Developer Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas - Battle for Azeroth

Look at me. I wear a blazer over my Warcraft shirt. I'm professional. Don't notice that I have the most punchable face at Blizzard.

Kinda stupid question. Sooo, we got allied races, we got upright orks, we got new druid forms for two allied races, but in turn we lost most of weapon proficiencies for our classes and were stuck with those that are forced on us in Legion?

My fury/arms warrior feels bad cause he forgot how to use plain sword.
Gotta handle it to you, most of warriors in other games are laughing their ass off.

I've got a feeling that soon we will see Micro-Transactions in WoW. I know ofc that there are already M-Ts, but I mean ones that matters; not mounts and pets in shop (level boost and time tokens are something different). What I mean precisely is that I think that sooner or later there will be "allied races" to buy, it will include quest-lines and ofc new playable race, and it probably won't be more expensive than 20$. I hope I'm wrong..

Originally Posted by Krisu

I've got a feeling that soon we will see Micro-Transactions in WoW. I know ofc that there are already M-Ts, but I mean ones that matters; not mounts and pets in shop (level boost and time tokens are something different). What I mean precisely is that I think that sooner or later there will be "allied races" to buy, it will include quest-lines and ofc new playable race, and it probably won't be more expensive than 20$. I hope I'm wrong..

In order for something like that to happen they would have to move to b2p or even f2p model, having that much locked content and monthly sub model is a bit too much even for people that are hardcore addicts to wow. I cant say that i dont see it happen as i see cosmetic helms as a test for how much will WoWs community be interested in cosmetic items in shop, but i think it would be simply too much.

Guild Wars 2, has a community sub base called "fashion wars", name speaks for it self, i think that Blizzards "Trial of Style" is something like an attempt to bring something like that to WoW. However, GW2 is b2p model with optional ingame shop that offers mostly cosmetic stuff, but also some QoL stuff, character slots, character customization kits, dye packs and so on.. Taken in concern that legendary items in said game takes quite extensive time period to craft and that most of the items can be dyed however you like "fashion wars" has sense behind it.
Guild Wars 2 does have episodic, seasonal content called "Living Story" that can be bought in shop if you missed it, however you could have unlocked it free of charge simply by just logging in while episode is active.
So, game it self has a extremely lot to offer free of charge but it requires a lot of dedication invested in it, with some exclusive cosmetic options and QoL stuff that are optional to buy. You are not forced to buy it at all, its simply far too good to have, for instance, indestructible gathering tools, rather to have one broken in the middle of gathering.

TL; DL: I think that WoW has well established business model which suites us all, players and Blizzard, for well over 11 years, there were some experiments (with cosmetic helmets for instance) but it would be far too much risky move to steer already hardly calm waters of community.

With level scaling implemented i can see few boosters in the shop - exp boost, PvP exp and rep boosters. Or maybe even PvE only power and spell power boosters now that looms value/strength diminished quite decently.

I can see that they are opening grounds for some new stuff, however having something that is not cosmetic exclusively only in the shop and no other way to get it would rise far too much of angry mob. Gotta remind you that we no longer have an insight in quarterly WoW's sub base as we used to, so i think that Blizz is not quite happy with numbers and they are building content/exploring ways to not only keep current community but also to draw new audience in.
kah.. demon hunters. kah.. void elfs. kah.. golden trolls.. kah.. dino druid forms..

Playable fat people....... EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! /puke

Originally Posted by Trigglypuff

Playable fat people....... EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! /puke

Being fat makes you a different race. Hence fat shaming is racism. Blizzard made that canon!

Originally Posted by Coombs

Look at me. I wear a blazer over my Warcraft shirt. I'm professional. Don't notice that I have the most punchable face at Blizzard.

I'd like to say it takes a special kind of reject to sit down in front of his computer screen and insult a mans face, but unfortunately you are one in a million..

Originally Posted by Unholyground

I feel like the quest to unlock the Zandalari will give us Paladin, they are being tight lipped about it because they don't want Alliance cry babies to shit themselves.

Like they did when they saw Zandalari Druid forms?

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Originally Posted by Ophenia

... Oh. Really.

If you listened to the video, he said how it is now and not at the start. Right now it's pretty alt friendly from my experience and many others.

Originally Posted by riptal

It worries me A LOT!

why ? because you finally realise that 95 % of people couldnt give less f....s about niche activities like raiding or mythic+ when give any other options of stuff to do in endgame ?

