WoW is Having a Turn Around - Back To Quality

I like your thread, Vorps! It's great to see some positive discussion and speculation about where this game is headed. :)

We're definitely very focused on opening the doors a little wider to new ideas to really grasp onto what will make this game as fun as possible. It's 7 years old after all. We're not going to reinvent the wheel in Mists of Pandaria, but we want to introduce new types of compelling content with meaningful reward structures so your progression paths don't feel quite as redundant.

You'll get a captivating story, breathtaking new lands to explore, a wide array of new and awesome good/bad guys (from what I've seen, REALLY awesome), a slew of new dungeons and raids, a new playable race, a new class, many outstanding systems improvements, etc.

We hope these features are more or less to be expected with virtually every expansion. But this time we're also pouring our heart and soul into some really fun new features that'll allow you to progress in slightly less conventional ways.

I get so excited every time I meet with Greg Street, Cory Stockton, Dave Kosak, and Tom Chilton to discuss everything they're working on each week. It's even got me logging into some of the characters I haven't played in a while more often lately, just because I want to be fully prepared to diversify my gameplay and explore different avenues of content on different characters.

I think it's really going to be about playing the game the way you want to play it, without feeling entirely like you're missing out on valuable rewards.

I like your thread, Vorps! It's great to see some positive discussion and speculation about where this game is headed. :)

We're definitely very focused on opening the doors a little wider to new ideas to really grasp onto what will make this game as fun as possible. It's 7 years old after all. We're not going to reinvent the wheel in Mists of Pandaria, but we want to introduce new types of compelling content with meaningful reward structures so your progression paths don't feel quite as redundant.

You'll get a captivating story, breathtaking new lands to explore, a wide array of new and awesome good/bad guys (from what I've seen, REALLY awesome), a slew of new dungeons and raids, a new playable race, a new class, many outstanding systems improvements, etc.

We hope these features are more or less to be expected with virtually every expansion. But this time we're also pouring our heart and soul into some really fun new features that'll allow you to progress in slightly less conventional ways.

I get so excited every time I meet with Greg Street, Cory Stockton, Dave Kosak, and Tom Chilton to discuss everything they're working on each week. It's even got me logging into some of the characters I haven't played in a while more often lately, just because I want to be fully prepared to diversify my gameplay and explore different avenues of content on different characters.

I think it's really going to be about playing the game the way you want to play it, without feeling entirely like you're missing out on valuable rewards.

Instead of chiming in on a thread that does nothing but kiss your collective butts.

Why don't you let us know what you guys intend to do with the ever growing lists of dying servers?

02/02/2012 01:29 PMPosted by Zarhym

also pouring our heart and soul into some really fun new features that'll allow you to progress in slightly less conventional ways

Perhaps the addition of even more reused templates, items, and NPC models?

There's really no reason for this tone or attitude, nor is it acceptable to hijack a thread because you feel what's being discussed isn't as important to you as another topic. Likewise, it's incredibly shortsighted and dismissive of you to accuse anyone who expresses positive sentiments about this game of kissing butt.

I respond when and where I can as I get the opportunity to browse the forums, and if I have relevant information to share. The fact of the matter is there are players out there who are happy with this game, looking forward to future content, and want to talk about it with their peers on the forums. And I'll absolutely encourage constructive conversations like this. You won't break me of habits which promote community relations.

Having said all that, yesterday we discussed low-population and faction-imbalanced realms with our developers. They have some pretty bold and spectacular plans for addressing this in anticipation of implementing some of the features we plan to in Mists. I just don't have a lot of information to share with you at this stage of programming and development.

Now, let's speak to each other like adults (or at least decent human beings), shall we? It's much easier to communicate with you when you're not just trying to make a fuss wherever you might get an employee's attention. :)

02/02/2012 03:38 PMPosted by Jimindar

It's even got me logging into some of the characters I haven't played in a while more often lately, just because I want to be fully prepared to diversify my gameplay and explore different avenues of content on different characters.

Is that like, the e-sport version of insider trading? o.O

I didn't mean that I'm using their info to my advantage. :p

I'm just saying that, based on all the new features we've discussed, I'm more enthusiastic about leveling some of my alts, playing level-85 characters I hadn't in a while, and generally just fitting in more time for WoW!

And Z keeps responding to 'silly' posts.... Never seen a single Blue response to valid concerns about 5.0 talents and the direction of the game.

It's like those of us who carried Metallica through the early-mid 80's and made them popular enough to get on the top 40 Billboard chart album sales without a single video or radio play. Never a thank you, never a "yeah, we've changed, thanks for making us famous, we're making music for max money now."

OR it could be that these "silly" posts are much more easy to professionally respond to as an official PR Agent of Blizzard than many other posts.

How do people expect Blizzard CMs to post in threads where they are not able to give any solid information about anything relating to it? Every time a CM posts in a complaint thread it usually breeds more complaints and/or other people hounding the CM for information that the CM, most likely, either does not have or can not give.

It could also be that the CMs are trying to foster a sense of community by participating in lighthearted threads and trying to spur their playerbase to learn to get along with each other, even for a little while.

In short- Less tinfoil hat, more positivism.

<3

02/02/2012 08:02 PMPosted by Jamalia

It's not really a flame fest. I disagree with your opinion, which is ok. Mop talents for the only class I really play are just lame, imo. They may be fine for you. I really only play rogue, for 3 years. A hundred post on the subject of rogue 5.0 talents I've seen, and we've been ignored, so I'm kinda bent. I'd like to see a future for me in game but it looks grim, and they WON'T respond

The intent of the talent calculator was to give players something to fool around with. We wanted everyone to get a feel for the idea we're going for in Mists so that it wouldn't sound as crazy or shocking when seen on "paper."

We've responded many times about talent calculator feedback, even pointing out we're not going to be able to discuss things point by point with players because the systems are rapidly changing while in development. The calculator itself is quite out of date.

So you're right. I took the time to respond to this thread when I could've responded elsewhere. But what did I say? I basically said things are looking awesome so far and I can't wait to be able to share more information.

Would you feel better if I found a thesis from you about the problems you have with the out-of-date Mists talent calculator for rogues, only to say, "A lot of the details you're discussing aren't fully fleshed out yet, so we'll talk again when we have updated Mists class info to provide"? Even if you think the answer to that is "yes," I wouldn't be surprised if you then came back here in two weeks to tell me how many amazing threads there are out there about the "REAL" issues that are going completely ignored. It's a neverending cycle and I'm not interesting in always looking for the squeakiest wheels to grease on the forums.

The only inevitability in community management I've found is that, whenever we post ANYWHERE on the forums, someone will be sure to tell us where we should be posting, and which part of the community is really being ignored.