GD: What would you like to see from Blizzard, to improve their communication to the players

Community General Discussion
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Interesting topic, regarding Communication, Blizzard should improve the Community Council that you’re part of it.

Otherwise, you’ll notice the cricket sound…Since there’s a big gap between threads created and response.

Also, CMs usually focus on new seasonal content and forget that there’s a lot of feedback regarding past content and systems.

For example:

A CM taking an existing thread in the CC for feedback but never do a follow up after several new holidays happened.

Or the last update to Legacy Raid content in June, We’re almost 1 year from that and 0 updates.

Dev mentioned their focus on new content but I don’t think that they couldn’t allocate some resources in almost 1 year to some further fixes to legacy, BFA raids for example.

Also, Blizzard rely too much of their communication into third party websites like WoWhead and the Datamining usually runs wild…For example:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/jig *g*lesworth-slimecat-mount-returns-in-dragonflight-season-4-338308#news-post-338308

A reward Dev could do a blue post explaining the new Dinar system, why this reward comeback…etc

I’m glad this comeback, maybe Devs will try this mounts like Vicious Saddles that are an evergreen content in the game, however; other players won’t agree and some communication could clarify their design philosophies.

There’s too much secret with Rewards and a lack of interaction with the playerbase…

Like the love rocket drop:

Reward Dev appears talk about the issues but never establish a conversation with C.C members providing feedback or general playerbase, proceed with their own solution and its more of the same RNG. :man_shrugging:

Then proceed to do the same with Hallow´s end new rewards (Arfus, Saddle), same with Love is in the air new Saddle…

And this was brough by C.C members in their last Live Chat…

https://youtu.be/WIl_hO1XMN8?t=1348

“Respect time” is usually mentioned in the forums a lot, because Ion keep saying the same thing in Interviews, Livechats…He mentioned changes to what “rare” means, They should first establish what it means now, because rarity is a concept that differs from 1 player to another.

And If they don’t do changes to the C.C is going to continue as a copy of GD with a smaller sample and a lot of dead threads…

Continuing the discussion from What would you like to see from Blizzard, to improve their communication to the players:

MTG does a stream answering question more frequently that WoW, Last live chat with the C.C that are the sample of players they picked due to toxicity in the general forums was last December, It’s almost April and 0 live chats this year…They should do 1 every 1-2 months minimum, even if there’s not new content, there´s legacy, players doubts…etc

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One problem Blizzard is always going to have is that people don’t agree on important issues. For example, when a new power is given to us in an expansion should we be able to keep it going forward or should it be for that expansion only?

Well two very vocal messages from “the community” are very clear.

  1. No button bloat: We don’t want to constantly have to recalculate our rotations because of new powers.
  2. No borrowed power: We don’t want new powers taken away from us at the end of each expansion.

So if you are a developer, what do you do with demands like that?

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IMO, Devs should focus in the FUN of the game, for example, BFA corruption powers, those were fun, however; Devs added a massive RNG component even with the vendor in a rotation…that killed the experiment process, the opportunity for players to actually play with those new toys. That’s a common issue with WoW, they allocate resources to create new things but then you can’t actually try those because there’s a massive RNG component or you’re limited to a certain amount of options. That happened with Covenants until it was change, same with other systems.

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Thanks for highlighting this post. Would love to hear what more people think about how things are being communicated, especially in regards to upcoming content.

I just got on to the community council yesterday so I’m curious to see what kind of communication on feedback we actually receive.

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They should use a progress system and status labeling for bug reports posted to hold themselves accountable.

IE:
Verified showing they tested it and it is an actual bug and not a single incident or user error to prove they looked into it
In Progress with a ticker showing the number of days since the initial posting and an expected resolution date
Resolved with a brief explanation that the issue is now working as intended

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Well…I wish this new year of C.C at least had some blue post with changes, If there were threads of previous members talking about their lack of communication, its because there’s a problem with the idea.

etc…

If there’s problems with communication and how the idea works, What they did to change this feedback tool compared to other years? Or they only ended the previous members status, brought some new members and that’s it…

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In my opinion, they’d gain a lot by simply having an update each month, where they can pick questions/topics regardless of forum (CC, GD, Reddit, Twitter etc). Riot has their devtalks where they talk about things that are the horizon from their end but also things that they notice a lot of buzz around in the community. Blizzard should look into a similar format.

