WoW Keeps Catching On Fire, But Blizzard Won't Admit Why

[00:02] schizophrenic roller coaster that is talking about World of Warcraft on the to talk about today? Because we've got another Blizzard response to patch 12.0.5, and it's one that raises serious questions. Paul Kubit, the associate

[00:15] game director, sat down with Taliesin and Evitel in the wake of one of WoW's most broken patches ever. People really aren't that happy about what was said in the interview. And if I'm being honest with myself, yeah, I think a lot of

[00:28] into it in this video. Now, Blizzard's intent with this interview may have been to smooth things over. You know, T&E happened to be in the region for Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, so why not?

[00:40] But, Paul unknowingly exposed holes in Blizzard's logic. And worse, he even let slip some details that have really upset people like crazy. So, today, I'll be going over everything that WoW leadership said. And that's how I'm

[00:53] treating it. It's not about dunking on Paul, it's about WoW leadership. And to examine this team's decision-making, and well, how that decision-making is leading to a progressively more buggy game over time. So, let's start with the

[01:06] hottest topic, which is, of course, the bugs. Taliesin asked if Paul would mind him asking about patch 12.0.5, and he responded by reiterating the big message Blizzard posted. Of course, Kubit

[01:19] himself comes from a QA background. So, when he says they take this kind of thing seriously, well, yeah, I get it. He's been on QA himself. But, it's what he said next that made me realize that something may just be up. Because he

[01:33] explains this whole thing using the analogy of potholes. Here's exactly what he said. "When these issues come up, best thing we can do is, well, we'll fix them quick and identify the potholes that we know you fell into and pave them

[01:46] over again, so you we don't fall into them again." Okay, so that's basically the team's focus. That's uh his answer to that question. And on face value, it seems like a good analogy, but I think it only seems like that if you are not

[01:59] in around the world of developing software cuz actually I think it tells fixing potholes that players have already driven into, well, there's a especially when so many of those potholes were driven into by players on

[02:14] the public test realm weeks and weeks before the stuff went live. Now, in essence what Paul's kind of saying here is that it's the individual team responsible for the pothole who are going to be resolving the issues here.

[02:27] And to explain that he uses the bonus roll example from their blue post but with a little more detail. He talks about realm lists differing from PTR to live and how the feature was saving to the individual realm instead of the

[02:40] people were having a lot of issues with their bonus rolls. Now, the point is in me highlighting this is that their focus is on avoiding individual problems. Whichever engineer wrote that code made a mistake. Whoever wired the system up

[02:55] promising they won't make that mistake again. Sure, seems fair enough, but for us players, obviously, the real issue starts before the mistake is made

[03:07] because we're not particularly interested in how Blizzard will prevent little individual bugs from escaping. The thing that we're worried about is why so many bugs are even happening in the first place. I mean, it's funny to

[03:20] the point of after this interview was posted, they had a world quest bonus week that for a little bit wasn't working on the new reputations in this the world. They did solve it pretty quickly, but it was kind of funny. But

[03:35] about is the circumstances that are leading to these bugs shipping and the engineer have too much on their plate? Were they unfamiliar with that part of the game? If so, did they have access to other engineers to ask

[03:49] questions? That's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Processes, pipelines, developer resources, automated testing, ticket handling. I think people actually need to hear real concrete plans about how they, well, try to solve any of

[04:02] Of course, that being said, the vast majority of these bugs were discovered on the public test realm and uh well, it wouldn't really have mattered how many QA people Blizzard threw at the issue. At the end of the day, the

[04:15] did they? And so, with such a weak they're doing, it didn't really feel great. And then, there is rather obviously the humongous elephant in the room. Because I think the communities

[04:28] broadly came to the conclusion that uh the 8-week patch cycle has probably got something to do with this. And to his credit, Taliesin did bring this point up Now, there's a lot of aspects to the 8-week cycle. It's extremely marketable.

