Ion Hazzikostas wrecked world of warcraft

[rrayy]

I also did read a lot of opposing opinions. It seems you equate reading a headline to reading a story, tabloid-like. Do you assume every reader of the MMO-Champion boards is incapable of more?

No, he is trying to claim that everyone who reads this thread automatically agrees with him when in actuality a significatn chunk of them don't agree with him and thinks this thread is nothing more than spam.

[Seranthor]

Nah, i never said that. I am sure all the fanboys believe this thread is spam. They really hate negativity towards blizzard, while both the company and the person in question actually deserve negative feedback.

What did you do to get your other account banned?

[huth]

Nah, i never said that. I am sure all the fanboys believe this thread is spam. They really hate negativity towards blizzard, while both the company and the person in question actually deserve negative feedback.

So you admit to ban-evasion, too?

[RoKPaNda]

Ion is the best game director we've had tbh. He's the first one that realized that this game is more or less several different games played by people of varying skill levels and dedication and that catering to only the group of people that he and I are both in is a horrendous business decision.

[Seranthor]

Well, nothing of value was lost. The message has been sent. And read. By thousands of people.

You mean laughed at by thousands... and you have even managed to get at least one person to resub.

[Seranthor]

Whatever fits better to your bias.

I resubbed just to see if Ion had, in fact, 'wrecked' World of Warcraft. So far no wreckage to be found... are you sure he 'wrecked' it?

[Seranthor]

You seem to play on european realms. Have you ever discovered anyone else in the open world recently? Or have you tried to play low level battlegrounds? Or have you tried to gear up an alt using battlegrouds?

Do you think a shadow priest plays the same as like he did in TBC or even WOTLK?

Everything has changed to worse. Queue times have skyrocketed. up to that point you either wait hours or matchmade groups cannot form at all. There are not even enough people to open a low level battleground anymore nowadays. At least on the realm pool i play at.

Do you think the world experience is the same as it used to be in the years before Ion Hazzikostas started "improving" it?

There is a myth among blizzard parrots that it does not matter if the subscription numbers are low. But it does matter. If there are not enough players, you do not find players to play with.

You'd be wrong, again, but why would you think I played on EU? Given that I only resubbed last night, not to mention I'm not starting a lowbie toon just to answer your questions, All of my toons are 110 (yea... I stopped playing a few years ago).

Wait, your whining that your shadow priest doesn't play the same as 10-15 years ago? Are we now getting down to the root of your butthurt?

[FelPlague]

If the internet has taught me anything, it has taught me that for some people, it is never too late to start complaining.

You will not believe. People cry and cry and cry about the store. But didn't seem to back innvanilla when it was first added. "Classic is free of the store bullshit" no it ain't.

[Mirishka]

You will not believe. People cry and cry and cry about the store. But didn't seem to back innvanilla when it was first added. "Classic is free of the store bullshit" no it ain't.

While conveniently ignoring the dozens and dozens of mounts we get in each of these major patches, no less.

[Seranthor]

Not butthurt, yet disappointed. The class fantasy of a priest is completely different to what it was. I mean, i loved my shadow priest most in classic and TBC. Which says a lot about the "class improvements" since then.

There is a complete continuum of reasons. Most of them were covered by my initial post. I dislike to what Hazzikostas and his helpos changed the game, what it is nowadays. I fondly remember when i was able to play battlegrounds while leveling. That is not possible nowadays. I fondly remember when i was able to craft useful things on the journey to endgame level. Also not possible nowadays, or just pretty useless. I loved how my shadow priest played, today it is just some generic damage dealer without any singular point of interest. And that is not just the shadow priest, all other classes also feel bland and uninspired.

It is unbelievable how much damage Hazzikostas dealt to the game, and just because he wanted balance in Arenas without many FOTM builds.

The reason blizzard reduced the abilities that heavily is not casual gaming, but the idea to be able to balance them in competetive gameplay much easier. It is about developer convenience, and not about class depth and diversity anymore.

So you are angry that he listened to other people while you were absent, now you want him to undo the changes to satisfy you while enraging the folks that have been here all along... Why does your opinion and wants matter more than the folks that have been here longer?

[Tiwack]

I for one am sick of the constant checking, refreshing and racing along with looking at timers counting down everywhere I look ingame. It's very generic where daily cycles of content/making it to the end, felt natural and more refreshing than this grind and pursuit of perfection with little time to be social.

