Forbes BfA Interview, Blizzcon Early Access Sale, Darkshore Warfront with Devs

Developer Q&A - Ion Hazzikostas

This Week We're Creating Cards Which Have The Power Of Treants

Overwatch Patch 1.29 Highlights

Forbes Interview with Ion Hazzikostas on Battle for Azeroth's Launch
Forbes sat down with Ion Hazzikostas to discuss the launch of BfA and hot topics from the community.



  • The team has enjoyed seeing the millions of people dive into the world of Battle for Azeroth.
  • Ion admits that there was some major issues at launch such as the auction house lag and the Legion Mythic + data carrying over to the first week of BfA Mythic +.
  • When they introduce major new systems, there's a lot to learn in terms of player feedback, from the beta to seeing millions of people interacting with them in a much more real way.
  • The team is actively trying to bring Azerite Traits in line with each other via Hotfix.
  • The "we told you our issues during beta" criticism is always tricky because there are many different people with many different opinions and play styles doing a variety of different content. It is impossible to please everyone, but they are always listening.
  • Things like long ramp up times for Shadow Priests and Feral Druids are major concerns because it essentially does make them irrelevant for the environment of Mythic +, and the team recognizes that as a problem.
  • The team makes sure that the core systems of the expansion are polished and ready to go, but realize that they can't delay an entire expansion for millions of players if a specific class or spec is not perfect.
  • Ion never said that the classes were not complete in the Q & A in which he said certain specs needed to wait for a patch to get adjustments, just that some of them needed to be adjusted and looked at still.
  • The truth of the matter is that classes are never complete in WoW and are always being adjusted and iterated. Often times changes in beta require other unforeseen additional changes in live.
  • The team recognizes that pressing several abilities on the global cooldown that do nothing but buff your character is not good gameplay and plan to address it (such as with frost death knight). They want to further develop classes so that these abilities do more than just buff.
  • Gameplay hasn't necessarily slowed down so much as whenever a new expansion launches stats have to be brought down as a character levels in order to stop characters from getting ridiculous stat percentages.
  • The team's top priority as of now is getting out content consistently and working on the Azerite System and the feel of Island Expeditions.
  • Azerite Armor was easily accessible in early game, but the team realizes that it became hard to acquire as you progressed in item level.
  • They are looking at how they can improve delivery of Azerite armor to get it into player's hands without also just having a loot hose where suddenly everyone is drowning in the stuff and it doesn't feel like it's even a reward anymore. They want to find a happy medium.
  • The team wants the Azerite powers to be more than just an externally solved math problem and give decisions such as what is most enjoyable for gameplay.
  • The team likes some sort of mystery that requires players to solve such as with Reorigination Array. They like to see players figuring out that this special buff takes 3 bosses per week to upgrade and that it basically happens organically as you raid.
  • The team recognizes that they could have done a better job explaining the different phases that happen during Warfront progression.
  • The team also recognizes that they should have explained the changes to the amount of loot rewarded from your weekly cache before BfA went live.
  • The team still wants Island Expeditions to be the best way to obtain Azerite and will continue to iterate on Island Expedition rewards as a whole.
  • They want Island Expeditions to feel more like questing and exploring in the world while leveling, meaning more clear roads and camps that lead to quests and objectives that are more dynamic.
  • The main source of pride for this expansion is the art team and the world that they created.
  • The team is happy with how War Mode turned out as well as the dungeons and raid.
  • It was awesome to see the race for Mythic World First.


Blizzcon Early Access Sale
Blizzcon attendees and virtual ticket holders can now view the early access sale for some Blizzcon merchandise!




Play with the Blues - Darkshore Warfront
You can help test the Darkshore Warfront with the Blizzard Devs tomorrow at 1 PM Pacific!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Tomorrow - Friday, October 12, starting at 1 PM Pacific (4 PM Eastern) - many members of the World of Warcraft design and QA teams will be hitting up the PTR to test the new Darkshore Warfront being added in Tides of Vengeance!

