Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Lady Atia]

No point to start usual Blizzcon this year, late 2023 would be perfect for that:

- first time since Microsoft buyout (and Phil should open whole thing)
- if they won't screw up initial DF patch schedule WoW would be fine and on track for 10.2 reveal (considering ~Q1 for DF launch)
- probably DIV release around that time
- more chance for big reveals, for sure that new survival game.

They usually start selling tickets around April anyway if I remember correctly.

Who cares about Blizzcon? I would rather get more frequent updates and monthly Q&A seasons via twitter spaces or streams.

[Sondrelk]

Who cares about Blizzcon? I would rather get more frequent updates and monthly Q&A seasons via twitter spaces or streams.

Blizzcon is usually a good time for stuff taht we wouldnt normally get though, like music panels, or world design showcases.

[Lady Atia]

I wonder if they ever will do blizzcon again. Considering how critical even long time fans of the company have become recently. And it is at least obvious to me the developers cannot really handle harsh criticism.

Instead of broadening their views, it becomes narrow. Instead of listening to their players, they troll them. Instead of caring about player agenda, they create a "community council" made out of opportunists as a PR stunt.

Are we both living in the same timeline? NewBlizzard started to listening to the community with 9.1.5 and are actually improving the game and making it better for everyone, thanks to the removal of Afrasiabi and his boys. Dragonflight looks super promising, they even have a dedicated team for open world content now.

Also, who is trolling? What sword?

[Revamp Man]

No, you just lie. Remind me again, how many new maps are there in beta at the moment? zero?

Wait are they heelzvsbabyface?

[Dracullus]

Who cares about Blizzcon? I would rather get more frequent updates and monthly Q&A seasons via twitter spaces or streams.

It's like saying "who cares about audience on football match, most people watch it in TV anyway". For reveals I prefer to watch true hype from crowd and dev doing it live than pre-recorded corporate meeting where 2 people talk to each other like they never heard what other person is working on.

[Lady Atia]

That's even less like taming than the stable was. At least the stable had you do activities to domesticate those animals. Just staring at an animal for 10 seconds isn't taming.

Well, the idea would be to use the protoform synthesis system but evolve it so it actually fits the dragonflight lore - it makes no sense to "build" wild animals, so "taming" would be the way to go. Tame the base animal, craft stuff like reins and a saddle and maybe collect some magic dust that makes them like you and you are good to go.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The Council is underutilized and has extreme lack of responses. The responses we've gotten since the announcement has been tied to the Dragonflight threads on feedback.

Regardless, I am too tired to express my disappointment in the Council and again. I really hate that it has become this pro-positive talking point when there's zero effort put into it beyond literally 1-2 posts a week.

Not only is it extremely annoying but there's dozens of QoL and smaller communities (Roleplaying, Collectionists, Transmog and so forth) which has extremely quality threads on the Council that will never receive any attention.

Regardless, I don't really care because I kind of expected that the talking point surrounding the Council would end up in this weird situation where because it exists and Blizzard are doing good that the Council would be included as doing good too in such circumstances.

[AngerFork]

I wonder if they ever will do blizzcon again. Considering how critical even long time fans of the company have become recently. And it is at least obvious to me the developers cannot really handle harsh criticism.

Instead of broadening their views, it becomes narrow. Instead of listening to their players, they troll them. Instead of caring about player agenda, they create a "community council" made out of opportunists as a PR stunt.

Not sure I agree with you on the devs not being able to handle harsh criticism. If anything, I'd argue that seems to come from a PR department that was for a while preventing devs from being more open minded. Given the recent PR push for DF is going onto places like Asmongold's stream that would have in the past been considered non grata, I feel they are trying to reach out more these days.

That being said, I too feel like we will not see Blizzcon in the future. If anything, I suspect Blizz announcements will be given out in more traditional means in the future at conferences like PAX & EGX.

