

Battle.Net Website Update - Legion Preparation
Blizzard made a small update to the Battle.Net website to add design elements for Legion. The Illidari Felstalker mount that is the reward for the Collector's Edition was added in Patch 6.2.2. No preorder date has been announced yet.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Crithto Leaving Blizzard
Honestly, yesterday was one of the most emotionally overwhelming days I've ever experienced. I had no idea I'd get the reaction I did from so many people including all of you. I spent some time last night reading your comments here and let me just say, I was moved.
Your touching responses, well wishes, and encouragement mean the world to me. Not only that, but friends of mine outside our world here caught wind of it all, and you moved them to tears as well. And this isn't to inspire more sadness or posts. I just wanted each of you to know how much I appreciate what you've shared, player and co-worker alike. Thank you. Truly, truly, thank you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Assault on the Pit and Draenor Flying
The frustration caused by having to wait for Assault on the Pit is something I've seen a lot of over the past few weeks. I don't have any additional information at this time, but I wanted to let you know that this feedback has been forwarded on. Thanks for the feedback! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Official Communication
I’m going to try and tackle some of the most recurrent questions and concerns here. Bear with me!
Again I want to reiterate that your feedback does get read. The tricky situation is that replying to a thread with a small “thanks, this has been forwarded on” can then set a false expectation that there will be an answer, or a change to the game, when that post appears out of context somewhere else on the internet.
Likewise, after a while a simple “thanks for the feedback” in response to every thread can begin to feel just as empty as not receiving an answer at all. It may also cause people to feel more neglected than they already are, if their own topics are not replied too. Having a lot of similar replies can even make relevant answers harder to locate on the aforementioned Blue Trackers. Of course, if a topic is particularly prevalent I will endeavour to let you know that it has been heard. (for example)
I’m also not a developer, so I’m not really in a position of speculating or commenting on game design choices where the Blue text effectively causes any response posted to be viewed as Blizzard’s official stance. That being said I will try to chase up on widespread concerns and, any significant information I do get, I will try to relay to you as much as possible. Though I also want any information I provide to be as accurate as possible to avoid potential sources of confusion. This leads into:
To the green - seriously? Timezone difficulties and "permission-to-post" issues?
It’s not really a permissions issue. Of course we want to make sure that everything we post is accurate which can cause delays. Some communications are partially a timezone issue, with the developers being in the US it’s far more likely that any tweets or posts that the developers make, will be during US hours, because that’s when they’re working. Likewise it means that here in Europe, we may have to send e-mails to the developers enquire for information if our schedules don’t overlap.
For all important communications, we are trying to get everything communicated at the same time in all regions via blog posts. If any localisation is needed, then that may delay the process, but the goal is for important communications to be on blogs in all regions within 24 hours.
Yes, this may not have always happened in the past. We’re well aware of that and working on improving.
On that note, let me pitch a question here – would you like for the Updates from @WarcraftDevs thread to be mirrored onto the EU forums so you have better visibility of it?
Eu needs to get the information in all languages at the same time or the world is destroyed.
This isn’t always the case either. While it is true for important announcements and updates, there are smaller, more language-specific, updates from the community that may not be posted in all languages. This is decided on a language by language basis. For example a Hearthstone tournament running in Germany, only being casted in German, would normally only be communicated to our German speaking audience as it’s of more relevance to them.
And I'm simply astounded by your welcome thread and Bashiok's farewell thread, because most of those blues, I've never even seen them here or anywhere for that matter, especially not this year, AND YET - most of them bear the "Community Manager" title.
The Blues you see in those threads are Community Managers that have individual game and languages responsibilities. For example, here in Europe we support 6 games in 5+ different languages; to break that down there is (generally) one Community Manager per language, per game. That means there are a lot of Blues you may never see outside of those types of threads, simply because they are supporting a different game/language.
I have a question; as a community manager surely managing the community of the official site takes precedence over third parties i.e. twitter, youtube, fansites etc. Why is this not the case? If people have feedback to give or questions to ask surely the official forums would be the place they're most likely to come to do so.