This initial test will feature the Alliance version of the Warfront. For testing purposes, it'll be accessible to characters level 110 to 120, and be forced active for the duration of the test regardless of the state of the Darkshore zone. We've also added an extra Warfront table to Stormwind to help newly-created PTR characters get in on the test easier, and sped up the overall cycle (again, to aid with testing).

Your participation is invaluable at this stage of development for the new Warfront, so we'd love to see you join us tomorrow as we put it through its paces. Thank you!

Join The Great Gnomeregan Run–October 13!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Are you a gnome? Do you know a gnome? Would you like to BE a gnome? (And who wouldn’t?) Then rise UP to the challenge of The Great Gnomeregan Run on Saturday, October 13 from Gnomeregan to Booty Bay.

Where: Beginning outside the gnome starting area and ending in Booty Bay
Who: Alliance-Only (Don’t worry, Horde can create a level 1 gnome and join in the fun too.)

Whether you’re a level 1 gnome (highly encouraged), a level 71 human, or a level 110 draenei, you’ll be able to join in this fun run beginning in the gnome starting area, winding through Dun Morogh, Ironforge, the Deeprun Tram, Stormwind, Elwynn Forest, Duskwood, and Stranglethorn Vale where the run culminates in Booty Bay.


It's a big big BIG world out there, but don’t worry about getting lost, there will be course markers and spectators along the way to help keep you on track. You’ll even see a few familiar faces among the onlookers!



Stranglethorn Vale is a dangerous place for low-level characters so you may want to find some muscle to join you along the way for a little extra protection. If you’re a higher-level character, think about playing chaperone for a gnome.

Whether short or tall, it will be a good time for all.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Forbes BfA Interview, Blizzcon Early Access Sale, Darkshore Warfront with Devs started by Stoy View original post
Published on 2018-10-12 04:10 PM
116 Comments
Comments 116 Comments
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maarius View Post
    Do you personally have the feeling that most of the people in WM only do it for the (minor) PvE rewards? Personally I love the new Warmode and I haven't ever turned it on to receive a 10% bonus on WQs, but maybe that's just my subjective perspective on that matter.

    All in all I just feel that people really like WM, but maybe it's just the people I play with.
    Unfortunatelly they're doing it for the rewards.

    They're not minor pve rewards. Extra XP, rep (and of course honor, which is 0 from pve), azerite, dmg and healing (both fro the kill buff and from the powerful pvp skills) for faster WQ completion and gear drops (the chests).

    At launch, just the extra XP and damage was enough. While I was still at 111 with WM off, all my friends and guildies with WM on where already 113 and when we had the power drop from disabled legendaries, they were still doing high damage to mobs while I was suffering from the bad mob power scaling at 117-120. And those bonuses in a expansion where each side plays on it's own map...

    In the end I just turned WM on and enjoyed a much faster leveling and less problems with mob scaling. Turned it off again at 120 for WQs, but can still see how far ahead others are in azerite, rep and gear... while doing the same activities. When I turn it on for some specific activity (like the WM achievements or making it easier to find groups for Arathi rares), I can see so many players trying to avoid wpvp with WM on, because of the unecessary bonuses, instead of just turning it off.

    Players just standing there, still (or trying to run away), because they don't want to do it, they're doing that only for the damn bonuses.

    People should be playing with WM on because they like it, just like when they decided to play on pvp realms. Not because they'll receive plenty of pve rewards and faster progression for doing so while the others receive 0.
  1. Paperfox's Avatar
    When he came on board in the middle of MoP, the first thing he did was to get rid of tokens - they were a form of currency so that you could buy decent gear if you didn't raid, and you could get so many per week. This meant that everybody was running the dungeons after they out-geared them. Then when you could buy the gear for gold, it meant that the dungeons became something that you would run once or twice, and then never again.

