Blizzcon: Dissapointed in weak panels...Thoughts?

[Pockets]

Apologies if threads have already been created on this (couldn't see any) but I was wandering what people thought about the quality of the panels this year?

I have watched the virtual ticket and just recently re-watched previous blizzcon panels and i just thought it was weak for the following reasons:

1. I felt they went into less depth this time on the WoW panels in comparison to previous panels.

i.e. Very little clarity on the upcoming lore (no I'm not expecting them to divulge the entire xpac story. But this is the first time i was left miffed.

i.e.' hey you go back in time but its not time travel and you shouldn't focus on time travel but instead about how awesome its going to be to fight some bad savage orc dudes').

Yes i am aware of the multi-verse explanations people have posted about and thats fine but the devs answer was more 'hey we are butchering the story because you know 'savage' orc raiding sounds awesome so LOL at logic!)

2. Q&A panel devs came off as D-Bags.

I thought the devs were taking the piss half the time with way more snarky comments then normal. You could see a lot of the questions from the fans meant a lot to them (presumably because the game means a lot to them) and it was like watching a real life rejection... awkward and kind of pissed me off.

Like wtf, these people paid to come, they love your product, they are passionate about it, they pay your jobs, at least show some respect instead of showing how far above them you think you are.

3. Q&A related again -

There were lore questions and there was no pardo or metzen wtf? Any lore question was a write off with joke responses or 'give this guy a red shirt!'. Complete fail on that.

4. WoW Panels were topically weak -

No class panel
The Adventure Continues panel was lack luster and left thinking i know even less now then before.

5. WoW Music Panel -Slight Tangent -

I really hope this 'evolution of wow music' does not turn into some head banging hard rock heavy metal BS for WoD. This is WoW...its supposed to sound 'epic' in the sense of epic fantasy not melt your face. --> music that does not break immersion. (completely my opinion blah blah)


Not trying to moan, I'm keeping an open mind to the next expansion but i just felt totally let down by Blizzard's effort and attitude this year in comparison to previous cons in how they talked about their product and how they interacted with the fans.


Thoughts?

[Haven2011]

I felt they didn't tell us enough or that they where not prepared enough. The q&a was bad they where really just idk off

- - - Updated - - -

Plus during the art panel he said more the models where done but he didnt have them with him like he rush. He said they be on sight soon

[Syroco]

Apologies if threads have already been created on this (couldn't see any) but I was wandering what people thought about the quality of the panels this year?

I have watched the virtual ticket and just recently re-watched previous blizzcon panels and i just thought it was weak for the following reasons:

1. I felt they went into less depth this time on the WoW panels in comparison to previous panels.

i.e. Very little clarity on the upcoming lore (no I'm not expecting them to divulge the entire xpac story. But this is the first time i was left miffed.

i.e.' hey you go back in time but its not time travel and you shouldn't focus on time travel but instead about how awesome its going to be to fight some bad savage orc dudes').

Yes i am aware of the multi-verse explanations people have posted about and thats fine but the devs answer was more 'hey we are butchering the story because you know 'savage' orc raiding sounds awesome so LOL at logic!)

2. Q&A panel devs came off as D-Bags.

I thought the devs were taking the piss half the time with way more snarky comments then normal. You could see a lot of the questions from the fans meant a lot to them (presumably because the game means a lot to them) and it was like watching a real life rejection... awkward and kind of pissed me off.

Like wtf, these people paid to come, they love your product, they are passionate about it, they pay your jobs, at least show some respect instead of showing how far above them you think you are.

3. Q&A related again -

There were lore questions and there was no pardo or metzen wtf? Any lore question was a write off with joke responses or 'give this guy a red shirt!'. Complete fail on that.

4. WoW Panels were topically weak -

No class panel
No lore specific panel
The Future of Wow panel was lack luster and left thinking i know even less now then before.

5. WoW Music Panel -Slight Tangent -

I really hope this 'evolution of wow music' does not turn into some head banging hard rock heavy metal BS for WoD. This is WoW...its supposed to sound 'epic' in the sense of epic fantasy not melt your face. --> music that does not break immersion. (completely my opinion blah blah)


Not trying to moan, I'm keeping an open mind to the next expansion but i just felt totally let down by Blizzard's effort and attitude this year in comparison to previous cons in how they talked about their product and how they interacted with the fans.


Thoughts?

I think that's because this expansion is sort of like a "bridge" expansion (think EQ expansions, there were a lot of these.)
Also, I am almost certain that Team 1 (Titan/Nilla/TBC/Wotlk team) is back on board and developing the xpac that follows WoD.

WoD is the last effort of Team 2 (Chilton, Ghostcrawler, etc) who also did Cata and MoP.

