On Blizzard and caving
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 28th 2009 at 3:00PM
Players complain that dual specs are available only at the highest level, and Blizzard drops them down to level 40 (and removes the reagent, to boot). Engineers complain they don't have a self-buff, and they get one. Hunters are finally getting that last bag back. Even after the Love is in the Air holiday ends, Blizzard decided to nerf the achievement so everyone can get it anyway. And when ghetto hearthing, a much-loved exploit, is removed from the game, Blizzard decides to nerf, of all things, the hearthstone cooldown. Is it just us, or is Blizzard doing a lot of spelunking lately?Not that it bothers us -- most of those changes are welcome. The good thing about Blizzard caving is that at least it'll make somebody happy. But on the other hand (just to play devil's advocate here), this game is great because the devs made it, not because the players did. If Blizzard caves in every time players throw a fit on the forums, won't that hurt the game?
It's not happening, says Zarhym. He says the Hearthstone change, as well as presumably all of the other changes above, came about not because of constant pestering of the devs, but because they sat down and made the decision that it was right for the game. He doesn't say they never cave (we can probably all agree that the dual spec at 40 change likely came about from player feedback, even if it was very insightful feedback), but Zarhym says the devs won't move on stands they believe in. Given that patch 3.1 is like an early tax return with all of the bonuses we're getting back, we wonder what exactly those are.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, News items, Instances, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ROB13 Feb 28th 2009 3:07PM
If Blizz is caving, why are locks not getting any new demons or buffs to the female one?
First I think?
Terraxx Feb 28th 2009 3:12PM
Gee, I thought I'd be the first to state that blizzard is cave free with locks.
No Siphon Life
Shard cap at 32.
Everything else pertaining to locks.
kozom Feb 28th 2009 3:15PM
or balance druid getting a decent final tier talent, elemental getting the buffs they've wanted forever, or balance druids getting their armor back, or DKs getting nerfed, or balance druids getting...
they're caving only to classes that they normally cave to imo.
sephirah Feb 28th 2009 3:41PM
I'm still waiting for a new patch note:
- the new hearhstone cooldown, dual speccing at 40 and engineering buffs don't apply to warlocks.
MisterMoose Feb 28th 2009 3:14PM
If you bothered to read the WoW forums, you'd see tons of threads with tons of replies to buff this or change that. Most such threads have no apparent impact.
You're just looking at what they did change, notice players thought it should change, then conclude the Devs will do anything the players want. What you need to do is look at the changes players propose, the support of other players for those changes, and then see how many such proposals actually happen.
Bad logic is bad.
AutumnBringer Feb 28th 2009 3:26PM
That's pretty well stated there.
Also, they sure can't win, can they? If they don't do something that's requested, they just obviously fail to see what players actually want out of the game. If they make changes that were requested, they're just caving in and are letting players rule how the game is designed.
klink-o Mar 3rd 2009 7:50AM
At the same time, to say that nothing said on the forums has any impact on the changes they make is just silly.
Aaron A. Mar 3rd 2009 4:53PM
That's true, klink-o, but I don't think anybody was saying Blizz should either cave on everything or ignore everything. It depends, among other things, on the implications for the rest of the game, as well as how well the players present their case.
As stated in the article, certain players made a well-developed case for allowing dual specs at a lower level, but at a level high enough to be out of the range of most twinks and alts. That sort of feedback is far more likely to sway the designers than "DURIDS IZ 4 FAIL!"
Drakxii Feb 28th 2009 4:17PM
Really? You complaining that engineers finally are getting something other then a money sink in WotLK?
tchernobyl Feb 28th 2009 3:20PM
sorry to come off as insulting but, if you believe that those two engineering patterns are even *remotely* a self buff, you are sorely, sorely deluded.
No tank will use the armor buff over the threat glove enchant, and it's extremely doubtful any caster would take that spell power tinker over any other back enchant they could possibly use.
Zerokku Feb 28th 2009 3:24PM
I'm usually one who tries to refrain from "qq" but I'd have to second this. The engineering "buffs" are not even close to comparable to the self-buffs that are recieved from JC/Insc/Ench/BS/LW and Alch.
MisterMoose Feb 28th 2009 3:32PM
The armor buff is huge. I certainly don't need more threat.
Ferarro Feb 28th 2009 3:24PM
There's a difference between "caving" and the choices you make happening to parallel someone else's opinion.
slartibart Feb 28th 2009 3:58PM
C'mon now, you should know by now that these comments are only reserved for hyperbole, not logic. Just look at all the comments under the first.
Wah.... my specific class issue hasn't been fixed, qq.
Ferarro Feb 28th 2009 5:48PM
=) I know. It's sad, isn't it?
Eisengel Feb 28th 2009 3:25PM
I really don't see this as 'caving' at all. In general Wrath seems to be very much about bringing quality of life improvements to the player base... questing has gotten a lot nicer, leveling to 80 is much easier than leveling to 70 was (and leveling in general has gotten much easier). Intro raids and instances have been retuned, a lot of spells and abilities have been reworked to be much less annoying to work with. It seems that basically the game itself is getting a 'class review', where the devs sit down and look through it and say 'is this doing what we want?'
For instance, the tiny mana cost of Vampiric Embrace was removed, a welcome change. It makes no sense to have a spell cost 52 mana when basically every level 80 Spriest has well over 14k mana. The change to the Inner Fire duration was incredibly welcome as well. It's all the little things...
How many years has the Hearthstone cooldown been what it has been? Now, why did ghetto-hearthing exist in the first place? It was a way to get around the hearthstone cooldown. Way back in vanilla this was a way to get around flight time or riding time. Now a days though we have portals to major hot spots in two cities to cut out travel time as well as flying mounts in the new zones, and with the new expansions being released in areas that aren't adjacent to current areas, it makes travel time a much more apparent. I think the devs sat down and decided that if they made hearthing to these portal-equipped cities easier, maybe ghetto-hearthing wouldn't be necessary. Since the restrictions on traveling have already been eased so much, it doesn't make too much sense to keep hearthing quite so restrictive.
Amrytale Feb 28th 2009 3:33PM
When Blizzard still hasn't "caved" on the 10% physical damage nerf to TG, I find it hard to think that they cater too much to complainers.
Taladan Feb 28th 2009 3:31PM
You know, I thought all those changes were simply "This is PTR. We can change there and, if *we* like it, we'll make it in the live servers."
Who knows, maybe when 3.1 finally comes out, no more "BGs anywayre", ghetto hearting will still work and stones will still have 1h cool down.
FifthDream Feb 28th 2009 3:32PM
I thought the ammo thing had been removed.
mike Feb 28th 2009 3:44PM
The game is made for the people who play it therefore when the people want change they get it?
Within certain limits.