View Poll Results: Should Ghostcrawler be replaced as Lead Systems Designer?

Voters
2314. This poll is closed
  • Yes

    526 22.73%
  • No

    1,788 77.27%
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  1. #461
    Elemental Lord Duronos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ringpriest View Post
    Classes are "balanced" because they've been homogenized to hell and back. Here's your self-heal. Here's your secondary resource. Here's your healing reduction. Here's your interrupt, your silence, and your cc. Here's your buff that you share with two other classes. Here's your burst cooldown and your timing-based rotation. Here's your defensive cooldown. Give Ghostcrawler another two xpacs and there will be one class where the only "choice" you get will be what your armor looks like and what color sparkles you shoot.
    Your signature made me giggle a bit, so much irony.
    Hey everyone

  2. #462
    Anybody who hast posted or is considering to post in this thread should read this:
    http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/462...support-groups
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
    Trolling should be.

  3. #463
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah View Post
    Anybody who hast posted or is considering to post in this thread should read this
    That is really interesting. I don't know that it's possible to bully Ghostcrawler. If anything, I think GC has done his own share of bullying, especially when he has the opportunity to feel intellectually superior. So you'll have to excuse me if I don't feel sorry for him. However, I do agree that in a lot of cases the abuse of video game developers goes much too far. Vesseblah, I think you're a supporter of Ghostcrawler and a more challenging version of WoW? It's important to remember that it was fan "bullying" that caused the successful Wrath model to be abandoned.

  4. #464
    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    I don't know that it's possible to bully Ghostcrawler.
    That's because you've dehumanized him. To you, GC is a force of nature, and his every action is an act of malice perpetrated against the class of player that fails to benefit from it. To people who think like you the over-tuned difficulty in Cataclysm wasn't a miscalculation; it was a thwarted attempt to exclude non-raiders from the game. The changes to PvP weren't intended to balance the playing field; they were intended to punish PvPers for daring to enjoy PvP. Please cite specific instances where you felt GC was the bully. I have yet to see a quote where he deliberately went out of his way to insult anyone.

  5. #465
    Pandaren Monk
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ronduwil View Post
    That's because you've dehumanized him. To you, GC is a force of nature, and his every action is an act of malice perpetrated against the class of player that fails to benefit from it. To people who think like you the over-tuned difficulty in Cataclysm wasn't a miscalculation; it was a thwarted attempt to exclude non-raiders from the game. The changes to PvP weren't intended to balance the playing field; they were intended to punish PvPers for daring to enjoy PvP. Please cite specific instances where you felt GC was the bully. I have yet to see a quote where he deliberately went out of his way to insult anyone.
    Although I agree strongly that GC gets lots of harassment -- and I've been trying not to scapegoat him, these days, for that reason -- he's volleyed some pretty barbed insults at players who pointed out inconsistencies in design policy. The most notorious example is referenced on this page: His post defending Cataclysm dungeon difficulty (this was roughly when I left Cata, i.e. Jan 2011). It was a thinly veiled "learn to play" dismissal at a player who said LFG was too hard -- and a pretty sad one, considering Cata dungeons were tuned so poorly in 4.0 that a single idiot could wreck them with 4 good players compensating.

    (edit) To be clear, I'm not trying to justify the harassment he gets. I am trying to say that no one should claim he's totally innocent of insulting and/or bad behavior.
    Last edited by Vulcanasm; 2013-08-16 at 09:35 PM.
    The plural of anecdote is not "data". It's "Bayesian inference".

  6. #466
    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    I don't know that it's possible to bully Ghostcrawler.
    Half of this thread is nothing but bullying, and the posts demanding for him to be fired are among the nicer ones...

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    I think you're a supporter of Ghostcrawler and a more challenging version of WoW?
    I think the game balance is better than in any previous expansions, talking from the point of view of somebody whose gametime is spent 80% in heroic mode 25man raids. Sure it could be better, but it's gone in the right direction so I think as a guy who's in charge of game balance GC has done good job overall.

