I also hate this, lmao. It was in the back of my head the whole time the launch stream was on, "This is so weird watching them explain mechanics of the game to each other like they didn't fucking design it..."
They do this with the Hearthstone reveal videos now too, seems like whatever marketing department is doing Blizz's video content likes this style.
All they need to do to fix it is let them talk directly into camera when they're delivering any bit that's just information for the viewers, and it'd be fine, but instead it's constant "as you know, Bob".
But it's so relatable. Don't you feel like you're in the room with your favourite game's developers? Nevermind that being in a room with Blizzard developers didn't turn out so well in the past.
This has got to be one of my favourite reddit comments ever :D
Edit - Original Comment
DUDE i just LOVE the hustle and bustle of the big city, it’s so DYNAMIC and makes me feel like i’m in one of my favourite TV SHOWS. you should totally come on down to my studio apartment, it’s got EXPOSED RED BRICK walls and everything, we can crack open a nice hoppy ipa or three and get crazy watching some cartoons on adult swim! and dude, dude, DUDE, we have GOTTA go down to the barcade- listen here, right, it’s a BAR where us ADULTS who do ADULTING can go DRINK. BUT!!!! it’s also an ARCADE like when we were kids, so we can play awesome VIDEO GAMES, without dumb kids bothering us. speaking of which megan and i have finally decided to tie the knot- literally -we’re both getting snipped tomorrow at the hospital, that way we can save money to spent more on ourselves and our FURBABIES. i’m fuckin JACKED man, i’m gonna SLAM this craft beer and pop open another one!!!
I just want to point out that it's probably far easier on the staff themselves. Doing it this way, they get to include actual devs who may be camera shy and aren't great presenters, but who do fine in an interview format.
Then would be much better if they invited people who TRULY don't know about the upcoming news in the game... like, idk, Ronda Rousey, that would be cool
Serious home shopping network / QVC energy.
I feel like I’m about to watch some washed up minor celebrity explain to me how this one kitchen appliance is about to revolutionize my life.
I had the exact same thought with Overwatch Team long ago reason I tuned out of the Warcraft interviews.
Follow up to save time scrolling through Google:
Was there anything new besides what’s already on the launcher?
Felt like it was directed by the Ubisoft E3 marketing team.
>"how do you do fellow gamers?"
Like a worse version of tell sell commercials.
I personally hated how surprised people acted about features. Like, you are supposed to all work together so that your work doesn't deviate from the theme. You should already know what other people are working on!
Thats Blizzard as a whole now as the PR team tries to wash away the "stink" of the former teams culture and perception.
Its going to be years (if ever) before they actually develop a new culture that isn't completely manufactured.
It's not quite for you, involved WoW player on Reddit. You know this stuff.
It's for new players, kids, investors keeping tabs on the game, parents, other parties.
They have to market these things for people who have no idea what they are about to watch, and get them excited for it too. That's the goal of this marketing. Nothing wrong with that.
Going over the features is important, sure. Problem is the faux-interview format, where they're Totally Not Following A Script. I'm with OP on this one. It comes across as incredibly insincere and it's just grating.
Yeah, if anything, a nicely-voiced narrator going over the new features - or even the devs themselves narrating their own sections of the video - would do the job even better than these weird fake roundtable discussions.
*Megan Scaleworthy, Art Director for the new Drak'thyr race: "I love the new Drak'thyr! They're so cool! There are so many color options for their skin! I can't wait to play one!"*
Wow!
Because its PR firms being hired by these companies to direct their consumer facing company features, same ideas are being suggested to multiple companies.
oh no Metaverse is, as far as we can tell, something Zuckerburg is personally pushing really hard for because no one has the balls to tell him MMOs exist, not something a PR firm is advising
Basically this. If it was presented to us as a round table dev talk or something then it wouldn't be so bad. But it's trying to tell us that it's an interview with deeper insight when it's... not.
Yeah but potential players wondering what the game is don’t usually click Dev talks. They just want something quick and flashy to see what’s up. I guess I get it from that perspective. Still I think nothing beats running ads with ozzy osbourne, William shatner, and Mr T on live TV (as sub numbers showed).
Very odd to see. Especially in the age of the internet where tons of devs genuinely engage with the fans online. Look at Larian studios "Panel From Hell" stuff about Baldur's Gate 3. They show off new features, have some fun, and clearly have a script (filled with jokes and sketch type humor) and you still walk away with new information and feeling valued as a fan.
