Patch 5.2: Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder King Ho!

[Lantyssa]

I do like that troll.  Rawr mon.

[Simond]

Looks like the saner side of the dev team* is beginning to win out in 5.2 development: LFR raid ilvl is going from 486 to 480, gear upgrading is going away and new VP gear is being added to replace it. Who'da thunk going back to the WotLK design era would make so much sense? 

*Hint and reminder for the slower of thinking: There is an entire dev team back there, Ghostcrawler is just the mouthpiece. Ranting about how Ghostcrawler has specifically and personally ruined the game just for you makes you look like a crazy person.

[Paelos]

He's not personally responsible. He's one very large bad apple that's constantly attempting (either through his own personal views of the game, or just complete misunderstanding of the game itself) to ruin the bunch.

[Simond]

Okay then, what has Ghostcrawler personally done?

[Fabricated]

He's the mouth piece of the bunch and unless he's just bad at the whole PR thing (likely) when it comes to the changes that have been bad he has been the most vocal and personally defensive dev/blue when it comes to that.

During Cata whenever another Dev would answer questions about the issues Cata had, they never tried so hard to defend them. They'd explain the thought that went into the original idea, then explain what could be done and what could have been done better.

Ghostcrawler would come out the next week with a blog/forum post basically saying "Suck it up nerds, you'll like it...eventually."

I've fucking despised him ever since the whole, "Ugh, you bads need to just get better. Everything's perfect." blog. It's the kind of bald contempt for your audience you'd expect from some shitty indie open-pvp MMO beta.

[Paelos]

Okay then, what has Ghostcrawler personally done?

He's a poisonous attitude on the development team. Do they listen to him constantly? No, I don't believe they do, but he's in the room spouting his beliefs about the way the game SHOULD be, and he's yet to be removed. How long do you let a person on your team be continually wrong? Not subjectively wrong, either, but just completely missing the point of the playerbase time and again? So much so that those changes he purports as good and game appropriate have to go through continual rollbacks? Then, how long do you let him actively engage that playerbase?

I believe he's personally responsible for the talent overhauls. I believe he's personally responsible for the shift away (again) from "bring the player, not the class" design. I believe he's very much on board and actively pimping the tiered raiding decisions in the design room, even if he doesn't have final call on it.

[Fabricated]

The talent changes I don't really care about outside of some classes having some kinda boring choices and others having talent levels where one is obviously better than the others (Avatar).

[Simond]

he's just bad at the whole PR thing

There we go. He's a dev who (originally) enjoyed talking to the playerbase. As such, he shouldn't have been made spokesman (they needed to hire an actual CS rep rather than promoting a Dev or forum mod) but that horse has long since bolted. If I were running Blizzard, hiring a professional PR & CS team would have been done immediately following the "Oh shit we need enough hardware for another eighty servers" vanilla panic post-launch swiftly followed by closing the official forums and gagging all developers but then again that me just not wanting to buy a dog and bark myself.

I believe he's personally responsible for the talent overhauls. I believe he's personally responsible for the shift away (again) from "bring the player, not the class" design. I believe he's very much on board and actively pimping the tiered raiding decisions in the design room, even if he doesn't have final call on it.

So, again, what had Ghostcrawler personally done. Not what you believe he's done, not what he's been told to post by the dev team, what has Ghostcrawler actually done?

[Paelos]

So you're asking me to answer a question about a man's work day? I'm not his supervisor. God knows if I was he'd be collecting change in a paper cup.

Or are you saying that what a man purports about his game on his own twitter feed don't actively end up in his own work? He's not being forced to converse with people in that medium. The idea that people are putting words in his mouth is frankly ludicrous.

Basically I know what you're getting at, and it's a dumb point. The "you're not on the team so you can't know" bullshit only works when the outcome isn't dependent on customer satisfaction. Whether or not he's you believe he's personally responsible for anything but walking the office dog at Blizzard is sort of co-opted by the fact he's a PR rep, and he's been actively credited with one of the highest developer titles on every expansion.

