One of the things that has been happening much better in recent months is that there has seemingly been an openness and willingness for Blizzard to have more transparency, to have more open dialogue with their player base.
I’m not talking about just in Alpha or in PTR testing, although their response to feedback in that regard does seem to be amped up and some changes have been made due to feedback from us, so some of that has been good to see.
However, there’s been a number of instances as of late where it seems like a lot of that transparency, that open dialogue, explanations or reasoning behind decisions has been completely absent despite many people disagreeing on many different fronts and levels.
That’s not to say that every single topic, every single issue has to receive a response from a Developer or CS, but whenever something major happens that impacts a swathe of your player base, many threads are made, many posts are made, including on the Community Council section, there maybe there might be some logical and legitimate reasons behind our concerns.
One of those major topics has to deal with the Slime Cat mount. Yes, I know, this has been a major talking point for a few weeks now, but that’s PRECISELY my point exactly.
It was thought by those at Wowhead since April that the Slimecat would be attainable on any raid difficulty due to the string text mentioned on the Achievements listed for it. This didn’t just stay in the PTR, this also made it to the live server achievements as well. Granted, it is unknown whether or not Blizzard intended for LFR to have a Fated Raid option back in April and that is part of the reasoning behind the wording, but it’s a non-point as far as I can view it.
Not long before season 4 was set to start, a blue post from Kaivax stated that No, it would not be possible to attain the Slime Cat from LFR, only in Normal and higher difficulties. There was no rhyme or reason given, just a flat out no.
Then just days before season 4, there was a stealth change made to the text in the achievements that changed it from any difficulty to mention Normal or higher difficulty only.
You do realize that there are legitimately people that re-subscribed just for the chance to participate in this event just to get the mount, right? What I mean by this is that many people were under the impression for over three months that the Slime Cat would be attainable on LFR. You didn’t need to be a forum dweller like me to have access to this information, tons of people go to Wowhead and other WoW information portals.
Changing the text without any explanation, any conversation, or mention from the Developers, from any Blizzard staff is absolutely wrong on every level imaginable.
Not because I’m entitled, whiny and only want to do the, “easiest” content in the game. No, because it was thought for over three months that this mount would be able to be gotten in LFR or higher difficulty. Some people re-subscribed with this because they only do LFR.
Whether it’s due to lack of time to commit to a raid group, anxiety issues due to performances pressures that may endure, not happy with their own skill levels and are happy to play on a lesser difficulty because of less pressure from people or for my own personal reasons, accessibility issues.
I have Psoriatic Arthritis, there is no cure, I will have this the rest of my life. I didn’t ask for it, but I do make the best out of it. I do still enjoy my life and do the things I love most, I just grin and bear it more often than not. However, this is not the case when it comes to raiding. I cannot keep up the DPS levels that someone from Normal or higher may require, I simply can’t. I can keep up well enough to pull my weight in LFR, because it is a much more relaxed pace, less pressure, less anxiety induced. Sure, it has bad stigma for people wanting to, “AFK for free loot, die intentionally and watch Netflix”, but that’s not been my experiences 85% of the time.
If you do not want to put the Slime Cat in LFR and was never your intentions, that’s fine, tell us that in words, not with deafening silence. It’s an insult to people that pay to keep the servers up. Some people don’t care and won’t make a big fuss about it like I am, but I’m strongly opinionated and am not going to be scared to voice something when I feel wronged and I do in this situation.
I’ve heard Ion talk about having more open dialogue, offering changes on feedback when it makes sense, being more transparent, but in this particular situation, Blizzard dropped the ball and they dropped it massively hard.
It’s not just this topic and issue, there’s other things I’d like to sink my teeth into, but this isn’t a thread to harp on many different topics and look for many different answers to issues. Even if I don’t receive an answer on the Slime Cat debacle (lets face it, that’s what it is), at least I know in good conscience I made this thread and allowed my voice to be heard. I let Blizzard know that it’s not okay to stay silent when so many people are impacted by some of your decisions.
There’s been a lot of mention of hiring more developers to work on Dragonflight when you acquired a company not too long ago, that’s great. How about you spread some of thise developers or some more community speakers to be able to provide dialogue to your player base whether it be on the General forum or elsewhere.
You can rewind time 4-5 years ago and you could see, “blues” responding to posts in General Discussion all the time. i remember guys like Bashiok, the dancing Treant, MANY others like him that would take the time to have conversations about our concerns, feedback and what not. There needs to be more of that.
There needs to be more conversations with us, more transparency, more feedback, more solutions when problems arise.
At times it’s felt like there’s been some of that in the Community Council section, but recently? No, I’ve seen more tumbleweeds than conversations from anyone from Blizzard in this section.
There will be many that disagree with what I have to say, but I can assure you, there will be a plethora that will also back me up and agree with how I have been seeing things unfold as of late. It’s not a conspiracy theory, what I’m discussing in this thread are my thoughts, ideas, opinions, but in many cases, facts are being made as well.
I don’t think I’m entitled, I don’t want free mounts handed to me in LFR at all times, there should still be AOTC mounts in Heroic difficulty, there should still be Mythic Raid mounts, PVP Gladiator mounts, but in Season 4, there should be options for EVERYONE to get this limited edition special mount. You made season 4 to give us something to do until pre-patch for Dragonflight, that’s great, but what about people like me? I’ve already explained what I mean when I said people like me at the beginning of this thread.
I am opinionated, I am not afraid to voice my concerns, I’m not afraid to say what I am thinking, but I always strive to be respectful to individuals, to treat others as equals, we are all only here for a short while, lets make WoW better for ALL of us, not just SOME of us.
. Anything related to the actual difficulty of obtaining the mount it is irrelevant to this discussion about communication, but you devoted 4 paragraphs to it. I’ve seen this in all of the slime chat discussions (which is why I stopped reading them) – LFR players are “ok” with the mount being tied to normal+, as long as it was communicated. But then they still list, in excruciating detail, including specific medical conditions, as to why they cannot obtain the mount in normal+ and it should be granted on LFR difficulty. Pick an argument!