[04:41] patches per season, three patches per expansion. On paper, it's a great plan. But ever since they started, we've had more and more issues each patch. And sometimes, the way things repeat is just funny. Patch 11.1.5 was a dud in the

[04:56] same way that 12.0.5 struggled almost exactly 1 year ago. You see, they had this new feature called Nightfall. Man, the way they marketed it seemed so cool. But it was an insanely undercooked feature that barely worked when it came

[05:10] out. Similar-ish happened to Dauntless Duo's, which was something that had lots of good ideas, but again, was undercooked. So, for all the good this patch cadence is doing, the cost is obviously stability.

[05:24] And I think this is going to get worse before it gets better unless something major changes. Because it does seem that they can tweak little bits of what they do, but fundamentally, it's this 8-week cycle and how much they're trying to

[05:37] cram into each one of those 8 weeks that seems to be the problem. So, ultimately, listening to the interview, it was disappointing that Qubed dodged the question. And as much as media training may have helped him do

[05:50] that, I think it obviously backfired from the perspective of Blizzard's public relations. People aren't particularly thrilled. Now, we know some of the issues going on. We know the devs are multitasking like mad between

[06:02] ex-dev was talking about his Dragonflight time and said that at one point he had six patches on his docket. at the company over the last few years, but Dragonflight is when the eight-week

[06:17] thing kicked in. And I would hope that the situation is better now than it was then, but god damn, just look at the game. There's obviously a problem. Now, the thing about game devs is they Well, they want to develop games, right?

[06:31] That's what their career, basically their professional contribution to humanity is all about. So, we can take a good guess that they are pissed off by their features launching in such a bad state. I mean, take Deck of Ordeals.

[06:45] It's not bad by any means, but just look at the UI. It screams of basic placeholder, which absolutely is not Blizzard polish. Is this the kind of thing you want to ship? The class designers can't be happy either. Unholy

[06:57] Rogue's new hero talent was bugged with extremely basic oversights. And resto shamans got a buff that actually was half as effective as intended. That's only a few examples, by the way. There is no way that the devs responsible for

[07:12] this work aren't pulling their hair out in frustration. And the funny thing is, there are a few obvious exceptions. As an example, Ritual Sites is an excellent addition to WoW. Whatever circumstances made that happen are worth examining.

[07:27] locked off in its own little instance just made it a more straightforward feature to develop. But who knows, but it is weird how just uneven a lot of this stuff is. Now, if the eight-week patch cycle is non-negotiable, like the

[07:42] non-answer seems to imply, then Blizzard needs to build a pipeline that can actually execute the 8-week cycle well. Maybe that means delaying features. Maybe it means looking at developer responsibilities. Maybe it even means

[07:55] saying no to features or to class changes until what you've already got is working. Whatever it is, it's not something they can just power through. They've evidently been trying to do that for years now and it's pretty much

[08:07] always been to the same effect. We can only hope that this weak answer is just Kubit having to walk the party line being a media trained director doing an interview with the press. Hopefully it's just that and the wheels are actually in

[08:22] motion behind the scenes. But sadly, bugs are not the only But sadly, bugs are not the only question we got weird answers for. Itali asked about tank balance and if you're not aware, well, it looks like

[08:34] you're not aware, well, it looks like this, which is pretty wild. 40% of all keys have a Brewmaster monk. That means that not playing one is basically difficulty. Now, the main reason here is that monks are just simply way more

[08:47] tanky both in design and their tuning. We've had a few balance passes since the problem became obvious, but Blizzard haven't really bothered to address basically any tank issues thus far. Prot Paladin is in particular so bad that one

[09:01] of our tanks just put in the hours to reroll away from it in the middle of this rating season. So, Paul's response hasn't really gone down well. The gist of his response is that they don't really care that much, basically.

