Author Topic: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Vault_News 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Bashiok posted:
The blog seemed to be popular, and even players who disagreed with their being nerfed seemed to appreciate the fact that we tried to give some insight into what we were thinking. GC and the his crew are going to try to keep making similar blogs for every patch. I think it was one of the more positively received blogs in long while.

Offering a lot of justification for changes early on a patch though is challenging for a number of reasons. First is that patch builds are often just snapshots of the data at any given time. We wait until everything is near perfect for actual releases (as far as you can ever do with as complex a game as this), but when we are in PTR mode the devs are trying to get builds out quickly. That means you'll often see a change that was half-implemented or something that a designer was messing around with. There often isn't justification for those type of changes -- it could just be trying to fix a bug or seeing how something feels with a slight redesign. Second, it takes a lot of time to justify those changes and designers are often really busy implementing the actual changes at that stage in the beta. When the changes are not even necessarily 'real' changes, justifying what might not stick probably isn't a great use of time. Finally, we greatly appreciate feedback from the community and it can have a big influence on our game design, but at the same time we want to avoid the perception that the players are collaborating on with us on designing the game. It's tricky to manage expectations in that way, but if we lead players to believe they have more influence on design decisions than they actually do, then there's a lot of undue frustrated and dismay when we don't make a change that some may really wants us to make. Being able to take player feedback while making sure they don't expect that feedback to be implemented as-is can be a tough balancing act, but is still a necessary one.


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Spookysheep 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Being able to take player feedback while making sure they don't expect that feedback to be implemented


Great way to get those 600,000 subs back...

 

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Ugh_Lancelot 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Bashiok posted:
Being
able to take player feedback while making sure they don't expect that
feedback to be implemented as-is can be a tough balancing act, but is
still a necessary one.

Bashiok_drunk_and_honest posted:
Being
able to take player feedback and route it to /dev/null while making sure they don't expect that
feedback to be implemented
keep paying for subs as-is, especially after the shenanigans we've pulled in 4.0 and later, can be a tough balancing act, but is
still a necessary one if we want to keep Bobby from firing us all.

 

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-Peo- 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Vault_News posted:
Bashiok posted:

Herpadurpa


Fix't

 

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Kriegprojekt 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Huh? Me are not understand Blizzard PR staff.

 

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Blisteringballs 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
What's funny about that blog post is the psychology behind it. I think the overwhelming criticism is getting to him, so he's using circular logic to justify poor design, without knowing he's doing it. He strikes me as the kind of guy that if he actually smoked a joint, he'd have a self reflective revelation and realize what he's been doing wrong.

 

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Kriegprojekt 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Blisteringballs posted:
What's funny about that blog post is the psychology behind it. I think the overwhelming criticism is getting to him, so he's using circular logic to justify poor design, without knowing he's doing it. He strikes me as the kind of guy that if he actually smoked a joint, he'd have a self reflective revelation and realize what he's been doing wrong.


Doubtful. He would probably become so paranoid, he would tear off his clothes and run screaming through the Blizzard office.

 

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Quazimortal 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Kriegprojekt posted:
Blisteringballs posted:
What's funny about that blog post is the psychology behind it. I think the overwhelming criticism is getting to him, so he's using circular logic to justify poor design, without knowing he's doing it. He strikes me as the kind of guy that if he actually smoked a joint, he'd have a self reflective revelation and realize what he's been doing wrong.


Doubtful. He would probably become so paranoid, he would tear off his clothes and run screaming through the Blizzard office.


That would be an improvement.

 

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PallyDog 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Offering a lot of justification for changes early on a patch though is challenging for a number of reasons.



I stopped reading right there.

 

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Auenwing 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
<Bashiok says something in a language that is not understandable.>

Please try again, this time preferably with emphasis on the customer and clarity. Thank you.



.
.
.

edit: sorry, forgot the <straightface>

<straightface>

 

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Auenwing 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
PS: it is plainly obvious that Blizzard has a process that is totally self-focused and does not value customer feedback.

Was it really necessary for them to share that process with the customer?

Or were they just thinking out loud?

 

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LadyGodiva. 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
Finally, we greatly appreciate feedback from the community and it can have a big influence on our game design, but at the same time we want to avoid the perception that the players are collaborating on with us on designing the game. It's tricky to manage expectations in that way, but if we lead players to believe they have more influence on design decisions than they actually do, then there's a lot of undue frustrated and dismay when we don't make a change that some may really wants us to make. Being able to take player feedback while making sure they don't expect that feedback to be implemented as-is can be a tough balancing act, but is still a necessary one.



What in the world was he trying to convey to *players*? Because it comes off as: "We listen to players, but we don't care - we're designing this game, not you."

That's a fine stance to take when the majority of players are happy with the game and there's a very small vocal minority that's unhappy and requesting outlandish things - but that's not the case. Blizzard seems hell-bent on disenfranchising as many people as possible.

It would be bad enough if this what they say behind closed doors, but to post it to the public is stupid. I would be immediately fired if I ever told customers that 'your opinions are basically meaningless and dealing with you is a tricky mind-game.'

 

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Arcilite_I 
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Subject: GC, Proactive is better than Reactive:
It's all part of the plan:


1) Leak info saying new IP is coming out
2) Destroy PvE/P and tell the players to eff off
3) Pray they move to new IP

 

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