Development Update: A Message to the WoW Community

[chaoticcrono]

Community-asked changes are good thing. The question is did they ignore the need of them for so long?

It took as long as it did for enough people to unsub for them to get a clue...

[Zentail]

Christ...took then Beta-> 9.0 -> 9.0.5 -> 9.1 -> 9.1.5
To fix....something that was mentioned during Beta...

I wish I could say this was slower than normal and not exponentially faster that previous expansions.

[Mouri Kogorou]

This is insulting.

They are only making these changes because they lost 50% of the player base and not because of our whole year of beta + ptr feedback that they belittled with their stance on not changing the systems.

Glad i unsubbed and wont be back till they respect their players.

[rhorle]

Glad i unsubbed and wont be back till they respect their players.

So you will never be back? They do what people asked for and you get insulted. You'll never feel respected if you see everything they do as an insult.

[MakeMeLaugh]

So you will never be back? They do what people asked for and you get insulted. You'll never feel respected if you see everything they do as an insult.

They are doing a few things people asked. This is really small when you look at the whole game.

[rhorle]

They are doing a few things people asked. This is really small when you look at the whole game.

And? Why does it matter if it is small or not. They are doing something.

[MakeMeLaugh]

And? Why does it matter if it is small or not. They are doing something.

It does matter. Just doing something is not enough.

[Coffeh]

Mike Ybarra (new ceo) tweeted whats actually coming
https://twitter.com/Qwik/status/1431307586175864833

Mike Ybarra is not the new CEO. Blizzard hasn't had a CEO since Morhaime left. Brack was only President. And the two 'co-leaders' aren't even that.

[rhorle]

It does matter. Just doing something is not enough.

So you want them to do something but they can't do something because it isn't enough. Lol. You are getting to caught up in hate that you attack them over doing things people wanted just because it doesn't mean some arbitrary level that you want.

[Coffeh]

Mike Ybarra (new ceo) tweeted whats actually coming
https://twitter.com/Qwik/status/1431307586175864833

Mike Ybarra is not the new CEO. Blizzard hasn't had a CEO since Morhaime left. Brack was only President, and the two 'co-leaders' aren't even that.

[Hitei]

There's a lot of dumb takes in this thread about these changes being due to the lawsuit, or FFXIV, or dying subs.

If you took 10 seconds to use basic common sense you'd realize that these sort of changes happen literally every single expansion about a year in when they start preparing stuff for the X.2 patches. X.1 patches are already far into development by the time release happens so major systems changes get pushed to the patches afterwards, because the content then has to be designed around those changes.

It is nothing new and it has fuck all to do with recent events.

Just like 8.2 added heroic warfronts because people had been complaining about how faceroll they were, Azerite Essences because people had been complaining about the passivitiy of azerite powers, and introduced the ability to hide all transmog slots besides legs because players had been asking for that.

Just like 7.2 removed the dumb quest gating on obliterum forge usage that players had been complaining about, fixed the dumb recipe drops from mythics that players hated, added the reputation prestige so that emissaries that people had been complaining about weren't completely worthless, and addressed the complaints that players had about some classes being completely left out of the updated visuals and spell effects other classes got at launch.

Just like 5.2 cut way back on the daily quest shit that players had been absolutely furious about and pretty much scrubbed the original "scenario" system that players hated from existence in favor of the single player story-based scenario, and also increased transmog customization by unlocking weapon type based on animation like people had been asked for.

Like I'm sorry to ruin your dumb narrative, but this is normal development cycle. Not some evidence that <your favorite youtuber> was right all along and Blizzard is scared of going out of business. They are always loathe to implement systems changes at launch, avoid doing it for X.1 because they want it to get done and out the door and then dump a bunch of feedback-based system changes into the next few patches.

[Dracullus]

Will Arms Warriors finally be able to transmog their backpieces into shields? It's the most requested cosmetic feature I've had for a looooong time.

1. It's badass
2. They're the only class/spec that it's truly justifiable on too
3. it puts literal dozens of awesome looking shields that would be otherwise wasted to a new cosmetic second-life
4. some small justice for gladiator spec

"Class cloaks" would be perfect reward for some future Mage Tower type of content.

There's a lot of dumb takes in this thread about these changes being due to the lawsuit, or FFXIV, or dying subs.

If you took 10 seconds to use basic common sense you'd realize that these sort of changes happen literally every single expansion about a year in when they start preparing stuff for the X.2 patches. X.1 patches are already far into development by the time release happens so major systems changes get pushed to the patches afterwards, because the content then has to be designed around those changes.

