Introducing the World of Warcraft Community Council

Community General Discussion
1

Greetings, citizens of Azeroth –

The World of Warcraft community is second to none with the passion, love, and excitement you all show to the game. Player feedback impacts all aspects of the game, and with such a wide range of opinions, playstyles, and interests out there, gathering and understanding feedback is more important than ever.

To help further our efforts in this area, we’re introducing the WoW Community Council. This program will add another venue for communication between players and WoW developers. Our goal is to gather more detailed feedback on all aspects of World of Warcraft from players around the world with a wide range of backgrounds and interests.

Here’s how it works:

  • Submissions are open to any player interested in taking part in the program.
  • Once players are selected, they’ll be given the ability to post in a new discussion forum that is publicly visible to everyone.
    • In this new forum, we’ll ask members to share their experiences and perspectives on anything in the game, and some topics may be started by Blizzard developers and community managers.
    • Responses and updates from Blizzard will be posted there so they can easily be discussed by the entire community.
  • A private discussion will also be setup for Council members to encourage direct interaction between members.
  • Separate conversations between smaller groups of members and Blizzard developers will be encouraged to ensure players with differing perspectives are being heard.
    • These may take the form of live chats between Council members and WoW devs.

One of the key goals with this program is to encourage discussion with players from a wide variety of different playstyles. To help ensure this, part of the application process will involve sharing your areas of interest and expertise. Whether it’s cutting-edge raiding, playing alts, completing achievements, accessibility, or collecting transmog, we want to know your perspective and ensure you’re heard. Therefore, after one year in the program, we plan to unflag Council members and open the application again. All WoW players will be free to apply at that point.

Please note: this program is focused on sharing current and past game experiences; it will not provide access to unannounced game information.

If this sounds like something you’d like to participate in, here is the submission link: https://forms.office.com/r/2BfVmv2d44

Please share this with any player who may be interested in this program and if you have any questions, please let us know.

Thanks for your time and feedback.

186 Likes
2

Thank you for this, Blizz. Sincerely.

93 Likes
3

So basically kind of like Eve Onlines CSM, except picked by Blizzard rather than player voting?

Mind you, that doesn’t make it better or worse. If Blizzard is picking and ensuring they grab people from different aspects of the game, it could be better really.

32 Likes
4

This is going to put a bullseye on certain people I suspect, including developers who may disagree with whatever is being discussed at the time.

“Why aren’t you listening to us due to X conversation from Y months ago”
“You’re listening to the wrong people”
“X person is useless fire them”

… Will be interesting to see what comes of it though.

20 Likes
5

Being publically visible should (hopefully) spark some interesting secondary discussion out here in the wider community.

24 Likes
6

So basically what the forums could have been - before they were abandoned by the Devs and CMs and they all ran to twitter.

283 Likes
7

More communication between players and devs couldn’t hurt.

I hope.

25 Likes
8

Well this gives me hope for the future.

Hopefully they give the right feedback.

12 Likes
9

I just hope they don’t pick a bunch of players who only play certain types of content or play their way, and actually get a diverse range of players who enjoy multiple aspects of this game.

105 Likes
10

All these changes. How about change the way gear drops in raids 10 bosses deep and not a single drop and then u get your vault and it’s gear you already have on and u can only pick one maybe make the drop rate a little better as well with all the other changes or make the vault chances better.

16 Likes
11

See they DO read the forums. Our #1 complaint: Devs never listen to us.

Our voice shall be heard and soon the mage tower will be known as the druid tower.

13 Likes
12

I sorta see the benefits of this when talking about the live retail but if this is about upcoming changes, aren’t there PTR and Beta forum sections already where a lot of people have been tirelessly providing you crucial feedback for years?

37 Likes
13

I applied would be amazing if I got accepted

Cause I at least don’t thrash and bash negativity when I give feedback

6 Likes
14

This doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all. I won’t be applying but more power to those who do. Maybe with your feedback the game will change for the better.

6 Likes
15

Are applications are going to be ongoing?

I mean right now, I am not convinced this will change anything in communications or improve the game. There have been many false starts in improving communications over the last 15 years.

Then there is the worry that you’ll simply cater to streamers, mythic raiders, and high key mythic+ dungeoneers. All the changes made in the last few expansion packs seem to exclude casual players, (i.e the removal of Archaeology and abandonment of adding more heritage armor sets).

However, if it actually does make changes and someone wants to participate in the future then will they be able to apply then?

20 Likes
16

I do hope they do that.

I also hope they start off getting to know those playstyles with a simple “Tell me about your gameplay loop” to get a foundation. People look at and approach things differently, and have a different perspective and playstyle.

Like an AH goblin signs on and spends 90% of the time doing XYZ while Pet Battler #32 over there spend 90% of the time doing ABC and then BigToughRaidPvP’er does something entirely differently.

I’m not sure, and I doubt, Blizzard looks at and understands those different loops. Which isn’t a shot at Blizzard per se, it’s something every developer needs to do more of. They design things and expect it to be played in a certain way and then people just…do something different.

Getting a baseline understanding of different playstyles and what people feel is a weakness of those styles could be valuable for design perspectives.

8 Likes
17

Ok, so I’ve just gotten to the last page of the survey and I have an honest question:

Are you guys only going to take people that have “contributed” something to the community outside of the game/forums?

The last question is literally “Provide links to up to 3 things you’ve contributed to the community”, which makes it sound like unless you are a forum MVP or a content creator on YouTube, you won’t be considered.

125 Likes
18

This is a very good opportunity to open a dialogue with the community, Blizz. I really hope this goes somewhere and there can be a good conversation going back and forth between the developers and the playerbase. I have been very critical of the game at times, but this is a very good step in the right direction.

I applied for it; I don’t expect to be picked but if I am that would be awesome!

3 Likes
19

The WoW community is larger than just 10/10M raiders. Please ensure that the following voices are still heard:

  • AOTC Raiders
  • M+ers of varying skill levels and factions (cough cough Alliance M+)
  • Arena Players
  • RBGers
  • Moggers / Doesn’t engage in the three pillars “Casuals”
19 Likes
20

Do you have to be horde for Ion to listen? Can you be fair and reserve half the seats for alliance players?

22 Likes