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Author Topic: Development Teams at Blizzard [Locked]
Vault_News  3 stars
Title: 0110011010
Be Nice to Me I'm a Bot

Posts: 982
Registered: 2005-10-18 12:53:17
Zarhym posted:

Quote:

There isn't a singular Blizzard Entertainment art team. Each franchise has its own art department. We don't just pull resources from one project to give more attention to another in the sense you're suggesting. This is why we have multiple development teams (which include art teams for each) and can work on multiple franchises simultaneously.

(...)That wasn't at all the context of the post to which I was responded. That player was suggesting that a singular art team directs their attention away from WoW to work on art for our other games. That's not true.

Now, if an individual person does move onto a new project, their position is filled. Therefore, the resources are still there (which is why I said "in the sense you're suggesting". This is how career advancement works at any company. How else do you account for a company's growth? You bring in new talent (or move them up from within the company) and train them under the current folks so they can eventually fill the vacancy.

This talk about losing WoW developers, or that WoW is left to a "B team" is getting tiresome. There is no finite pool of talent and we have every intention of making sure WoW development remains very strong.

All of this is practically besides the point anyway. All you've been told is some talented people who helped build WoW into what it is today have moved over to another project to help bring it to fruition. You don't know who those people are, what positions they held on the WoW team, or how many of them have moved onto other projects. Most of them, in fact, are programmers working to develop the systems and tech for a new project. And the programmers WoW has now are amazing. They've taken the original systems and improved upon them many times over.

Just as an example, think back to how slowly UI improvements would be implemented in vanilla and TBC. Now there are scores of great UI improvements nearly every patch. That team is incredible and very experienced. Just the same, the class design team has hardly changed in years, save for a couple of additions (read: not subtractions).

Every department at Blizzard has expanded immensely over the years to accommodate the growing playerbase, as well as our ambitions for the future of the company. You can look at our job opportunities page just to get an example for the talent search we have constantly going on.

Bringing in new talent and growing the company from within is far from a bad thing. It's a great thing and has allowed us to develop several projects simultaneously without short-changing any of them. Anyone who says otherwise is working on an incredible amount of speculation and assumptions.

And even still, the WoW development leadership remains largely unchanged. Every time I stop by to chat with these people -- the same people I've been interacting with for years now -- I'm inspired by their creativity, their talent, and their dedication to making this game mega-awesomesauce.



Posted from WoW Vault
Deionnara  1 star
Posts: 149
Registered: 2001-12-28 14:12:02
<<<
This talk about losing WoW developers, or that WoW is left to a "B team" is getting tiresome. There is no finite pool of talent and we have every intention of making sure WoW development remains very strong.
>>>

Maybe they should take a step back and and analyze why the player base has came to think this way.


<<<
All of this is practically besides the point anyway. All you've been told is some talented people who helped build WoW into what it is today have moved over to another project to help bring it to fruition. You don't know who those people are, what positions they held on the WoW team, or how many of them have moved onto other projects. Most of them, in fact, are programmers working to develop the systems and tech for a new project. And the programmers WoW has now are amazing. They've taken the original systems and improved upon them many times over.

Just as an example, think back to how slowly UI improvements would be implemented in vanilla and TBC. Now there are scores of great UI improvements nearly every patch. That team is incredible and very experienced. Just the same, the class design team has hardly changed in years, save for a couple of additions (read: not subtractions).
>>>

Yeah because the f'n point went *woosh* over his head. The quality of the software and the service haven't been a problem for a good while now. The stink is coming from further up.

Then again, I am preaching to the choir here.

 

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Quazimortal  4 stars
Title: The One and Only
Posts: 1,557
Registered: 2004-9-18 21:52:58
Deionnara posted:

Then again, I am preaching to the choir here.



I thought about mocking this topic as well, but this thought stopped me.

 

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Ugh_Lancelot  3 stars
Title: Ooo...bouncy!
Posts: 766
Registered: 2002-6-17 14:37:05
Hey Blizz...why so defensive?

