Rob padro returning as lead designer for expac 5? What will happen to GC?

[glo]

If it was designed like it was in the first 3 installments, Yes. The game has all the potential to run strong for 10+ years so long as it is maintained well. But poor design is like poor maintenance. When something lacks quality, it brakes down and dies. I agree that F2P, social gaming, mobile and increased competition has taken a chop at the lost subs. But when you're down to 7+million subs, and trending towards half of what you once were, you need to open up your eyes and take an hard, honest, unbiased look. There is something definitely wrong with the design direction of the game, and it needs to be changed.

Oh get a grip... The game is 10 years old. People lose interest in old games, let alone 10 year old ones.

If you honestly expected WoW to maintain its peak base, then you were seriously misinformed about how the game industry works and the history of EVERY other online game's population trends.

[Airwaves]

X5 would almost be finished. So he can't really be lead designer for it.

[Tacotruck]

WTB Kaplan back from Titan. Notice he left WoW team after Wrath and it's been downhill (subs and reputation wise) since then.

Raid Or Die, Welfare Epics, Kaplan? No thanks.

[Togarox]

Nothing will happen to GC. He will keep his position as lead systems designer and his team will continue to do what they have been doing.

[Deleted]

Ghostcrawler is probably already talking to him on a regular basis, not like GC is the only one at the helm.

I swear, MMO-Champion is one of the few places where correlation does imply causation.

My friend started playing during Cata and MoP. Subs started to go downhill during Cata. I can therefore conclude that if my friends stops playing again, WoW will see a massive sub increase.

[Khain]

Whatever he isn't necessarly better than GC, a lot of the shit that happened to D3 was his fault.

[Deleted]

WTB Kaplan back from Titan. Notice he left WoW team after Wrath and it's been downhill (subs and reputation wise) since then.

Leading EQ guild was Kaplan's biggest merit before he joined Blizzard. And it showed in his comments and design choices. I'm quite happy they moved him off WoW into Titan and definately don't want him back in leading role (he'd be good asset in the raid design team though).

[rnbwtrout]

i'm not a GC or RP fanboy, but i think GC should be reassigned. not because i think he's made terrible decisions or that RP would do better, but because people at their posts too long lose touch with current trends. GC had a magical touch when he first took over the job cause he was fresh with new perspectives. he's no longer fresh and his perspectives are no longer new. we need fresh blood with a fresh outlook building on the foundation of GC and guys before.

[MoanaLisa]

Pardo is working on the next expansion in some form or other. This is not really news. Nothing happens to GC if Pardo becomes lead designer because GC is the systems designer, not the lead designer. Jesus.

[Sandrox]

GC isn't even responsible for most of the things people complain about (raids, dungeons, daily quests, etc.). This is his role as Lead Systems Designer: "Systems design specifically is everything that is not level, story, quest or encounter design. My team handles everything from classes to mechanics to items to trade skills to achievements to UI design, and that includes the game balance."

This. He is basically 'the numbers guy' even though its a team, not just him.

[Pull My Finger]

I thought Jeff Kaplan is supposed to be the savior of WoW. Now all of a sudden it's Rob Pardo. Or wait. Rob Padro, as you call him. Or is this a totally different dude?

I don't know, man. But at least I know who I'm supposed to hate, as GC is clearly the villain in all of this. It's nice to have clarity. That's the problem with MoP. They don't even have a bad guy on the cover.

But wait, wasn't Kaplan actually the villain? I thought I remembered something - but he was probably just corrupted.

[Pull My Finger]

Yeah. I can't wait for Rob Compadro to remove the queue-buttons from the dungeon and raid finder panels. Now that's what I call inaccessible! It's basically gonna be the return of attunements. If you can find the clickable spot, you're worthy of the content.

[Numeanor]

Why all the moronic GC hate? You honestly think a game this old can hold 10+ million subs with the f2p market being the way it is now? What could GC, one man, and not even in control of the entire game do to stop it?

I don't know... 8+ years and we still can't get any PvE and PvP balance because of that guy? And we still have FOTM classes all the time...? He is the main reason many people unsub form the game.

[Deleted]

Ah can't wait to read all the Rob Pardo hate like it was back in Burning Crusade!
"AH, He does not understand shit!" "he clerly do not play mage!" or "He Ruined the game! he should be fired" oh wait. this is the same things they say now about everyone that put his face out on the media regardless of their position and responsibilities!

[Zyranthian]

He is the main reason many people unsub form the game.

Most people who play the game probably don't even know who he is. Only a small minority actually visit forums and read news and know the developers behind the game game. For all the fire and brimstone rhetoric that gets thrown around, I think the reason people unsub from the game is a pretty simple one: its almost 10 years old and people are getting sick of it and moving on. Which is totally natural really, I mean jeez, most games I'm sick of and moving on after a couple of months let alone 10 years.

