Official Blizz responses: do they exist?

#0 - Oct. 14, 2009, 8:16 p.m.

Rarely do I find official responses from Blizzard staff to the myriad of threads on the forums. There are alot of pure QQ/Troll threads, granted, but all-in-all as a regular forum reader I see a preponderence of legitimate questions, ideas, and calls for clarification go unaddressed.

Blizzard is hardly a "shoestring" company. They are making a fortune on this game we all love, and while I don't begrudge them this, would it hurt to hire a knowledgeable staff member to log on and have a look at a handful of threads per hour and lend whatever answers they could?

To be honest, like certain other WoW players in the community, I can and do post replies to dozens of threads in a short span of time. Can Blizzard not also do this? I find their lack of prescence disturbing.

Were I a Blizz employee, I wouldn't mind such a task. I would think it important to have quality discourse with your fans/gamers. Also, Blizz might find that WoW players may actually have something to offer in terms of developmental context ideas and solutions for certain issues.

The WoW community is a smart, dedicated one. I, for one, would like to see some of that dedication reciprocated, and not just in the bottom-line development of the game world itself, but also in reaching out to the buying public for interaction and ideas.

In short, is more forum participation too much to ask, all mighty Blizz?

Eyonix

#13 - Oct. 14, 2009, 8:47 p.m.

Q u o t e:

/agree its not a hotline to Blizzard. Good point.
/disagree there are new posts daily. Really? B/c Im here every day and this thread's mere nescessity and existence would seem to indicate otherwise.

I love the forums and believe they can be more than they currently are.

We are here making posts every day, Monday thru Friday. Between our entire Community staff, there are generally more than a dozen posts made per day. We choose what we respond to very carefully, and mostly serve to absorb various discussions and information.

Nethaera

#32 - Oct. 16, 2009, 6:02 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Blizzard has, 3 or 4 episodes of Blizzcast and a Youtube channel with the cinimatics that everyone already has installed on their pc's. Jeez, where's the love.

There are actually ten (10) episodes of BlizzCast and another one was recently recorded as well. Hopefully, we'll have that out to everyone as soon as we can. We do many other things for the community and on the behalf of the community that you may not always recognize as us doing it. We're Ok with that.

We know our timing on BlizzCast isn't perfect but it takes a lot of planning and coordination to get everyone together to work on these. We're always looking for ways to make it better and more timely as well.

We have restarted the Gadgetzan Times and hopefully, in time we can get it to be a more regular monthly project versus every other month. We do community Spotlights, we are on Twitter, we're here, and working on many other projects behind the scenes including contests and informational releases.

We definitely are here and we definitely care. Look for more additions to the YouTube as well over time.

That said, here's the love= <3

Nethaera

#49 - Oct. 16, 2009, 8:34 p.m.

Q u o t e:

I like you guys and I appreciate the info you give, but I have to call BS on this. Blizzcast and the GZTimes almost never give any information that;

a) We don't already know in some form.
b) Affects much of anything important at all.

BlizzCast is meant to give some insight on the personalities and thoughts behind some of the things going on with each of our franchises. It is meant to entertain and contain some more personalized information. It's easier to get what we are excited about or interested in when you hear our voices than when you just read text. The reaction by the community when they meet us and see us at BlizzCon only reinforces this.

Gadgetzan Times is likewise meant to entertain and highlight some of the creativity in the community. It is not meant as a newsletter. We have our official newsletter for that.

Q u o t e:
I would rather have a blue post presenting the information in a concise manner as it comes out rather than waiting X amount of weeks for a podcast or newsletter to be meticulously compiled...but we already know half the info inside because of blue trackers and community sites.

Which means we're doing our jobs and sharing information in the most appropriate locations (the official website and forums) if you're looking at blue trackers and community sites. We have official fansites for a reason. We look to them as an additional means of community interaction and support and we do our best to support them in their endeavors.

Q u o t e:
Its nice that you guys take the time to do this stuff... but new information is not new, and my feedback in regards to these productions is, in a nutshell, that they are mediocre and disappointing, and come out too slowly to be useful.

Feedback noted.

Keep in mind, not only are we here to inform, but we are here to be caretakers of the community by promoting community and finding ways to keep the community engaged in fun and entertaining ways. So if we are in a "fun" thread, we are doing our jobs. If we are posting about maintenance, we are doing our jobs. If we are talking about upcoming changes, we are doing our jobs. If we are connecting to someone in some way whether through hard information or something more fluffy, we are doing our jobs.

You're welcome to disagree with that, but the best venue to do such a thing would be through our email wowcmfeedback@blizzard.com . :)

Nethaera

#51 - Oct. 16, 2009, 9:07 p.m.

Q u o t e:

...

Can I have your jobs?

No... mine!