New Ion Hazzikostas intervew

[Gbits]

It does seem a little odd that we're 14 years into this game and the friends list cap is still 200.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/hnewman...s-and-discord/

[Jinzuru]

TLDR:
We don't like gear swapping in competitive M+, it's not interesting. Macros/addons are bad.
M+ will be same as on live or even easier depending if someone still will be having trouble doing a 10 or 15. 10 and 15 will swap places.

100 guilds kill mythic Ghuun on both sides and we will allow cross-realm mythic raiding.

Highest ilvl = upgrade.

Use our super-dooper new voice chat.

[SirCowdog]

Being able to change gear around—to have the trash set, the set for this boss, the defensive set for this boss, in some ways it makes decisions less interesting, because there’s clearly a single right answer for each of those niche situations, versus thinking about the dungeon in its totality and coming up with a balanced solution for that.

"Makes decisions less interesting....so we take away all the decisions and lock you into a single spec/gear for the entire run"

Wut? Does he actually believe this bullshit? What is this unhealthy fixation with taking away options and decisions and choices?

People will just approach it with a different decision space in mind.

And what space would that be? Instead of deciding on gear and making dymanic decisions and swaps on the fly and incorporating THAT into the UI and gameplay, all we'll do is just equip the one, single most-powerful and all around set possible and ignore everything else. There won't be ANY decisions to make besides "Is this drop higher iLVL than what I'm wearing?" or "Is my spec the community approved and tested most optimal"?

What a joke.

[Jinzuru]

Being able to change gear around—to have the trash set, the set for this boss, the defensive set for this boss, in some ways it makes decisions less interesting, because there’s clearly a single right answer for each of those niche situations, versus thinking about the dungeon in its totality and coming up with a balanced solution for that.

"Makes decisions less interesting....so we take away all the decisions and lock you into a single spec/gear for the entire run"

Wut? Does he actually believe this bullshit? What is this unhealthy fixation with taking away options and decisions and choices?

People will just approach it with a different decision space in mind.

And what space would that be? Instead of deciding on gear and making dymanic decisions and swaps on the fly and incorporating THAT into the UI and gameplay, all we'll do is just equip the one, single most-powerful and all around set possible and ignore everything else. There won't be ANY decisions to make besides "Is this drop higher iLVL than what I'm wearing?" or "Is my spec the community approved and tested most optimal"?

What a joke.

I agree with you. I just can't come up with an answer good enough right now. All their beliefs are very well covered (in my opinion) by Preach, who is kinda disliked here for some reason.

[FelPlague]

Being able to change gear around—to have the trash set, the set for this boss, the defensive set for this boss, in some ways it makes decisions less interesting, because there’s clearly a single right answer for each of those niche situations, versus thinking about the dungeon in its totality and coming up with a balanced solution for that.

"Makes decisions less interesting....so we take away all the decisions and lock you into a single spec/gear for the entire run"

Wut? Does he actually believe this bullshit? What is this unhealthy fixation with taking away options and decisions and choices?

People will just approach it with a different decision space in mind.

And what space would that be? Instead of deciding on gear and making dymanic decisions and swaps on the fly and incorporating THAT into the UI and gameplay, all we'll do is just equip the one, single most-powerful and all around set possible and ignore everything else. There won't be ANY decisions to make besides "Is this drop higher iLVL than what I'm wearing?" or "Is my spec the community approved and tested most optimal"?

