It must be like walking on glass for the developers of this game

[Trassk]

Really, I can imagine how it must feel for the developers, how every day they have to face contrivances, complaints, negative backlash, and even when something good does come out of all there planning and designing, they don't get given appreciation for it.

So often, wow and its developers receive negative complaints more then positive ones, the dissatisfaction given from players who want the game made there way rather then appreciating whats given to them. And well the devs could just break down and tell the constant ungrateful bitching the players give them, they carry on, keep trying to make this mass of people happy, doing what they can to try and balance issues, but only being able to do so within the limits of there capabilities.

Blizzard and its devs are the parents, and the players are the ungrateful kids, never knowing the stress and hard work the grown ups do for them in trying to make them happy, the time and effort put into it, and yet the kids never giving them respect, only yelling at them from not getting there way.

And well you could argue 'there a company, they are meant to listen to the consumer', from all I read of dev posts and all I read of players and there 'feed back', it often just looks like so much bitching and moaning, never getting there way, or understanding the limits they have.

Take for example the whole horde and alliance balance issue, the devs are often trying to make both sides happy in what they do, but to do that, they can't give both sides 100% attention, often it has to balance like 60-40, but well still trying to work on making each side happy. As they said recently, they can't alienate one side for the sake of making the other 100% the focus.

Then take pvp, always the complaint about balancing classes, you try finding means to balance 11 classes so everyone is evenly matched, well trying to keep those classes fresh as possible. It can't be done 100% of the time, and yet the moment something slips, you can be sure players will flay there arms everywhere saying how blizzard doesn't love them.

And many other countless issues of the players never showing any satisfaction for what the devs do.

[Gimlix]

Humans are ungrateful, We never appreciate what we get.
I enjoy the slightest thing they add, even if it's not going entertain me for longer then 5 minutes, i appreciate it.

If they update a random chair at a random place because the texture looks outdated, i appreciate it.

I could never understand how much people are bothered by something, it's just a game and blizzard is doing their best to make it happy for everyone.
Don't complain on forums 24/7 because you don't like everything.

[MoanaLisa]

Speaking only for myself I'd love to see more actual discussion where people are a bit more open-minded to another point of view. I don't think there's anything wrong at all with pointing out the stuff you don't like and why but it would be nice if more often people had some ideas about how to make what they don't like better.

So much of what gets posted here, at Blizzard's forums, and now on Twitter to GC is simple attention-whoring in one way or another or trying to create drama. I don't believe that anyone pays much attention to any of that but the signal-to-noise ratio sometimes gets to the point where any real discussion becomes impossible.

It's a little disheartening sometimes. Again, speaking only for myself. As to forum drama see my sig.

[LocNess]

This game has 8 million players now? It should be expected that people will not like something for x reason. Also maybe 10% of those players use the forums to actually bitch about the game? Majority of the players enjoy the game or they wouldn't have 8mil subs. I think it should be easy enough to just ignore most of it, and only contemplate points players bring up that have little argument to counter them.

[Daetur]

Speaking only for myself I'd love to see more actual discussion where people are a bit more open-minded to another point of view. I don't think there's anything wrong at all with pointing out the stuff you don't like and why but it would be nice if more often people had some ideas about how to make what they don't like better.

So much of what gets posted here, at Blizzard's forums, and now on Twitter to GC is simple attention-whoring in one way or another or trying to create drama. I don't believe that anyone pays much attention to any of that but the signal-to-noise ratio sometimes gets to the point where any real discussion becomes impossible.

It's a little disheartening sometimes. Again, speaking only for myself. As to forum drama see my sig.

Agreed. I enjoy discussion where people have varying point of view immensely, but there's a phenomenon with the internet, or maybe just people in general, where they too quickly take things as "fact," jump to conclusions, and overly aggressively defend their viewpoint with no willingness to entertain other points or perspectives.

People complain about absolutely everything, and just because "you" and "your friends" don't like something doesn't mean that no one else likes it. I can't imagine being a Blizzard developer, it must be pretty disheartening sometimes.

[Deleted]

It often gets way too personal way too fast as well - it's one thing to take critique about the game, but all it takes sometimes is a tweet taking out of context and people are wishing someone would lose their job, throwing around insults, mocking their personal life, and even worse - the amount of times someone has wished a developer death threats because they did something they don't like. The personal level of stress that the high-visibility developers go through must be huge.

Not showing satisfaction is one thing, constructive criticism is always good, hell, even a rant about something in the game if you're not happy is your perogative, opinion being subjective and all, but I really feel bad for those in the public eye when the personal lynchmob turns up at their door, which they inevitabley do on every controversial issue.

[Spraxle]

Or... Blizzard could not be worried about it. They know the minority will always be the loudest and in their face. But they don't have to do anything for them, heck they don't even have to respond to them. The real issue at hand is that Blizzard feels the need to respond to asinine posts/tweets about things that aren't an issue. Or may be an issue but they're internal issues, like ability bloat as an example. They don't need to tell us every little thing they plan to do or want to do. They've empowered their 'community' to feel like it has some level of real power/voice when they don't. Sure the best of the best raid guilds may help tune some of the raids a little bit but Blizzard tests this stuff so much internally that by the time someone sees it on PTR they've already changed what people are complaining about.

