@DwayneRyan8 Damak the Dangerous. https://t.co/5dzciasWX9
@DwayneRyan8 A mog for adventure. https://t.co/7ojSPWiGlc
@DwayneRyan8 Let us plunder! https://t.co/XwfUBjfn7h
RT @LionelSchramm: The Desolation of Deathwing - Warcraft Fan Art https://t.co/MTc61lLihT
Greetings!
First up I’d like to thank you for taking the time to write up really excellent feedback here. Our team fully supports the sentiment that accessibility is not just a concern for those with disabilities, and that efforts to improve accessibility make the game better for everyone. Posts like this do a great job of helping us gain insight into ways we can level up as developers.
While I can’t provide a definitive answer to all of your points, I’d like to share some insight into how we think about and approach these problems, as well as some things we’ve either already done or are considering that may help.
Collaborative Randomness
This is a cool term and I like it, but I want to expand a bit and talk about even more factors that we think about when determining if a mechanic is appropriate to ask players to do at a given difficulty, such as:
• How complex is the mechanic?
• How much affordance does the mechanic have? (basically a function of how clear it is + how much time you’re given to react)
• How severe is the punishment for failure, and is it binary or granular?
To use a few Shadowlands mechanics as examples:
Smoldering Ire (Denathrius)
• Low complexity
• High affordance
• Outright ignoring it is an instant wipe, but failure is granular (if you only miss 20% the damage is likely survivable)
Spiked Floor (Painsmith)
• Low complexity
• Medium affordance
• Failure is binary (die if you get hit), but it only affects one person so a few mistakes can be OK
Loom of Fates (Fatescribe)
• High complexity
• High affordance
• Failure is binary and instantly wipes the raid.
Note that this is simplifying a bit and doesn’t account for “what else is competing for your attention while this mechanic is happening?”, but it’s still a useful model to help evaluate the impact a mechanic has on a fight.
When it comes to Loom of Fates, I wonder if you’d feel less like addons are a requirement if one or both of the following were true:
• Fewer things competing for your attention during the mechanic (avoidable elements, adds, etc)
• More granular penalty for failure (ex: a single mistake resulted in a “survivable with all your raid CDs” level of damage, as opposed to a wipe)
Ultimately what I’m getting at here is that “high complexity” is a design space that allows us to do some pretty cool and thematic stuff, and I’d like to find ways for us to continue doing things in this space while keeping them accessible. To be clear: We make “high complexity” mechanics not because we feel pressure to keep up with addons, but because doing so allows us to create more unique bosses.
Hiding of Visual Information
Spark Bots on Mekkatorque were a lesson for us on the experiences of players who don’t have the option of using voice chat. Since then any time we make a mechanic with “hidden information” or other puzzle elements that require players to communicate on the fly, one of our requirements is to confirm through playtesting that it can be reasonably completed without using addons or voice chat. In Shadowlands this requirement has been applied for fights like Mistcaller, Hylbrande, Fatescribe, and Lords of Dread.
That said we understand that even if a fight “can be done” without advanced addons or voice chat, it’s still possible for players without those tools to experience a frustratingly large disadvantage relative to a fight’s intended difficulty. We still have room to improve here, and hope to continue learning from and applying feedback like this as we make new bosses in the future.
Even if we can’t achieve complete parity, I think it’s totally fair to ask for designs to be considerate of players who can’t use voice and to provide reasonable in-game tools to bridge the gap. This of course brings us to…
User Interface Improvements
In-game communication tools are a big opportunity for improvement, and there’s been a lot of discussion on the team around the topic of how our interface can be used to enhance communication. The interface updates coming in 10.0 are largely focused on improving how the game provides information to players, but we agree that in the future something like a “ping system” would be great for enhancing communication and would be very much worth exploring.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts here, and for helping us make our game more accessible for everyone.
RT @KuridelBlack: The new age of Dragons shall begin. #warcraft #worldofwarcraft #Dragonflight https://t.co/HqkLlfaFxU
@murlocprincess Perfect for #MogMonday.
@cheersitskatie Same.
@BeatriceStory22 Wonderful work. 🖼
The reviews are in. https://t.co/ZVwi7Kg26k
Share your mog or walk the plank. 🏴☠️ It's #MogMonday. 📸 @DwayneRyan8 https://t.co/sQ00bmTMGI
Sixteen Arena World Championship teams compete in the Season 3 Circuit for a shot at the Grand Finals. The action begins on May 28th, only on YouTube!
RT @WoWEsports: Tune in now to see the final day of the MDI Last Stand Tournament! The team with the fastest time will qualify for the Glob…
RT @WoWEsports: Day two of the MDI Last Stand Tournament is LIVE! Teams have five more hours today to achieve the fastest dungeon times!…
The Pilfered Sweeper. Your pet’s favorite toy. https://t.co/9v0TiZHNfy
@mortivoree We heard he throws great parties.
@discosnax1 Look at those shades!
When did you start playing WoW and what was your first character?
RT @WoWEsports: The MDI Last Stand is LIVE! Five teams must complete six dungeons within 15 hours spread across the weekend! 🔴 https://t.c…
As we previously mentioned, our initial intention was to release the Enigma Crucible with a unique mechanic, a central button that allowed players to manipulate the pillar configuration throughout a match. During implementation, we found some concerns like pathing and line-of-sight issues that could have sporadically affected players and some of their class abilities. So to provide the best play experience and avoid potential frustrations, we have decided to go forward with the version that is currently available on the 9.2.5 PTR which has a single pillar configuration that remains locked throughout the match. We do not plan to pursue the initial version at this time.
Thank you for your understanding and we’ll see you in the Arena.
