Blizzard are stupid to ask end users what they want.
End users don’t really know what they want, and this goes for any kind of software development. They think they do, but they don’t…
Unfortunately it’s just human nature to take the path of least resistance. If you offer an ‘I Win’ button to a gamer, the chances are that they’ll take it, because, as humans, we’re programmed to seek short-term gratification over long-term benefits - which is why if you offer people a choice between chocolate or fish, most people choose chocolate; as would I. I lack the willpower to choose otherwise.
It’s only later, in retrospect, that we realise that too many ‘quality of life’ changes rip the heart from the gaming experience, and shortcuts to completion destroy the essential ‘effort vs reward’ factor. The time sinks, gold sinks and all the rest of the things we tell ourselves we can live without all exist for very good reasons, especially in an MMO. There’s also a very good reason that all players should start on a level playing field, and nobody should be able to buy themselves an advantage over others.
By asking end users if they would like quality of life changes, boosts, instant gratification, shortcuts and all the rest, Blizzard run the risk of absolutely trashing their own creation.
If we disregard that the pitiful manner they do their survey and the horrible communication issues, I’d argue that the problem is that the options are so vague that they mean nothing.
“May include new content that differ from the experience in the original wow” what the hell does that mean? Retail Content-like? New content? Classic changes?
They already asked if people were happy to start at lv 58 in TBC in their last survey (one year ago or something? Great scouting…) and we ended up getting the paid boost…
Jagex often does complete and very detailed surveys in Old School Runescape and it’s pretty much perfect to ensure that the community will be satisfied by new content.
Half-baked surveys like this are pointless, but hey we’re used by Blizzard’s lack of professionalism anyways…
If someone is #nochanges he/she will react aggresively in the survey and they likely want to know how negative it will be (how much they can push it). If someone is a casual Classic player that wants just to do some quests and dungeons and stuff then likely will react positively - question is by how much.
The questions are vague to AFAIK measure how extreme reactions will be for every player group… or they actually have problems with communication and understanding some Classic aspects.
Classic improvement list: #buffs removed when you enter a dungeon/raid #AOEhitcap #TBC content (pvpsystemrework,arenas,raids,areas,no gear or downscaled to match T3/R14 power #P6) #no flying #layers but 2 active GM’s per realm #racials minimum balance #pvp gear more in line with phases #mobs pathing fixed #no leeways/batching #if 5-10 lvl difference between 2 chars inside a dungeon minimum-no xp gains #black lotus comes with random herb instead of “fixed” spawn
Yeah, it looks like they are concerned about the remaining population that will be left playing Classic after the majority of players set sail for TBC.
Although the cynic in me thinks that these new features and QoL changes are just a new way to monetize the game further perhaps adding boosts, race changes and faction changes.
I’ll be too busy playing TBC to care but one does wonder about the future of Classic and without fresh realms I can’t see it maintaining an active player base for long.
I’m not sure they understand what FRESH means to people. They are very keen at preservation yet, suddenly people say they want to dump their characters and start fresh either for vanilla or TBC - they may see that as a problem and not as a gameplay style.
The money is in this new copy thing they’re going to add, that allows you to make a duplicate of your char for TBC but keeping the same char in classic eternal or w/e classic forever realms are going to be called. So whatever they do add will be focused to that end I think.
They found a new way to monetize the classic playerbase it seems.
Cool, usually not for changes. That said the eternal realms seems a very good place to experiment abit.
Say they like added the battleground they never finished in Azshara.
Wouldnt mind that atall
The problem with Classic is that everyone thought that #nochanges (including myself) will result in the most authentic game compared with Vanilla but the result was in some aspect far from authentic. No changes outcomes are only an authentic game in theory but in practice is unauthentic, is authentic in theory because no one could deny if people knew in 2006 what we know how they would log off to preserve world buff, they would rush through AV, they would level with boosts…but they didn’t, no one could say that is how Vanilla was, so in essences #nochanges is a big change to the game.
They should be similar to TBC and have #somechanges with the focus of contrasting those theoretical but un-authentic metas, so in essence game changes to counter player’s meta changes, and the outcome is a more authentic game. For example, the drums in TBC, if there are no change people will have raids with 25 Leatherworkers, because in theory that could happen back in TBC, but in practice that didn’t happen so not changing this means making a big change to the game, while nerfing drums will result in a more authentic TBC.
There are many things in Classic that also require #somechanges to counter player’s meta changes and allow a more authentic game, like World Buffs, Boosts, and AV. I am especially disappointed with AV. Since I started playing in TBC I heard about those big AV battles during hours or even days, yet in Classic when I thought I finally could experience that but thanks to #nochanges AV has been changed to be a rush like in retail. AV requires changes that make it harder to rush it, at the end like any game people will optimize the fun out of the game, but the game can be changed so that unfun meta is no longer the optimal way of playing, like reducing honor gained if AV battle is to short.
Reminder that #NoChanges was popular early on mainly because the majority of the people simply didn’t want Blizzard to implement its “changes”, which might have included the likes of boosts and an in-game shop, given how greedy Blizzard is.
No one pretty much thought or had any info about World-buffs, dispelling, spell-batching, AV and such.
#NoChanges nowadays is just a scapegoat used to justify changes, while this wasn’t the goal in the first place.
The majority was against the monetization and the poor balancing of the game, not against bug fixes.
Reading those questions makes me wonder if the people at Blizzard who made that survey actually thinks wow classic didn’t differ significantly from the original wow…
I know that, I already said I was pro #NoChanges before Classic launch, I know that no one that wanted #NoChanges wanted World-buffs, dispelling, spell-batching, AV, and others but at the end that were the consequences of #NoChanges, the fact that this is not what we wanted does not change that is what we asked for, so it is our fault, ignorance is not an excuse.
It was reasonable to believe that #NoChanges was the best choice but we now know that we were wrong going for that, that has been Classic biggest mistake, because #NoChanges has turn into Classic biggest change. Now is time to do things right and make #Somechanges to counter those players meta changes to have real authenticity.