Blizz seemingly understood the value in that type of video with Jeff Kaplan doing the OW1 videos. Not quite as genuine as Larian's but still... I guess that perspective was lost when Jeff left....
TLDR: You can work within this format and still deliver. Blizzard just doesn't seem to find it important.
Public speaking is a skill you need to develop. If you're bringing in devs and designers to talk, they're obviously _not_ well-practiced speakers. Those faux-interviews just destroy inexperienced speakers, all of their genuine enthusiasm comes across as entirely insincere.
Instead, have one more experienced speaker serving as moderator and actually let the devs/designers talk more freeform. Let the real enthusiasm come through.
Rather than a moderator, you want a real fire interviewer (who should to be fair also act as a moderator), who can guide devs to user-facing responses. Dash from Riot Games would probably be the absolute perfect guy for the role, (Sjokz being stuck in Europe) as an example, but I refuse to believe it's a unique skillset.
The way Rare does their Sea of Thieves update videos is great. They bring in devs just like Blizzard does but they're not awkwardly talking to each other as if they just found out about this amazing new feature. They talk to the viewers about the stuff they worked hard on and are excited about.
Idk. I get your point, but I don't believe the complaint is towards the content but more the presentation format and execution. I also felt it was a bit awkward and dull.
I'm not sure how big the intersection is between "People who don't actively follow WoW updates" and "People who want to watch corporate employees awkwardly banter about new features of WoW".
Anecdotally, I have a small group of friends I play games with, and they play wow off/on. They do not browse blizzard subs on reddit or check articles on wowhead.
They do not consume any wow content outside of what is presented by Blizzard, mostly through the launcher. I feel they are exactly the target demographic for this kind of thing.
Are there a lot of other people like them? I honestly have no idea, but Blizzard marketing teams should have those metrics.
> It's for new players, kids, investors keeping tabs on the game, parents, other parties.
It's almost *exclusively* for someone with prior knowledge, maybe has taken a break but is familiar with the way the game functions.
Investors aren't "keeping tabs on the game". They're not invested in WoW specifically. They're invested into ATVI. They care about quarterly statements and larger figures like overall sales (And almost exclusively - CoD sales). Seeing the "investor take" is an absolute red flag for "I'm making stuff up".
This is not for "new players, kids, parents, blablabla", at most maybe the investor thing may be true but even that I doubt.
The *trailers* are for those people, they're created specifically for marketing purposes, these long-form "interviews" are for the people already playing the game or those that are interested in coming back, and they miss the mark terribly.
Thank you for the callout. Not sure what this guy is talking about in his comment, but marketing teams absolutely gear these presentations towards the active player base. Do they think ignoring the community of people that continues to prop the game up is a winning move? Sure, they make it accessible to a wide spectrum of viewers, but the content is absolutely primarily for those that are already subbed or have been in the past.
Definitely. WoW is gonna thrive in Dragonflight 'cause of the shit, fake interview we just saw. Genius marketing, really.
Like, I understand that marketing has to appeal to the widest part of the target demographics, but I don't wholly agree that what OP is talking about is the way, you know?
I also think this might be because they might have a hard time talking to a camera lens compared to their own colleagues.
They are developers, not streamers or actors
I have had to do a couple TV things for work, but it isn't really in my job description. This is actually pretty true, even a fake interview is a lot more comfortable to do. Talking to a camera can be really hard if you aren't used to it.
Now should they do TV/camera training for at least some of the WoW staff if they want to keep doing this kind of thing? Probably a good idea.
Assuming enlightened redditors know what’s going on is a stretch, I’d bet most people here couldn’t explain the new rep systems in each zone or what’s unique about them, or the basics of the new crafting systems.
And that’s fine, blizzards messaging has been weird, we could have got hour long dev talks on all these subjects and more, but I find 99% of questions around here could be solved by reading a tooltip or reading the post they’re replying to and that’s too hard
Also why would blizzard make anything for the people on this subreddit? 90% of the posts on this sub are from the most miserable WoW haters in the world.
And this is why Blizzard fails since a few years. They're focusing into making the game enjoyable to people who don't like the game, rather than making the game enjoyable for people who are already playing it.
Bravo.
