He made so much money from working so hard that he could retire at his age. I don’t see why we should feel guilty for voicing issues we may have about a product we spend our hard earned money on.
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You shouldn’t feel guilty about that, but people should feel guilty for the level of harassment we too often see from this community towards the devs. There is no excuse for it. Feedback is 100% fine, but there is absolutely no need to call for a devs firing or threaten them with physical violence. I also often see people say that the devs make changes because they intentionally want to make people miserable, that’s just insane.
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That is exactly why they made great games. To be the best you need that drive and push.
It’s fine to call it quits when you’ve had enough though.
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It’s not worth being the best if you face constant harassment and threats from the people who play your games.
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Not really, they used to do that and got absolutely shat on by disrespectful players.
There’s constructive criticism and then there’s… gamers.
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Seriously. Honestly I’m just sick of seeing it. This community can do better, I know it.
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To correct you on that, yes there are gamers. The gamers who do criticize the decisions that Blizzard makes because they don’t want the game to fall like for example say Wildstar.
So ok they used to do that, alright. They got trashed by players ok, you know how many times I’ve gotten yelled at and told I needed to learn how to do my job when I mess up? I still keep professional and handle it in a mature mannner, apologize and do better.
These Q&A’s and how they are communicating right now, it ain’t working chief. I mean hell, even the dislike to like ratio on some of their recent videos is growing and well it’s saying something. If you don’t understand that then I don’t know what to say to you.
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That doesn’t mean we won’t have to grind to HoA level 50 before it unlocks. They won’t throw away a grind that had a built in catchup.
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Did you get yelled at by hundreds or thousands of people though, some who threatened to harm you or told you were actually Satan?
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I wasn’t anything about that. Those people I’m against entirely.
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Who yelled at Metzen … He was probably the only person truly liked by everyone .
He was never really part of the game play aspect of the game. He was the story guy and yes he may have been the face but that was like I said because he was liked.
Most of the pressure put on him like others have said was put there on him by himself. Maybe he got to the point where he had no more ideas himself and the stress of not being able to come up with something in regards to something he holds dear stressed him out.
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Oh pull the nails out of your palms, “Jesus”. Metzen’s problems are METZEN’S problems. He did it to himself. There are exactly 0 positions of distribution on the planet where the consumer doesn’t complain. Being able to deal with it is part of the job. Money changed hands. They are ENTITLED to their opinion.
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Nobody “makes” you feel anything. People need to stop the victimization mentality, take responsibility for their situations, and decide what is healthy for them. If that means finding a different job, relationship, etc. then so be it. But blaming “the community” for why Metzen left is nowhere near a correct mindset.
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Pretty much. At least in the non-union private sector.
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Though I love Chris Metzen and wish him the best… so many of us experience this in our work places as is and that’s just a part of life. We have to perform briefings, supervise others, develop new systems and changes, perform well at basic tasks and though yes we want money, at the same time we’d like respect and to make our superiors pleased with our work.
There are TONS of people who’d kill at the chance to have an audience pay so much attention to their work they’re even willing to make videos, type comments, and so much more to criticize it because they LOVE it. I understand the anxiety, but your gratefulness to the fans should outweigh that anxiety especially when they’ve given you so much and still care so much about your work regardless if they hate its current direction or love it. Basically, yeah I feel sorry Chris felt that way but honestly… if I were in his shoes, I THINK, it’d at least motivate me to try harder and try my best each and every time.
Money isn’t everything sure… but WoW is a game that literally has given many of its top developers millions of dollars. To have that many fans give you so much support, should tell you how much they love you regardless of what they say. WoW fans can be vulgar, but ultimately their harsh criticism is a sign they have passion somewhere. Passion is something to cherish, not run away from regardless if it’s not the praise you think you deserve imo.
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I cannot remember what character or where, but I was commenting on that a day or so ago. When you set the bar too high, it makes the pressure of performing at that level again and consistently too much to bear.
Of course, the community is quick to condemn and slow to praise. It has its share of idolaters, but those are transparent and easy to identify. They can be dismissed rather easily as not representing what the community as a whole feels.
Similarly, so can the firebrands that are outspoken and vociferous on the forums. They too can be dismissed, but perhaps not as easily. I suspect that preparedness goes a long way, too. The larger community is probably less offended and a bit happier than we’re typically used to seeing on the forums.
I also feel that we’re allowed to express displeasure. When we encounter something we dislike, we have a right to express it. Further, accepting the responsibility and mantle of lead developer, one had better know the pitfalls before so doing. Inability to endure the “slings and arrows” is indicative of being too close to the project.
However, you’re right. We need to stop viewing them as adversaries, particularly when we don’t get our way. There is no way that they’re going to please all of us.
