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Some forum advice for the next Ghostcrawler
With Ghostcrawler's departure from Blizzard Entertainment on the horizon, one of the burning questions in everyone's minds is "who will be his replacement?" Well, I personally have no idea, but no matter who it may be, player Lubricious has taken it upon himself to offer some advice for that fortunate (or unfortunate) soul, endorsed by the man himself. How to Ghostcrawler, by Lubricious. Pretty much spot on. http://t.co/Qho6x8qoZ2 - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 5, 2013 The titles of the six helpful hints are as follows: Everything is your fault. Performance expectations are 100%. Sometimes, the players are right. Sometimes. Anything you ever say is a promise You can't make everyone happy. Don't try to force fun. Click on over to Lubricious's original post and check out the complete context for yourself--I think the entertaining and thoughtful advice will strike a chord with anyone who has worked in a broadly customer-facing position. We wish Ghostcrawler himself the best of luck with his future endeavors (Liz Harper's and my guess is on an Oceanography-themed MMO featuring playable giant isopods), and to whoever does step in to fill those large, crustacean shoes, we wish them luck too!
Ghostcrawler to leave Blizzard [Updated]
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street shocked the entire WoW community with his announcement today of his departure from Blizzard Entertainment. After six years with the company, he has decided to move on. We will miss him. More than anything, to WoW fans, Greg was a bastion of community interaction, someone who worked tirelessly to improve the dialog between the developers and the community. His Twitter page has almost 70,000 followers, with whom he interacts on a daily basis, providing a direct line from community to devs. Regardless of the trolls, the criticism and the unpleasant behavior, Greg has kept at it, and done so with a pleasant demeanor and unerring focus on making the world's largest MMO the world's best. He's also been happy to admit when that has gone wrong, taking the often difficult role of messenger for the entire WoW dev team. Even back in 2009, when he'd been with Blizzard just a couple of years, WoW Insider was posting about how he was providing a link between community and developers, and that this "Ghostcrawler Experiment" was something new and refreshing, and good. A glance at our Ghostcrawler tag here at WoW Insider will show anyone just how committed he's being to keeping us informed over the years. Greg has been good for the health of the game, too, whether you like the latest set of changes to your class, to talents, to gear, to PvP, and to anything else where he's had an influence or not, his input as a designer should not be dismissed. But it's his accessibility and belief in the power of community that will be remembered. Now, who's going to get us that pony? Updated Editor's Note: We've verified this information from multiple sources. Hit the break for the official announcement post.
Bonus rolls are likely not going anywhere
We already know that there are some major changes coming to raiding in Warlords of Draenor -- specifically the shifting of what LFR, Flex, Normal, and Heroic raiding means to us right now. With raiding changes often come loot changes, and folks are understandably nervous about how loot could work in the future, considering that all new raiding modes save Mythic will have a cross-realm option. @CaimNyu Sure. We'll likely still have bonus rolls, and those are always personal even if your loot system is not. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) November 13, 2013 Never fear, it's Ghostcrawler to the rescue, with loot question clarifications. It seems likely that bonus loot rolls aren't going anywhere. Right now you can roll for bonus loot on any boss, including Heroic, and it looks as if at least that will continue. We don't know about it continuing into Mythic level raiding, however we have no indication either way.
We may be in debt, but the chips on our shoulders are chocolate
Actually, we are not in debt. Not us, plural, here at WoW Insider. Just Olivia. Do you see that screenshot above? That is an IOU note on the wall of the Alliance PvP room in Valley of the Four Winds, where NPC Armsmaster Holinka (named after WoW PvP Director Brian Holinka) usually stands. And the initials of the unfortunate soul who now owes him one million cookies belong to none other than our very own Olivia Grace. It all began with the following: simple tweets back in June from Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and Brian Holinka about exciting, non gear-related PvP changes to come. And Olivia -- dear, rash Olivia -- replied to them saying that if said exciting changes were cross-realm arenas that she would bake them each 1,000,000 cookies. And now, in patch 5.4, PvP season 14, we have cross-realm arenas. Oh, Olivia! What fate has thy hasty words wrought. For now you must hold good on your promise, and Blizzard will not forget. They've written it into the very code of their biggest game, woven straight into the finality of binary, in black and white and ones and zeroes. I hope you can dual-wield your wooden spoon and spatula. No noodle cart can save you now.
