World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

With that recent tire fire that was that Reddit post, you sure have some thick skin, Ben Brode mentioned that being sorta the face of a game opens you up to brunt of the community’s attacks when people asked why him and Yong Woo didn’t do more designer insights. Do you feel it’s important for a dev to have thick skin when dealing with this stuff.
I don’t think you can be a good game designer if you have thin skin. You have to subject your ideas to the crucible of review, whether that happens internally or after players see your design.

I do think you can be a good game designer if you have thick skin, but don’t have thick enough skin to open yourself up to direct communication with players. Some of my favorite games have been made by people that can barely stand to have a conversation with other humans, let alone open themselves up to the internet.

But if you’re going to go that route, you just have to be really, really good at what you do. You need a purity of vision or an ability to foresee problems that just isn’t that common in developers. I don’t have that. Way back at Ensemble, when we weren’t sure if design A or design B made more sense, I said “Let’s just ask players what they think.”

You don’t have to ask up front. You can launch a feature, monitor the response, and then iterate on that feature. But you have to get that feedback at some point. Lead Champion Designer Riot Scruffy the other day said something like “Even when you’ve really thought about it, tested and iterated, your chance of nailing a great design is about 70%. So you have to be prepared to iterate based on player feedback. You have to leave time for the follow-up work.”

(I also don’t mean to imply that asking players on Reddit or forums is the only way we gather feedback.)

Now, I don’t subscribe to the idea that players should just be able to say whatever the hell they want to, and developers should just suck it up because that’s their job. I value communication, and communication is easier if you treat each other like human beings. But I also recognize that players get emotional or frustrated, and I recognize that the power dynamic between passionate player and developer who just doesn’t get it can exacerbate that frustration.

But there are limits.

I don’t block a lot of players on Twitter, but I do block them. I don’t answer stupidly rude questions, except to make a point of the fact that they aren’t going to actually bring me to tears. Sorry.

I’ve had weird phone calls in the middle of the night. I’ve had death threats. I've had Blizzard security offer to monitor my house. I’ve had designers who had to work with the FBI on threats. I’m also an upper class, straight, white dude, and I know developers who aren’t who have gotten much, much worse from players. There’s no reason for that. We all love games. That already gives us a lot in common.

I try and remind players all the time that your communication is going to be more effective if you’re professional about it, because then you’re actually talking about the problem and not venting about how neglected you feel. If you have a job or go to school, you probably have coworkers or teachers you disagree with that you still have to treat like human beings. Developers deserve the same respect. I know it might score you internet points to attack someone in an over the top matter. You’re better than that. Resist the urge. (Source)

Player vs. Player
Feats of Strength

• Fearless Elite Reach 2000 in any Rated PvP Bracket during Legion Season 2 10 points.

Warlock (Forums, Talent Calculator, PvP Talent Calculator, Artifact Calculator)
PvP Talents

• Call Fel Lord Summon a fel lord to guard the location for 30 15 sec. Any enemy that comes within 6 yards will suffer high damage and be stunned for 1 sec. Demonology Warlock - Tier 5 PvP Talent. 2 Soul Shard. 40 yd range. Instant. 1.5 min cooldown.

Item Effects

• Aegisjalmur, the Armguards of Awe Any attack which would kill you instead triggers a Shield of Vengeance at 100% 200% of the normal amount then reduces you to 1 health. Cannot occur more often than once per 3 min.
• Food Fusion Combine the two halves of the Suramar Surf and Turf recipe. 1.5 sec cast.Reagents: Recipe: Turf.
• Food Fusion Combine the two halves of the Suramar Surf and Turf recipe. 1.5 sec cast.Reagents: Recipe: Surf.
• Lunar Glide Uplifting Trance increases your Vivify healing by an additional 20% 10% and causes it to heal 1 additional target.
• Sephuz's Secret Gain 10% increased movement speed and 3% 2% Haste. Successfully applying a loss of control effect to an enemy, interrupting an enemy, or dispelling any target increases this effect to 70% increased movement speed and 25% Haste for 10 sec. This increase may occur once every 30 sec.
• Tak'theritrix's Command Dark Transformation also empowers your Gargoyle and Army of the Dead for 20 30 sec, increasing their damage by 30%.

Monk (Forums, Talent Calculator, PvP Talent Calculator, Artifact Calculator)
Windwalker

• Thunderfist (Rank 1) Strike of the Windlord grants you a stack of Thunderfist for each enemy struck. Thuderfist discharges upon melee strikes, dealing [ 200% of AP ] Nature damage. [ 500% of AP ] Nature damage.

Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator, PvP Talent Calculator, Artifact Calculator)
Holy

• Cosmic Ripple (Rank 1) When Holy Word: Serenity or Holy Word: Sanctify finish their cooldown, you emit a burst of light that heals up to 5 injured targets for [ 200% of Spell Power ]. [ 120% of Spell Power ].