, if the lich king forces dont kill a pandaren he can't rez him to make a deathknight :P
  1. Dald's Avatar
    The LGBT thing bugs me. I don't see people in such a way. I do not see players or their characters in such a way. I see them as a person or character and their role. It's just weird.
  1. shadowdasher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Farseer Lolotea View Post
    @ Shadowdasher: Your logic is flawed, but Jacinda has more or less covered why.

    @ Jacinda: Yes. Thank you.

    @ Ryall: Hmm...
    So anyone who disagrees with you is flawed

    Those that agree are good.

    And those that bring a very valid point are just eh.

    I see clearly now
  1. Dacia Ultan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dald View Post
    The LGBT thing bugs me. I don't see people in such a way. I do not see players or their characters in such a way. I see them as a person or character and their role. It's just weird.
    Admirable. Unfortunately, yours isn't as common of a viewpoint as it probably should be.

    See: the very existence of this entire kerfuffle.

    Quote Originally Posted by shadowdasher View Post
    So anyone who disagrees with you is flawed

    Those that agree are good.

    And those that bring a very valid point are just eh.

    I see clearly now
    Well, I'm going to disagree with flawed logic, and I'm going to agree with people who point out why said logic is flawed. This should be easy enough to guess.

    And what "valid point," much less "very valid point," did Ryall supposedly bring, pray tell? That cultural attitudes are as good as they're ever going to get? That we have to protect the innocent children from sexuality, unless it's hetero and therefore "okay"? That Blizzard has its image to consider and should therefore be scared of the big bad self-proclaimed moral guardians? That people like that don't belong in fantasy worlds? Or that social critique of media is pointless?

    Because that's what Ryall's post added up to. And those are not valid points. At best, they're cop-outs; at worst, there are seriously disturbing implications to them.
  1. Bree's Avatar
    Hello MMO! I am the "Blizzcon Lesbian" and I have been following these comments since they were posted. I just wanted to say that I have posted a bit of an explanation over on the WOW forums at us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3430806002. You can read it if you want, or you can continue to be mad at me if you don't, just thought I would post it here.

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