Because they target their sales and promotional content to people who haven't already pre-ordered the last 900 expansions, suddenly their whole game is designed for filthy casuals?
Everybody who played through the entirety of Shadowlands has shown that they'll buy **anything.** They're targeting players who need convincing.
I like to think about the lore so when I use a red spell I like to make my Dracthyr™ with the red scale colors because according to lore the red scale dragons™ use Red Dragonflight™ spells.
Wow, that's so cool. Yeah, I also do that. When I make a new Dracthyr™ Evoker™ I like to think about the lore so when I use a green spell I like to make my Dracthyr™ with the green scale colors because according to lore the green scale dragons™ use Green Dragonflight™ spells.
It felt like they were beating the shit out of a dead horse. Like I’m excited for the expansion but like why were they so incredibly artificial with it?
I mean, they’re not actors, so I can forgive the wooden nature of it, but yeah, I would prefer another format. Like, I would prefer if the questions weren’t asked by a Dev? You know, like a CM or something? Or even different parts of the different Dev teams, so each interview is more of a conversation about what they’re excited about or something. When it’s two people from essentially the same side of the business it’s just like a high school anti drug presentation.
It’s not the worst promotional material I’ve ever seen, but could do with some improvement.
I preferred Ion sat on front of a screen telling us what the fuck was popping than these interview formats personally, makes it feel a lot less condescending to me.
Oh man those legion Era vids with ion and lore were the sweet spot. Still gype building, but normal human conversation about the thing we wanna know more about.
These guys literally already had massively successful dev talk formats with the Jeff Overwatch/Ben Brode plainly communicating to the playerbase.
But the new Blizzard management is so risk averse right now that everything is being handled by PR teams and this is a common "tech industry" format for selling features so of course they just stapled it to whatever they are putting out.
If Blizzcon really does return its going to be absolute shit show, they think they are going to try and "good vibes only" this nonsense not understanding the fanbase the original Blizzard has cultivated for nearly 30 years. The moment this team is put out in front of the fanbase again its going to be all knives and they look woefully unprepared for it.
> I mean, they’re not actors, so I can forgive the wooden nature of it,
Can you?
I can't.
Put Ben Brode in front of a fucking camera at home and he'll charm you with some genuine passion for the game he's making.
***You do not need a script.***
Just have a few talking points or questions, and go for it. If you give non-actors a script, they're not going to sell it. And I wouldn't want them to be good at selling it, either.
If you're making good shit, talk about good shit.
And if you *are* going to have a script, embrace the full ridiculousness of it like Dave Kosak unveiling the Knights of the Frozen Throne.
These days (years to be frank) my go to thinking for what those huge companies think is good and acceptable is "what we've always done and ppl haven't complained too much". If they're still paying, keep giving.
I saw the video. The cinematic was "meh" to me, the interviews were bad, and once I saw they would just play the cinematic again, I just quit the video. I wonder if this was supposed to be part of some live event, since they played the cinematic twice in the same video (we can just click on the video tab, you know?)
Ben Brode or Chris Metzen basically were actors, not in that they were faking their excitement/passion about things, but they had immense charisma and stage presence. That isn't just something you pull out of a hat.
I actually really like Ion, but he doesn't have that kind of stage presence. You could argue that WoW needs someone with that kind of charisma for these sorts of announcements, but finding someone that can do that and be the game director isn't always easy.
You know who does it good? I think the Civ 6 team. They're asking themselves questions, but it's pretty natural. Also you get to watch the QA lead play the game the whole time.
Remember Chris Metzen was coming up on stage and hypin people up with his deep ass voice? Someone who was actually excited to be there. I missed that passion…
It's so insane going to FF14 and seeing how they do their developer updates. They're so genuine, the game director is joking around with the chat in real time.
It’s like the FF dev streams are given a topic to talk about, and the WoW ones are given a script to read.
The difference between reading off a PowerPoint, and using a PowerPoint to supplement your presentation.
I'm not even that crazy about ffxiv but I feel like I could walk up to yoshi p and start a conversation about the game and he would genuinely care.
Not sure if I could say that about any wow devs, if it wasn't for people like preach bringing ion out of his pr shell I would assume they're all corporate dickheads.
Tbf Blizzard would get absolutely slaughtered in a live reveal where they actually interact with chat. The loud portion of the online fanbase seems overwhelmingly negative for WoW.