    For me the challenge level is just about right in MoP raids, finishing the tier about month before next one comes out. Not too long downtime before next one, and not impossible either. But then again raid design or the overall game difficulty is not something GC is in charge of, only in advisory position along with other team leads.

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    It's important to remember that it was fan "bullying" that caused the successful Wrath model to be abandoned.
    Quote Originally Posted by Vulcanasm View Post
    The most notorious example is referenced on this page: His post defending Cataclysm dungeon difficulty (this was roughly when I left Cata, i.e. Jan 2011). It was a thinly veiled "learn to play" dismissal at a player who said LFG was too hard
    GC and various other blue posters have said multiple times they went deliberately for harder PvE content in cata because people whined about easy WLK instances on various forums. And afterwards during MoP beta they also said the difficulty was a big mistake that will not be repeated.
    Last edited by vesseblah; 2013-08-16 at 09:38 PM.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
    Trolling should be.

  7. #467
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gee View Post
    lolol

    It did NOT work out.
    It most certainly did not and my hope is that the developers come to this conclusion as well. I remember towards the end of cataclysm just before mists came out their was a podcast interview with ghostcrawler where he basically spent the entire interview trash talking cataclysm and maintaining that "they got it" now and mists was the result of them "getting it". Mists is a COLOSSAL failure.
    The hammer comes down:
    Quote Originally Posted by Osmeric View Post
    Normal should be reduced in difficulty. Heroic should be reduced in difficulty.
    And the tiny fraction for whom heroic raids are currently well tuned? Too bad,so sad! With the arterial bleed of subs the fastest it's ever been, the vanity development that gives you guys your own content is no longer supportable.

  8. #468
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Ronduwil View Post
    That's because you've dehumanized him.
    I might be going ham on GC and forgetting his humanity. You're right. I feel kinda bad if I imagine him reading this and having hurt feelings. However, I just don't see GC--with the hubris he's displayed--being a person who would be particularly upset about negative feedback. He's even said himself that he laughs at the haters. He might be lying?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ronduwil View Post
    people who think like you
    I don't feel Cata tuning was a personal attack on me (and I haven't mentioned PVP). I've said I feel the game could have gone in a different direction and continued to grow--or at least not dropped like a lead weight--had the right decisions been made. Cata tuning was in direct opposition to what made Wrath successful, which is why it still comes up in discussions like this. It stands out as the turning point for the game. Cata sold amazingly well off the back of Wrath, but then as players hit 85 they were just dumbfounded at entry level endgame. Kind of how fresh 90s felt about convoluted rep gating.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ronduwil View Post
    Please cite specific instances where you felt GC was the bully.
    Thread: 683484

    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah View Post
    game difficulty is not something GC is in charge of, only in advisory position along with other team leads.
    I agree it's better to ask questions of everybody involved in setting the direction of the game, not just GC.

  9. #469
    The problem isn't the Systems, it's the entire direction of the game, including the lore.

  10. #470
    Deleted
    I would love to know how many people who voted "no" has someone paying their subscription for them and how many that voted "yes" pays for their own subscription.
    Overall there have been great ideas in the last few expansions and there have been a lot of disappointment. I don't know what the right answer is but I miss a certain maturity, intelligence and sense of community that was the atmosphere of vanilla. The current content appeals to the instant gratification crowd. I don't think there's longevity in that direction.
    I think changes are going to happen and GC will be a part of that change.

  11. #471
    Nah, he's gonna stay.
    The man is a legend.

  12. #472
    Quote Originally Posted by Inokungfu View Post
    I would love to know how many people who voted "no" has someone paying their subscription for them and how many that voted "yes" pays for their own subscription.
    What sort of question is this? I imagine most people pay their own subs. But shockingly we all have different opinions! I know, crazy isn't it?

  13. #473
    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    Nope, didn't say that. However, it's a huge indicator of a problem in a company when almost half of your customers take their business elsewhere.
    so... your idea of fixing this problem is to fire one of the guys who has had a minimal effort in the changes throughout WoW?

    i hope the majority of you realize that the sub loss has nothing to even do with the balance of the game in terms of class/races.