As angry as I am with the horde favoritism, it’s just a game and they’re people…not a faceless corporation. There was a video I viewed recently about the pain of rejection. Yes, they’re human beings and the pain of rejection is real and quantifiable–according to the presenter, the rejection activates the same areas in the brain as are activated when real pain is experienced. The science, methodology, and results were intriguing. Perhaps, knowing this, I should be less vitriolic and caustic in my comments…but so should they when refusing our requests or telling us that we don’t know what we want. This relationship is a two way street, after all.
If we as a community could see them as people, and they as a business could see us as more than customers, I think the relationship could be improved a great deal.
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Its pretty weird how people are saying that game devs deserve every bit of harassment and vitriol they get because, they go through it as well. You’d think those people who are regularly harassed and threatened for every little thing would know how it feels to be repeatedly told to kill themselves but, I guess all the more reason to tell some guy who made a change you don’t like in a game to die. And people wonder why Blizzard barely ever posts on these forums except for the most inane fluff posts.
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I’m going to attempt an answer to Metzen as a fellow creative and what I’ve learned in the short time that I’ve been writing fiction.
“What if the next game isn’t perfect?”
What if? And what game is ever perfect? If at the end of the day, you can say you did your best, who else do you need to prove it to? What matters is that you poured out your creative soul into a project and it is the best part of you. That love will be noticed. If not, oh well.
“What if people hate it?”
Hate is a strong word, but if they do, you move on. People seemed to like Sharnado. People are finicky in their likes and dislikes and the more you try and decipher it, the more disappointing it becomes. Create for the ones that love it. Find that one person. That’s all that matters in the end.
“What if…I dishonor the company or…myself…not performing well enough?”
Dishonor the company? As a creative, dishonor shouldn’t even be in our vocabulary. Love, love is in our vocabulary. Did you love the project enough? That is enough to know that you poured your love into it. Honor/Dishonor has nothing to do with it and if you give that idea energy, you are “dishonoring” the creative spirit which is love.
“Cycle of performance”
That’s corporate speak. Metrics. My current job is based upon it. Taking the human element out of the work and basing it on numbers. For creatives this is a quick way to kill the love that should be a part of each and every project. The cycle of performance should measure how much you love a project or a story. And it’s either you do or you don’t.
“Validation, performance, expectations, raising the bar, beyond expectations, anxiety”
None of those words should be a part of a creatives vocabulary. Any person that expects a creative to adopt any of those into their love of writing is in the wrong industry. Unfortunately corporate America doesn’t know how to talk to creatives. They most certainly don’t talk to Stephen King in that matter.
In the end, it sounds like video game publishers and their parent companies are choking the life out of creatives, in a vain attempt to shove corporate speak down their throats. This more than guarantees that a video game, or any creative work will ultimately fail especially when the love has been squeezed out of it. If there’s no love in the story, the fans will take notice. They may not always be able to identify what is exactly wrong with a particular project, but something will be wrong. Clearly this is the case with WoW and other Blizzard products. Just not everyone knows how to express it properly so everyone attacks everything at the same time.
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Honestly, it’s their own fault for trying to make it better and better, by WotLK it was just about perfect, then we saw the effects of Cataclysm.
The “make better” mentality is what is ruining the game, and why the community is “driving out” the developers. I really like all the old developers, and it’s always sad to have seem them go one by one.
What is immediately met when a player is outraged? They direct the dissatisfaction and disappointment at the developers, which is understandable. Playing WoW since the beginning, it’s clear to me at least that the game itself has been made better, but it’s been made worse in many more aspects. I don’t like the current direction for the game, I don’t like the changes they’ve made to my favorite spec Holy Paladin, I don’t like a lot about the game right now, but I used to, and it’s why most of us likely stick around.
Obviously nobody should be harassing them, but if we’re not being listened to, the only options are to get louder, and most of us are not being listened to.
TLDR: most of us don’t want the product to “out-do” itself, we liked the game how it was.
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I’m not saying the Devs deserve harassment, at all.
I’m saying that feeling like you constantly have to be on point and perform well and can’t let up is part and parcel of any modern day job, unless you land some of the government or union jobs* that will protect you even if you do terrible and/or barely show up. No one cares what your past credentials are, they care what you are doing to be productive and provide value now. If you did well before, you are expected to do better in the future. The bar always ratchets up.
That’s not unique to Warcraft, or game design, or development, or tech jobs.
It’s just the way humans interact with each other in an open marketplace.
I’m not even saying I don’t feel sympathy for Metzen if he felt like this. I know the feeling myself, I can empathize. At some point most of us feel like getting off that train and retiring if we can. I’m just not at a point where I can afford to yet. He was. And that’s great for him (even if I personally wish he were still involved in directing things at Blizzard).
*-not all government or union jobs but some
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