True, although some of these changes I would expect rather in 9.3.5. But we have no idea how long SL will last, timeline is so fucked up that nothing is certain.

[Video Games]

They're not caring; they're purposefully withholding changes the community wants for a rainy day.

Take the Nightborne and Lightforged customization options; Blizzard themselves said in an interview that they were fine with the amount of options, the community wasn't fine with the amount of options.

All of a sudden when they're in deep waters and everyone hates them Blizzard conveniently thinks its time for more customization options.

Companies are scum, people.

- - - Updated - - -



It didn't open anything, Blizzard has likely always been keenly aware of what their playerbase has wanted but have purposefully waited to cash in on goodwill.

They're a massive conglomerate filled with community managers and analysts, there's no way this isn't the case. There's no way those people have simply sat on their hands and reported nothing.

But why give people cool shit when you can wait for the consoomers to get pissy and then immediately regain their favour.

There's no incentive to improve the product if people are happy with the product, and Shadowlands while likely a dumpster fire to most, seemingly hasn't been a dumpster fire to all

I suppose. Im not coming back for sl because it's awful, we'll see for 10.0, but id rather play wrath

[Wangming]

It does matter. Just doing something is not enough.

Shocked as I am about this I'm with rhorle on this one. There is only so much that can be done for an x.x.5 patch. And at this point I'm sure their ideas for 10.0 are mostly set. BIIIIG changes likely won't see the light of day till 11.0.

As someone who got used to Naoki Yoshida's dev communication I will never forget Blizz that it took multiple lawsuits to get to this level, but if they actually do something I like, I shall take it as thanks. Are this enough to resubb? Fuck no. Are these enough to get may attention? Hell yeah.

[aceperson]

They literally said they will be giving out a detailed patch note list next week?

and yet they went ahead and made ANOTHER post shortly after this one was posted. my point stands and is valid criticism. the new point is why was it made into two different posts?

- - - Updated - - -

It's just a letter, not PTR patch notes.

that's not an excuse. if they are saying we are getting changes we want, they should at least list some. they even did so shortly after this message was posted so they had it ready and didn't do it all in one post for some reason.

[rhorle]

and yet they went ahead and made ANOTHER post shortly after this one was posted. my point stands and is valid criticism. the new point is why was it made into two different posts?

Really? You are dying on the hill of how many posts they made? It really does show that people find anything to hate on Blizzard about.

[aceperson]

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ne...update-preview

Relax. Give them time to actually do things. The PTR is also a week a way which will have even more detail.

i've given them years to listen. i stayed through most of bfa and all of legion. they lost my trust when hunter (my class) went all of SL alpha and most of beta without any changes to the point that survival couldn't even use kill shot because it required a ranged weapon. i give criticism and praise where it is earned. i praised the seemingly increasing communication and criticized the lack of anything meaningful.

i'm not going to blindly hate or blindly love a company like so many seem to think is normal.

[rhorle]

i'm not going to blindly hate or blindly love a company like so many seem to think is normal.

And yet you are blindly hating. You are attacking them over doing something in two posts instead of one. That is an example of blind hatred if there ever was one.

[Frozen Death Knight]

And? Why does it matter if it is small or not. They are doing something.

Doing little may count as doing "something", but it is still little nonetheless. The devs deserve no praise for fixing low hanging fruit that were reported a very long time ago. Not until they can prove that they can address problems before they become systemic ones after an expansion launch and are no longer fixed by the tail end of each one can I consider this a positive change in direction.

Blizzard has burnt too many bridges and under delivered too many times as of late. It will take years to rebuild that trust people used to have, myself included. I already paid for the expansion and 6+ months of game time for Shadowlands, but only now have they addressed problems long after I decided to stop playing and no longer want to engage with the game these same devs helped design. It is completely unreasonable for anyone to having to wait for these changes for nearly a year after launch when they should have been there from day one.

If anything this patch shows how much of a waste of time playing SL has been so far and I don't blame anyone for feeling jaded from this announcement. Playing SL was me giving Blizzard and WoW a second chance after their massive failings with BfA, but they squandered it. Maybe one day they can regain that trust, but this current expansion is absolutely dead to me.

[Raetary]

that's not an excuse.

Excuse?
Excuse for what?

They wrote a letter addressing the community, and afterwards they made a patch preview post.
This is such a fucking weird thing to complain about.