I think a big part of the problems in the game in the last, oh, decade, is that Blizzard thinks this way, too. Something that lots of players are leaving over are just sloughed off with a “that’s a non-issue”, “they aren’t really leaving”, “if they leave they’ll be right back”, “they’ll be back next patch”, “they’ll be back next expansion”, or “they’ll be back if we put in a band-aid fix next year that doesn’t really address the problem, but instead introduces a new system that requires spamming content players don’t like to earn multiple currencies with lots of restrictions.”
Some people think it was all a PR stunt. I think it’s possible that they thought if they packed it with players whose opinions they were likely to “respect”, ie giving preference to streamers, theorycrafters, and guide writers, they would get lots of new, fresh ideas.
Basically they ended up with a forum that had hardly any forum posters on it, as that wasn’t a consideration.
They were looking to create a forum full of people who would agree with them.
I don’t think they took into consideration that it takes a certain mindset to be a forum poster. People who frequent forums do it because they like discussing issues with random strangers. People who don’t frequent forums aren’t going to become regular forumgoers. Prioritizing people who don’t like to post on forums was a mistake, if they wanted a lot of discussion, even if those people thought they would want to post on a special forum.
They’ve known all along what players think. They just think what players want is irrelevant. They know better. I have no doubt that some lowly employee, maybe an intern, is going through the forums to categorize hot topics several times a day. That’s how they can know when something goes so seriously wrong that lots of people are leaving over it. And, like, arrange to deal with it in the next year.
Well if you were to look at the forums you would assume that the biggest issue in the game is that every player can’t have the newest pet. That’s why I think the Dev’s don’t listen to players. A lot of players whine about complete non-issues. Essentially they act like children crying because their parents won’t buy them the toy they really wanted, when they wanted it.
If you restrict looking at the forums in the past week it was a common complaint, but hardly the most common.
They, like you, have long had an agenda that doesn’t put “developing a game players will want to buy, play, and keep playing” high on their priority list.
Why would anyone make business decisions that don’t take into account what paying customers want to pay for?
I get it, you’re a misanthrope who thinks the game is a vanity project where devs should be able to do whatever they want, even though they know in advance that a lot of players are going to hate it.
On to your point about business decisions. After the pet outrage I would assume that pets are popular. So I would probably add more pets for sale in the shop.
2 Years from the Council…thanks for a Council member to acknowledge the issues within this feedback idea.
Lack of communication, focus only in the new thing…this is just an idea without any sort of plan.
There’s a massive gap between threads and Blizzard response…Lack of insight regarding so many decisions.
If Devs will check feedback without doing any sort of follow up, conversation…then just check the huge amount of sub forums that already exist with bigger sample of players.
This is true, but then I also see changes made in the game that are related to the feedback from players, and from the Council. Most of the time the Council is not saying anything that has not been said already, but it just sort of puts it in one basked.
The new solo dungeons for example are something I have wanted FOREVER, and I am really excited about. I can finish so many things, and see dungeons and quests I have never seen. I think my only specific Council thread was asking for some sort of solo dungeon experience. They did not do it because I asked. They did it because many people have asked for a LONG time.
This was the thread, and I hope they do apply it to all old content too.
True, my problem is that they didn’t say like " thanks for your feedback, we’re checking on this or we’ve plans but we can’t talk about it now", " What other ideas do you’ve for us?"…etc then you’ve a lot of threads in the council left there without any reply at all.
The same could be achieved by checking sub forums
We already had multiply council threads duplicated, it’s like a small GD instead of a good feedback idea and they only focus on seasonal content or the new thing…the last reply when Council members asked if they were being listened was a CM replying about new post for the Blizzcon announcements…
There’s faith with changes for the next expansion to transmog acquisition, alt friendly approach but if Devs are so busy, then don’t do a small sample that expected to have more interaction with Devs…same for the community outside the council, We expected more frequent communication about all these topics, We’ve to keep providing the same feedback X amount of times before that’s implemented without any sort of Dev interaction like the holiday drops that were changed to a boost attempt and the whole feedback from GD and Council ignored because we never had a reply, that’s just 1 example.