Ghostcrawler on availability and the Siege of Orgrimmar
Ghostcrawler has recently confirmed, via Twitter, that the Siege of Orgrimmar normal mode will be completely open the first week of the new patch. @giraffejerry The plan is normal will all open on the first week. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) August 30, 2013 Or at least that is, as he says, "the plan", and as we all know, plans can change! As twitterati chou explained in his question, there seemed to have been some confusion about the availability of the different wings of the Siege of Orgrimmar at launch. Let's hope this clears all that up. You could potentially even kill Garrosh that very first week! ...If you're prepared enough!
Blizzard livestream today at 1:30 pm Pacific time with Legendary
Patch 5.4 is just around the corner and plenty of Blizzard developers are doing the rounds of interviews. Today, at 1:30 pm Pacific time, World of Warcraft's Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas and Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street are going to be on Gamebreaker's Legendary livestream. We'll be watching, so you should, too.
Things Ghostcrawler did not confirm yesterday
These two articles, one from an interview with 2P, and another from an interview with QQ, made the rounds yesterday. They're interesting quotes and information from Ghostcrawler talking with people overseas at Chinajoy. In the interviews Ghostcrawler goes on, as he is often wont to do, about WoW and the decision making behind their changes. The reaction to these articles created a lot of confusion. So I thought it'd be worth noting the things that Ghostcrawler confirmed and did not confirm. I've made a list: Confirmed Confirmed Loosely Not Confirmed Ghostcrawler was at Chinajoy Blizzard thinks WoW can handle another class/role beyond DPS/Healing/Tanking -- a "buffer" Naga Playable Content areas available to explore the lore in: Trolls, Burning Legion, Emerald Dream It surprised me to see the numbers of comments around the interweb saying that Ghostcrawler outright confirmed the next expansion, or that he said Naga were going to be a playable race. The new translation posted by 2P outright kills any idea of that, yet even the original interview never said that (just that they were thinking of it at one point, which was incorrect). The only thing that was confirmed is stuff I've spoken to Blizzard about personally, and that was that Ghostcrawler was at Chinajoy, a big game conference. The "Confirmed Loosely" category is for things that were explicitly stated in the original interview articles, which we had translated by multiple reliable sources -- however Blizzard has not come outright and said them again. And that's okay -- we work with Blizzard and their folks to bring you the news; however when something is said (as was the case about a buff class/role) we'll run with it. But even in that bit of news, no where did Ghostcrawler say that it's happening. The things in the "Confirmed Loosely" category should also not come as a shock to anyone. A new class? It's not like that hasn't happened twice before. And more Troll lore? Check. Burning Legion and Emerald Dream? There's already books about them and tons of hints dropped by Wrathion about the return of the Legion. None of this is ground breaking. Ghostcrawler thinks of a lot of things. WoW, ponies, gin in coffee, etc... Take it for what it is, and don't make it more than that. Update: We are issuing a correction. Ghostcrawler does not put gin in his coffee, he drinks gin out of a coffee cup. WoW Insider apologizes for any confusion this may have caused. Dear WoW Insider, I don't put gin in my coffee. I drink gin from a coffee mug. The latter conveys world-weariness. The former is just weird. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) July 27, 2013
Ghostcrawler, potentially, details the future of WoW at Chinajoy [UPDATED]
There are some eyebrow-raising bits in a foreign Ghostcrawler interview, and we caution everyone that none of this has been confirmed with Blizzard (we reached out earlier today), and we have a feeling that a good deal of nuance may have been lost in translation. That being said, if the interview is correct, it gives us some fascinating hints as to the directions that Blizzard may be exploring for future WoW content. Apparently Blizzard either was or has been considering the Naga as an addition to the playable races, though their lack of legs is a big hurdle to overcome for things like armor design. In terms of future plot, the interview seems to imply that following Mists of Pandaria we will be headed back into mainland Azeroth, and that further story lines involving the trolls, the Burning Legion, and the Emerald Dream are slated to "gradually develop". Now, we know that an Emerald Dream expansion is something that many fans have been hankering after for a good long time, so this kind of news would be very much welcome to hear. Here I feel compelled to state that again, there is no official confirmation for any of this. However, there is one bit about the lore that I feel relatively confident is accurate, and that's Ghostcrawler's assertion that the relationship and conflict between the mogu, the Old Gods, and the Titans will be revealed in patch 5.4. Happy speculations, everyone! Update 10:42 p.m. EDT: 2P, the Chinese gaming site, has updated their English translation of the article noting that Naga will not be the next playable race. They also modified the way in which the next areas of WoW's content were talked about; however the three big areas (Trolls, Burning Legion, and Emerald Dream) are still areas in which Ghostcrawler noted content can expand into.
