So this was linked to me. A nice little interview about how Alex doesn’t allow anyone on the story team to have hurt feelings about how virtually no one likes the current story when they’re writing.
Always had the sinking suspicion. But apparently they don’t care if we do know anymore. They straight up don’t listen to feedback. They only care about writing their fan fiction and piggy backing it off the trust we had in the old story team.
I’m saying that you’re unhappy correct? That you feel or know that Blizzard doesn’t care about your criticism. What will you do now that you know this? Quit? Ignore the plot? Continue to complain, whether out of spite, or change Blizzard’s mind?
That sounds like a challenge. Maybe we have been too diplomatic.
I am sure they are all wealthy and will make off like bandits once they kill this company. But if they want to ignore their players, their players will come to ignore their product.
I probably will continue to play and tune out the story - in time. But I will be much more understanding of every “I quit” post.
All the above. Everyone has their ways to deal with dissatisfaction, and all of them valid in the context of this MMORPG we play(ed). What’s the point of the interrogation again?
I feel the fact they refuse to allow themselves to be criticized is a bigger issue then changing halfway through.
Criticism, whether from the masses or critics, is designed to do ywo things, explain if something is worth a persons time, and more importantly, tell the creator what they need to improve on. The point of criticism is to encourage improvement, tell people, this is what you did well, this is what you did wrong, and this is how you could improve.
It’s clear at this point that they don’t care for players opinion. It’s too late for that.
My only hope is that they feel shame as writers and content creators, cuz they should.
Blizz cant hide the sun with one finger and say they did a good job with BFA
its still better than them listening to feedback from the general WoW audience. Id rather they tell a story than lots of little fan service each patch. So far the writters have had some of the greatest cinematic moments in video game history. I’ve noticed a lot of people on the story forums get mad when characters or races evolve over grudges, hate and not acting like a robotic stereotype. I much prefer blizzards way of showing characters imo. Other wise this really would be world of grudge craft with just petty story forum threads about how baine is finally a warmonger or how sylvanas stays the same and keeps genociding with everyone turning a blind eye.
They can admit mistakes in the gameplay. They can admit something they did wrong that makes the game loathsome, and work to change it. WoDs removal of Flight and Azerite gear, for example.
They heard feedback about what makes this game awful to play - and changed their precious plans.
Yet they feel the story is immune to this? If the story is stupid/vile/loathsome/insane/awful/incongruous… generally displeasing to experience, that can effect player interest as well.
My only hope is that the fact that they talk about “how the writers take feedback” so much means they are really effected by it in some way. Either it makes them feel out of touch, or it infuriates them to the point where they make the Horde even nuttier out of spite.
It is the mantra of many who chose Sylvanas: Stick by Sylvanas and see what Blizzard will do in their quest to … Gratify themselves over their cleverness.
Sadly we are a huge minority, people are more concerned about Azerite traits and class balance and its ok at the end gameplay comes first. We can see this every Developer QA.
The story is there because there has to be one but is not their main focus.
The story stopped being their main focus the moment Metzen retired. Bless Metzen for the stuff he put up with and muscled through for as long as he did if the claims of night terrors and depression are true. He was one of the pillars of Blizzard and now that him, morheim, and brode are gone this company is starting to fall apart.
I’m pretty sure it’s normal, and good in the long run, for writers to concentrate on the story they want to tell and not listen to others on the outside.
It certainly doesn’t mean this story is good per say but there’s nothing out of the ordinary here.
Somewhat relatedly, it’s very hard for them to act on feedback in the first place when they know the story months and years ahead of us. They know 9.0’s story
Theres the argument to be made that WoD was pretty superfluous in and of itself. But even then going by interviews, leaks, and just the plot threads WoD didnt follow up on? All that was cut in the end was Void teases in Farahlon (of which we’ve now gotten plenty of elsewhere) and an actual ending to Yrels plot with a Shattrah raid. Things that would’ve been interesting to see but were otherwise besides the point.
But the important stuff? The Legions return and Guldan being shunted to Azeroth to facilitate their arrival? That still had to happen regardless of how bad WoD was to set up Legion. And I suspect the same is true of most of the elements of BfAs plot people find so odious.
There’s more than that. We know they originally planned for Grom Hellscream to be the final boss of the expansion, and the whole reason “Draenor is free!” was such a cop-out is because they literally changed that halfway through. Supposedly in response to players complaining of “orc fatigue,” too.