I am not convinced that WoW’s issues are necessarily the fault of the development team’s overall design methodology. I think from a strictly technical standpoint there is still a lot of talent out there working on the game.
I think the issue is more that the developers, that is, the folks actively working on game code and design, are required to adhere to the mandates and policies laid down by management. They also have to work within budgetary and staffing constraints, again, imposed by management. You can have the best and greatest ideas in the world but if you aren’t given the proper resources to design, test, and implement them, or to make needed changes in a timely manner, there’s only so much they can do.
And if they are instructed to spend their time designing new cash shop items, even though they’d rather be working on issues important to the players… they are required to follow instructions.
I really think that the vast majority of the problems with WoW have a lot more to do with Bobby than they do with Ion or Michael. Not saying those guys are perfect by any stretch but let’s give blame where blame is due.
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That there is a complicated subject as it relies on so many avenues and a philosophy they really don’t know themselves.
First they started off we are for the consumer then half ways through the game history that turn into profit above all else.so philosophy isn’t the issue they can change it at a whim.
Design diagram was pyramid but over the years that design turn into watching a sport challenge diagram .The game is no longer a model used for business but for sports bring all in the game to one conclusion ,the end game.
Chaos Crunch.
(Yes, sounds like a breakfast cereal for demons)
You could use that as an example there since most businesses are adopting the Lean program in their business to mitigate resources in all fields including hiring and firing employees . Yeah, that is one bad cereal to eat.
i think blizz subscribes to the: "if you build it, they will come" design.
I think parasitic design is the favored method as of late. Tacking on systems adjacent to core game play is easier, and they get to iterate every 2 years.
I’m sure the method of development used for building WoW is rock solid. Despite the game’s massive complexity, the fact that they are consistently rolling out vast amounts of content means it’s working.
That is it,it worked for what the company wanted but with Lean they used it for the bottom line as profit above what the program was design for the costumer.
Agreed. My company switched to agile a couple years back and to be honest, I think we probably were more productive with waterfall. Right now it’s a kind of hybrid where officially we’re agile but everyone including POs and managers still has a waterfall mentality…meaning all the drawbacks of both. My company sucks at IS btw
Lot of places say they are agile when, in reality, they aren’t or are only loosely. It also largely does not matter what “path” Blizzard follows for a nuts and bolts development…the problem isn’t the quality of the code but rather the quality of the ideas.
Stop assuming (speaking generally) that nuts and bolts devs are these stupid monkeys who have no original thoughts or ideas…they absolutely do but absolutely have no freedom to just freely implement their ideas. The problem 100% comes from leadership at Blizzard and Activision who are demanding the game be twisted and transformed into an entity many of us loyal customers have grown to resent and detest.
Asking what development method Blizzard is using is about as pointless in that context as contemplating whether they use camel case or underscores in their programming or not.
I have no idea what direction they take when designing the game…however, over the years I’ve started to think that the basic question of “Is it fun for the player?” hasn’t been respected at all and that part of the design process doesn’t happen until AFTER the players have complained about said thing. I believe that lot of issues could have been solved/avoided if this was asked first. I mean, devs are players and should think about what would be fun to do first. Instead, there seem to be ground rules about how the game is designed and those are followed even if the players find said ideas to not be fun.
I tend to think about it the same way mobile/gacha games work, where the key point isn’t whether the player is really having fun, but to catch player with psychological hooks that aren’t designed to be “fun” in the normal sense. That kind of design just doesn’t seem genuine, but I suppose the point is to make money…not to create genuine “fun”.
-EDarkness
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Truthfully it seems like the only plan they have at the moment is to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
Hard code everything in COBOL → port to GoLang → bit shift all hard-coded values three places to the left → port back to COBOL → bit shift to the right → port to Java → port to Ruby → add an octal “magic” number to all the values → port to C# → ship it.
A thought just occurred about your take on the waterfall model. You mention that it “doesn’t allow changes later along the way”. I worked on the software systems for the LHD (Navy) which was most definitely a large project. The methodology was waterfall and there were plenty of engineering changes (EC’s) that we had to implement as we developed and tested our software modules because somone was making changes to the design and/or requirements. There are feedback as well as feedforward loops in the waterfall model. EC’s were one of the latter. TR’s (trouble reports) from the testers, other developers and even the customer were one of the former.
I don’t think most devs play. And the ones who do are not typical players. Ion is a lifetime raid logger. Mike is an elite who does mythic raiding and high keys. Who else do you know of who plays seriously? Just because they get a wow account as a perk doesn’t mean they actually play.
This has not been the case lately, due to a variety of management issues. The amount of content released this expansion is low.
Absolutely.
Bobby is responsible, but he is also responsible for who gets hired for top positions. He’s going to want people who agree with him on development philosophy. He doesn’t want people who would want to challenge him on the value of creative ideas and fun.
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All the art, dialog, cutscenes, worlds, gear, gameplay features, etc. that was released for this expansion is pretty big in general, not really comparing to previous expansions. Compared to another AAA billion dollar game, like Fortnite, I feel like we get quite a lot more content.
I imagine a combination of a chuck a luck wheel with variable possible outcomes in combination with a set of D’nD dice and someone throwing a sticky mass of “stuff” up against the wall to see if it sticks. Maybe a dartboard for good measure.
I meant more that they play games in general. Therefore, should understand the needs of players as they are a player themselves. Unless they don’t play games at all, which I guess would be possible as well. I would hope that they understand players, but based on how things are going these days…I wonder about that.
-EDarkness