Will WoW ever come to consoles?
With Blizzard taking Diablo 3 to the PlayStation, we kind of have to wonder... is World of Warcraft ever going to make a console debut? And before you say it's impossible, that World of Warcraft is too complicated to play on a console, once we would have all said that about Diablo, too. And if Diablo makes the jump successfully -- there's no release date yet, so it's hard to say when we'll be able to judge its success -- maybe WoW will follow. At any rate, seeing WoW come to a console is probably a lot more likely than ever getting that pony Ghostcrawler promised us. So, fellow gamers, if WoW did come to consoles... would you be playing it? Would it encourage you to buy one of those next gen consoles we've heard so many rumors about? Or would you stick to your PC gaming rig?
WoW Archivist: Many memes, handle it
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Last week, Archivist celebrated the Ulduar raid, including Thorim's famous IN THE MOUNTAINS speech -- one of Wrath's most memorable memes. In its eight years, World of Warcraft and its players have spawned dozens of memes. Today, Archivist remembers some of the best and most enduring. If you've ever wondered where some of these memes come from, read on! The earliest memes WoW memes began almost instantly after the game's release. One of the first was Mankrik's wife. For an early Horde quest in the Barrens, the orc Mankrik sent you to locate her. His directions were rather vague, so many players had trouble locating her. It didn't help that she wasn't an upright and alive NPC, but rather a dead body laying on the ground -- killed by marauding quilboars. Confused players asked where they could find her in the zone's chat. Many, many players. Because the massive zone spanned 15 levels, everyone leveling through it saw that same question asked over and over again. It got to the point where people would ask just to troll the chat channel. The quest is no longer in the game, but players can now visit her grave near Grol'dom Farm. Trolling Barrens chat became something of a hobby for early players. Many in the Horde didn't know about the other leveling zones across the ocean. Some who did ran up against the ongoing Tarren Mill/Southshore lagfest wars and took the first boat back to Kalimdor. The combination of a captive audience and a high saturation of new players made the Barrens the perfect zone to troll. In time, Barrens chat became its own meme, even inspiring T shirts.
Ghostcrawler joins Twitter, nerfs you in 140 characters
Our favorite Lead Systems Designer of World of Warcraft joined Twitter yesterday, meaning we can now get our daily doses of his infamous "nerf me, bro" in 140 characters. Actually, he's been pretty approachable and has already been answering questions and communicating with players. It'll hopefully end up to be a great medium for him to interact with the playerbase, which hopefully won't go all insane over everything he says (and doesn't say). Already he's dropped an interesting tidbit when asked if there's a chance they'll remove the requirement to be in a raid when entering an instance: "Yes (meaning there's a chance)." Follow Ghostcrawler on Twitter at @GregTStreet @Ghostcrawler. Just don't spam him asking for a pony. 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!
Where in Warcraft: The Final Straw edition!
OK -- this is getting serious now. A few people have dropped me a line suggesting that I start editing, pixellating, or blocking out parts of the image to increase Where in Warcraft's difficulty. This is the last one I'm going to try before I do that. My congratulations to Sillon, who was the second responder to my last picture and the first to guess it correctly. I followed his directions and they led me exactly to the spot, which was in Deadwind Pass. I tip my hat to you, sir. If today's image is guessed within a few moments like its predecessors, I'm moving to picture editing. This is a cool little statue, looking something like a naga version of the Hindu god Vishnu surrounded by a rounded throwing weapon, kind of looking like something you see wielded by NPCs in certain areas. But that's all extraneous information! The question is: Where in Warcraft is it? EDIT: And I have to belatedly add: thanks very much to Prey (Perenolde) for the picture! You know the rules: I have to be able to find my way to this location with your instructions. I'm also adding a new rule to avoid situations like we had a while ago: Your guess must be in a new comment thread, not a reply to another post. Otherwise, it's impossible for me to know who guessed first. That leads to unfair decisions, and nobody likes those. There's so much in Azeroth (and Outland!) just waiting to be found. Tip us off. If you've found a fabulously quirky landmark, hidden treasure, or special hideaway somewhere in Warcraft, drop me a line at olivia@wowinsider.com with your screenshot. You could be featured in a future edition of Where in Warcraft!
