What has Ion done well as Game Director?

[shadycharacter1]

he's been great at giving non-answers during interviews

[StaeleAilar]

He's pretty good at lawyering during Q/A

Is this a serious thread? Blizz hasn't made a single good change to the game since it became a poster boy for EA's 'surprise mechanics' and D3 personified.

DEFINITELY this. He is VERY good at giving a non answer to everything or talking enough to confuse people into them thinking that they've got an answer.

[Xalvia]

He was a true gamer back in the day and seems like a decent guy. That being said, I don't like the lack of communication and disagree with him on various aspects of the game. Not so sure he is the man for the job after the questionable product BFA was. He will have to prove himself in Shadowlands.

[TheDestinatus]

Since becoming Game Directer, he has become exceptional at putting on weight.

[Skildar]

he made the choice to improve content pacing and add game systems that have some depth when the game really needed those. He might also be behind the overhauls for a lot of classes that happen at Legion.

They've managed to keep the game running with a lot of outdated systems: professions (gathering and crafting), archeology, first aid, races customisation, gui, gearing system (only bfa brought some freshness there), interactions with npc

I don't know how well he manages the teams and their budget/resources. But I think that now that game mechanics are now fresher and they've integrated a good pacing for the game he will be able to shift things around and focus more on other great issues for this game.

- collections loosing their value as you gather so much of them continuously
- mounts that don't make travel that much enjoyable
- story telling that is far behind what a lot of other games offer (very few elements happen during an expansion, and not capitalising enough on key events. I still think the assault on Dazar'Alor could have been made a bigger thing that marks a time where the Alliance took matters into their own hands but it was so expeditive, that you didn't even feel any accomplishment)
- quest system that is archaic. Most of bfa quests were, go to a camp talk to everyone then gather/save/destroy X, kill X mobs, and kill the big mob.

They've invested way too much on the warfronts and island expeditions without knowing what they could accomplish with those and how to integrate them in the war campaign.
Fortunately islands turned out well, when warfronts were very forgettable.

Anyway, I really feel like this game could benefit for more system overhauls, and we can expect the dev team to tackle those in the future as they've been improving the game during Wod, Legion and Bfa.
But I'd wish they would keep systems from legion and Bfa (not in their entirety, but the core at least) because I feel like entering shadowlands we will make a huuuuge step backwards concerning the gearing system. And the constant update on this feature only keeps the team from working on some other important tasks

[Tradu]

And they are designed way they are becouse of demands from activision. You cant really make engaging and fun warfront if that content has to be acessible by everyone. And Activusion wants as many maus possible which means Blizz have to desing wow content to be doable by 6y okd kid to 80y grandma = content cannot be challengig only time consuming = content isnt engaging or fun. To fix this they have to stop making game for masses and simply accept fact that some people do not deserve to see 100% of wow content.

Blizzard has literally always been making more "accessible" games. WoW itself was very much created as a more accessible MMO. Activision had nothing to do with that philosophy.

[Tyze]

Q&As were welcomed, they didn't need to do that, yet they did. Very appricated.

TBH Ion has done many things good for the game, he is a great speaker and he SAYS most of the things we want to hear, but some things are not delivered. But still I think the stuff he's done good is greater than the "bad" stuff.

He doesn't get to decide everything, he plays the game, which is good. Maybe not a lot more? He used to be a mythic raider in Legion, means he plays the game and knows the good and bad flaws.

[Tradu]

Q&As were welcomed, they didn't need to do that, yet they did. Very appricated.

TBH Ion has done many things good for the game, he is a great speaker and he SAYS most of the things we want to hear, but some things are not delivered. But still I think the stuff he's done good is greater than the "bad" stuff.

He doesn't get to decide everything, he plays the game, which is good. Maybe not a lot more? He used to be a mythic raider in Legion, means he plays the game and knows the good and bad flaws.

He's very good at giving non-answers that bait people into thinking he said what they wanted to hear.

[Philomene]

How can you people be this fucking blind?

Dude is trash, he needs to go. https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ?...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...86427578753024
https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...13293094293507
https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...28909567520769

Please get him the fuck outta' here.

