So back then, specifically vanilla, I remember classes had a developer representative. They spoke with the players, asked our thoughts, etc. Heck, I remember the paladin was lacking a class rep. There was a developer that admitted there weren’t any, and he offered that he would level a paladin from 1-60. He did so, and changes started happening for the pally! Hi, hammer of wrath
Anyways, I feel that they should implement something like this. That way there is constant feedback, and a developer that actually plays/witnesses how the classes are instead of just looking at numbers. Graphs and logs are fine, but when you focus on that, they have a habit of nerfing/buffing things that didn’t need it, thus missing the nail completely.
Alternatively they could reach out to the community to identify some of the more involved players, who know their classes’ better than the developers since they play them more. They may not know the developer lingo, but they know the ins and outs of their class better than they do, just because of the sheer amount of time they spend playing and researching. Let’s say 10 players for each class. Give some incentives like free game time, and I think it could work!
Selective memory ON. Yes, people were laid off. None of them in development sectors; in fact, the investor call specifically states they would be hiring more developers across the board. So if anything, they should have more than enough people to dedicate one per class.
However, that was early on in the game, when they were still new, so to speak. That kind of dedicated developer per class isn’t a surprise for early days of a game/product, but not necessarily something you want or need to do 15 years later.