[Sondrelk]

The issue with the community council is primarily the same as with all such dedicated feedback forums. The lack of people to give good feedback.
Curating the members helps a bit in removing outright trolls, but does nothing for those that are just plain bad at communicating their grievances, even if they are valid. Some players just don't have the ability to take a broader look at a system and gauge how it could work not just in the context of the larger game, but for players who might not play the same as them.

The ideal community council member should be able to give constructive criticism, have a good understanding of game mechanics, be able to talk on a broad amount of topics, while simultaneously being able to go in-depth if required. And most importantly needs to give constant feedback, not just once in a blue moon.
And while players like that are not exceedingly rare, they are not necessarily easy to come by without actively searching for them.

[Sondrelk]

Btw., on a side note, has anyone from the boosting communities cried out loud yet? Seems that new crafting auction house will move many of their boostees to buy crafted BOP items. Where is the outrage?

Boosting for gold is banned, has been for quite a while now. Noone is complaining because they have been removed from the game.

[rhorle]

Boosting for gold is banned, has been for quite a while now. Noone is complaining because they have been removed from the game.

Boosting for gold is not banned. You just can't be part of a community as more often then not they were fronts for RMT. Individuals or guilds can still offer carries for gold (in-game currency). Advertising also has to be done by a player character that will participate in that activity.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The problem on the Council right now is the lack of responses. Again, if we had a robust and fully staffed Community Manager team and also had developers who had actually free time on their hand to respond beyond the fact that they are all burned to the crisp to hit 2 year cycle timers so that the shareholders and Bobby will be happy. But, again. That ain't happening. So, here we are with 1-2 responses every week.

[Revamp Man]

AFAIR, only advertising was banned, and boosting is still allowed. Or did i miss a recent change?

You can't boost cross server
That's it

- - - Updated - - -

The problem on the Council right now is the lack of responses. Again, if we had a robust and fully staffed Community Manager team and also had developers who had actually free time on their hand to respond beyond the fact that they are all burned to the crisp to hit 2 year cycle timers so that the shareholders and Bobby will be happy. But, again. That ain't happening. So, here we are with 1-2 responses every week.

I think they are all on suicide watch after essentially announcing an expansion that says "we were wrong for two years"

[therumblings]

They banned large cross realm boosting communities, technically they can still exist since Blizzard can't ban people just for being in a discord server, but if they're caught advertising on a low level character that wont be apart of the run, they'll get banned.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I think they are all on suicide watch after essentially announcing an expansion that says "we were wrong for two years"

Considering, we've just diverted back to Mists of Pandaria and also gone back to pre-Borrowed Power and Build Around System Expansions. Try 8 Years.

I mean hell even the theme of the expansion is MoP like with exploring Dragon Isles after 10000 years.

[therumblings]

DF being very similar to MoP is probably it's most attractive feature.

[Marlamin]

First, blizzard simply did not respond to them, so they made an own discord.

Third, people were not happy about how Blizzard handled the council.

Blizzard then banned 20% of the community council.

This isn't what happened and is an extremely clickbaity version of it, just saying.

The problem on the Council right now is the lack of responses. Again, if we had a robust and fully staffed Community Manager team and also had developers who had actually free time on their hand to respond beyond the fact that they are all burned to the crisp to hit 2 year cycle timers so that the shareholders and Bobby will be happy. But, again. That ain't happening. So, here we are with 1-2 responses every week.

As someone on the council, I pretty much agree with this. The amount of engagement is extremely small at the moment, I'm hoping it'll get better during 10.0 testing... but yeah, not expecting it.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Not much to discuss until we get to the testing phase of Dragonflight so there is that.

[therumblings]

Not much to discuss until we get to the testing phase of Dragonflight so there is that.

I think we'll get Alpha this month. Hopefully they put out that art blog and talent calculator sooner than that, like they hoped for. Though I don't think we're getting anything else with the mobile game news tomorrow.

[Revamp Man]

they are pushing all the nerfs right now
some in my team dont really likeit but im assuming they are doing it for season 4 prep