Blizzard is not acting like BFA is failing

[Sanguinerd]

This entire attitude like they have to justify themselves to anyone for just about everything lately is ridiculous.

[Unholyground]

CONTENT is not the issue here.
It's the CORE of the game:

1. Class design.
2. RNG CHARADE (rng pve chests, rng pvp chests, rng pvp reward, rng wf reward, rng daily reward, rng daily quest, rng wf/tf proc, rng emissary, rng bg reward, rng arena reward, rng rep grind.... EVERYTHING is RNG now)
3. Azerite system (it's just bad)

I know, that is why I am waiting for the rework of the heart of azeroth which is going to be akin to the legion artifacts as far as design and progression, also Nazjatar is going to have a proper currency and vendor like the broken shore/argus had, the rng is not going anywhere unfortunately.

[hulkgor]

Why exactly is "BFA failing" again?

[Puremallace]

I'm sorry, re-vamping the main progression system mid-xpac to look more like legions system isn't acting like it failed?

They've never done that, they've never redone a major system like this mid-xpac, they say how much they hate making big changes, and they're essentially giving us an entirely new system because of how poorly azerite had been received.

That's as much acting like its failing as they can get.

They are forced to revamp it because it is BROKEN and never should have gone live. It is 100% obvious they did not even read the forums or listen to any of the feedback which is why Ion is crying about Alpha/Beta PTR testing.

Ion can cry all day that it did not get enough testing but the fact is there was NO COMMUNICATION at all about the any of the feedback they were getting until subs completely tanked after this horrible system launched.

Blizzard seriously needs a commonsense person position title where they bring in a human being and have them do something once. Doing Islands, warfronts or messing with Azerite once any normal human could have told you they sucked hard.

THE GCD CHANGE!!! Who in christ name is playing these classes as developers who thought this was good to go live? Who!! It felt horribly slow, clunky and broke/still has broken a lot of classes.

This entire attitude like they have to justify themselves to anyone for just about everything lately is ridiculous.

Game is not free to play and making constant promises with a history of failing is not going to fly anymore. They need to kick up the transparency to 1000% ASAP.

[Donatello Trumpi]

BFD made me optimistic again, as it turned the raiding scene around and keeps me engaged.

[Aucald]

THE GCD CHANGE!!! Who in christ name is playing these classes as developers who thought this was good to go live? Who!! It felt horribly slow, clunky and broke/still has broken a lot of classes.

I can tell you the prime working theory behind the GCD change, which I think holds a lot of weight in explaining why they made this decision. Basically put, there has been a substantial among of interest in Classic WoW and a return to its systems, and one major aspect of Classic WoW is that class APL/rotations in Classic are really, really slow. There's an element of deliberateness and micro-management when it comes to the use of your abilities. They likely wanted to adapt this into BfA to give it a bit more of that Classic "feel" in the Live model - and well, it didn't work very well. Ability pruning is probably another element relating to this - getting rid of clutter and reducing rotations down to a handful of impact abilities for each class, just like the signature abilities back in earlier iterations of WoW.

The problem here, and what they themselves found after a few iterations, is that the underling gaming systems that once supported this style are gone or retooled. As a result the model feels more janky and clunky than it ever did, and far from giving the player license to make impactful decisions as part of a given encounter it simply serves as a kind of automatic brake on the flow of combat, feeling more like an inhibiting factor than one that accentuates ability choice.

[Gratlim]

Put it this way. FF14 was so bad originally it was shut down and an official apology was given.

The current team have the passion with the new game and it's showing... unlike ActiBlizz. They literally worked tooth and nail to get A Realm Reborn ready and you could see it at the launch event with Yoshi in tears partly because of them and sadly of the initial server congestion issues with ARR. (They didn't expect that many to come back and trust them)

Hell the current Director is a huge MMO fan and actively admits that the design for FF14 was inspired by other games. Hell he even understands how burnout works and tells people if they feel burnt out from the game to take a break and try other games because Final Fantasy 14 is not the only game out there among other great ones.

Meanwhile Ion is like "nah take this timegated/RNG bs and enjoy being behind if you dare take a break by the time we release the next part".

True. But there is major cultural differances between the apology culture is Japan and the "We know best even when failing" from the West.

[derpkitteh]

you have to understand that most of these people are delusional.

i'm not saying bfa is failing really, but from the way they speak about things, they're just absolutely in this delusion that they're doing no wrong in any way. especially in the story department.

it's like someone warned us long ago "he won't see what you're doing till you kick him in his ass. until you crush his balls."

[Lahis]

WoW made more profits this year with BfA than any of the years before so... technically nothing is wrong with the game. It's doing what it's supposed to do: make money.

That was when the sales came. The dip they have had after the launch certainly won't make 2019 a successful year for them.

[Kuruption]

I don't know, their last interview seems like they knew they screwed up some aspects of the game, and they're trying to fix it.