I know this isn’t going to be a popular answer, but Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (and probably more to come) are also official channels. These sites may not be directly hosted on Battle.net, but they are still official channels. The World of Warcraft community, as a whole, is very diverse and spread out more than just on the official forums. All feedback is valuable, regardless of where it comes from.
To go back to an earlier point, any important information we try to communicate through the official blogs. The official Twitter and Facebook pages are generally used to highlight fun stuff the community is doing (Cosplay, Machinima, Fan-Art, etc.) as well as direct people to the official blog posts. Again, this is something we’re striving to improve on.
But, and ultimately…
I fully understand that you have all been feeling neglected here on the EU forums and I definitely hear that there are aspects of the game that you’re unhappy with. However, I can’t change what has happened in the past. I can only change what happens going forward. I want to go forward working together with you all, which is why I made my initial post (and this follow-up!) giving you a view of the stuff I do. The main takeaway I wanted to give from that post is that some days (maybe even weeks), I might not post all but that this isn’t because I’m ignoring you. Interacting with the community, championing your feedback and also highlighting all the great content the community makes, are all things that enticed me toward this job – it’s what I aim to do as often as I can! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Honestly, yesterday was one of the most emotionally overwhelming days I've ever experienced. I had no idea I'd get the reaction I did from so many people including all of you. I spent some time last night reading your comments here and let me just say, I was moved.
Your touching responses, well wishes, and encouragement mean the world to me. Not only that, but friends of mine outside our world here caught wind of it all, and you moved them to tears as well. And this isn't to inspire more sadness or posts. I just wanted each of you to know how much I appreciate what you've shared, player and co-worker alike. Thank you. Truly, truly, thank you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Assault on the Pit and Draenor Flying
The frustration caused by having to wait for Assault on the Pit is something I've seen a lot of over the past few weeks. I don't have any additional information at this time, but I wanted to let you know that this feedback has been forwarded on. Thanks for the feedback! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Official Communication
I’m going to try and tackle some of the most recurrent questions and concerns here. Bear with me!
Again I want to reiterate that your feedback does get read. The tricky situation is that replying to a thread with a small “thanks, this has been forwarded on” can then set a false expectation that there will be an answer, or a change to the game, when that post appears out of context somewhere else on the internet.
Likewise, after a while a simple “thanks for the feedback” in response to every thread can begin to feel just as empty as not receiving an answer at all. It may also cause people to feel more neglected than they already are, if their own topics are not replied too. Having a lot of similar replies can even make relevant answers harder to locate on the aforementioned Blue Trackers. Of course, if a topic is particularly prevalent I will endeavour to let you know that it has been heard. (for example)
I’m also not a developer, so I’m not really in a position of speculating or commenting on game design choices where the Blue text effectively causes any response posted to be viewed as Blizzard’s official stance. That being said I will try to chase up on widespread concerns and, any significant information I do get, I will try to relay to you as much as possible. Though I also want any information I provide to be as accurate as possible to avoid potential sources of confusion. This leads into:
To the green - seriously? Timezone difficulties and "permission-to-post" issues?
It’s not really a permissions issue. Of course we want to make sure that everything we post is accurate which can cause delays. Some communications are partially a timezone issue, with the developers being in the US it’s far more likely that any tweets or posts that the developers make, will be during US hours, because that’s when they’re working. Likewise it means that here in Europe, we may have to send e-mails to the developers enquire for information if our schedules don’t overlap.
For all important communications, we are trying to get everything communicated at the same time in all regions via blog posts. If any localisation is needed, then that may delay the process, but the goal is for important communications to be on blogs in all regions within 24 hours.
Yes, this may not have always happened in the past. We’re well aware of that and working on improving.
On that note, let me pitch a question here – would you like for the Updates from @WarcraftDevs thread to be mirrored onto the EU forums so you have better visibility of it?
Eu needs to get the information in all languages at the same time or the world is destroyed.
This isn’t always the case either. While it is true for important announcements and updates, there are smaller, more language-specific, updates from the community that may not be posted in all languages. This is decided on a language by language basis. For example a Hearthstone tournament running in Germany, only being casted in German, would normally only be communicated to our German speaking audience as it’s of more relevance to them.