[09:16] That what they will do is, quote, light touches to every tank to bring them more in line, but that a converging matter is actually a healthy thing. They measure success by whether tanks can actually meet their goals and on that they are

[09:29] broadly fine because tanks are all strong enough to handle mythic and of course to get 3,400 rating for the keystone myth achievement. By their data, players are hitting their goals just fine, even if we have a bit of a

[09:42] Obviously though, as say the Augmentation Evoker launch season kind of kind of shows us, a very skewed meta can be a bad thing for the health of the when you listen to the Paul interview, it seems fine. But, I think it's

[09:57] ignores the actual experience of playing the game in favor of saying, "But, my You see, the thing is, you know, to Paul and the rest of the WoW team, any data you get is a little bit of a lagging indicator. You can't rely on it. You

[10:13] and be able to act on it. You see, right now, there's a gigantic tank shortage in the game. That's because tank is seen as the worst role to play for probably a few dozen reasons by now. So, Blizzard, I guess, sits and they

[10:27] watch while five out of six tanks are comparatively unwanted. Healer and DPS get some changes. We have seen those come in, but tanks, who are way worse off, have gotten silence. Prot Paladin is the worst tank by a country mile, and

[10:42] it did not even get a single line in the patch 12.0.5 patch notes. So, if the main way you play WoW is Prot Paladin, then I suppose the answer is basically you, reroll. It may as well be that because even the promise of light

[10:57] touches being done rings hollow when it actually been no touches done. You know, and the light touches don't materialize until weeks upon weeks upon weeks after Now, to be fair to the WoW team, Lindory's Glow is an attempt to help. I

[11:13] think it's a fantastic addition to the game. I think it will help. But, not feeling the constant pull to reroll to the flavor of the month would certainly help. Now, it's not utterly cataclysmic, and WoW has never been a particularly

[11:27] balanced game, but it is frustrating as a player. And that means that ultimately their philosophy of \{{}quote} not being disruptive is in this case absolutely wrong because the tank scene needs to be disrupted. And frankly, prop hounds need

[11:42] to be disrupted off the threshold of whatever bridge or tall building they're currently standing on. But that ain't it. We're about to have the same pattern in another department. So, if you're a person who enjoys the cosmetics, if you

[11:54] want your character to be kitted out just the way you want it, well, this isn't good. We were told that a manual appearances were a reward. I'm sure plenty of people got excited about that, but it turned

[12:07] out to be a handful of hair and skin color options. No beards, no hairstyles, no body types, nothing. Just a bit different color options of things. Taliesin brought up his own \{{}quote} crushing disappointment. He asked if

[12:20] more was coming on this front, specifically the new forest troll body type, which just looks really cool. And he was stonewalled. The quote is, "We'll keep listening to feedback." I wouldn't hold your breath anytime super

[12:33] That's good. If he did ask people to hold their breath, then I suppose a lot of people would be dead. Basically, as it turns out, this troll thing was just an idea. It was a nice little bonus and really nothing more. They never promised

[12:46] more, so I guess it's sort of fair, but at the same time, look at the hairaneer. They have a new body type and some of the craziest customizations we've ever seen, which is fantastic for the several hairaneer players that there will be in

[12:59] a few years. Blizzard clearly aren't thinking ahead for what players actually want or how they might react when they see something in game. This is a team that is firmly having their heads down, making the thing, and then reacting to

[13:12] whatever happens with the player base. It is not a forward-looking team. It's forward-looking that it has road maps, but I mean forward-looking in the sense of understanding how your players will react to things. Now, to be fair, I can

[13:25] understand Paul not wanting to let certain things slip. Can understand the certain things slip. Can understand the more media trained feeling questions. But a few things certainly did still slip and for many of us, me included,

[13:38] this next thing is the big one. One of the problems we had with the whole Dark Weld Dawn Weld story beat, outside of its general tone, was the speed. It was nice while we had it, but it was just a tiny tiny teensy blip. It

[13:52] was so quick for what is fundamentally civilization levels of change. Well, it turns out, according to Paul, they actually planned it to hang around a little bit longer. You see, Taliesin asked about how Blizzard felt just of

[14:05] the pace of the split raids and Cubits said they're happy with the split raid split raid thing will happen again, but they're not off the table. Do you know what, by the way, little sidebar? Yeah, that that's totally cool. I loved having

[14:19] was really neat. I liked how, you know, we went from the Void Spire to the March of the Frozen Throne. I thought that was a really cool way to do the story. So, the big picture thing, thumbs up.