[Belloc]

MoP was amazing? In which way? Do you mean the Pandas as race or the great new daily quest hubs which took all day? Nowadays known as world quests..

I'd imagine he means the quality of the raids, dungeons, challenge modes, and the excellent class mechanics and gameplay. You know, the things that everyone always talks up when talking about MoP?

[bagdawoolin]

I'd imagine he means the quality of the raids, dungeons, challenge modes, and the excellent class mechanics and gameplay. You know, the things that everyone always talks up when talking about MoP?

I think the last expac i really liked was Wrath of the Lich King.

Oh, well, i also liked Catacylsm to the degree it allowed your own pace on reputation farming.

[Unholyground]

Being able to switch stances and finish tanking a boss for example when your tank dies is not doable in modern wow, a class that could heal the rest of a boss fight completely off spec, can no longer do it. Now we have boring tailored specs that locks your game play into a specific type and having no freedom to bring your skill/class rather than your pigeonholed spec. Freedom has been removed over the years in lieu of balance that will never be attained without making every class exactly the same.

There are glaring issues with the reward loops, no one does dungeons outside of mythic because you can get way better rewards doing the same mindless world quests every day for rewards that are very likely only an upgrade in item level instead of targeting stats you actually want, bosses not dropping rollable loot also ruined a lot of the games feel of success when you were trying to get a specific item. If anything bosses should still drop rollable loot and give you a chance for personal loot (since it is so infrequent in the first place) that instantly would be an incentive to do heroics and dungeons.

Much of this began before Ion stepped in and while he and the team have made many mistakes it was not all their fault. That all being said they do need to look at past iterations of the game to gain insight on what made rewards feel more accomplished.

[Daffan]

Did anyone expect anything else? The guy was the head honcho of Elitist Jerks.. it's really not surprising he only gives a shit about percentages.

The game is all about timers now.

Except in his interview more than a decade ago when he was at EJ he accurately to a tee described the problem with the game currently, like I don't even like the guy now but he nailed it right between the eyes from 2000 meters away.

Too bad he never bothered to fix it. Game has hardly any competition and tons of nostalgia/commitment so any slop released will win out.

[Coldfire989]

For me it is clear that the current development team destroyed world of warcraft over the years.

Instead of focusing on the world, they moved all their effort to (competetive) endgame. They forgot about the world they created in classic, and left it unchanged for a very long time until cataclysm, where they renewed it in a way people did not like much as well.

Nowadays, if a new expac releases, all the focus is on new raids, mythic dungeons and rated pvp. Questing content is more a chore than a main feature, while it should be the core gameplay. It should be about the world mainly, and about dungeons and raids only if there is any time left to create them.

I believe the classic reboot was successfull at start, because all of the world mattered again. In nowadays World of Warcraft, the world does not matter at all, and the fun gameplay happens in instanced content only. Leveling is a chore, without any kind of challenge. Crafting in old content does not matter. Crafting at end level feels like a raiding extension, as you need mats from raids to get raid level gear. Beside that, crafting is just another chore, as like are world quests.

Endgame feels like a massive collection of time gates, where you cannot decide yourself what you want to play. Patch 8.3 shows that really well, where you have to do both assaults and world quests, which lack of fun gameplay or any kind of engagement. While the Nyalotha raid received all developer attention.

For me it is clear that Ion Hazzikostas, as game director, is directly responsible for how the game evolved. I think he should be replaced by someone who actually knows how to design a MMORPG with a living and breathing world, which does not want to be a dungeon crawler.

Yawn that is what is clear to me this is just YAWN

[Kantoro]

No, he didn't, you are just not playing the correct way. All the criticism and complaints become moot when you realize that the Devs think everyone else is playing their game wrong.

[Malix Farwin]

WoD was in development since before MoP released.

Not Class design though, just assets at best and i don't even think it was that much in development given how long the last patch of MoP lasted. Most of the time what they do to classes aint even in early Beta let alone alpha yet you want me to believe they knew they were going to gut classes before MoP when a lot of the decisions they made about classes was because of MoP.

They have the Story Mapped out ahead of time and the general direction and progression but Class Design is not one of the things they plan early. At best you can say they planned it a year in advance but even still GC was gone more than a year before WoD.

[Maglen]

I refuse to forgive him for this:



Looking back it's clear that they were using Demo Locks as the template / beta for Demon Hunters

[snaggahoolin]

Looking back it's clear that they were using Demo Locks as the template / beta for Demon Hunters

So much sarcasm and toxcicity from the game director of world of warcraft.