Where in Warcraft: Oh, it's so on!
Right. So the last edition of Where in Warcraft I thought was a little bit harder. None of my WoW-playing friends knew where it was just from the picture -- but you, WoW Insider readers, you're just too darn good! The first correct response was from Marcscgm, who correctly identified the chap's final resting place south of Forge Camp Fear and west of Oshugun, even going so far as to provide coordinates! Well done there, that man! I salute you for your Nagrand knowledge and would like to present you with a ceremonial book and wine goblet, with a lovely rock plinth to enjoy them on. But it seems we need to get far more serious here, people. You know your way around too well, and it's just no fun if it isn't difficult (well, no fun for me, anyhow!). I want to be the diabolical quizmaster, OK? So, this next edition represents a little jump up in difficulty; we're creeping up gradually. As the title suggests, it's so on! I will find a place nobody gets, eventually! This submission is from the lovely Eiji, and it's a cave. Oh, yes. I went there. A cave with a rock outside it with a paladin on it. No more clues! And I loved the suggestion of blocking out parts of the picture! If I'm not successful in my attempts to confound you, I will definitely start doing that. So a recap: Guessing an entire zone is no good. I have to be able to find my way to this location with your directions. Coordinates are great, but not a requirement! Happy hunting. There's so much in Azeroth (and Outland!) just waiting to be found. Tip us off. If you've found a fabulously quirky landmark, hidden treasure, or special hideaway somewhere in Warcraft, drop me a line at olivia@wowinsider.com with your screenshot. You could be featured in a future edition of Where in Warcraft!
Ghostcrawler weighs in on shaman feedback
The beta has been under way now for some time, as have the feedback posts on the official forums. Shaman have had a few major changes to their repertoire, as well as a few more minor ones, but the general feeling from reading the posts made in the forums is that these changes don't go far enough. Shaman, it appears, don't feel like they're getting what they need to be viable, let alone competitive, and the unique nature of a lot of their abilities seems to continue to be as much a hindrance as it is a help. But arriving like the white knight in medieval-styled dramas, just as the situation feels dire and unsalvageable, is Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street. The shaman feedback post has finally had the equivalent of a Blizzard seal of approval, in the form of a blue post from the bluest of blues. So what did the big GC address in his post, and what still remains outstanding for beta shaman? One big complaint that many shaman brought up was glyphs. I recently tweeted fellow WoW Insider writer Joe Perez about this very matter, namely, that shaman glyphs were a mess. They felt either very lackluster or very penalty-heavy. A few patches ago, before the recent changes, I was playing my shaman with two empty glyph slots, because none of the glyphs felt worth using. This is a Bad Thing. A recent patch went some way to repairing this, but with it, a host of new problems appeared, some of which GC addresses after the break.
Looking at the PvP stat changes outlined by Ghostcrawler
I'm sure you all have seen the latest Dev Watercooler by the big man (Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street) himself. And I'm sure you will all have noticed the biggest news in there (in my opinion, anyway) is the section about the PvP-related changes to resilience. Disclaimer: This is not absolute. Just like the changes, it's almost impossible to see how they will play out without trying them for ourselves once the beta comes along. But I want to hear your opinions, both on these changes and on my thoughts. Let's talk it out, people! First and foremost, I don't know about you, but I am really not digging the names. I reckon a tidy solution might be to sling in a PvP section in the character pane. If Blizzard did it within the character pane, it would just avoid the clumsiness of adding the "PvP" into the actual stat, and (I think) it would make it easy for players to understand what they were looking at. Of course, Blizzard could call the new stats "Bob" and "Vera" for all it would really matter to their performance!