What a joke.

yes locking you in does make it more interesting
do i choose the trash set for this run... bos set... survival set? you actually have to make a choice instead of
we are at boss, change to boss set, at trash change to trash set, as heavy damage spot survival set

that is literally exactly what hes talking about and im suprised you cant see that.

just like how old talent trees actually gave us more choice, cause you chose your gear/talents and stuck with it, instead of every boss switching to the one made for that, you chose "do i want to be better at this or that? instead of just "this is for this boss, this another, this another"

its the difference of
You are going into the woods on an adventure, you can take 2 things, here is your choices, the torch, the gun, the map, the food, or the water
interssting choice... now isnt it? you have to try to decide what you would be best with in most scenarios, what YOU see the most valuble in a survival scenario, now lets see the other side
You are going into the woods on an adventure, you can take 2 things only... Oh yeah but whenever you encounter a problem you can switch them out, so once a bear charges you, you can switch your map in for a gun. then when you get hungry switch your gun for the food, then for water then you can
yeah its not a choice anymore now is it? its just a "here is the problem here is what you choose to fix it" instead of "Here is a bunch of problems, choose what you personally see the best option"

[Nize]

Like many other choice-removing decisions, it's more a case of closing the gap between good players and bad players in their attempts to quell toxicity. Note: not saying I agree with their decisions, just letting you know the likely reason why.

[Jinzuru]

it's more a case of closing the gap between good players and bad players in their attempts to quell toxicity.

Exactly this.

Also toxicity is a myth.

[Baine]

It does seem a little odd that we're 14 years into this game and the friends list cap is still 200.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/hnewman...s-and-discord/

Eh, I don't think I even have 20 friends.

[prwraith]

Eh, I don't think I even have 20 friends.

Been playing since launch and my friend's list might just barely peak 20. I think i'm doing this wrong.

Wow just isn't conducive to making friends like that. In Everquest, my friend's list had a shitload of people, wow has always seemed more soul-less idk.

[Skorpionss]

Been playing since launch and my friend's list might just barely peak 20. I think i'm doing this wrong.

Wow just isn't conducive to making friends like that. In Everquest, my friend's list had a shitload of people, wow has always seemed more soul-less idk.

Eh, I don't think I even have 20 friends.

I definitely agree with the current state of the game... however back in tbc i had a lot of people in my friends list, mostly made while leveling... ppl I would run dungeons with constantly and stuff, all met in game.

[SirCowdog]

I agree with you. I just can't come up with an answer good enough right now. All their beliefs are very well covered (in my opinion) by Preach, who is kinda disliked here for some reason.

I generally am ok with Preach. A lot of his content is kind of "meh", but his coverage of WoW is also pretty fair and honest(from what I can tell, anyway). He gets excited when something new is available, but usually breaks things down better after he's calmed a bit.

[Jinzuru]

I generally am ok with Preach. A lot of his content is kind of "meh", but his coverage of WoW is also pretty fair and honest(from what I can tell, anyway). He gets excited when something new is available, but usually breaks things down better after he's calmed a bit.

Only thing I disliked was when he decided not to finish his class guide series in ToS. I'm totally fine with all of his rest WoW - related content.

[Synthium]

Being able to change gear around—to have the trash set, the set for this boss, the defensive set for this boss, in some ways it makes decisions less interesting, because there’s clearly a single right answer for each of those niche situations, versus thinking about the dungeon in its totality and coming up with a balanced solution for that.

"Makes decisions less interesting....so we take away all the decisions and lock you into a single spec/gear for the entire run"

Wut? Does he actually believe this bullshit? What is this unhealthy fixation with taking away options and decisions and choices?

People will just approach it with a different decision space in mind.

And what space would that be? Instead of deciding on gear and making dymanic decisions and swaps on the fly and incorporating THAT into the UI and gameplay, all we'll do is just equip the one, single most-powerful and all around set possible and ignore everything else. There won't be ANY decisions to make besides "Is this drop higher iLVL than what I'm wearing?" or "Is my spec the community approved and tested most optimal"?

What a joke.

It's fascinating to me how some people still don't realize why they are restricting "options and decisions and choices". Because WoW is the game where there is one optimal way to approach a situation and everything else is worse than that. If it's not optimal, it's dogshit. That's how WoW functions since almost forever. The way the system is now, if you want to push very high keys, you HAVE to have multiple gear sets to swap them which is a pain in the fucking ass to have and organize and update every time you get a new piece of gear.

