blizzard has insulted arena plyrs once again

#1 - June 17, 2011, 11:17 p.m.

Season 9 now ends on the 28th instead of the 21st while a player who doesn't do arena often may say its only one more week, if you look at whats going on inside the hardcore arena tier, this is absolutely absurd.

MMR Exploiting is completely out of control and you have enabled another week of this to continue and yet you have done very little to prevent or control this.

Glad Sells are completely out of control and you have enabled another week of this to continue and have done very little to prevent or control this.

Arena Participation is once again at an all time-low, I promise you we will not be as forgiving as the past as time and time again Arena players are left in the dark, with no explanation or reasoning.

Cuttoffs across the board for Gladiator are going to become absurdly high I am currently 2771 in 3s and now I DO NOT FEEL SAFE AT THIS RATING. Are you serious 2771? What has this game come to?

Season 9 will last 24 weeks, a very intuitive and endearing way to begin an expansion pack that was supposed to "slow arena down and increase healthpools" please dont even get me started on that.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#30 - June 17, 2011, 11:48 p.m.

Unfortunately, there are many logistical reasons for why we needed to push back the end date to the 28th. Keep in mind our original announcement said it could end "as early as June 21." It wasn't an absolute confirmation of the end date. The announcement now says it could end "as early as June 28", which means it's still not guaranteed to end that day. It just depends on if all of our other ducks are in a row.

Announcement: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2880562

Zarhym

Community Manager

#95 - June 18, 2011, 2:37 a.m.

06/17/2011 06:48 PMPosted by Efn
Keep in mind our original announcement said it could end "as early as June 21." It wasn't an absolute confirmation of the end date.

No. A thousand times no.

The problem with a lot of people who write today is their fundamental lack of understanding regarding the finer points of the English language.

The original announcement:

Arena and Rated Battleground Season 9 is scheduled to end as early as June 21.

This, somewhat definitively and without ambiguity, has declared two things about June 21. Firstly, it declares it as the end of Arena Season 9. Secondly, it declares that it is a date that could be considered early in a given context (in this case, regarding the closure of Season 9). The way it's written says that June 21 is the end date, though perhaps the audience reading the announcement may have thought it to end a bit later (hence the declaration that June 21 might be considered early in that context).

Had the author of that announcement wanted to introduce the notion that the earliest it is scheduled to end is June 21, they most certainly should have written:

Arena and Rated Battleground Season 9 may end as early as June 21.

It's the "is scheduled to end" phrasing in the original announcement that adds a sense of solidity to the date. The use of the word "scheduled" implies a definite, concrete date, as this is the most common context in which that word is used. The "as early as" phrase, given it's pairing with a phrase implying a fixed date, is therefore relegated to that of an additional description about the date, rather than your now stated intention of introducing ambiguity to it.

You may think I'm splitting hairs on this, but those in charge of writing announcements really ought to be aware of such nuances. If you intend to introduce a sense of variability into an announcement, do so, and do so clearly. What that announcement said was fairly clear to most who read it: Season 9 ends on June 21, and you might think that's early compared to when you may have otherwise been expecting it to close.

Wow. Okay. Next time I'll add the word "tentatively" in front of the word "scheduled" just to make sure everyone's on board. If "scheduled" automatically implies a date set in stone, and no other words in the sentence can augment that implication, throwing the word "tentatively" in front of it might be mind blowing.

Anyway, I like adverbs. I'm sure you do too. :)