So is the Wow community council dead?

[Candlewick]

Nearly no members post blues seem to be avoiding it and what few posts are there seem to just grovel...

Is this project of yes men doomed to fail?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

No, but Blizzard had the smart idea to launch it before the Holidays. So these narratives could form freely and flourish. Frankly I find this whole sentiment ridiculous, at least wait until we have the Retail Devs back at Work.

[klaps_05]

The community council is currently suffering primarily from clout-chasing andys. A few of them got removed already, but there are still many which constantly post and spam threads. They really should have made some sort of limit on new threads per member - 1 thread per month or so would mean the forum would not be suffocated. This way instead of 30 threads by the same people, they can post 1 proper detailed thread and keep their opinion there.

Majority of those posts ofc dont have a blue response because they are senseless "i want this and that and that" and other wish lists posted by people with little experience who only have a light grasp on how systems intertwine in pvp/pve where the main game systems are. The council was supposed to be for detailed systems and game feedback especially on upcoming features, not the spam it has turned into.

The forum isnt really a yes-men project, but more of a "another forum section" to ignore. Because right now, there is no difference between that forum and the General under Community.

[Ryzeth]

They literally said that there'd be nothing new posted from Blizzard until after New Years.

[Romanthony]

Well i mean, it has nothing to do with you know, The hoildays?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The forum isnt really a yes-men project

It is made up of yes men. Even if Blizzard did listen to them, the council is primarily made up of hardcore players: raiders and pvpers. Casuals, the majority of WoW's audience, are not represented, much like how WoW's modern dev team is run by hardcore raiders turned devs. So the WoW playerbase will continue to be neglected.

[cuafpr]

It is made up of yes men. Even if Blizzard did listen to them, the council is primarily made up of hardcore players: raiders and pvpers. Casuals, the majority of WoW's audience, are not represented, much like how WoW's modern dev team is run by hardcore raiders turned devs. So the WoW playerbase will continue to be neglected.

This... they should have sent out invites based on time played as well as applications. It will be nothing more than an echo chamber for hardcore which could push casuals away.

[Kokolums]

There should be people who enjoy leveling, enjoy social, enjoy scripting addons, enjoy the art, enjoy the lore, enjoy playing with a controller / non standard keyboard mouse, streamers, people who just like to watch streams. They could have different sections on a lot of aspects.

But I guess they just want hardcore raiders and pvpers.

[shoc]

Who cares, it is textbook survivorship bias anyways. Players who've been around for 10-15 years are not who you want to listen to. They are the ones that will stand by the game no matter how bad it gets, and implementing their feedback won't translate into any meaningful growth or innovation for the game. They need feedback from people who never even make it to max, or quit as soon as they realize the end game is boring for them. Unfortunately those voices are completely unrepresented because, they don't give a shit about WoW and have long gone to play something else. Blizzard has spent way too long eating where they shit and have a stagnant game to show for it.

[McNeil]

I've only heard drama coming out of them, I doubt they have much of a use other than being a scapegoat in case Blizzard makes another misstep with the game.

[Kokolums]

I've only heard drama coming out of them, I doubt they have much of a use other than being a scapegoat in case Blizzard makes another misstep with the game.

A football is only as good as its head coach. A community council will only be as good as the Blizz employee put in charge of it. If they don't put someone in charge with strong social skills, its not gonna work. But I'd seriously question Blizz's ability to even recognize someone with strong social skills.

[Zyky]

No, but Blizzard had the smart idea to launch it before the Holidays. So these narratives could form freely and flourish. Frankly I find this whole sentiment ridiculous, at least wait until we have the Retail Devs back at Work.

I mean, most people are pretty aware that the council is a sham to begin with. Blizzard, specifically the WoW team in this discussion, has been doing the same thing for years now. The cycle has repeated itself for the last 4 expansions, it's not a coincidence anymore.

