World of Warcraft

[Haramburger]

Remember how in the first tier of Pandaria, weapons had a special "Sha" socket that only took "Sha" gems from the Black Prince? Great mechanic, very memorable . Why was it abandoned in the second tier when raiding the bug base was in full swing?

I wouldn't mind these "tacked-on" systems if they EVER CAME BACK. Corruption was very fucked by luck from the first third of the Nyalotha tier, and it sort of got better by the time the vendor came in, even though the rotating vendor schedule was retarded. I even liked that the cloak had to be upgraded so you could even attempt N'Zoth. But why, after all the fixing they did to Corruption, did they not bring it back in Shadowlands? You could rename the shit "Domination burden" or "Chains of fate" or whatever, and just carry over the system and most of the corruption powers, make a few new ones, keep tuning. It was done. People got used to it, and would take it again.

I'm not interacting with the Shards of Domination/rune words this tier, because why bother? It's going to be invalid next patch and not fixed/re-used. Hopefully whomever keeps shoehorning it in is also a boob-grabber and gets fired, because I'm sick of abandoned and mothballed "features."

 

[Übertroon]

Remember how in the first tier of Pandaria, weapons had a special "Sha" socket that only took "Sha" gems from the Black Prince? Great mechanic, very memorable . Why was it abandoned in the second tier when raiding the bug base was in full swing?

I wouldn't mind these "tacked-on" systems if they EVER CAME BACK. Corruption was very fucked by luck from the first third of the Nyalotha tier, and it sort of got better by the time the vendor came in, even though the rotating vendor schedule was retarded. I even liked that the cloak had to be upgraded so you could even attempt N'Zoth. But why, after all the fixing they did to Corruption, did they not bring it back in Shadowlands? You could rename the shit "Domination burden" or "Chains of fate" or whatever, and just carry over the system and most of the corruption powers, make a few new ones, keep tuning. It was done. People got used to it, and would take it again.

I'm not interacting with the Shards of Domination/rune words this tier, because why bother? It's going to be invalid next patch and not fixed/re-used. Hopefully whomever keeps shoehorning it in is also a boob-grabber and gets fired, because I'm sick of abandoned and mothballed "features."

Yeah, I don't get why corruption got scrapped. I get that it had a lot of required teeaking and balancing, but corruption was actual character progression. Not just gear stats that will be replaced in the next patch.

 

[King Dead]

Remember how in the first tier of Pandaria, weapons had a special "Sha" socket that only took "Sha" gems from the Black Prince? Great mechanic, very memorable . Why was it abandoned in the second tier when raiding the bug base was in full swing?

I wouldn't mind these "tacked-on" systems if they EVER CAME BACK. Corruption was very fucked by luck from the first third of the Nyalotha tier, and it sort of got better by the time the vendor came in, even though the rotating vendor schedule was retarded. I even liked that the cloak had to be upgraded so you could even attempt N'Zoth. But why, after all the fixing they did to Corruption, did they not bring it back in Shadowlands? You could rename the shit "Domination burden" or "Chains of fate" or whatever, and just carry over the system and most of the corruption powers, make a few new ones, keep tuning. It was done. People got used to it, and would take it again.

I'm not interacting with the Shards of Domination/rune words this tier, because why bother? It's going to be invalid next patch and not fixed/re-used. Hopefully whomever keeps shoehorning it in is also a boob-grabber and gets fired, because I'm sick of abandoned and mothballed "features."

Your guess is as good as mine. I think it could be chalked up to one of two reasons:

1. Different devs coming along and wanting to leave their own mark on the game.
2. An unwillingness to continue existing systems for fear that they'll become stale.

The first I understand from an ego perspective, being able to point to a system that worked and say "yeah, I did that." I don't understand the second one, however, since we had tier sets for seven expansions in a row and I don't think anyone ever thought the concept of "put multiple pieces of a set on for a bonus" was outdated. But nope, it's old and busted, let's get rid of 'em for Azerite Armor™!

