And I think this says everything we need to know about what kind of Dungeon Master you were.
I think that used to be true of the original developers, in that they were making a game that they enjoyed and wanted to play. I donât think itâs true of the current developers at all, though. They donât have any artistic or aesthetic reason for making the decisions that they do, itâs not even a matter of pride in what theyâre putting out. I donât see any enjoyment of the end product coming from the developerâs side, just petulance when their decisions arenât received well.
The goal of the game developers currently is pushing a boulder uphill to try and condition players to expect less of them, because less is cheaper. Less content slower, less ways of engaging with content, less expensive story and art and more participating in procedurally generated grinds.
They are putting tons of time, effort and expense into attempting to make the WoW playerbase into the players they want in the hopes that they can somehow alter human behavior and preferences instead of just putting an equal amount of effort into making the game fun to engage with instead. Maybe eventually all theyâll have left are the hardcore Skinner box addicts and they can find a way to profit off of that somehow, but I donât know if at that point the endeavor could be called âfunâ for anyone, players or developers.
I donât get it either. They loved me. They couldnât wait until the next session.
to many yes men here is what i mean blizzard meeting âguys lets remove portalsâŚgood idea ionâ says the entire wow teamâŚlol.
to many butt kissers.
Yeah, but they would have to be able to recognize what it is that caused the drop in profits first.
Itâs too much work for the modern dev. They lack the skill and patience to do quality work.
Their motto these days is: âgoodânuffâ
The funny thing about your logic is by saying no one speaks for anyone else you have just made a statement that speaks for everyone else.
Bull pucky! Not that there are all that many new players anyway.
Yeah. If any players were truly anti-flight, they wouldnât be so weak willed when itâs available.
They donât have a cohesive vision.
Thatâs the issue. Big corporations tend to lack internal communications. Sure they have BBQs and stuff that look like they do but that tends to just look good on paper. Thereâs a lot of internal politics that prevent that from happening properly.
Google is the best example, a million great things but you literally need 3rd party software to integrate a lot of them together properly because they were designed in their own little vacuums.
Every publically held company is like this and so are many private companies.
They have streamlined this game to expedite development to such a degree that itâs a damned shame.
Then they talk about balance as if it is attainable or should even be discussed as attainable. Now we have incredible homogenization.
Lastly, they aim at every player type that their research quantifies as a player type and hit nobody. They try to make wow all things to all players based off more corporate demographic and player research.
Another epic endorsement for the back of the Battle for Azeroth retail box!
Another example of a retail box endorsement for the new Blizzard. Good grief do these guys realize they have their real life names attached to these products?!?
I agree with all of this. Itâs just not clear to me that this is the path to disaster and vast financial loss for the company.
I think that they will sway back and forth around this âmehâ median over time.
From âless mehâ to âmore mehâ. We may well be in the âmore mehâ phase.
Itâs all about purity of vision. You are spoiled, and they are returning the game to the pristine glory it would have right now if previous devs hadnât taken a wrong turn in BC in an attempt to keep the game financially successful long-term.
Thatâs just it: I donât think they are sweating wow overall as much. Itâs still likely bringing in well over 50 million a month, and thatâs being conservative. The impetus isnât there.
See profit margins are massively important. If you canât grow the product, cut expenses, and alot of the changes from patch 3.0 onward weâre about streamlining development. Lower costs, higher margins.
Absolutely, but total profit is also important. Iâd love to make 150% on my money, but if I can only do it with $10/year, the the value is limited. But if WoW is creating a really nice return, and enough profit to fuel brand new initiatives that have the potential for GREAT return (FORTNITE in Azeroth, here we come!), then, maybe itâs worth it to idle WoW a while to work the new line.
Iâm grateful they hired new people to help with Classic rather than take any more from the WoW team itself.
There needs to be a shake up with the current WoW team as the trajectory is on a downward trend.
Big successful corporations have tons of internal and external communication. Blizzard does not have any externally generated communication, proof is that developers do NOT interact with their customers and somehow they are proud of that and let mere CS reps summarize the forums for them. Totally lazy.
I have never seen a game studio so disconnected from their playerbase. They stopped engaging with class discords when the Golden Yak received the axe. Only line of communication left the devs leave open are youtubers and streamers which I find surprising.
Which is dumb because tubers ride a weird line where criticism is concerned. They canât disconnect from their revenue stream, and they canât always bob Blizzards knob, so to speak.
Even Belular gets a weird apologetic giggle when he criticizes things in BfA
They feel that they can do no wrong. Iâve heard tech is filled with massive egos.