My point is I don't think Blizzard cares. They come off snide sometimes and other times they don't. Who cares? Really it's funny that you have people complaining about Blizzard and their attitude and instead of just ignoring those people, as they fall into the minority and vocal-ness is debatable, you now have people propping those people up with threads like this. Those 'vocal few' see things like this and it only adds to their feeling of power/voice in the Blizzard <--> Community relationship.

[Deleted]

Humans are ungrateful, We never appreciate what we get.
I enjoy the slightest thing they add, even if it's not going entertain me for longer then 5 minutes, i appreciate it.

If they update a random chair at a random place because the texture looks outdated, i appreciate it.

I could never understand how much people are bothered by something, it's just a game and blizzard is doing their best to make it happy for everyone.
Don't complain on forums 24/7 because you don't like everything.

Not really true, people just get spoiled.

[Loreish]

Blizzard employees say they even read fan forums, and so if they read this I want them to know that I like, no LOVE their games.
The art, lore, PvP, PvE, pretty much everything, I usually just shrug off those hateful comments, and I'm sure they learn to do that themselves.
I really do love the different Blizzard games and keep on playing them daily, hopefully a comment like this is worth 100x more than those hateful trolls out there.

[Deleted]

Well, I'm fairly sure that the IRL feedback they get is fairly more pleasant. Online most people won't bother twitting GC how much they have been enjoyed the game for years, instead choosing to pester him about +5%/-5% is more common. Starting by me. I suppose that they do know people have been loving wow for almost 10 years, even if they don't post about that.

Someone near California should send them a big cake.

[Kheirn]

This is a great read regarding the continuous harassment of developers and how it's starting to seriously hurt the industry as a whole; http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/462...support-groups

"It's important to listen to fans about what's important to them, but it's equally important to listen to people who are not currently gamers about why they aren't playing. Hardcore gamers want a product that is made specifically for them and is actively unfriendly to anyone new. They will beg and bully to get this product and then praise and wax nostalgic over any game that lives up to their standards even if the company that made it went bankrupt. They don't care about keeping companies in business or artists employed. Their only job as fans is to say what pleases them, and it would be foolish to expect them to think beyond that. But to cater to those desires without thinking about how to bring new audiences in and make them comfortable will ultimately result in a stagnant and money-losing industry.

"I could go on and on about this, but I'm just going to consider one example: the word 'noob.' If you decide to take up almost any other hobby in the world, you can find beginning classes teaching you how to do it. If you want to knit, you can go to a yarn store and meet fellow knitters who will help you get the basics. If you want to play basketball, you can join a rec center or community league at a beginner level. And generally, the people already involved in those hobbies are thrilled to have someone with whom they can share their passion. But if you want to get started as a gamer, you get told, 'go home noob,' because people in this hobby hate newcomers so much they turned the word itself into an insult. How are we supposed to thrive as an industry if we are actively hostile to growing our audience?"

[Loreish]

I've read some similair articles Kaoskadosk, I know I would have a hard time if people were rude to me each day.
A big kudos to those that still keep on going doing what they like.

[Deleted]

this is the internet. they did a good job, otherwise there would be far less players around or this game even would have died a long time ago.

[Immitis]

the mountains of money makes it a bit easier i imagine

[Phasma]

Blizzard takes a lot of negative backlash because they rarely listen to positive suggestions given to them. They always listen to the negative complaints. You reap what you sow. Blizzard has made the community what it is.

[Deleted]

the mountains of money

And we have a bottom line. People think because they pay for something it should be a savior and make all their dreams come true. And do their laundry on top of it. Therefore I guess they feel they have a right to criticize to no end.

[Frogged]

It's worth noting that Blizzard has repeatedly felt like it was acceptable to rest on their laurels (better known as Cataclysm). Pushing and being negative is the only thing that keeps the players from being exploited by a greedy corporation. To suggest that Blizzard are "trying their best" and we're ungrateful for it is laughable at best. They could do so, so much more, but refrain because they know they can get away with it and people will come into this thread to defend their right to be exploited by a game company that doesn't care about them.

If they truly felt we were ungrateful, there are numerous ways to communicate that idea to us that doesn't involve the cold shoulder, jokes about how ignorant we are (about information we couldn't know), and the general feeling superiority. If they're the parents, they aren't doing a very good job at parenting. To twist that metaphor, I'd say they're an abusive parent whose child lets them continue their abuse because they're the parent.

but it would be nice if more often people had some ideas about how to make what they don't like better.

Many people do. Blizzard responds by failing to acknowledge any good ideas. When was the last time a system went into the game that was the idea of a player (fixed up by Devs)? Ironically, considering the expansion theme, they're too prideful for that.

[kenshinag]

I'm pretty sure no matter the amount of money you're receiving, you still want to be treated like a human? Death threats are never to be excused. Anyone defending this behavior seriously needs some growing up to do or they're going to become the next Melodi Dushane.

[Omega10]

"Blizzard employees say they even read fan forums, and so if they read this I want them to know that I like, no LOVE their games.
The art, lore, PvP, PvE, pretty much everything, I usually just shrug off those hateful comments, and I'm sure they learn to do that themselves.
I really do love the different Blizzard games and keep on playing them daily, hopefully a comment like this is worth 100x more than those hateful trolls out there."
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My wife and I ditto these comments 100%

[SL1200]

All that shit comes with the pay grade bro. I don't feel bad for the wow developers at all.