Why do interviewers ask so bad questions?

[Nork]

Everytime I see an interview with Blizzard that has been posted in Wowhead or here, I always think the same thing: why do they ask banal questions all the time? Since this expansion has been announced, I haven't seen a single question on new allied races, nor a question on how many dungeons are there gonna be, nor if they will add a tank spec for the Evoker in the future...

Blizzard should ask the community and choose the most voted ones, because the people who are interviewing them tend to ask silly questions so many times.

[Caprias]

I somehow doubt you'll be satisfied by community polled questions, have you seen the cesspool that is NA GD? You'd get questions like: "can I make my dragon rainbow coloured?" as top votes.

[Stickiler]

Everytime I see an interview with Blizzard that has been posted in Wowhead or here, I always think the same thing: why do they ask banal questions all the time? Since this expansion has been announced, I haven't seen a single question on new allied races, nor a question on how many dungeons are there gonna be, nor if they will add a tank spec for the Evoker in the future...

Blizzard should ask the community and choose the most voted ones, because the people who are interviewing them are the moment tend to ask silly questions.

Just because they don't ask the specific questions you're interested in, doesn't make their questions bad.

[Calfredd]

I somehow doubt you'll be satisfied by community polled questions, have you seen the cesspool that is NA GD? You'd get questions like: "can I make my dragon rainbow coloured?" as top votes.

Not to mention aren't these questions vetted ahead of the interview?

[GreenJesus]

The community is usually too busy shouting out their guild name and server, how long they played, their life story, the race and class they play etc. before they even ask a question. And then when they actually start asking a question they give a 30 second backstory to why they asked the question. And the question is "new boomkin skin?"

Watching the old blizzcon question and answers will give you a migraine with how much time is wasted.

[Stickiler]

Not to mention aren't these questions vetted ahead of the interview?

Not usually vetted, but there will be certain topics that the Interviewee will lay out ahead of time like "I'm not going to talk about x,y,z, don't ask about it"

[Relapses]

I'm sure Blizzard will be super excited to put to rest community questions like:

"Hey Blizzard why does your game suck?"

"Blizzard why do I not get a full set of Mythic gear for logging in?"

"When are you guys going to admit that FF is the better MMO?"

"Can I personally fire Ion?"

"Fruit bowls, am I right?"

[Jester Joe]

We already know how many dungeons there will be?
And that there won't be a tank spec.

But as said, the questions are vetted before. Why do you think Blizzard would answer questions that reveal major details anyway like if there's new races instead of just saving them for promotions?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm sure Blizzard will be super excited to put to rest community questions like:

"Hey Blizzard why does your game suck?"

"Blizzard why do I not get a full set of Mythic gear for logging in?"

"When are you guys going to admit that FF is the better MMO?"

"Can I personally fire Ion?"

"Fruit bowls, am I right?"

Strawman arguement.

• Will you add more solo challenges like the Mage Tower?

• Will reputation questlines come back?

• The coomunity has asked for Tinker/Dark Ranger/Necromancer and Ogres/Naga/Sethrak for a long time. Why did you choose draconians over them?

[Aeula]

Everytime I see an interview with Blizzard that has been posted in Wowhead or here, I always think the same thing: why do they ask banal questions all the time? Since this expansion has been announced, I haven't seen a single question on new allied races, nor a question on how many dungeons are there gonna be, nor if they will add a tank spec for the Evoker in the future...

Blizzard should ask the community and choose the most voted ones, because the people who are interviewing them are the moment tend to ask silly questions.

Their allied race answer will be a canned "maybe, we like the system blah blah".
There will be 8 dungeons at launch. Only 4 will be available in M+ difficulty for season 1. This has been said in numerous interviews.
They don't add specs after a class is out. Druid being the only exception when they split feral and guardian.

[Airickson]

I haven't seen a single question on new allied races, nor a question on how many dungeons are there gonna be, nor if they will add a tank spec for the Evoker in the future...

Those are bad questions

[Tziva]

I am sure it is largely because they don't want to waste a bunch of time asking questions that they know Blizzard won't answer. Interviews are conducted with a PR agent present who will veto any question that is borderline too revealing. Finding good questions that will actually get answered is surprisingly hard.

