9.0 General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

I mean, streamers are players of the game to, with an audience at that; we just gotta hope they be honest with their critique

I guess that is true, though they are biased, whether that is a positive or not.

There is however the bigger problem if there not being much of a point in making Streamers specifically test an Alpha when you could have an in-house Q&A. Consider for a moment the logistics of it.

Streamers do work by playing games for an audience. The NDA would preclude them from doing it as part of their work. So Blizzard is in essence asking a group of random people to playtest their game and do the work of a regular Q&A for free.
The only tangible benefit is that being public faces it is easier to single out and punish the streamers who leak stuff.

[Voidwielder]

My biggest worry for Shadowlands is not either an early or late release. It's the community and more specifically, big name streamers who shall not be named.

We all agree that Shadowlands needs rigorous testing. And feedback to that is crucial. But 9 out 10 people have no idea how to make constructive feedback without falling to ''this shit sucks donkey kong, fuck you Bl0zzard'' by the end of the first sentence.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

If you are a streamer get into alpha/beta/testing and you go off whining about bugs and such. If you truly mean it, I expect you to report those bugs. Otherwise IMO you are just yelling in bad faith. This isn't so much an accusation but...more of to clear bad actors.

[Asphyx22]

I feel like I am slowly dying on the inside as we wait for alpha to no avail.

[Eurhetemec]

Too quiet

The hype is dying.

They managed to pull out something every past week, but they do not have a single thing for this one, no new LFR wing, no XP boost, no new announcement related to other franchises... Give us something ¡¡

The XP boost was FOUR days ago. Not even a week, and you're acting like it was weeks ago. Fuck's sake.

Loading is still necesasry when travelling between zones, even if they are on the same map.

Loading screens aren't needed unless you teleport and not even always then, though.

We all agree that Shadowlands needs rigorous testing. And feedback to that is crucial. But 9 out 10 people have no idea how to make constructive feedback without falling to ''this shit sucks donkey kong, fuck you Bl0zzard'' by the end of the first sentence.

This is nothing new. I suspect Blizzard are pretty good at extracting what they can from the awful/idiotic feedback they receive. I mean, it'd be nice if people were more helpful and articulate but...

I feel like I am slowly dying on the inside as we wait for alpha to no avail.

It's so unfair that they call WoW players an overdramatic bunch.

If you are a streamer get into alpha/beta/testing and you go off whining about bugs and such. If you truly mean it, I expect you to report those bugs. Otherwise IMO you are just yelling in bad faith. This isn't so much an accusation but...more of to clear bad actors.

I suspect most streamers will just go "Oh well it's alpha I expect bugs so I won't report them because someone else will!", and their audience will nod along. Then in beta they'll go "Well Blizzard should have fixed this by now... Blizz sucks lol amirite?" then on release, when the bug is still there, they'll have the shrieking abdabs and rant about how terrible Blizzard are, and how they encountered this bug months ago and it never got fixed because "Lazy Blizz", despite the fact that neither they nor anyone else actually reported it.

I mean, I don't do betas or alphas generally because I know I'm a bit too lazy to report most bugs in my game time (which is probably because I spend a lot of time at my actual job documenting issues with software we use and chasing the suppliers/devs about it), but if you're going to get into them, fucking report the bugs.

[Monster Hunter]

I feel like I am slowly dying on the inside as we wait for alpha to no avail.

Considering the current situation that's not abnormal

[Defend]

This thread is dead, the hype is dead; you hate to see it.

P.s. does this mean I beat Gifdwarf in our cinematic recreation confirmed?

[matrix123mko]

This thread is dead, the hype is dead; you hate to see it.

P.s. does this mean I beat Gifdwarf in our cinematic recreation confirmed?

My hype is dead as we know nothing about the release date.

[Valysar]

My hype is dead as we know nothing about the release date.

And you know nothing more since Blizzcon... :/

[Arcinatoss]

And you know nothing more since Blizzcon... :/

This is what kills the hype for me every single expansion, just to have absolute silence until alpha/beta.

Why not release some previews of zones, or show of some more features from the covenants etc etc..

[Merryck]

gives me conniptions

[matrix123mko]

This is what kills the hype for me every single expansion, just to have absolute silence until alpha/beta.

Why not release some previews of zones, or show of some more features from the covenants etc etc..

To avoid situation when players are disappointed too early.

[Revamp Man]

I guess that is true, though they are biased, whether that is a positive or not.

