What would it take to restore your confidence in Blizzard?

Wyrmrest Accord
1

We all here talk smack about Blizzard’s lackluster expansions and the current dismal state of the game, but what in your eyes could Blizzard implement to warrant regaining your confidence and possible subscription?

For me here are a few things they could start implementing with the next expansion that would get me back on board:

Restore a sense of server community: Sharding and server merges because they don’t want to show how severely their subscription numbers have declined has almost completely destroyed any sense of server community. For instance in PVP I don’t want to play against someone that I’m probably never going to see again in some random WPVP skirmish or in a battleground I want to have a rival with the opposite faction on my server. Heck, most of my lasting friendships on this server are with people I used to be killed by constantly and had a sort of healthy rivalry with. I want that sense of server community back.

Customization customization customization More hairstyles, tattoos, sliders etc to make our characters our own. They promised more were coming but of course will not deliver this expansion.

Housing/Guild Housing System As old as this game is, the fact they have never implemented this fully with how skilled their art department is…is well a damn shame. They could totally cash in on this system and keep people subbed because people love collecting, decorating, and building. They half-assed it with Garrisons and apparently that is as close as we are going to ever get…half-assed.

Pay their devs better Every few months they lay people off while Bobby Kotick and the higher ups take in big bonuses meanwhile most of old Blizzard has jumped ship long ago.

No more expansion gimmicks: I’m so tired of collecting [EXPANSION GIMMICK JUICE] to empower my [EXPANSION GIMMICK SWORD/NECKLACE/FANNYPACK] to stop [WORLD THREATENING CATASTOPHE]. Legion weapons were fun for a while but it grew old even then. Stop it. Just. Stop.

Less dire threats more grounded How many apocalypses has it been in a row we have twarted? Take us back down to earth…er Azeroth. I’m tired of being the savior of the universe already.

More classes or class skins Bard, Necromancer, Spell-Warden…hell make something up and preferably a new cloth or mail class.

Playable Ogres and High Elves Just do it already. Break the emergency glass and at least unleash the Ogres.

Re-redo the old World Cataclysm was released 11 years ago. Time to let the art department go hog wild and remake Azeroth again. Give the Nightelves, Worgen, and Forsaken new homes so they don’t have to be hobos in Stormwind and Orgrimmar any longer.

New pvp zone I don’t care if it is Wintergrasp 2.0. I loved Wintergrasp. Just not Ashran please. Alterac Valley style with different objectives and goals would be superb.

More LGBT representation It matters.

Just a few tidbits that have been swirling around in my head for a long time. They could really make this game spectacular and fun again, but they seem to be keen on the status quo and raking in all they can from the last few vestiges of diehards left and pooping out a shiny new mount every few months for some quick cash.

I’m Chonga and this has been my TEDTalk on how Actiblizzard is lazy and refuses to make this game any better.

28 Likes
2

I don’t think anything could really restore my confidence in Blizzard. We have a generational shift now of people who grew up thinking they knew how to make a better game now being put to the test and found lacking, or people who are so shackled by corporate mandates and greed that nothing good could come from what they turn out anymore.

A good start? Kicking Bobby Kotick to the streets would be a nice start. Finding a means (impossible) of divorcing themselves from Activision and their shareholders. Rehiring the laid off staff and creating a better system of communication between the departments, devs, and the playerbase. And stop rushing out expansions just for the sake of cycling your budget every 2 years.

But these are all impossibilities. We will never see any of this happen. If it does, I’ll be happy to eat my words, but there’s a better chance of seeing covid magically vanish tomorrow morning than there is of seeing even one of these things come to pass.

Yeah, I’m jaded. Very much so.

15 Likes
3

WarCraft 4.

Look, I’m back for a month. I still play WoW. But WoW is an ancient game in which I can get a month of entertainment out of it just the existing content without ever wanting to do the current content.

But if Blizzard wants me to potentially open my wallet again, I want a return to form. And that means no heated-leftovers that was WarCraft 3: Reforged. I want a full multi-year release ala StarCraft 2 (Though an expansion per year instead of waiting multiple years between segments). I want a full RTS experience.

Give me that, not the Microtransaction Hellscape that Diablo has become or the ESports designed Wastelands of Overwatch and StarCraft 2…and we’ll talk.

3 Likes
4

I’m gonna do strictly game stuff since there’s a whole closet full of skeletons with their general business practices and implementations.