    Most people unsub because they no longer have the time/money to play. This is actually how it has always been, fun fact.

    The difference between NOW and BEFORE (Vanilla/TBC/WoTLK) was that there was a constant INFLUX of players, as time moved forward this influx deteriorated because of various reasons involving age of the product, competing products, differentiating products. Video gaming has largely moved away from RPGs and into FPS gaming and then into MOBA gaming.

    Saying that WoW is dead because of the design team is the most halfwitted thing I have ever read. The majority of the players couldn't understand class balance if it shot them in the face with a fucking cannon. Most idiots simply look at "nerfs? OMG MY CLASS SUCKS NOW." The majority of players don't even fucking do dungeons or heroics or even raids. They just level up, then unsub. That's how it's ALWAYS been.


    i'd honestly like to meet the various people who unsub due to class balance and compare them to the people who just generally lost interest in the game.

  14. #474
    just returned to assure everyone that I still believe GC is a retard with a big paycheck, sack the fucker already...

    Infracted
    Last edited by Darsithis; 2013-08-22 at 06:29 PM.

  15. #475
    If Wow continues to decline, Activision BLizzard will start scapegoating people, especially if the next expansion does poorly.

    How many heads will roll before his, I don't know.

    I don't like Ghostcrawler, but I don't play any more, so not that relevant.

  16. #476
    Quote Originally Posted by gee View Post
    lolol

    It did NOT work out.
    Good thing I added that "I think" before my opinion or you would have confused me with stating my opinions as facts.

  17. #477
    Quote Originally Posted by Celista View Post
    This is faulty logic. There is absolutely no reason why WoW couldn't have kept 12mil+ subs for the next 10 or 20 years. People are still playing mmos; there's an MMO with more than 20 million players in the East atm. Why couldn't WoW have been that MMO? Look at a company like Apple, who reinvented itself after dominating the market in the 80s/90s and today remains a leading supplier of computers, along with ipads and ipods and tablets,etc.

    Bottom line is that WoW is losing subs because it failed to adapt itself to a changing market. So now that competitors are here offering other genres of games to play/other MMOs, people are choosing to play those games instead.

    Blizzard could still make a comeback and turn around the subscription loss, but they're going to have to innovate/change things up a lot for that to happen.
    What on earth are you talking about? You do realize those 12 million subscribers weren't all the same people right? In fact Blizzard has stated more than once that there are at minimum at least 20 million people who have played Wow at one point or another. Wow has had substantial subscriber churn for its entire run and yes that includes the sacred and holy TBC that can do no wrong. Wow was the first and only mmo so far to actually hit market saturation and it was clear as day it wasn't going to be sustainable. Wrath launched with 11.5 million subscribers and stagnated for more than 2 years and only hit 12 million because of Wrath's launch in China shortly before Cata was released in NA/EU regions. The only reason subscriptions kept rising or at least stayed somewhat stable is because there were more people coming to the game than leaving it. That's it. Nothing more nothing less. It doesn't mean TBC was the holy grail of gaming any more than Wrath was. Both expansions saw many many many many different people coming and going despite both expansions being polar opposites of each other.

    There is absolutely nothing Blizzard could have done to prevent subscriber loss. They can't make people stay and they certainly can't get more customers because those are limited by the fact mmo gaming is a very niche market. It isn't like they are Mcdonalds and can post up a new commercial and create new customers. It just doesn't work that way. Anyone who was going to play Wow has played Wow. The game is old, the market has changed and more importantly the players have changed.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by jax View Post
    Will he be? Doubtful.
    Should he be? Absolutely.

    The game has seen a huge decline under his watch.

    You can and I see are arguing that he is not solely responsible and true it may have lost people anyway cause of age etc... but those are not the points and do not matter. Someone has to take hit for the free fall the game is in and he has been put out there as the front man.
    Either by his own doing or by Blizzard, GC is "the man" and when you are "the man" you get the glory or you get the shit.

