"I will have to be more guarded with info"-GC

#0 - March 21, 2009, 4:30 a.m.

Ghostcrawler, your threat to reduce the trickle of information from the development side as a result of some phenomenally retarded posters is unwarranted. The whiners here do not speak for the majority.

Remember that thread on the Healer forums where healers took that quote you made about it should be a viable tactic to just purely DPS down a healer sans interrupts and CC, and they took it as the "DPS should always win 1 on 1 against a healer" and nerdraged a good two dozen pages?

Please understand that they do not speak for the majority. Mature, intelligent players like myself appreciate the high flow of information. We know that unless you use the word "promise", it isn't a promise. We know that even the simplest mechanics you or players propose can potentially break the entire game, hence why the development cycle is so long. We know about 1500 people work on World of Warcraft directly and it's serious business. We know that you want to balance the classes for arena and PvE but it's such a complex task, and an equilibrium may well never be reached.

WoW is the first MMO where I have seen the developers take an active role in communicating with the community. It's the reason why I stayed... when you made your first few posts and I found out that you were the lead balance dev, I was puzzled because I am so used to the developers just ignoring the community entirely and implementing their own hare-brained schemes.

A high level of communication lets players feel like they are part of the design process, and I think the developers really benefit from the discussion that takes place amongst players. I don't think you should avoid the class forums, because there are some absolutely fantastic threads (and ideas) being posted there. For example, there were several threads that went 3-6 pages discussing Fire Mages and how they should be buffed, and the concensus tends to be pretty strong in some cases (e.g. short duration snare/root immunity on Blazing Speed procs). If you start getting tight-lipped, these threads with great ideas would never get made, or come too late as you have already made up your mind.

Most importantly, the high level of communication gives us players hope. Us players who don't play the ridiculously OP specs (Arms Warriors, Fire Mages, etc.) really appreciate that you are giving us a little light at the end of the tunnel.

I know I'm just one of millions, but if you cave in to these @##*ing retarded mouthy teenage brats who whine "GC YOU PROMISED! GET HIT BY A BUS!", I will lose all respect for the dev team.

Thank you for having kept the doors open so long, and I hope they will continue to be so in the future.

- A concerned player

p.s. nerf DKs

Ghostcrawler

#29 - March 21, 2009, 7:03 a.m.

We're not going to stop communicating through these forums or other avenues. We do however need to evaluate if previews make sense. Some players appreciated them and some didn't. That pretty much mirrors the actual changes we make to the game, where even getting a majority, let alone a consensus, is unrealistic. So, as with game changes, we'll have to decide on the best way to handle previews in the future.

We're not trying to be vindictive here. Some players give themselves far too much credit for being able to actually get us riled up. You can't be in this industry very long and still let forum posts get to you.

I for one enjoy interacting with the community here. While I will never have as much time to devote to it as we all might wish, I'm not going anywhere.

I also feel the need to offer once again that WoW is designed by a team, and while I may post a lot, that shouldn't diminish the enormous contribution made by everyone else on the team. All of the good ideas are theirs. :)

Ghostcrawler

#33 - March 21, 2009, 7:16 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Translation: Ghostcrawler has no soul.

The pony I never promised you ate it.