Blizzard Arena Opens, Tweets, Heroes - Junkrat and Hallow's End, DLC #601

Season 11 Ends Oct 20th, Season 12 Starts November 9th

The Everlasting Gobstopper Card Design Competition

Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles
Blizzard's new arena opened this weekend for the Overwatch Contenders Season One Playoffs!



Game Developer Tweets
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
From your answer about mistakes new game designers make you mentioned “Not recognizing that they have reached a point of diminishing returns.” Can you explain what that means?
As a developer, there are a limited number of hours in the work week (even if you willingly work extra hours, which a lot of Rioters do). If you are spending your time on problem X, then you aren’t spending your time on problem Y.

If you get problem X to a solution that you would grade as an 85% in a day, and it takes you another day to get it to 90%, then you’re only improving it by 5% a day compared to your original output of 85% a day. That’s the diminishing returns part. Your efficiency drops to the floor, particularly compared to other projects you could be working on.

Now I’m not advocating shipping crappy, half-baked, or phoned-in designs. But in this business hitting 100% is almost never realistic, and the cost of hitting 100% isn’t worth it when you consider the opportunity cost of what you’re not doing in the same window. You have probably heard the phrase “The enemy of good is perfect.”

Junior designers mismanage this all the time. They get so excited about their project that they don’t want to live within any constraints. They are completely focused on how awesome their project is and lose sight of the cost of that project (in terms of their time).

I once spent several days setting up a battle between two NPCs that was just background action for players to make it feel like a battle was raging all around them. It looked really cool, but it took a long time to set up. If this was the climax of a big moment, then maybe that expenditure was worth it. Or maybe I should have spent that time to set up two different battles that would have more impact on players in the long run.

Another way this manifests is when a junior designer spends too much time trying to save a flawed concept rather than recognizing that it probably can’t be saved without weeks of work and that they would be better off to consider alternative concepts. (Source)



Heroes of the Storm - Junkrat, Hallow’s End, and More!
This week we got a preview of Junkrat, the Hallow's End event, and other things in development.



FinalBossTV - Episode #153: Mythic Dungeon Invitational
Check out FinalBossTV on Sunday for the Mythic Dungeon Invitational episode!



Dark Legacy Comics #601 - Play to Whine
DLC #601 has been released!



This Week in WoW History
We're taking a look back at old MMO-Champion posts and World of Warcraft news that occurred during this time in previous years.

South Park Releases "Make Love, not Warcraft"
The popular animated sitcom, South Park released their eighth episode in season ten. Make Love, not Warcraft was a Primetime Emmy Award winning episode featuring Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny who became obsessed with the game, making it their quest to stop a high level player from killing others.


World of Warcraft Reaches 12 Million Players
The game peaked at 12 million players worldwide shortly after the Wrath of the Lich King expansion being available in China. The active subscriber numbers have not reached the same levels since, and only came close two years later. Blizzard announced they would no longer be reporting subscriber numbers in late 2015.


Flexible Raid Lockout
The flexible raid lockout system was announced as an upcoming feature for Patch 4.0.1. This new system allowed players to be loot locked to specific bosses each week rather than a specific raid size. This change standardized loot from 10 and 25 man raid size to the same item level, which allowed guilds the choice of which raid size they preferred more. This system had a few restrictions when it came to Heroic raiding, but it marked a great stepping stone towards a better raid system. Today’s flexible Normal and Heroic raid System is largely based on this initial version which we saw implemented in the Cataclysm.


Dragon Soul and Tier 13
Shortly after the preview of Dragon Soul, the Tier 13 Armor Sets and raid weapons were added. This gave us a preview of what the sets in the new raid would look like, as well as the new Rogue Legendary weapons that were obtainable in the new raid. Dragon Soul was the first raid which featured an end boss who only had weapons on his loot table, rather than a combination of weapons and armor.


Arcane Mage Hidden Appearance Discovered
After the beginning of Legion, every class was looking for their Hidden Artifact Appearance. The Woolomancer's Charge was discovered almost two months after the launch of the new expansion. This appearance had multiple steps that needed to be completed to unlock it, making it one of the more interesting ones to be found in the Order of the Shepherd Discord.


This article was originally published in forum thread: Blizzard Arena Opens, Tweets, Heroes - Junkrat and Hallow's End, DLC #601 started by chaud View original post
Published on 2017-10-08 05:19 AM
32 Comments
Comments 32 Comments
  1. Enan1981's Avatar
    Are they just trying to make him relevant or something?
  1. ImpTaimer's Avatar
    For fucks sake chaud. Now you're pushing Ghostfraud crap on the front page without labeling it so people read through the verbal garbage not realizing right away it's that fucking pseudointellectual?

    I feel like I got brain damage for even reading the whole thing. Dead-line based development is cancer and noone should be defending it. If you are the owner of your own intellectual property you don't set deadlines and you don't sit back while other people work on it. The industry is plagued with this garbage slave-master mentality that ownership supersedes work effort. Owning property does not grant you wealth, and holding a position does not grant you a paycheck.

    None of these hacks would even entertain the thought of voluntarily working unpaid overtime anyway. They'll just make some poor unpaid intern or underpayed employee do it for them, or worse pay off some chinese or koreans.
  1. Logwyn's Avatar
    How much are the concessions in this arena?
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Logwyn View Post
    How much are the concessions in this arena?
    about tree-fiddy
  1. Kaleredar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ImpTaimer View Post
    For fucks sake chaud. Now you're pushing Ghostfraud crap on the front page without labeling it so people read through the verbal garbage not realizing right away it's that fucking pseudointellectual?