It could also be a sign of WoW's schizophrenic development. While I can't guarantee this for sure, it seems as though the initial plan for Mists was to have players work towards creating their own legendary weapons over the course of the expansion; you'd acquire the Sha-Touched weapon for your spec through raiding in the first tier, then upgrade it over time, eventually turning it into a legendary. But after tier 14, they abandoned that concept, either because players were against the concept of "welfare legendaries" or because it would invalidate weapon drops for the rest of the expansion. So instead they just tossed in legendary meta gems for tier 15, a good cloak for 5.3, and then a quick upgrade into a legendary cloak for tier 16. I suppose it makes sense why they changed course, but why didn't they see these issues before?

Same deal with artifact weapons. You went to all this trouble building up your power over the course of the expansion, only to have it all snatched away as soon as 8.0 hit, going from an unstoppable force to a noodle-armed dweeb. It's no coincidence that I stopped playing not long after that, especially since it was clear that Blizzard hadn't done enough to rework classes to take into account the loss of artifact traits. Enhance was missing way too much from its core rotation that the artifact used to provide, and it just wasn't fun anymore.

 

[ZMOT]

Your guess is as good as mine. I think it could be chalked up to one of two reasons:

1. Different devs coming along and wanting to leave their own mark on the game.
2. An unwillingness to continue existing systems for fear that they'll become stale.

The first I understand from an ego perspective, being able to point to a system that worked and say "yeah, I did that." I don't understand the second one, however, since we had tier sets for seven expansions in a row and I don't think anyone ever thought the concept of "put multiple pieces of a set on for a bonus" was outdated. But nope, it's old and busted, let's get rid of 'em for Azerite Armor™!

It could also be a sign of WoW's schizophrenic development. While I can't guarantee this for sure, it seems as though the initial plan for Mists was to have players work towards creating their own legendary weapons over the course of the expansion; you'd acquire the Sha-Touched weapon for your spec through raiding in the first tier, then upgrade it over time, eventually turning it into a legendary. But after tier 14, they abandoned that concept, either because players were against the concept of "welfare legendaries" or because it would invalidate weapon drops for the rest of the expansion. So instead they just tossed in legendary meta gems for tier 15, a good cloak for 5.3, and then a quick upgrade into a legendary cloak for tier 16. I suppose it makes sense why they changed course, but why didn't they see these issues before?

Same deal with artifact weapons. You went to all this trouble building up your power over the course of the expansion, only to have it all snatched away as soon as 8.0 hit, going from an unstoppable force to a noodle-armed dweeb. It's no coincidence that I stopped playing not long after that, especially since it was clear that Blizzard hadn't done enough to rework classes to take into account the loss of artifact traits. Enhance was missing way too much from its core rotation that the artifact used to provide, and it just wasn't fun anymore.

I suspect they tried to come up with "new" systems/copy them from other games, but didn't fully understand how they worked and the long-term effects, which is pretty much the mark of a shit designer (no need to be a boobgrabber, it's simply happens when you stop hiring based on merit). imagine a SWTOR designer suddenly in charge of WoW development...
legendary always read like they saw it in LOTRO, thought "neat" but never bothered to properly fit into the game besides "well, it's shit you grind for, that's why you sub, right?". same for artifact weapons which reminded me of ESO sets which augment existing skills (but since there's a gear cap it's a matter of choosing the right one for the job, not the one with the higher number).

worse, WoW isn't even a complicated game in the first place (never was, they just tacked more shit on it), that's why it's so baffling when even casuals can understand how shit most of that is designed - and you can only distract them with OMG NEW EXPANSION!!11 while taking their toys they grinded months for away so often (and wasn't a big deal previously since it simply got replaced with new toys that had a higher number, so it didn't feel like a loss and waste of time).

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Your guess is as good as mine. I think it could be chalked up to one of two reasons:

1. Different devs coming along and wanting to leave their own mark on the game.
2. An unwillingness to continue existing systems for fear that they'll become stale.