    It does not help that he is a complete asshole and has no concept of customer service or how to talk to consumers. That IMO is Blizzard's fault, (that they didn't pick someone that knows even the most basic aspects of communication) and they have and are paying for it.

    Its like a quarterback, he controls 1 aspect out of 30 of the game but if the team is loosing he takes 99% of the blame.
    He controls NOTHING. He reports directly to Chilten and Morhaime who are his superiors. Nothing gets done in Wow without their go ahead.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by jax View Post
    Maybe you should stop looking up Latin terms and try a bit of reading comprehension. No where did I blame him and say... "therefore its his fault."
    I said he was the front man and like all front men he is tied to the success or failure of the situation in question.



    No one said he was the quarterback... it was an analogy...

    analogy [(uh- nal -uh-jee)]

    A comparison of two different things that are alike in some way.

    See how that works... again spend more time in English class instead of looking up old terms to appear smart and you may have figured it out.
    Different: Lead designer and quarterback
    Same in some way: Take the brunt of the blame even though its not solely their fault

    I realize these are the forums but try just a bit harder to not be an ass and try comprehend at least the basics of what people are saying instead of just spitting out unintelligible tripe because you saw it on a web site and thought the saying was cool.
    Ok pumpkin?
    Oh I think we all get what people are saying in these forums and in this thread specifically. That doesn't change the fact most of them are some of the most uneducated, spiteful, hateful whiny condescending jackasses I have ever seen on the internet in my entire 20 years I have been online. No matter how much bile and vitriol you people spew it doesn't change the fact that GC can only do what the GAME DIRECTOR tells him to do. You do know what a game director is don't you? GC's boss. Really not a hard concept to grasp.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by diamount View Post
    He deserves neither of those things. People don't leave MMO's because of a meme dislike paraded in forums, which a fraction of the subscription base even post in. The reasons for WoW's decline has been discussed ad nauseam, and it's why EVE is the only western sub MMO to grow since it's launch 10 years ago.
    That is all well and good except for the fact these forums and the official forums have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that many players quit for a huge variety of reasons, many of them contradicting each other. There is no clear cut consensus on what is "wrong" with the game nor is there a consensus on how to "fix" the game. People need to just accept they aren't going to get away with pinning their pet issues on a single Blizzard employee without being called out for the ignorant blowhards they are.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Gimlix View Post
    Ghostcrawler is doing fine, but having 2 lead designers wouldn't hurt either x)
    Well good thing there are several lead designers already. Ghostcrawler is simply the lead systems designer with other employees heading up other aspects of the game.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Lucarocks92 View Post
    GC's first raid he brought to wow when he was lead designer was ToC need i say any more. Take into consideration the previous raid before he took over was Ulduar which is definitely in the top 5 raids of all time. The game has been going down hill since the day he took over, he would have been gone mid way through Cata if i was his boss.
    Again good thing GC is lead systems designer. He has nothing to do with developing raids. Good job in spotlighting how ignorant this player base is though. I don't think anyone who can't comprehend what his actual job is should even attempt discussing whether he is doing a good job or not.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    The main argument in defense of GC is that he isn't responsible for the loss of subs? If the environment you do business in changes and your product becomes less attractive because of said changes, then to continue to be successful you need to modify your product to remain relevant. It's conjecture, but different decisions could have seen WoW continue to grow rather than decline. Sometimes the odds are against you, and you can still triumph. Fanboys act as if GC is defending the ALAMO.

    1. If Cata hadn't forced out players with less time/skill with overtuned heroics wouldn't we be in a different world right now?
    2. If MoP hadn't gated everything behind rep and taken away catch up gear wouldn't we be in a different world right now?
    3. If WoW's aging had been addressed with a migration to WoW2 wouldn't we be in a different world right now?