And I'm simply astounded by your welcome thread and Bashiok's farewell thread, because most of those blues, I've never even seen them here or anywhere for that matter, especially not this year, AND YET - most of them bear the "Community Manager" title.
The Blues you see in those threads are Community Managers that have individual game and languages responsibilities. For example, here in Europe we support 6 games in 5+ different languages; to break that down there is (generally) one Community Manager per language, per game. That means there are a lot of Blues you may never see outside of those types of threads, simply because they are supporting a different game/language.
I have a question; as a community manager surely managing the community of the official site takes precedence over third parties i.e. twitter, youtube, fansites etc. Why is this not the case? If people have feedback to give or questions to ask surely the official forums would be the place they're most likely to come to do so.
I know this isn’t going to be a popular answer, but Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (and probably more to come) are also official channels. These sites may not be directly hosted on Battle.net, but they are still official channels. The World of Warcraft community, as a whole, is very diverse and spread out more than just on the official forums. All feedback is valuable, regardless of where it comes from.
To go back to an earlier point, any important information we try to communicate through the official blogs. The official Twitter and Facebook pages are generally used to highlight fun stuff the community is doing (Cosplay, Machinima, Fan-Art, etc.) as well as direct people to the official blog posts. Again, this is something we’re striving to improve on.
But, and ultimately…
I fully understand that you have all been feeling neglected here on the EU forums and I definitely hear that there are aspects of the game that you’re unhappy with. However, I can’t change what has happened in the past. I can only change what happens going forward. I want to go forward working together with you all, which is why I made my initial post (and this follow-up!) giving you a view of the stuff I do. The main takeaway I wanted to give from that post is that some days (maybe even weeks), I might not post all but that this isn’t because I’m ignoring you. Interacting with the community, championing your feedback and also highlighting all the great content the community makes, are all things that enticed me toward this job – it’s what I aim to do as often as I can! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
2015 European Regional Finals Disqualifications
This past weekend at the Road to BlizzCon 2015 European Regional Finals in Prague, two players from two different Arena teams were disqualified on the day of the tournament. This resulted in a less-than-ideal experience for everyone involved, especially the other teams in attendance.
In both cases, the disqualified players were found to have been violating the Terms of Service of World of Warcraft. According to our Tournament Rules, players’ accounts must remain in good standing for the entirety of the 2015 WoW Arena World Championship. As these players’ accounts had been suspended, they were no longer in good standing, and thus disqualified from the tournament.
We have performed a thorough investigation of the accounts in question, and have found overwhelming evidence indicating that both players were indeed participating in activities that rightfully resulted in their accounts being suspended. Blizzard does not publicly share details of actions taken against specific accounts, but offenses that typically result in suspension include: exploiting game mechanics, buying or selling accounts, playing another person’s account for advantage (boosting), and/or collusion with opponents.
In both cases, we should have taken action much sooner, and regret that these players were not informed of their disqualified status prior to the event.
We are working to improve our processes to prevent situations like this from happening again, and ensure that ineligible players are properly disqualified before tournament play commences.
In both cases, the disqualified players were found to have been violating the Terms of Service of World of Warcraft. According to our Tournament Rules, players’ accounts must remain in good standing for the entirety of the 2015 WoW Arena World Championship. As these players’ accounts had been suspended, they were no longer in good standing, and thus disqualified from the tournament.
We have performed a thorough investigation of the accounts in question, and have found overwhelming evidence indicating that both players were indeed participating in activities that rightfully resulted in their accounts being suspended. Blizzard does not publicly share details of actions taken against specific accounts, but offenses that typically result in suspension include: exploiting game mechanics, buying or selling accounts, playing another person’s account for advantage (boosting), and/or collusion with opponents.
In both cases, we should have taken action much sooner, and regret that these players were not informed of their disqualified status prior to the event.
We are working to improve our processes to prevent situations like this from happening again, and ensure that ineligible players are properly disqualified before tournament play commences.
HeroStorm #5 - GazlOWNED
Another episode of HeroStorm has been released.
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