Nerdtacular Blizzard Panel, Darkmoon Faire, Blue Posts, Final Boss - Method Interview

[chaud]

PTR Maintenance and Community Buff, Immortal King's Future Changes

New Card Reveal: Darnassus Aspirant & Wrathguard, Top Constructed Decks of July

Leoric Backdoor Strategy, C9 Fan Match Analysis

Nerdtacular - Blizzard Panel
Chris Metzen, Russell Brower, Randy Jordan, and Patrick Beja (Blizzard EU PR) joined The Instance to talk about Blizzard and WoW. There isn't really any new information or news, but it is still a good listen for Blizzard fans.

Patch 6.2 - Darkmoon Faire
Be sure to pick up WHEE! from the Darkmoon Carousel or the buff from Darkmoon Top Hat before doing dungeons during this bonus weekend or your Tanaan Daily quests for extra reputation! Icy Veins has updated their guide for Patch 6.2.

• Galissa Sundew sells many new items for Darkmoon Daggermaw, which is fished from the waters in the zone.
• You can fish up 100 x Darkmoon Daggermaw for Silas' Secret Stash, which rewards Silas' Secret Stash. This contains 100 x Darkmoon Prize Ticket.

Level	Type	Name	Cost	Source
1	Other	Day-Old Darkmoon Doughnut	1 ×	Vendor
1	Potion	Darkmoon Firewater	25 ×	Vendor
1	Junk	Seafarer's Slidewhistle	25 ×	Vendor
1	Companion Pets	Blorp's Bubble	50 ×	Vendor
1	Companion Pets	Translucent Shell	100 ×	Vendor
1	Quest	Faded Treasure Map	100 ×	Vendor
1	Cooking Recipe	Recipe: Sugar-Crusted Fish Feast	25 ×	Vendor
1	Cooking Recipe	Recipe: Lemon Herb Filet	10 ×	Vendor
1	Cooking Recipe	Recipe: Fancy Darkmoon Feast	50 ×	Vendor

Blue Posts

There's something to be said for healthy skepticism. It helps you maintain a firm grounding in what your expectations are for something. It also leaves room for you to be pleasantly (hopefully) surprised. We'll do what we can to continue to share information, insights, relay feedback, and be here for you to share your thoughts with. That isn't changing.

As to Bashiok leaving, I know many will try to interject meaning into it, but sometimes, change is just change and nothing more.

You probably won't respond but are blues even privy to the info of the next expansion?
We are indeed. We just can't talk about it yet. All things in their time, my friend. All things in their time. I liken it to knowing what a friend has gotten another friend as a gift. Until the friend with the gift is ready to share the gift with the other friend, it's not my place to spill the beans. Otherwise, you ruin the joy of the gift giver. It's a simple analogy, but it holds up just the same. The developers work very hard to put together the content and systems that go into the game. It's my job to make sure that I share what they want me to share when they are ready for me to share it. No sooner than then.

Personally I can't believe anything any developer says about the next expansion. I can only wait to see what it will actually end up becoming after it's released.
That's OK to feel that way – perfectly valid and we'll be watching to see what you think.

Just one request, Neth, with regard to "relay feedback." Can you guys get a checklist or something to ensure that what gets relayed as feedback is accurate?
Feedback comes from multiple directions: what people say on the forums, what they say on fansites or in the media, what they say in game, and importantly what they DO in game. It all gets watched and reported on via multiple channels, we watch, customer service watches, the developers watch, etc. There are multiple reports that go out as well. One of which we ourselves do every week from every region (from the community management end). Plus, there are constant discussions via email and in person. So, no one "checklist" would ever convey the plethora of information and feedback that flows like a giant tidal pool –there are undercurrents of undercurrents that occur. We do what we can though to keep on top of it all. Keep in mind too, sometimes the answer is, "we agree" and sometimes it's "we disagree" due to design goals and whether agreeing fits or doesn't fit into that. In the end, we are also passionate and human about what it is we do.

