PCGamer Interview with Ion Hazzikostas on Patch 8.2

[justandulas]

Their words don’t mean much to me after being hyped, let down, and listen to ions lawyer speech one too many times

8.2 would have to be the best patch in wow history by a factor of 3-5 to get me to come back at this point.

I’m all in for classic, but don’t really like the ARPG style of today’s wow. I prefer a slower paced mmo rpg to a faster paced seasonal arpg that wow has become. Wow today has more in common with diablo 3 than Everquest. Nuff said

[EternalBany]

Its going to be 4 extra small WQ hubs, thats it.

Do world quest mobs still scale?

That was the stupidest and GREEDIEST decision of this xpack, to artificial DRAG OUT time to make WQ take longer and last longer aylmaocontent
It was super fun to do WQ in legion, blowing through everything

[justandulas]

Change and Player Reactions
The team sometimes makes changes that seem less fun because they've been burned in the past and are worried about some consequence three years down the line.

They make themselves look like some heartbroken maiden xD

that was amongst the most gutless, spineless and cowardly response i've ever seen a head of a game make. They are afraid of doing fun things because they've been burnt before and are worried about what could happen 3-5 years down the line? At this rate, he'll be lucky if the game is still up and running 3-5 years from now. He has no idea what he's talking about.

If i ran the team, i'd legit make them play nothing but old MUD's, EQ, and games that pre-dated WoW in order to recapture what was special about WoW. it isn't meant to be an ARPG, or competitive to a fault... it's meant to be an open world RPG with friends. period.

They've gone so far off the reservation of what WoW is supposed to be that the current game resembles Diablo 3 more than EQ1 or Vanilla WoW and that's a problem.

Hard to think of many other games that swapped entire genres this late into it's life cycle.

[Kaver]

They keep saying we can choose things based on playstyle but this never happens...

[Sonneillon]

I love how they learned these lessons about artifacts but fail to mention they removed literally everything good about Legion artifacts in the heart implementation.

Also regardless of what they say, they HAVE removed flying from the game... the fact that they haven't put it out yet and it's still a ways off is insane. And yeah the "grind by playing normally" doesn't "fly" when we still don't have whatever second part in yet, clearly they have forgotten how obnoxious the last two were.

Whats really truely sad is these "Lessons" the current team are learning are from mistakes that the previous teams never ever ever would have made in the first place.

[M1r4g3]

Oh boy we are getting temporary abilities/passives instead of fully built classes/specs, can't wait to play something fun only to have it be removed a few months later.

[justandulas]

I love how they learned these lessons about artifacts but fail to mention they removed literally everything good about Legion artifacts in the heart implementation.

Also regardless of what they say, they HAVE removed flying from the game... the fact that they haven't put it out yet and it's still a ways off is insane. And yeah the "grind by playing normally" doesn't "fly" when we still don't have whatever second part in yet, clearly they have forgotten how obnoxious the last two were.

Whats really truely sad is these "Lessons" the current team are learning are from mistakes that the previous teams never ever ever would have made in the first place.

That's because the older team cut their teeth playing MUDs, Everquest, and older titles that really emphasized world, social elements, uniqueness, and a world full of real danger.

The current team looks like they cut their teeth playing WoW and think WoW was the OG of MMORPG's, and they draw inspiration from games like Diablo 3 for loot systems and flood us in loot like we're playing Borderlands, and not like we're playing a monthly MMORPG.

WoW's lost it's MMORPG touch, and replaced it with ARPG. Simple as that.

[Eleccybubb]

Change and Player Reactions
The team sometimes makes changes that seem less fun because they've been burned in the past and are worried about some consequence three years down the line.

They make themselves look like some heartbroken maiden xD

Oh Ions basically said something like this before in an interview back in January where he blames the playerbase for the faults of the games.

ActiBlizz are basically Trion now in terms of that. Trion used to blame their playerbase a lot for when Rift content came out buggy.

The fact that you can have the gall to sit there and blame your own players for your shortcomings with the game is absolutely sad.

Meanwhile when FF14 1.0 was that bad Square issued an official apology and remade the entire game to be better and ran by a guy who had MMO experience as a player. Not to mention Yoshi-P has openly admitted that FF14 isn't perfect and apologises any time for something the players may not like but they have to do. That's a good game director.

[lawtk]

No flying and lack of content are the two big things that have driven me away from WoW. For those that don't like flying, here's a fun fact. It's been in the game longer than most players. I find it amusing that Blizz continues to find ways to take a perfectly good feature and restrict it behind arbitrary achievements and/or meaningless rep grinds. I know that I've seen some hints that flying would be available in the 8.2 content beyond Kul Tiras and Zandalar, but I highly doubt that. If Isle of Thunder and Argus are the norms for late xpac updates, they are going to keep us grounded indefinitely.

