I thought 2.4 was the pvp balance patch?

I'm not sure where you got that idea. We wouldn't advertise a patch as "the pvp balance patch", although certainly there were a decent amount of changes that could affect PvP (Blood Pact has a tooltip now!) but a patch generally doesn't specifically target one area of the game, nor would we push it as doing such.

Rumors, misquotes, miscommunication, the "operator" effect, etc. all play in to some extremely awesome expectations of things that don't actually exist. I find that if it's something worth being concerned over, you should involve yourself in obtaining the information and interpreting it for yourself.

Q u o t e:


Remember when all Blue posts could be funny and to the point?

No?

Explain.

Q u o t e:
heh

and how are we to do this anyway? short of bugging blizzard headquarters and spying on the tight-lipped devs, i mean?

Well, here's an example:

<guildmember1> dood lol i herd 2.4 is a pvp patch and like every class is gettin like all jumbled up an aythin, itz ganna be pvp master blaster tightness
<guildmember2> omg your information is legitimate! my expectations are now irrevocably increased

Then guildmember2 is surprised/upset/whatever when the information they heard turns out to be false.

Not saying that's what happened in this case, just that it's always best that if you're interested, to find/read/interpret the source information for yourself. As I said though it's fairly common, I told hold anyone at fault for putting some ounce of credence (wooo! CCR!) into something they hear. Just a helpful tip is all. If you hear something, try to find out for yourself if it has any basis in truth. That's it.

If someone here in fact said "2.4 is the PvP balance patch" then that was wrong.

Q u o t e:
A demanded response from a Blue, exciting.

All I was saying is that, not only did your post clear up the question of the OP, but it was also funny.

Long ago this was a common occurrence. Lately though, it seems that Blue posts are more and more vague.

I'm just trying to keep it old school.

Q u o t e:


You've touted this line before-but the interview couldn't have been more clear. He was clearly talking about 2.4 and he was clearly talking about balancing PvP IN 2.4. We aren't the ones miscontruing what was actually said.

No you're right it was an incorrect translation done by a fan, which was even corrected later on by that fan, but everyone just took what every fan site originally posted as gospel. Thank goodness the fan sites didn't catch on to the correction or there may have been less confusion...

It's not really their fault though, they churn through a lot of stuff, so it's all understandable.

What's not really understandable, or maybe tolerable to me, is the expectation that we should apologize for a bad translation done by someone just trying to help in the community. Personally I posted multiple times trying to tell people that 2.4 wasn't going to contain a lot of class changes, wondering where the idea was coming from, but obviously my voice only goes so far.

Now if I had been aware of the original translation where all this came from beforehand I probably could have contacted some of the fan sites and told them to update their posts, but the damage was done any way. No one seemed to notice the correction, and when I pointed the correction out it was then our fault that we didn't try hard enough to lower people's expectations. Great, awesome, thank you.

Imagine how many mistranslations and issues there are for every non-english speaking wow-playing country in the world. I would guess they're more willing to take those things with a grain of salt, and a bit easier going.

For the third time, if it's worth being that concerned over, find the information for yourself. Import the magazine, learn the language, and translate it yourself. Otherwise you had better have a box of Morton on your desk.

Q u o t e:
Blizzard managed to overlook this magazine article until the patch was released. Then an explanation was provided about a 'misunderstanding.' Convenient!

It was decidedly inconvenient, actually.

The article wasn't overlooked, the information contained therein was solid. What managed to pass under our collective noses was that a faulty fan-made translation of the article was being spread as fact. To the translator's credit they caught/touched upon the error, but it was too late by that point.

Even if we had publicly renounced the information in the translation, had we seen it beforehand, it wouldn't have reached enough people to repair the damage done. So now I explain the situation to you as truthfully as I can, take it or leave it.

Was the translation wrong, and that information spread as fact? Yes. Could we have caught it beforehand and possibly done some damage control? Absolutely.

Is it then our responsibility to ensure that players don't take everything they read, especially translations from magazine articles, vague ones at that, as promises for game changes? No, it isn't. We simply don't have that kind of control over the flow of information in an open network of millions of people.

I place it on the listener, the reader, the silent observer, to understand the medium, understand the source, and intelligently weigh the information they come across.

I don't think that's asking too much.

Q u o t e:
I think you overestimate humanity

Fixed.

Q u o t e:
The mistranslation was clearly NOT about PvP changes being made, but WHEN. The interview was almost entirely about "the Sunwell patch." That patch was/is 2.4. He couldn't POSSIBLY have been talking about any content releases post-2.4

No, you're right, the interview was done sometime in October '07 according to PR, which means "the next patch" was more than likely in reference to 2.3.0.

Having an interview in English, translated to another language, and then translated back to English is always going to cause some issues. On top of that you have magazine lead times, which means their interviews don't actually get printed for a few months after they happen. In a live MMO, where patches and changes are made on a day to day basis, it's really a poor medium for providing quick and correct information.

I could point fingers at the failings of those reading the translated article, and they could point fingers at our failings to clarify.
But, I propose that I don't care any more.

Q u o t e:
The point was, you're trying to explain this away and you can't.

You're right, I can be as forthcoming and truthful as I possibly can and there will still be those that think they have it all figured out, that I'm told to post something, or spin it, or lie.

So, I actually do appreciate the reminder. I've said what I can, if you want to morph the content of this thread and the article into your own class concerns then feel free, I won't be reading them.