Ask a Developer is not working.

#1 - June 15, 2011, 3:01 a.m.

I was reading on wowjoystiq.com a column where the author claims the Ask a Developer: Tank thread didn't really work. I had recently tried to tank as a feral druid and also felt that the thread was a little lacking. I just couldn't put my finger on what.

If Blizzard has not had anyone read that column, you really should. It really did point out to me that feral tanking was not the way to go. And that if I really wanted to tank, I'd better level a warrior or paladin instead (and probably a paladin at that.)

I'd also like to throw in my two coppers on this feature: first, who's answering the questions? To be quite honest, I miss Ghostcrawler.

Second, the questions answered are often things that have been asked in the past Or just downright shouldn't have been answered at all. Case in point was the question about DPS health bars. Why were the developers answering that question in a "Tanking" thread? I thought the rules stated you had to be on topic. I'm surprised no one said "This is a DPS question. Why are we answering it?" Because it was highly rated?

I've also noticed that a lot of these "Ask the Developer" types of threads are used for a while and then inexplicably die. For example, the lore section had two rounds of answering our questions promising more and have yet to return. I have to wonder if after the DPS thread is answered, the quesiton threads will stop.

I'm not expecting a blue response. I actually expect this opinion thread will simply fall off the first page and in to obscurity. But there is no Suggestion forum any longer and no guarentee Blizzard would read this anyway. But at least I posted my thoughts. And besides, the "Ask the Developers" threads are locked.

Bashiok

Community Manager

#19 - June 15, 2011, 5:38 p.m.

I'm not going to bother getting into the specifics of what was answered or why or any fansite articles bashing the process; it's been covered many times before.

But, at the core, I think we agree it's not working. While we could (and do) lament over the reasons why a scheduled Q&A based on question popularity doesn't sit well with people, the bottom line is it can't go on as it is.

We don't expect people will ever be completely happy with any Q&A. Regardless of how they're conducted we'll never get to every question, so there are always going to be complaints that we didn't answer the right ones. But Ask the Devs is different. While there are certainly arguments that answers didn't say the right things, or didn't give a firm answer on how a problem would be resolved, the process just doesn't work because of the format.

We've spent a lot of time discussing why it doesn't work, and while that's interesting to us, the bottom line is that once we've finished the role Q&A's with healers, we will be ending the Ask the Dev series.

Our goal with Ask the Devs was always to increase interaction with the developers, to provide a direct conduit to their thoughts and process. We're in the planning stages for a new Q&A process that will replace Ask the Devs, and while we're absolutely certain people will continue to be upset we didn't answer every question, we think it will overall be a far more successful approach.