Enough of the we say, developers say.

Q u o t e:
I suggest we implement in game surveys to see what the majority of the player base in this game ACTUALLY think. Just discussing the game with long time in game friends, not a single one of us is happy with the state of pvp at the moment or even consider it to be fun anymore. Why can't in game surveys be held when a player logs in or logs out? This will really show the developers that an OVERWHELMING majority of players are unhappy with a very long list of failures in the area of pvp in WotLK.

I could make a list here but there have been more than enough threads and posts in the pvp forums that include burst damage, class balance, cc mechanics etc. Arena is a joke, battlegrounds are old and not as much fun as they were even in BC. Just read the pvp forums for more.

There are many methods in place through which we collect feedback from the player base about various aspects of the game. There are many cases where our players have helped to make World of Warcraft a better game by giving popular, constructive feedback.

With that being said, we still develop content for World of Warcraft according to our own design goals and philosophies. This isn't a democracy. Keep in mind it's those design goals and philosophies that initially led to the success of this game. Four years of rising numbers of subscribers is evidence of this.

Player feedback is valued, and the need for collecting such feedback is one of the many reasons why you see several community managers lurking the forums every day. Adding game-wide polls though to gauge consensus on every aspect of game play isn't necessarily going to help us create a better game. It's going to bog development down and could cause a loss of focus on our long-term intentions since we're constantly working on features months in advance.

We feel the current methods of collecting feedback are quite sufficient for getting a feel for how the majority of players view all levels of game content.

Q u o t e:


One of your metrics should be the rapid decline and interest in the Arena.

How much lower does it need to go before you understand we don't want it in the game anymore? (Nor any of its side effects).

Even if we polled the player base and 60% or more of them would vote that they do not want arenas in the game anymore, removing them from the game entirely would be a very irrational development and business move.

If players don't like participating in the arenas, it's our job to look for ways we can offer some comparable rewards through other means of PvP in the game. If arena participation is down, it's our job to ensure the arena remains fair, competitive, and rewarding so that attendance doesn't continue to decline.

This is the type of poll that would do absolutely no good. Even if a clear majority opinion was determined via the poll, the types of decisions players would then expect us to make would be unreasonable and take us further from our design direction for the game, and ultimately alienate a minority portion of the player base.

Q u o t e:


So you are not doing your job? Because im pretty positive arena is missing all 3 of the things you stated.

There are tons of developers working every day to make World of Warcraft the best game it can be. New content, changes, and fixes are occurring every single day. There are countless hours more spent on developing this game than you spend logging into it, I can assure you.

To expect to see those changes happening before your eyes on a daily basis is to expect anything other than the realistic process by which video game content is developed.

Q u o t e:


I know it's hard to distinguish the trolls from the people who like to be constructive critics of the game they love.

I have no doubt that Blizzard has a staff of motivated developers who love working on this game.

I also have no doubt that you have some people in the company who are more motivated on marketing the game as some kind of eSport and shoving Arena down the throat of the developers who love working on the game.

You put faith in something you cannot know. You and I have been down this road before. I'm unable to persuade you against things you believe beyond empirical evidence.