I would have to spend some time in his shoes to know if he is/isn't qualified for the job. Tough to argue with the end result, aka subscriptions and box sales, as we all know that is what Corporate is most interested in. In that regard, I would say he is the best in the business. Want to prove that wrong? Show me another MMO with the same financial success. I'll wait right here.

/taps foot

/taps foot

Ok, anyway...

Yes, this is where people are going to get all panty-twisted and completely dismiss the financial piece and say it is all about the art (I believe making forms of entertainment is an art) of making an MMO. While I would love to play a game designed for serious gamers, I don't have the money in my bank to fund it. So, I look for the best alternative. I don't know if anyone here remembers but it wasn't that long ago that Vivendi Universal was in serious financial straits. Blizzard has sure made a HUGE impact on their bottom line with the windfall profits it has turned. From that moment on, in my opinion, WoW became a serious business. When Blizz called their own shots, I honestly believe they were diehard gamers making games for gamers. These days, it is all about the bottom line. The game has transformed into one that anyone can jump into and quickly start having fun. Is that the definition of dumbing-down? In many cases, sure. Bottom line is if you make it easy for ALL gamers, it will likely be played by MORE gamers. Those of us here on VN, myself included, are somewhat jaded. We are NOT the typical gamer. We are mostly veterans and trying to lump us into the category of casual typically fails. In other words, we represent a VERY small percentage of the overall player base. Want more proof? We post on an isolated little community because the other MILLIONS of morons posting on the official forums piss us off to no end with their non-stop idiocy!!

For all I know, and this is just to make a point, GC may be fighting the good fight against the corporate suits and bean counters who want the game homogenized to the maximum extent possible in order to squeeze every dollar possible from us. Maybe he is the only one able to keep the game from becoming pure Hello Kitty: Island Adventures. I don't know, and I would venture none of us here do either with any certainty. Yes, he may be an idiot without a clue. If so, then god must surely look out for fools as this one is rolling in the dough. I realized years ago that WoW was being marketed to the masses. While I consider myself a far better than average player, and one who likes a game with depth and complexity, I am positive that I am NOT the target audience for the majority of the changes. I feel they get around to me by making the end-game encounters as challenging as they can get away with and hope I am entertained enough with everything else to keep playing. You know what, it typically is. I quit from time to time when I get bored but eventually wander back. I would guess a lot of you can say the same.

So, am I arrogant enough to say I could do a better job? Almost I am in the business of software development and know something about the process and have a LOT of experience playing MMO's so there are probably many worse candidates out there. That said, without knowing what design decisions GC is fighting for/against from those that only see the monthly revenue stream, I am not prepared to roast the guy alive. I'll leave that to those who would answer my above question with an unqualified yes rather than the almost I gave

 

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I beg to differ, again it is human nature to form emotional attachments and everyone does playing this game whether they admit it or not, and is the basis for said passion. No one can make rational unbiased decisions once those attachments are made, and it is why they have such a terrible time balancing anything.


Thus it is more than reasonable to assume Ghostcrawler & Co. do not want to nerf their favorites nor do they want to buff any other classes enough to compete with them and they are locked in a perpetual battle of doing what is right and what they desire. Same can be said of factions,they openly admitted years ago the official company guild was Horde which is why the Horde dominate in PVP and are the lopsided faction on most servers.


Someone said a while back on the official forums that Blizzard was the Mexico of the game industry, fraught with bias and corruption, and I tend to believe it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and Ghostcrawler & Co hold absolute power.

You're entitled to your opinion, of course. Yet, I cannot find anything from your response that adds or even actually disagrees with what I said.


You're attempting to disagree to . . . well, to disagree because my opinion differs and you don't like it. That's fine. While I understand the nature to want to dislike someone for their personality, believe me I understand, I pretty much judge people from their actions and reactions.


The end results speaks for itself as Tai notes. I'm not friends with Ghostcrawler nor do I know him personally or even care to know him personally.


Why should I?


All I care about is how good the game performs overall and entertains me.


Now, you can call that a "single-minded troll post," but the game is still a game.


Again, not a personality contest.

 

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Show me one that has even half of WoW's budget.

/taps foot

/taps foot

Ok, anyway...

Know what the highest selling game of all time was ten years ago? It was Myst. A pile of puke no intelligent person could possibly stomach today, only existing because devs at the time had that brand new CD technology, but no idea what to do with it.

