Do you believe Blizzard cares about their community?

[Capultro]

"Yes absolutely! We dont always get what we want, but most of the time they do care" -> this is a lie like a cathedral.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizzard is willing to listen to useful feedback. They are not willing to allow their customers to design the game. I pretty much agree that the question is way off the point and use of the word 'care' totally inappropriate.

Blizzard is a for-profit outfit, always has been, always will be. The constant bitching about the old days as if Blizzard never cared about making money, just great games, is BS and always has been. The intent all along was to make money, get rich and have some fun.

[Zyky]

The constant bitching about the old days as if Blizzard never cared about making money, just great games, is BS and always has been.

You have several credible leaks from when Mike Morhaime left claiming that the business model used to be about just making great games and profits would come naturally and you still want to argue that it's "BS". Jeez how blind can you be

[Soeroah]

I believe the individual workers - the writers, the designers, the programmers - do.

The company Blizzard though? Not really. It only cares about our money.

You can see employees on Twitter, they obviously want people to enjoy their work, and they want to enjoy their work. The problem is upper management.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I believe the individual workers - the writers, the designers, the programmers - do.

The company Blizzard though? Not really. It only cares about our money.

You can see employees on Twitter, they obviously want people to enjoy their work, and they want to enjoy their work. The problem is upper management.

That's pretty accurate.

Also the case for every company that exists. When people get to upper management level, all they care about is gaining as much profit as they can to maintain or improve their career. Which is understandable.

[Gonfer]

Blizzard is willing to listen to useful feedback.

They listen to feedback when it fits their own agenda.

[Kumorii]

I am sure all the "pay 2 win" gear comes from players' demand too.

You seem to not understand what most means.

[Daedius]

They care for them as much as a farmer cares about their dairy cows to be milked.

[thilicen]

Yes. CMs and devs especially. At least within Blizzard itself. Bobby Kotick and his posse doesn't give a flying fuck. But I can see from your poll that "caring" means doing what you want them to so this probably sounds like alien garbage to you.

[Kumorii]

They care for them as much as a farmer cares about their dairy cows to be milked.

Plenty of farmers loves their animals and care for them. Which is why many goes into farming.

Weird analogy...

[Daedius]

Plenty of farmers loves their animals and care for them. Which is why many goes into farming.

Weird analogy...

It's an implied analogy. We're the cows taken for granted, they pull stunts to revert their minds when the backlash is big enough...

I make it no secret I find the Blizzard of today to be a loathsome company. It's a husk held together with corporates riding on its once good name.

[Wheeler]

I don't think it's as simple as Yes or No.

I do think the developers actually care about delivering a product everyone will love. I think Ion even cares about delivering a product people will love. This is their livelihood - they're not seeing any additional money from Activision if Activision rakes in a couple extra hundred million.

However - I also think that they're on too short of a leash from the bigger bosses that simply don't care about the legacy of the product, just the revenue it will generate. The tug of war has been ongoing for years now, and it's very obvious which side is dominating it.

I think almost every decision they're making now is based on a playtime/re-acquisition metric, and these developers could deliver something really good if they were allowed to just develop a game as opposed to developing something that will bring higher-than-record revenue every fiscal year. They clearly know what needs to be done (Look at the essence changes in the last week), and they're just not allowed to pull the levers until later in the expansion when sub numbers plummet due to late-expansion burnout.

[Kithelle]

Honestly....not very much. PvP was neglected for years...no new maps and other than a few armor sets which were just basically a upgraded look from the last set. We all know Ion is a raider...and raiding is the priority.

Seem him/them tell us ohh something is fine...we tell them in alpha, beta, and live that something isn't working well...then when he finally admits something is wrong half way through the expansion he says we have to wait for the next expansion.

[Laysson]

Shareholders, that's all what they care about.

[Eggroll]

But people like Ion Hazzikostas, Jeremy Feasel and Brian Holinka still care, unless they are all masochistic nutjobs who loves going to work every morning working on a project they hate.

This is not an uncommon thing in a working environment. A lot of people are keeping jobs despite hating it because it comes with financial security. Lots of people just can't afford to go from a safe job to an uncertain one, or none at all.

I have seen many people in my career who stuck to the same job for years and years - even to the point where it made them sick - just because they were afraid of change.

[TJ]

No, the only thing they care about is money. They don't give a flying fuck about the playerbase.

[Sigxy]

I do believe they care about their community... the problem is that they might not really be the best at it and believe they know what's best for us (WoW Classic 'you think you do, but you don't.' anyone?).

[kaminaris]

Yes they certainly do. I think they also know that what's best for the game isn't what people ask for.

That should probably be the end of thread, also, they continue to improve each expansion in terms of listening to feedback, previously it was unheard of making such aggressive changes mid-patch like they do now.

- - - Updated - - -

I do believe they care about their community... the problem is that they might not really be the best at it and believe they know what's best for us (WoW Classic 'you think you do, but you don't.' anyone?).

Oh but they were right about classic. Also don't mistake small vocal minority forum screechers for community lol.

[This One Time At Bandcamp]

If they didnt care, they could just fire 50% of GMs fixing tickets.
The fact that they are paying people, to help you on the right track for achievements and quests, clearly states goodwill on their part.

But it is pretty clear that they are leaning heavily into the "subscription"-aspect of their business, which makes their choices in content reflect heavily thereafter.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

They care enough to keep the curve of the income where they want it. I am fairly certain the only time they really care is when projections show they might go below their desired line and when it is going up or well above they mostly ignore it. So in my opinion it boils down to a metric and if this is the case you have to ask is making a community a metric really caring or is it not.