Lead Design : Bring back Jeff Kaplan

Community General Discussion
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Starting over, I believe we are arguing a subjective view and I think that is going to fail getting anywhere. I think if you get to Koloi’s quote below, you will see more at the aim I should have taken. You can select to believe what you want to believe. I can’t argue with you the favorite flavor of ice cream or your disdain about DK’s. (Whatever that may be, because you through out a word salad with literally no context. I have to infer you hated it in this context… but… who know what you’re upset by.)

Your pejorative you is about as impactful as your opinion that they were good or bad. Let me give you some ammunition, so when you’re sitting there shaking and rocking back and forth claiming “hot water burn baby” you at least can give your audience where your outrage stems from.

LFG - I think was a great addition to connect more players to each other. The negative impact on a server community was only slightly less negative then the sweeping server transfers.
Gear Score - gear score, ilvl, raider io, all inventions of the modders that Blizzad adopted later on. Clearly if you’re doing cutting edge content you don’t want to bring somebody who is 50 ilvls off of that content in a pug group. You can only be so charming
Heirloom Gear - This past Thanksgiving, I leveled my 50th 120. I did quite a bit w/o heirloom gear and quite honestly, you don’t have to equip it cause you want to sit and stew about “living the experience”. It’s a really horrible debate with subjective view outcomes.
Argent Tournament - WQ’s/dailies 1.0? Gear, mounts and pets. Didn’t HAVE to do it to impact your play, playstyle. I don’t even understand what you could gripe about.
Wintergrasp - I don’t know what the complaint
Naxxramas - We talking Naxx Vanilla or Naxx Wrath? See how it’s fuzzy to infer your complaint?
Wrath Dungeons - What about them? Last expansion to feature a variety of dungeons. Oustide TOC, all pretty challenging to the point where they were nerfted several times. Last of the best dungeons IMO. THe introduction of Halls of Reflection, Pit of Saron, Forge of souls not only were challenging, they also pushed the story. None of what they do now. Culling of Strat was also a GREAT dungeon that gave story content…
Paladins/DK - Anything we can talk about, agreed or disagreed will be purely subjective. I would say there were design flaws; but, comparatively speaking with LIVE, lol, they would pale in comparison.

Requoting here to point out that I don’t live in “your” head and whatever opinion you may have, maybe something I can agree with or not, would be wildly subjective and since you provide NO context, I believe people share your view and ultimately all of this could have been summed up with… You assume too much and you know what happens when you assume. **I also am having a problem with some of this because I was under the impression Greg Street was more responsible with class design… but it’s a whatever sandwhich at this point.

He had been and I didn’t notice him… I didn’t know ANYONE who was doing ANYTHING in WoW before Ghostcrawler. Do you know why!!! Cause there was no reason to go to the forums demanding to find out who was making (arguably) horrible decision that impacted me or the game.

Ya, I don’t remember that either. Greg Street hit my radar during BC in regards to Warriors, Druids and Hunters. Greg also used to handle well-crafted questions or comments directed at him via twitter. Agreed with him or not, the attempt was there.

^ This sums it up. Every time I tried to just take a quick quip of what you said, I had to pull in your full comment. It’s that… Period… Quick stop. Everything is subjective… When your most loyal diehard fans are standing in front of you booing your decisions, is that not the best gut punch to your own decision making?

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Then why bring up Jeff Kaplan if you’re going to ignore the negatives of Jeff Kaplan?

The man doesn’t communicate when criticism starts turning against him. He doesn’t listen to the community, just look at the Overwatch League. And there were problems when he under WoW’s umbrella, so your statement that he communicates to the community is a flat out lie.

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that’s because GC had integrity and he was not egotistical in fact no matter how busy he was he ALWAYS made time to crawl in the trenches and converse with the grunts in the forums

he didn’t talk down to us or act like he was infallible on the contrary he would talk to swap jokes and even throw a few corny one liners at posters he wasn’t condescending or acted like he was better than us

by contrast Watcher isn’t even in the same league as someone like Ghostcrawler and honestly its his level of egotism that is not good for the game

2 Likes
104

Somewhere in the swirling vat of comments is my comment was tongue in cheek; however, I’ve seen him do interviews and interact with the community. I think when he was working on Warcraft, I had no complaints… Look, I’m not expecting or asking for Blizzard to appease every whim we have. For example…

