Wow...

This was my first read of this.

My career is software development QA (not in the gaming industry though).

That entire article is like a gaming industry version of what goes on out in the business world of ERP type (massive) systems and the like.

The discussion of how the development team changes when the product goes live and how the reduced influence of QA and developer oversight over time starts to become evident in the decline in the product is actually kind of cathartic to read as it's been a suspicion of mine for years with respect to the direction and ultimate "design" implementation of this game that this is what happened.

I could regale you all with dozens of stories of how the "rock star" (to quote the article) QA and developers wind up moving on to other positions/projects/companies when a big system goes live and how the newbs or "B-team" take over on it with the resulting Hell breaking loose. Except those would be stories from the world of Fortune 500, multinational, enterprise level, multi-billion dollar, integrated systems, and would be boring as hell. You can catch my act at industry conferences where I give presentations on that sort of crap. Suffice it to say that what you see in WoW is just a more interesting version (because it's a game, and not a system managing clinical trial data representing billions of dollars of research, FTEs, and future pipeline speculation) of the same stuff played out in a different business sector.

Developers who will tell you that this is not the way things happen are liars or are the "B-team" members themselves and aren't aware of it (and in that respect, it's just like going to a poker game - if after 10 minutes you can't spot the newb, it's you).

I wonder very much if GC and his "Live Team" ever took the advice the author of that article gave at the end. Something tells me they never did.

 

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The last time I wore parachute pants, I had to worry about certain classes because there were tons of hot chicks in there which, in parachute pants, left nothing to the imagination. Ah, the good ol' days. When kids could fight it out, girls didn't get offended when we complimented tits and guys with an unintended boner weren't taken away by the cops for harassment.

 

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Meh, I wasn't very impressed by the article. Some guy from AC2 critiquing Blizzard? That alone is makes me skeptical. That game couldn't even keep 30k+ subscribers. And the support for his argument revolves around the hunter arrow changes? Seriously?

Blizzard has been making "good" changes and "bad" changes since vanilla in WoW - it's not some new "B" team phenomenon. And they've been screwing things up and fixing them since vanilla. The only major problems I have with WoW right now are the same problems I've had for years, and they're mostly big-picture philosophical differences that will never change.

All this "B" team nonsense is just the local WoW version of FUD. The problems with the whole 4.0+ transition have been irritating, but the way Bliz is handling is basically brilliant. Staggered release of major changes / updates, weeks in advance of the actual x-pac going live, so that (hopefully) all major issues can be handled before the flood of players jumps into the new content. I'm betting that on December 7th, which will probably break all sorts of records for number of players all playing the same MMO, we will see a smooth launch.

 

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Ya, I can't really say the game is worse. It might be the B team, but maybe their B team is better than some games A teams. Looking at you get me 3 star talent Barnett, the circus barker/clown.

 

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