Imagine democracy in WoW!!

[Fantazma]

EDIT: Yes I put some new (and necessary) stuffs in original image ^^

[Crimson Spears]

Could work so long as it was a restricted democracy.

Cutting edge or ahead of the curve and challenger and up.

Trasmog could be a free vote but just like the hidden forums on the official forums I wouldn't want votes for class or gameplay balance to be open to everyone.

[Razion]

The Love Is In the Air Favorite Faction Leader voting was the first instance of large-scale player polling. ... Probably.

[Hellobolis]

last time i tried democracy i got a tree mount.

[shoc]

Participatory game design could work for WoW, particularly in places like class design where people are very invested after a decade of maining something. There's good academic work in that space that suggests participatory approaches to design can engage and empower important stakeholders. In Scandinavia, participatory design was used in factories where workers were represented by strong unions, as a way to make tangible the democratization of their workplace, it's good for political reasons.

These days its been twisted into some thing that organizations do with their customers when they can't be fucked to come up with good solutions themselves, but I think participatory design in the form it was always meant to be could actually work for WoW and WoW players.

If WoW players actually want something like this, they'd have to collectively organize a Player's Union, and leverage the immense weight of something like 2+ million subscribers to force Blizzard's game designers to the bargaining table. It sounds silly, of course, but it would probably work.

[Dakhath]

Sounds pretty stupid. A lot of armchair game devs who use "feels" to think they know where a game played by millions should go. WoW is hardly in an amazing spot, but this is one sure way to make it dreadfully worse.

[shoc]

Sounds pretty stupid. A lot of armchair game devs who use "feels" to think they know where a game played by millions should go. WoW is hardly in an amazing spot, but this is one sure way to make it dreadfully worse.

I agree but then I am reminded of this, written towards the Everquest Devs in 2002:

Fix your goddamn buggy bullshit half-assed encounters. The amount of time we dedicated to get our keys to see this guy die and take a turn at the Emperor is just sick. To finally see Blood die only to have the ENTIRE raid DT'd from anywhere in the room was simply an insult. Blood dies, there are two earrings on the corpse, yet no matter where you are in the room, the Emperor DT's. So congrats rot on those. It's cheap enough to make a mob DT in the first place. But to have his agro radius extend to the entire room is ridiculous. So let me get this straight -- and this is how you guys envisioned this in San Diego: You spend months farming keys to get up to the room. Months farming Shissar Bane weapons (and the recipe is where?). You kill Blood while dealing with 8 other snakes in the room. And immediately after that fight you're supposed to engage the DEATHTOUCHING-FROM-ANYWHERE-IN-THE-ROOM Emperor along with the 8 snakes? Whoever came up with this sheer *fisting* of an encounter can go fuck themselves. Do me a favor so I don't waste my guild's time on this kind of jackass shit-fest again, send me an email at tigole@legacyofsteel.net when you decide to A) Implement an encounter that wasn't designed by a retarded chimp chained to a cubicle B) Get a Quality Assuarance Department C) Actually beta test the fucking thing and D) Patch it live. And please for god's sake -- do it in the order I laid out for you. Don't worry, I won't charge you a consulting fee on that one. And for good luck you might as well E) Pull your heads out of your asses. While you're at it rename the game to BetaQuest since you've used up you're alotted false advertising karma on the Bazaar and user interface scam of '01.

Fix the Emperor encounter. Fix Seru. Rethink your time-sink bullshit. Fix all the buggy motherfucking ring encounters (I suggest you let whoever made the Burrower one do this since that dude apparently laid off the crack the rest of you were smoking). Fix the VT key quest. Fix VT (just guessing it's fucked up considering your track record). Don't have the resources to fix this stuff? Move the ENTIRE Planes of Power team over to fixing Shadows of Luclin AND DO IT NOW. If you don't fix Luclin, you jackassess will be the only ones playing the Planes of Power.

One week later Jeff Kaplan was hired as Associate Game Designer for WoW.

[Dakhath]

I agree but then I am reminded of this, written towards the Everquest Devs in 2002:



One week later Jeff Kaplan was hired as Associate Game Designer for WoW.

He was also part of the leadership of the far and away best guild in the game, not unlike Ion being picked up from EJ. That's one individual. A bunch random clowns from even this website making choices for this game sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[Crimson Spears]

He was also part of the leadership of the far and away best guild in the game, not unlike Ion being picked up from EJ. That's one individual. A bunch random clowns from even this website making choices for this game sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Ion is a terrible player though...

[Fantazma]

Sounds pretty stupid. this is one sure way to make it dreadfully worse.

I did not expect a different opinion from someone who uses a avatar of Thanos. ;D (joke).

But seriously now ... imagine if this art I created was really on the WoW website. With dozens of other researches that would lead to a majority opinion of different aspects and design of the game. Would that be bad? People are not prepared to choose their ...own xmogs for example ??

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I wouldn't want votes for class or gameplay balance to be open to everyone.

The solution to this would be simple. To vote you will have to LOG IN ... and automatically the system would be able to see if you really have a char lvl 60 of the class you are giving your opinion on.

