Slanderman - A top Shaman theorycrafter, moderater of Earthshrine, Has Quit WoW

[Jahrastafari]

Slanderman, a top Shaman theorycrafter, moderater of Earthshrine, "Storm, Earth and Lava" contributor, and one of the main shaman posters from the BFA Alpha and Beta, has posted on twitter that he has now quit the game, and provided a massive amount of feedback as to why in a Google document.

During the BFA's time on the PTR, Slanderman was one of the most consistent voices for changes to Shamans, providing constant feedback and the full reasoning behind any changes he suggested. Like every other Shaman who participated in Alpha and Beta, his feedback was completely ignored.

I highly recommend that anyone who thinks people are "just whining" give Slanderman's breakdown of issues with BFA a read, because, as with all his other feedback, Slanderman is thorough on his breakdown of what the issues are, and how those issues are driving away players.

[Eleccybubb]

Can I have his stuff?

[Aquinan]

He stuck though the WoD mess, so that just shows how crap shammies are atm.

[The One Percent]

Be free, my child.

[Charge me Doctor]

He stuck though the WoD mess, so that just shows how crap shammies are atm.

Or that people burn out of the game

[Teph]

The sad part is blizzard gets MASSIVE feedback and suggestions on how things could/should be. The community works for them for free. They could just implement and tweak community ideas that are most of the time far superior than stuff they come up with.

3/4 of the balance druid changes were just copied from suggestions.

[Aquinan]

Or that people burn out of the game

That as well, but I'd guess you dont play an Ele shaman.

[Jahrastafari]

A subscription made it to the cancel screen!

[Deleted]

The sad part is blizzard gets MASSIVE feedback and suggestions on how things could/should be. The community works for them for free. They could just implement and tweak community ideas that are most of the time far superior than stuff they come up with.

3/4 of the balance druid changes were just copied from suggestions.

Wait, it's sad to listen to the community?

[CaptRik]

A subscription made it to the cancel screen!

If this were reddit i'd give you an upvote for this!

[Jahrastafari]

The sad part is blizzard gets MASSIVE feedback and suggestions on how things could/should be. The community works for them for free. They could just implement and tweak community ideas that are most of the time far superior than stuff they come up with.

3/4 of the balance druid changes were just copied from suggestions.

That's always cute when people think Alpha/Beta/PTR is about testing and feedback, rather than just a giant, months-long Twitch hype commercial. Blizzard ideas are set in stone by the time anybody outside of the organization is allowed to see them. Their egos are far too big to allow customers to dictate the systems in the game.

[Teph]

Wait, it's sad to listen to the community?

My bad. I meant the druid example as one of the very very few times they actualy listend and that it provides good results.
The sad part is, that they don't do it enough.

[Zabatakis]

That's always cute when people think Alpha/Beta/PTR is about testing and feedback, rather than just a giant, months-long Twitch hype commercial. Blizzard ideas are set in stone by the time anybody outside of the organization is allowed to see them. Their egos are far too big to allow customers to dictate the systems in the game.

This. They want your bug reports and lately it seems not even those.

[JacobusRex]

That's always cute when people think Alpha/Beta/PTR is about testing and feedback, rather than just a giant, months-long Twitch hype commercial. Blizzard ideas are set in stone by the time anybody outside of the organization is allowed to see them. Their egos are far too big to allow customers to dictate the systems in the game.

So much this, especially that last sentence. Look no farther than Ion. He's the face of this game and he's what this game looks like on the back end. An arrogant, egotistical prick-house that does what it wants because there's no threat to their revenue.

[Endus]

While I don't know Slanderman (I think he entered the theorycrafting race after I'd bowed out), I think I can comfortably state that I understand where he's coming from. Given that, y'know, I was one of a handful of people in my era doing the theorycrafting for Elemental Shaman, and who quit because of basically most of the same kinds of things.

Elemental Shaman has basically always been a forgotten spec. Enhancement got some attention because Thrall is cool, Resto was a critical healer, and Elemental was "oh yeah, that exists too". They were consistently underperforming for entire expansions, and the devs, in my time, never really listened to the community. We'd identify an issue, explain exactly what the problem was, give them reams of data demonstrating exactly where it was, and suggest fixes, only to get dead silence from the devs (even in public acknowledgement of the issue, we never expected direct personal responses), with eventually a half-assed partial fix a solid year later, after they'd introduced another problem or three. The high point was introducing the ability to cast Lightning Bolt while moving, which made the class far more active and engaging, and a decision they reverted wholesale at the start of the next expansion, without offering anything to compensate.

Also, if you do this stuff for several expansions, you start to notice something. Not sure slanderman did, though I can see the roots of it in there. Blizzard doesn't introduce new systems each expansion in pursuit of iterative improvement and building on what came before. Each expansion they wipe the slate clean and start over. They'll remove or render pointless or awkward older systems, to introduce the new ones for the new expansion. The game never gets more complex or refined; it just becomes different. And when that difference isn't an attempt to resolve outstanding issues, it becomes clear that there's no interest in actually solving those problems. Just in keeping the players off-balance and running on the Skinner Box treadmill to try and get the cheese. When they get bored of cheddar, swap in some gouda or roquefort in the new "expansion". Same treadmill, new lure. Nothing ever gets better.

Sure, there's iterative gains in graphics and in new class options, but the fundamental gameplay and balance issues aren't ever really addressed, and as a theorycrafter, your entire focus is on identifying gameplay and balance issues, so they can be addressed. It's disheartening to throw that much effort into the winds and have it turn out to be utterly meaningless other than in defining how little the developers care to fix anything.

While the specifics slanderman mentions are new, the pattern isn't. It's the same reasons I quit, in Mists of Pandaria. I came back briefly in WoD, and quickly left again. I haven't been back. Don't expect I ever will be, at this point. And this is why; nothing's changed.

That may all seem really negative and like I'm shitting on people's fun. If you enjoy the game, go nuts. I'm specifically talking about the experience of being a theorycrafter in WoW; it's a completely different outlook. Unless you're the special kind of crazy who'll throw on a movie and spend two hours spamming Chain Lightning at practice targets to get useful proc chance data, I doubt you've got the same kind of perspective, and that's okay.

[spleen1015]

It's sad to see someone like slander leave. Folks like him are always valued in the community. I agree a lot with his points, but there is still a lot about the game that I enjoy.

[Kokolums]

Ive said this for years and i will say it again. Ion plays a RESTO shaman. So you can be pretty much guaranteed that resto shaman will always be a good spec and the other two shaman specs are likely to be subpar to compensate. If there is ONE place to fruitlessly bang your head against the wall, its to ask for enhance and ele buffs.

There, i said it again.

[Mafic]

Patch 8.1 isn't on the PTR yet and that concerns me because that is where we will know if shadow priest or shaman changes will happen.

[Lochton]

Who?

I guess, farewell and can I have his stuff?

[Charge me Doctor]

That as well, but I'd guess you dont play an Ele shaman.

Yeah, i play a fire mage, can't pull that card on me