Why do they keep changing well know, beloved sounds?

[lollerlaban]

The game was at its PEAK PLAYERS with those sounds. Those sounds had carried this game for 3 expansions to then a record player number.

How can you write with a straight face that this decision was made by people who are more competent and qualified, especially when talking about Cataclysm, of all things?

Popularity carried the peak numbers, not sounds.

[Kumorii]

I always find this the most hilarious response in these kinds of threads. Can you imagine someone using this same argument for any other product? "I really hate how they changed the taste of this soda" or "I don't like what they did to these sneakers" and the person responds, "Well it's their product and all that matters is the maker is happy." What would the customer's natural response to that be? How about, "But I'm the customer and if I don't like it then they don't make any $$." Except in the case of Blizzard, no matter what they do apparently it's the BEST DECISION EVER! That's quite amazing, when you think about it.

It's only hilarious because you misinterpret the response...
Your examples are opinions and feedback.

OP's thread is a question that is asking "why" which is what I gave a response to... Which is an answer that applies to all products that ever existed. The answer to any "why this change?" is almost always "because they thought it would be better" or "they wanted to because they didn't like the original" and to draw a parallel to your response they hoped that would in turn provide a more enjoyable product.

Not everyone will like changes, sure, also irrelevant to my answer. In the end it's their product, regardless if it's sneakers or shampoo or whatever. Literally every company changes their products because they think it'll improve them. Imagine if no company were allowed to change their products because some customers don't like change, we wouldn't advance as quickly as we would've.

Not sure how the last part is even relevant since I didn't really give an opinion on that they made a good decision or not, only that they had enough reason to make the change from their pov.

[Belloc]

Who is asking for this?

I hate it when people ask this question. Spoiler alert: This isn't YOUR game. The developers do not answer to you. They do not require your permission to make changes. They do not need requests from the community to make a decision. When game devs only change things based on community requests, games turn to shit because players are not game designers and, on a fundamental level, do not understand what makes games enjoyable.

One of the quickest ways to kill a game is to give the community everything it asks for.

[JuanFiles]

It's funny OP complains about this changes, because i was there and i remember people complaining to Blizzard to DO this changes.

The guns sound was the number one complain for years. Everybody i know hated it. Hell i remember my girlfriend and lots of guildies PASSING on the gun from the Opera event even tho it was an upgrade BECAUSE noone wanted to hear the god damn gun sound!

It was hilarious tho! I remember my guild leader so pissed off! "Why noone is taking the fucking gun?! Is a fucking upgrade you morons! Just mute the motherfucking game!"
Hahahaha, good times!

Not saying all of the new sounds are perfect, but there were legit reazons to change the old ones.

[Niwes]

I'm sure if you actually put some effort into it you'd be fine. For clarity, I'm talking about the actual game sound. Things like DBM I totally understand, but that's not part of the game sound.

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This, kids, is what we call a 'false equivalence'. Presenting it as though it were a 50/50 split is completely disingenuous (as it pretending there's no negative side from not changing it). The old gun sounds, as an example, were widely hated, it was a minority that liked them. They changed them to appease the majority, if they hadn't then people would still continue to hate those sounds today, perhaps even more so.

as OP said 1 post above, what proofs that ? you state that „everyone and his mother hated old gun sounds“. where is your proof ? for how many players out of a few millions is this REALLY true ? you or we have not the slightest info or proof of that. look at statistics for shit storms. its all about a minority of ppl crying that loud. just because 100 posts in official forum or here between TBC and WoD saying gun sound is POW POW and horrible, means ... NOTHING, when blizzard states that 95% of their playerbase never even posted 1 post in their forums. in short: you know NOTHING.

you say „Niwes, you are going X ... blah blah“ while at the same time you do exactly what you call others (me) and go X by yourself. thats hillarious. Look by yourself: Quote1: „Presenting it as though it were...“ and Quote2: „The old gun sounds, as an example, were widely hated, it was a minority that liked them.„ LOL bro. Now i answer you: „Presenting it as though it were ... widely hated and it was a minority that liked them.“ LOL i had just combined quote1 and quote2. sorry boi, thats just hillarious. when you come around with REAL data and a REAL proof, ok. but calling others to just presenting something while just presenting something by yourself, is just beyond hillarious.

and as OP said above too: Even blizzard has very bad tools and its very difficult to proof for themselfes that ppl „hate“ gun sound.

that whole shit has in general nothing to do with Blizzard and gun sounds and is known to a million companies since around 50 years. and most of them did better than blizz as they learned why. its called „dont fix whats not broken and be 100% sure it is broken before you fix it“.

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It's funny OP complains about this changes, because i was there and i remember people complaining to Blizzard to DO this changes.

