WoW's Future: Ion Speaks Out... But Will They Actually Listen?

Ion talks WoW's future, while they're taking another stab at taking community feedback. Is it enough? Will they actually listen this time?
0:00 Intro
2:58 Feedback & Action
15:59 Core Fantasy
18:26 The Community Council

[Ryujin_FGC]

The issue was never that the community wasn't able to give clear feedback but that Blizzard constantly decided to ignore it.

[Tgruss]

Remember BlizzCon 2019 when they said something pretty similar to this and Shadowlands was supposed to be the expansion where they acted on player feedback and learned lessons from past failures? I do.

[Hitbox]

Ion has said they will listen every xpac since he became director they need a new director

[VoidTracks]

Like Preach said, they've had this shit for years. Hell they still have multiple active private discord servers for feedback with various community members and content creators. Leaves me once again with the feeling that this all just a smokescreen or a sad attempt to salvage whatever remains rather than actually wanting to make a change. I'll change my opinions if there is actual change but Blizzard and the WoW team especially has dried the well when it comes to any form of good will I had.

Even in the venturebeat interview with Ion, it seemed like he and the team still had the opinion that the covenant system was a good idea because it provided a meaningful choice like in RPGs, and are only changing it because the players are fed up. That right there just shows to me how delusional the team is when it comes to the thought process on how they design their game. And I can't really be assed anymore to be optimistic or try and see where they're coming from, cause they clearly can't do the same for us.

[deemgai]

Ions ignored shit since I want to say wod or legion. He’s baiting everyone. I think people should stop believing the guy until you actually see progress

[higurush]

"Will They Listen?"
Sadly, this question was asked over and over for 10 years straight, I have no faith in them. The bottles of copium I had in the fridge expired :(

[Pausenmacher]

They won't listen.
Ion is a typical "We know it better, you don't, even tho you still play our Game" Dev.
He can't accept and see that he fucked up.

[AnaseSkyrider]

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that Blizzard is taking internal credit for what's driving the 9.1.5 changes is all I need to hear to know they haven't learned their lesson. It's literally them saying "we did this because we wanted to, not because you wanted us to" which has been the root of the fucking problem for years.

I'm sorry to say this, but *I don't care* what the team wants. If the team wants conduit energy, the team is wrong. If the team wants to bleach all of the funny quests and "sexy" artwork and themes, all of the goofy juvenile jokes, then they need to hire a new fucking team because it's not about them.

It's not the players' fault, and it's not the game's fault, that management failed to follow basic ethical conduct like "don't sexually harass your employees", and I'm sick of their failure being used as a weapon to punish players and to imply that the things we actually *liked* about the game are somehow actually immoral, as if Maximilian is somehow related to the fucking Cosby Suite. We're not children, stop treating us like ones.

[hermxeno]

I still want AN ACTUAL apology from the devs for wasting everyones time and money.

[boozie]

Ion is the boy who cried wolf. I don’t believe you anymore Ion. They still don’t understand why players ultimately didn’t like covenants. Even though they were told from BlizzCon all the way to to release. Anyone who has even the slightest bit of belief that this team can get it right needs to get off the copium and check into rehab.

[aerin]

THEY HAVE LITERALLY ALREADY DONE THIS BEFORE

[zomgpeoplestolemname]

There was no meaningful choice about not letting you swap covenants or conduit energy or domination gems. That's not stubborness Ion, it was arrogance. Apology still not accepted because you can't admit your own wrongdoings in an honest way.

[ExplorHits]

As long as Ion's in charge - nothing will change for the better.

[burnttoast]

That "community council" is gonna be stuffed with Blizzdrones, people that believe the devs can do no wrong and nothing will change.

[SentientBratwurst]

Words and action…

From a dev that has only been words for years

[ninjaman]

will they? no. like preach said, they've had both public and private forums to listen to for years. they disagreed with the customers and ignored the feedback. THAT needs to change. just a waste of resources otherwise.

[wowmortalatis]

Anyone who has any faith in anything Ion says after the whole ripcord debacle is beyond delusional.

[animeyay]

I will believe Ion when he starts a sentence with "I'm stepping down and someone else is taking over".

[Asin]

A council of HAND PICKED and let me emphasize the words HAND PICKED isn't going to change anything except using those 100 people they will pick out BECAUSE they likely align with what the wow dev team as a shield to go "here see, the council agrees with what we did can't you guys see you arer wrong and being dumb?". This won't change anything at all.

[tolkoto]

I’m actually the guy who did this interview with Ion for VentureBeat. Thanks for covering! I’m fan of your videos :)