Rather than badmouthing GC and blaming him for a decline in subs over the years, I think he deserves praise for helping to build a game that still has just shy of 8 million subs almost 10 years after it launched. Thats an amazing effort tbh, and my hat is off to him (and the whole team). Agree or disagree with his design philosophies, you can't deny the achievement.

[Deleted]

Most people who play the game probably don't even know who he is. Only a small minority actually visit forums and read news and know the developers behind the game game. For all the fire and brimstone rhetoric that gets thrown around, I think the reason people unsub from the game is a pretty simple one: its almost 10 years old and people are getting sick of it and moving on. Which is totally natural really, I mean jeez, most games I'm sick of and moving on after a couple of months let alone 10 years.

Rather than badmouthing GC and blaming him for a decline in subs over the years, I think he deserves praise for helping to build a game that still has just shy of 8 million subs almost 10 years after it launched. Thats an amazing effort tbh, and my hat is off to him (and the whole team). Agree or disagree with his design philosophies, you can't deny the achievement.

agreed, the real news is not that "wow has lost 3 million subscription" the real news is "hey, this game is 10 years old and STILL HAS 7 million subscribers"

[Eternal Ice]

Nothing will happen to GC because he does not design raids nor expansions, he didn't implement those endless dailies, he didn't decide to destroy world pvp, he didn't decide to replace future dungeons with scenarios, he doesn't write wow's lore, he doesn't decide future classes nor races, chances are that he didn't changed whatever aspect of the game you liked the most, people hates him and they don't even know what he really does. lol

[Baracuda]

I did not say anything against GC. You seem overly defensive but I am just excited that Rob is coming back. Not to mention that given the fact that WoW has only lost subs under GC, it would not be surprising to see him moved off to another project. It's nothing against GC, it's just how business works. Stockholders will eventually want answers and someone to be held accountable.

I'm pretty sure Wrath of the Lich King lost subs throughout the entire expansion and only came back to 12 million with the launch of Cataclysm.

[Sarevokcz]

If it was designed like it was in the first 3 installments, Yes. The game has all the potential to run strong for 10+ years so long as it is maintained well. But poor design is like poor maintenance. When something lacks quality, it brakes down and dies. I agree that F2P, social gaming, mobile and increased competition has taken a chop at the lost subs. But when you're down to 7+million subs, and trending towards half of what you once were, you need to open up your eyes and take an hard, honest, unbiased look. There is something definitely wrong with the design direction of the game, and it needs to be changed.

Did you honestly expect the game to have their WotLK 12M subs or more 10 years after release? Its still gonna be running strong, even if it was at 4M by the 10th anniversary, how many games could say they had that after 10 years? Pokemon maybe, and thats not even on PC. I would actually say that Blizzard buying out majority of itself out of Vivendi might be a good step towards a better tommorow, but Im a realist, MoP is pretty packed expansion with lots of story, lots of things to do, pretty good quality, too. The only things I dont like are alt unfriendlyness and dailies everywhere, but compared to Cata, MoP was definitely a step into the right direction, content-wise.

[Synstir]

I read people saying the game is 10 years old... and as true that might be... I started playing about 6 years ago. So for me: the game is 6 years old.
I got some friends who are playing a little over a year now.... the game is 1 year old to them.

Basically the argument that the game is 10 years old, goes only for those who are playing 10 years.

Wow is now almost down to half of what it was end of wrath...... and lets be honest, that is not nothing. Losing half of your customers indicates a lot.
And this happened in just 1.5 expansion, as MoP isn't over yet.

This is not about wether GC is good at his job or not, because if he wasn't good he wouldn't be there. Also he is not the only one making this game, he is part of a team.
So nothing against GC. The whole team should be held responsible, because the decisions taken from cata on caused the bleeding of subs.

It started by trying to revert some changes in wrath. The problem in cata was the higher investment level of players to get anywhere. Complains about hc's being too hard and stuff. This got better when they went back to wrath kind of dungeons.

In MoP they tried something else to keep players playing, logged on and doing stuff. We got dailies, dailies, dailies, dailies. Everything was gated, players grinding away. While the dungeons where quite easy..... we didn't get more. In the absence of those hc's, we have to keep running lfr for getting the appropiate gear for the latest raid. This devides the playerbase at 90 over the different available tiers. Friends not able to do raids together because of gear-levels.
This doesn't seem to have the right effect, as the losses of subs is continuing instead of stopping.

Basically it looks like Blizzard, and not GC specifically, is not aware of what really brought their game to 12.000.000 subs in the first place and what is needed to keep most of them, not all cause that doesn't seem real. Anyways losing almost 50% of subs should make some alarmbells ring.

So nothing has to happen to GC, but surely something needs to change in the whole team.