 

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Arunne  1 star
Title: The Anonymous
Posts: 177
Registered: 2003-11-3 14:11:47
It always amazes me that they will actually tell thier customers that they are annoying them. Who does that?


As an IT person, i would love to send something like this to my business clients, of course I would get fired if I did. I mean they do things that make me insane but I dont get to tell them they are getting tiresome.

 

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_Taebo_  1 star
Posts: 184
Registered: 2001-2-28 11:37:14
The problem with Cataclysm is that it seems too short and too recycled.

The 5 levels was a mistake.

The quality of the zones we were given are pretty good and imaginitive. Deepholm and Vashj'ir were unique and fairly large zones. Hyjal
was very scripted and on rails, but it had a good story line and you actually saw the zone change.

Uldum was a cool zone, but there were too many cut scenes and the Harrison Jones/Schnottz thing got annoying, IMHO.

Twighlight Highlands felt a little recycled, a little Borean Tundra + Howling Fjord and Arathi Highlands. It was ok.

I feel we needed 1-2 more zones and a full 10 levels. Within a week, people were back to what they were doing December 6th.

When we are given less, we feel that less are working on it, or that they aren't putting as much effort into it, because we got MORE before. So now people are quitting and throwing Blizzard under the bus and they are getting defensive. The countless nerfs, hotfixes, nerfs, hotfixes really looks bad from a QC/Testing standpoint.

 

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Darcry
Posts: 30
Registered: 2007-2-2 08:27:33
Here's another idea as well though. Sometimes those original team members need to be moved else where after a while. At times, they have a tendancy to lose sight of the original picture. If they're saying that team members are the same but, the player base is complaining that we feel we've got the "B team" in here, then there is something wrong. No one that I'm aware of has been complaining of UI changes for the worse. What we're complaining of is the rail system, imbalances past 80 and a lot of recycled feeling. This post just helps to reinforce to us that you've lost your way and aren't really listening to what we're saying. As Deiornna said "take a step back and look." We're not just pulling these complaints out of our collective asses.
Spookysheep  4 stars
Title: Lieker of Cheese
Posts: 1,248
Registered: 2002-1-9 06:49:19
"This talk about losing WoW developers, or that WoW is left to a "B team" is getting tiresome."


LMAO, good old arrogant blizzard thinking a single one of their subscribers give a rats ass what they find "tiresome".


When a company becomes too arrogant and stupid to hear what the customers are saying and respond appropriately, it is the beginning of the end. Some of the richest and most successful fortune 500 companies in the world have gone bankrupt and the number one reason was poor customer service.


Priceless, truly.

 

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Quazimortal  4 stars
Title: The One and Only
Posts: 1,557
Registered: 2004-9-18 21:52:58
Darcry posted:

Here's another idea as well though. Sometimes those original team members need to be moved else where after a while. At times, they have a tendancy to lose sight of the original picture. If they're saying that team members are the same but, the player base is complaining that we feel we've got the "B team" in here, then there is something wrong. No one that I'm aware of has been complaining of UI changes for the worse. What we're complaining of is the rail system, imbalances past 80 and a lot of recycled feeling. This post just helps to reinforce to us that you've lost your way and aren't really listening to what we're saying. As Deiornna said "take a step back and look." We're not just pulling these complaints out of our collective asses.



Oh snap! Nice viewpoint.

 

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“A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
We provide the music, and you provide the silence.” ~Leopold Stokowski
Billarious
Title: Consumer of Coffee
Posts: 24
Registered: 2003-7-4 15:12:52
Spookysheep posted:

"This talk about losing WoW developers, or that WoW is left to a "B team" is getting tiresome."


LMAO, good old arrogant blizzard thinking a single one of their subscribers give a rats ass what they find "tiresome".


When a company becomes too arrogant and stupid to hear what the customers are saying and respond appropriately, it is the beginning of the end. Some of the richest and most successful fortune 500 companies in the world have gone bankrupt and the number one reason was poor customer service.


Priceless, truly.

. T


It's been said that the only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard. Responses to their customers like this is helping to advance that occuring.

 

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