Blizzard listens to players...just not in the way you think

Community General Discussion
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Every day in this forum you can find posts saying Blizzard doesn’t listen to players…but they actually do. And many of the decisions about the game people question make more sense with a different context. This post will be somewhat long, so there is a TL;DR at the bottom.

Blizzard has comprehensive data on EVERYTHING players do

Blizzard constantly monitors this data to see what players are doing and how they react to changes. Remember, this data isn’t just from players who post on the forums, but all players. This is how Blizzard listens - by reading this data. It informs everything they do and every decision they make. There may be times when complaints that get posted on the forums are supported by the overall player data, showing most players had a similar complaint, in which case Blizzard will do something. However, many of our complaints may not be supported by general player data, in which case no change would be made. Consider that when Blizzard makes a change that you don’t like and keeps it, you may very well be in the minority of players about that particular issue.

One other unfortunate thing for us about this data is that Blizzard will never release or even discuss most of it, as it could put them in a difficult PR situation. This is why we may often not get a satisfactory explanation as to why they’re keeping a change we don’t like.

The WoW business model is MUCH different now than when it first released

When WoW first came out, the only way for Blizzard to make more money from it was to get more players. This is no longer the case. With the advent of the WoW token and the cash shop, some players are worth much more revenue to Blizzard than others. As an example, a player who buys the expansion and stays subscribed the entire 2 years but doesn’t spend any other money on the game will be worth roughly $350 of revenue ($50 for expansion, $12/month for subscription package) over 2 years. Now consider a player who buys the expansion, plays the first 2 months of each major patch, buys a token to exchange for gold every week they’re subscribed, and buys 1 item from the cash shop per month. Assuming 3 major patches per expansion, they will be subscribed for a total of only 6 months over a 2 year expansion, but they represent $770 of revenue during that time ($50 for expansion, $15/month for 6 months of game time, $480 for 1 token/week for 6 months, and $150 for cash shop items). So this player is worth over double the first example player.

Blizzard is in business to make money. It only makes sense that they would focus their efforts on getting the second example customer to play the game more, as this customer is a much greater source of revenue. If Blizzard makes a decision that doesn’t support your particular play style, it may well be because they’re trying to maximize their revenue from a different type of player with another play style.

As a result of these factors, WoW has now become a delicate balance of appealing to the high revenue players without causing a mass exodus among other players. Blizzard must also take measures to maintain an adequate player base for the group content of the game. Given the various types of players and their interests in different aspects of the game, these tasks are difficult to say the least.

Whenever you have a complaint, remember these factors. Consider that the game is not just for you, that WoW development is quite difficult, and that Blizzard is doing their best to make the game successful and ensure that it has the revenue to continue development for many years to come.

TL;DR

  • Blizzard listens to WoW players by monitoring the data on everything they do
  • The WoW business model has changed greatly with the advent of tokens and shop
  • Some WoW players are worth more revenue to Blizzard than others
  • Blizzard is a business and needs to ensure revenue for continued development
  • When Blizzard makes a change you don’t understand or don’t like, it is likely for one of the above listed reasons
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That’s corporations for you.

Actually, one correction:

  • Blizzard is a business and needs to ensure revenue for its shareholders.
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The problem with this line of thinking, is that catering to the so called “more valuable” customers is a short term gain… these people often don’t stick around… ironically by appealing to more long term subscribers and others who will be here not only longer but most likely outweigh the folks shelling out loads of of money just by sheer numbers, they’re actually giving themselves a shot to the foot for short term gains that will inevitably leave them with lasting infection and complications later down the line that were not worth the momentarily increased gains.

This mentality isn’t even restricted to customers, as shown by them alienating most of their staff just for a few quick bucks.