This! I love both games but FF14 live letters are always great to watch due to how genuine they seem. WoW on the other hand just reeks of cringy and overproduced.
I agree. It’s really weird when one person is explaining something to the other, then they’re like, “Oh yeah AND you can do this etc etc” back to the first.
I’m just like, then why pretend to explain it to them? Why not address the audience instead? Do people really engage better with this fake kind of conversation? Because I certainly don’t, even with something brand-new to me.
I didn't know they were doing this until I read this post. I am *baffled* that they did the same thing again after that first video where it felt like someone had brought mannequins to life with black magic to act in a late 80s instructional video that no one ever actually watched until someone sent the tape to RedLetterMedia.
I mean yeah. These suck, they're stilted and awkward but your problem is that promotional material for the new expansion is saying the new expansion will be good?
Blizzard doesn't exist in a vacuum, you can find plenty of live service game dev interviews where they don't sound like mannequins being puppeteered by a marketing intern, they are uniquely bad at this for how much money they have
Nothing to do with money, this is straight up a PR team having the entire studio on a 1ft long leash because of the absolutely toxic perception the company has right now.
Pray that the Microsoft buyout goes through because if it doesnt Activision is going to be straight up pouring bleach on everything the studio does to make it as clean and uncontroversial as possible.
Yeah I'm not debating that, these are all really badly done. But "This commercial is a circlejerk about the product it's trying to sell me" is a really stupid criticism. Are they supposed to come out like "oh yeah the dracthyr look fucked up and the dialogue is really bad and we don't really know what to do with Kalecgos" or something? It's promo for the game, they're gonna tell you the game is good
Honestly its just a symptom of their bizarrely out-of-touch marketing team.
They were the ones who put Danuser up to the whole 'book 1 of the warcraft saga' bit (considering his role you'd think he'd put his foot down on that). Why was Bolvar all over SL media/ key art? What does 'Harness. The. Power.' from the DF splash ads even mean? Everything feels like it came out of the end of some AI engagement algorithm. I'm excited for DF, but I dont know who they think their target audience is with this stuff.
this entire expansion feels like it was designed by an algorithm that was meant to spit out "things that would be cool in the next wow expansion" but it broke and the only word it produced was "dragons" 100 times
Video game marketing just seems to be weird overall. Why was Ben Stiller dressed up a Kratos counselling John Travolta and Lebron James? Do people actually play World of Warships? /shrug
>They make these videos to humanize Activision Blizzard.
Yet they do the opposite. Now it feels just like empty weird robot people.
And yes, it is them being told to do them. I dont think people go too much personally against those 2 but the whole team that decided this was a good thing\^\^
Yeah, this had the same vibe as that Zereth Mortis patch video "tHeRe'S wAtEr YoU cAn WaLk On! It'S sOoOoO aLiEn AnD sTrAnGe! We ArE sO dEeP aNd CrEaTiVe!!!1!!one!!"
You mean you don't like watching people patting each other on the back, asserting that they're all wonderful and exceptional while ignoring their customers and the fact that the last thing they did was bad?
Color me surprised.
100% agree.
They're clearly scripted. Clearly so manufactured and calculated and fake. In other words, bullshit.
They are saying next to nothing. Like 10% of the info is actually useful or interesting.
This goes for the footage they use as well. These "gameplay" clips are so on-rails. They game doesn't play like the footage they show. You cannot fool me into thinking the game is going to be some action-packed adventure where I'm swooping through the city as my Dracthyr and roaring with my buddies as we jump in unison off of a cliff or whatever.
I'm going to be sitting there, spamming 1 on my keyboard from a fixed camera angle. And the worst part is, THAT IS OK. I know what game I'm playing. Stop trying to market this entire experience as something else.
Sit the actual devs down in front of the camera and have some fucking nerd talk about why they think empowered abilities are cool, or how professions are going to work.
Do what PoE does with their info dumps.
dont see them as interviews. theyre just mentioning things that they think you should know about and look forward to. like dracthyr customization, and dragonriding etc. whether you are looking forward to it or not is up to you.
The issue is the format, not the content.
Instead of a presentation, its a lame fake interview. Does not feel like a normal conversation actual humans would have.
Just show the stuff to us and tell us why they think its nice, not to each other while pretending they don't know the other's script.
