#135 - Oct. 16, 2014, 9:05 p.m.
I'm pretty disappointed in myself for believing that neither of you will actually tune into watch this interview, but will probably be back to utter this same damning revelation the next time we announce an interview. Your statements are basically anti-talking-points talking points.
I've watched plenty of interviews, and while I understand it's in your job description to defend blizzard - the seemingly unprofessional attitude isn't becoming. I can understand that, too, though, because clearly you've delved too deeply into the negativity of the player base and become touched by it. That, however, was something you didn't have to do yet chose to.
My point remains. You (general you, as-in blizzard as a whole) rarely answer hard questions, and I get why I really do. They're called hard questions for a reason, they're not meant to be easy to pick up and deal with. They need depth, time and commitment to what you're saying. I know all about negative PR and the fact you will often have someone watching keenly everything you say and do, and it's not easy to stand up despite that and say what it is you should say or what people expect you to say.
It's the same things politicians do and have been doing for years.
But, let's call a spade a spade. This is nothing more than marketing, so don't play it up as a great opportunity. It's not. It's baseless pandering and self servicing between you and a major supporter of your game - WoWhead. Even if you were willing to play ball and answer serious questions, do you really think for half a second that WoW head would do anything to jeopardize your working relationship? No. Because that requires courage.
But, hey, let's just call it a non-issue, because I don't feel like having a blue jump down my throat some more for what I feel strongly about based on evidence drawn in from the past. I don't blame you for feeling how you feel, please don't blame me.
Ps. My previous post should of inspired a desire to be more liberal with discussion, instead of constraining. We - many of us players - want that. We need that nourishment. It's not an 'anti talking point' as you put it. To put it in a more joking context: If someone says 'you suck,' you don't go into a corner and start crying. You say to them, 'no, I don't suck and this is why.' Be proud of your game as many of us are. But be a realist, too.
Well... fair enough. That's a valid perspective and I can understand why someone could have it. I do take serious issue with your assessment of how this interview is positioned though. If I wanted to book a "marketing interview," I wouldn't choose a purely WoW-focused fansite. That doesn't give me the marketing reach I'd want, not to mention the fact that Wowhead Weekly's moderators are
intimately familiar with this game's ins and outs -- they absolutely have the fuel, know-how, and motivation to ask questions veteran players want to hear answered.
While I do work closely with PR and Marketing at Blizzard, there's a very clear distinction between what those folks do and what we do in Community Development. If I wanted good PR and Marketing I'd setup an interview with some broad-reaching gaming publication/site/channel that's going to prepare fairly general questions about the core features of the expansion. But, no, my goal is to sit the developers down with veteran WoW players who have a lot of experience covering WoW news, and understanding of what concerns and frustrations a lot of other players share. The purpose of this is to get as much information and clarification out there as possible, because in an information vacuum all kinds of misconceptions and conspiracy theories arise, particularly after such a large patch containing such broad changes to game mechanics (like 6.0.2!).
The folks at Wowhead should be keenly aware that it'd be a much bigger problem for them to be delegitimized in the eyes of the community for not serving the community's best interests, than to be viewed negatively by us for not sticking to only what we want to talk about.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I provided no talking points or off-limits questions to Olivia and Perculia while setting up this interview. I did, however, specifically request that they ask a question on exactly 1 topic, and 1 topic only. During last Sunday's Convert to Raid interview, many people in Twitch chat were asking about Warlords itemization and comparing it to Diablo-style loot. When the interview ended Ion mentioned that he wanted to address that topic, but didn't get a chance. I let Olivia and Perculia know that in case they want to bring it up in their interview.