  1. Guild Halls
  2. Lessened or outright removed race/class restrictions.
  3. Dissolved factions or at the very least, option to select.
  4. Old world redo or a full sequel.
  5. Major story/motivation/narrative turns taking place in-game rather than novel bridges.
13 Likes
5

Make anduin kiss a man

15 Likes
6

Complete separation from Activision - nothing less

7 Likes
7

I will preface this by saying I never have and never will subscribe to the game, even when I loved it much more than I do now.

Dev salary isn’t the issue for me. All of their layoffs were, from a corporate standpoint, totally standard. CEOs get huge bonuses. The two things aren’t as connected as people think. Also, if you’re part of an e-sports team and no live events have happened for 14 months, the writing is on the wall. There’s no way people weren’t aware of incoming layoffs.

I’ve worked at places where a restructure/reorg meeting is coming and people leave right then. Hell, I’ve been one of those people.

They need new leads, both in dev and narrative. I will never have faith in the decisions or attitude of Ion and his peers. They will probably never hire a good story team due to industry standards and how cheap companies are, which is why most game stories are terrible… but I’d rather not be in a constant state of cringe from the story, so new leaders there would be better than nothing.

6 Likes
8

If there’s one thing that would demonstrate them learning from their mistakes, it would be the dance studio.

5 Likes
9

For me, it is less about restoring confidence and more along the lines of making amends for wrongs the WoW playerbase has endured (misleading advertisements, erosion of trust/goodwill all the WoW communities previously had, etc.). As a few comments here have mentioned, it will take many steps of improvement for any semblance of progress on those fronts. For some, I suspect genuine retrospection, regret, and actual plans to do better (not just shallow words to such effects) would represent small steps toward the right direction. Others will surely require more substantive commitments of making amends over a more long-term basis. And some among the playerbase will neither be receptive to nor satisfied by any “restoring confidence” endeavors, an outcome that must be respected and should be viewed as a sign of the harm short-sighted policies have done.

Nonetheless, my personal thoughts on this issue are that as RPers, storytellers with utmost creative potential, we should follow in the footsteps of the original creators of this game when they left one game to make something else. While few if anyone at all here could do exactly what they did, the principle is as applicable now as it was back then: use your talents to create something novel and worthwhile, whether big, small, for others or simply for yourself. RP teaches one much in creative expression. Rather than jaded-ness or cynicism, treasure the good times you had. Let go of WoW, maybe for a while or forever, whichever is the most fitting. Use all the experience and knowledge acquired in one’s time here to create something truly distinctive and wondrous.

9 Likes
10

I pretty much agree with all your points Chonga, but I’ll comment on the ones I feel are most lacking.

This would be a big one. I feel like sometimes they actively make it hard to be an RP server.

Yeah allied races in particular need a bit of a boost here.

During my personal WoW-qutting time I’ve been playing some ESO. And while I genuinely believe there’s some things in WoW that are better, one thing that REALLY stands out to me is that nothing is irrelevant. When new systems are added, their relevance continues into the future.

I’m exhausted of the gimmicks. I’d prefer they pick one and stick to it, maybe alter or add to it each expansion, but not reinvent the wheel. It’s SO tiring.

This one is probably the biggest for me. I fell in love with the Warcraft universe in Warcraft 3 - where you really got a feel for the peoples and cultures of Azeroth. Early WoW only expanded on this, with the factions being genuinely cool, but the individual races WITHIN that faction being fleshed out - leading us all to adopt the favourites we love to RP today. There was variety, fascinating cultural elements, and amazing backstories that made each of the races vibrant and unique.

But somewhere along the line this was replaced with the big hero narrative.

I hate Shadowlands. More than WoD. And I’ve asked myself why. After all there’s lots to do in Shadowlands. WoD’s lack of content was embarrassing. Upon reflecting on it though, I’ve realised that a big part of it is… detachment.

As someone who loves the races of Azeroth, and who loves to RP, I can’t help but feel sidelined by the current narrative. The Big Hero Maw-Walker is the centre of a story that loosely involved a few big celebrity faction leaders, who then sit in Torghast and do nothing. As an RPer I cannot engage with the current content at all, really, because my character cannot even hope to aspire to such heights. But furthermore, the stuff I CARE about, the stuff that got me into the game… is totally irrelevant to the narrative. We’re a big faceless hero with no choices, no agency, who leaves our very world behind to go and save the day. The power-climb has gotten so big that it’s beyond the scope of Azeroth, and I’m just… eh… on that.

