Why does the developer team make the choices that they make?

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 don’t think it’s true of the current developers at all, though. They don’t have any artistic or aesthetic reason for making the decisions that they do, it’s not even a matter of pride in what they’re putting out. I don’t see any enjoyment of the end product coming from the developer’s side, just petulance when their decisions aren’t 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 they’ll have left are the hardcore Skinner box addicts and they can find a way to profit off of that somehow, but I don’t know if at that point the endeavor could be called “fun” for anyone, players or developers.

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I don’t get it either. They loved me. They couldn’t wait until the next session.

to many yes men here is what i mean blizzard meeting “guys lets remove portals…good idea ion” says the entire wow team…lol.

to many butt kissers.

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Yeah, but they would have to be able to recognize what it is that caused the drop in profits first.

It’s too much work for the modern dev. They lack the skill and patience to do quality work.

Their motto these days is: ‘good’nuff’

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 wouldn’t be so weak willed when it’s available.

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They don’t have a cohesive vision.

That’s 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. There’s 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 it’s 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.

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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?!?

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I agree with all of this. It’s 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 “meh” median over time.

From “less meh” to “more meh”. We may well be in the “more meh” phase.

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It’s 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 hadn’t taken a wrong turn in BC in an attempt to keep the game financially successful long-term.

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That’s just it: I don’t think they are sweating wow overall as much. It’s still likely bringing in well over 50 million a month, and that’s being conservative. The impetus isn’t there.

See profit margins are massively important. If you can’t grow the product, cut expenses, and alot of the changes from patch 3.0 onward we’re about streamlining development. Lower costs, higher margins.

Absolutely, but total profit is also important. I’d 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 it’s worth it to idle WoW a while to work the new line.

I’m 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.

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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.

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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.

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Which is dumb because tubers ride a weird line where criticism is concerned. They can’t disconnect from their revenue stream, and they can’t 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. I’ve heard tech is filled with massive egos.