    One of the reasons I sometimes wonder if he actually works for a competitor who's main job is to kill wow.
  1. IIamaKing's Avatar
    They will NEVER say any system is total shit. He is a mouthpiece for a public company, these interviews can affect share prices if he were to come out and state, "this system is borked, we fucked it up, sorry" that shit could shake investor confidence. It will always be PR doublespeak, why do you think they put a lawyer in the position?
    Ions job is NOT to admit fault its to make every one (shareholders) know that everything's A-OK with WoW. Any fault admitted will be slight with a fix already in the works or implemented. They flat out will never say "Well XX system was a total failure" Not until the very end of an xpac, at least when the "fix" is ready to be implemented.
  1. Aoyi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dranlord View Post
    bc, is impossible to tune, every single class w/o million of player feedback, some tunning go beyond the betas, more at the point the game is.

    No game to this day come out 100% polish, and ever game have bug. So i dont know why ppl give so much crap to blizzard about it, they work hard to introduce alot of fix during current patch and majoy change on new patchs.

    Other online game dont fix shit for years.

    Plus lets be real you guys complain about Spriest or Shaman, and isnt the first expansion 1 class is broken till a later patch. So what is the issue?

    Saying that things aren’t as bad as another game means absolutely nothing. Who cares if game X by mystery developer Y was broken for years other than the people who bought mystery game X? I and many others have a right to complain when its not just an imagined issue. Its an issue that Ion himself acknowledged was a problem back in June. If you are happy with the game, great. I’m happy for you. Just don’t belittle other people’s valid concerns just because of an “it could be worse” type of situation. The game was not ready for launch. The shaman and shadow priest complaints were just a small part of that. Every other day there was a huge issue. Whether azerite tunings of 250%, mythic cache screw ups, removing weapons from people that earned them in raid, warfront rollout imbalances, etc. They chose to release it 5 weeks earlier than their own announced window end date.
  1. Confucius's Avatar
    this is what happens when you let the lunatic run the asylum
  1. Roujeaux's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stoy View Post
    [*]The "we told you our issues during beta" criticism is always tricky because there are many different people with many different opinions and play styles doing a variety of different content. It is impossible to please everyone, but they are always listening.
    [/blizzquote]
    He didn't say the criticism was fair, he said it was tricky. Nice dodge.

    Also what's the point of even having a beta or any testing phase if it's that difficult to decipher proper feedback? And why continue to ask the playerbase for feedback on top of all that?
  1. kevincuomo's Avatar
    Ion should be a politician the way he dodges and chooses to avoid questions with real answers. Yea Ion, there will always be some people who will never bad mouth WoW no matter how bad it is because they are casual idiots and have no idea what the game could be. They run LFR and do Heroic dungeons and world quests twice a week. The real players all told you forever ago we hate AP and Relics and you still introduce the Azerite System?

    You sir Ion are failing tremendously at your job and people are starting to take notice. Man up, admit you were wrong and it failed and scrap it. Nothing worse than someone who knows he made a mistake but refuses to cop to it, its pathetic in every sense of the word.
  1. snige's Avatar
    Ive played wow for 14 years now, (skipping pandaria and wod) and I have to admit. I'm slowly coming to the realization that the game is in its worst shape ever. I believe that Ion and co. have seriously lost touch with what makes wow great and make players stick around.
    The fact that they are circlejearking around these systems like island expeditions, azerite armor, warfronts, titanforging, warmode etc is to me evidence that they have forgotten that the ONLY thing that matters is community. When a player can go through basically the entire game without uttering a single world to another player, WE HAVE A PROBLEM ION! Start with that! Give players a reason to be part of a community. Where is the in-game guild recruitment tool? Where is the difficult content that makes you ask a friend for help? Where is the content that forces you to communicate with your fellow gamers? Where is the amazing looking armor that you can only get from banding together with friends? Where is the raid/pvp-armor that makes me WANT TO DO THAT CONTENT?
    When bob raids 8 hours a week and mike only pugs shit 1 hour a week, how is it possible that these two players are even remotely close in strength?