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[QUOTE=Frolk;49067947]

Originally Posted by kamuimac

lol they should

blizzard is moving in right direction - ML was bringing to much toxicity to game if toxic people will leave because of it - even better

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How the fuck is ML bringing toxicity to the game?

By "toxicity" u mean disagreement with lootcouncils

clearly devs disagree with loot councils unless you want to diss what they said about funneling gear.

Making up for a problem they created as usual. Removing bad social interactions by removing all interaction alltogheter or making it useless and clunky. Blizz is doing the right thing and i cant wait the time they finally remove raids from the game as an endgame. The conditions that made raiding fun are no longer here so it's a huge waste of dev time.

Things are really in a bad state if the most exciting things to happen are 1. Zandalari Trolls 2. Brown orcs with a straight back. Humans, but from Kul Tiras and Dwarves, but grey with red eyes are the even less exciting Alliance counterparts.

Originally Posted by AnonEntity

Things are really in a bad state if the most exciting things to happen are 1. Zandalari Trolls 2. Brown orcs with a straight back. Humans, but from Kul Tiras and Dwarves, but grey with red eyes are the even less exciting Alliance counterparts.

I dont think so. Blizz is trying to appeal to the "fast paced, fun, skin centered" type of players that are nowadays dominating the gaming scene. M+ is a perfect demonstration of that, from an mmorpg perspective that type of content was never a good thing (doing the same thing with slight changes) but the mmorpg part of wow has been systematically starved since wotlk-late bc, and i think that from an economic standpoint it's the right direction to go for blizz

Originally Posted by Kaleros

The conditions that made raiding fun are no longer here so it's a huge waste of dev time.

I agree, Raiding is a thing of the past. I think Worldquests and Mythic+ aren't enough or interesting enough content for many people, so I think they have to give "raiding" or rather group content a new modern direction.

Originally Posted by AnonEntity

I agree, Raiding is a thing of the past. I think Worldquests and Mythic+ aren't enough or interesting enough content for many people, so I think they have to give "raiding" or rather group content a new modern direction.

Honestly the real problem with the old concept of raiding is the social perspective, the challenge/drop/balance thing is secondary. I think raiding and in a broader sense the "hard work = great satisfaction" type of content is really dead in this time and age. People largely prefear having the Option to go there but not the need to as m+ shows. I cant think of a way to make raids interesting for the actual playerbase in a broad sense.

Originally Posted by pitfireX

The mission table will not be used as a time gate.

As long as this shit isn't mandatory or in the middle of quest lines, then by all means. The second I have to stop progression for 24 hours and lose my free time that I set aside, then its garbage.

You know they said the same stuff about class hall missions in Legion, correct? Feel free to look it up.

Originally Posted by Fritters154

Just look through the forums on this website, the official website, or any other fan site. Players care far more about the allied races than other content right now.

Raiders burned out, it's mostly casuals paying Blizzard's bills now.

Originally Posted by Kaleros

Honestly the real problem with the old concept of raiding is the social perspective, the challenge/drop/balance thing is secondary. I think raiding and in a broader sense the "hard work = great satisfaction" type of content is really dead in this time and age. People largely prefear having the Option to go there but not the need to as m+ shows. I cant think of a way to make raids interesting for the actual playerbase in a broad sense.

Actually, the reason why raiding is dying is :

1/ The design of the classes and battle system is more solo oriented than group oriented in their gameplay, as it used to be back in the pre wotlk era,
2/ The relevant raids are designed with hard limitations related to the number of players required to complete them,
3/ For mythic raiding, you actually need 20 people that have the same skill level.

The combination of all these factors make raiding in wow an antisocial experience. Because due to the fact the gameplay is more and more solo oriented even in raid, 1) the swift completion of said raid is more based on the individual skill of the players rather than teamwork, and 2) as such, as the number of players in M raiding is hardcaped, you basically need to replace your underperfoming players to progress instead of allowing their skill level to grow while practicing (as it was the case in old MMORPG where raiding worked well, namely everquest, FFXI or wow vanilla, you could carry learning players in those games).

It really isn't a problem with the players; The issue is with how the content is designed (and I m not even talking about the fact that due to the oversimplification of the battle system in modern MMORPG, the difficulty must lie elsewhere in the encounters)...

In old mmorpg bringing more players to a raid wasn't a liability as it can be in the modern one, because back in the day you could give the key roles to a few key players who knew what they were doing and tell the new guys to make themselves useful by doing lesser tasks in the raid. It's something you cannot do in moderns MMO and the first raid in wow where things changed was during sunwell in TBC.

