Simple Explanation of Why Pros Are Testing Out OW2 Tomorrow

#1 - Sept. 24, 2021, 8:36 p.m.
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Because who else would do it lol? For the average player to get to test OW2, Blizz would need to apply significant resources to launch a beta. Do you really not understand the difference between a small showcase likely featuring 20 players at most, and a beta open to the public of thousands of players?

It’s a showcase of the game, and who would you choose to publicly showcase your new game: a group of professionals under contract that use your product for a living, or some random players that your company has zero background information on?

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Community Manager
#30 - Sept. 25, 2021, 12:03 a.m.
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Hey folks,

Since we’re talking about feedback, and why we would have OWL pros playing the game, this is an area where I can speak as a CM first, rather than as a proxy for Team 4.

Every designer I’ve worked with has understood that any player feedback (whether Bronze, Grand Master, or professional) is laced with personal biases and assumptions. Game designers are like artists in many ways: both disciplines take in feedback from many diverse sources, and apply that feedback with a central vision guiding their decision making.

A large part of what community managers do is to try to remove the personal biases from player feedback, and then communicate what’s the root cause of player friction to designers. The designers have an understanding of how that feedback fits into the bigger picture, and have analytical tools that they can use to evaluate what’s reported via community sentiment. Most importantly, according to Lead Hero Designer, Geoff Goodman,

Geoff: It’s part of our job to respect the context of the feedback.

Your concerns about player biases are completely understandable. We agree, and it’s something we always account for, even when we’re providing feedback on our internal playtests.

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Community Manager
#36 - Sept. 25, 2021, 12:11 a.m.
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Can confirm.

Geoff: Add stats to that list as well (sic; metrics, analytics, etc…)

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Community Manager
#41 - Sept. 25, 2021, 12:13 a.m.
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In my personal experience, the answer is “it depends”.

I’ll fall back on what I said about having an understanding of the bigger picture. Because live operations are very dynamic in nature, feedback can be weighted differently in different scenarios.

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Community Manager
#54 - Sept. 25, 2021, 12:29 a.m.
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Recall is basically CTRL Z tho