Introducing the World of Warcraft Community Council

[arkanon]

Yea, fuck them for even trying.

Trying what? You think they SHOULD listen to streamers more? Because thats absolutely all this is - free publicity. It doesnt add ANYTHING to the game, and in absolutely no way does it indicate they would actually listen to the feedback. They do not lack feedback from the community now, and never have. They are presenting a solution to the problem of "we dont get enough feedback" but that simply is not a problem.

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So streamers and what not…. That always works out.

Bascially, you either need to be a streamer, or full blown fanboi with blogs and websites etc. I am stunned that any "average" player thinks this will help them in any way at all. It simply wont.

[WowIsDead64]

Really doubt, that this council won't be prejudiced anyway. We actually have official forums and any questions should be answered there. But if we need some council to create "right questions for right answers", then it's another crap on a par with Q&A with cherry picked questions.

[Azxza]

Everyone here crying about the old feedback forums...

The "proof" that I saw of the devs being "a$%holes" was anything but. The devs simply disagreed with some some things and the feedback forum people took that extremely personally and went on a crusade to screech about how the devs were big meanies who didn't listen to feedback. I actually think this council is a bad idea. The vocal part of the community has proven again and again that they are toxic and entitled. I'd much rather Blizzard continue to do their own thing than listen to some forum boomers who think they know what's best for the game.

[WowIsDead64]

My solution:
1) To start to actually listen and answer to official forums
2) To create special subforum with pre-moderation for unsubbed players, where they would be able to say, what would make them resub

[Postmasters]

Nah, this will be a repeat of the twitch thing they did 1-2 years ago. They will pick the weirdest most unstable people.

I fail to see what this is actually trying to achieve. The general opinion about the game is out there in various forms 5 people yelling at walls will have the same feedback as ignoring the written words of thousands of people. If your community managers can't figure out the general opinion of the playerbase and their concerns, even if just by popular votes or highly active message board topics, then I fail to see how a wow weirdo council is going to achieve it any better. I mean just have the intern that manages the company twitter account actually read a few of the replies and you already know all you need..

I remember that! I think my guild got it canceled when we showed how the photo they used for the guy was one of him flipping the development team off just with that part of it cropped out.

He was raging on Twitter about how they were giving everyone his special corrupted ashbringer mog. Wild times.

[WowIsDead64]

This council is needed because: 1) They still don't want to interact with community directly 2) They're scared, that they would need to answer to uncomfortable questions 3) And the most important - they're scared, that they would be obligated to do, what players want, not Bobby/shareholders.

[Ihavewaffles]

My solution:
1) To start to actually listen and answer to official forums
2) To create special subforum with pre-moderation for unsubbed players, where they would be able to say, what would make them resub

Blizz cater to people that don't pay sub over those that do!? Worst idea ever...

[WowIsDead64]

Blizz cater to people that don't pay sub over those that do!? Worst idea ever...

Yeah, it's better to cater to 10% instead of 90%.

[Lulbalance]

Holy crap.. I thought this was meme, yikes.

[Julmara]

a yes a feature probably locked away to the top 1% of players, twitch streamers and influencers
i highly doubt that every class and spec gets represented properly and knowing the great track record of blizz listening to feedback this is going to work fine
i gladly will be proven wrong of course

[Ielenia]

I notice you didn't have anything to say about your stupid dr analogy.

It's actually a very valid one. You're pretending you know more than someone that studied their whole lives. But if you want a more in-depth response:

As to your doctor analogy: In fact, I did exactly that. I was prescribed medication for GerD. It was not working. I emailed my Doctor and informed him that it was not working and I wanted another type of medication. I know my body better than he does. He agreed and prescribed another medication. Had my checkup yesterday. The old medication made symptoms worse. The new medication made the symptoms go away. I clearly knew better.

You didn't "know better". The doctor did. Because it was him that prescribed you the other medication. You didn't choose a different medication. The doctor did. Doctors know that not everyone reacts the same way to the same medication. It's part of their training. You "knowing better than the doctors" would be you self-diagnosing and self-medicating yourself.

I understand you completely.

Truly you don't.

What you fail to comprehend is that I don't agree with you.

If you wish to be wrong, go ahead. It's your right, I suppose.

What a shill...