But, you say its tough to argue with the end result, so that must mean Myst was the best game to ever come out prior to the Sims taking over the crown. And therefore its devs are the best in the business. And, if we follow through with that reasoning to the places it typically goes here, anyone who designs games differently is WRONG.

Or maybe your argument isn't as good as you think it is. Perhaps try tying what Ghostcrawler actually does to box sales and revenues. Not just "WoW", but specifically what he contributes to it.

/taps foot

/taps foot

...

 

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The proof on whether GC knows what he's doing will most likely be decided by the dungeon finder at this point (imo). I expect him to continue pushing his game 'vision' - something that has led to the downfall of a few MMO lead developers (not to mention defiling many a great MMO). Though, I highly doubt the situation would be allowed to be bourne out that far with WoW and its population.

If he knows what he's doing, dungeon finder queue times will come back down as those who care to, learn and gear. If he doesn't, then times will continue to drag out despite a supposedly growing end-game population as people level and gear up. I don't believe the majority of the playerbase will let the dungeon finder ease go easily, and I'm betting we'll see several more dungeon 'adjustments' over the next few weeks as things get more vocal, until someone there at Blizzard realizes that perhaps it's not the content that's a problem and that it's more of a 'visionary' problem that needs to be re-evaluated with the main idea of fun in place of the tedious monster that has been currently enthroned on a whim... er I mean 'vision'.


Edit: Then again, not many here are going to be surprised as, over time, the dungeons are adjusted to be mostly easier, and healers (classes in general) are tweaked out of their current state. It's pretty inevitable, and if you don't believe that, then you must have just started paying attention to MMOs.

 

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All I know is armchair Devs can sit on forums bitching and moaning about how those actually doing it are screwing up all day until they turn blue in the face. In the end, you still are nothing more than a detached, anonymous, opinion (just as I am). They are still developing and producing games with real world subscriptions and real world revenues. If we are talking about running a successful business, and a hint for the slower folks that is what I was doing, then Blizz (and GC by association) is doing it like gangbusters.

For the record, Myst was also extremely successful and I give kudos to them for doing something no one else had thought to do at the time. I'll also admit to finding several hours worth of entertainment solving Myst. I got my moneys worth.

My argument stands on it's own perfectly well as far as I can see. I simply stated that in terms of business, they are fantastically successful. I also stated that I have no real insight into what exactly GC has impacted either for the good or bad (in our opinions). I said that he might be our best advocate under the circumstances or a raving idiot, I just don't know. I also doubt that any of us here have any real world insight that would decide this either way.

If I were a shareholder, I could not be happier and if you think that means nothing, well, maybe you should rethink whatever argument it is you think you are making

 

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I believe EA dropped more than a few million into Warhammer Online, if I recall correctly. But, to be fair, I don't believe even they can compete with Blizzard's budget.


However.


The reason for Blizzard's massive budget is their amazing track record for polished and popular products.


Despite the rumor, they really don't print off their own money.


It's earned.


If not, they would've gone the way of Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London.

 

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'nuff said, excellent post.
It's easy to sit in front of a computer and pretend doing better. And that is even more funny when said armchair developers spending their time criticizing the game and its developers are still paying to play it. And in the meantime, Ghostcrawler goes home in the sport car he paid with your money...

 

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While I'm amused you feel the need to quote someone on the official forum with a rather ugly example of corruption using Mexico while we in the U.S. are just as, if not more so, guilty of political corruption . . . how exactly does this 'absolute power' apply in the gaming world?


I'm not seeing how politicians scheming to control all the money, drugs, oil, etc. equals Blizzard and its video game holding absolute power in any real sense.


Maybe other gaming companies feel that way, but that's more or less a failing on their parts and not due to some Machiavellian maneuvers from Ghostcrawler.


Care to clarify?

 

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Honestly, I think Blizz cold have released an expac that just contained the following:

Ability to reach 85
New dungeons for level 85

And people would have still purchased it in droves.

We got all of this other stuff, like old world flying, revamped 1-60 content, new battlegrounds, new areas, and two new races. And, since the old world areas had to be redone to allow flying, why not have it redone in a spectacular manner, such as a "Great Cataclysm"...


All of which will still run on the most basic computers.


GC is the "voice" of Blizzard on the forums. He makes the posts, but there is no telling if what he says is his opinion, or the opinions of 30 people that just finished six weeks of meetings, number crunching, and similar activities. Keep in mind that the devs have run the content with every type of gear available, and they know how things are going to work in 4 months when people are better geared.


To disagree with what he posts is one thing. To say he cannot or is not doing his job properly is just ridiculous.

 

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