Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The latest patch 5.4 newsIs WoW being run by its B-team? Is that bad?
by Eliah Hecht 
Jul 14th 2009 at 8:00PM
This post by Eric Heimburg on the excellent MMO design blog Elder Game, alleging that WoW is currently run by Blizzard's B-team, has ignited a fair amount of controversy around the blogosphere. The general argument appears to be that the people previously in charge of WoW, like Jeff Kaplan, have moved on to other projects. As a consequence knee-jerk changes are being pushed through very fast, without being sufficiently tested first. "Back in the day," claims the article, "QA held the game to a higher standard."
My reaction to these claims are mixed. Kaplan may not be in charge of WoW anymore, but I don't think that "the steady hand has left the rudder," or if it has, maybe a less straight-ahead course is a good thing. Changes may be getting pushed through very quickly - Ghostcrawler routinely refers to players getting whiplash from the frequency of balance changes - but in many cases, I think this is for the best.
Throughout the BC era, WoW followed a model of punctuated equilibrium: relatively large changes in major patches, and very little in-between. This did mean a lot of testing could be done for most changes, but the downside is that it regularly took months for problems to be fixed.
Nowadays, we appear to have a faster cycle of minor (two-decimal-point) patches, as well as copious hotfixes. Sure, it causes some cruft to accumlate - like leatherworkers being able to craft now-worthless quivers, in Heimburg's example - but I think a faster problem/solution turnaround time is well worth a few rough edges. Rapid iteration has been a principle of web design for a while now. Maybe it's time it came to MMOs, which are conceptually similar to web apps.
Overall, I think the game is continually improving. It's in a better state now than it ever has been, and it will be better still in 3.2, if what I'm seeing from the PTR is any indication. (Caveat: No more jousting, please. It is simply not fun.) So if there are indeed new people in charge of WoW, I for one welcome our change-happy overlords.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Veezy F Jul 14th 2009 8:45PM
Vanilla WoW was better, really? Hours and hours of farming mats for one attempt? Attunements that made joining a guild a nightmare? Having Blizzard choose your spec for you if your a hybrid? The old PvP system?
"Balance was better in Vanilla WoW?"
Are you out of your damn mind? Did you even PvP in Vanilla WoW?
The game was harder, for stupid reasons, then now. I'll give you that. But better and more balanced? There may be more stupid people now than before, but the game is in a much better place than it's ever been. Seriously, do you even remember how terrible running MC was?
What have you cleared exactly? Have you downed Alganon with your guild? Recieved your e-peen increasing "Death's Demise" title? No? Then how can you comment on the difficulty of things you haven't received yet?
Yes, some things have been dumbed down. And yes, there are PLENTY of bad players to sift through. You need to take of the rose tinted glasses for a moment and remember just how BAD the game was five years ago before spouting the generic "it was better when it was hard" speech.
megamogx Jul 14th 2009 10:49PM
Indeed vannila was epic now its a just new instances being redone 4x to look like they added lots content....
andy Jul 15th 2009 5:51AM
sorry, more balanced in vanilla wow.
entire specs were unusable, and a joke.
one example neferians class calls, these were made to attempt too cripple one class unless they did something drastic.
hunters role call was for there bow/gun to be broken because thats how they did damage
druids role call was to be put in cat form.......
Thats right cat dps was so bad it was considered comparable to breaking a hunters main weapon.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jul 15th 2009 11:52AM
Paladins overpowerd in Vanilla WoW? HA HA HA, what planet were you from? I remember Vanilla wow and I certainly don't recall this ... unless it's some sort bias comment mixed from present attitudes.
Ret and Prot were joke specs back then and when searching for a healer, paladins were NOT first choice. They were back up and support that was it.
max Jul 14th 2009 8:19PM
It's definently their B...or C...or D team when it comes to bug fixes and patch implementation.
Nathanyel Jul 14th 2009 8:20PM
Kaplan leaving was actually one of the better things that could happen to WoW.
See e.g. http://www.wow.com/2007/10/15/a-tigole-flashback-to-legacy-of-steel/#c8165083
Also, Kaplan leaves, Dual-Spec enters - or the other way around?
Land Jul 14th 2009 8:25PM
In all honesty, i know quiet a few people across the three realms i play are losing interest in WoW rather steadily since this patch(Ulduar) came out. The content no longer is really being entertaining, but rather in my opinion, their just focusing on boss fights being hard and little else. Consider how the BC raids, ie. BT, Kara, Zulaman, had a entertaining and unique feature for each instance. Now you come to Naxx or Ulduar(excluding Levi i
Posi Jul 14th 2009 8:57PM
Not entertaining? That's because people these days have such a sense of entitlement they want things for free without having to work for them.... Oooo, it's too hard to do Naxx and gear up for Ulduar. oooo, Ulduars too hard so it's not fun. Ulduar is one of the best instances to come out in a long time. the dynamics and graphics are incredible. Finally, the players that work hard, learn the game, and have skills can put put a gear gap between them and the players that sit in chat all day, cant even run in a successful 5 man, and cry about AH prices. But it's not fair right.... because now good players have gear and skills, so Blizzard has to water down the content so that every player in the game has the exact same T9 full set by running Heroic Utgarde Keep and to make things worse, all T9 gear looks identical now because Blizzard is too lazy to create more than 3 models for all the classes. So now, Ulduar, will go by the way of Black Temple because the new Kara is coming. Lame....