That said, community submitted questions aren't any better. Watch any Blizzcon Q&A or read the submissions when we ask for questions in prep for press summits and our own interviews. A ton of what is submitted is vague, passive-aggressive complaints about pet issues phrased to sound like questions, and which wouldn't actually prompt any kind of useful or insightful response anyway. The other half is usually questions that have been asked/answered elsewhere already. Mixed in there are the rare few questions that land in the sweet spot of things Blizzard will actually respond to, and things that will actually provide useful, interesting, or new information.

Then you fill in the gaps with a bunch of bland questions, since that is mostly what Blizzard wants anyway.

Those interviews are scripted and the questions are given before the interview. So the devs can elaborate on answers without being surprised.

Unless you mean some kind of written exchange, interviews actually aren't scripted and questions aren't submitted in advance; they are just heavily curated live.

[Relapses]

Strawman arguement.

• Will you add more solo challenges like the Mage Tower?

• Will reputation questlines come back?

• The coomunity has asked for Tinker/Dark Ranger/Necromancer and Ogres/Naga/Sethrak for a long time. Why did you choose draconians over them?

lmfao, literally not even an argument. Jesus man.

[Eurhetemec]

Those are bad questions

Yeah that's what's really funny here.

The OP has goddamn terrible questions.

All his questions are totally basic shit that is either already answered, or will be answered soon, and literally doesn't matter until the expansion launches.

[Alexjimithing]

Strawman arguement.

• Will you add more solo challenges like the Mage Tower?

• Will reputation questlines come back?

• The coomunity has asked for Tinker/Dark Ranger/Necromancer and Ogres/Naga/Sethrak for a long time. Why did you choose draconians over them?

You think good questions are questions that will be answered with, “We’re always looking into adding <insert fan requested feature here> in the future.”

[Neuroticaine]

Everytime I see an interview with Blizzard that has been posted in Wowhead or here, I always think the same thing: why do they ask banal questions all the time? Since this expansion has been announced, I haven't seen a single question on new allied races, nor a question on how many dungeons are there gonna be, nor if they will add a tank spec for the Evoker in the future...

Blizzard should ask the community and choose the most voted ones, because the people who are interviewing them are the moment tend to ask silly questions.

Your first question is very banal to me. Your second question has already been half-answered with at least 8. (mythic rotation will have 4 DF dungeons in season 1, 4 more in season 2). When was the last time they ever added a spec to a class? The closest being splitting Feral into 2 distinct specs, but nothing was really added there. What makes you think they have any intentions of doing so for the Evoker?

EDIT: Confirmed 8 dungeons.

- - - Updated - - -

Just because they don't ask the specific questions you're interested in, doesn't make their questions bad.

Also this. There have been some very important questions that have been answered to me, regarding Renown, borrowed power, flight, etc...

[Schmilblick]

Because those are rigged interviews.

[OrangeJuice]

because imagine if someone actually asked what the fuck they plan to do about class imbalance

[Tziva]

The intervies at blizzcon were scripted, also with 3rd party interviewers. Or do you think an unprepared interview would fit exactly into a 15 minute time frame?

Also, some interveiwers handshake their questions in written exchanges.

This simply isn't true. I have done interviews at Blizzcon many times, as well as at various Blizzard press events and other interview opportunities. We have never been required to give questions in advance. There is always a PR person present who will occasionally interrupt and say "no," or the dev will ask them if they can answer if something is iffy. No advance submissions of questions, just the hander. Devs are expected to be knowledgeable enough to answer on the fly. You also get 30 minutes, and your job is to toss out as many questions as you can in the time frame. This is also the same scenario that happens at press summits and events at the Blizzard campus.

Obviously since written interviews aren't in real time those function differently and by definition are submitted in advance for review and with prepared answers.

[Eosia]

No one has asked some obvious ones. Like with the Dragon Riding skill being available right away, does this mean no Pathfinder and that we will be able to use our flying mounts from that point as well?