Yeah man, I am.

The few trolls on the board notwithstanding it has been very comforting to know I'm not alone by posting in a few of these threads.

Believe me, at first I assumed I was the problem and began trying everything (research, changing play styles, specs, enchants, reforges, gems, gear) to correct it. I still felt like "dear lord this is a punishment what have I done to offend thee?!" after most dungeon runs.

It was a relief to see that actually a very large portion of the healer community tells their story exactly as I've experienced it.

--Sly

 

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I think there's a "but" in there. The "but" being, they left raw damage output mechanics mostly the same (obviously buffed for the new levels), buffed health pools, lowered avoidance, nerfed healing, added gimmicks to _everything_ and decided that an "interesting" boss fight is one where random AoE goes off every 3 seconds so people have to move constantly. Frankly, I don't see that as "newer/better/harder" as much as "we couldn't come up with anything truly interesting so we just made it chaotic enough that you can't eat a PBJ sammich while farming heroics anymore." Not what I'd call interesting or entertaining or anything else positive. Of course, I'm a casual that doesn't constantly whine about not having the latest tier gear or who I can't own3r1z3 in PVP, so don't fall into the trap of thinking I'm unhappy with my current progression.

 

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You can trivialize most of the heroic content by bringing two healers...

 

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For months...possibly even a year, I have been saying how bad GC is, that in the future he will be a punchline.

The fun things about WoW are the things he hasn't touched (screwed up) yet. Everything he touches turns to shit.

 

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*note* None of this applies to you if you play in a dedicated guild and only group with dedicated guildies. You most likely already are able to experience "teamwork". You most likely have no problems using CC in groups because you have DPS that know how to do it... along with tanks/healers/other DPS that will allow it and won't call him a "terribad" and /kick him because his DPS dips slightly when CCing. For you my friend, the "challenging" new dungeon mechanics are not that bad and easily overcome. Feel free to ignore.This guy (GC) is a babbling idiot.


The rest of you can read on----
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What is amusing is that they (Blizz) are overcomplicating things as they try to fix the debacle that Lich King expansion created.

It's not just LK players that are woefully incapable of playing their class to it's fullest potential, particularly DPS classes who are by far the laziest and worst offenders. But it's also WoW players who've been around since Vanilla and/or BC.

Many of the players that were incompetent, and let's face it that is about 75% of the playerbase due to WoW not being a game that requires much competence to reach level cap, were able to reach new heights in LK due to the overly easy AE-fest mechanics Blizz PUSHED.

Couple that with the LFG dungeon-finder, and you created a recipe for complete dumbing down of group mechanics.

Now, they are trying to wind back the clock. It just won't work. There is a saying that once they've seen the city, you can't keep them down on the farm. That is what Blizz is dealing with now.

It's not "threat" that is the problem, GC. It's that you have far too many players that have become accustomed to EZ-play. And if you ever, EVER try to make the dungeons require thought again... if you EVER ask a DPS to do something besides spam the DPS button.... or ask a healer to intelligently decide which spells to use and on whom to use them... all you will get is death-threats and hatemail bro.

This will all go away when enough PuG players have top tier gear again, and can therefore ignore the "challenging" mechanics to once again AE-fest.

 

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I'm relieved it's not just me. I don't see a point to that, other than being able to read GC talk about his game and what he likes and how he is the puppet master. /yay

 

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I am seriously coming around to this point of view.

loztpassword, nice post.


What I'm hearing GC say is:


/footstomp


You stupid customers! If you would JUST shut up and play OUR game the way WE want you to, then I wouldn't be hearing doubt over the new changes!


/glare


Sorry, that was the kindest way I could say that.

 

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I guess there is a fine line between when a company carries on with their "vision" and when they cater to their customer.

In this case, it's unclear to me how many of WoW's customers want the current game vs. how many want the WOTLK manifestation of the game.

The thing is, I'm pretty sure that nobody here is managing a huge company like Blizzard lol (which is not to say that I agree with everything or even most things that Blizzard does with this game - I don't agree with them quite often), and it's not as if they've [Blizzard] built a failing business here out of this game.

As for playing the game the way THEY want us to vs. the way WE want to, well that's always the very vocal minority's beef for any video game. We gamers are nothing if not willful whiners about having it "our way". It remains to be seen in my opinion how much of the game's population really does want things to change.

I believe in the past that GC's biggest issues were not with his ideas, but rather with listening to what he thought was the will of the players which resulted in his dramatic pendulum swinging game decisions based on the fickle will of whoever was the loudest group of tools on the Bliz forums that week. That blog entry written by an old AC dev or something, linked a few weeks back by Mythril I believe comes to mind as I type this.

 

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Goes back to "customer experience".


Anyone who worked in Silicon Valley in late 70's-early 80's has stories about Steve Jobs and what an incredibly arrogant arse he is. Even those that admire the man will tell you stories about how he walked into a conference room and fired a new manager because the guy dared to disagree with him. He didn't even bother doing it to his face. Just turned to the rest of the people around the table and said, "who is this guy? Get rid of him," and walked out. Even though the guy was right, he was gone. First day.


What you can't argue about is how dedicated Steve Jobs is to his customer experience. He is up until 3 AM going through blogs, combing through comments to understand how and why people are using his products.


It's very easy for a large (computer or software) company to lose sight of what their customers are doing and how they experience product changes thrown at them. (This is a much discussed and on-going issue at some Fortune 50 companies.)


It's very easy for some MMO devs to walk in arrogantly thinking they understand and then lose that vision over time.


Blizzard has a track record from day 1 (see: Tiogle NYT article) of trying to herd their players (even to the point of dissing them), in order to get them playing the way "they" think the customer should.


The problem with an MMO is, the devs create it. Yes, they own it. Initially.


The minute they put it into their customers hands for the first time, it becomes something else.


Does that mean the devs can't "seize" the game back, can't make the changes they want, can't implement their own vision in later expansions? Especially after they created an experience they had not intended?


Of course not.


How they do it determines whether they kill their own game or not. Slowly or immediately. I'm not saying Blizz has. We've seen Devs do this. Otherwise, most of us would not be playing here at the moment.


Balance. Understanding the customer. The customer's experience.


I'm not saying it's easy. It's always a moving target. I've been part of those companies that have tried (and still are...that's how they stay profitable.) I've been an advocate within those for the customer, reminding my own teams, and those managers above me, how important it is to keep the customer in mind. Because even though our product has our name on it, and we have a vision for how we want it, the minute the customer starts to use it in a way we could not forsee (guaranteed), their experience defines our success.


And gaming industry even more so (as we all know.)


And yes, totally listening to customers can be a huge recipe for disaster.


Talking down to them, however, is never helpful.


-Preaching to the choir

 

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