I miss the Cata/MoP kind of quests, honestly. And hell, even WoD and Legion - maybe even BFA. You travelled around, you met the people who lived there, usually people we’re at least somewhat aware of already, and learned their history, their culture, their problems, their strengths… everything. I want that again. I’m not feeling it in Shadowlands - which to me feels more character-driven than setting-driven… and you really need both. A few gimmicky appearances of dead lore characters doesn’t salvage it for me. It removes the sense of adventure.

7 Likes
11

I’m exhausted of the gimmicks. I’d prefer they pick one and stick to it, maybe alter or add to it each expansion, but not reinvent the wheel. It’s SO tiring.

This is part of why for me, a new dev team (at least the top positions) is needed. New design philosophy, even if it returns to the old ways… because this ‘rented abilities’ stuff is very much the go for this team and the leads.

The old way is, we get new abilities and talent tree/spellbook shakeups. Abilities get nerfed, changed, removed.

In an MMO, class balance isn’t the goal; making it as predictable as chess is not the goal. Keeping it exciting is the goal. Buff/Nerf cycles are planned out in advance. Designers know when something will be OP. They knew DKs were OP going into WotLK, for example.

There’s finesse to this design process, and the changes from expac to expac will change some of the rotations. Some people will disappointed.

But now, everyone is disappointed. Losing all the artifact traits in Legion was terrible. Especially as a sub rogue who they let be immune to fall damage lol.

Right now on my shaman, primordial wave is integral to my rotation. I already have the sinking feeling of 'what the hell am I going to do when I lose this? will these specs be at all fun? why am I wasting muscle memory on this when it has such a low lifespan?".

It’s really bad design. The alternative is a lot of work, especially in a game this old (level squishes mitigate this to a degree, and one could argue that the squish to 60 negated the need for rented abilities in SL, period), but it’s work you should love if you take the job IMO.

5 Likes
12

Nothing less than getting rid of that ghoul Bobby Kotick and his loyal cabal of middle managers. Oh, and Ion.

12 Likes
13

ohboy.gif

I’ve often thought about this and while I could name 10,000 things that I personally want - it’s not about me. It’s about the community as a whole, of which I am just small part. (no gnome pun intended)

1 - Start reengaging with the community and don’t stop
This starts at the top and works down. Every level of this company needs to start engaging with the player base. They have isolated themselves far more than any business has a right to. Remember when you could talk to GM’s in game? I remember submitting tickets and having someone respond who actually cared. The ticket system represents everything about their engagement at this point - it’s convoluted, difficult to navigate and designed to send the customer elsewhere for answers or just shut them down.

You should WANT to help your customers. It doesn’t appear that is what they actually want. If you don’t actually want to help your customers, Six Sigma can’t help you.

2 - HEAR what the community is saying, not just segmented portions of it.

Your player base encompasses everything from e-sports, Guilds that Race for 1st, Mythic Drivers, PvPers, Roleplayers, AH folks, Crafters, etc etc.

It’s not just one of those. Stop with the tunnel vision and make a game that takes everyone into account. You will never make everyone happy, but if you touch base with everyone they will feel HEARD and SEEN. People often just want to know that someone is listening to them. That will go very far in getting players off the ledge.

3 - STOP with the dismissal of player concerns and condescension towards players.

If you don’t respect your player base, they won’t respect you or your game. I’m not sure why I even have to say this. Some Blizzard staff are absolutely horrible mouthpieces for this company and never present themselves or their ideas in a positive light and it never appears to change, which leaves players to think that it’s Blizzard-approved condescension. You have incredibly negative staff representing your company. KNOCK IT OFF.

4 - Suggestion Forum on THIS website.

People want to know you’re listening. They want to see you engaging with them. Create a forum specifically for this. That doesn’t mean you have to implement any of the suggestions, but it would show that you respect the ideas of people who have spent thousands of dollars on your products and hey, people who have been playing your games for 20+ years might actually have some good ideas.

5 - “Blizzard hates fun” has been a long-running joke, but frankly it’s not funny anymore. You seem to hate fun. Start by making things fun. Example - holiday events. That should be easy enough for you. They should not be once-a-year stress-fests that require players to complete a course in time-management. It should be a BREAK from the rest of the game.

6 - When you make business decisions, such as laying people off, you know darn well it sets off your player base. If you ENGAGE with your player base when you make these decisions, you will hear less of an outcry. I suspect you’re making solid business decisions to lay people off, but when you stay quiet and don’t explain them, it just angers everyone.