[Simond]

So because he's the spokesman and public face of the dev team, every decision made by the dev team is actually made by him and (following logically on) the dev team is a polite fiction used to cover up Ghostcrawler's not-so-secret desire to destroy WoW?

Did you used to rant about how Abashi was personally ruining Everquest, out of interest?

I mean, what's the end-game here? When Ghostcrawler quits/is fired/has a public nervous breakdown and is replaced and then the dev team still makes the inevitable bad decisions and the new PR pleb keeps trotting out the same old lines you'll do what? Accuse them of lying about GC leaving and he's still secretly behind it all?

[Ironwood]

Sounds reasonable.

[Simond]

You're Scottish, I expect you to hold a grudge long past sanity.  
In all seriousness I have exactly zero problems with people ranting away at the dev team; I just think going at the public face with tar and feathers is generally counter-productive at best, unless you've got something where you can absolutely and positively point at them and go "Yes, this thing was your idea, you owned it, you championed it, and it was a steaming turd served up on a silver platter. It's your fault".

[Fabricated]

They won't ever say who had what specific idea.

Also since you can apparently see into the future give me the lottery numbers.

[Simond]

1 3 7 13 23 42

[Fabricated]

If they aren't right I'm going to write a lengthy forum complaint about you!!

[Paelos]

So because he's the spokesman and public face of the dev team, every decision made by the dev team is actually made by him and (following logically on) the dev team is a polite fiction used to cover up Ghostcrawler's not-so-secret desire to destroy WoW?

None of that is what I said. Just because one man isn't completely to blame doesn't mean he's not to blame. The "end game" is to remove his input from the process. He's been a constant source of consternation since TBC, and he's absolutely NOT the one pulling the game in the right direction with his attitude.

And yes, people will continue to want heads to roll if they continue to make poor decisions that ignore their customers. As of now, they have benn cramming dailies down their throats, hiding things behind factions, reintroducing unpopular decisions like tiered raiding, and creating an environment that is completely anti-alt in the process. At some point, they have to stop letting these poisonous personalities bring their "vision" back into the game under the guise of retention. It creates the exact opposite results time and again.

[Simond]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/3087-Patch-5-2-PTR-Official-Notes-Update

    The new legendary item is a meta gem, not head enchant.
    Heroic Pandaria dungeons now award 100 Justice points per boss and gold drops scale based on number of players.
    Mists of Pandaria Season 2 Malevolent Gladiator’s PvP gear can now be purchased with Honor Points instead of Conquest Points, including weapons, but newly purchased Season 2 Malevolent Gladiator’s armor, offhands, and shields will have an item level of 476 (was 483). Existing Malevolent items are unaffected.
    Balance, Feral, Windwalker, Retribution, Shadow, Enhancement and Elemental now gain 25% of the bonus healing provided by PvP Power (was 0%).
    Players in low level battlegrounds will have their effective level raised to the maximum level allowed in that battleground bracket.
    Rated Battlegrounds now award conquest to the losing team based on their final score. The losing team can earn up to 200 Conquest Points from a very close match.
    Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.
    Patch 5.0 Valor gear costs 50% less, and Patch 5.1 Valor Gear now costs 25% less.

[Hutch]

    Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.

    

Plus, from further down in that article:

Transmogrification rules have been broadened for several weapon types.

    Two-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
    One-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
    Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.

[Merusk]

Very nice.  So long as you're in a weapon class (1h/ 2h/ polearms/ ranged/ daggers/ wands/ shields/ offhands) I never saw a reason to not allow it to be that way.