From Blizzcon prep until after the New Year things pretty much come to a standstill communication wise I have found. Blizzcon is really an ALL hands effort and they focus very heavily on it. Then they pretty much go into Holiday mode by Thanksgiving (this week). They are at work, but most major efforts are quiet on the public front.
Not saying that is good or bad, just stating my observations. This is how they are…
Having to deal with trolls spinning threads out of control on purpose would be kind of a waste - and it would happen on GD. What you can do though is create a thread on GD about the Council topic, and quote/link the Council thread. That should notify the thread creator and it gives GD a place to discuss the topic.
So if I created a thread on Council about solo dungeon thoughts and people on GD made a thread about it (with link), it would tag me and I could come chat with them about it - and even relay points made into my thread on the Council forums.
Yeah but it seems like the community council forum gets no attention from players or from mods, so seems pretty wasted.
I get the fear of trolls but that could be tackled with more moderation in CC made threads compared to them just having basically 0 visibility or interaction.
Fair point but using Z. Caves as an ongoing example: there have been MAJOR issue since its initial hotfix shortly after the zones inception and is an on going giant yarn ball of complaints and the devs have demonstrated a severe lack of insight, oversight, and communication when it comes to the decisions they have made with this entire zone.
I’ve made several CC threads about it and only one got a response. They took an example I complained about instead of realizing it wasn’t just that one example and I was actually pointing out the whole basket of diseased apples they just took one of the diseased apples and said good to sell on the rest.
True like any work and they’re working multiple expansions now and current seasons…then if Devs and CMs can’t handle the load of threads and player interaction from a few members because we only have like 30-40% of the council doing threads and interacting, then just scrap the idea and check sub forums, if they want specific feedback, they could create a thread in those subforums with a huge sample of players for data.
There could be trolls but its less that GD…the Council idea was a way to filter forums but it doesn’t look good if these players put effort providing feedback and there’s not any sort of acknowlegement or communication, then their solutions don’t match players expectations or there’s fixes to issues that doesn’t exist in the player mind like the one pushed yesterday.
I also thought this was odd and had to double check when I saw no posts from non gold wrapper characters when I first joined.
You feel my pain then. Though there are a few people in the GD who from time to time have linked topics of discussion in the GD and that tends to be my summoning ritual because I HATE not being able to discuss something with the whole community. I don’t like relying on just my fellow council members for discussion.
They’re afraid that whatever they say, the community will interpret it as something that will change which is why they’re hesistant on posting. I am paraphrasing but this is the reason they gave the community council.
This is the exact same complaint that people have had since forever with Blizzard and WoW. The whole “secret forum” for influencers got out when someone got sick of the Devs not interacting (I think it was?) and ignoring their feedback. I don’t think anyone expected Devs to jump and do what they say, but just acknowledge that the feedback is there, and that they are working on something related to it, that they will be looking into it in the future, or even that they don’t think X is an issue. People just want to not feel ignored.
Blizzard has been doing better with the Weekly updates and a forum Blue roundup post. I give the Community Management team that. That does not change the Dev side communications people want though.
Anything they say in public they risk having taken as a PROMISE, for better or worse. Then people proceed to react to it. Get hyped, get upset, get hopeful, etc. If Blizzard does not end up doing X, the players never let them forget it. “BUT YOU PROMISED”, is thrown around forever. Which is a bit more of a PR/legal issue for a large company. They tend to be very careful in what they say to try to avoid drama.
The above really, opening that forum to GD would create a large mess that would be constantly have to be moderated for no real gain when an easy solution as noted above is there.
Any council member wishing for feedback can make a thread in GD and link it to their Council thread, with a ‘I would appreciate any thoughts and feedback on this’.
Any non-council person that wishes to discuss a council thread can also link the thread in the post, which not only notifies the thread creator as mentioned, but also adds a link section under the main post with all the places that have linked the thread, so anyone reading the council thread can see the links for places talking about it.
was gonna post a gif of a starship trooper scene where the guy touches the brain bug and said it’s afraid but preview won’t load so have a URL instead. (maybe it’ll load soon?)
)