Land Jul 14th 2009 8:25PM
one last thing to point, to the people who mentioned that they don't really care who makes the patches. Just look at the fall of ingenuity and creative styles from S6-S7, then take a look at S8 and tell me the new team isn't lazy.
Keeoto Jul 14th 2009 9:02PM
Yes, having S1-S4 as recolored T4-6.5 was clearly more creative.
Eisengel Jul 15th 2009 7:36PM
I agree in principle with the recoloring argument, but just look at the sets... they are amazing. The only problem with them was that they were SO different that you would look insane if you mixed the sets as you got upgrades. In general there was a lot of 'clown suit' gear in BC, and many of the sets really epitomized that.
Personally, i think the devs went a little too far with the homogenization of the looks. Classes aren't really visually differentiable in Tier gear any more, and personally I really don't like the look of any of the new PvP sets.
I'm hoping the item devs learned from Wrath for the next expansion... so that gear will be interesting, look awesome, and will not be clown-suit-tastic as you upgrade.
Gessilea Jul 14th 2009 8:28PM
I'm with Eliah on this one - the old experience of long waits between patches was annoying. The folks complaining about how Blizz handles bugs should imagine what it was like when you might have to wait two or three months for any fixes at all (and yes, I know there are still bugs that hang around for a long time but I don't believe as many as there used to be).
Also, vanilla wow had exactly two things to do at endgame - PvP or raid. Now there's a whole lot more. I mean, I remember the Darkmoon fair going in being the pinnacle of new casual content! I sure wouldn't still be playing if the game hadn't expanded as much as it has. So yeah, whoever this "B-team" is, good job guys!
epsilon343 Jul 14th 2009 8:44PM
The thing you point out about the casual players getting more to do is also, I think, the biggest failing. Blizzard has made great strides in making the game accessible and enjoyable for casual players that make it so that people don't HAVE to raid or PVP. And that's GREAT!
But on the other side of the coin...those same strides haven't been made in the PVE/end game content and everything I've been seeing seems to be confirming that this trend will continue. The new raid looks horribly uninteresting and rivaling the 3.0 raids in terms of laziness. From what I've seen, most of the bosses borrow tactics from previous encounters and the instance is a single room that collapses and you encounter a reused boss from this expansion. Nothing is original and it all feels old before we've even gone into it.
My $.02
Gessilea Jul 14th 2009 8:52PM
I dunno. I made a post above that pretty much sums up my feeling about end game PvE in vanilla. Personally I think we as a player base have gotten kind of spoiled. We get new content and new armor sets every 2-3 months, and we complain that it's not ZOMGthebestthingeverseen. It's like the whole thing with the new armor designs. We complain when our armor doesn't match, but giant flashy sets only look good if you have the whole set, otherwise you look like a clown. So they give us mix and match gear, and we complain that it's not huge and flashy. *shrug* Eventually it's just the same arguments recycled over and over and over again. There are posts in this thread that could be copied verbatim into a thread from three years ago.
epsilon343 Jul 14th 2009 8:37PM
I absolutely believe that the B-team has been put onto WoW. Too much in the game screams cut and paste (armor) or lazy (most of the raids) that would either be delegated to a much reduced development team or the less skilled developers who have basically been tasked with being the game's watcher till the new MMO is launched.
It's like paying for a concert ticket and only getting to see the local openers and not the headliner.
Keeoto Jul 14th 2009 9:14PM
Really, are ppl just saying this for the sake of saying it, have they actually raided anything beyond naxx? Do they even remember about copy/paste t4-t6.5, season 1-4 recolored armor?
How T6.5 was exactly like T9 is going to be, except in T9 the textures are different just same model, while in T6.5 both textures and models where identical?
Gareth Jul 16th 2009 6:47AM
epsilon343 I completely agree, up until now we have one single instance added which is also high quality, but the rest of these changes (especially for this content patch) involve a staggering amount of cut and paste, same bosses, amour all looks identical etc.
Even Naxx was surprising to see just dropped in there with no graphical re-working to match the quality of northrend.
I do believe the B-team are in charge of things and have been so since the launch of WotLK with the bulk of the development staff heading off to the new MMO. Personally I think this is a huge mistake and would even question the whole approach to creating a new MMO here, annoying the player base for your current game isn't a great way to get them to subscribe to your new one, something which is especially true of MMO's.
Add to that I think this patch sort of underlines a sense of desperation in the way its needed, outside of Uldar now everything else is just too plain easy and does not give me a sense of accomplishment because of that.
Sizer Jul 14th 2009 8:46PM
Oh please, while its content designers are top notch WoW has never had any useful QA or software standards. It has tossed crap patches out untested since before launch, and it is quite common for something to regress between releases since they have no useful software configuration management at all.
I'm not seeing any huge difference here software quality wise. Content-wise, sure.
ToyChristopher Jul 14th 2009 8:47PM
I like a lot of the changes that are put into the game like dual specs, battleground leveling, and the faster patches. However, it does seem like the same mechanics are being played to death.
Nathanyel Jul 14th 2009 10:10PM
Well that could also be because you've been playing those mechanics for several years now. There's only so much they can change in WoW without creating a totally different game, and I think in general it's going in a good direction. Things like race/faction switches are obvious bullcrap, but when you look beyond that, they've created a lot of content that caters to both casual and hardcore players.