Battered Hilt: What? - Blue Tracker

#0 - Dec. 19, 2009, 6:36 a.m.

Recently, Blizzard has increased the Battered Hilt drop rate, stating that the drop rate was too low. I am not here to shout my opinion on the matter, as it seems everyone is doing it for me. However, what is going on inside the WoW development room?

Not even a week before this change, Bornakk responded to a Battered Hilt post, saying that the drop rate is fine. He stressed diligence and said it was completely possible to obtain one. Then Zarhym makes a post stating, and I quote,

Q u o t e:
Based on feedback we’ve been provided by players, we’d like to make you aware of a couple of changes we are applying to Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls via in-game fixes. Firstly, we are increasing the drop rate of the Battered Hilt in all three wings of this Heroic five-player dungeon.

So which is it? Who do we trust? They are both CMs so they practically speak for the Devs but their statements lose all value when they say totally different things. Is there a dissent in the development team? Is there confusion amongst CMs? Is Blizzard trying to pander to the casuals for more subscribers, or are they trying to stress integrity? Both? Neither?

Links

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21726258628&sid=1&pageNo=1

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21730648265&pageNo=4&sid=1#77

TL;DR Blizzard two-timing ideas

Zarhym

#8 - Dec. 19, 2009, 6:55 a.m.

Sometimes we change our minds as data is collected. Data in this case came both from player feedback as well as our statistical review of how many Battered Hilts were infiltrating realms. As community managers, we do our best to relay the best information we can based on our discussions with our development staff and our own observations.

Unfortunately, in a game as complex as World of Warcraft -- and with official responses forever plastered on the internet -- there are times where you might catch us providing conflicting information. This doesn't mean we're lying or misinformed. It simply means that things change as we continue working to make this the best game possible. When things change the information we share changes.

You'll note in my original post you've quoted I mentioned that the change was based on strong player feedback claiming the drop rate was too low, and after further observation we agreed.

Zarhym

#16 - Dec. 19, 2009, 7:03 a.m.

Q u o t e:

Some people believe that the drop rate is still not strong enough even after the buffs. What are your thoughts on this?

I think it's too early to make this call from a design stand point. We are closely watching how Battered Hilts are obtained, at what frequency they're obtained, and how their market value fluctuates.

Zarhym

#21 - Dec. 19, 2009, 7:09 a.m.

Q u o t e:

What I get from this is all the QQ made Blizz cave. Epics might as well be blues now a days, god forbid people actually have to do something hard besides farm for high end loot.

It's a fairly easy, overly-simplified conclusion to come to. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of players still upset about the drop rate and/or it's non-Bind-on-Pickup status. The feedback we received about the extremely low drop rate before the last hotfix no doubt caught our attention. That said, it was changed when we looked at the data and saw a problem ourselves.

Zarhym

#118 - Dec. 19, 2009, 9:35 a.m.

Q u o t e:

making it boe was a huge mistake

It is something to consider, LilÃth. Make no mistake about it. We want to avoid making any hasty decisions though as we watch how the item begins to trickle through the realms with the updated drop rate. If the market value of the item drops as it becomes more abundant -- and we think it will -- taking away the ability to purchase the item may end up hurting casual players more. Right now there are two ways of obtaining the item: luck/chance and gold. Eliminating one of those options might not be a good thing in the long term.

Edit: I just want to add that I've read through the better part of this thread and am very pleased by the civility of the discussion. I appreciate it. ;)

Zarhym

#123 - Dec. 19, 2009, 9:44 a.m.

Q u o t e:

lol go to sleep Zarhym. It's late. I agree with this judgment. A knee-jerk reaction like making the hilt BoP might create too many problems. As more show up, they can change it to BoP to protect the integrity of the item.

<OT> Sleep? It's Friday night! My girlfriend works in retail management while pushing through school, and... 'tis the season. She just got home and looks weathered by the storm of consumerism.

Zarhym

#141 - Dec. 19, 2009, 10:04 a.m.

Q u o t e:

Then what is Blizzard's stance on players joining groups and bailing before the bosses?

It is a negative side effect, that's for sure. Whether or not we can implement future changes to help combat this, I cannot say at this point.

Q u o t e:
As you also said gold is the only other way to obtain this item. What is Blizzard's stance on it encouraging players to buy gold or buy directly with real cash just to get the item because of how rare it currently is? Is there anything being done to discourage that with this item as the prices have kept going up after the latest "fix"?

I don't like it when people use this sort of language truthfully. There are a lot of great things to obtain in the game if you have the funds, but it's unfair to use any of those features as an example of us encouraging gold buying. We never encourage gold buying and have gone to great lengths over the years to fight it.

Zarhym

#146 - Dec. 19, 2009, 10:15 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Often I find there's a problem with the groups...

Many of them always try to skip as much trash as possible to get to the bosses.

(And yes, none of the people I know want to kill trash either, so I lose either way)

I've noticed this too. It's just become common place to skip unnecessary trash in any instance. If I'm in any dungeon in The Frozen Halls, I'd prefer to kill everything.

Zarhym

#151 - Dec. 19, 2009, 10:42 a.m.

Q u o t e:

It's not exactly anything new. Remember Kara? Even with Rep attached to the mobs people still insisted on killing as little as they could. It's good to see that the trash in ICC is unavoidable.

It's literally jumping out of the walls.

Zarhym

#168 - Dec. 19, 2009, 12:49 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Sure it is, it's obtainable in 5-mans. Don't get much more casual-friendly than that.

But that's beside the point anyway. There are plenty of legitimate ways of obtaining gold, and those are the methods Blizzard is "encouraging" by creating gold sinks. Just because an illicit path exists doesn't mean said path is encouraged.

You might as well say that other game designers are "encouraging cheating" by creating difficult games.

This is an important point. :)