Saved... I hate raid IDs

We did speak with some of the developers about this recently. While I'm unable to comment on your specific suggestions, I'll say we were all in agreement that something needs to change with raid IDs. On the one hand, we are happy that pick-up groups have a wider array of options at their disposal, whether it be 5, 10, or 25 man content. On the other hand though, it's currently too easy to end up saved to an instance that's been cleared, or close to it, without knowing ahead of time this will happen.

We've been looking at player feedback in this regard, and are working to develop a better interface to warn players that will be saved to an instance that's been partially, or completely cleared. This is something that might not happen in 3.1, but we'll be discussing this further internally in the near future.

Q u o t e:

are there ever any times where you get a question and go ask the developers and answer it right away?

Yes, though for any information we provide that we might perceive to be a big announcement, we usually need to prepare the text, make sure all involved parties internally are happy with the wording, then send it out internationally so community teams in each region can localize/translate the text. We try to avoid having one region get the jump on breaking information over another, or at least try to take turns. :p

Q u o t e:

Is reducing it to one day, like heroics, an option?
or even removing it altogether -- it seems like a very artificial way to limit gear progression

We didn't really discuss the actual time restraints in the raid ID system, as we feel the limits currently in place are necessary and sufficient to throttle the rate at which high-quality items can be obtained. What we aren't happy with though, is a greater number of players being deceived -- whether intentional or not -- resulting in them losing a given number of days before they get a real attempt at a given instance again.

Q u o t e:


I imagine that, if someone actually asks a question in which blues are legitimately interested in, they just turn around and yell at the guy from across the room. Something like...

Blue: "YO! JIM!"
Developer: "WHAT?!"
Blue: "ARE WE EVER GOING TO FINISH HYJAL?!"
Developer: "I'M TRYING TO EAT DUDE, WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"

lol... though we don't sit in the immediate vicinity of the developers (there are a lot of them), remarkably similar scenarios definitely occur on nearly a daily basis.

Q u o t e:
I could imagine a day at the office on your first day where people in business casual have a board meeting to discuss whether or not Orcs are overpowered would be quite an odd thing to see.

In general terms, you've described my work. :D