Please inform Zahrym that I like the way the patch notes are presented in a somewhat verbose manner.
This is actually Rygarius that puts these together and has for awhile now. I'll let him and the developers (who have a hand in them) know you like them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Character / Items
why did you guys make the black market representative at the Garrison not able to bid on items????
Madame Goya only accepts bids in person, as she (rightfully) distrusts everyone else. (WarcraftDevs)

PvP
any update on Shaman Ashran book? Still bugged: speed drops to 130% and invisibility mostly doesn't work
Bug tracking for this is in our system. We don't have an ETA as of yet for when it'll be fixed. (WarcraftDevs)

again, agree. This particular racial seems to me to be superfluous outside of PvP and causes more problems IMO
Agree with both. Average player tends to play a race they like visually (see blood elves) but (1/2) (holinka)
casual players often look for answers from the high end on what's "right." They have some effect. (2/2) (holinka)
After listening, I could probably talk about it for an hour. Twitter is a bad place to discuss but... (holinka)
Disagree that racial is sole reason faction imbalance occurs. It's significant, but other factors at play too. (holinka)

World
Xhul'horac's Black Hole seems to violently toss players away if they are at or very near the spawn point once it spawns. Bug?
This is intended. Physics is scary! (WarcraftDevs)

Ghostcrawler Tweets
While the developers have been pretty quiet since @WarcraftDevs appeared, Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.

PvP
you can tell riot employees play and care but blizzard doesn't pvp. Do you think that's why WoW pvp is so bad?
When I was there, a lot of people did PvP. I assume they still do. (OccupyGStreet)

Lore
You weren't a lore dev, but you followed the story enough. What's been your favorite storyline?
Wrathgate maybe? I liked that Arthas didn't just come kick ass. Played against expectations. (OccupyGStreet)

You've said that you liked night elves when they were fierce. Could you explain what changed your mind? Was it the Alliance?
Feel like we shifted them to more traditional fantasy elves than the fresh take on them in War 3. Not sure it was conscious. (OccupyGStreet)
define traditional. At least compared with high/blood elves. Darnassus a factor or focusing more on priests vs. sentinels?
I just felt like we allowed WoW NEs to be too much like LOTR or D&D elves. The War3 NEs felt pretty different and new IMO. (OccupyGStreet)

what about the lore behind battlegrounds and capturing objectives in world pvp? Vanilla and BC for examples.
I think BGs get the closest, especially AV, but of course your victories really don't change the world so they can feel hollow. (OccupyGStreet)

you've said that you're a fan of wow's faction conflict. What do you think about those who believe it only exists for pvp?
I found PvP frequently expresses it the least. One shotting a gnome in Arena doesn't feel like the Second War yanno? (OccupyGStreet)
do you feel that there can be a balance between 2nd war style conflict and WC3 fighting a larger evil? Should one be focused?
It's really hard in an MMO to have one faction "win" even for a short time. Would be cool though. MMOs often go to a 3rd threat. (OccupyGStreet)
I'd love to develop an MMO where the world actually changes, dramatically and regularly. (OccupyGStreet)

UI / Addons
Am I the only one thinking WoW's UI is a disgrace, with addons a cumbersome, player-unfriendly crutch ? What Would Apple Do ?
Just different schools of thought. People like to customize their UI. Even Apple lets you change a little, like the wallpaper. (OccupyGStreet)

Game Design
I read something pretty insightful on the wow forums. It is possible: http://t.co/d9p26uZq3k
There are also a lot of devs on WoW who have been there forever. That claim of no institutional memory rings hollow to me. (OccupyGStreet)
institutional memory? Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? You didn't start on wow from the start but for a length
You learn early in this business to be able to kill your babies. It's game design 101. (OccupyGStreet)
The claim was that new devs hadn't learned anything from experienced devs. No" institutional memory" or "tribal knowledge." (OccupyGStreet)
If you take a franchise to a brand new team, they may not know what mistakes to avoid or even what feels satisfying. (OccupyGStreet)
As one example, an artist might have to practice making models for months before they really get the style. (OccupyGStreet)

