I was sleeping comfortably when I woke up a week ago to the sound of my phone buzzing. A hurt, angry player on the other end communicated: “What the hell? Why did you do it? Why did you leave us here like this? Don’t you understand that we needed you? Couldn’t you shut your mouth then – or speak up now and show people the truth? We haven’t forgotten you. Don’t forget us!” Okay, that story is made up, just like the dramatic grandstanding below, but it expresses the sentiment I got from people who kept linking me to threads like this one. (http://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20748505218?page=1)
I rubbed my eyes, felt a surge of ego, pride, grief, anxiety, compassion then fear. Was this a place I wanted to return to? Is this a story I’m ready to tell? Do they understand that I’m not the person they think I am? Would anyone accept that truth? Do I even have the perspective to tell the truth? It may not be the pleasant one they expect to hear. Or perhaps instead it may be exactly the story they need to hear. Would it even reach the people who are angry?
What say you? Are you, reader, ready for a piece the truth, even if it means re-evaluating every assumption you have? Am I even capable of telling it?
Answer carefully. I’m not sure of the answer to this myself.
Ion, Chadd, Greg, Kris, Tom, J., Dave, Craig – you lived through this era and had to deal with the aftermath. Is it time for this story to be told?
@xelnath (twitter)
I believe a lot of people are waiting anxiously about that story, considering the big changes it might’ve caused and still causing to this day.
Xelnath, you’re a big tease is what you are!
Anyhoo…
I think that, at least those who have read your previous post-mortems, already have a good idea of what’s up; but before answering your question, I’d like to provide my own impression of the situation at hand:
You already know this, but I feel it’s important to reiterate, that WoW is a game that encourages personal investment, of money, time and effort. More than that, it encourages emotional attachment. It is to your (and all WoW devs’) credit that players feel such an attachment, that is on a much higher level than most works in this medium, and orders of magnitude higher than works in other mediums. With this, however, comes an aspect that is all too familiar nowadays: people with such a level of emotional attachment consider the game, their class, their character, as part of their identity. It becomes part of who they are.
This is both fantastic and dangerous. It is the goal of any artist to evoke such a strong connection with their audience; but simultaneously, having made such a connection, when you change your work, you run the risk of having your audience feel that connection is being betrayed. That who they are as a person is being attacked. And like all living things, they go on the defensive.
Take that and add to it a severe lack of communication (for which I will absolutely fault Blizzard), with the only real reasoning given to players being in the form of the ambiguous (and now meme-level) term – “Class Fantasy,” and you get some very angry, very embittered, very frustrated players.
Now, I am not a developer, just a simple player; but from reading your blog and playing as long as I have, I gather that being a developer for a game like WoW, that MUST repeatedly evolve to avoid stagnation, is finding a way to reconcile between two points of view: The developers’ “This is how we feel OUR game should be played now.” and the players’ “This is how I want to play MY game. Why did you take it away from me?!”
And let us be honest, in my eyes, “Class Fantasy” is just that. It’s a wishy-washy way of saying “Yeah, we’re gonna shake everything up because it’s been too long since we did that.” Now, the misunderstanding amongst the players that are angry right now is that this is not within the devs’ rights to do. And let’s also be clear, it is.
I feel communication is the key to helping players understand the devs’ position, the key to smoothing things over. Though it is a double-edged sword, players with such a level of attachment as mentioned need to feel included, to feel that they are heard. That said, however, all the communication in the world won’t change the fact that if a player is not having fun with their class, they’re not going to play it. And sadly, if a recent Reddit poll is to be believed, that is the case with many warlocks.
And though I’ve spoken about ‘players’ in the third person throughout this post, I’m definitely one of those who are quite disappointed by the lack of response.
But now I’m realizing that this was way too much text, sorry!
So, back to your question… If you feel that telling the story would provide some insight, whether it serves to dispel frustration or amplify it, if it helps players understand; it’s probably worth telling. But obviously, if you feel it would damage your position in any way… Don’t do it. After reading, we’ll go watch a funny Youtube video, while you still have to work in this industry. Personally, I would love to hear it.
P.S.
Ignore everything I just said, PLZ BLUE, BRING META BACK!