I believe it's partially due to the fact that there's different teams working on different expacs, like Mists was designed by team A and WoD was designed by team B, and they alternate releases.

The other big explanation is that Blizzard devs are lazy and retarded and absolutely suck at their jobs, and spend more time huffing farts and navel gazing than they do playing the game. It's always the same shit expansion after expansion, and the players eat it all up.

 

[King Dead]

I believe it's partially due to the fact that there's different teams working on different expacs, like Mists was designed by team A and WoD was designed by team B, and they alternate releases.

The other big explanation is that Blizzard devs are lazy and retarded and absolutely suck at their jobs, and spend more time huffing farts and navel gazing than they do playing the game. It's always the same shit expansion after expansion, and the players eat it all up.

I mean, incompetence is the easiest explanation, so that's why I was looking for alternate theories. WoD's legendary system was much more consistent than Mists's, where it started with an epic ring that you upgraded through each raid tier, culminating in a legendary ring at the end of the expansion. So it's not like the devs can't learn from mistakes, as rare as it might be.

The bigger problem, as mentioned by @ZMOT above, is that when you give players a shiny toy and then take it away, you need something bigger to get them to stick around through the next expansion. The legendary cloaks were the first time that many players got to experience having a legendary item when it was current content, so they brought the concept back in WoD with the knowledge from the start that eventually they'd get another one during the final raid tier. I guess the dopamine was wearing off from those, however, so they brought in artifact weapons in Legion, along with Legiondaries (which were great if you got a top tier one for your spec, though that was infrequent at best, with many players forced to wait for later patches until they could just buy the ones they needed). Then they tried to top those with all kinds of systems in BfA (the Heart of Azeroth, Azerite Armor, Essences, Corruption, another legendary cloak), only to take all that away yet again in Shadowlands and replace it with...fuck if I know, I haven't been paying attention to this shit.

Point being, it's a fool's errand for Blizzard to keep trying to top themselves like that. Not only does it introduce a bunch of unnecessary systems into the game as they attempt to reinvent the wheel for the umpteenth time and waste a lot of dev work, eventually players are going to get burned out by constantly taking their toys away, knowing that at best they're going to have to wait a good year and a half before they get something comparable again. Same thing with shit like locking down flight every expansion until the X.1 patch and requiring that lengthy grind to get it back. Everyone reaches their breaking point eventually; for me it was the start of BfA, others quit sooner, and still others are quitting now.

On a side note, I kinda wonder what the response would be if Blizzard announced player housing for 10.0. Would anyone even care at that point?

 

[Haramburger]

an epic ring that you upgraded through each raid tier, culminating in a legendary ring at the end of the expansion. So it's not like the devs can't learn from mistakes, as rare as it might be.

as an aside, I think it's funny that this Ring, which did some chaining stat boosts to other wearers/damage & healing of enough people have it upgraded to that point & are close to each other, is a persistent idea. I first remember it from D3, there's rings that split damage between all wearers(Unity) and other that forks damage between wearers(it might be a legendary gem instead?). But the concept carried over to WOD, and now in Shadowlands as one of the multi-class memories(Judgement of the Arbiter). Why would anybody wear that under-tuned piece of shit in a party with other players wearing the same thing for maximum effect, when you're limited to ONE legendary still and there's a logical, mathematical best in slot for every spec that isn't THAT? They wasted a lot of development time with 20(and now 24) for each class and there's genuinely zero choice.

I like the idea behind what they've tried to do with this concept, but it's always useless and unusable. You'd think between multiple games they'd eventually get it right somewhere, but nope.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

 

[Agarathium1066]

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

I'd rather they just have everyone running around with their ass hanging out. Give us the option to have banana hammocks.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

its funny when Chris Metzen daughter asked him the same question and all he said was "i dont know honey". you know EXATCLY why you cokehead fuck! did your wife take your balls away or something?

