Is it possible to be constructive and explain to blizzard they are out of touch with the community? and who’s fault is it really that the message gets labeled as useless feedback?
We see it time and time and time again, we keep letting the community get in over their heads and theory-crafting unhealthy discussions on why they are angry at the company and why they think they decisions were so bad and out of touch with the community’s desires.
At some point I think blizzard needs to start collecting feedback in a more aggressive and organized way. I’m sure the people of this community want to rant and give them their 2 cents of anger on everything they dislike, but one thing is for sure. There is discord and discontent people. It’s not a simple matter of giving everything the angry people are shouting, there’s so much more. This is a big community with diverse needs and reasons that they enjoy the game.
We honestly need communication from blizzard that they’re listening. A simple forum post is not helping, whenever you guys do a Q&A you guys are avoiding a lot of questions that show case why a lot of people are unhappy.
One HUGE thing is that we don’t even know if blizzard FULLY Acknowledges that they dropped the ball and they plan on really getting a handle back on the reins. If we can at least acknowledge that it’d be some help.
Lastly, me personally this isn’t a simple matter of a 15 year old game finally feeling it’s age. I think what WoW offers is timeless, but the many different directions the game has gone, this current iteration is completely out of touch.
And then we all logged into the forums to slay the Jabberwocky. For real, at this point in a 14 year old video game, it’s done. We only keep it alive because we are addicts.
To answer your initial question, Yes it is POSSIBLE. It is also more likely than not that this sentiment has been passed onto either the Corporates or the Development Team (potentially via the Corporates). There have been plenty of constructive posts on here and other platforms and it is openly acknowledged on several YouTube Channels and even articles on News or Gaming Sites that Blizzard really dropped the ball this year.
Why the team seems to continue to be Out of Touch with us to me depends on who notices what is being said, whether they choose to convey it or not and in what manner they choose to spin it. Some devs may take the criticism somberly, quietly acknowledging that they’ve dropped the ball, some may instead react with a degree of (restrained) hostility, potentially blaming the players or content creators for not liking what they were given.
To re-iterate, it is possible to point out that Blizzard is Out of Touch in a constructive fashion, though whether it is communicated as the writer intended (assuming that the message is received at all) or is either misrepresented or misinterpreted to me is the key factor.
I do agree with you, but to try and get on the same wave length as them to have them acknowledge this failure is disturbing especially when considering the future. Which is why I think they need to be more aggressive at getting feedback and not being so afraid of asking their player if they think they are failing.
So you want to hear them say they’ve dropped the ball and that they’ll do better? That’s all well and good but we’ve heard that before, multiple times in fact. How many times have they said “We see now that” “We didn’t anticipate” “We need to better communications” and literally none of that happens. I think this is the third time they’ve mentioned communications?
No, i don’t want to hear that. I want them hear specifically where they think they failed and how they intend on fixing it. I’d like for them to give us a survey on what we think of their answer and continue having open communication. They don’t actually acknowledge anything, they give us the illusion they acknowledge some things but you never really get exactly what it is.
Heck, I’ll take a random GM summoning me to an instanced area for a One-on-One chat with an in-game dev. Or one of those Email surveys that were going around (Never got one).
i kind of felt they were already out of touch when they did the Azeroth Choppers schtick four years ago. while i myself have personal interest in motorcycles, most of the IRL WoW players i knew hated that TV show
They’ve answered questions specifically with the examples I gave. Specific questions and those were the answers they gave. They’re not going to admit anything or give any answers. As far as surveys go, they’ve put out multiple surveys already and both are about as out of touch as you can get.
I would suggest being focused and direct in what you’re having trouble with and what you’d like instead. When you start in on things like “out of touch with the community” you’re attempting to speak for an audience none of us can really comprehend much less speak for. There’s so many people of so many backgrounds who play this game in very different ways.
Being constructive is drilling down to the issue without accusation. It’s offering solutions or at least middle ground. It’s an idea of a positive direction from a negative starting point. It’s OK to clarify what makes that starting point negative for you.
Talk about what you want to see with the game. Leave the personal attacks out of it. It’s not us against them. It’s us giving information to them so that we can get more of what we want.
They only ever do VERY small scale surveys they don’t even touch the entire community, mostly just people who’ve unsubbed.
As far as how they answer questions. They cherry pick the crap out of the easiest ones. The issue is they can’t admit to anything or give answers. Communication is key and you just basically agreed with what i said about them being so out of touch that they can’t answer questions or answer any honest questions.
Like the green said, it only helps if you say exactly what you don’t like and how you’d like it fixed.
“The game is now a casino”, is not constructive feedback, for example, unless you then detail exactly how it is like a casino and how it should be different.
Also mentioning “Ion”, whatever that poor fellow might actually do, doesn’t have anything to do with the problem you have with what the game is like.
Well, you also have to remember the turn around time for stuff like this. They are building a big game, they have have to finish. Some issues might be put on the back burner. They can’t just completely change the expansion overnight.
While I agree with this, there are other people with larger platforms (People like Bellular) who generally do a good job with staying in the middle and pointing out flaws while giving praise. Yet they still go ignored by Blizz it seems. So what hope does an average forum goer have?
Frankly, I don’t care if they don’t admit to mistakes. I’m more interested in hearing that they acknowledge our concerns relating to the game, and what they plan on doing to fix it.
They don’t need to pull a Square Enix and apologize, I just want them to acknowledge that they understand why players are upset, and then announce some things they are looking to do. I’m not expecting them to make the game better within a month. I just want some reason to look forward to Blizzard’s future patches and possibly next expansion. I’m probably never returning to WoW with how badly BFA was handled.
At this point, the silence speaks more to Blizzard’s mindset than anything. Choosing not to speak is speech within itself.
Yes, it is. You just simply have to be intelligent and civil in it. And you need to use “I” language, not “You” language. For example:
You guys aren’t listening to the community!
becomes:
I feel that many people in the community are giving great feedback in a positive manner. However the lack of any response, even if it is a simple acknowledgement from any blue poster, makes me feel like this feedback is slipping through the cracks.
![:joy:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/joy.png?v=6" ":joy:")