[finskee]

There was a lore panel, and metzen was there.

[Pockets]

I think that's because this expansion is sort of like a "bridge" expansion (think EQ expansions, there were a lot of these.)
Also, I am almost certain that Team 1 (Titan/Nilla/TBC/Wotlk team) is back on board and developing the xpac that follows WoD.

WoD is the last effort of Team 2 (Chilton, Ghostcrawler, etc) who also did Cata and MoP.

I understand what your saying but a couple of questions to think about:

1. Metzen said at the last Blizzcon that Mists was going to be the bridge expansion. He did not say 'bridge' but said something like this is the expansion where we give something different, a respite from our current formulae to prepare you for whats really going down next expansion (i.e. WoD). At least thats what i remember.

2. I thought Team 1 was working on WoD too?

[Ragashii]

The panels were pretty cool. You have to understand that they have to be as brisk as possible. They aren't really trying to be assholes up there. But they can't spend 10 minutes answering a single question. Some of the attendees sure can take 10 minutes to ask a question though...

[chaud]

The Q&A panels are always amusing to watch. They aren't being mean. People saying their name, realm, and something else really should be against the rules though. That slows things down every year. The gap between questions was also longer this year.

There wasn't a huge need for a class panel, as there aren't any major changes to talk about yet. This time around they are removing skills instead of adding them.

I do wish the WoW Movie panel had been used for something else. The meat of the content in it could have been covered in 5 or 10 minutes.

Also not a fan of the Q&A panel ending 5 min before it was supposed to be over.

[Jokubas]

I have to agree with the original post. I only got to watch the Opening Ceremony and got the rest of my information from the main page here, but I felt like we got way less than last time, and last time I felt like they focused on all the wrong stuff (for marketing purposes at least).

I don't mean to imply the expansion will be bad or anything, but the presentation here just felt lacking. I feel some of the blame is on the fans though. I didn't watch the panels, but the info MMO-Champion posted from the question sections of panels almost always sucked and missed really obvious questions in favor of stuff they already answered.

They were really vague as to how this alternate Draenor makes sense (hiding exactly how Garrosh does it is fine, but for how much they clearly don't want people to overreact about time travel, they really did a poor job assuaging that fear).

I still want to know how the Iron Horde's main base is in the middle of our Azeroth (Blackrock Mountain).

They didn't really give us a good feel for any of the zones or anything. The remaking a world video only spends about one-third of the video on the new versions of the zones.

[durrtygoodz]

I was hoping a bit more WoW talk would have taken place, it seemed that because of Hearthstone and a d3 expansion, and ofc the movie, those things took up slots that would have otherwise been filled by Class Panel, Class Q+A etc.

Not too fussed about a lack of class panel tbh though. I mean, every class is getting 1 new tier of talents that will be tested and changed 100 times in beta anyway, and there are no new abilities (thank fuck). So not a whole lot to talk about there.

[Sharuko]

5. WoW Music Panel -Slight Tangent -

I really hope this 'evolution of wow music' does not turn into some head banging hard rock heavy metal BS for WoD. This is WoW...its supposed to sound 'epic' in the sense of epic fantasy not melt your face. --> music that does not break immersion. (completely my opinion blah blah)

Jason Hayes who was doing the "rock" performances, has been responsible for the most iconic music in WoW. He isn't going to do WoW music in front of a crowd. Here are some of the songs he did:

Teldrassil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXMguMnsyak

A Call To Arms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35aGD24aB00

Arthas My Son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXLatbzK51Q

Legends of Azeroth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smq2wkdnq-Y

Elwynn Forest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMk_iKc2Ouo

Stormwind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1XcJIDi1Qs

Ashenvale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4U4vr_Ra3o

And many many more, if you liked it in Vanilla and BC, he probably did it. Just because they do rock on stage. Don't underestimate their talent. These guys know what they are doing.

[Ragashii]

Jason Hayes who was doing the "rock" performances, has been responsible for the most iconic music in WoW. He isn't going to do WoW music in front of a crowd. Here are some of the songs he did:

DAMMIT MAN. I had just gotten the Wotlk songs out of my head the other day too. Guess I'll listen to invincible again....

[finskee]

The lore panel fleshed out a few things, but as far as why everything in general was so vague... they obviously were told not to spoil the ending of the expansion. And I know that sucks at the moment, but its like when you read the ending of a book first, you feel cheated, and now the book is only half as fun. Seriously though, watch the lore panel, it was on the first day, panel stage, before the art panel. Also the art panel was great, revealing the new models and animations was maybe my favorite part of the whole thing because honestly, they look great.

