Dev Interview, Raid Testing Changes, Blue Tweets, Heroes Builds, Transmog Contest

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Blizzard Q1 2015 Earnings Call - Developer Interview
Ion Hazzikostas talked to GamesBeat about the recently announced loss of 2.9 million subscribers, Patch 6.2, and Warlords of Draenor.

Subscriber Numbers
  • The team was excited to see the number of subscribers increase with Warlords release, confirming they had selected the right idea and setting for the expansion.
  • Their goal is to make a fun and engaging experience and not chase subscriber numbers, as they are confident that the numbers will follow in the wake of that.
  • WoW released at the right time and has been a very adaptable game, which has helped to sustain it over the years. Other MMOs provide inspiration on how to make the game better.
  • The loss in subscribers is partially due to the cyclical nature of the game.
  • Players don't play WoW year-round anymore, they just come back for new content and then go off to play other games. To some extent that is okay. The team doesn't want to prevent people from playing that way.
  • There was a large spike in subscribers for Warlords so they knew there was going to be a "bit of a dip" after that.
  • The WoW Token hasn't had a drastic impact on the number of subscribers.

Dungeons
  • The new dungeons in Warlords were great, but there was no incentive to keep running them after the start of the expansion.
  • Previous expansions had something like Valor Points to keep players coming back for more dungeons.
  • It felt silly to run the same content over and over even as your character got stronger, which is why the dungeon rewards were removed, but they went too far in Warlords.
  • Group dungeons are one of the greatest strengths in the MMO genre and it is a shame that there hasn't been more of a reason to do them recently.

New Content and Patch 6.2
  • Patch 6.2 is one of the largest content patches ever released.
  • Patch 6.2 adds Timewalking and Mythic dungeons, making group dungeon content relevant again.
  • Patch 6.2 iterates on existing systems, polishes things, and adds some new content.
  • Massive class overhauls aren't as likely to appear in content patches anymore, as returning players come back to find that their class has changed once again.
  • The amount of content added in a patch is a balance between satisfying the hardcore players that go though content very quickly and the players that go at a slower pace.
  • The team also has to make progress on future projects that are important while still working on upcoming content patches.
  • Certain types of changes are reserved for expansions rather than patches to keep complexity in check.

Accessibility
  • Accessibility is a core value of the game and has helped WoW grow and sustain itself.
  • Classes are more complex now than they used to be back in the day. Destro Warlocks in Burning Crusade raids would literally keep up one debuff and press Shadowbolt really hard and fast to beat everyone else. The game hasn't been "dumbed down" from that.
  • Changes have been made to trim excess and keep things focused, but there is still a very high skill cap.
  • Both more casual raiders (Normal difficulty) and hardcore raiders (Mythic difficulty) can now see the entire story. This wasn't possible in older expansions like the Burning Crusade.
  • Accessibility means allowing players that have been playing for a long time to continue to enjoy the game, even if it is at a different level of commitment as their life changes. Many players started out as students and are now professionals with families.

Raids
  • More people are doing organized raiding than ever before thanks to some of the conveniences that have been added recently.
  • It would be nice if Mythic could scale with the raid size, but the team isn't sure that level of tuning is possible.
  • Making specific mechanics and encounters for Mythic difficulty is possible now because of the fixed raid size, but if the raid had to scale down to 10 players that would no longer be possible.

Social
  • The social aspect of the game is very important to the overall experience.
  • The convenience features added over the years have made the game slightly less social.
  • Sitting in town for an hour trying to find a tank in trade chat to go and do a dungeon was inconvenient, but it allowed you to make stronger social bonds.
  • The Group Finder is an attempt to try and create environments where you can still meet new people without spending an extremely long time forming groups.

Misc
  • The group finder is getting lots of use for PvE and PvP content.
  • Garrisons give players reason to log in for a short time when they wouldn't have had any reason to log beofre. It doesn't really take away from raiding, PvP, or other longer playtime activities.


Raid Testing Schedule - May 15 - 18
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We are hoping to have PTR login/access issues resolved by tomorrow, and are adjusting our planned testing accordingly.

From tomorrow through Monday, we will continue our Hellfire Citadel raid testing, including both Heroic and Mythic raid testing. As is always the case with PTR raid testing, it is quite possible that there will be technical or gameplay issues that disrupt our plans. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

Remember that Heroic difficulty scales for any group size between 10 and 30 players, so feel free to assemble and bring a group of any size within that range. Mythic difficulty requires a fixed 20 players. Our general plan is to test every encounter on Heroic difficulty first, and then test sections of the raid on Normal and Raid Finder, alongside targeted Mythic tests.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below on all PTR servers.

Thursday, May 14

CANCELED

Friday, May 15
  • Socrethar the Eternal - Heroic Hellfire Citadel - 11:30 PDT (14:30 EDT, 20:30 CEST)
  • Archimonde - Heroic Hellfire Citadel - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)

After Heroic raid testing concludes on Friday, we will open the Bastion of Shadows Raid Finder wing, including Iskar, Socrethar, and Tyrant Velhari, over the weekend.

Monday, May 18
  • Shadow-Lord Iskar - Mythic Hellfire Citadel - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)
  • Hellfire High Council - Mythic Hellfire Citadel - 15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 24:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a PTR environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

PTR Account Issue
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We are aware of an issue affecting multiple users' PTR accounts and are actively looking into a fix. We will do our best to keep you informed of any status updates, and will let you know if the raid testing schedule needs to be adjusted or pushed back. Thank you for you patience while we investigate into this matter.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
On PTR says new glad mounts are account wide, I'm guessing this is a tooltip error?
Correct. They are not account wide. (holinka)

Garrisons
PTR: Is the mission awarding +50 follow ilvl reward ("Blizzard Convention") a 1 time only mission or can it be repeated?
Repeatable. (Muffinus)

What is the best garrison building? (Muffinus)

HeroesNexus - Hero Builds
Our friends over at HeroesNexus have added Hero Builds to the site! Create, find, and rank builds for your favorite heroes to help improve your gameplay or other the gameplay of other players.



