Category Archives: forums

The Cataclysm: A critical examination

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My personal opinion on the Cataclysm expansion varied greatly as the expansion unfolded. At different points in the expansion, I was very negative, slightly negative, then outright positive about it as an experience. A recent thread on the forums discussing the overall view of Cataclysm as a failed expansion drew Nethaera's commentary, and frankly I think what she has to say is worth discussing. I agree with a lot of it, disagree with some, but think it's valuable to look at where the design intent in the examination of the expansion is going.


Nethaera
You are mistaking the developers looking at the game with a critical eye with the claim that it was a "failure". We've seen a wide spectrum of opinions over Cataclysm and we're not afraid to look at what worked and didn't work (as we do with each expansion and game as a whole) and try to find better ways of doing things. I heard differing opinions overall during BlizzCon, but not once did I get the impression that any of those opinions boiled down to "Cataclysm sucks" as a whole. They had key elements that they disliked or thought could be improved on, but throwing the whole thing out the window as a "failure" is and should be considered a bit extreme don't you think?

As always, we want to keep learning and growing from each iteration of the game and that means that we're going to do that by continuing to look for your constructive feedback as well.

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The Cataclysm: A critical examination originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs Round 9 wants your tanking questions

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At precisely noon today (that's right now!) Ask the Devs Round 9 will be up on the official forums. This time, they want to know what you want to know about tanking. Are you interested in the incoming 4.2 change that strips dodge from agi for warrior, paladin and death knight tanks? I'm personally interested in why they bothered to do that. Maybe you're more curious about the general direction of tanking in five mans, raids and even tank specs in PvP, or you're wondering about how good mastery is going to be for your paladin tank in 4.2.

Whatever your question are, now is your chance to answer them. So go! Go, my legion of the tanks, go and get the developers aggro and do not let it go until your questions are answered!

The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

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Ask the Devs Round 9 wants your tanking questions originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 25 May 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs Round 9 wants your tanking questions

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At precisely noon today (that's right now!), Ask the Devs Round 9 will be up on the official forums. This time, the devs want to know what you want to know about tanking. Are you interested in the incoming 4.2 change that strips dodge from agility for warrior, paladin and death knight tanks? I'm personally interested in why they bothered to do that. Maybe you're more curious about the general direction of tanking in 5-mans, raids and even tank specs in PVP, or you're wondering about how good mastery is going to be for your paladin tank in 4.2.

Whatever your questions are, now is your chance to answer them. So go! Go, my legion of the tanks, go and get the developers' aggro and do not let it go until your questions are answered!
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

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Ask the Devs Round 9 wants your tanking questions originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 25 May 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs round 6 open for your guild advancement questions

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Ask the Devs has been a pretty good look into the development process and future of feature development in World of Warcraft. Round 6 is going to focus on guild advancement and, presumably, the future of the guild leveling system now that guilds are at the cap. You can submit your own guild advancement questions in the Ask the Devs thread. Currently, the only available thread is for EU players, with a US thread opening soon.

I know what my question about guild advancement is: Is the guild reputation cap too low? I always feel like after I reach the cap (very quickly through raiding) that there is no reason for me to continue doing dailies or other guild reputation activities when I just don't earn any reputation. After honored or revered, can we get the cap removed, much like when guilds hit level 23, their guild experience caps are removed?

Read all of WoW Insider's previous Ask the Devs coverage:
Blizzard's full announcement after the break.

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Ask the Devs round 6 open for your guild advancement questions originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered

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Ask the Devs, Blizzard's developer community question and answer feature, continues with round 5, an in-depth look at achievements detailing the difficulty of changing achievement, making certain rewards account-wide, and whether removed content is ever going to be a part of the game again. Check out the full question and answer session after the break.


Quote:

Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide? - Larosh (Europe [German]), Eneia & Payasos (Europe [Spanish]), Rageudder & Kellgros (Europe [English]), ??????? (Europe [Russian]), Nyn (North America/ANZ), ?????? (Korea)


A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we're having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features.

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Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor questions answered

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Ask the Devs, the ongoing, in-depth Q&A series focusing on specific aspects of World of Warcraft, continues with round 4 answers to your questions about weapons and armor. As in the past, the devs hand picked user questions and gave detailed answers, shedding new light on some of the design intricacies that go into creating the World of Warcraft.

There are some interesting questions this time around, as always, and even some more interesting answers. Highlights include the need for more armor models, a cool idea about buying quartermaster outfits, the drop rate of the legendary shards for 10- and 25-man raiding, and an interesting fix to prevent players rolling need on items in the random dungeon finder only to throw them up on the auction house. The full Q&A is after the jump.

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Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor questions answered originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Addon Spotlight: From raid leader tools to Ask the Devs discussion

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Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

Addon Spotlight is here to brighten up your day, illuminate your soul, and add to your already impressive interface folder. Welcome, friends. This week, Blizzard's Ask the Devs round 3 focused on user interface questions and answers, and after my quick addon picks for the week, I want to delve into some of my own personal analysis of those answers. I think the Ask the Devs style is a good one, and I was pleasantly surprised at their answers this time around. I think it is easy to ask softball UI questions, but we actually got some cool answers.

However, we also like to spotlight addons in this column as well. Raiding is fun, right? Of course it is. Raid leading, however, is probably less fun -- herding cats and all that. I've got two quick picks for raid leaders, and then we'll jump into some Q&A.

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Addon Spotlight: From raid leader tools to Ask the Devs discussion originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs round 3 UI questions answered

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Ask the Devs Round 3 questions are already answered! We've been getting some quick turnaround on the Ask the Devs questions lately, and the third batch based on user interface questions is no different. A lot of the answers are great and informative, giving us players an interesting look into the design philosophy as it pertains to addons. One question really stood out -- looks like we're going to be getting the ability to change the order of our characters on the select screen come patch 4.2!

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Ask the Devs round 3 UI questions answered originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask the Devs Round 2 PvP questions answered

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After the first set of Ask the Devs questions were answered just last week, we've already got another set of questions and answers available. Immediately after the first set of answers went live, a call went out for PvP questions specifically for the next round. Check out the questions and answers!

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Ask the Devs Round 2 PvP questions answered originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blizzard answers your questions in Ask the Devs Q&A

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If you've been waiting for the answers to the Ask the Devs Q&A, your wait is over. Not only have they answered the first installment of questions, the fine folks at Blizzard have even opened a new thread for more questions you may be burning to ask.

Questions this time out ranged from PvP/PvE balance issues to death knight mastery runeforges to why moonkin don't have Execute. I personally found the discussions on Outland quest flow and why Blizzard doesn't just separate PvP and PvE spells to be pretty interesting. Take a look and pose your own questions if you don't see what you wanted answered this time out.

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Blizzard answers your questions in Ask the Devs Q&A originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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