Misc
Hey GC, did you get a freebie pass to Riot or did you put in an application like us regular chums? Just curious. Thanks!
I didn't have to submit an application through the website but I had many interviews. It was so not a free pass. (OccupyGStreet)

Assuming you don't spend the remainder of your career at Riot, are there any genres of games you haven't but want to work on?
I want to do a tactical RPG with excellent combat. (OccupyGStreet)

Final Boss - Method Interview
Final Boss recently interviewed Method about their World First kill. Manaflask talked to Method recently as well!

[Deleted]

First PogChamp

[Deleted]

Patrick left blizzard a few months ago

[chaud]

Patrick left blizzard a few months ago

Yeah, just included it for context as most people don't really know who he is.

[Rawrajishxc]

LOL "you can tell riot employees play and care but blizzard doesn't pvp. Do you think that's why WoW pvp is so bad?"

They must not have ever played LoL because the balancing is just as shit as WoW's.

[DrMcNinja]

What I am secretly hoping is that Blizzard comes up with a really really good expansion to follow up the disaster that we call Warlords, so they can (excuse my French) fuck the faces of all the people who have done nothing but give them shit without any regard for the fact that they. are. fucking. people.

- - - Updated - - -

LOL "you can tell riot employees play and care but blizzard doesn't pvp. Do you think that's why WoW pvp is so bad?"

They must not have ever played LoL because the balancing is just as shit as WoW's.

I wouldn't say their balancing is bad. But it could be better. For example, when updating champions, their priority seems really weird. Instead of taking the least played, most outdated champions with terrible abilities and mechanics, they sometimes just update good/mediocre ones, like Ryze

[Wolfheart9]

The Illidan voice clip at the start of that video.. Hinting at something, or was it a 'just because' thing?

[Deleted]

You cannot truly balance everything in a game as big as LoL or WoW.

Something is always going to be stronger or generally better in a certain situation over class/spec/skill.
Best case is they atleast try and with the amount of swapping and changing Blizzard do, you cannot fault them for their efforts despite some really stupid stuff does actually go through from time to time. It happens.

[Deleted]

You cannot truly balance everything in a game as big as LoL or WoW.

Something is always going to be stronger or generally better in a certain situation over class/spec/skill.
Best case is they atleast try and with the amount of swapping and changing Blizzard do, you cannot fault them for their efforts despite some really stupid stuff does actually go through from time to time. It happens.

Poor excuse for poor design. And I can very well fault them for every flaw they put into this game, or whenever they simply neglect broken specs like DPS shaman for YEARS / SEVERAL EXPANSIONS.

[Deleted]

Poor excuse for poor design. And I can very well fault them for every flaw they put into this game, or whenever they simply neglect broken specs like DPS shaman for YEARS / SEVERAL EXPANSIONS.

Judging from your name, avatar and reading countless of your posts - You're nothing but a troll.

You can fault anyone for anything but thats just you being too negative. Shamans are not that bad at all, enhancement are quite strong and the elemental in my guild still tops them on most fights iirc.
I would not call it broken at all. Improvements could be made but that can also be said about any class and not just shamans.

You just sound too butt hurt to take seriously.

[arcaneshot]

Poor excuse for poor design. And I can very well fault them for every flaw they put into this game, or whenever they simply neglect broken specs like DPS shaman for YEARS / SEVERAL EXPANSIONS.

You know the DPS Shamen in my guild whine about this a lot and yet they're still producing the results (and Enhancement is consistently destroying everyone in AOE) so you can take your "I'm underpowered, pity me" rant and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

You know the DPS Shamen in my guild whine about this a lot and yet they're still producing the results (and Enhancement is consistently destroying everyone in AOE) so you can take your "I'm underpowered, pity me" rant and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Perhaps it just means the rest of your guild sucks. Can't look at specific guild, gotta lock at the general board of players.

