transmorg > content?

All the focus I've seen on transmogrification and I can't help but think - If only all that effort was put into some wicked content, rather than this novelty crap...

I have to say, I generally like all the FL boss mechanics, some cool stuff. from a healing perspective I love baleroc and alysrazor, that take it outside the box. However, the raid itself is pretty lame, a big open firey field with a bunch of trash and bosses slapped down on it.

I've seen a lot of these sorts of overstatements or oversimplifications of the work that we're doing on our end of things and I have to honestly say that it can get a bit tiring to see repeated as fact when it's opinion. While we greatly appreciate constructive feedback and opinion, we also want to make sure to encourage people to pause and make sure that what they're sharing with us and the rest of the community is constructive to begin with.

Let's start off first by clarifying that Transmogrification is a feature we felt would benefit the community in many ways. It should open up the opportunity for people to feel as if they have the ability to customize how their character looks while still retaining the stats they really like, want, or need. It is as of yet, untested on the PTR, but it will be. The "rules" of what can and can't be used are still in development, and even after the rules are set at the live release, we may well add additional options into the system. This system should lend itself well to long term use and enjoyment for many people.

That said though, (and yes we did have to spend time on the technical end of things to make sure it is going to work well), we are also working on other things including the Void Storage, but more importantly, are working on some pretty amazing content for patch 4.3 which includes new dungeons and the Raid on Deathwing. We're not quite ready to give you all the details on these as of yet, but I can tell you that we're looking at some pretty great storylines and events to be played out. I can assure you that despite what your perception may be, Firelands was not designed by simply plopping down bosses in a field of fire, nor is anything we design quite so simple. If it was, we'd probably all get more sleep and spend more time on the company yacht. Right? ;)

I'm sure your perception is that our only focus is Transmogrification because you've only seen us really getting into the details on it recently and it's been a hot topic for the community overall. But don't be fooled into thinking that the content to come is going to be a simple paper cut out puppet show in a cardboard box.

Again, please don't take this as me disregarding your opinion or thoughts. Just be reassured though that we're not "just" doing anything in regard to the upcoming content. There has been many many hours of work put into what is coming: many meetings, many strategy sessions, much design work, coding, artwork, music, animation, etc. If we make it look "easy" then I guess there's not much we can do about that. ;) We have some truly talented and amazing people working on these things, so I guess we just can't help making it look that way.

*As always, I'd like to remind everyone that if you choose to take part in these discussions, you should refrain from personal attacks or non-constructive posting so that the thread doesn't become derailed. Once that happens, we either have to try to get the train back on the track, or just lock it off and leave the wreckage where it lays.

All I know is that if the next patch notes say "We fixed the awful click-to-move bug... and also, here's transmogrification" then I'll dance the happy dance.

If you just keep rolling out new stuff while the bug list grows, I'll dance the sad dance.

Unfortunately, we can't just put out foggers to kill bugs, but I can assure you that we don't choose to not fix bugs just for the heck of it. Some bugs are just harder to kill/fix than others or rely on even new technology to sort them out. Sometimes a bug is even darn near impossible to reproduce even if we've seen it ourselves. Thus why we're always very appreciative of the community taking time to report these to us (with as much detail as possible) so we can find and fix them.

That said though, that quest is never ending. World of Warcraft is a very complex game and what was fixed one moment could get glitched out again the next if a build changes or code changes. We do what we can do stay on top of it, but unfortunately, we have human limitations that get in the way despite the introduction of our new cyber-enhancement program. (It's fledgling yet so there may be bugs in that system too... (Ok, I'm kidding about cyber-enhancements)).

So I'm sorry you find this kind of feedback "tiring" Neth, but it's also tiring to never have it addressed in a satisfactory manner. Yeah, I know, the same people who pump out dungeon and raid bosses are not necessarily on the same team that's rolling out Transmogrification. Guess what? As a consumer, I don't care what goes on behind the curtain. All I care is that you try and keep up such that I, and the people I play with, don't get bored.

I knew someone would pick up on that word of all words. ;)

I'll continue it and say, it's also tiring hearing that we're not addressing things in a 'satisfactory manner'. Not because we don't want to put in the effort or that we're giving up on trying, it's just that when the effort is put in, it's not enough for select people. Of course it's that way because we have such a diverse population (which is great) so we're never going to address everything to everyone's satisfaction.

That said though, I wanted to make sure you know that I appreciate you taking the time to write your post. I appreciate the constructive feedback and also wanted to acknowledge that we are well aware of the feeling that we're not delivering content fast enough. We are continuing to find ways to do just this. Just keep in mind that we do not want (nor are choosing to) deliver anything that isn't up to our standards. So, we still will hold to the idea that if we feel something isn't good enough or isn't working how we wanted it to, we will not put it out there just so we can say we did.


For the Call to Arms bug... I'll have to revisit that topic elsewhere. I know we had some things that were addressed or being looked into at one point.

For those who continue to support us and our efforts, we really do appreciate it. Just please remember that even those who may seem "negative" are supporting us in their own way by simply letting us know about the things that they are experiencing or feeling too.