It doesn’t even have to be a long video, or anything with fancy editing. Example is this devtalk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2niKNCmiUY) where Riot talks about some gameplay updates, Vanguard (upcoming anticheat update), bots (as in AI bots) and skinline updates. It’s four and a half minute and even small updates like these are a great communication tool, if done correctly.

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I would like them to do things that obviously make the game better, instead of being silent about them forever. For example, nerf BFA/legion raids significantly to be one-shot soloable at level 70+, enable all flying in the maw and korthia, remove flightstone cost on gear that requires crests, and so on. There are so many free wins and they seem to not play their own game or listen to their players to know about them.

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I wish they’d be more consistent with where communication is released. Articles and roadmap stuff is usually here, but server issues or outages are only communciated on twitter (when they’re communicated at all). Sometimes maintenance is on the launcher, sometimes it’s not. They have no plan for when and how to release info to players.

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What was the RNG component with Covenants? I never saw any RNG, or don’t remember it. In fact I never saw the problem with Covenants.

I went through the story with my main and selected Revendreth then did Threads of Fate with three alts and picked the other three. I was covered, it was fine. I never understood what all the whining was about.

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I mentioned RNG or Limited to a certain amount of options…Covenant has the second issue, it was limited until the “pull the ripcord”.

Remember that since Alpha/Beta players mentioned the problem between player fantasy and player power related to picking a covenant and how some covenants were BIS for PvP meanwhile a really bad choice for M+ or Raid, you’ve a game with different toys to try but limited, some min-max players opted for creating 4 characters of the same class. At what point did you play SL? At the begining we couldn’t change covenants like changing talents.

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So if your main was in one and alts in the other three, in what way were you not covered?

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Would be nice to see them comment more often, but I understand why they don’t or can’t.

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Like any business and blizzard is a business, listen to the feedback and either say that’s not the directions we’re going to go or that is the directions we’re going to go. It’s honestly that simple people make it out to be so freaking hard than what it has to be

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You needed 4 characters of the same class in order to do that, for example, I main Warlock, but I do PvP and PvE, at some point Nigh fae was the BIS option for M+ but it didn’t provide a good power for my pvp gameplay. I didn’t have other warlock that could be the BIS covenant for PvP.

That was an issue in the community because some players wanted a fantasy but the game push always a meta for each actitivy and that didn’t match, that’s why the pull ripcord existed.

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I don’t give a crap about “improved communication to the players”.

Would it really make everyone feel better if Blizzard gave a detailed explanation about WHY they screw over their players?

I doubt it.

How about, instead… they DON’T screw over their players?

Talk is cheap. This crusade for Blizzard to focus on “more communication” needs to stop. We don’t need Blizzard to waste time and money on “more communication”. We need them to make a better game.

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Yes I agree, that is exactly what they do but in the example I just gave, which ever way they go, Button Blote or Borrowed Power, one group will be happy and say nothing and the other will cry “The devs hate us, they don’t listen to us”.

And because they are the loudest voice in the room they will declare that “We speak for The Community”.

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And? No seriously and?

I run a business I tick some people off with my decisions…oh well you can’t please everybody…

Like every business in this world, some decisions they make tick off their customers either they’re going to like it. Tolerate it or leave…

And if their decisions make a lot of people leave well then they’ll probably rethink it

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Too much of what they tell us turns out to be lies, anyway. (And no, I’m not even talking about plunderstorm, before anybody goes there.)

“More communication to their players” means Blizzard talking AT its players more, which means telling more lies. No thanks.

Blizzard’s staff needs to stop talking, shut up, and listen.

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I should clarify that I would prefer to see their reasoning and explanation for things more, like when making changes to the game or additions; Developer’s Notes goes a long way for me.