Negativity taking over forums?

[nyc81991]

If people wanna enjoy the game then fair play imo.

But it gets to the point these days where people will flat out deny any issues with games. Anthem as a prime example people were flat out denying the issues with it and it was only when more info came out about what was going on within Bioware did they suddenly pipe down.

Yeah, it's great if people can still enjoy the game the way it is. They tend to live in their own little box though and don't understand anything else.

[Selah]

Sadly, they shield themselves from such criticisms through ferocious circle-jerking.
That's where the core issue lies I'd say, they're not so much concerned about the game as they are about feeling better about the fact that they're not enjoying it when others are.

I especially love it when a person goes on a long tirade filled with many hyperbolish statements about "fanboys" and "shitty games" and "dying companies" only to be called out, and instantly resort to the "I want the game to be better bro!!!"-defense.

Yes, I'm sure the game will be so much better through verbal diarrhea on an obscure fan forum rather than a coherent, well articulated piece sent to the company in question. Or simply voting with the wallet and moving on with life, money talks.

Fortunately, our job isn't to break their hive mind. Only to help keep the devs in touch with reality (the problems with Blizzard aside). They can spew whatever nonsense they want, but if we correct them when they're dishonest (and try to not invalidate how they feel about the game which is a whole different topic), the devs will be able to see whats happening and know what is legitimate criticism and what is someone who is upset with the game.

Now, that said, I do understand that I'm being a bit idealistic and that's not how things happen. The negative can absolutely drown out the fair criticisms and the people correcting the negative but I haven't seen a better way of dealing with it. Anything else seems to me about like throwing a can of gas into a fire.

[Housebroken]

Players constructively criticize design choices> Blizzard does nothing> Bad design choices make it to live> Outrage begins> Blizzard fixes issue (repeat ad nasuem)

It's almost like people finally realized the only way to actually get through to the dev team is by creating a big deal out of the issue. I wish it wasn't that way, I wish we could be civil, but it's clear we just get ignored when we're civil

[dacoolist]

Hahahahahaaaaaaaa - try working for a large corporation worth 20+++ times what actibliz is worth.. you’re first time being hated Blizzard? Welcome to the big bwoy/gril club

- - - Updated - - -

Btw: if all you do is sit back and complain about problems all day and never offer a solution to your constant bickering - you’re the issue

[huth]

Players constructively criticize design choices> Blizzard does nothing> Bad design choices make it to live> Outrage begins> Blizzard fixes issue (repeat ad nasuem)

It's almost like people finally realized the only way to actually get through to the dev team is by creating a big deal out of the issue. I wish it wasn't that way, I wish we could be civil, but it's clear we just get ignored when we're civil

Where "does nothing" = "is busy developing a solution". The outrage does nothing, it just coincides with the deployment of the fix, so those who falsely believe development is done on a scale of days assume it's because of the outrage, when it was in the works long before it began.
WoW is a supertanker, not a tank. You can't just turn on the spot and go the other way.

[Shakana]

People are being excessively negative in direct response to the overwhelming levels of white-knighting and ignoring of normal levels of criticism.

Think about it for a second: Beta testers and PTR players spend months criticizing and explaining why a particular feature or mechanic are terrible, but it gets pushed through by the devs anyway. Then when the general playerbase gets ahold of it and starts experiencing the very thing that was warned about, they complain. And when they complain....white knights come out of the woodwork and talk down to people as though their opinion doesn't matter, and how blizzard is perfect.

Gosh...now why would THAT cause people to get negative feelings about a game?

What is the damn point in asking blizzard so much when you just don't take them serious anymore? You do know that they can't keep up with everyone that's like, being omniscient and omnipresent like a god, and it's unrealistic, majority constructive feedback will do the work for you, you only see yourself from your perspective as for them is population in every country + taking in consideration everyone's personal taste and they end up doing shit or they want to try themselves a crap of a azerite system with gated stats + GCD's that no one asked for and sometimes they just think this might be good from a perspective that will make you think before pressing a key to use a ability and have time to think before reacting but that varies from player to player, some of us like to have fast reaction times and we can't use a ability straight away and we don't like to feel slow and that's probably the thing that annoys me the most is they receiving that feedback and didn't change it yet. But other things can have solutions and it's not saying they are shit that makes them having inspiration to do certain changes. Example: you don't work and have no money to buy something, you need to ask for money to your family or a friend, you don't go and say "you piece of shit give me money", right? That's disrespectful. You go and ask gently and explain you're having this issue and if please could help you, because YOU KNOW that if you treat that person like shit, that person will just turn his/her back and won't help you. Just because the way you're talking to them. With blizzard, it's a company but companies have humans and humans have feelings regardless. Insulting directly a whole company and who runs the company and saying for them to fire people, what's wrong with people those days? "Kill yourself" "Fire everyone you lazy piece of shit", didn't your parents teach you to be civil and say thank you, sorry and please? It's a company, a team against many many people, they can't just talk with every single one of us. Sure we want to be noticed but that's not how it works. If people think that being disrespectful is the wae, then you're dead wrong. It will bring such life to the game... ofc not, i'm being sarcastic, how can it? It won't. Respect others as you like people to respect you. This is what my parents teached me and it took me to great places and a amazing job that even gives me time to play, have my life controlled, so i give value to that saying. And i'm thankful i got teached that way. Anyway, enough internet for me today.

