Hey everyone, I have been around but lurking behind the scenes. There have been a lot of things I have been engaged with and it’s pretty exciting on what we have planned for Season 3. Yes, I have been helping a lot with the blogs, patch notes, and forum posts you see on an official level. To give an insight to my work right now, I am doing my daily check of the forums and Reddit to bring constructive feedback to the devs, and trust me they really appreciate the feedback everyone has been giving.
If there is anything I do want to debunk, is that I have not been silenced by anyone. I am still relatively new to the team, so if anything I am learning from my peers and leaders, Jodie, Andy, Jon, Jared, etc. I also work on a lot of things behind the scenes that you guys don’t get to see but that’s okay because the work I have been doing feels really impactful to the future of the game.
Hotfix small “good enough” placeholder balance changes on a 1-3 week basis.
Use the frequent Patch Notes as a mini-blog platform as a base level of “Improved Communication”, that’s easy, anonymous, and featured in the in-game lobby.
Maybe have a splash screen when people log in, that has pictures of the affected heroes, with a button to open the patch notes.
It’s getting really tiring trying to explain to people that the lowered matchmaker quality is related to a lack of Support players, so making that more clear in the next blog post about Matchmaking would be appreciated.
P.S. Also it’s not possible for people to post toxic comments directly on the patch notes. Unlike Twitter/YouTube/Reddit/Forums. Which will make them safer for devs sanity.
P.P.S. If a short form video dev update is needed for patches. Have the crew that’s doing those TickTock/YouTube shorts make some quick videos about it covering the abbreviated version of the patch notes. And then “Read more, in the Patch Notes”. Maybe post that video and the patch notes to Twitter.
Out of curiosity, do you get to play the game still? Meaning for real, on a real account, with a real ranked SR, not play testing. Or would that be considered a conflict of interest for a blizzard employee to have a formal SR?
Not Craig but… of course they can still play the game.
I remember Jeff himself saying back then he plays ranked but doesnt join voice cause people recognize him.
They probably won’t play ranked for their job, but I am sure that they do internal playtests as well
Yes, I do have my main account and keeping up with it. I usually focus on getting at least my dailies done in the evening on weekdays, and then do a heavy gaming grind on weekends, which can consist of Overwatch, World of Warcraft, or other games.
I do participate in playtests though which is a really cool experience.
Far from it, one of Blizzard’s core values is “Express Your Inner Geek” which means we are encouraged to explore what games and pop culture mean to us and how they impact our lives. And while I am a hard-stuck gold/plat, I still have fun.
Yeah, mark it down, they scrambled his brain and now he talks just like them. I’m sure this will materialize just like all those OWL rewards we never got, and all the other broken promises.
I’m going to make a prediction – Season 3 will be extremely underwhelming, with player sentiment obviously very negative. And you guys will say the same thing about Season 4. “We are so excited, we have so much exciting stuff planned, can’t wait to show you guys, just wait for next season.” Same exact thing every time. It’s exhausting, and it’s frankly insulting at this point.
Well, I am glad you are helping out with the communication with what you have been seeing. Actually had a cool idea, personally, with Rein’s Firestrike, and was hoping if it’d be taken into consideration. It being able to boop backwards from the projectile, to help peel for his team. Maybe with some drawbacks, like smaller Firestrikes. Ur thoughts?
I wish you would be more like…Trump. (I am impartial as I am from the UK.)
In the way that he wasn’t scared to say anything for fear of what people thought. It’s a computer game, and we all know you are trying your very best. Everything said on the forums is gone in 24 hours anyway.
Things I wish you would do:
Ask the forums for map / hero balance, take it to the devs and do a Q+A. Even if nothing was used, it would feel like we have input.
Read out mean tweets / forums rants and upload them to YouTube. I have seen shows where celebs do this, and it always goes down well.
To be honest, we look at who you have now and I don’t think he is any better. Biden doesn’t look like a person who knows what shoes go on what feet.
I really feel sorry for you if that is the best you have. On the flip side, the whole UK parliament is full of crooks who want to make as much money for themselves and screw the rest of the UK population. So it ain’t much better
I am really curious about the Sombra changes coming S4+ something, cause right now you are basicially half a support (if any) speaking of supports Kiriko is just too much. Can outwidow a widowmaker with just absurd damage, teleport through walls on a 5s CD, cleanse (even ults like Sombras or Junkerqueen which is basicially the only thing that somewhat makes them 0.01% terryfing but nope cleanse) which removes EVERY debuff in the game and gives almost a second of god mode (which yes is still too strong in a hectic fight) and the root of all problems atm. Then we have the Sojourn, should we nerf her to the ground or remove/nerf Mercy’s DB, problem and last but not least we have the tank drama, which is just another “Suzu problem”. Instead of attacking that problem they took Orisa and made a Terminator out of her to engage the Hog + Suzu problem. Now we’re getting a Hog rework and I wonder what is next. Do we get a Sigma buff with perma levitate and a new ult “gravitiy earthquake”, which kills everyone who’s not airborne?