Ion says he doesn’t like the essence system, says it won’t be in Shadowlands and agrees that for alts it’s bad and new players daunting. After saying all of that, he turned and said it was still going to be in the game. Why? In the same article or unrelated (I’ve gone over the essence debate too much I’m starting to confuse myself) Ion explains they feel like access to “power” was never given to players, unlike flying or siege of boralas etc etc etc. Ok, so it’s a power thing? Then why give players a 50 neck @ a fresh 120? Then he also says, he doesn’t want to bog players down with rep, old areas or quests to get essences; but, forgets that having to do a couple of weeks of full clears through Eternal Palace or raising 3 follows to rank 15 (or whatever it is)

^ All of that is convoluted. Asking for Jeff is just asking for a simpler time when the goal of the game was to have fun. The game is inundated with needless content walls and marginal gains for an experience that feels like a job. Keep in mind I’m almost 82 on my neck and 50 120s, I am usually ok with the mundane. Alienated the player base who just want to sit down and enjoy playing an alt. Something they can pick up and put down.

From my perspective, he does a great deal more then what we get from Ion and Lore.

I do my best not to personally attack the guy. I don’t know him personally… that being said, I can’t disagree with peoples takeaway that he is like that.

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I never ranted. You’re the one flipping out here. You being unable to read is not my problem, it’s your own.

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Your inability to articulate your thoughts will probably give you a false sense of people being able to read (comprehend/understand) what point you’re trying to convey.

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Asking for Jeff is just asking for a simpler time when the goal of the game was to have fun. The game is inundated with needless content walls and marginal gains for an experience that feels like a job. Keep in mind I’m almost 82 on my neck and 50 120s, I am usually ok with the mundane. Alienated the player base who just want to sit down and enjoy playing an alt. Something they can pick up and put down.

Those content walls existed since the games inception. The only difference between then and now is that the obstacles are more exaggerated and varied, but have multiple options around them.

Does anyone remember the content drought that was the Argent Crusade Tournament?

From my perspective, he does a great deal more then what we get from Ion and Lore.

Kaplan loves to soak up attention when the reception is good. When it turns sour, like when GOATS completely tanked the will to play Overwatch for almost a year and players were legitimately upset the meta lasted for so long, Kaplan only appeared at the last moment.

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There were plenty of reasons. In fact, I would say vanilla was the worst point of wow, even worse then WoD for me personally (yeah sue me, that really is my opinion).

You know Ghostcrawler because he dared talk to the players. That is the risk of putting your name out and communicating with the player base, suddenly everyone loves you or is out to get you.

With today’s culture and environment, Jeff would be called out constantly no matter what he did. The game didn’t change much, but we the players sure changed into class A whiners.

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well if vanilla had failed WoD would NEVER have happened since WoW would’ve been canceled 15 years ago

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Huh? The only thing I could construe as a content wall was attunement to MC/BWL etc. Or even perhaps getting the key to Scholomance or UBRS… Not even close to a never ending grind to a neck/weapon, saddled with a cloak with limited acquired keys and rep grinds and follower grinds and fragment grinds… I mean this in the nicest way… You’re nuts if you think this is the same as vanilla. As an alt, you hit 60, farmed dungeon gear (and depending on progression) farmed Fire/Frost/Shadow resist. (I’m almost sure nobody recently did in the 41 min clear of BWL) There were no HAVE TO’s till Firelands (and even still not really). Somebody help me if I am wrong but Legion was the first I have to level after I have to level. Rep items were kind of useful depending… Just no. lol

Drought? Sure. Mandatory login to do busy work or mindless farming unles you wanted a pet or mount? No.

No offense to you; but, I do get tired of people being like, what’s the point it just going to be bad… It’s like playing with a bunch of Eeyores. What’s the point it’s just going to blah blah blah… Sure, if you don’t have a strong chin, maybe you don’t put it out there. I think the babys are the ones who can’t take criticism with the praise.

I disagree. The game changed ABSOLUTELY. The moment it went from “Game” to “Business Model” it 100% changed and it shows. Whining? That’s unfair to anyone, you’re not a rock, developing an opinion and expressing isn’t whining. (Starting to get that feeling I’m the old guy telling people get off of my lawn or the back in my days) BUT, that’s not whining. Whining would be, WHY IS NOBODY AGREEING WITH MY OPINION?!?! I engage people in this community because we all share a common interest. Just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean either of us or wrong or we can’t be friends because of it.