7 - Transparency at all times.

18 Likes
14

nothing

do I get a cookie

1 Like
15

I agree with most of your points, but I have a few to add:

Rescue from the lore hole. We have so much lore about orcs and humans and depending on who’s turn it is for the spotlight. I want to see each race get some definitive background/foreground lore. It doesn’t necessarily need to be in game, but maybe a short story or two addressing how each race handles its day to day business would be swell. I know how Blizz can be when it comes to lore but maybe hiring some writers/fans/that fact checker dude to go through and set in stone a lore for the game could help. No I’m not bitter about one of my favorite races not having been relevant since MoP why do you ask?

Class expansions. Its time we said farewell to race and class restrictions. While I’m not advocating for gnome DH’s, I do think its been long enough where night elves should be paladins, Forsaken and blood elves should get druid options, and so on. Opening classes up in Cataclysm was a welcome change.

More cosmetics. We see a quiver coming in the next raid, but other than that, we got Thas’dorah mogs. I want to see some more options like the old WoD belts. Knives, books, fancy pouches…c’mon Blizz. Let’s see some of that goodness return.

Balancing. Look I get it. A 17 year old game with a lot of race and class options, and so many extras is going to be hard to get right. Rather than go back and delete everything and start afresh, actually get people who play the game and care about the playable options to figure out what’s going on. Some specs haven’t been touched at all, some need to be touched. Despite constant outcry, there’s a lot going ignored that shouldn’t be.

Finally, but not least…

Ranged Survival. Look man, if you enjoy melee Survival, more power to you. I enjoy it as a gimmick but I would never play it seriously unless it was the absolute BiS (which it will probably never be). I’m not asking for its removal, but to re-add ranged Survival as a 4th spec. Let me play my DoT based ranged physical DPS. Don’t make the only choice for that be either a pet based spec or a highly immobile “sniper” spec.

I’m at work so excuse any mistakes/issues.

3 Likes
16

It’s safe in the lore hole, though.

100% this. I’ve been Marksman spec since the change over, but prior to the revival, I was always Survival Spec.

3 Likes
17

As a marksman gamer, I am convinced that we must go back to Legion when I could fly around snap shotting aimed shots without cast time like I was popping off with Elune’s own glock.

3 Likes
18

Unacceptable, intend your puns you coward!

3 Likes
19

Most people already said what I would have said but better.

I think another is being more open about their development cycles and set backs. I think the community would be more understanding* if these details were shared more outright. I know I’ve complained about the next upcoming patch not being totally exciting but I wouldn’t be surprised if the lack of content is related to COVID struggles. I thought them talking about that during Blizzcon was actually pretty nice and sharing having to suddenly work from home and having to readjust to it all.

*I get that the community is also gamers that will on one hand scream about better working conditions for devs but also lose their minds when something gets delayed. “How dare they not work unrealistic crunch hours so that I can have a few hours of entertainment!!”

Otherwise gameplay changes for me would be this less focus on everything needing to be about end game content. My friend that tried to get back into WoW said they didn’t like how the game nowadays felt like your whole goal was to level as fast as you can so you could finally play the game at max level.

Even now, I’m at this point in Shadowlands with my characters that all there’s left to do is dungeons and M+ and BGs and arenas and etc and none of that is appealing to me. Even thow I have a guild of friendly people that would be totally fun to play with, pushing my ilevel up isn’t a big motivator or interest to me.

So more content that 1. doesn’t need to be done at max level and 2. isn’t all related to gear progression.

I’d love there to be more superficial fun cosmetic quests and things you could do outside of just trying to get better gear. Remember Warlocks greenfire? Imagine other classes all having additional content like that for them to do. There’s so much potential here that I could list off a ton of ideas for it.

Professions could offer so much more to the game. Garrisons weren’t great but it’s a start to giving us player and guild housing. Add craftable furniture and cosmetics for your goofy house into professions. Add craftable cosmetics and toys and mounts and pets through professions that don’t require you to collect a bunch of stupid BoP eyes from a raid.

I could keep going on and on with ideas but I think ultimately this focus on your only goal at end game is to increase your gear progression and the few cosmetics offered are locked behind a tedious currency grind.

3 Likes
20

Opening your thread with “we” is a terrible start to a discussion.
Edit: Dang it, I should always check to see if the profile is hidden or not.