The guns sound was the number one complain for years. Everybody i know hated it. Hell i remember my girlfriend and lots of guildies PASSING on the gun from the Opera event even tho it was an upgrade BECAUSE noone wanted to hear the god damn gun sound!

It was hilarious tho! I remember my guild leader so pissed off! "Why noone is taking the fucking gun?! Is a fucking upgrade you morons! Just mute the motherfucking game!"
Hahahaha, good times!

Not saying all of the new sounds are perfect, but there were legit reazons to change the old ones.

show us data. show us data that proofs that more than 50% of plaeyrbase or even more than 50% of all hunters hated it. show us where you get your info.

[Feral Moose]

I think you guys are too dismissive on the importance of sounds as a whole. Maybe some people connect more with sound and music than others, or maybe it's because I spent the majority of my IRL time during my teens drowning out the world with my iPod, but sound and music have always been fairly important to me.

Ability sounds are important because they're an audio cue for things. An example is Power Word: Shield on priests. When you hear that sound you know he got a GCD off in a break in the CC chain to save his friend, it's really distinctive. There's only so much you can keep track of by staring at CD trackers etc. but if you hear a mage ice block you don't even have to look, you already know.

Regarding gunshots, I never really thought they were too loud or anything, but I can see how they'd be overwhelming if it was constant. My personal pet peeve is the voice lines in Hook Point and Mugambala arenas. I always have to turn dialogue off when queueing because it talks over my voice chat, especially in the intro when we're trying to set talents and decide who to go on etc.

[Eggroll]

Dude, the change was critically acclaimed at the time because the gun was all KAPOW! POW! and lost of players didn't like using guns because of that.

They change stuff because they think they can make it better, simple as that.

Me. I am asking. I pay the same subscription as you.

These are improvements. People may be complaining but since the devs and other players disagree, they stop complaining quite fast.

I might agree with the gun sound, but everything else they changed since Legion going forward? BIG NOPE!

Spells used to have signature sounds, from which you knew what spell was cast just by the sound!! Try that now... they all sound the same now.
They all sound like metallic-wooden farts now, regardless if it's a dps/healing spell or a melee ability. They have become undistinguishable by sound.

Maybe you want to enlighten me what about these changes are an improvement in your opinion, because I can't see any. For me, they have made
the game poorer sound wise instead of richer. I invite you to give your 50 cents to this.

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I hate it when people ask this question. Spoiler alert: This isn't YOUR game. The developers do not answer to you. They do not require your permission to make changes. They do not need requests from the community to make a decision. When game devs only change things based on community requests, games turn to shit because players are not game designers and, on a fundamental level, do not understand what makes games enjoyable.

One of the quickest ways to kill a game is to give the community everything it asks for.

I think it's a valid question since devs always go on about limited ressources. So why do a change that nobody is asking for when there are lots of things that need more urgent attention?

[Relapses]

Jesus fucking Christ. I've seen people say that it was the lack of group finder that made WoW successful prior to Cata. It was the lack of transmog that made WoW successful prior to Cata. It was better storytelling that made WoW successful prior to Cata.

But this fucking dude thinks it was the fucking sound guns made that made it successful?

I...

...I don't know if I want to live on this planet anymore.

[Belloc]

I think it's a valid question since devs always go on about limited ressources. So why do a change that nobody is asking for when there are lots of things that need more urgent attention?

In many/most cases, because the people responsible for the thing that no one asked for are not the same people working on the things that require urgent attention. A sound change, for instance, does not take away from the much needed programming bug fixes or broken class/raid mechanics. In other cases, because those things aren't actually as urgent as people like to suggest. In yet other cases, because that change was what Blizzard wanted and it was a relatively quick fix that could be implemented by the next patch, whereas these other urgent issues were never going to make it in time for the patch.

Players are always going to ask that question and, in a game like WoW, it's never going to be meaningful. Blizzard will do what they think is best for the game regardless of whether or not players ask for it. Blizzard does not and should not design around what players ask for.

[Lazy Gecko]

I get the perspective that the original gun sound can get aggravating when you're hearing it everywhere. One solution could have been to give the player on the client side their own gun sound with a more cathartic oomph to it while non-player (or uh, other players I guess) sound sources could be more muted.

I also get the overall dissatisfaction with a lot of the newer sounds just coming across as more flaccid with less energy in them, like the new fire mage sounds. Since I am a professional sound designer I can share some of my thoughts on why things end up this way. Most of the classic era WoW sounds were made from older stock libraries, and old stock sounds tend to have more clipping/distortion and dynamic compression as an inherent trait in them. Nowadays with the modern library market (as well as what studios record themselves) the sounds are a lot cleaner with exponentially more dynamic range. This also means that you really have to go the extra mile with processing and editing them to give them that same level of oomph that you feel with the older, technically lower quality sounds. I really suspect that sound designers end up feeling sort of apprehensive about doing that, because you get the impression that you're basically "destroying" the sounds. I know it's a dilemma I've often grappled with.