Ghostcrawler: Round 1 of patch 4.0.1 class rebalancing implemented
For the record, I did not ask for a pony. When I logged into my account post-4.0.1, though, my cup runneth over with them. Sadly, though, Blizzard is taking all my precious ponies away for redistribution. WoW Insider's own Matt Rossi had a terrific post yesterday about the class balancing issues that we were seeing with patch 4.0.1. Casters like me were experiencing the thrill of god mode, with reports of mages being able to one-shot their opponents. And while we casters were getting sweet, delicious ponies, melee players got a big pile of pony excrement. Arms and fury DPS were down -- way down. So was retribution paladin and kitty DPS. Last night, Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler let us all know that fixes were on the way. Today, he confirmed that fixes were implemented and explained what was done to each affected class to balance them out. The full post explaining who got buffed, who got nerfed and why is available just after the break.
Don't freak out about the Cataclysm changes yet
There has been a lot of debate about some of the announced class changes for Cataclysm this week. Some people absolutely love the announced changes while others are either upset or confused about what these changes mean for their spec. One important thing to remember (and something Ghostcrawler and other devs have stressed multiple times) is that almost all numbers, coefficients and bonuses are going to be changing when the expansion ships, and none of the abilities are final. This means trying to say that using certain spells or stats is a "horrible idea" because of particular issues in the current game doesn't really hold up, because your class might end up needing that stat or relying on that spell when Cataclysm hits. Also, being as the entire stat system is getting a revamp (with a lot of the current stats going away or being repurposed completely), all of your current gear's stats will also be changing to reflect this including increased armor for cloth, leather and mail users. There is also the fact that these previews are not the whole story. There might end up being additional talented spells for your spec or revamps of various class abilities that will change your current rotation. Some classes are getting simplified and others will be getting a little more depth. All in all, please look at these changes with an open mind and leave any preconceived notions at the door. We still have the entire beta for them to tweak and change any of the current ideas that might be lacking or might not mesh well with your class's existing kit. Always remember to leave constructive feedback (Note: "This sucks!", "Blizzard obviously doesn't play my class," and "Ghostcrawler promised me a pony!" are not examples constructive feedback.) and tell them what parts seem clunky, good, lackluster or just simply feel "off" of what it should be for whatever reason (and always include the reason why). If you're eloquent in your post (and sometimes even if you're not), you might be the voice that gets things changed. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From goblins and worgens to mastery and guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
WoW.com's "I'm waiting for the priest info to drop" open thread
Since there's a lot of you up with the WoW.com staff tonight waiting on the priest class announcement, we've decided to throw up an open thread here on the site. It's our first one of these, so let's see how it goes. What's an open thread? From Wikipedia: An open thread refers to a blog post where readers may comment and discuss any topic that they choose. Basically, talk about whatever you want. I'm going to start posting stupid music videos and 4chan links. The only restriction is that the comments cannot be inappropriate -- both language and link wise. Depending on how this goes, we might do this again tomorrow night or in the future. So... open thread go WoW multiverse! %Gallery-70748% %Gallery-70720%
Winter Olympics 2010: Ghostcrawler promised me a moose
Last night on the Colbert Report there was an interview with olympian Seth Wescott. Seen in passing footage is the image above. Yes, fans of WoW and members of the Colbert Nation, Ghostcrawler promise of a moose has gone to the Olympics. We have no idea who the creator of the sign is, and we don't have any idea if he actually was given a moose -- however I'm sure Ghostcrawler will want to hand deliver him one after reaching international fame and stardom from this brief moment on the Colbert Report. A larger image, full of more truthiness, can be viewed here. You can also view the entire Colbert Report episode over at Hulu. The moose sign comes in around 20:43. Many thanks to Sean for the tip!
Sunday Morning Funnies: Epic win
First of all, I would like to congratulate Keyra for winning the virtual cookies! This batch is vegan upon request, comes with a nice tall glass of cold soy milk, and I'll even throw in some fresh berries. Khloe Kardashian was the right answer to last week's impromptu trivia question! Watch out for this week's trivia question, buried in amongst the comics. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any new comic tips, but I don't think you'll be disappointed! On a side note, I feel very lucky that photographing one's collection of My Little Ponies is a relatively popular occurrence, for how else would I have found such a lovely epic pony? I had more to choose from than I would have imagined, but I finally narrowed it down to the lucky pony on the right.
