The way blizz devs respond when questioned about problems, it is as if they did not know the systems of BFA, and had an apathy outlook in comments, like there is nothing we can do now type remarks make me wonder if BFA along with near similar legion was outsourced? during Beta and PTR it seems actual blizzard devs like ION himself and more were not involved. Beta and PTR issues, questions, problems were never addressed or resolved, blizzard wiped the forum for it, something they did not do previous expacs and released BFA live.
My question is - who made this shambles of an Xpac?
I think the issue is that BFA was not made by core WOW developers but developers from their other titles. Hence you have shades of other games in this expansion. i also think too that they decided to go ahead with this templated system (everyone having the same stats, gear, mogs, etc) because it is easier to outsource later. If nothing is custom then someone can easily just step in and clone what they have and make something off that.
Blizzard having been moving devs in the following directions:
From WoW to other games. We are talking about experienced devs here, see various interviews and announcements. People getting tired developing mega-titles is just one latest reason, there have been others, including the most important one: where the company places its bets (and it isn’t on WoW).
From Titan to WoW. This was a big thing that got referenced in public multiple times. This involved both experienced and not really experienced devs, with the former mostly moving past WoW into other games.
Movements of developers from other games into WoW have been far and few between. Mostly it’s just Holinka who first left WoW and then returned.
They will pull more resources to Wow or Wow follower up, if their other bets fail.
ATM, all other titles are not doing great. They are profitable, but none became the next big thing.
You must realize that giant companies need giant titles to generate revenue. Nothing so far became giant.
RTS decays (modern players otside of Korea are not trilled by 300+ apm micro & macro requirements), other Blizzard games are loosing positions: some rapidly (Heroes of the storm, Overwatch, Diablo), some slower (Heartstone), but none of them provides an absurdly massive cashflow, like Wow did in the past.
