Ion Hazzikostas acknowledges the developer team's "stubborness and traditionalism" in new IGN interview

Community General Discussion
142

I’ll try to give you an example:

You create a new character. Let’s say it’s a human because why not. After you have set the new character up you get the option link either a compatible character with this one or create a new corresponding one which shares both your character progress and equipment but not the level. The only requirement is that this character has to have the same class you pick, otherwise it will not work.

Human - Orc
Nightelf - Troll
Pandaren - Pandaren
and so on.

This would encourage people to have at least one fully equipped character on each side and you can also enjoy the complete story without having to pick one side - because you have already two characters. But they need to leveled separated so they can use the shared equipment.

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143

It’s an interesting idea for sure. Open world does need something. That’s where the game currently lacks. Instanced content is well done and will get the cross-faction boon. Open world needs a shot in the arm.

Alts need some consideration with content. I haven’t played alts too much because it is such an unenjoyable slog.

144

You think you do, but you don’t.

145

We demand the game changes, but then not the same from ourselves. I don’t always have to agree with their decisions, but I can assure, they haven’t royally messed it up compared to some companies, they’ve taken risks and they don’t always pan out.

That being said, they do need to pump the brakes and look at what they have made and start carrying some stuff forward to rebuild a more cohesive world rather than jumping to 5 other expansion to try out certain systems…which honestly only started happening after MOP

146

So, I should stop complaining about bad faith math and misanthropic loot until I can learn to hate Garrosh? :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t know if having an opinion about the lore and wanting Blizzard to make the game functional and mechanically competitive are the same issue.

147

I get where he’s coming from. People by nature like to stay in areas of comfort, so being stubborn and traditionalists is completely normal. I probably would say the same after working on the same thing for 15+ years.

As long as they’re open to change, which it seems like they are now, there is hope yet remaining for this game.

148

He needs to go back to designing raids. The GD needs to be someone who plays and understands all the aspects of the game.

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149

Ion needs to go. I feel like 10.0 will be the same old things and he’ll just end up making excuses there too. How many expansions does this current team need to stop apologizing, stop making excuses and actually being proactive in their changes, making the game fun and not totally screwing things up because you imagine issues when there aren’t any.

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150

Quarterly report seems to show that Blizzard lost another 2M monthly actives.

Clearly the game has gone in the wrong direction.

I still can’t understand the trolls that were telling people to quit the game during that time, instead of giving feedback about what needed to change to make the game fun again.

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151

I feel this has been the case for a long time since cataclysm. Blizzard tries way to hard to satisfy everyone, instead of just picking that one side and going with it. This day in age, the game is either oversimplified and outright boring, and that is coming from a wrath of the lich king casual. Wrath of the lich king required a brain, and it just feels like retail doesn’t really require one at all. But at the same time, overly complicated in other ways. It feels like there is just so much going on. Like i cannot get over how many times i have gotten kicked for moving to slowly. All about that hyper fast, hyper casual bullcorn now. Gotta get 60 in 10 minutes after all.

Just so annoying. Wrath of the lich king was like the perfect version of the game, where they did not really listen to the playerbase to much. I mean, real ID is the only major issue i can think of, but had nothing to do with the game or the gameplay, was another issue entirely. But you also had some nerfs to ICC and the exp on/off separation to everyone who complained about getting owned in pvp. Everything else was pretty reminiscent of the first 2 expansions, and wrath had the perfect blend of automation and pacing when it came to leveling up and end game content for both the hardcores and the softcores, and had plenty of mounts and pets to collect to boot for those who did that.

After this, wow just lost it’s sanity. Lets turn leveling into a joke because everyone hates it. Let’s overtune the shiz out of cataclysm heroics because expecting people to use their brains is to much to ask for. Let everyone stand in fire and be fine with heals. Let dps and tanks alike spam their abilities at nauseum without ever needing to mana up or worry about rotations or anything else worthy of responsibility thought process. Add LFR for people who just want to super casual the raids.

I mean, they just overstated everything to much. Way to much. Then you see posts about people complaining about torghast. Like don’t do it then yo. But my legendaries. Just accept the fact that if you want that legendary, you doin some torghast. Pet battles i am not to fond of and there is a ton of stuff behind that i want from pet battles. To bad for me should be the answer, and it is the answer.

I mean seriously. If blizzard did not cater to everyone’s little bullcorn over the years, then maybe the old audience that popularized wrath of the lich king and before might still be playing. Entitlement destroys this game. It really does. And i don’t really feel the average player actually has a clue about what they want either.