[Lantyssa]

Cool.  Shame I could never get that scythe to drop.  (y'know, if I ever played again)

[Simond]

Putting this in the more constructive thread: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/251023-i-honestly-hope-blizzard-never-brings-back-rep-tabards/

For 5.2 you will be able to champion a faction and earn rep with them on your first heroic and scenario of the day

Also, before I forget, remember that in 5.2, you'll be able to receive Work Orders in Sunsong Ranch from all accross Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction. So it should help reduce the burden of doing dailies for those of you that don't enjoy them that much :)

Also, from Bashiok:

Aside from that, we call the Elder Charm 28.50 bag the fail bag because it fails as a consolation prize in generating excitement, or even feeling like a consolation. If you don't win a piece of gear, fine it happens, but at the very least spending a charm should give you something to look forward to. Getting a bag, anticipating what might be inside, and having the possibility of being excited about what it contains is the goal. That change will be in 5.2.

[Azazel]

so... they're putting the rare-as-fuck loot drops in the bag as well as the 28.5g? They may as well remove the bag entirely.

[koro]

As someone who hasn't played MoP but still sort of keeps up with the news about WoW, what's the deal with that charm/bag whatever? I'm not familiar with that mechanic.

[SurfD]

As someone who hasn't played MoP but still sort of keeps up with the news about WoW, what's the deal with that charm/bag whatever? I'm not familiar with that mechanic.

You earn "lesser" charms for doing dailys.  Once a week, you can exchange 90 lesser charms for 3 "greater" charms.  A greater charm can then be used when you kill a raid boss for a "Bonus" extra loot roll.  If you do NOT win loot on the bonus roll, you instead just get a flat amount of gold as the booby-prize.   They want to change it so the coin rolls and boss loot bags (which you get if you dont get loot on your Normal roll) function more like the reward bag you get as a tank / heals when you queue for those in a dungeon that needs them.

[SurfD]

Also, I just discovered something I was not aware of about a week ago, and thought I would share it:

Appearently, you can now queue for a Random 5 man Dungeon, LFR Raid, and a Scenario ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  Since I started doing this, I have noticed that quite often, I will get into the Scenario instantly, and as soon as I finish the scenario, my Dungeon queue pops.  Then usually as soon as my dungeon is over, my Raid queue will pop either almost instantly, or within about 5 minutes.   Makes it a lot less annoying to queue for raids if you also need to do a Scenario / Dungeon for the day as well.

[Margalis]

If your game includes "Work Orders" and is not some sort of sim or assassination-based game it's probably best to just close up shop. I mean FFS at least come up with name that doesn't immediately expose it as completely mundane.

Also, before I forget, remember that in 5.2, you'll be able to receive Work Orders in Sunsong Ranch from all accross Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.

Sounds awesome! Can't wait for 5.3, where you can punch a timecard to grind your way up from assistant mail room clerk level 2 to assistant mail room clerk level 3. Level as quickly as possible to get the end-game so you can do pointless trivial tasks comparable to real-life chores. Gaming evolved!

[Simond]

If your game includes "Work Orders" and is not some sort of sim or assassination-based game it's probably best to just close up shop. I mean FFS at least come up with name that doesn't immediately expose it as completely mundane.

You're growing crops for someone. What would you suggest they call it?

[Paelos]

You're growing crops for someone. What would you suggest they call it?

Target Produce Sales

Then we could have TPS reports in WoW.

[Margalis]

You're growing crops for someone. What would you suggest they call it?

I would suggest that growing crops for someone is incredibly lame and mundane, which I thought my post made pretty clear.

[Simond]

So you don't like the Harvest Moon series of games?

[Margalis]

So you don't like the Harvest Moon series of games?

Not particularly, but Harvest Moon is at least a game about running a farm, not an epic adventure where you play a mighty warrior and collect Brussel Sprouts.

MMOs are full of mundane activities but at least put a tiny bit of effort into maintaining the illusion.

[Simond]

What's your opinion on the pet battles?

[Ironwood]

I liked them, but they were ultimately pointless, since there wasn't really anything built around fighting other players.

Tell me I'm wrong.

[Ingmar]

I liked them, but they were ultimately pointless, since there wasn't really anything built around fighting other players.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Well clearly you were wrong to like them, because an MMO should never offer ancillary systems that don't have anything to do with playing your mighty warrior directly.

[Ironwood]

Hey, fuck you, I got a wee minfernal and LOVED IT.