[Shampro]

I think it was allround good. Only thing I would change is that people just go streight into the questions, It drags things a bit indeed.

Otherwise enjoyed the content a lot, specially the reveal and ''whats next''.

[Pockets]

Jason Hayes who was doing the "rock" performances, has been responsible for the most iconic music in WoW. He isn't going to do WoW music in front of a crowd. Here are some of the songs he did:

Teldrassil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXMguMnsyak

A Call To Arms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35aGD24aB00

Arthas My Son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXLatbzK51Q

Legends of Azeroth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smq2wkdnq-Y

Elwynn Forest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMk_iKc2Ouo

Stormwind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1XcJIDi1Qs

Ashenvale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4U4vr_Ra3o

And many many more, if you liked it in Vanilla and BC, he probably did it. Just because they do rock on stage. Don't underestimate their talent. These guys know what they are doing.

Let me clarify; i know he did previous music and i absolutely love it, I'm just worried that with the idea of 'evolution' of wow music + the rock versions of the music + the heavy metal used on the intro's to all panels, it could mean a drastic change to the music in WoD. In addition at the beginning of the music panel he did say that WoD needs ear splitting music or something to that extend. The myriad of the above gave me warning bells.

Also the poster who mentioned the crap questions from fans and the 'char name / guild / server' could not agree more. A lot of the questions were really poor ( i should have referenced that fact in my OP and the intro thing is such a waste of time imo. I get it you play the game, thats awesome but thats not what i paid $40 for. yes they spend like 20 seconds doing this but that adds up to quite a few mins when you add in everyone that did it over the 2 day event on all panels.

To the poster regarding the class panels - let me clarify i agree they did not need one (though it would be nice to know the direction they are taking each class in WoD with regard to over arching design) but i referenced the class panel in my OP as an example of quality panels they used to include. I would have preferred a additional hour for the lore panel, or an additional hour on WoD story direction, game direction or w/e.

Also yes the wow movie thing - mostly a lot of nothing said in one hour...

p.s. WTB an Lk movie

[Mongler]

I think that's because this expansion is sort of like a "bridge" expansion (think EQ expansions, there were a lot of these.)
Also, I am almost certain that Team 1 (Titan/Nilla/TBC/Wotlk team) is back on board and developing the xpac that follows WoD.

WoD is the last effort of Team 2 (Chilton, Ghostcrawler, etc) who also did Cata and MoP.

Pretty sure you've mixed that up a bit. This "team 1" is working on WoD, along with team 2. I think it would be a little too early and shortsighted to begin work on another expansion before the one just announced has yet to begin Beta.

[Danshot]

The Q&A panels are always amusing to watch. They aren't being mean. People saying their name, realm, and something else really should be against the rules though. That slows things down every year. The gap between questions was also longer this year.

There wasn't a huge need for a class panel, as there aren't any major changes to talk about yet. This time around they are removing skills instead of adding them.

I do wish the WoW Movie panel had been used for something else. The meat of the content in it could have been covered in 5 or 10 minutes.

Also not a fan of the Q&A panel ending 5 min before it was supposed to be over.

Seriously man, only like 3 people were speedy asking questions.

[Ragashii]

Seriously man, only like 3 people were speedy asking questions.

Hi my name is Ragashii, from Illidan in the guild idontactuallyhaveaguild. First let me say uh, thank you for having blizzcon because it's awesome and you guys are too! Right so I have 10 questions, and I plan on asking them in a way that you won't remember the first question. So uh back in like this obscure reference area that has great art why didn't anything happen? Also why did the trees from this zone change so much from this other zone? Was there some sort of deep meaning behind that? Did you ever plan on doing something about obscure/pointless character? He was very interesting. Anyway let me give a shout out to all my guildies on the server!

Nobody asked the question I really wanted answered either. Do you still plan on revamping Gilneas for the Alliance to use as a city?

[Sierra85]

I thought the devs were taking the piss half the time with way more snarky comments then normal. You could see a lot of the questions from the fans meant a lot to them (presumably because the game means a lot to them) and it was like watching a real life rejection... awkward and kind of pissed me off.

Like wtf, these people paid to come, they love your product, they are passionate about it, they pay your jobs, at least show some respect instead of showing how far above them you think you are.

there is some truth here, they came across as arrogant dicks. Like they were better than everyone there. I guess having GM powers will give you that superiority but its disrespectful when people paid to come and then you act that way.

[Deleted]

I think they didn't say more because they were not allowed. I don't know if it was just me but it looked like Metzen was being heavily controled and there was a lot more he wanted to say.

[Shampro]

Metzen is always like that, he wants to say a lot, but usually contains himself.