[14:32] devil being in the details. So, Paul went on to say that their initial plan was to have an extra week between them, so two weeks instead of one. week of the Dark Weld and perhaps whatever content could have came along

[14:46] think it would have changed a whole lot, but it would have at least let the threat hang around just a little bit longer before it got resolved. Now, the reason they pulled it forward was progression speed for the raiders,

[14:59] which I guess is understandable. We already have time gating allegations over, well, there being the delay that there was, so I guess a further delay would have just made things worse. But it did mean that the coolest part of

[15:11] shortest part of the story because they were more worried about raid pacing than story tension. And it's not the only way the story's been been here because I have be honest with you, Paul said something that I hate

[15:26] to the core of my being. So, let's talk about it. Taliesin mentioned certain corners of the internet reacting to the elf story have been in that corner of the internet, so hello to everyone from my

[15:39] Taliesin's also in that corner of the internet, and according to Paul, so is he. But, sadly, Paul said exactly what I wished he wouldn't. First, he said the tension between the elves is still around, and the campaign was just about

[15:53] saying that they're willing to work together. That's fine, but the problem is when he said that the campaign, quote, "can't get into all the nuance." Imagine if Yoshi P said that about the other MMO. So, I guess if you want to

[16:07] see any interaction except for a bit of friend slop, you got to do the side quests and zone stories and see all the different town interactions. I mean, on those things, fair enough. Those local stories are great. I don't want to be

[16:19] too aggro here, because I do understand what Paul means, but little question here. This may shock the Blizzard team. Why can't the campaign have nuance? Do the campaign writers not understand it?

[16:32] the best storytelling and world building in the game is, by design, not given priority, which is absolutely god damn nuts. If the campaign can't show nuance, that's because you are not putting the nuance in the campaign. We know the side

[16:48] quests and zone stories carry the game. Sure, but you know what? That's kind of our problem now. You're putting the best story there, where only the minority who fully read and engage will see it. But, what gets the budget and the spotlight

[17:01] is the most basic plot pushing stuff that, by and large, has just been embarrassing as a creative work made by adults, primarily for adults.

[17:13] The WoW player base ain't young. We're like mostly in our like late 20s to 30s plus. We're not children. Stop writing like we're children. Now, regarding the

[17:25] scope of this video and stepping back from the five answers and you start to see the same shape every single time. Bugs will get fixed when they break. Tanks only have to meet their rating thresholds. The customization counts as

[17:37] a reward. The story beat, whatever, ran on time. The campaign hit its plot Want the nuance? Go elsewhere. So, I guess by Blizzard's measures this patch is working. But, what they have missed is a little

[17:51] bit important. It's actually playing the game and what it feels like. Blizzard's idea of working [music] and our idea of working are appearing to become further and further apart. And a blue post and a

[18:06] fairly weak interview are not even close to closing the gap. We've been here before and unless something changes, we will be here again. Maybe it'll be in eight more weeks whenever patch 12.0.7 hits.

[18:20] And by the way, not to shift gears too fast, but 1207 in many ways actually does look great. I mean, seriously, we might even get a heroic and mythic world tier. That is at least music to my ears. So, if you want to see the thing that

[18:33] actually be really cool, you know, to fully appreciate it before you get to have it seasoned by bugs, then hey, check out this video next. Look, there's people in that company and they are trying their damndest to make

[18:48] wow really god damn cool. You know what? Bugs be damned, I still commend that effort. So, go check it out. I'll see you over there.