You either do that, or you redo the entirety of the sound mix in the game to account for the much higher dynamic range that the new sound assets are essentially calibrated for.

[Eggroll]

In many/most cases, because the people responsible for the thing that no one asked for are not the same people working on the things that require urgent attention. A sound change, for instance, does not take away from the much needed programming bug fixes or broken class/raid mechanics. In other cases, because those things aren't actually as urgent as people like to suggest. In yet other cases, because that change was what Blizzard wanted and it was a relatively quick fix that could be implemented by the next patch, whereas these other urgent issues were never going to make it in time for the patch.

Players are always going to ask that question and, in a game like WoW, it's never going to be meaningful. Blizzard will do what they think is best for the game regardless of whether or not players ask for it. Blizzard does not and should not design around what players ask for.

Still they put ressources in something only to make it worse. Doesn't make sense to me. Before we had signature sounds for abilities: you heard a certain sound and just knew what spell was cast - PW: Shield, Arcane Intellect, Wild Growth, etc. or my favorite: Prayer of Mending, the sound, when the spell jumps to the first target.

Now they all sound the fucking same. Why would you remove these wonderful sounds from the game and replace them with metallic-wooden farts across the board?

Please enlighten me.

[Dejavuproned]

Dude, you're SO wrong here. Players CLEARLY peaked because of Sindragosa's voice acting. YOUR MAGIC BETRAAAAYYYS YOOOOUUUU.

My day was going so well until you reminded me of that, now I'm getting flashbacks. Thanks...

On topic, doesn't the fact that an add on exists that will give op his gun sounds back kinda render the complaint moot?

Also I've been a hunter since wrath, and I can assure you that those sounds were largely hated. Even people not plating a hunter, because if you were near a hunter with a gun all you heard was "POW! KAPLOW!" all fight and it really annoyed alot of people.

It was a good change, now the old bow sounds I really miss! Though I just looked it up and there's an addon to add those back too! I know what I'm gonna be installing when I get on my pc!

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

[Belloc]

Still they put ressources in something only to make it worse. Doesn't make sense to me. Before we had signature sounds for abilities: you heard a certain sound and just knew what spell was cast - PW: Shield, Arcane Intellect, Wild Growth, etc. or my favorite: Prayer of Mending, the sound, when the spell jumps to the first target.

Now they all sound the fucking same. Why would you remove these wonderful sounds from the game and replace them with metallic-wooden farts across the board?

Please enlighten me.

Gun sounds were widely accepted as being loud an obnoxious. Yes, they were distinct, but they were also distinctly terrible coming out of our speakers and headphones. They made it hard to discern the other sounds that were playing at the same time.

Those concepts probably apply to most sound changes. You might like the sounds as they used to be, but if those sounds are too loud, too close to other sounds, or have other issues when interacting with other sounds, they're going to get changed.

Personally, last time I played the game, I thought all the sounds were fine. I didn't get the feeling that everything sounded "the fucking same." Honestly, I think you're making a big deal of something just to have something to complain about.

[Tiev]

The change of the Shield Slam sound is the main (close to only) reason why I quit playing my tank warrior.

It's the most important move you have, it should feel the most impactful. Sounds bland now.

[bloodykiller86]

Every pig dying (and sometimes creatures) in every movie and video game is literally the same stock sound. After playing WoW for like 15+ years it is impossible to not notice it when you hear it from other sources lmao.

like the wilhelm scream being used everywhere lol

[Tiev]

The orc dying sound in Warcraft 2's cinematics was the same sound of an alien dying in the original X-com. That was a fun surprise when I re-played through the war2 campaign last month.

[Unholyground]

like the wilhelm scream being used everywhere lol

Yep haha, my buddy was just talking about that scream which is funny.

[Eggroll]

Personally, last time I played the game, I thought all the sounds were fine. I didn't get the feeling that everything sounded "the fucking same." Honestly, I think you're making a big deal of something just to have something to complain about.

No I don't. I find the new sounds atrocious and I loved the old sounds. Maybe you have low standards and don't really care much about the role of art in a video game.

If it was an issue of the sounds being too loud, they could have just muted them a little.

Can you honestly say you know off the top of your head which sound is now tied to Wild Growth? Can you still recognize the spells from their sounds effects?

[letgoit]

How does this thread have seven goes? Who even plays with sound on? OP is a weirdo.

[melzas]

Current gun sound is awful, because it doesn't sound like a gunshot at all.

Old gun sound was awful because it was obnoxious and annoying to many people ( I liked it though).

While I preferred the old one, I agree that game sounds need to be easy for ears before they are immersive, so the change was for the better overall.

And if you really miss those sounds, there are add-ons to replace them back.