P.P.S.
I kinda went on a rant, without thinking that this might not be the proper place, so feel free to not approve the post 🙂
yes, please! tell us! why did you leave us!
Hey there, I’m the guy who wrote that overly dramatic thread about the destruction of your legacy (proof: http://imgur.com/a/1EHfD). First of all let me just apologize if the sudden barrage of tweets/emails on the subject put you in an awkward position – I wouldn’t have guessed you’d even see the thread or have people pestering you about it.
I’m also completely aware most of the stuff in that thread is total BS – I just wanted to bring attention to what I (and many other Warlocks) feel is a huge step back for Warlocks in Legion. There are already many great threads detailing our problems, I just wanted to continue the conversation in a different way, and I ended up going for something a little more comical in nature.
However, I stand by the opinion that you were the best thing to ever happen to Warlocks, and that the Green Fire quest is probably the single best quest in WoW. You also engaged with the community far more than anyone still at Blizzard, these days it seems absolutely impossible to get Blizzard to pay attention to any kind of feedback – one wonders why they even have a Beta if they won’t fix the most minor of issues (spell effects/animation bugs) even with thousands of reports detailing the issues.
Anyways, I’ve gotten off topic: I’d love to hear your take on what happened near the end of your time at Blizzard – especially if it challenges the common story that everyone seems to think they know already.
Thank you for all the amazing work you put into my favorite class – it will never be forgotten.
I just want to know why, when you were on the team things got a lot better for us, and when you left they have continued to get much, much worse. I’m sure you’ve heard about the travesty of the Legion Warlock class, I’m not sure if you’ve actually played it however, it seems as if they’re trying to erase everything good that was added to us while you were on the team. Hell, even green fire seems like its being phased out, all the spell casters got new spell effects, but green fire was left out of the face lift, its the exact same effects that fire spells have had since Cata while fire mages have fancy looking fire spells now.
Whether we will “like” the truth or not I can’t say, as I don’t know it, but regardless of “liking” it or not, we NEED it and that’s what truly matters and if you can shed any light on it I implore you to do so.
The “truth”, no matter how subjective it may be sometimes, is still better than nothing at all. Between late Pandaria and current Legion, we would love to know how this “eyes-wide-shut” party currently handling class design has come to the conclusions they have over Warlock design in general.
To me, Warlock design lately has been much akin to getting a new commander in the military. Every time we had a change of command, the new commander had all these AMAZING ideas! They will revolutionize the way we do things, improve quality of life, etc..! The irony is it always had the opposite effect. It was a perpetual cycle of adapt and survive. And that, in a nutshell, is how I feel the development team handles warlocks. In all fairness, most of the classes get a lack of TLC… except mages. They never seem to have a down moment.
I’m personally tremendously interested in hearing your perspective on it. Its a risk that you’ll be misunderstood or that you’ll anger some folks, but no more than are already angry and already misrepresent your past statements I wouldn’t think.
Anyway I hope you decide to do it, I’d be fascinated.
– Turturin
Alex,
In all my years of playing World of Warcraft, your immense accomplishments of the warlock class were some of the most amazing accomplishment by a dev. I am sure most, if not all of us, would be highly interested in whatever “story” you’re referring to.
Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow. Sometimes it confirms what we believe and sometimes it is painful to hear. Regardless, it would put to rest an immense amount of the angst and concern which STILL floats around the lock community to this day. I believe it is the right time to hear what you have to say, not only for the players who miss your intellect, but also for yourself.
– A warlock with rose-colored glasses
Alex,
In all my years of playing World of Warcraft, your immense accomplishments of the warlock class were some of the most amazing accomplishment by a dev. I am sure most, if not all of us, would be highly interested in whatever “story” you’re referring to.
Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow. Sometimes it confirms what we believe and sometimes it is painful to hear. Regardless, it would put to rest an immense amount of the angst and concern which STILL floats around the lock community to this day. I believe it is the right time to hear what you have to say, not only for the players who miss your intellect, but also for yourself.
– A warlock with rose-colored glasses
Thank you. Just don’t be disappointed by the truth 🙂
I appreciate your enthusiasm. I intend to remain respectful of the hard work my colleagues put into the game.