Crying that people are whining makes you a weak person. Evolve into a decent human being and accept criticism or give your own feedback without making too many presumptions. Then, don’t clutch your pearls because they didn’t completely change their mind. God… people are so weak these days.

It’s an opinion. It doesn’t have to be right. I think Vanilla was good for when Vanilla came out 15 years ago. Rating all expansions together I’d agree Vanilla isn’t my favorite because of content or structure. Vanilla wins because of the nuance and people with an amazing attitude for the game. Visuals/Art/Music etc, it’s not even at a second. BFA has AMAZING visuals and music and art/animation but has an abused community and beleaguered player base to appease share holders “players time invested”. It’s like a tv show, let’s call it The Kardashians, utter garbage, worthless content, horrible cast and essentially junkfood for the brain. If the viewership stays strong, the show stays on. The E network keeping it on and shows like it because people will watch it, not because it’s the best show ever… Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand… Warcraft doesn’t have to be good, it just has to keep people engaged. The driving force in BfA is nothing more then “fear of missing out”. I suppose I should include the caveat, in my opinion at least.

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Uh the wow classic dev team has nothing to “dev” what are you talking about honestly lol

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The post count. You can count on your one hand the amount of posts we get from the retail team this last week. In classic its alot higher.

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I mean people are unironically nostalgic for Garrisons… so yeah this will 100% happen.

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Eh… it was the best attempt at player housing, a feature people still would like to see

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It’s gating. Vanilla through Legion had some form of gating at one point or another. It’s not even that tedious in BFA since Azerite Power gets dumped on you from doing any form of content.

People don’t like BfA’s gating because it’s not alt friendly. That does not mean Vanilla was any better with their painful gates.

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Blizzard could easily solve the housing issue by giving players a reusable item that spawns a outhouse sized structure and its like the TARDIS it has an instance portal and once inside its the size of a keep

plenty of room to set up our own decorations/relics etc

add woodworking make it a secondary profession and the passive skills could help stimulate primary profs

Mining would give us ability to create sidewalks and other rock related items
Jewelcrafters could create statues and items for display purposes like figurines
Alchemists could create oils and adhesives for construction of furniture
Blacksmiths obviously create nails and other items like iron chandeliers
Engineering for drafting blueprints and schematics for actual construction
Tailors weaving wall tapestries as well as floor rugs curtains etc
Leatherworking adds a few animal trophies either wall mounts or full standing versions
Scribes creating paintings and other artwork as well as dyes and paints for coloring most of the aforementioned

not to mention we could revisit older content and pick up crafting recipes for making stuff to display in our houses

so many different possibilities to explore since the wood working skill would still depend on the primary professions I believe it would open up tons of new content as well as renew interest in professions people could buy trade and sell various items with other players in the process

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Gotta stop you right there. You have a great idea, with some exciting new things. However, the moment you said Blizzard could easily “anything” ya lost me. Immovable object in spite of all rational thought and degree of genius.

Forgive my lack of faith.

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easily do it is one thing but yeah putting it into practice is another matter altogether after all seems the only thing they can do easily is take a decent concept and somehow make it terrible or somehow make something already bad and turn into something 10 times worse

1 Like
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I made it pretty clear that my point is that it was pretty funny that you’re ranting here about the game all the while being the one who also made a stupid purchase by supporting it. I repeated that several times for you, but it appears you didn’t seem to get the message

Rather, you chose to try and dig up my old posts and tried to tie them back to some other point that had zero relevance to what I said. After I pointed that out you went into tantrum mode and started whining and crying.

Also, I feel that I haven’t gone into your claim that, “I didn’t know it was going to be BFA 2.0.” Thing is bud, everything we know about this expansion was said at BlizzCon. They have been silent beyond that. So yeah, sorry man.

It’s very unfortunate that you were unable to read what I put right there in front of you. Must be that helmet you’re wearing.

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As I’ve repeated myself each time you’ve made that observation, I can return it, it’s definitely not a concept your tackling very well.

You’re a hypocrite. I pointed out that on one hand you’re fighting with a whole group of people to be optimistic about a game, then, in a trollike fashion come here criticizing I pre-ordered the game. Showing you previous posts of your comments shows you the BS narrative you’re pushing on this thread. It’s not my fault you don’t like the smell…

I’m glad after 5 attempts, you somehow funneled your narrative to something that somebody can understand. However, the result is, you’re a now hypocritical idiot. Congratulations, I hope that this endeavor bore fruit from your laborious effort to asserting you’re a hypocrite and an idiot. /clap