OpenRaid - Transmog Competition With Michele Morrow
Our friends over at OpenRaid are having a transmog competition with Michele Morrow as a guest judge!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Dev Interview, Raid Testing Changes, Blue Tweets, Heroes Builds, Transmog Contest started by chaud View original post
Published on 2015-05-15 07:49 AM
265 Comments
Comments 265 Comments
  1. lagmoose's Avatar
    You know what else would make more incentive to run dungeons? Newer dungeons being added through the expansion to mix with "updated" ones.
  1. Oziriz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by aSynchro View Post
    _ Others mmorpg are doing housing ? Ok, lets do garrisons.
    _ Others mmorpg are doing dynamic events ? Ok, lets add random rare spawns à la Timeless Isle
    These 2 hurt so much, I had so much fun in Rift and GW2 with dynamic events. If done well, with proper resource/rep grinds/dailies/pvp, real dynamic events are the answer to open world content.

    And housing... god damnit. LotRO, Wildstar... (other MMOs I havent played) did housing so well, is it really that complicated?
  1. caervek's Avatar
    It would be nice if Mythic could scale with the raid size, but the team isn't sure that level of tuning is possible.
    Please god yes.
  1. Darkguyver2020's Avatar
    --> The MMO-Champion forums in a nutshell. <--
  1. mmocbc48418b29's Avatar
    TLDR: Bad things are not bad if they are expected.
  1. Kravok's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkguyver2020 View Post
    --> The MMO-Champion forums in a nutshell. <--
    Its people like you that allow blizz to get away with it all.
  1. Darkguyver2020's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kravok View Post
    Its people like you that allow blizz to get away with it all.
    Well STFU and unsubscribe then. It's not like you signed a blood pact to play the game.
  1. Kravok's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkguyver2020 View Post
    Well STFU and unsubscribe then. It's not like you signed a blood pact to play the game.
    Nice straw man
  1. mmoce1e4d9dec7's Avatar
    "Changes have been made to trim excess and keep things focused, but there is still a very high skill cap."

    This makes me want to fucking scream. I logged on my warlock to check out what it was like now and jesus fucking christ, my cat could play it nowadays at the "highest skill cap".
  1. Darkguyver2020's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kravok View Post
    Nice straw man
    Please refer back to my earlier comment.

    Quote Originally Posted by Miuku View Post
    "My cat could play it nowadays at the "highest skill cap".
    I would love to see that. Maybe your cat should join method and carry you through Mythic BRF.
  1. mmoc800743ab5c's Avatar
    Patch 6.2 is one of the largest content patches ever released, measured in unicorns.
  1. Farora's Avatar
    - The loss in subscribers is partially due to the cyclical nature of the game.
    - Players don't play WoW year-round anymore, they just come back for new content and then go off to play other games. To some extent that is okay. The team doesn't want to prevent people from playing that way.

    Yeahhhh... that's a good way to not take blame in releasing a bad expansion. GJ!
  1. draykorinee's Avatar
    Worse reply they could have come up with. Nothing cyclical about it.
  1. Spacehunter's Avatar
    The convenience features added over the years have made the game slightly less social.
    Laughed uproariously at this.
  1. Kolvarg's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Farora View Post
    - The loss in subscribers is partially due to the cyclical nature of the game.
    - Players don't play WoW year-round anymore, they just come back for new content and then go off to play other games. To some extent that is okay. The team doesn't want to prevent people from playing that way.

    Yeahhhh... that's a good way to not take blame in releasing a bad expansion. GJ!
    Nope, it's a good way of saying subscriber numbers are volatile and do not relate to game quality alone, which is true.
  1. Darksoldierr's Avatar
    I'm fairly sure, they know they fucked it up big time. Nonetheless, they cannot say it in a public interview "Oh right, we totally went bonkers with this expansion", obviously the PR hell that would follow would be a disaster.
  1. Beefkow's Avatar
    No mention of pvp, *sad face*

    Unless it was mentioned in the past, I must've missed it.
  1. Yarathir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkguyver2020 View Post
    Well STFU and unsubscribe then. It's not like you signed a blood pact to play the game.

    Can you please stop being such a laughing stock. It makes it hard to keep a straight face.
  1. mmoce1e4d9dec7's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkguyver2020 View Post
    I would love to see that. Maybe your cat should join method and carry you through Mythic BRF.
    He probably could. If you think WoW requires some special ability or talent, you might want to step outside and re-evaluate things a bit. WoW has been, and always will be, a casual game at heart.

    All raiding, even on the "highest level", merely requires time and some modicum of patience when you wipe so you people learn where to stand and when to use their abilities which are now laughably few. There is no magical "this requires extraordinary ability, skill or understanding".

    It's hilarious watching people try to promote mythic raiding as some sort of 'high skill cap' activity when it's essentially repeating the same routine and merely learning the steps. I guess if you have no real talents in life, you have to try to patch it up in a game.
  1. Eliazer681's Avatar
    Guys answers the questions with well thought out logic and gives legit reasons why they expect some level of sub decrease. Promises a large content patch and quite calmly and rationally discusses some other concerns of the idiots who do nothing but criticize the game

    Idiots immediately shit on everything they said

    And you wonder why the do not give a single fuck about you or what you think.
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