Ghostcrawler like Figure

Q u o t e:
GC is a Developer he doesn't get paid to read the forums, Its something he does in his spare time, He chose the US because that is where he is based.

That's about it.

We've responded to this many times. I think most feel that it would be great if our designers did post and interact with fans in China, Taiwan, Russia, Germany and here. Actually designers have posted to the EU English forums before -- I think mostly because it's easier for them than typing in Chinese -- but this has already meant that fans in other language regions have felt left out.

Typically it is mostly the Community Team who has the job of posting to the forums. Our developers only post if they want to, and where and when they choose to. We usually try to post here the same information that is posted by developers elsewhere, which is equivalent to the translated versions of their posts that we do for other language regions. With Ghostcrawler's amazing ability to create a whole lot of informative text in a fantastically short time, that isn't always quite so easy... ;-)

And yes I know some have strong opinions about this, and they may cringe when I say it again, but we do pass on questions and feedback to the developers and this does directly lead to changes in the game. For those who survived that sentence without groaning, please continue your excellent feedback posts and constructive discussions -- we see them and appreciate them.

Q u o t e:
As far as I can tell he is the official spokesman for the dev team.

No, he's just pretty much the only developer posting right now, and there have been other actively posting developers in the past. It's good you do mention team though, because when it is only one person in a team posting it can somewhat hide the fact that there's actually a whole team there doing the stuff he's writing about.

Q u o t e:
Shouldn't you have locked or closed this thread as having a name in the title of a Blizz rep, CM ect. is not allowed and it also draws attention to the thread just like Caps.

I was tempted to lock, or post a reply then lock because of the reason you state. But even just a blue reply can highlight a thread way more than a developer name does, and a locked thread doesn't help prevent the same kind of thread appearing anew the next day, as a locked thread quickly scrolls off the first page. So for now the topic remains open.

Q u o t e:
I know GC is based in the US and prefers to post on the US forums (and I think it is good that he does, I haven't seen such developer feedback in a game before) but it does kind of seem that the EU does get pushed to the side sometimes.

But this would be casually ignoring all the millions of non-English speaking WoW fans who visit our official forums throughout the world. This is not an English language topic, it's a development-team-based-in-the-US topic. And to help alleviate this, as I said, we try to post the same information here and in our other language forums. If anything, this being an English speaking forum can make it trickier as when we do get to post, it is not translated so is often exactly the same text (though we do try to re-word posts)... which usually spawns copy paste complaints as though making global announcements was a bad thing. It's just one global announcement from one company, it doesn't matter which exact place on the planet the text came from. ;-)

Q u o t e:
I think the biggest and most recent example is the Totems, totems, totems topic GC initiated on the US forums. It required a player to begin a topic on the EU forums, and was only finally blue tagged on about the 3rd or 4th page. It would have been nice if GC decided to also make a copy of that post on these forums too.

And on the Russian forums and all the others too, right? He'd be a busy chap indeed. Instead, we have a team to post it on all these forums -- the Community team. And if you "beat us to it" because we're unable to post at weekends or while we sleep, then again, why is it a bad thing as long as the information flows freely.

Q u o t e:
that and I don't like to get left out, makes me feel lonely :<

And this is very understandable. Despite rumours and the odd crocolisk, we're quite human here and we do empathise. Some suggestions people have made in this thread can sometimes sound like people feel we haven't already heard and considered such suggestions, or even thought them ourselves. If the forum structure changes in the future, so be it. But this is how it is now.

Again, whether things change in the future is another thing. But this is how they are now. Purely because both the English region and the US region share the same language, does not necessarily mean that they must be merged. Typically the reason most people suggest merging them is purely because they want the possibility of interaction with developers, not because both sets of forums share English as a language. So let's not ignore empathy for all the other regions that don't speak English, because such a "solution" would not be fair for them. I'm repeating all the same stuff, I know...

Q u o t e:
so why is this artificial separation still intact?

There is none. What you're talking about is a proposed merge. What exists now are forums for each language region.

Q u o t e:
It's funny that you call this an English region. I thought it was a European region. ;)

We're the English language region for the EU.

Q u o t e:
I think you have this exactly backwards.