Thanks for the links.

OT : Nothing, except making people quit the game lmao

He's prob doing with the means he's given, meaning he's not the only one responsible but the game was in a way better state when he wasn't a director.

Q&A and constant updates are good but they don't make the game interesting to play. Maybe they're trying to cater to people who like a dull game with a nice wrapping (which isn't even that nice nowadays).

[Big Thanks]

I highly doubt Ion is responsible for half the things in the game.
I even doubt he is responsible for 1/4th of all things in the expansion.

How the hell do you know what "things" he is actually responsible for?

I mean...he probably gives the "ok" pass to all major ideas...but i dont know...

[M1r4g3]

Lets see, raiding is the worst its ever been with guilds massively disbanding, classes have become pathetic 2 button mashers, infinite power grinds, extreme loot rng, extreme rng in general, more and more gambling systems. To me that just says the person designing/adding those cant empathize with normal humans and just looks at numbers to decide what to do.
But he added allied races so its all well! /s

[Feral Druid ist Op]

I think that he has been able to articulate the concerns of the raiding community well. He seems to at least understand the issues that exist in the raiding scene. I have confidence that he will continue to do so in the future.

Lmao... this was a good one, I can only speak for raiding in the top 40-50 and this has become 10 times worse since legion.

I known him since his elitist jerks days as a hardcore raider and im pretty sure that he understands the problems but deliberately causes them to keep the hardcore raider grinding for hes shareholder metrics.

He caused so many guild deaths in the higher ranks because the players couldnt spend so much time playing (exorsus for example went casual cuz of this) the grid was too extreme to play at the top.

I witnessed this burnout myself and am glad that we have killed nzoth since last week and that i can take a break until shadowlands now and never touch this shit that is bfa ever again.

[MasterOfNone]

How can you people be this fucking blind?

Dude is trash, he needs to go. https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ?...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...86427578753024
https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...13293094293507
https://twitter.com/IonHazzikostasQ/...28909567520769

Please get him the fuck outta' here.

dude dont provide proof. that will just ruin their illusion that ion knows what he is doing...

[KronoFett]

When I think of Ion, his designs are the endless grinds put in the game. We have an endless cape and endless necklace. And then he refuses to make account-wide essences. Screw him so hard.

WHY AREN'T ESSENCES ACCOUNT WIDE!!!! Get more player time? No, you get less because I'm not touching an alt.

[Stormwolf64]

Lies about island exploration, lies about azerite armor, lies within his lies too probably. Hopefully by the next expansion he lives in a cardboard box.

[Doffen]

He is good at explaining the thoughts behind their ideas. He also were game director for Legion from October 2016 and made sure that patches came in a good interwall during the expansion. If people are to blame BfA's shortcomings on him they should also praise him for the good things in Legion.

[Kumorii]

He knows how to cash in the money for Blizzard, even if the game is bleeding subs.

cash in money...
bleed, reducing amount of subs...

Wut?

[Xalvia]

Lets see, raiding is the worst its ever been with guilds massively disbanding, classes have become pathetic 2 button mashers, infinite power grinds, extreme loot rng, extreme rng in general, more and more gambling systems. To me that just says the person designing/adding those cant empathize with normal humans and just looks at numbers to decide what to do.
But he added allied races so its all well! /s

Sad thing is the raids itself are mostly dope, yet the gear/reward structures are so fucked that people are flying away in droves....

[Osmeric]

Ion has been very good at understanding that Blizzard cannot just cater to players like himself, or me, or any other Mythic raider, you have to appeal to the casuals. It's nice that he's able to get the game going in a direction that's appealing for both. If they cater to us, the casuals leave in massive numbers, and that's bad business. He's been able to cater to them and keep our endgame sufficiently satisfying thanks to his raider background, which is nice.

I don't think he's been good at that at all. His efforts in that direction have been halfhearted. A game that truly catered to the casuals would have totally abandoned the mythic raiders, not tried to have its hardcore cake and eat it too.

[cuafpr]

I think he has been good for the raid scene and difficulty content (mage tower, M+) due to his back ground as high level raider.