[Housebroken]

Where "does nothing" = "is busy developing a solution". The outrage does nothing, it just coincides with the deployment of the fix, so those who falsely believe development is done on a scale of days assume it's because of the outrage, when it was in the works long before it began.
WoW is a supertanker, not a tank. You can't just turn on the spot and go the other way.

You think the azerite revamp was in development since 8.0? Was WoD flying in the works since 6.0? No, it's been proved multiple times over the years that what you said isn't the case, stop being naive.

[glowpipe]

This place has become sort of a cesspool as of late. So much senseless complaints about basically anything

People talking about actual legit problems they want to get fixed to improve the game? Sure go ahead. But here as of late, there is just people complaining about every little shitty thing just to complain. Nothing to help the game what so ever. there are 10 "bfa bad, classic good" for every 1 post who actually talk about a real problem and suggestions on how to fix it.

[Shakana]

I mean I get what you want to say, but you are so entitled that I can only laugh.

And it's with that attitude that we can't have nice things. Props.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Ya, I don't know why its always the forums too.
On my stream, and in game I never see it, but on the forums you can't escape it.
Every thread basically devolves into talking about the general hatred for the game, despite people sitting around and talking about it all day.

I don't really understand it, but I suppose I'm lucky in that regards.
I guess, if I felt spurned by recent decisions, it would feel like a bad break up after all these years.

People just can't let go.
What's worse is when they say some absurdly negative thing, then some one counters with "Well what would you like to see changed?"
and they say "Should I link all the thousands of posts that have been ignored?"

Uhh, sure?
You have to actually give feedback.
If you hate the game for no reason, you should just be banned for trolling, imo.

There are PLENTY of reasons to dislike things and the current direction of the game, but if you can't name a single one and suggest a change to it, then that really shouldn't be allowed.

That's just emotional posting, not some one who is thinking clearly.

Its a shame too, because all the influencers are involved now too.

Pretty much 5 out of the top 10 influencers for WoW all just post negative stuff every video.

I know BFA wasn't universally loved, but its really gotten to a pretty good state now at this point.
I think people just thrive off negativity now a days. I have to feel like its a product of this nerfed world we live in. 9 out of 10 people just have nothing going on in their life. Nothing to work towards, no hardships or physical power to expend.

I don't think that's healthy for the human mind, and I have to feel like all this hate around the world (not just in games) is a product of it.

I don't know how I avoided it, but I am happy to say I have for the most part.
If there is ever something I dislike, I just avoid it. Especially in a game as big as WoW.
If you ever liked it, you can't possibly hate everything about it now.
There is just too many things going on, and too many connections made to the world and the players in it.

[Soon-TM]

Gotta love the BDS drones telling ppl what they are allowed to say and what they aren't. Blizzard doesn't give a flying !@#$ about feedback anymore, so what's the point about being polite, civil and "constructive"? It happened in BfA alpha/beta, and guess what - the entire forum was deleted. They definitely took the feedback to heart lmao.

[lockybalboa]

More like people waking up to the BS that Blizzard have been force feeding players

[Naiattavain]

What I find a bit amusing how every time Blizzard makes an overhaul to the leveling system, a lot of people cheer and say its a great change and the youtube content creators chime in saying they have fixed leveling....and then 6 months later everyone says leveling sucks again and are lost as to how to fix it.

Pro tip: You have 2 camps of people - those that like leveling and those that don't. Blizzard keeps breaking leveling more and ruining the fun with awful nerfs and cheats to try to placate those that hate leveling. These types cheer the changes. But no matter how much they nerf it, those people will NEVER like leveling. So every time they apply a "fix" to leveling, they piss off the people who actually LIKE to level AND the people who hate leveling still hate it. So with every fix, they circle the drain that much harder.

Its a lot like when the producers behind Battlestar Galactica ran the numbers and realized the new show from 2004 had a mostly male audience. So the "fix" was to create a show called "Caprica" to appeal to women with less robots, less sci-fi, and more soap opera drama. Result: Male viewers tuned out, female viewers failed to show up, they upset everyone across the board and it was cancelled after 1 season.

wow great read.

[Sansnom]

Players constructively criticize design choices> Blizzard does nothing> Bad design choices make it to live> Outrage begins> Blizzard fixes issue (repeat ad nasuem)

It's almost like people finally realized the only way to actually get through to the dev team is by creating a big deal out of the issue. I wish it wasn't that way, I wish we could be civil, but it's clear we just get ignored when we're civil

People also need to realized that decision cannot be changed at a snap of a finger. Some people seems to think that comments in PTR can and should result in changes of the game, which is unrealistic on at two counts.