I assure you we understand completely, even if this isn't coming across in what we say. As much as I appreciate your arguments, this is how the forums are now. Happy to talk about it, but no I'm not building towards making an announcement of any kind of change in structure.

The internet spans the world and even if you can't reply to their threads, you can read the developer posts the instant they are posted, wherever on the planet that may be. EU English players are not restricted from reading them ;-) and in fact are in a better position to understand them because they also speak English. The remaining want to interact with developers is understandable, and is not a wish restricted only to English language speakers outside of America.

Q u o t e:
I have started a new thread on this and was immediatly closed down, which I think is acctually correct :) But to summize what i had to say:

I believe that instead of tryin to merge forums or anything else. Blizzard should Hire a developer with a job description of communicating with forums. Something along the lines of "Lead Development Speaker EU" Then not only can you have one of these/language but it would be profitable for blizzard to do this due the amount of costs saved because of leavers etc. What ytou think?

Thanks for reposting here, we just want to try avoiding this oft-repeated topic as otherwise it means replying again and again or just ignoring new threads, which can give the wrong impression.

The thing about developers though, is that they want to mostly just develop. Ghostcrawler does too, but he also has a penchant for communicating. This is purely at his own choosing. He's made quite a name for himself if it has meant now everyone wants their own private Ghostcrawler. I can understand this: being a crocolisk, I'm quite fond of crab...

Q u o t e:
I don't want that GC stop to post, but it would be nice if sometimes someone would post news or answers that aren't already mentioned in the US-Forums. But with the situation now I and many other people here feel like second-class-customers.

On this point, there's a real disconnect going on -- and irrespective of how many times we try to explain, it still seems to persist. Blizzard makes statements, and these are spread around all our forums throughout the world. Our development team is based in the US, so this is the geographical location where the statements are sourced from. There's really nothing more to it than that. We can't post news before the news is made. As Ghostcrawler posts, for example, he doesn't send around a big list of what he's going to post before he posts -- he just posts. And no we don't mind people posting it up here before we've had a chance to, as long as it isn't coupled with a dig like "they haven't even posted it here yet" which really just doesn't help what is a somewhat no-win situation.

Yes, a unified forum structure might alleviate some of the concerns people have. But this isn't the structure that's here now, so instead we announce the same statements and information all over the world. So for the next person mentioning unifying the forums, yes we do hear you -- we're not selectively reading, we're just reading it all.

And just to add, again, that in the past we have actually released information here "first," but it is rarely noticed as such. We forward your feedback to our developers, and when they have a reply that they want to share, we do share it -- irrespective of whether it was previously announced elsewhere or not. I've done it myself, and yes it is cool to see it posted up on fansites even if it isn't noticed as being sourced from the EU forums. Maybe people just appreciate it as fresh information, and don't really mind which exact Blizzard office the text was created in.

We are actually very keen to post as much as we can -- it's fun to interact as long as any attempt to isn't met with some kind of troll reply or dig. ;-) Seriously, I'd sit here all day posting if it were the only thing I had to do.

Q u o t e:
Wryxian, perhaps the issue isn't that what we say on the EU forums goes unnoticed, but rather that we feel we are left out of the discussion process.

And this was raised before, multiple times, and I replied multiple times.

Q u o t e:
It has nothing to do with seeing or hearing announcements or not. It's that interaction with developers. There's nothing geographic or demographic about that, since US and EU versions are alike in gameplay.

And yet it wasn't that point I was replying to, and if you look at my post you'll see the quote says "it would be nice if sometimes someone would post news or answers that aren't already mentioned in the US-Forums" which is the only thing I replied to.

[Edit: Formatting failure!]

Q u o t e:
But that is totally not what this thread is about.

Instead it is what the thread has become.

Q u o t e:
I am an addon writer, and I'd love to have more feedback from the UI team about the API.

Firstly, since I love addons, I just want to express my thanks for creating some. Secondly, thanks for posting your concern.

Q u o t e:
a) people need feedback (even as simple as Wryxian's to your post) to feel properly cared and not left alone with their problems.
b) giving them blue answers makes them posting lot's of "I've been heard!" posts and makes those posters who has not been given answers even more unhappy :)

In the words of the famous poet John Lydgate: "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time."

... but we still try!