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WoW Insider's guide to Blizzard Twitter accounts
More and more Blizzard developers are joining Twitter every day. It's a great thing for us fans, because they often see fit to post interesting tidbits about their work, many of which we probably wouldn't otherwise see. Unfortunately, Blizzard doesn't announce when one of their own hops on the Twitter bandwagon. Though other Blizzard folks do usually tweet about their newly-added colleagues, thanks to Twitter's ephemeral nature, if you happen to be away from your computer when it happens, you may go days or weeks blissfully unaware of all the fun you're missing. In the spirit of prevention, WoW Insider has compiled a handy-dandy list of all the Blizzard Twitter folks we could find so that you don't have to miss any more of the good stuff. Check it out after the break, and make sure to update your Twitter lists!
No talent overhaul likely
If you're interested in WoW design and discussion, but don't yet follow twitter, you might want to reconsider. A lot of the developers are regularly active there. For example, yesterday our own Adam Holisky had a nice little chat with Ghostcrawler, Bashiok, and some other folks about WoW's talent design, and wondering if there was another big overhaul being considered for the next major expansion. The answer, bluntly, is no. Blizzard seems content with the current system. @bashiok @djtyrant @adamholisky The *current* talent design feels pretty solid to us. We'll iterate but no overhaul plans. #famouslastwords - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 9, 2013 Player Mihaly Ducz replied that three choices every fifteen levels feels kind of thin, but I have to admit that I kind of agree with Bashiok's response on that one: there are already plenty of spells and abilities in the game; I am perfectly content to have fewer of them, or at least more passive options so I don't have to agonize over how to redo my bars again. How about you? Are you content with the current talent system? What might you like to see changed or modified in the future?
Best Buy hosting Mists of Pandaria Developer chat on Tuesday, Sep. 18
Best Buy Unboxed, the forum community for Best Buy stores, will be holding a Mists of Pandaria developer chat on Tuesday, September 18 beginning at 6pm CST. Included on the developer panel are a few familiar faces from the recent Reddit AMA -- Lead Systems Designer Greg Street, Lead Content Designer Ion Hazzikostas, and Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak. Also included on the panel is Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Community Managers Zarhym and Crithto. To participate in the chat, all you need do is visit the official page on Best Buy's forums when the chat itself goes live. If your question wasn't addressed in the Reddit AMA, or if you simply missed the opportunity to ask, this is an excellent chance to get all your questions answered. It's nice to see the developer community so active, particularly on the eve of a new expansion's launch. Be sure to hit up Best Buy Unboxed on September 18 whether you've got a question to ask, or you just want to watch the show. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Reddit AMA transcript now available
Yesterday, several members of the Warcraft development team had a massive AMA on Reddit. AMA stands for Ask Me Anything -- and players responded with a deluge of questions on everything from Cross-Realm zones to story and lore. For the sake of convenience, Blizzard put together a transcript of the entire post on their website earlier today. The questions and answers are separated by the designer who answered them. Game Director Tom Chilton focused on PvP, gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, character models and development timelines. Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak focused on lore, novels, characters, and quest and zone design. Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas focused on dungeons and raids as well as loot and talent systems and endgame progression. And of course Lead Systems Designer Greg Street focused on classes, as well as gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, and dungeons and raids. There is a ton of information contained in the AMA, including some clarification on the purpose and mechanics of Cross-Realm zones, something that a lot of people have been wondering about. Check out the full transcript for an information overload of Warcraft goodies. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Reddit AMA with WoW developers today
Community Manager Zarhym will be hosting an AMA (or Ask Me Anything) in /r/WoW on Reddit this evening at 5:30 p.m. PDT (8:30 p.m. EDT). Joining him will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, Dave Kosak, Tom Chilton, and Ion Hazzikostas. For those who don't know, an AMA is where you post questions for the people participating and they are supposed to answer them all -- or as many as possible in the time allotted. Because this will be a heavily attended session, they will be answering the questions that are upvoted the most. WoW Insider will be monitoring the AMA, so we'll keep you posted on any important news items that arise. Zarhym's post with all the details is after the break.
New Caverns of Time instance coming in Cataclysm
The recent Twitter dev chat confirmed what is fast becoming a tradition: We will be getting a new Caverns of Time instance with the upcoming expansion. It's certainly not something I have much trouble with. The Caverns of Time are an excellent tool for looking back and understanding old pieces of the story that brought us to the current world as it is. Unfortunately, the devs were not willing to drop any hints as to the exact nature of the new instance, but we can, of course, make our own guesses. The original questioner suggests War of the Ancients as a possible destination. In a way, that might be an interesting battle. It would, if nothing else, give us some insight into the character of Malfurion Stormrage, who promises to be a key figure in the expansion. That said, Rhonin, Broxigar, and Krasus have already traveled back in time to deal with the War of the Ancients, and you'd have to think that if you keep shoveling more time travelers back there, something's bound to give.
Do the developers' personal preferences affect class balance issues?
Reader Paul wrote in this afternoon because he was curious about the WoW community's views regarding class balance issues and how they are handled by developers. He feels that people become very emotional about the topic, and points out that developers are people too, and proposes that their feelings play a major role in how the classes are balanced. Considering how many developers there are, I highly doubt that changes are implemented that don't support the vision of the entire group. Of course people have preferences and feelings, and that can never be fully separated from anything we do, but it is important to keep in mind that the developers are paid professionals working together, not alone. Their jobs depend on balancing the classes as much as possible, and I doubt any one of them is going to risk their (awesome) job just to try to give their class a boost. In addition, even if one or two developers favor Boomkin, the rest have other favorites and are not about to let any one class get out of hand. Personally, I think it is the players who become too sensitive or worked up about class balance issues in testing phases. Changes are made just so the developers can see the effects on a broader scale to give them a better idea of where and how things need to be tweaked. How do you feel about this issue? Do you think that a developer's personal preferences and feelings have a strong impact on class balance issues? If so, how? I'm interested to hear the opinions of the community, and I know Paul is too.