    People in positions of influence are supposed to get there on merit and stay there on merit, and when things stop working it's time to ~PACK IT UP~. It's nothing personal, it's just how life is. You cannot excuse those in control of a declining product/service/whatever. There's no excuse that you can make for repeated failures in business. You lose your job.
    Stating what GC's actual position is and what his actual responsibilities are isn't fanboyism. It is reality. Get over yourself. Wow is wildly successful even despite heavy subscription losses and has proven to shareholders it is sustainable long into the future. No one is going to get fired over sub losses. Sorry.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    We're agreed that he isn't the only one to be held accountable. I wouldn't agree that there are "many" deciding the overall direction of the game. Being one of a handful of people responsible for decision making doesn't excuse him any more than the idea that WoW's decline was somehow inescapable.
    So why is all the hate and vitriol directed at Ghostcrawler? And don't even try claiming it is because he is the "face" of Blizzard and Wow because his superiors Chilten and Morhaime are just as well known as he is if not more so and they are actually far more responsible for the direction of the game than any lead designer. The simple fact of the matter is most of the people who bitch and whine about this game have no god damn idea what they are talking about and just attack any employee they see regardless of what their job function is in relation to whatever their complaint is.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    I'd be happy to hear of a broad shake up of decision makers behind WoW. If WoW lost more subs as a result of bringing in a fresh team, then it'd be more like euthanasia than suicide, right? Seeing as WoW's current trend is toward demise.
    I know the haters can't wait for the day Blizzard falls to its knees in financial ruin for daring slight those who worship TBC as a religion but that day won't be coming anytime soon. Wow is going to be around for at least another decade if not longer.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    GC/Blizz apologists out in full force.
    Sorry stating reality doesn't make anyone an apologist anymore than it makes them fanboys. Get the fuck over yourself.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by l33t View Post
    Well, I don't want him to be fired. Its just like he should not develop games at all. His knowledge of his own freaking game is miserable; and, though he of course is not only one dev in Blizz, he is obviously one of the people who make decisions. And face the truth: the decisions are horrible. Game is nowhere near balanced. Class favouritism is at the highest level. Overpowered class stacking went over Sunwell level. PvP is shit. Couple this with the crap he's pumping at people in his freaking Twitter - and it becomes obvious that he should go.
    And I'm not blaming him for "not his" mistakes. Class balance is clearly his job.
    Blizzard is hiring. Why don't you apply and show them how its done? Sadly most of you armchair developers probably aren't even qualified to be janitors for Blizzard much less develop games for them. I don't have a problem with those who disagree with GC but to claim he doesn't understand the game or any aspect of classes is incredibly arrogant to say and simply untrue.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Toadstone View Post
    I've seen GC use that very tactic, i.e. accusing players who question the direction of the game of having a selfish view. Considering the unequivocal decline of World of Warcraft I don't think it's fair to dismiss dissenting voices on the basis that they're jerks who simply want their own way.
    It absolutely is fair. Complaints on these forums and the official forums are constantly contradicting each other and have been ever since the day Wow went live. There is just no such thing as a consensus on what should be changed in this game and trying to invoke a majority just shows how weakly some people believe in their own opinions. If players can't let their opinions stand on their own merits why should anyone at Blizzard take them seriously?

  18. #478
    "Oh I think we all get what people are saying in these forums and in this thread specifically. That doesn't change the fact most of them are some of the most uneducated, spiteful, hateful whiny condescending jackasses I have ever seen on the internet in my entire 20 years I have been online."

    And despite the hatred that so many here direct at GC, his approval rating, at this time, is more than 3-1 in favor. In the US, no politician of either political party has anywhere NEAR those kinds of numbers. This poll has spoken: Good job Ghostcrawler

  19. #479
    Quote Originally Posted by twistedsista View Post
    i agree, his comments were rather crass.
    His comments were fine. He is a developer and it isn't his job to hold your hand and pander to you. When he posts in forums or on Twitter he is doing it for the purpose of gathering feedback and sometimes that process involves shutting down idiotic lines of thought. In fact most of the time when people accuse GC of being "arrogant" and "condescending" it is because they can't comprehend the fact that some of his questions and comments are phrased in such a way to get very specific targeted feedback and rather than provide that they fly off the handle and start carrying on like a spoiled brat. It is disgusting.

  20. #480
    No he isn't going to lose his position. What a stupid thread. MMO-C forums are so desperate for negativity these days.

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