    Stop trying to make wow fit within the top 5 games on twitch. IT WONT WORK!
  1. lichbane's Avatar
    They want Island Expeditions to feel more like questing and exploring in the world while leveling, meaning more clear roads and camps that lead to quests and objectives that are more dynamic.
    Well they flat out failed there. It feels like a rushed grind
  1. Mazinger-Z's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aoyi View Post
    What really bothers me and I'm sure bothers a lot of other players is the stance that they didn't have time to work on these issues before release. They didn't have to release on the day they did. In the past, they've held product to give more time to tune fix known issues. The release announcement said the expansion would release no later than September 21st, so why rush it out more than a month early? They could have done a proper beta test before release if they gave themselves another month.

    In the June 14th Q&A specifically said that enhancement, shadow, and to a lesser extent elemental shaman would not be getting the attention they needed until 8.1 as the window for major changes was rapidly closing. If they knew 2 months prior to release that they weren't able to address these issues and still were going forward with the release date, maybe that's a problem with their new policies? I mean, you have 12 classes in the game and you are saying that you know that both dps specs for one class aren't in the best place. If you've been playing a dps shaman forever and a lead at Blizzard is telling you that they know that you don't have a good option for your class to dps right now, but please wait 5 months for this to be addressed (from the date of the interview, not release to 8.1), don't you have a right to be upset by that?
    The game was released early so that Brack could be shown to shareholders as someone who could make gobs of money leading up to the decision to pick Morhaime's replacement.
  1. Roar-Powah's Avatar
    Need to call bullshit on this "The team has enjoyed seeing the millions of people dive into the world of Battle for Azeroth." Every time i log in on a med to high pop realm i never see anyone from my realm in the open world. It's all CRZ and sharding bullshit.

    This guy is a fking muppet, he needs to go back to being a lawyer as he doesn't belong in the gaming world or being a lead on anything game related. With him at the helm this game has turned into a dogs breakfast. He needs to go, and i hope the higher ups at Blizzard can see this with how much negative shit comes his way every time he opens his mouth in public. The lawyer speak / bs needs to piss off, as this isn't a court room and gamers will call him out on his bullshit.


    Many people including my self said in beta that the GCD made classes feel slow/boring and clunky, how isn't this good feedback? I thought feedback is someone giving their opinion on said topic, good or bad it's still feedback. Blizzard shouldn't let him keep his job anymore, he is bad for their image.
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by americandavey View Post
    If the Game Director doesnt have control of the game that he is in charge of, then what is the point of having a Game Director. Yeah I am sure Chilton let people under him determine what goes in WOW without his approval when he was Game Director.
    game director is not the one who decides the direction in which game is going.

    its the people above him who take care of $$$$ do that to ensure its succesfull money wise.

    people sometimes forget that "wow' is buisness tool nothing else - its not a frinkin charity that is supposed to bring happiness to world
  1. Roar-Powah's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    game director is not the one who decides the direction in which game is going.

    its the people above him who take care of $$$$ do that to ensure its succesfull money wise.

    people sometimes forget that "wow' is buisness tool nothing else - its not a frinkin charity that is supposed to bring happiness to world

    You're correct that WoW is a "business" and not a charity, but said business does need to make the customers happy or you have no business and Blizzard has forgotten this. Never ever forget your roots as a business or you will end up like Blizzard ( With lots of money and fans that are starting to turn on them)
  1. Easo's Avatar
    Opinions during beta? No! We reported bugs too! Bugs are not opinions. And a lot was not fixed. So please, Ion, stop your lawyer speach for once.
    P.S.
    Yes, the art team (and music, as usual) indeed did a very fine job. This is something which has always been really good.
  1. Surreality's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Roar-Powah View Post
    Need to call bullshit on this "The team has enjoyed seeing the millions of people dive into the world of Battle for Azeroth." Every time i log in on a med to high pop realm i never see anyone from my realm in the open world. It's all CRZ and sharding bullshit.