1) Alpha/Beta feedback for the most part entirely ignored
2) Game releases in an incomplete state with several game-breaking bugs, incomplete systems, class balance being a mess, and core features that are sloppily made
3) Players play the game for a month or two at the beginning of the expansion and quit in droves after post-launch feedback mostly ignored
4) WoW team makes some kind of statement saying "we're going to listen to you guys"
5) They implement some kind of non-fix that doesn't solve any issues with specific features and systems giving the illusion of "listening" (such as valor points this expansion)
6) Takes months for them to "listen" and even then insist on continuing the same failing philosophies (such as heavy time-gating and grinding)
7) The second players find a way to break out of the arduous and boring chores they force on the playerbase they quickly and heavily nerf it and call it an "exploit"
8) They make another statement and find some kind of idiotic way to pin the problems with the community perception of the game and "commit" to making a better game (in this case it's the Council)
9) They implement changes nobody asked for and go "see we're listening"
10) More players give up trying for the remainder of the expansion, continue quitting in droves, Blizzard acts confused as to why this is the case and makes a final statement saying "we'll do better next time, promise" and completely abandon the current expansion leaving it a sloppy mess for several months that nobody is happy with
11) Repeat from Step 1

[Mokrath]

Reading the CC forums was my personal last straw for choosing to not renew my sub. Admittedly, I may come back briefly in 9.2 but seeing what they chose to represent the players just cemented the level of out-of-touch the makers of the game are from the WoW I fell in love with.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The community council was dead upon announcement.

[Blackmist]

They should have got the opinions from the people who stopped playing.

[Kiwijello]

Community Council is a PR stunt. Nothing more. The game is too far gone to come back to anything us old-school players even want to mess with anymore. Ion is out of touch and the CEO only wants more yacht space.

We don't live in Azeroth. We live in reality and in that reality, money is god, not our enjoyment of the game. They don't care what the council has to say. They just kick out the ones that don't line up with their vision...

[Gaidax]

It's holidays, nobody is working. Of course there is no communication.

Other than that - this "council" whatever is still only people. I don't expect much from it anyway.

[Magnagarde]

Whenever you make a council, a council that stems from the community itself at that, it will inevitably bring difference of opinion to the table. Blizzard isn't ready for different opinions. Gaming companies are largely moving away from innovation and imagination towards uniform thinking and trending social signals. A community-based council like this will work only once Blizzard has rinsed "wrongthinkers" from its games because everyone will agree with the direection they're taking the gameplay and the game's story. It will however be completely worthless by the time they get there.

- - - Updated - - -

They should have got the opinions from the people who stopped playing.

Precisely.

[Sondrelk]

They should have got the opinions from the people who stopped playing.

That would be the worst possible choice. The majority of players who stopped playing are not going to return or care, and the small minority of players who do wait for that mythical expansion to bring the spark back are probably easily outnumbered by players who have stopped playing, but are still invested in hating the game.

At best you might get some good ideas, but mostly it would probably just be nostalgia pandering and players giving non-constructive feedback like fire all the devs, or remove levelling/open world and make raids twice as long.

[Marlamin]

It's honestly just due to the holidays, Blizz said activity over the holidays would be low (as it should be for any healthy workplace). We'll see if things start back up when people get back in the next week or so (and more people get invited).

It is made up of yes men. Even if Blizzard did listen to them, the council is primarily made up of hardcore players: raiders and pvpers. Casuals, the majority of WoW's audience, are not represented, much like how WoW's modern dev team is run by hardcore raiders turned devs. So the WoW playerbase will continue to be neglected.

There should be people who enjoy leveling, enjoy social, enjoy scripting addons, enjoy the art, enjoy the lore, enjoy playing with a controller / non standard keyboard mouse, streamers, people who just like to watch streams. They could have different sections on a lot of aspects.

But I guess they just want hardcore raiders and pvpers.

As someone on the council, and quite frankly anyone who read the introduction thread would have known, it's definitely not just hardcore raiders/PvPers.