PTR may not be representative of the entire player base.
PTR, which is some form of BETA testing, is primary to test the stability of the game. Not to make drastic changes to the game which may not be entirely be possible.

So as you posted, players can provide critical feedback to Blizzard on their decision. However, Blizzard not doing anything does not mean they did not listen.

[Shakana]

Gotta love the BDS drones telling ppl what they are allowed to say and what they aren't. Blizzard doesn't give a flying !@#$ about feedback anymore, so what's the point about being polite, civil and "constructive"? It happened in BfA alpha/beta, and guess what - the entire forum was deleted. They definitely took the feedback to heart lmao.

Gotta love the BDS drones telling blizzard what they need to do.

[Soon-TM]

Gotta love the BDS drones telling blizzard what they need to do.

Yep, it's called customer feedback. I know you may not be used to the idea, but don't worry, Blizzard isn't either.

[TwitchPrime]

Yep, it's called customer feedback. I know you may not be used to the idea, but don't worry, Blizzard isn't either.

Fucking destroyed.

[SirCowdog]

And here we have the aforementioned circle-jerk.

"People are being excessively negative in direct response to the overwhelming levels of white-knighting and ignoring of normal levels of criticism"... LOL! That's a fine way of saying "my opinion matters more than that of people feeling differently, why won't they listen?? I'm so angry now!!!".

Was never a time in all my years on MMO-C that the general consensus was positive in regards to WoW and people didn't use toxic language to make everyone take them seriously, getting angry if people dared disagree.

First off: What part of my post came across as angry?

Second: Do you really not see that you're doing exactly what I described? I made a point describing a problem(perceived or real), and you immediately dismissed it with a strawman argument meant to make my point of view look petty. What kind of response would that normally create from the average poster? A negative one.

Thank you for perfectly proving my point.

[ShimmerSwirl]

Far as Im concerned, Blizzard's design of WoW has attracted the worst type of gamer. The negative comments they get are part of the price they pay for abandoning their well thought out game systems of yesteryear.

[SirCowdog]

What is the damn point in asking blizzard so much when you just don't take them serious anymore? You do know that they can't keep up with everyone that's like, being omniscient and omnipresent like a god, and it's unrealistic, majority constructive feedback will do the work for you, you only see yourself from your perspective as for them is population in every country + taking in consideration everyone's personal taste and they end up doing shit or they want to try themselves a crap of a azerite system with gated stats + GCD's that no one asked for and sometimes they just think this might be good from a perspective that will make you think before pressing a key to use a ability and have time to think before reacting but that varies from player to player, some of us like to have fast reaction times and we can't use a ability straight away and we don't like to feel slow and that's probably the thing that annoys me the most is they receiving that feedback and didn't change it yet. But other things can have solutions and it's not saying they are shit that makes them having inspiration to do certain changes. Example: you don't work and have no money to buy something, you need to ask for money to your family or a friend, you don't go and say "you piece of shit give me money", right? That's disrespectful. You go and ask gently and explain you're having this issue and if please could help you, because YOU KNOW that if you treat that person like shit, that person will just turn his/her back and won't help you. Just because the way you're talking to them. With blizzard, it's a company but companies have humans and humans have feelings regardless. Insulting directly a whole company and who runs the company and saying for them to fire people, what's wrong with people those days? "Kill yourself" "Fire everyone you lazy piece of shit", didn't your parents teach you to be civil and say thank you, sorry and please? It's a company, a team against many many people, they can't just talk with every single one of us. Sure we want to be noticed but that's not how it works. If people think that being disrespectful is the wae, then you're dead wrong. It will bring such life to the game... ofc not, i'm being sarcastic, how can it? It won't. Respect others as you like people to respect you. This is what my parents teached me and it took me to great places and a amazing job that even gives me time to play, have my life controlled, so i give value to that saying. And i'm thankful i got teached that way. Anyway, enough internet for me today.

Except that it's not just people screaming insults at Blizzard demanding change. That's a blatantly false generalization. Evem today there are still plenty of people being polite and reasonable when criticizing Blizzard. The aforementioned beta testers and PTR players, who btw are 10x more dedicated to the game than 99% of forums posters, much less normal players.

But when bad parts of the design get past those testers and their politely well-written criticisms and suggestions, ot gets into the less tolerant and more volatile main playerbase. And when THOSE players find out the "pro gamers" have been warning Blizzard about it for weeks or months.....naturally there's going ro be a WTF moment.

This isnt helped at all with Blizzard's responses to the player outcry. Dismissive and arrogant CMs, rude and insulting tweets from Lore insinuating that players are stupid or whiney, etc. Throw on top of THAT toxic white-knights who go into full insult and personal attack mode against anyone who doesn't like how things are...

As I said: The result is a predictable escalation in anger and resentment, both towards Blizzard and those who defend them.

Im not saying I entirely agree with the responses that generates, but I do absolutely understand why it's happening.