I just realized that you don’t have to use the forums to give Blizzard feedback. You can just to to “Support” from your in-game menu and provide feedback that way.
I honestly – and wrongly – thought the forums were the place to make suggestions.
Like, for instance, I put in a suggestion that the account-wide renown coming with Warbands should be backwards compatible and apply to all previous content.
Anyway, bye!
But it’s far more likely that certain feedback or suggestions for the game gain traction on a public forum, rather than a support ticket that only the devs see.
The forums are mostly a place to vent. What genuine constructive feedback exists here gets lost in hyperbole, unrealistic expectations, and a mistaken belief that the forums are in any way an accurate representation of the average player.
Can you cite an example where a grassroots movement on the forums changed the game? I’m not saying you can’t, but I am saying that I can’t.
Off the top of my head, the ripcord in Shadowlands? The whole “pull the ripcord” movement on the Covenants started on these forums.
I do that on things I’m passionate about as well. The forums are one avenue of feedback, as are the forums, and ugh social media. As, unpleasant, as the forums can be I do feel that most people do come from a place of passion for the game.
Draenor Flying, the real id fiasco.
Oh, I remember that now. One of the few times I actually quit the game and didn’t intend to come back.
They definitely pick hot topics from the forum, but the people in charge aren’t religiously reading here. For every one thread that has a well constructed OP and constructive discussion, there are a hundred “wHy iS woke??” and screaming about features that don’t exist.
The good gets buried under trolls and people trying to dunk on them.
It is.
The support feedback option can easily be ignored and lost in the mix. If a thread on the forums gains traction it can easily lead to a lot of support and become harder to ignore.
The Pathfinder issue recently is the perfect example as there were many threads, with 100s of replies of support, and even 100s of trolls trolling them acting as if it were just a few people not realizing they kept the threads bumped and it got noticed.
That cannot happen with individual support -suggestion tickets.
I think that actually can happen with individual support-suggestion tickets, if there are enough of them.
I’m not convinced that the forums don’t influence the game, but, like, you need a very special strainer to get the semi-precious gems out of that cesspool of negativity – some of it mine.
I think the problem is WoWs history. Blizzard rare ever listens to players and the support/suggestion system has been in place for such a long time that it appears clear they are not really categorizing them and listening there.
The forums prevent a major issue from being ignored as the threads become part of the “top” threads page and makes it easier to find, and even get talked about by influencers and gaming sites looking for clickbait/ragebait articles. And there have been videos about pathfinder and how dragon flight is shining a light on Blizzard ignoring people with disabilities.
Not a thing Blizzard needs after the last few years they have had.