 

[King Dead]

as an aside, I think it's funny that this Ring, which did some chaining stat boosts to other wearers/damage & healing of enough people have it upgraded to that point & are close to each other, is a persistent idea. I first remember it from D3, there's rings that split damage between all wearers(Unity) and other that forks damage between wearers(it might be a legendary gem instead?). But the concept carried over to WOD, and now in Shadowlands as one of the multi-class memories(Judgement of the Arbiter). Why would anybody wear that under-tuned piece of shit in a party with other players wearing the same thing for maximum effect, when you're limited to ONE legendary still and there's a logical, mathematical best in slot for every spec that isn't THAT? They wasted a lot of development time with 20(and now 24) for each class and there's genuinely zero choice.

I like the idea behind what they've tried to do with this concept, but it's always useless and unusable. You'd think between multiple games they'd eventually get it right somewhere, but nope.

It worked somewhat well in WoD since it was the only legendary that anyone was going to have on them, and it was such a clear boost from stats alone that there really was no reason not to wear it if you had it. Occasionally you had people using it at an inappropriate time so the boost wasn't as good as it could have been, but that was a minor problem, and you could make use of its on-use effect even if you were playing solo.

In a Legiondary-style system, however, you're right, there's way too much competition for an item with an effect that only reaches its full potential in a group. Destiny 2 had a similar problem with a group of exotic armor items (exotic is their equivalent of legendary) that boosted ability recovery for other players in your group if you used your abilities, with the effect amplified for those who were also using those items. The problem was that the effect was far too weak to really take advantage of them, so nobody ever used them. It took a complete rework of the items to give them new and more powerful effects to make them an actually viable choice, part of which involved allowing players to take on different roles that they could swap as needed. The effects were boosted if you had a different role from your ally, encouraging players to take on different roles instead of stacking the same one. Now they're a good choice for group content without being reliant on having everyone wear them in order to get any effect out of them, but keep in mind that they only got this update after about three years.

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

A valid question, but here's a valid response: "Because that's what we like, and if it upsets you, you can find a game that has an artstyle that suits your sensibilities."

Warcraft is a very fantastical setting, clearly taking a lot of inspiration from things like the work of Frank Frazetta. It's a world with big muscly dudes and buxom chicks of all races duking it out, wearing impractical armor because it looks cool. Crazy things happen because "dude wouldn't it be cool if" is pretty much the defining story thread. Realism shouldn't be taken into consideration in such a setting; bikini armor isn't protective, but who gives a shit? Any time they actually try to inject a dose of realism into Warcraft, it gets objectively worse because of how much a realistic concept clashes with what already exists.

To put it another way, if the playerbase at large didn't want bikini armor in the game, then old sets like Jade Plate wouldn't still go for thousands of gold on the auction house while more "realistic" sets of a similar rarity like Overlord's Plate go for hundreds at most.

 

[Haramburger]

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

A not-insignificant number of women who engage with this fantasy content also enjoy the skimpy armor, and not for any lesbian/sexual reason, something closer to the "wearing skimpy costumes during halloween" vibe. Most women don't have an issue with it, and thus don't talk about it loudly and constantly. Of course it would be a negative attitude that actually addresses it at a Q&A, not a "I like this guys, stay the course" statement.

its funny when Chris Metzen daughter asked him the same question and all he said was "i dont know honey". you know EXATCLY why you cokehead fuck! did your wife take your balls away or something?

I remember this being about Alexstrasza: The obvious answer would've been "She's actually a giant scary dragon, and they use magic to look like people, and this is what she chooses to look like, because she thinks she looks coolest that way and is a mommy that wants to have LOTS of babies, HUNDREDS of baby dragons, so this is how she chooses to appear." Not fucking hard, but I'm also not at my party office 18 hours a day strung out on drugs.

 

[Ear]

I'm a feminist and never thought I'd be arguing for bikini armour, but I think a nail has been struck on the head here. It's part of a genre and has a particular world feel, for better or worse. A lot of people don't play this MMO over that one because of mechanics or systems, but because of feel and story. IMO that's what's kept WoW going as long as it has.