[Kyriani]

Sounds pretty stupid. A lot of armchair game devs who use "feels" to think they know where a game played by millions should go. WoW is hardly in an amazing spot, but this is one sure way to make it dreadfully worse.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair. I mean, obviously "armchair devs", with no real experience in game design, aren't going to understand the mechanical nuances and limitations of the design process, but that doesn't mean that "feels" have no value. A game mechanic that is "functional" and performs well and exactly as it should, but doesn't "feel" good or fun to use, as far as the players using it are concerned, isn't really a good mechanic in my opinion. And I'd say that content or mechanics that make most players "feel" good (like say certain OP anima powers for example), are good design choices even if they are entirely unbalanced (and in the case of anima powers it's easier to overlook that imbalance since its constrained to Torghast).

Blizzard already takes advantage of player psychology in their design. It wouldn't hurt for them to do so in more positive, and less predatory ways. The thing is it needs to be done right. Blizzard tried to capitalize on the dopamine rush from RNG titanforging, but it ended up making any case of no titanforge as depressing as it would be exciting if you did get a good titanforge. And players spent far more time in that "down" state than in the "up" state due to titanforging proc rates, and the times when something did titanforge but it was for the wrong slot, it wasn't high enough to be an upgrade, or it was on an item with your worst secondary stats.

"Feels" have a place in game design too. In fact they have a pretty important place, because if people don't enjoy your game, it doesn't matter how technically or mechanically "perfect" it might be, and all those degrees and years of experience in game design mean nothing.

[Crimson Spears]

I did not expect a different opinion from someone who uses a avatar of Thanos. ;D (joke).

But seriously now ... imagine if this art I created was really on the WoW website. With dozens of other researches that would lead to a majority opinion of different aspects and design of the game. Would that be bad? People are not prepared to choose their ...own xmogs for example ??

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The solution to this would be simple. To vote you will have to LOG IN ... and automatically the system would be able to see if you really have a char lvl 60 of the class you are giving your opinion on.

I mean that isn't nearly restricted enough. Currently there are hidden forums on the official forums. One for raid/dungeon tuning, one for pvp, Class feedback/theorycrafting (never seen this one myself) and the mvp lounge.

It helps if you take the best players and get them to weigh in. Johnny lfr isn't good to anyone.

[Airickson]

He was also part of the leadership of the far and away best guild in the game, not unlike Ion being picked up from EJ. That's one individual. A bunch random clowns from even this website making choices for this game sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Democracy doesn't have to be a referendum on every decision. What about something like community voted representatives?

[hulkgor]

Yea, that would be a huge no-no.

[VinceVega]

Only for stuff that does not affect actual gameplay.

No matter what we think about what wow devs do wrong. They are still better at it than the collective wow playerbase is. By a magnitude of infinity.

Transmog? Sure why not.

[deenman]

literaly the worst idea ever,let the devs make the game they want,and you can chose to play it or not

this would kill the game for actual realsies

[Swnem]

Could work so long as it was a restricted democracy.

Cutting edge or ahead of the curve and challenger and up.

Trasmog could be a free vote but just like the hidden forums on the official forums I wouldn't want votes for class or gameplay balance to be open to everyone.

You have a weird idea of democracy. Restricted democracy is not democracy.

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Honestly, i don't see a problem with this. But, the votes should not in fact be public. Only the results. Depending on the subject ofc.

I actually think things like a popularity vote for the next class or a feedback of which talents are you favorites and least favorites would be great feedback.

Of course, the developers would not be obligated to just go with the majority though.

[Fantazma]

Well for exemplo:
According to our dear developers if we are a Rogue, DK, Warrior, Monk, Hunter .... and chose necrolord as a covenant ... it is this type of xmog that they believe (after reaching Renown 60 and spend thousands of Anima) we would love to wear it.
I mean ..... HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA ....
100% sure, dude:
Developer-1: "Hey, man look at this Warlock xmog themed in Maldraxxus that I drew ...."
Developer-2: "Dude, I'm really tired to see this right now ... just put this as the final reward for ALL CLASSES at Renown 60 on the Necrolord .."
Developer-1: "What .. Wait boss ... I mean ... I was just thinking about Warlocks .. haha ... it's not serious, U know ..."
Developer-2: "Tom, JUST DO IT!"
Developer-1: "oh .. ok but ... warriors or rogues will be upset with ..."
Developer-2: "I HATE ROGUES, TOM !! THEY GANKED ME ALL MY ENTIRE LIFE !! JUST DO IT !!"
Developer-1: k.

Hahaha .. and people saying here: "I think it's much better that they don't care about our opinion .."
hahahaha ...

[Calfredd]

Developer-2: "I HATE ROGUES, TOM !! THEY GANKED ME ALL MY ENTIRE LIFE !! JUST DO IT !!"

Someone thinks they're persecuted.

[Fantazma]

Someone thinks they're persecuted.

Dude, I just found out that my reward for reaching Renown 60 in patch 9.1 ... is a Warlock xmog ...! And I play with Rogue, Hunter and DK.
Just leave me here ... crying in a fetal position in the corner of my room.