Avery interesting read from Xelnath

[Roujeaux]

He formed a secret council of warlock players to advance the gameplay? That's fucking metal.

Imagine the massive improvement to the state of class design if this had caught on and Blizzard did the Legion class revamps like this.

That "wall of silence policy" statement answered soooooo many questions about things we probably had long considered. The class devs quite often feel the same discontent for game design decisions that player consensus does, but archaic, bureaucratic company policy keeps them from being vocal about counterproductive game design at the risk of losing their jobs/reputations. WOW.

That wall of silence went back up a thousandfold after Ghostcrawler left. That explains the WoD/Legion alpha/beta disregard to chunks of player feedback, as well as a ton of other recent, unpopular game decisions. May even explain the departure of many of the Blizzard vets these past few years. The highers up really had a hand in all of this.

[Theoris]

Imagine the massive improvement to the state of class design if this had caught on and Blizzard did the Legion class revamps like this.

That "wall of silence policy" statement answered soooooo many questions about things we probably had long considered. The class devs quite often feel the same discontent for game design decisions that player consensus does, but archaic, bureaucratic company policy keeps them from being vocal about counterproductive game design at the risk of losing their jobs/reputations. WOW.

That wall of silence went back up a thousandfold after Ghostcrawler left. That explains the WoD/Legion alpha/beta disregard to chunks of player feedback, as well as a ton of other recent, unpopular game decisions. May even explain the departure of many of the Blizzard vets these past few years. The highers up really had a hand in all of this.

I agree. With so many dedicated people in the community they could do great things for the game and the classes.

[Kathranis]

Xelnath definitely took the warlock class to its highest heights, and I doubt we'll ever hit that peak again, but it's nice to know that his work on the class did have a lasting influence on the game. I think it's safe to say that what he did for the class in Mists was a big influence on the overarching goals of class design in Legion, whether or not each and every spec hit the mark -- spec revamps, focus on class fantasy, class halls and the class campaign, mage tower challenges, etc.

[Seezer]

Of course I could have googled, any tard can google, but Id rather have someone do the work for me while I do something useful.

And I didnt make fun of him for taking long to to think of something simple, I illustrated the fact that he came to the thread 5 days after my post and tried to be clever.
At least understand what is happening if you are going to try and weigh in attempt to be a smart ass (which you failed miserably at)

But now you're busy defending yourself and putting effort and work into something in your attempt to get out of doing the work. Not a very smart plan. But such is the life of the internet passive/aggressive.

[crimsonhead]

holy molasses this is such a good read. His insight, his writing, his desire for the warlock class to be different and stand out. His motivation, his conversations with multiple people to get further insights......

man....I miss this guy so much. He really knew what each spec embodied and what it would take for us to truly be at one with the game / class fantasy. Here's hoping we can one day arrive at that again.

[Deleted]

holy molasses this is such a good read. His insight, his writing, his desire for the warlock class to be different and stand out. His motivation, his conversations with multiple people to get further insights......

man....I miss this guy so much. He really knew what each spec embodied and what it would take for us to truly be at one with the game / class fantasy. Here's hoping we can one day arrive at that again.

I agree, this is a fantastic read.

Seems his idea of "Hey, let's go away from mana towards an other interesting resource concept" was then simply copied for other classes. Probably by those he described as overworked / overburdened class devs. A bit of a shame that there is not one dedicated dev for every class, especially given that they all now have 3 (or 2 or 4) specs each.

[Verazh]

I agree, this is a fantastic read.

Seems his idea of "Hey, let's go away from mana towards an other interesting resource concept" was then simply copied for other classes. Probably by those he described as overworked / overburdened class devs. A bit of a shame that there is not one dedicated dev for every class, especially given that they all now have 3 (or 2 or 4) specs each.

It most probably was.

I can hardly wait for his next submission. Very interesting read. I find the burecratic side of it very fascinating. It's perplexing that a modern successful company like Blizzard can be so archaic.

[Moggie]

And then they (Celestalon & co.) very speedily dismantled every possible part of the class and its specs and claimed they were the bestest devs ever...:/