New Ion interview on class balance, bugs, GCDs, island expeditions and Azerite gear

[Gbits]

New interview with Ion today on the state of the game:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hnewman...zeroth-launch/

[Mafic]

That interview was terrible.

He knows the issues at hand but no sense of urgency to act on any of it (eg haste).

"mystery and discovery"

That is dumb. I need to know how much X ability hits if I want to choose an azerite piece, gear, etc. Or else we resort to simming everything. Plain dumb.

[Antilurker77]

skimmed through it and didn't see anything interesting

[Relapses]

Meh. He just gave more of the rehashed non-answers that were in the AMA. "Content delivery is our highest priority and we're not gonna hold off on content because we fucked up and missed the mark for some shit." I hate this. Blizzard made a name for themselves doing the exact opposite of this and it's extremely grating that we now have a lead designer openly standing in defiance of a tenant which formed his game's foundation.

c'est la vie, though, I understand WoW today is a different product for a different market. I just wish Blizzard cared a bit more about polish than the next fucking quarterly report.

[Zorachus]

Meh. He just gave more of the rehashed non-answers that were in the AMA. "Content delivery is our highest priority and we're not gonna hold off on content because we fucked up and missed the mark for some shit." I hate this. Blizzard made a name for themselves doing the exact opposite of this and it's extremely grating that we now have a lead designer openly standing in defiance of a tenant which formed his game's foundation.

c'est la vie, though, I understand WoW today is a different product for a different market. I just wish Blizzard cared a bit more about polish than the next fucking quarterly report.

Spot on. I see me unsubbing soon, unless 8.1 gives us a miracle and makes BfA not suck anymore

[Zorachus]

The GCD and Haste issues and most of my characters rotations feeling like they're stuck in mud, or in slow motion. Is my main issue with BfA and why it sucks.

All my characters feel generic and boring now.

and everyone said wait till your level 120 wait till you get some gear, it all smooths out and gets better. No it doesn't, my guys are i360 and they feel just as crappy as it did it level 111.

Fix that, and I'll stay.

[Deja Thoris]

I don't feel like I'm playing the same game hes talking about.

Hes like "This is cool and that works well", I'm like "I think it sucks and every person I've spoken to has said the same". I get you can't please them all, judging by how empty my friendslist and the world is, you can't please many at all. You should probably start taking feedback seriously instead of plugging your fingers in your ears humming the "We think that...." mantra.

Games are meant to move forwards, I can't think of one feature in BfA thats an improvement of what we used to have. And frankly the new stuff isn't worth mentioning, expeditions and warfronts are an embarrassment.

[Foolicious]

Blizzard had the chance to admit they fucked up long ago and they didn't. They can't go back now, especially not for a magazine like forbes. They have to keep their dignity and thats ok, thats just how the world works.

It would be nice if anything else he said would be backed up by things already on the ptr, but we will see it soontm.

They really need to get their stuff together. Its nice when they already work on the next expansion and probably beyond, but the actual game feels like an afterthought. But what am i saying. everything has been said a thousand times already.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

The best we can hope for is that history will repeat itself where the next expansion will fall in to line with our expectations once they pull most of the development team from BfA in much the same way they did in Warlords.

Until then...

[spalernTJ]

For those that are seeking a new MMO to try out; I highly suggest Final Fantasy XIV.

[Delano]

They'll never admit fault. Appearances matter, and they've created a business model that can sustain the game indefinitely. Sell the expansion, get 2-4 months of subscriptions out of most of those people during the span of that expansion, and you've made enough money to stay profitable and do the whole thing over again.

We keep coming back and asking for more of it, so why would they do anything differently?

[Wondercrab]

I liked that he talked about reward structures being a big issue with island expeditions. It makes me a little more hopeful that they're thinking about reward structures in general, because ever since WoD this has been one of the most consistent problems WoW's suffered from.