[Gadzooks]

You cannot truly balance everything in a game as big as LoL or WoW.

Something is always going to be stronger or generally better in a certain situation over class/spec/skill.
Best case is they atleast try and with the amount of swapping and changing Blizzard do, you cannot fault them for their efforts despite some really stupid stuff does actually go through from time to time. It happens.

There's some truth to that - one of the things I loved/hated in classic is classes were allowed to be what they were - rogues were overpowered in PvP, Warriors unkillable, cloth wearers vulnerable - but they got fun things like drains and fear to defend themselves. They revamp the classes from the ground up too often - I can play a vanilla rogue today, and be comfortable with the rotations, but Warlocks? Priests? Druids, especially balance? It's a constant moving target. The game needs some stability.

Plus, it's time to decouple PvP from PvE. It's just time. You can't create a "one size fits all" class. Let PvP design go nuts and be fun and have cool, fun toys to kill other players with, let PvE focus on leveling and group content. Let classes shine and have defining abilities and skills, that aren't hampered by "Well, x class doesn't have a counter to that". PvP is so bursty now, and it's overlapped onto PvE play - it's one thing to get a Horde player down fast in AB, but does that really feel right questing in The Spires? Or classes that have ramp up nukes for raiding...what does that do for them in questing, when they pull 3 mobs, or the fight is over before they can ramp up, or they're dead in AV before they can ramp up?

I suspect rather strongly that class balance and decoupling pvp/pve is one of those hotly contested ideas in the dev ranks, and it will be this way until the game shuts down, which is kind of sad. It's a constantly moving vision, and added to that, they often don't bother/forget to tell US what the vision is.

[artaxix]

Lots of discussion about "Half-Baked" Expansions and features...

Good thing Warlords was the epitome of half-baked, right Metzen?

[MoanaLisa]

The Illidan voice clip at the start of that video.. Hinting at something, or was it a 'just because' thing?

I've been listening to The Instance for years now. VO artists pop up there now and then. "Just because" is my guess. It's not an unusual thing.

[Sensa]

Lots of discussion about "Half-Baked" Expansions and features...

Good thing Warlords was the epitome of half-baked, right Metzen?

I watched the 1st 30 minutes of that video...3 things were pretty apparent...

1) Blizzard has become very hierarchical and bureaucratic, as can be expected of any company that has grown to the degree Blizzard has, and is as a result a much different company than the company that brought us WoW 10 years ago and much has been lost in translation as a result (essentially admitted by Metzen in his comments)

2) Blizzard has a multitude of games that it produces now and those games are clearly taking equal or greater resources from the "expanded" team than are being spent on WoW

3) Metzen is so burnt out after 22 years that he can't even coherently spout the time worn, and no longer true, BS about not releasing half-baked, un-engaging content anymore...he sounds like a broken record for much of the first 30 minutes

and that is all you really need to know about the current status of WoW

[HowToLitho101]

At time 51:10 for the video, I love how they react to the the sneaked movie clip, and the guy talking shit about the movie in it.

[Deleted]

You should ask them next time: Where the f.ck is our flying?

[Deleted]

I stopped listening when Metzen talked about not wanting to put out something that will betray your values. What a fucking joke.

[Deleted]

What I am secretly hoping is that Blizzard comes up with a really really good expansion to follow up the disaster that we call Warlords, so they can (excuse my French) fuck the faces of all the people who have done nothing but give them shit without any regard for the fact that they. are. fucking. people.

I think people who complain about the company for the lackluster Expansion won't feel facefucked in any way if a good one would come out. I think it would be more in the line of "finally our pressure and backlash shook them up". I'm kinda one of those people.

I don't attest Blizzard any malice, but they are very resourceful with prime grade brands and according pricing. They also talk and present themselves that way. They must expect people having high demands. Hopefully the WoD problems were merely caused by difficulties during change-management (training of the new Team).