Sums up my thoughts about this thread;
They really don’t. Players say things they don’t like, will occasionally go into detail why but very rarely. Usually feedback is just this vague thing. “I don’t like this, do something” Or “Why can’t we support Sylvanas” They have to work with the hints of what we want and make something from that.
That’s true, surely they try their best. I feel Blizzard is somewhat disconnected from the community. Fortunately, with recent interviews and such it’s more promising than ever that they may begin to listen and understand us better.
People ask for lots of specific things. People complain about lots of different things.
The idea that blizzard should completely ignore what paying customers are willing to accept because we are not a hivemind that acts and thinks like 7 of 9 is beyond absurd.
In theory they should be creating this game for the purpose of making a profit because their product is something people are willing to pay for. If you think it’s enough that they should create a vanity product with no intention of pleasing customers whatever, good luck staying solvent. Building a monument to your own hubris is not going to bring in the big bucks.
The idea that no one has ever expressed an opinion on this forum is, well, beyond weird. Cut the gaslighting. You don’t do it well at all.
2 Likes
Hahahaha, man what a great joke before I go to bed.
3 Likes
I’m happy to amuse. 
But doesn’t it seem the case they may be listening more than in prior years?
Ehh… to a limited degree. Some of it seems as if they’re listening but other parts feels more like they’re just trying to say what they think we want to hear.
For example, on Covenants they’ve said they’re got a plan is it goes south but first we have to try is out as is. They also haven’t said anything specific about how they’re going to decide if they need to change anything or not; there’s no metric or numbers or us to hold them to. Perhaps I’m just cynical but that seems to me like dev-speak for sit down, shut up, and eat our dinner because they’re trying to watch the ballgame.
1 Like
You’re certainly correct to be pessimistic and cynical when it comes to Activison-Blizzard and Blizzard specifically looking back at the last some years now.
What is the point of this thread?
Mostly just trying to help people see that we do get what we ask for. It’s just what we ask for is too vague. I’m trying to push people to provide more clear feedback so they can better get what they want.
Although, it mostly just turned into another covenant thread. So…
People have been pretty clear on not wanting time gates on covenants.
Yeah, but my assertion is the covenant system itself is a product of the feedback we gave on what we want. It takes time for them to create what we want. The feedback from one party has been very clear I agree. And because of that, with time we will see a change. Yet these changes take way more time then people believe they do. It will likely be a full patch into launch before anything is done because it takes that long. This is more true on systems that are a huge part of the expansion.
Maybe thats part of the problem. People are tired of waiting until the third patch of an expansion to have a playable game.
They said they already have the plan ready to remove the timing on covenants. So do it.
1 Like
Having a plan doesn’t mean they have the code ready for that plan. It is likely a substantial undertaking to put it into place. They would have to create a new system for those powers which will take a couple different teams to create. Realistically If it’s not already coded there really is no way for them to have that done prior to the launch date. Unless they push it back.
Scratch that, reread what you said. It’d still take time though because they would have to work with a new set of numbers and have to code it so switching easily isn’t super abusable via the weekly quests ect.
The problem is why should we spend the time and effort to provide expansive feedback when we don’t really know what they look at, when they look at it, or how much they actually care?
If they’re going to blame our bad feedback for their bad systems, they should point out what led them to the poor design choices. I don’t mean “well, we heard players wanted X”; I mean “In this post here, Karat said this, in this other one Dexterworgen said that so we though this would address those posts”. Good feedback goes both ways.
If they’re going to expect our feedback to fix flawed systems, they should let us know what they’re planning before it’s too late to fix it. Going “we hear you but it’s too late to fix it so suck it up” isn’t a good answer.
2 Likes
They had to add the timer. The creation of the covenant system doesn’t just have a timer appear out of nowhere.
Maybe people are tired of Blizzard not having the intuition to get this right the first time around. Maybe people have lost faith in the fact that Blizzard has any clue as to what their player base really wants. Maybe they feel like Blizzard used to make good games and now what we are left with 15 years into this thing is a complete mess.
1 Like
The benefit of the doubt is thrown out the window when they refuse to make the changes bc they think they know better, and then Ion comes out 3 years later and talks trash about the mistakes they made and what horrible decisions they were. I dont believe for a second that Blizzard is unaware of how we feel about the crap they are putting out these days. They have their reasons for doing what they do, unknown to me, but player feedback isn’t one of them.
1 Like
Don’t they though? I hear one of the biggest complaints amongst the communtiy is that Blizzard is too often trying to explain their design philosophy instead of trying to change it. But who is to say they are not actually open to changing it. The fact they are telling us what that design philosophy is means they are opening up discussion into it. As you just said they should do if they want good feedback. I imagine they don’t go into details about what exact posts they are listening to feedback from for a good reason. Developers get death threats because of choices a portion of the community doesn’t agree with, I imagine they don’t want their community to deal with that same problem.
They’re not really open to discussion though. The only thing they do is defend it; any concessions they make are vague and empty. Not only that, what they say doesn’t match what they do so we can’t even be sure it is their philosophy.
For example, Ion got a question about Master Loot coming back. He, in his very long winded way, said that personal loot was about giving players agency. If that were true, we wouldn’t have restrictions on being able to trade our loot. It might have good intentions behind it, but player agency isn’t it.
That aside, philosophy is nice and all but I’d prefer they talk about reality. Having a why without a what is worthless. Even if we completely agree with their mindset doesn’t mean we agree with their implementation.
If they want to be helicopter parents about it that’s their prerogative but if they’re not going to give us examples of what good feedback looks like with the context of what the result is it’s their fault most of what they get is trash.
Well In my opinion this is good feedback. At least to the Community.
Then again I’m biased because I wrote it, and I tend to bring it up every single expansion. The reasons I find it to be good feedback other then my own bias is because of this.
- It clearly states the problem (Players who think people solo players should quit)
- It educates people on the perceived problem.
- Maintains a neutral tone.
- provides a solution, in this case Stop asking players to leave because they are solo players.
Not sure if that is what Blizzard wants from feedback but it’s the way I always try to construct any feedback I’m serious about.