His analogy of comparing it to swapping your loadout between boss phases is actually correct. If you have an option to min-max every trash pack in the instance, then that's the optimal way to play it, and doing anything less than that is considered gimping yourself. They don't want that to be the case. It has nothing to do with your "choice". Do you also think vanilla talents provided "choice"?

[Deleted]

The problem is that it is always discussed on a theoretical level... Sure, it would be nice if you did have to make a meaningful decision at the beginning of a dungeon. But then, you throw class-design into the mix: Some classes can do everything well and have all the tools needed to do both trash, hard-hitting bosses, trickle-damage bosses, etc. Other classes can't. By design.

Now you have the former (classes that can do everything) not having any decision at all any more: They just equip the highest ilvl they have. And the latter don't have a decision any more as well: They simply won't get a slot in the group.

It might close the gap between good and bad players, but it will widen the class-balance very much.

Admittedly, without leggies, the problem is not as big as it would have been in Legion, but it further de-values Azerite armour as you really only hope to get the one that has the best traits instead of being able to play some for one situation and the other for another situation.

[SirCowdog]

yes locking you in does make it more interesting
do i choose the trash set for this run... bos set... survival set? you actually have to make a choice instead of
we are at boss, change to boss set, at trash change to trash set, as heavy damage spot survival set

that is literally exactly what hes talking about and im suprised you cant see that.

That's based on the assumption that there will even BE a "trash set" or a "survival set". When you're locked into only ONE set, you won't even look at sets other than the most well-rounded and overall optimal set. That's why this is not a real decision.

I can "see it" just fine. I just see it for the bullshit illusion of choice that it really is.

just like how old talent trees actually gave us more choice, cause you chose your gear/talents and stuck with it, instead of every boss switching to the one made for that, you chose "do i want to be better at this or that? instead of just "this is for this boss, this another, this another"

its the difference of
You are going into the woods on an adventure, you can take 2 things, here is your choices, the torch, the gun, the map, the food, or the water
interssting choice... now isnt it? you have to try to decide what you would be best with in most scenarios, what YOU see the most valuble in a survival scenario, now lets see the other side
You are going into the woods on an adventure, you can take 2 things only... Oh yeah but whenever you encounter a problem you can switch them out, so once a bear charges you, you can switch your map in for a gun. then when you get hungry switch your gun for the food, then for water then you can
yeah its not a choice anymore now is it? its just a "here is the problem here is what you choose to fix it" instead of "Here is a bunch of problems, choose what you personally see the best option"

More like:

You are going into the woods and have a backpack full of tools, but only certain tools are good for certain situations, and it's up to you to decide which is good for what. Getting your hands on the right tool at the right time can be just as fun and engaging, if not MORE fun than "Oh, you didn't pick the right tool an hour ago at the beginning? Well you're screwed and now you're dead, start over."

Because what will happen under this new system is that you'll have a choice between: The Torch, the gun, the map, the food, or the water, but only the Gun and the Torch are actually useful, while the rest are sub-optimal or worthless. You'll NEVER pick the other choices because doing so will result in failure.

Rather than removing options from players and forcing them into being locked into trying to make one set work for everything at the beginning of the run, Blizzard should be working on making it so that many different tools can work in many different situations.

I look at what Ion is talking about and I see it as just one more aspect of Blizzard locking down more and more control over player progress, rate of content consumption, and one more example of taking choices away from players. They really REALLY need to stop doing that across the board.

- - - Updated - - -

The way the system is now, if you want to push very high keys, you HAVE to have multiple gear sets to swap them which is a pain in the fucking ass to have and organize and update every time you get a new piece of gear.

That's more a flaw of how players acquire the gear itself. It's also subjective. Some people actually enjoy having a lot of dials and options to choose from. Oversimplifying everything all the time isn't necessarily good.

Do you also think vanilla talents provided "choice"?

In some ways Vanilla talents did provide a measure of choice, yes. The problem with that comparison is that the choices in vanilla were very limited; but they WERE still there.