[Jastall]

What is with this obsession with wanting the WoW devs to grovel for forgiveness?

I ask myself the same question sometimes. The expansion has issues that must be sorted out, but some people here seem to really take gameplay decisions they don't agree with as a personal insult.

Ion spent a few interviews saying they were wrong and are fixing things, that's more than good enough for me, so long as they actually fix things afterwards obviously.

[sam86]

because they don't give a single f8ck about how many play, as long the fat whales buy the new mount or zepplin 6 month offer, which is the game right now
wow in general in term of revenue is not that lower from for example in MoP days (surely nothing like wrath, but that is a different story), that because while they lost over 80% of their playerbase, the 1% whales buy any sh8t from market, pay for boosts and race changing every season and so on
U have a guild who faction changed their entire rooster prior to the last raid, this guild alone probably gave blizz more money than half of the sub they get
They don't give a single f8ck about longetivity, check what they did to Destiny, a game that was published with exact words of 'you won't need another game for 10 years', 3 years later destiny 2 out, and still sh8t
CEOs care only to increase their fat bank accounts, and when blizz is sucked dry and turned to corpse they will throw it and buy new studio to cannibalize it, ppl blame EA for doing that and like to forget that Activision is far worse than EA can even be

Every interview they give they talk about what they did wrong

no they don't, pruning is universally hated and there isn't a single wow player who likes it, yet they never even suggest revert back that decision

[Puremallace]

I don't know, their last interview seems like they knew they screwed up some aspects of the game, and they're trying to fix it.

Yet when people ask them they constantly go back to these god awful NICHE cases from Classic or TBC to justify these dramatic changes. They fail to mention that sub went up in a straight line during those phases of the game.

Also Ion was not even working at Blizzard during that time period. This authority they use when speaking of Vanilla/TBC is so condescending to people who played at that point who just look at these guys as idiots. They constantly complain that players chew through their content but that is because it is not gated via in game methods that can be unlocked.

Why is flying time gated vs achievement gated? Once I get the achievement I need to wait for our lord and master Ion to press the button. It gives people literally nothing to work for in game when you tell me the game is incomplete and in a beta phase until 8.2

Well guess what 8.2 better be the greatest patch in WoW's history the way they have acted right now. It better damn near be another expansions worth of content at this point because they act like 8.2 will make people forget about this current RNG fest.

[legendaryusername]

Can you prove WoD failed?

I dont think anyone can prove that WOW Has been hot garbage since WoD to a whiteknight

[Segus1992]

Remember when the game kept yor attention and sub for years at a time? Maybe not because it's been s bad the past 3 expansions that it needs "salvaged" 6-12 months into taking your money for a sub-standard product.

I have a lot more things to do these days, and a lot fewer friends still playing. Let's not think we know people's reason for not playing.

[Villentretenmerth]

They know they can't salvage BFA. BFA's Core Mechanics are fucked and NOTHING can change that. If I were them I would have cancelled 8.2 and 8.3 and moved the Devs to Classic and a new Expansion.

[THEORACLE64]

Is it just me or is Blizzard just acting like everything is fine?

Outside of Classic forum communication is non existent, only info we have is directly from Ion with vague promises, 8.2 PTR is not up for a MAJORRRR game changing patch, Lore has been dead silent except insulting people on the forums, devs have been afraid to communicate bugs when reported/confirm them.

The list just keeps going. Every single thing I see Ion listing out was reported far prior to BFA even launching but how many had to quit and get fired before he decided to put his hubris aside and admit something is broken?

Nowhere in his interviews is he addressing the casino that is BFA right now and if anything has embraced it even further in dev Q&A's which are few and far between. Where in the hell are the class devs? People are beyond pissed right now about class design and the pruning but there is nothing. Who in the hell looks at prot warriors in MDI right now and does not thing that is just broken and crowding out other tanks that need buffs?

Guilds have been turned into glorified raid log communities as people are just disillusioned at what is going on right now. Where is the 8.2 hype on the PTR? Atleast then you could get people motivated to stay with the game and not just give up.

We’re a third of the way through this expansion, so come back when 9.0 is about to drop and give your final opinion then. They obviously have major changes coming with 8.2, so we’ll see how it goes then.

[Segus1992]

Final Fantasy 14 did It... and with a cinematic, a bang and a glorious return. -long rant-

FF14 pre-Reborn was an indisputable failure though, which BfA definitely is not. If you want to argue that, you're an absolute moron.

[Revamp Man]

Acting like it's fine???
Dude they are fixing (admittedly very slowly) the biggest problem with the games systems

Azerite armor is no longer unlock the same traits over and over
M+ cache got fixed
Slowly we are getting the crap changes reverted and they are waking up

[MoanaLisa]

I dont think anyone can prove that WOW Has been hot garbage since WoD to a whiteknight

For any point of view "proving" opinions is a complete waste of time.