It's disappointing that the overriding strategy now seems to be "more content faster", since it's an easy way for them to dodge criticism of the unfinished elements of the game and put a positive spin on it. A good balance between quantity and quality is important, but not when one starts to have a dramatically negative effect on the other. I will take content droughts over unfinished, unpolished, disappointing gameplay every time. Unfortunately this is the kind of strategy that probably won't see any revisions any time soon unless BfA really tanks in the long term and they're forced to reevaluate their approach for the next expansion. It's really easy to sideline a lot of the current criticisms when you're dead-set on the idea that faster content release schedules are more important.

[Goldielocks]

No high elf topics? Damn what a missed opportunity

(SARCASM)

[ablib]

I actually like interviews from actual journalistic publications as opposed to <insert any stupid streamer here> or fan site interviews.

I can't stand interviewers from fan sites or streamers. They absolutely wouldn't know how to direct an interview, or ask a hard question to save their life. They're more interested in keeping on Blizzard's good side for the perks.

[Verkaik]

It's kind of sad in a way. I raided with the same people for the most part for 10 years but with bfa everyone is sort of splintering off. I am planning to sell of my massive stockpile of gold and just funnel it into my bnet account and play classic free till tbc. Or I finish the three classes I enjoy.

The thing that sucks is most people are not going back. Either from a dislike of classic or just not wanting to play a slower wow. The journey is ending for most of them while I plan to reread the first few chapters before closing the book.

[ZebrasRule]

They'll never admit fault. Appearances matter, and they've created a business model that can sustain the game indefinitely. Sell the expansion, get 2-4 months of subscriptions out of most of those people during the span of that expansion, and you've made enough money to stay profitable and do the whole thing over again.

We keep coming back and asking for more of it, so why would they do anything differently?

Pretty much. I actually think subs are probably less important than people think, which is probably the real reason they stopped reporting them.

So long as people buy the expansion (box sales contribute such a huge amount to revenue), play it for a month or two, and then come back for the next one, they can survive on that core of people who will keep subbed no matter what. I don't think they feel the need to appeal to everyone or try and keep everyone happy.

[Schizoide]

He did dodge every one, yes, but I agree that she really did her homework and/or is a WoW player herself-- those were some good questions!

[Thetruth1400]

Blizzard made a name for themselves doing the exact opposite of this and it's extremely grating that we now have a lead designer openly standing in defiance of a tenant which formed his game's foundation.

c'est la vie, though, I understand WoW today is a different product for a different market. I just wish Blizzard cared a bit more about polish than the next fucking quarterly report.

The game pretty much started its decline when WoW merged with Activision. That merger took place in July 2008 and WotLK released that November, so the merger couldn't have influenced the game that was most likely in development for years before the merger.

After that point though, the influence of being a company that answers to stock holders and not consumers has clearly been seen since that point. Blizzard is no longer a company that cares about the consumers first, they're one that cares about their stocks first, placating the customers second, and actually caring about the customers as their last priority. If they can give some generic canned response or more "This isn't really a promise" promises that things will get better later on and that retains even a few customers (profit) they can show their stock holders, that's what they'll do.

[Relapses]

The game pretty much started its decline when WoW merged with Activision. That merger took place in July 2008 and WotLK released that November, so the merger couldn't have influenced the game that was most likely in development for years before the merger.

After that point though, the influence of being a company that answers to stock holders and not consumers has clearly been seen since that point. Blizzard is no longer a company that cares about the consumers first, they're one that cares about their stocks first, placating the customers second, and actually caring about the customers as their last priority. If they can give some generic canned response or more "This isn't really a promise" promises that things will get better later on and that retains even a few customers (profit) they can show their stock holders, that's what they'll do.

I'm well aware of the reason behind it. I know it's not necessarily new, either, but even as recently as WoD there was a content drought while they finished Legion. I know I might be in a minority here but I actually prefer content droughts as the end result is usually a more refined game. It just seems to me, at least, that there are some people at Blizzard who noticed the subscriber retention levels from Legion and the directive was made to follow that schedule no matter the cost. I get it, they're a business and they have every right to run their business to be profitable -- I just feel like the consumer is ultimately the one who loses out.

[lockybalboa]

I can't give a shit about his PR bs and lies