First, many of these changes are good. I really don’t want to come across like “Shooting the Messenger” but I have to be honest. I want to be clear I am not singling out Kaivax I’m referring to Blizzard as a whole in this post (as a collective). This is the same “crap” we’ve had before. When I say crap I am referring to the practice of ignoring player feedback and shipping an expansion as is leaving players waiting months for the inevitable changes in the last legs of an expansion; after you’ve lost countless players.
By your (Blizzard’s) own admission, you say conduit energy has not played out the way you hoped. Players tried to tell you as early as alpha and beta that it wasn’t making the game better. What we have here essentially ignoring the feedback of a beta test and shipping it anyway so the paying subscribers can then pay to beta test a game that already had a beta test.
Again this is a load of boloney. Let’s talk about the so called “Weight” of the player choice….
As Belluar states
“When players who play a fantasy RPG, make a choice in covenant? They aren’t looking at the covenant abilities or powers. They are looking at it from the “Fantasy” of their character. The role-players certainly aren’t looking at it from the standpoint of player power.”
Asmongold also pointed out…
“If the implementation of the system you originally had that your suggesting and putting in the game; was in on release? They still would have experienced it from the covenant of their choice because they wouldn’t have had the renown in order to change it. If the change and having the choice is built on having high renown then at the beginning of shadowlands, you wouldn’t have had the choice fundamentally because you wouldn’t have had the high renown. The same thing would have happened.”
It doesn’t even make sense that this is being defended through the context of narrative either as at the beginning of Shadowlands? The covenants were largely friends. The covenants now if anything are more fractured and divided post chains of domination. It’s worth noting that Margrave Krexus was essentially assassinated.
Let us also not forget that a certain developer (not going to name names here) when asked about Covenant energy, told Preach (one of their biggest content creators; that has now left the game) that they couldn’t just “pull the ripcord” because
“it would unravel the entire fabric of the system. Even so, we would embrace the work required to rebuild the covenant system along those lines if we agreed that it would be an improvement, but we ultimately do not share that view.”
So which is it? They say they can’t pull the ripcord unless it were an improvement…yet that’s precisely what players were telling you in Alpha and beta…
That’s to say nothing about the other issues that have yet to be addressed. World quests take far longer and are more tedious and offer a scant 35 anima when a set of bracers costs 3000. The game has been increasingly designed like a mobile game in favor of metrics over player enjoyment. Remember when they removed portals? They said that it was to make the world feel bigger? The end result was the exact opposite. Entire capital cities were made irrelevant as they funneled players through Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Sorry guys? If your a Dwarf or a Tauren? Ironforge and Thunderbluff don’t exist anymore. It was just to make it take longer for you to get to where you wanted to go or do what you wanted to do.
Hell FFXIV allows you to fast travel to any aethercyte you have been too. It’s almost ironic now that Stormwind and Oribos are practically empty on my server. By the way the players complained about this change too. But Blizzard knows best…
Remember Class sets? Chains of Domination has given us covenant sets. Players complained about the lack of Class sets as far back as 2019. If we were lucky we got a set for maybe each armor type. But hey who cares about class fantasy right?
Heck when was the last time we got a brand new battleground. No sorry, warfronts don’t count.
When was the last time that professions have truly felt relevant? Looking at something like FFXIV? Many of the ARR mats are still relevant because they are utilized for various things and still bring decent prices on the market board. This extends to other content in WoW which has a feeling of obsolescence. Old content is often left by the way side. Take FFXIV again where old dungeons, etc sync your level and abilities. You have the option of soloing them or doing them at level with min ilvl and no echo.
Blizzard hasn’t been living up to their core 8 values quite a bit lately…
Gameplay first
Everything we do at Blizzard Entertainment is based on the success of the gaming experiences we provide our players. The goal of each discipline within the company – be it art, programming or customer support – is to make our games as fun as possible for as many people as we can reach.
Right…so if one of their values is to make the game as fun as possible? Why then not listen to feedback in a beta that literally tells them the system they are creating isn’t FUN?
Commit to Quality
“Blizzard polish” doesn’t just refer to our gameplay experiences, but to every aspect of our jobs. We approach each task carefully and seriously. We seek honest feedback and use it to improve the quality of our work. At the end of the day, most players won’t remember whether the game was late – only whether it was great.
So where was using the feedback from the alpha/beta to improve shadowlands? It’s not like they didn’t receive it. By their own admission they are removing Covenant Energy because it didn’t make the game better in any appreciable way. If only there was something that could have told them about this before they stuck with said system…
If they are so committed to quality? Why did Warcraft III reforged release in the state it was in? I wonder how many people will remember Reforged? Probably not any more than Blizzard will considering that game hasn’t seen an update in months and likely won’t now that the classic team was dismantled. I wonder how players will remember Shadowlands?
Every Voice Matters
Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas.
Sure great ideas can come from anywhere…if a company is willing to listen. But judging from their latest PR nightmare? That isn’t the case. Every voice matters unless you are a player named Blitzchung, or a player/beta tester/content creator providing feedback, or an employee trying to speak up about being mistreated.
At the end of the day, this isn’t a win. Yes, these changes are good, yet why has it taken this long to get them when testers and players have been asking for such since alpha/beta. This won’t be a win unless Blizzard does better at listening to and acting on feedback for the alpha and betas of future expansions/content going forward. Otherwise, it will just be business as usual.