When out of good arguments, throw insults, I suppose

[exochaft]

My solution:
1) To start to actually listen and answer to official forums
2) To create special subforum with pre-moderation for unsubbed players, where they would be able to say, what would make them resub

Besides the first point being a given, the second one is something that active players probably don't realize is an issue.

While I could understand restricting some posting on the official WoW forums if you aren't subscribed, ultimately it's cutting off feedback they desperately need from the people who have left the game but still want the game to be good and want to return to it. I know I fall into this category, which is why despite not being currently subbed I'm still invested in the game getting improved and being better than it currently is. Blizz shouldn't just be getting feedback on how to retain people, they really need to figure out how to get people back as well.

However, there is no official WoW forum access (posting anyways) for those that do not currently have an active subscription to WoW. There's been a couple of occasions that I wanted to post some feedback to blue posts or changes since I canceled my subscription, and that's when I found out I couldn't provide feedback anymore. I'm not sure if this is them not wanting a slew of spam/trolling, or if they just don't really care about your feedback if you aren't currently subbed. Regardless of the reason, having at least a one dedicated feedback subforum where anyone with a B.net account can post would be one step out of many Blizz should take.

Back to the main topic, this 'Council' is probably going to be a sham. Replace all the devs in this video with any random politicians, and the council's function and result will be the same. All the questions will be screened, not necessarily just for 'appropriateness' but also for 'problematic to our message/agenda'. The responses will be even more screened for similar reasons. As for the players chosen, it'll mostly be populated with people who align with Blizz's message and agenda. They may throw in a couple red herring players to say "See? We got some people who don't agree with us here!", but that's as far as it will go. Am I pessimistic about this? Absolutely, but I think it's justified after the behavior of Blizz now and over the past few years.

[Darth Vowrawn]

Oh, yeah, this will end well. They will pick only the most "diverse" group of brown-nosing Twitter snobs who parrot the company line and insult the "consumers" publicly for these positions. Any blowback that is tossed at the "council" can then be brushed off as "bigotry", allowing the devs to continue being worthless and snobby assholes who don't give a shit about their customers.

[Ihavewaffles]

Yeah, it's better to cater to 10% instead of 90%.

You are dreaming, most people have moved on, blizz shouldn't cater to the few ghosts that linger n don't pay sub.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Blizz cater to people that don't pay sub over those that do!? Worst idea ever...

Ah yes, Blizzard should only ever care about the hardcore fans that felates them no matter what atrocious shit they pull. That is the best way to grow your audience, totally.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizz cater to people that don't pay sub over those that do!? Worst idea ever...

If they want to know what people who have unsubbed are thinking they can look here. It isn't pretty but anyone can look at it.

I'll even provide a link: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...ack-what-would

[Asrialol]

I asked a question I didn't make a statement... You Blizzard stans are terrible to discuss anything subjective with, you are all so super defensive about the game now. Blizzard really does have a toxic community if people like you are all thats left.

No, you made a stupid comment which showed you don't understand what this "council" is all about and you got called out for it. Then you proceed to defend yourself by calling the guy a Blizzard fanboi, basically.

Great guy, you.

[perkocet]

Why not apply?

Because that would involve becoming the change they wish to see in the community, instead of going on to a completely separate fan site and complaining about things not changing, silly!!

[Cosmic Janitor]

If they want to know what people who have unsubbed are thinking they can look here. It isn't pretty but anyone can look at it.

I'll even provide a link: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...ack-what-would

The same applies to literally everyone even remotely interested in WoW on the level that they can pass the "extremely high" hurdle of making an account somewhere. If you are looking for the fabois you can find them on reddit or some hardcore fan comment sections. You can find almost all of their target demographic all over the internet, you certainly won't find the ultra casuals though, especially with a council, because none of them ever engaged in making community contributions and they probably don't even know this post was made. So what is the point of this again?

[Azxza]

Ah yes, Blizzard should only ever care about the hardcore fans that felates them no matter what atrocious shit they pull. That is the best way to grow your audience, totally.

They should cater to the people who actually play, know and enjoy the game. They should not cater to hardcore one percenters who treat this game like a job or bitter ex-players who have think WoW just needs to remove flying/dungeon finder/m+ and everything will be fixed.