Originally Posted by Stanelis

Actually, the reason why raiding is dying is :

1/ The design of the classes and battle system is more solo oriented than group oriented in their gameplay, as it used to be back in the pre wotlk era,
2/ The relevant raids are designed with hard limitations related to the number of players required to complete them,
3/ For mythic raiding, you actually need 20 people that have the same skill level.

The combination of all these factors make raiding in wow an antisocial experience. Because due to the fact the gameplay is more and more solo oriented even in raid, 1) the swift completion of said raid is more based on the individual skill of the players rather than teamwork, and 2) as such, as the number of players in M raiding is hardcaped, you basically need to replace your underperfoming players to progress instead of allowing their skill level to grow while practicing (as it was the case in old MMORPG where raiding worked well, namely everquest, FFXI or wow vanilla, you could carry learning players in those games).

It really isn't a problem with the players; The issue is with how the content is designed (and I m not even talking about the fact that due to the oversimplification of the battle system in modern MMORPG, the difficulty must lie elsewhere in the encounters)...

I partly agree, but i have a couple of issues with your analysis.

1/ The player hardcap is only relevant if it's a wall and not a natural transition, what i mean by this is that if player number is COMPLETELY irrelevant for 99% of the game and then suddenly an hardcap for M raiding it becomes much much more difficult to maintain a roster that can deal with the problems you pointed out.

2/ The real problem i see with raids it's not refered to the HIGH END of the spectrum nor the low end. The harder punch was given to the middle of the pack kind of guild who got deprived of actual "contractual power" towards players. It's not blatantly obviuos but i strongly suspect that that was a really hard hit to the raiding scene. Mid of the pack guilds were the feeders for high end, and a sort of place were "noobs" can learn and decent players can get better before stepping up. The fact that nowadays guild matter ONLY for M raiding is a real issue (from a guild perspective). There is basically NO reason to form a guild except for M raids and so the high end of the spectrum slowly begins to lack replacement since they cant go in lfr and recruit people there.

I suspect there is much more to the issue of the raids but it would make an umplesant wall of text that serves basically 0 purposes in this contex.
Still we just need to recognize that "Organized stable raiding guilds" are a thing of the past for better or worse and move on

Personal loot is a terrible idea. Guilds will just take all the loot and redistribute it via loot council. Blizzard can ofc curb this by not making loot tradable, but this also is s terrible idea, because then you might wind up getting 5 rings or multiples of stuff you already have. It's gonna backfire bad.

Originally Posted by Lucetia

Like they did when they saw Zandalari Druid forms?

We are getting Paladin, I will make a bet on it lol.

Originally Posted by Stanelis

Actually, the reason why raiding is dying is :

1/ The design of the classes and battle system is more solo oriented than group oriented in their gameplay, as it used to be back in the pre wotlk era,
2/ The relevant raids are designed with hard limitations related to the number of players required to complete them,
3/ For mythic raiding, you actually need 20 people that have the same skill level.

The combination of all these factors make raiding in wow an antisocial experience. Because due to the fact the gameplay is more and more solo oriented even in raid, 1) the swift completion of said raid is more based on the individual skill of the players rather than teamwork, and 2) as such, as the number of players in M raiding is hardcaped, you basically need to replace your underperfoming players to progress instead of allowing their skill level to grow while practicing (as it was the case in old MMORPG where raiding worked well, namely everquest, FFXI or wow vanilla, you could carry learning players in those games).

It really isn't a problem with the players; The issue is with how the content is designed (and I m not even talking about the fact that due to the oversimplification of the battle system in modern MMORPG, the difficulty must lie elsewhere in the encounters)...

In old mmorpg bringing more players to a raid wasn't a liability as it can be in the modern one, because back in the day you could give the key roles to a few key players who knew what they were doing and tell the new guys to make themselves useful by doing lesser tasks in the raid. It's something you cannot do in moderns MMO and the first raid in wow where things changed was during sunwell in TBC.

I disagree with almost everything you said. I don't see any evidence regarding class design being more solo oriented and raiders don't care about solo content anyways, most raiders are motivated to raid because they care achieving things that showcase that they are better than everyone else (achievements, raid mounts, mythic gear, server/world rankings). #2 and #3 have been true for most of the history of the game. Content design is likely relevant but developers have been good about listening to player feedback and designing raid content based on that feedback; the raid design/content has generally been considered to be of good quality by most of the playerbase for the last two expansions.

I think it's simply due to player burnout. Younger gamers aren't flocking to the MMORPG genre and raiding is time-consuming, the game's core playerbase is aging and with children and work schedules raiding can be difficult to commit to.