Content wise, I would love to see something better than islands and warfronts. When those were announced I was already "meh" about them. Here's hoping that 9.0 is something spectacular, but I am not going to come back for 8.2.

[coprax]

Portal Removal

The team wanted to consolidate portals into something that was more intuitive and made more sense within the world. They didn't want players having to place their Hearthstone in old expansion content because it was the most accessible area.

This is what I don't get. Why does every prior expansions' content have to be made completely irrelevant?

[GhostShaman]

This x 100000000000000

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This is what I don't get. Why does every prior expansions' content have to be made completely irrelevant?

This would have been a perfect opportunity for world quests. instead of cramming everything into one tiny zone, they could have spread it all over azeroth and come up with some pretty inventive scenarios. But you know, instead we get lazy rng development...

[david0925]

This is what I don't get. Why does every prior expansions' content have to be made completely irrelevant?

I think the current playerbase enjoy a more consolidated content focused on current content; those that enjoy more bigger open worlds are probably no longer playing for a long time.

I think WoW has always been very focused on current patch since TBC when badge catch-up gear was introduced, it's just that the gap between patches/expansions get larger, so it's not really something unique to any single expansion other than maybe vanilla. BFA up until that point just further widened that gap due to removal of tier bonuses and interesting trinkets

[Darkynhalvos]

Didn't you just buy it when you hit 80? So long ago now I can't recall.

Your first character leveled through Wrath had to reach 80 to buy flight, then that toon could buy a BoA book to let an alt fly at 77.

Outside of that, there were NPCs that "loaned" you a slow flyer for certain zones like Storm Peaks and Icecrown.

[Unholygrounded]

what happens when you reach the edge of a zone you hanvt explored?

dont you think it would be annoying to be flying through kalimdor then suddenly drop from the sky and die "FUCK i haven't finished feralas i forgot!"

This only applies to new zones obviously since flying works fine in the old world already, and it is pretty simple you get a parachute just like any other zone that used to dismount you in the air. The tech is literally already in the game to do it.

[Eleccybubb]

This only applies to new zones obviously since flying works fine in the old world already, and it is pretty simple you get a parachute just like any other zone that used to dismount you in the air. The tech is literally already in the game to do it.

FF14 doesn't have seamless zones either as most Modern MMOs don't. So getting to the edge of a zone isn't an issue. Plus it has wall barriers in place just like WoW does vertically but for more around the zone limits.

But not the point that was being made anyway. The fact is FF14 and how you unlock flying is the perfect way to do it. You shouldn't have to wait a year only to be bombarded with another timegate in that year in the form of an achievement.

[Jasper Kazai]

Ah yes, player agency. That's why it costs an increasing amount to respec Azerite traits, why you can only do it in one area, and why there's no way to have choices for each of your specs without having to go buy a change. Yep. What an overwhelming sense of player agency. Feedback is what caused the Caverns of Time portal to come back. Great, how about listening to the feedback about traits that have been floating around since the beginning?

[Eleccybubb]

Ah yes, player agency. That's why it costs an increasing amount to respec Azerite traits, why you can only do it in one area, and why there's no way to have choices for each of your specs without having to go buy a change. Yep. What an overwhelming sense of player agency. Feedback is what caused the Caverns of Time portal to come back. Great, how about listening to the feedback about traits that have been floating around since the beginning?

Because then ActiBlizz would have to admit they were wrong. And why do that when you can just blame the playerbase!

[dranlord]

A lot of players quit wow because of the no flying in BFA.

why? is been 2 expansion already with the same system, and they didnt announce any change to it, why even star playing BFA if you didnt like how Fly is implemnt.

For me Pathfinder is irrelevant, since isnt a grind, since you complet the rep w/o even plaing, and make the world more engaging at least for pvp. Yeah the ppl that claim that they saw more ppl with flying that w/o it they lie.

Since WotLK flying become a way to avoid ppl, and fly into the NPC you need to kill and leave.
A good example is the Invasion points on BFA right now with Flying ppl will be avoing pvp on those, and you will never see those big battle that happen during each invasion.

Fly on WOW allow player to play less, and is really not fun. So i dont get why everyone QQ that much about flying, since BC zone are small, and more compat so moving dont take that long.
The biggest issue with BC was the zone where so big to make flying relevant, making the zone feel empty and ugly

[FelPlague]

This only applies to new zones obviously since flying works fine in the old world already, and it is pretty simple you get a parachute just like any other zone that used to dismount you in the air. The tech is literally already in the game to do it.

that sounds insanely annoying.

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A lot of players quit wow because of the no flying in BFA.

how many? can you show me?

[Verdugo]

that sounds insanely annoying.

You know what is even more annoying? Waiting for Blizzard to turn the "flying" switch on, since I already "earned" flying months ago.