WoW would be a better game if developers would ignore the forums for game development

[ro9ue]

No lol.

Blizzard just does a horrible job how they handle their forums.They need to learn to encourage good posts instead of shitposting.

I don't doubt that they read a lot of the good posts. Ion and the team have said many times in interviews and behind the scenes videos they read a lot, even stuff on 3rd party sites like here on MMO-C. Still, they have to understand from the community's perspective that if you have players who actually care spending their time giving excellent, well articulated feedback and you don't even get an acknowledgement that the post was even seen, it feels like a waste of time and most people won't bother anymore. A simple "good post, thanks for the feedback" would suffice.

Frankly, I barely see ANY significant blue posting anymore, but back when they had a few prominent CMs, you'd see actually solid, thorough feedback posts go ignored and troll posts get a snarky blue reaction. And to be clear, not talking about fun/meme threads. I like to see some lighthearted banter between the devs and community, just mean the obvious troll / toxic posts.

You see this trap play out on social media too. A celebrity will get 10,000 comments but respond to the one hater... elevating them... and then starting a vicious cycle of highlighting negativity and then signaling to toxic posters this is how you get this person to respond. Many former Blizzard CMs got sucked down that black hole instead of just ignoring the trolls. Respond to toxic post = people who just want attention realize being toxic garners this attention = rinse repeat until it's an unstoppable shitstorm of Xxsephirothqts.

[Hittion]

No sadly... blizzard is dumb enough to try and get phone gamers to play computer games. The audiences don't mix well as one can't install programs that are not sold on an app store.

[Soon-TM]

"You think you do, but you don't."

That line basically sums up the whole of Blizzard at this point.

Pure arrogance.

Indeed. I loved when Brack himself was sent to the stage to announce Classic servers... I guess he'll be much more cautious in his future speeches in public

[Soon-TM]

yes, they did as a side project thing, not to replace retail, see the diference ?

I never said there weren't any differences. Nice strawman

[tmamass]

You mean like the EU forums, that is only important when there is a big ASCII facepalm?

[allawyn]

You mean they don't pretty much ignore the players as it is already?

Apparently post after post about how Horde players didn't want Garrosh 2.0 and villain bat didn't register with anyone.

[Irian]

If anything, Blizzard's recent problem is that they refuse to believe the playerbase when a large majority of players express disappointment or dislike with a change.

I do actually really appreciate more hands-off developers, but Blizzard hasn't really earned the right to be that way, at least not in my eyes. They make too many big pendulum-swing design changes and then dig their heels in about things players hated from the onset.

[kaminaris]

Indeed. I loved when Brack himself was sent to the stage to announce Classic servers... I guess he'll be much more cautious in his future speeches in public

Cause he was right, and still is. Im pretty sure they just get some cash, people would drop out pretty soon and I imagine him coming back to blizzcon stage saying "I told you so".

[Soon-TM]

Apparently post after post about how Horde players didn't want Garrosh 2.0 and villain bat didn't register with anyone.

Didn't you hear the devs? MoP is totally NOT Garrosh 2.0, you heathen!

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Cause he was right, and still is. Im pretty sure they just get some cash, people would drop out pretty soon and I imagine him coming back to blizzcon stage saying "I told you so".

Make sure to tell me who will the next US president be, with that crystal ball of yours

[kaminaris]

Make sure to tell me who will the next US president be, with that crystal ball of yours

Not really something I came up with, you can see a lot similar opinions on current vs classic threads, I would say the majority think so.

[Soon-TM]

Not really something I came up with, you can see a lot similar opinions on current vs classic threads, I would say the majority think so.

B-b-b-b-but muh 100% totally unrepresentative vocal forum minority.

[Kithelle]

B-b-b-b-but muh 100% totally unrepresentative vocal forum minority.

I think if people just wanted a grind they would have picked up BDO or another grindy MMO. Lots of people being mislead by being told of some kind of actual challenge being in classic.

[kaminaris]

Just like you can see a lot of similiar opinions about BfA being a steaming pile of dogshit.

Funny how when anecdotal evidence, opinions and "muh subjectiveee" work in your favour it's all cool hey?

I love it when White Knights endlessly contradict themselves.

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Isn't it hilarious how "opinions" and "majorities" are okay to use when it suits their argument?

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• Citation needed.
• Please post proof.
• Subjective.
• That's your opinion.
• Blizzard doesn't release sub numbers.
• Vocal forum minority.
• Blizzard knows best.

Did I miss any?


In fact the only shred of evidence we have is them constantly opening more servers and telling people that the majority of them are FULL and expect queues. I mean wouldn't that point out that he was wrong?

Dude, just stop, I'm not even going to respond to that weak troll of yours.

[arkanon]

So lets just make something clear - this forum alone is full of feedback, and counter feedback.

"i want A!"

"no, A is STUPID, i want B!"

So who exactly are you suggesting they are listening to at the moment?

[SaneOstrich]

So lets just make something clear - this forum alone is full of feedback, and counter feedback.

"i want A!"

"no, A is STUPID, i want B!"

So who exactly are you suggesting they are listening to at the moment?

With a playerbase as schizophrenic as wow's playerbase listening to them must be hell, but as a designer you can't simply ignore it.
Where I feel the problem lies, is the fact that (as has been said earlier) they have little to no vision of their own to hold against everything the playerbase throws at them.
If you have an idea of your own you can listen to the playerbase and improve your own vision. If you have no solid idea where to go from the start, listening to your playerbase makes you swerve all over the place.

I think blizzard 'listens' to the playerbase more then we know, although probably not as much the forum outlets. But since they have no solid foundation listening doesn't do them or the game much good.

[Pheraz]

He is talking about
Design by committee, if you exchange committee with designers together with the community:

"Design by committee is a disparaging term for a project that has many designers involved but no unifying plan or vision."

"The term is used to refer to suboptimal traits that such a process may produce as a result of having to compromise between the requirements and viewpoints of the participants, particularly in the presence of poor leadership or poor technical knowledge, such as needless complexity, internal inconsistency, logical flaws, banality, and the lack of a unifying vision. This democratic design process is in contrast to autocratic design, or design by dictator, where the project leader decides on the design. The difference is that in an autocratic style, members of the organizations are not included and the final outcome is the responsibility of the leader."

And I think he is right.

[tripleh]

How longs it been since the last podcast with Ion? Kinda shows they don't really stay in touch with the players much. Also they did kinda ignore the beta feedback forums and see how the game turned out? Not really great with classes.

[Ghostile]

You cant listen to a loud minority and make anything but crap

[Elias01]

Cause he was right, and still is. Im pretty sure they just get some cash, people would drop out pretty soon and I imagine him coming back to blizzcon stage saying "I told you so".

You just described BFA not classic. BFA released and it was dead 1 month into expansion. Same 8.1 and 8.2. Hypw hype and 1 month later game is ghost town again.

[Papzer]

WoW would be a better game if developers would ignore the forums for game development

Hahahaha. That's what they did. That's why we got BFA. Beta for Azeroth