 

[Übertroon]

Tbh the question the lady asked at blizcon 2010 was valid. Yeah fanservice is fanservice but why the female character gotta run in a bikini or thong? Doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying this has to do with their downfall but the way that they brushed off the question was shitty...

Because FF14 is really popular withe the female demographic, and that game lets you run around in actual fetish gear

 

[Lammy]

did your wife take your balls away or something?

It's funny because that's literally what happened to Metzen. He became a born-again Christian because of his wife, which led to him intentionally softening up the stories he wrote and the art of those games as well. Diablo 3 looked how it did because Metzen, high and mighty born again Christian, said that D1/2's gothic horror style was born from a "edgy atheist phase" and that Diablo 3 being so different was intentional as a way of embodying his new-found beliefs. His reward for his devotion to these beliefs was his wife becoming a lesbian and them only staying together to raise his kids, so he doesn't even get laid anymore, lol.

 

[Marissa Moira]

It's funny because that's literally what happened to Metzen. He became a born-again Christian because of his wife, which led to him intentionally softening up the stories he wrote and the art of those games as well. Diablo 3 looked how it did because Metzen, high and mighty born again Christian, said that D1/2's gothic horror style was born from a "edgy atheist phase" and that Diablo 3 being so different was intentional as a way of embodying his new-found beliefs. His reward for his devotion to these beliefs was his wife becoming a lesbian and them only staying together to raise his kids, so he doesn't even get laid anymore, lol.

No this is bullshit, first off nobody played Diablo for the story.

Second Diablo 3 had major mechanical issues that were far larger than whatever story bullshit issues that were going on. They wanted to originally have the cash auction house to try and make money from it by monetizing everything diablo 2 had. Everything in the game was originally based around this. When it failed the game was effectively directionless with no money stream coming in either, and it wasn't until reaper of souls did they make an effort to fix shit.

 

[Lammy]

No this is bullshit, first off nobody played Diablo for the story.

Second Diablo 3 had major mechanical issues that were far larger than whatever story bullshit issues that were going on. They wanted to originally have the cash auction house to try and make money from it by monetizing everything diablo 2 had. Everything in the game was originally based around this. When it failed the game was effectively directionless with no money stream coming in either, and it wasn't until reaper of souls did they make an effort to fix shit.

For the story part, I moreso meant Starcraft than anything else. I'm fairly certain Metzen had a hand in the Kerrigan super-goddess ending.
I can't exactly recall where I heard or read about the art part, but I do recall hearing at some point that Metzen's born-again righteousness was a contributing factor to D3's complete lack of any sort of "edginess" to the art. Could just be something totally untrue just derived from context of the time, but it's always made enough sense to me that I never thought twice about it, considering other things that he did like the Thrall self-inserting in Cataclysm.

 

[Marissa Moira]

For the story part, I moreso meant Starcraft than anything else. I'm fairly certain Metzen had a hand in the Kerrigan super-goddess ending.
I can't exactly recall where I heard or read about the art part, but I do recall hearing at some point that Metzen's born-again righteousness was a contributing factor to D3's complete lack of any sort of "edginess" to the art. Could just be something totally untrue just derived from context of the time, but it's always made enough sense to me that I never thought twice about it, considering other things that he did like the Thrall self-inserting in Cataclysm.

Nothing about Blizzard fucking up has anything to do with any sect of Christianity.

You're pulling shit out of your ass, now neck yourself until you feel euphoric.

 

[John Titor]

Because FF14 is really popular withe the female demographic, and that game lets you run around in actual fetish gear

Back in 1.0, the art directors consulted their cosplayer coworkers when designing the miqote (this was before male miqote were a thing) because they knew catgirls were going to be popular with cosplayers. As for the question in hand, they could easily have said "we'll consider it" and that would be that; I do believe that the options to have regular armor and bikini armor should be available for both genders.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Nothing about Blizzard fucking up has anything to do with any sect of Christianity.

You're pulling shit out of your ass, now neck yourself until you feel euphoric.

Metzen is still a cuck.