    This guy is a fking muppet, he needs to go back to being a lawyer as he doesn't belong in the gaming world or being a lead on anything game related. With him at the helm this game has turned into a dogs breakfast. He needs to go, and i hope the higher ups at Blizzard can see this with how much negative shit comes his way every time he opens his mouth in public. The lawyer speak / bs needs to piss off, as this isn't a court room and gamers will call him out on his bullshit.


    Many people including my self said in beta that the GCD made classes feel slow/boring and clunky, how isn't this good feedback? I thought feedback is someone giving their opinion on said topic, good or bad it's still feedback. Blizzard shouldn't let him keep his job anymore, he is bad for their image.
    The two servers that I play on, Illidan and Area 52, always say "full", no matter what time of day I get on. The two medium population servers that I have other characters on always say "medium". Not that I really know if any of that really means anything. There are still the same number of people in my guilds, minus maybe one or two, that still log on regularly. The only thing I really see them complain about is not getting loot drops from world bosses or things like that. When I do WQ, there are still a ton of people doing them also. Although on that, it does depend on the time of day now. Yes, I do understand cross-realms and that it may not much of anything either. I'm sure it's not the same for everyone, but this is my experience.
  1. mmocfce39d790f's Avatar
    "The "we told you our issues during beta" criticism is always tricky because...."

    Oh fuck off mate. What's the fucking point in having a beta in the first place if the input from the players is going to be ignored.

    This seriously comes across to me like Ion has head so far up his ass, he's licking his stomach lining.

    I haven't played the game in 2 weeks, my game time runs out in 10 days. I have a feeling that around the same time, there's going to be a drastic drop in player activity.

    This whole interview was one giant fucking circle jerk.
  1. dblanch369's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by SimmerRift View Post
    "The "we told you our issues during beta" criticism is always tricky because...."

    Oh fuck off mate. What's the fucking point in having a beta in the first place if the input from the players is going to be ignored.

    This seriously comes across to me like Ion has head so far up his ass, he's licking his stomach lining.

    I haven't played the game in 2 weeks, my game time runs out in 10 days. I have a feeling that around the same time, there's going to be a drastic drop in player activity.

    This whole interview was one giant fucking circle jerk.
    That's about right on the mark.

    And "millions of people" playing? Who is he kidding? Didn't they stop tracking subs when they went below 500k? (or something, I don't remember the exact #)

    Ion is completely full of shit.
  1. mmocf8df36008b's Avatar
    None of the spelling mistakes of grammatical errors I reported were fixed before release. Or even now. If you can't even get that right...
  1. dranlord's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dblanch369 View Post
    That's about right on the mark.

    And "millions of people" playing? Who is he kidding? Didn't they stop tracking subs when they went below 500k? (or something, I don't remember the exact #)

    Ion is completely full of shit.
    you really think WoW have less that 500k player.

    -.- ppl really surprise me this days.

    No game the size of wow will be able to function if they have that little player base.

    They stop tracking away about 1M mark.

    Plus, i know we like to complain bc WoW isnt anymore the game we used to play and whatever, but the game still have a good life on it, is just easy to see if you go to any city and is full with ppl and you have multilple groups going on a raid night.

    Go play a dying game and you will see the differences. I play SW Galaxie at the end or other dying mmo and wow isnt close to it
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    game director is not the one who decides the direction in which game is going.

    its the people above him who take care of $$$$ do that to ensure its succesfull money wise.

    people sometimes forget that "wow' is buisness tool nothing else - its not a frinkin charity that is supposed to bring happiness to world
    "Direction" is literally in his fucking job title.

    The board at ATVI don't have one fuck to give about gameplay, classes, or warfronts. All they care about is profits - how Ion and Brack do that? That's up to them.

    Ion is the DIRECTOR of WoW. Thus, he's responsible for the direction of the game, regardless if the ideas are his, or the teams. The Board at ATVI is not sending him emails to not let raids go into warfronts as a group. Ion and his team decided that.
Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst
1
2
3
4
5
... LastLast

Site Navigation

Social Media

Services

My Account

Support

Advertise

Resources

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Our Communities

© 2023 Magic Find, Inc. All rights reserved.