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:dracthyr_no1::scream:

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[quote=“Herné-moon-guard, post:3, topic:1603040, full:true”]
The problem with this line of thinking, is that catering to the so called “more valuable” customers is that it’s a short term gain… [/quote]

How do you know this? Is there some data on it somewhere? I don’t have any either, I’m just curious. I’ve personally witnessed many people who buy every expansion and play a couple of months of each patch, and they’ve done so for years. Of course this is just anecdotal, but I’m not sure how we can actually know this without seeing Blizzard’s internal data.

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What fantastic bait.

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That’s the thing, in good business there’s such a thing as word of mouth, and it is THE most beneficial form of advertising one can have… those people paying and playing for at best a month at a time aren’t gonna be bragging to friends about how great the game is and they should buy it, afterall they THEMSELVES are bored of the seasonal gameplay loop as soon as it’s stale.

A happy customer is gonna attract other happy satisfied customers and so on.

It’s like the question: which weighs more the tons of feathers or the bricks? One would be tempted to say bricks, but it’s actually the feathers by sheer mass of numbers.

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How is it bait? It’s simply a fact that some people spend more money on the game than others. It’s a basic business principle to cater to your best customers the most.

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So we’re going to let a currency be the dictator of the player?

Again. Bait.

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Your “best customers” are those who loyally enjoy your product, not necessarily those spending the most money on it. They’re also the ones who have the most people to spread it to, people with friends who they WANT to also enjoy the product because they honestly do as well. Data cannot be skewed, but this form of short-term thinking is a perfect example of how one’s own opinion and lack of foresight/out of box thinking CAN skew objective data. Data cannot be subjective, but people reading data can be.

The devs have also shown by their words and actions across multiple media that they also don’t always make decisions solely on or even in contrary to… their own data, and have admitted they’ve been personally stubborn on some things for years.

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This reads like confidence of someone who never worked a white collar job or interacted with management… it is dummies all the way up and down the ladder with a few competent people barely holding everything together.

There is no mysterious good reason that only the management knows behind all the obvious bad decisions… sometimes they are just bad decisions, made by people who are surrounded by yes man and isolated from consequences.

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is that you Ion?

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This is not something I ever said in my post. I never said that players should not complain or that they should do anything different than what they’re doing now. I’m just discussing the real business context for the game and how it informs the decision making about it. No bait here.

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Yeah. And the sky isn’t blue.

This thread is so bogus.

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In fact, I’ve worked in white collar environments my entire life. I’ve worked some places that are dummies all the way up and down, and I’ve worked other places that were very well run with just a few dummies stashed here and there. I personally know someone that worked at ABK for years, and I assure you it is not dummies all the way up and down. Every company has its share of dummies, but unless you have more personal knowledge of the environment at Blizzard then this is just pure conjecture.

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Let’s be real, the vast majority of what players “want” would be terrible ideas. And the playerbase is divided on what is important, e.g. some couldn’t care less about gamebreaking bugs on the last boss of mythic but are up in arms about a weapon transmog not working correctly.

The biggest place Blizzard consistently goes wrong is when they make systems that are intended to keep you playing rather than just being fun. A huge part of what made Shadowlands suck is that we replaced grinds with daily chores.

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:joy: :rofl: in a nutshell, you just explained 85% of my days at work - preach it aha

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To some degree almost all online games today are Skinner Boxes, and WoW is no exception (look up Skinner Box on Wikipedia for more info if you are not familiar with this term, super interesting). I agree that Blizzard has definitely not always gotten the balance right between those mechanisms and things that are fun. They have definitely made many mistakes over the years. Overall I still enjoy the game enough to keep playing, and I understand how some people don’t.

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With Holinka gone who am I going to blame now?

This really gives me hope that more skilled folks are taking over PVP and combat design.

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the devs are out of touch with the majority of the playerbase the only people they are in touch with are the minority of players who basically use the forums are follow blizz on the social media and such. if they wanted peoples opinions on the game and want to get more accurate polls have the polls in the game when you first get to your character select screen. because that is where all the players will see it otherwise you aint gonna get accurate info from polls they put out.