Hazelnutty Dragonflight Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

[Video Games]

Ok interview. The first 4 points are solid

[Dakhath]

They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.

Nobody is staying subbed for saying they will add housing one day.

[OrangeJuice]

So what they need to do, is fire the people working there that just now realized borrowed power is a shit design and hire the people who warned them it was a shit idea in Legion. If you're that incompetent that it takes you 3 expansions to learn something so obvious then you're a dunce and gtfo.

[Biomega]

They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.

It could be that, but me personally I think it's actually a much bigger technical challenge than people think.

WoW's engine is an ancient piece of crap. To have massively personalized, persistent instanced content is way way WAY more complicated than the Lego model of garrisons ever was, and would probably require so many technical upgrades and changes they're dragging their feet with it straight into WoW2.

I mean even in its current state the game is not equipped to deal with a lot of stuff going on, you get 30 people together fighting something and half the server racks blow a fuse just maintaining 5fps. This hamsterwheel rig of an engine just isn't going to be able to cope with a lot of the stuff people would like to see in housing.

The last thing anyone wants - not players, not Blizzard - is housing done badly and barebones, with everything just twenty different reconfigurations of the same IKEA catalog. That's the garrison model, and it'd be a catastrophe if housing was that.

[Ghanir]

Considering the state WoW is in, both ingame and its reputation, it does make sense for them to focus more heavily on repairing their connection with the players and to deliver an okay (or better) expansion in form of gameplay and content.
That is not to say Player Housing is not content, just that this feature alone could be so big that in order to get it right it requires way more work than what was allowed for in tandem with the rest of the Dragonflight expansion.

I for one do think that a feature like this, a feature that should span and expand across several expansions/be a core feature for the rest of the games lifespan, should get the time it requires in order to get it right.
I only pray it doesn't take too long.

[Molvonos]

If Blizz had integrated Player Housing from the get go, like they'd originally said (Maaan that takes me back), then it wouldn't be so much a technical hurdle as they're making it out to be.

Everquest 2 and WoW came out at roughly the same time and EQ2 had player housing to a pretty fine degree, though it was predominantly indoors unless you had a guild hall (iirc). Now though, after so many years (and I do not believe Garrisons ever was intended to be a replacement for player housing, as they filled two very different niches). That being said, I believe them when they say it's difficult, because they have to work from the ground up, figure out where the player housing is going to be (honestly, should be all the faction cities and not just Org/SW), how to differentiate them, what's going to go into them (furniture, etc), will said items be drops/crafted/both/neither, etc etc etc.

There's an assload of stuff that goes into it and most games that have player housing, had it from the start (EQ2, New World, Wildstar, FF, Archeage, to name a few).

[Ealyssa]

Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.

Except literally nobody stay subbed for the potential housing they clearly state won't come in the expansion...

Hating just for the hate is fun I guess. Sad.

[Aurora]

WoW has become such an anti-social game in recent times I'm not sure I'd even want player housing anymore. Like, who am I supposed to invite to enjoy it? Even with guildees communication happens on discord rather than in the game. There's no realm culture anymore, it's just all random players you meet in queues and shards that you'll never see again.

[Icelin]

They did a good job.

Surprised Hazel didn't call out pet dungeons or lack of achievements. Ion seemed to focus on professions longer than I anticipated. Maybe the team realized people were not utilizing that feature much anymore in SLs.

I am not entirely sure why they are so hung up on Mythic keys. Nice to hear they are in the process of scaling back more old content, but I wish I had the chance to participate in it. Have some actual rewards like timewalking vendors, possible housing rewards etc (I still been hoping a Classic timewalking will be put in) not just item lvl.

[Xorzor]

The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.

Took them long enough. If this talent revamp is their new power system, then they should stick with it throughout the future of the game. We HATE borrowed power!!

[Eurhetemec]

People who try to psych people online are the people who look like they have no idea what psychology is?

This isn't psychology, it's just what happens. It's really reliable. It's like people who quit the game whilst making a giant song and dance about it always come back, but those people who just vanish and never even told anyone they quit tend to stay gone.

- - - Updated - - -

I think FFXIV's housing is like perfectly where "the bar" is at. It could be a lot deeper, but there are a ton of assets, and you can easily visit other people's houses. It's also fairly stable. That stuff is like the absolute bare minimum for housing, but most devs can't even manage that.

So if that's "the bar", someone must have done better?

Either that, or actually it's currently the apex, not the bar, and you're understating that fact.

[Eapoe]

They been saying the same thing about housing for 18 years.
Face it they just wanna dangle the carrot and keep your sub.

You realize they could have been working on housing all this time, trying to tweak it. I’m not saying they have, but people that are stating things similar to you are acting like they’ve never even touched player housing, when it’s just as possible they’ve been trying to find a good way to implement it since Legion.

- - - Updated - - -

The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.

Took them long enough. If this talent revamp is their new power system, then they should stick with it throughout the future of the game. We HATE borrowed power!!

Did you even listen to, or read the transcript, or the interview?

[bruxx]

I'm hoping that Ion was joking about being forced into visage when riding mounts. Worgen already get to ride wolves and we're all alive.

[Niwes]

thats not how developing components in an application worksXD

lol, yeah. not really. but i am not sure if some ppl realizes how all that stuff works or not works, when not working in such jobs (i.e. sw development) or companies.

btw: your name sounds like you are a Rust developer.

[Loveliest]

I mean, has anyone ever got it right? FFXIV definitely does not, impressive as it is.

DAoC was kind of close, maybe. Certainly closest to what I'd want to see from Blizzard.

Wildstar did. And Rift was ok.

[SinR]

And Archaeology ignored again.

May as well just roll it into Mining or something at this point

[Culex]

I really hate this guy.

[Kithelle]

Well it's not perfect...but at least they're getting rid of some bad stuff so it's a start. I just hope the talent system isn't like classic where most tiles just boost this or that ability by a small percentage

[Biomega]

I'm hoping that Ion was joking about being forced into visage when riding mounts. Worgen already get to ride wolves and we're all alive.

Probably lazy solution to the problem of tails and wings clipping through mount models.

[B01L]

Regarding Professions...

Might make me switch to Leatherworking & Skinning, so I can make my own armor (Outlaw Rogue)...

Although I really, Really, REALLY wish Blizz would roll the appropriate Gathering prof into the assorted Crafting profs; this way I could go Leatherworking (with integrated Skinning) and Alchemy (with integrated Herbalism); alongside Cooking & Fishing, this would allow me to craft my own armor, make my own assorted potions & such, and prepare my own buff foods...!

Regarding Legendaries...

The Sylvanas's bow comment makes me hope for new Class Legendaries; but what would also be cool is if Blizz would make some quest chains to allow those with old Legendaries (such as my Fangs of the Father Rogue Legendary Daggers) to update/upgrade them for use in current/future content...