There is however the bigger problem if there not being much of a point in making Streamers specifically test an Alpha when you could have an in-house Q&A. Consider for a moment the logistics of it.

Streamers do work by playing games for an audience. The NDA would preclude them from doing it as part of their work. So Blizzard is in essence asking a group of random people to playtest their game and do the work of a regular Q&A for free.
The only tangible benefit is that being public faces it is easier to single out and punish the streamers who leak stuff.

Let’s say I am a big streamer

I get the alpha with NDA

I let blizz know that X feature is great and give suggestions for Y feature

Benefit of that over in house QA is
1. Being in front of thousands allows me to get a feel for how players would react (azerite gear)
2. The in house team is more for making sure it works not making sure ppl like it.

I mean you don’t ever get a real good measure of what players really want but if you take the top people who are entertaining the players and who players care about the opinions of... you get a decent measuring stick.

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If you are a streamer get into alpha/beta/testing and you go off whining about bugs and such. If you truly mean it, I expect you to report those bugs. Otherwise IMO you are just yelling in bad faith. This isn't so much an accusation but...more of to clear bad actors.

If you are a streamer and you find a bug

You and a decent amount of your audience will say something

[FlemmMinis]

Maybe we will see the shadowlands after the hype died?

[Sondrelk]

Let’s say I am a big streamer

I get the alpha with NDA

I let blizz know that X feature is great and give suggestions for Y feature

Benefit of that over in house QA is
1. Being in front of thousands allows me to get a feel for how players would react (azerite gear)
2. The in house team is more for making sure it works not making sure ppl like it.

I mean you don’t ever get a real good measure of what players really want but if you take the top people who are entertaining the players and who players care about the opinions of... you get a decent measuring stick.

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If you are a streamer and you find a bug

You and a decent amount of your audience will say something

That is still Blizzard asking what is for all intents and purposes random people to do the work of a Q&A team for free on their own time, seeing as the NDA means they cannot show it off to their streaming audience.
There is also no guarantee that just because you stream means you have a good grasp on how to give constructive feedback or come up with ideas, and if they did you might as well just take it from somewhere else that doesnt require makign someone sign an NDA.

All in all it just sounds like quite a bit of faff for little to no obvious gain.

Now if the idea is the streamers get access to Alpha a day or two before it goes public so they can prepare a showcase for when they can actually stream it then i can see the reason why you would do it. But otherwise i don't see what you actually gain from it beyond validating people on forums over why some streamers claim to have insider knowledge.

[Hitei]

Let’s say I am a big streamer

I get the alpha with NDA

I let blizz know that X feature is great and give suggestions for Y feature

Benefit of that over in house QA is
1. Being in front of thousands allows me to get a feel for how players would react (azerite gear)
2. The in house team is more for making sure it works not making sure ppl like it.

I mean you don’t ever get a real good measure of what players really want but if you take the top people who are entertaining the players and who players care about the opinions of... you get a decent measuring stick.

Ehhhh...

1. Isn't very accurate, because those thousands of viewers are notoriously dumb sheep. You aren't getting a feel for how "players" would react, you're getting a feel for how that one streamer individually reacts to a thing and then the viewers just parrot whatever their mood is.
2. Is also not true. In-house QA tests for both issues and also general playability/enjoyment.

Streamers don't give a good measure of what players really want, nor does their entertainment factor, or having viewers who care what they think, give you a good measuring stick. See LFR, something touted as the ultimate evil by many streamers yet clearly a crucial system that represents a big activity for a huge majority of the players.

[Sondrelk]

There is also the fact that streamers are biased. Not necessarily in that they want ot see it fail or whatever, but they have a vested interested in sensationalism and views. Which could mean you get loads of feedback on what is fun to do, or you could get hours of rants on why Blizzard is terrible and you should boycott immediately.

[Voidwielder]

1. Being in front of thousands allows me to get a feel for how players would react (azerite gear)

Streamers with thousand of viewers intentionally overhype and skew things in whichever direction the chat is leading them. You could not find a worse measurement than streamer feedback ON stream.

[Chickat]

This is what kills the hype for me every single expansion, just to have absolute silence until alpha/beta.

Why not release some previews of zones, or show of some more features from the covenants etc etc..

Because generally the last patch is fresh until alpha it guess.

[Newname1234567890]

Im surprised blizzard dont do small little press realises of information like other companies, like art from a dunegonor something. Its basically just a series of flood gates at blizzcon and public QA phase.

Ive not really followed all that many expasion launchs before. Is this thier usual MO?