At the end of the day, the game is old. And nothing lasts for more than 10 minutes due to the internet, and the ability to discover everything in 10 seconds. Min maxxing happens pretty quick these days to. The instant the next expansion is announced, we will already know how to play. And once everything is exploited, it is over. People just are not satisfied for very long now with anything, and i give final fantasy 14 few years before it becomes boring and repetitive to.

I can get behind the game having a bad story. Or the fact that wow is repetitive and always has been. Or that warcraft is old. It is the intelligence i miss from the old days. The way the game worked. The communities who were encouraged to play the game. I mean, right now we have a semi home run with the faction grouping with other factions. But the next feature, man, this game is the worst. What the heck blizz. It never ends with this community. Ever.

I miss wrath of the lich king for that reason. If you hated leveling, it was fine. I still had the option of going through it at a reasonable pace. And the overworld and community still mattered before the players and blizzard themselves decided that they needed to make it a joke because no one else wanted to do it. And if you could not complete a raid, oh well. To bad for you. They try way to hard these days to satisfy everyone, not realizing that they had a relatively satisfied market before they nerfed everything and catered to the wrong people. Anything people disliked about wrath, and there were alot of things, you were just forced to deal with it. Which is how the game should still be. At the same time, blizzard needs to take the constructive and objective criticism, and build on that. They went overboard with every little thing in my eyes in every expansion since cataclysm. The game just does not have the same ring to it in my op. It just is not the same game.

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152

Out of respect for the devs, it can’t be easy making huge changes to WoW. There are so many moving parts, if you move one, a hundred others can come out of whack. The factions aren’t just a pillar of the game, they’re basically THE pillar of the game. So it’s no small task trying to budge that without completely breaking the game.

That all being said, sometimes you need to break the mould if you want to improve things, and time and community dictate where a games direction should go a lot of time. You can make the perfect game, but if no one wants it, if there’s no community or market for that game, then you’ve essentially just made Prog Rock music.

153

Let’s call it “stupid” risks at this point. Nobody asked for the garrison table to changed after he was perfect in Legion. Nobody asked for the 10th class rework after it was beloved. Or with every expansion a new system.

They waste so much money and resources on something what nobody wants. Just stick to established features without reworking them permanently, perhaps then Torghast would have been actually fun - but then again, they nerfed Torghast on the initial ptr so much that it isn’t really a mode one want to play, even now.

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154

At Blizzcon his answers are great. It’s a complex game and he addresses nuance. You don’t know the inner workings of Blizz and all the politics and pressure about what makes money versus what is good for the game.

Besides, since you know so much: what are your top three replacements and why?
Go ahead stick your neck and see if people critique you fairly.

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155

These Q&A aren’t real ones anymore, they write the questions these days for themselves.

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Go listen to his answers for what 2012-2018? His answers are great. People complain about stupid things: oh he sounds like a lawyer! You mean precise, clear, within a complex game.

157

They aren’t great. Especially the one where out of nowhere a sountrack questions comes up. They all are rigged so you feel good about the outcome. Predetermination at its best, unfortunately.

Secondly, his vision for the game is not good. There has been going around a WoW VS FF14 interview special video on youtube which shows how artificial these questions are actually are.

Ion is good at only one thing: Raiding. Otherwise he is useless as a game director. He had his fair chance but given how everything went down after Legion, it is still a wonder he holds the position as a game director.

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158

Ok, who are your top three replacements and why? Stick your neck out and see how faily people criticize your suggestions.

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159

BfA was the worst lore for Horde since the game launched.

The once mighty Horde that revered Honor and Courage to do the HONORABLE thing above all else, turned into craven mewling sycophants cowering before a narcissistic sociopathic cosplaying Cersei and tantrum-throwing mass-murderer of both factions, too cowed to put her down causing us to be subjected to Shadowlands for two extra-long years.

BfA caused me to stop playing my Horde characters. And no, giving us the mini questline option to choose Saurfang over her was a nice surprising option, but didn’t exist beyond that and nothing remotely close to making up for an entire expansion of embarrassment, shame, and horrible writing that we now know was just a prologue to the worst writing in the history of the game.

The Horde should really be dissolved at this point. I don’t know what else will make up for allowing it to morph into a cult.

And the upcoming possession nonsense is stupid, gross, and would have been better had it been given the Dallas treatment, as bad as that was.

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160

A new assistant game director. Wasn’t there a job listening for something like this a while ago?
Let’s see how this turns out.

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161

they had no problem with uprooting the foundation of power progression and replacing it with borrowed power. That one made the game worse, I can’t see the cross fraction grouping will make it better.