With this new system of M+, there will only be ONE choice: Optimal for the entire run or not. How is that better?

[thilicen]

Eh, I don't think I even have 20 friends.

Some of the people I know, especially the ones going into PvP tend to add people they "match" well with and enjoy playing with. That list fills up pretty fast for them at least.

[Synthium]

That's based on the assumption that there will even BE a "trash set" or a "survival set". When you're locked into only ONE set, you won't even look at sets other than the most well-rounded and overall optimal set. That's why this is not a real decision.

I can "see it" just fine. I just see it for the bullshit illusion of choice that it really is.




More like:

You are going into the woods and have a backpack full of tools, but only certain tools are good for certain situations, and it's up to you to decide which is good for what. Getting your hands on the right tool at the right time can be just as fun and engaging, if not MORE fun than "Oh, you didn't pick the right tool an hour ago at the beginning? Well you're screwed and now you're dead, start over."

Because what will happen under this new system is that you'll have a choice between: The Torch, the gun, the map, the food, or the water, but only the Gun and the Torch are actually useful, while the rest are sub-optimal or worthless. You'll NEVER pick the other choices because doing so will result in failure.

Rather than removing options from players and forcing them into being locked into trying to make one set work for everything at the beginning of the run, Blizzard should be working on making it so that many different tools can work in many different situations.

I look at what Ion is talking about and I see it as just one more aspect of Blizzard locking down more and more control over player progress, rate of content consumption, and one more example of taking choices away from players. They really REALLY need to stop doing that across the board.

- - - Updated - - -



That's more a flaw of how players acquire the gear itself. It's also subjective. Some people actually enjoy having a lot of dials and options to choose from. Oversimplifying everything all the time isn't necessarily good.



In some ways Vanilla talents did provide a measure of choice, yes. The problem with that comparison is that the choices in vanilla were very limited; but they WERE still there.

With this new system of M+, there will only be ONE choice: Optimal for the entire run or not. How is that better?

No man you just don't get it. When you have an option to be ever so slightly in advantage to someone who isn't using it - that becomes THE WAY TO PLAY. Of course you can play casually and do whatever you want, I'm telling you they sometimes have to curb the ways people come up with to play the game because it becomes the way to play. It becomes the meta of running M+ at a high level.

High end guilds actually hate doing split runs. They do it because they get advantage in gear to push into mythic because they race. Method members said they'd be relieved if Blizzard managed to kill it so they don't have to do it anymore. The same way I'm relieved I don't have to collect High-x-stat gear set for 8 targets or more, high-x-stat gear for single target, and high-x-stat for 2 target cleave etc.

[ramayana1423]

This is the most concerning thing he said:

"Players in beta right now have noticed that the sources of Azerite armor, once you get past running normal or heroic dungeons, the only sources are ones that aren’t just infinitely repeatable. You can get Azerite armor from a world quest emissary reward, but not from just a random world quest on the map. You can get it from your weekly PvP reward or from the conquest system, but not just at the end of a match.

Similarly, in epic dungeons, you can’t get Azerite armor from the box at the end of the run, but you can get it from the weekly reward box."

So if you get fucked by RNG trying to get a good Azerite trait, because the difference between good ones and bad ones is drastic, sorry too bad so sad you lose.

[The Stormbringer]

Exactly this.

Also toxicity is a myth.

"There definitely aren't people who get their kicks from screwing with, screwing over, or putting down other people. That doesn't exist at aaaall!"

[Charge me Doctor]

Being able to change gear around—to have the trash set, the set for this boss, the defensive set for this boss, in some ways it makes decisions less interesting, because there’s clearly a single right answer for each of those niche situations, versus thinking about the dungeon in its totality and coming up with a balanced solution for that.

"Makes decisions less interesting....so we take away all the decisions and lock you into a single spec/gear for the entire run"

Wut? Does he actually believe this bullshit? What is this unhealthy fixation with taking away options and decisions and choices?

If you've played any RPG games you always have to make decisions like this, it does makes it fun.