    I feel like I got brain damage for even reading the whole thing. Dead-line based development is cancer and noone should be defending it. If you are the owner of your own intellectual property you don't set deadlines and you don't sit back while other people work on it
    Have you ever heard of a director? That's exactly what they do. Though I'm not really sure where you get the notion of them "sitting back;" they're in charge of directing everybody and wrangling the different aspects. Games aren't made without directors, because otherwise you have no way to tie the whole thing together. Show me an artistic project without a director and I'll show you a project that's never going to be done.

    The industry is plagued with this garbage slave-master mentality that ownership supersedes work effort. Owning property does not grant you wealth, and holding a position does not grant you a paycheck.
    Again, the position of "director" says otherwise.

    None of these hacks would even entertain the thought of voluntarily working unpaid overtime anyway. They'll just make some poor unpaid intern or underpayed employee do it for them, or worse pay off some chinese or koreans.
    Why the hell should they work unpaid overtime? They're BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS that do these jobs. They have made it their profession to work in this industry; expecting people to work unpaid overtime is a very UNPROFESSIONAL thing for a business to demand of its workers. "DO IT FOR THE ART!" is a pathetic excuse when these people do these jobs not only for love of doing it but also for a paycheck.

    As far as interns go, I can't say for riot, but all Blizzard internships are paid. In fact, most big name studios in the video game and animation fields have paid internships these days.

    Frankly, do you have any inkling of how creative projects (or really, any project in a professional environment) are developed? You think they do so without deadlines? OF COURSE they have deadlines.

    You think pixar or disney makes animated movies with a "it'll be done when it's done" mentality? Blizzard might publicly announce that they'll release something "when it's finished" but make no mistake that they have an internal deadline set.

    Do you work in any capacity in a creative field? Because you sound an awful lot like an armchair game designer right now. In which case you should find this sentiment particularly applicable:

    Junior designers mismanage this all the time. They get so excited about their project that they don’t want to live within any constraints. They are completely focused on how awesome their project is and lose sight of the cost of that project (in terms of their time).
    You seem very disillusioned with what it takes to make the creative industry run.
  1. Medievaldragon's Avatar
    Nice pop-culture reference in the Junkrat In Development video. Toward the end, the Greymane dance hails from the Adult Swim Rick and Morty cartoon show. I put this video together so you can see his dance side-by-side. Greymane gets Shwifty!

  1. davidcryix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ImpTaimer View Post
    For fucks sake chaud. Now you're pushing Ghostfraud crap on the front page without labeling it so people read through the verbal garbage not realizing right away it's that fucking pseudointellectual?

    I feel like I got brain damage for even reading the whole thing. Dead-line based development is cancer and noone should be defending it. If you are the owner of your own intellectual property you don't set deadlines and you don't sit back while other people work on it. The industry is plagued with this garbage slave-master mentality that ownership supersedes work effort. Owning property does not grant you wealth, and holding a position does not grant you a paycheck.

    None of these hacks would even entertain the thought of voluntarily working unpaid overtime anyway. They'll just make some poor unpaid intern or underpayed employee do it for them, or worse pay off some chinese or koreans.
    My dude, the principles of diminishing returns are extremely relevant to any kind of project management, especially software development and your brain damage is most certainly not caused by reading ghostcrawler's text based on your objections.

    At some point, you are spending more time polishing a feature than it took to develop it in the first place. If people were happy with it at 80% and more happy with it at 95 or 100%, was that the most efficient use of your time when you could have switched gears and developed a whole entirely different feature that might make other people happy as well?

    The rest of your point about unpaid overtime is borderline incomprehensible and certainly irrelevant to the discussion of "At what point are you better off stopping work on a feature to move onto something else?"
  1. VooDsXo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ImpTaimer View Post
    For fucks sake chaud. Now you're pushing Ghostfraud crap on the front page without labeling it so people read through the verbal garbage not realizing right away it's that fucking pseudointellectual?

    I feel like I got brain damage for even reading the whole thing. Dead-line based development is cancer and noone should be defending it. If you are the owner of your own intellectual property you don't set deadlines and you don't sit back while other people work on it. The industry is plagued with this garbage slave-master mentality that ownership supersedes work effort. Owning property does not grant you wealth, and holding a position does not grant you a paycheck.

    None of these hacks would even entertain the thought of voluntarily working unpaid overtime anyway. They'll just make some poor unpaid intern or underpayed employee do it for them, or worse pay off some chinese or koreans.
    I'm going to have to agree, Ghostcrapper clearly states the most bullshit I've ever read...in what industry is it ever ok to aim for 85%??? The fact his philosophy is fuck it close is good enough blows my mind, like dumb hicks play horse shoes no one else.
  1. outflow's Avatar
    The drinks chiller is faulty. It has no Irn-Bru
  1. mmoc3514689de5's Avatar
    Ah, loving the living crap out of the subs part.
    Remember when WoW was so casual-friendly 80% of MMOC critters shat bricks every day? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
    It's much better now, 4x smaller playerbase say it all.
  1. wonderlust's Avatar
    "even if you willingly work extra hours, which a lot of Rioters do"

    Fuck that shit. I don't wanna crap on Ghostcrawler, because I often enjoy reading what he has to say. But not this time.

    When I was a kid, my dream was getting a job in the gaming industry (in a place like Blizzard), or even having my own game company.

    My perspective has shifted completely. Between the extra hours, the deadlines, the money-grabbing business practices, and the extremely toxic environment perpetuated by so-called gamers, working on gaming sounds like a fucking nightmare.
  1. Eggroll's Avatar
    What the hell Bay? Finalbosstv episode blocked by subscription?

    What the hell, Chaud, linking contend that's hidden behind a paywall?
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