Does Blizz really play their own game?

You're asking rhetorical questions.

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Just because nobody at Blizzard wants to answer them doesn't make them rhetorical.

They're rhetorical because the answer doesn't matter. If the answer is no the response is "well that's obvious", and if it's yes then the response is "well you could have fooled me". The subject matter is what's at hand, not the question. Phrasing a comment as a question is common rhetoric, and it works quite well.

I get it, it's a great way to be express displeasure without sounding like you're being overtly negative.

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I'm fairly sure the "You can eat and drink at the same time" tip is because of Neth.

I learned that lesson way back in Alpha. Try to keep up sparky!

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The developers, GMs and CMs can't do their jobs without playing the game. And I'm sure that on their off time they play on regular servers with the rest of us.

However, MOST of their time is spent playing private servers only available to blizzard employees. As such, their views on things are tainted and not realistic to the "real world of WoW" that the rest of us play in all the time. Hence the constant mistakes they continue to make.

What they need to do is force the developers to take a couple weeks off every quarter to ONLY play on live servers so that they get a better view of what is really going on. Only then will they see how bad off a number of servers are (looking at raw data doesn't tell the true story) and how unbalanced this game really is.

That is why there is always such a discrepency between what we see when we play and what they see when they play. And why they are SOOOOO slow to react to problems.

You are only partly correct. We play on regular servers and the PTR regularly. We do not play on private servers save for internal development and building (by the developers and QA). As you all know, to progress a character though, you need to be on regular realms with regular players. We've all taken our licks in the "real" of Azeroth and pay very close attention to what everyone around us is doing and saying.

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Here's a few things I've always wondered-

Do any CMs, Developers or Programmers run a guild of their own? Are any of you raid leaders or PvP Premade leaders? Do any of you play any of the less popular off-specs like Balance Druid or Retribution Paladins functionally in Raids or PvP?

Basically, how far into End-game have some of you gotten? Like, for example, have you, Neth, or Eyonix or Drysc been in a guild which has downed Illidan yet?

Information like this might affect the outlook of a percentage of the regular posters to these boards. You may end up with less griping and accusations if some of you CMs or a few of the devs were a little more free with that info (and a lot less arrogant about it when guys like Kalgan post or do interviews... ;) )

I couldn't answer for others on whether they run a guild or not, but for me, I wouldn't have the time to run one. I've been an officer and run them before, however, throughout my gaming life.

I've been through Kara, done Gruul, Been in SSC, been in Zul'Aman and Tempest Keep, I haven't personally been a part of Illidan's fall, but that will come in all due time. ;) No matter how much experience I may tell people I have in game, someone will always think it's not enough. I work, I have a personal life, and I game. All of these thankfully get along well with each other. I've also been on an arena team, played in the BGs, been involved in World PVP raids and more.

I've said this many times before, but we all play to different degrees. We are a company of gamers. It's part of the company culture and part of who we are. I think the point Drysc was making was that no matter how many times or how many ways we say it, there will always be those that don't think it's good enough or don't believe us at all.

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Now the realy question that i wanna know.....Are you payed to play???

Man can you imagine coming home, and playing WoW and your wife comes around and says "Geez are you playing again" I could then respond "No honey, im working. I have to do this not my choice". OMG that would so rock! HMMM i wonder how long one could play this off before getting into further trouble?

I don't need to make excuses. ;) My other half plays as well and has for years. Though I have used the "I'm working" reasoning before and actually have been working for an event or something.

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That's why gamers should marry other gamers. I made the mistake of dating non-gamers and they never understand. No more!

Then the only things you argue over is who is cooking dinner or ordering the pizza. ;)

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Until you have kids. That changes EVERYTHING. My gamer wife and I cry every night now because we have a toddler who requires 99% of our attention at all times, unquestioned. Shoot me.

Only until bedtime. Then it's free time if you can stay awake for it. ;)

As always, if people have feedback or suggestions for the Community Team, please feel free to email to [email protected] . There is also a means of giving feedback on GM performance as well.

There is a lot of opinion being stated in this thread as to what people believe the motivations are or how operations are at Blizzard Entertainment, and I can easily understand this. I would also caution people to understand that from on our end, there is some information we can not share in regard to some aspects of operation or the reasoning for some things we do, though we do try to give as much information as possible.

I'd also appreciate if people would please refrain from making assessments about what you feel is the work ethic of the employees at Blizzard Entertainment. We all do strive to put out the best we can and are passionate about what we do. There are other means for giving feedback as shown above and any other assessments are purely based on opinion and can be seen as non constructive. Thanks.

Miiteous:

If you read the topmost sticky with the email information for feedback you will see the following- [email protected] for feedback on Community Team performance. Please note that while emails sent to this address will likely not receive a response, each one will be read and handled accordingly.

We do read the feedback, we just don't always respond. We have many duties to attend to outside these forums, as we've explained to people before.

I also am not going to address the EU vs US opinions on disparities of information given, since those ultimately are not only non-productive, but end up in getting into nationalistic debates that result in flame wars that are inappropriate for these forums. You are welcome to your opinions about who gives out more information, but as always, it is only opinion. All of the Community Teams are a part of the same system and have the same information to give and share. The rest is merely perception and ends up in debates of US community vs. EU community. Let's please avoid that trap today.

We have methods to our madness about what information we give and when we can give it. We give as much as we can and are always striving to find ways to improve this. I've also said this before but there are many things you see us do that you don't realize we were at the helm of.

While I'd love to get into more of this and continue the discussion, we're only going to end up in talking circles. :)

As for why we respond to more "fluff" topics, it's easy to do. It keeps us visible and let's people know we are still reading things. We may not always have answers to give immediately on more "hot topic" discussions, but that doesn't mean we aren't aware of them and having internal dialogue about them. There is always more to us than what you see at the surface and while it's nice to get credit for things, it's not necessary for us to continue to do our jobs. We are all a part of one company and are a part of the team as a whole.

The reason we tell people to email the feedback is because these forums aren't meant to be a conduit of discussion on how we do our jobs. It is a place to discuss the game and for us to interact with the community. Feedback is better sent to us directly so we can access that feedback and discuss internally how we can best address it.

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It would really just be easier if you made a forum for CM feedback and started moving threads to that forum whenever they pop up in others. I'm sorry, but whether you like it or not, the forums have become a conduit of discussion on how you do your jobs, even if that is not their purpose, and we get to hear about it in threads like these many many times every single day.

Just do us all a favor and make a forum specifically for CM feedback so that the topics brought up in General Discussion can hopefully be a tad more general and not just every other post being about how biased people think Kalgan or Drysc or whoever is.

Its getting incredibly old.

This won't be happening. It's too easy for people to feel as if they are founded in using personal attacks against us in a public forum and this would only emphasize that. With the current method, the feedback gets to those that matter most in evaluating our individual performance and that of the team as a whole.

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Thank you Neth... you are truly a gem. I very much appreciate your interaction in this thread and with my posts specifically.

It's my pleasure. I may not be able to give everyone the "big picture", but I try to at least give enough so that people understand we really are working toward the benefit of all though impossible as that may seem. ;)