blizzard-development
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What's wrong with Blizzard's development process? Nothing, nothing is wrong.
In yesterday's Queue Jeff asked the following question: What is it about the software development process that causes Blizzard to slingshot from solving a problem to so overdoing it that it becomes a problem in and of itself. Examples: Dungeons in Wrath were too easy - Cata dungeons are now stupid hard Questing is too scattered in Vanilla - All questing will be done in a streamlined fashion Not enough dailies in Cata - Locked reputation grinds via dailies to open up further content in Mists The next example coming - Some people loved the farm, let's build an entire expansion around a farm but make it bigger and we'll call it Garrisons and we will add so many features that there is no way the players can't love this. I'm calling it now, Garrisons will turn into one of the biggest mistakes of WoD. I see this a lot -- people questioning the processes that Blizzard uses to arrive at the end product of a WoW expansion. I take no issue with this questioning, I think it's the vital step that helps the community better understand the microcosm of the universe we play in. Blizzard has a growing obligation to the massive community to keep them informed of how their universe is changing, and a deeper understanding of how it gets made is central to that. However... I don't feel that it's a problem with the software development process -- that's a very defined process of creating software to specifications, testing, refining it in (ideally) agile methodology. Blizzard is just as good, if not better, than others in that area. Game design, although, is an entirely different animal.
