Thread: Blizzard Conducted A WoW Former Player Study. Here Are the Questions Asked

Interesting, I wonder why they don't make a simpler/shorter version for all players, outside of those few lines and answers one can leave when canceling a subscription.
Maybe it's not a good idea, but I'd like to give them some feedback. Not that they would care...

Conclusion (that we knew all along): modern Blizzard game design driven by the marketing dept.

Simple answer, five years in Azeroth is enough, just as ten years in Norrath was enough. You are going to need to come up with WoW 2.0 before I'll be back.

They are onto something. I'd still play WoW and raid with Noodle but not for $15/mo.

Lyrical_sl said:

Simple answer, five years in Azeroth is enough, just as ten years in Norrath was enough. You are going to need to come up with WoW 2.0 before I'll be back.

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Speak for yourself. I'm still in norath slingin chips gettin with level 9 druids on 45minute boat rides.

Utnayan_sl said:

It doesn't take 15 surveys of random players to point out the obvious in which this barely scratches the surface on. It isn't the time commitment, it isn't the subscription, it isn't the fun factor or creativity. It's that they release content so fucking slow that you can easily look at what you are getting for your subscription dollar and realize the majority of your money is going towards access to the game and not content to complete. With the money they rake in they should be able to double down on expansions and keep content fresh. And along with that, a decent .1, .2, .3, .4 patch cycle in where one isn't waiting 5 fucking months for a small content addition with a few gimmicks.

It's pretty simple.

CREATE AND DEPLOY CONTENT FASTER THAN THE TIME IT TAKES A TURTLE TO REACH THE MOON.

Hey look at that, I answered their question without having to give away gift cards and conduct pointless surveys/studies.

Next up: Another accessibility meeting.

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I am going to fully agree with you for once. It takes forever for Blizzard to produce new content. The question is why?

Vanilla WoW was probably the most fun I've ever had playing a MMO. Why couldn't Blizzard just keep following that formula? There are likely numerous answers to that question but I think the Deadly Boss Mobs addon had a significant negative impact on future dungeon and raid design. Blizzard devs knew that any new content they created had to be designed knowing that DBM was going to tell everyone using it step by step how to defeat the content.

Perhaps it takes so long for Blizzard to deliver new content because DBM makes it harder for the devs to devise new innovative boss encounter AI scripts that players will have fun playing?

The bar is raised and raid content needs to rival what Naxx gave us in Vanilla. People wouldn't be happy if MC/BWL/AQ were released these days because even though some bosses had interesting little quirks not all were very interesting fights.

How do you even make raid content anymore? I've been so far removed from it but I'd imagine that it's getting redundant?

Convo_sl said:

How do you even make raid content anymore? I've been so far removed from it but I'd imagine that it's getting redundant?

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You make every encounter require a tank swap. Obviously.

Rescorla_sl said:

I am going to fully agree with you for once. It takes forever for Blizzard to produce new content. The question is why?

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Because they are pissing away good money on accessability meetings instead of using it to produce content, says so right in the OP. They can get away with while throwing players a small quality of life bone now and then, so why put effort into regular release schedules and the like. That sounds like an awful lot like work, while everyone knows that Blizzard employees are there for the fun. Also, it takes time away from the b?e?e?r? h?o?o?k?e?r?s?&?b?l?o?w? various meetings they require to improve the game for everyone.

I think- they were kicking around some ideas and decided to run a study to see what actually drives people to quit. You sure as hell aren't getting so comprehensive amount of data without compensating the people somehow. Last thing I want to do after unsubbing is to fill out enough paperwork to make DMV blush, so you can't really scale it to a whole playerbase. I wouldn't be surprised if they were running these periodically, I recall somebody posting something similar on r/leagueoflegends with questions like "would you pay a subscription fee for LoL?"

It's amazing how much has Blizzard done to make the game keep up with competition, but it's still the same game at its core. They are doing their best, but compare it to GW2 who offer much more player friendly systems and more interactive world and the cracks in the beautiful world of Draenor become apparent. On top of it I don't have to wonder whether all the gear I have acquired will be irrelevant in 6 months. I'd also say that with the glacial pace of content release, they sure as hell do their best to not make much of it challenging. Entire expansions are phased out and relegated to achievement whoring, I wonder what % of their current playerbase has seen MoP/Cata/WotLK ... Not to mention that even leveling content is piss easy and you are capped by your movement speed more than anything else, which is terrible. You have cross realm zones, dungeons, are you afraid that your entire playerbase can't make the world look alive because you funnel them into LFR/LFG/Garrisons ?

Transmogrification is a joke, I expect next expansion to launch with fully fledged wardrobe ala GW2, collections and let people chase their pretty pants halfway across the world.

Convo_sl said:

How do you even make raid content anymore? I've been so far removed from it but I'd imagine that it's getting redundant?

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The general formula Blizzard has chosen is to make trash very, very minimal. No more 20 minutes of just trash clears. You are clearing 3 packs max to get from boss to boss. Each boss has some sort of mechanic that is usually similar but different from things you've seen in the past. There are usually tank check fights and DPS check fights but generally most fights are retard checks. The end boss normally has different phases and has more complicated and interesting mechanics. But for the most part raid mechanics are about giving the tanks something to do (generally just swapping on stacks) and giving the DPS something to do (generally "don't stand here" mechanics) and the healers/ranged DPS something to do (generally "don't stand here" mechanics.)

I'm not saying they're high flying but the age of tank&spank is pretty much gone and all bosses have some form of interesting mechanic.

I miss tank and spank

Zero interest in playing any Dance, Dance Revolution game let alone the constant complaining over how retarded their (lack of) movement designs are.

Tanks & spank worked when the people requirements were so high that if you gave bosses these complicated mechanics trying to make 40 retards hurdling the mechanics would be a massively daunting task. Now that mythic raiding is capped at 20 you need more interactive mechanics. Back in WoW vanilla the biggest problem was just finding warm bodies who knew how to press a few buttons every so often.

Malakriss_sl said:

Zero interest in playing any Dance, Dance Revolution game let alone the constant complaining over how retarded their (lack of) movement designs are.

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Some DDR fights were fun. Heigan was an entertaining fight back in vanilla. But they pretty much had to tune that fight expecting about half your raid to die on the first dance routine.