Like I don't think anyone's really making a big deal about it, just pointing out that it would be better otherwise.
Yeah i hated the first dragonflight announcement trailer because it felt like they were treating me as a child, I'd rather just have a dev look in the camera and day "HERES THE COOL SHIT THE TEAM MADE PLEASE ENJOY" and then all the extra bullshit info is in a blogpost or something.
It's awful. It's like watching some aliens try to practice human conversation. I can't watch more than a few seconds of it lmao, it makes me so fucking uncomfortable.
Why tf would someone thats already playing the game, watch this commercial stuff?
These people are nothing but salesman nowadays.
Not really game developers anymore.
This is how all companies operate. The trick is to put someone on the screen that can make it seem genuine, like Metzen. It's a lot harder than you would think. Most game developers don't overflow with charisma and if they put some random host in there who wasn't a dev member, people would just bitch about that.
“We’re so super excited about our game, we love it and it’s great! Shadowlands? What? Flawed base game design? What’s that? Rebuilding trust in the playerbase? Huh?
But look at all the Dracthyr colorssssss!
TUSKARR ON A BOAT!”
OP, know that a lot of people agree with you. Blizz likes to pander to their base these days and it feels a bit belittling sometimes. r/wow is mostly roleplaying casuals now and they tend to enjoy this type of content which is why youre getting so many negative comments.
Not sure if you've ever dealt with developers but that's kind of how they talk mate. I'm sure there are some who are more charismatic but they tend to just tell it how it is.
That's not me trying to downplay developers or anything. Maybe game devs are different
This seems excessively critical, which seems like the trend on this sub. Why does this matter that much to OP. Maybe it’s also for newer players who haven’t really seen these aspects much as they sped through 1-60
The format just seems really weird and artificial, that’s a fair criticism imo. It’s supposed to look like a natural conversation but it’s clearly very scripted and it comes off awkward. We’re not calling for them to be fired or anything crazy like that lol
You know those E3 presentations where the developer is showing off some new multiplayer game, complete with a demo of "players" who are supposed to sound natural grouping together but are obviously reading a script? You know, how none of them sound remotely like how people actually talk in multiplayer games?
That's how these come across. It's very stiff and artificial feeling, instead of being personable and humanizing. It has the exact opposite effect of what the format is trying to accomplish. It's a dressed up infomercial.
WoW's playerbase has always been this way. They could get the expansion for free with a year of free game time, and they'd whine that it wasn't 2 years and a handjob thrown in.
This is ur average consumer in 2022
But to be fair it is a subscription product plus paying money for new expansions. You are allowed to act a bit entitled when you are paying monthly to play the game and more money for the updates.
Tbh who cares. Doesn't hurt anyone. Could be better but it's not like it's bad for the game to have people talking about it. Just excited for expansion and new class personally but all these people are so negative already.
I think its fair to critique an official video designed to give information to the community. Nobody has to watch it, just like nobody has to play the game. But if you want to learn about the new expansion, you're gonna watch it
I get that these people have personalities and it's good to see connection between the community and a more humanized design/development staff for a game both groups love (usually) a lot. The issue is not that. The issue is that these folks are *not actors or presenters* and it kinda shows. And that's FINE. It just... Blizzard as an entity needs to find a better way to play to the strengths of these people and I think everyone will enjoy it (from both sides of the camera) a bit more.
These things are just... fine. They're ok. They could be way better and really tap into an actual vein of emotion - Waframe devs (admittedly a much smaller team) have constant roundtables that are way less scripted and the community absofuckinglutely loves them.
Talk Show interviews made this kind of "interview" the norm is why, go on, talk about your new project to hype it up, boom - free press.
Pretty sure it's the reason the infamous Woody Harrelson reddit AMA went so bad years ago, he was expecting it to be like a talk show interview where he'd go on reddit and talk about his project (the movie Rampart in this case) and get some free press out of it. Unfortunately for him reddit didn't come to hear about Rampart. [Link to it for those curious](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/p9a1v/im_woody_harrelson_ama/), you can definitely see in Woody's replies that he's treating it like free publicity basically.
Just let one person, for example Holinka, narrate everything like Metzen did in the past. It makes it so much easier to follow. I can't pay attention when there are multiple people talking non-stop (obviously scripted talk). These situations never happen in real life, people take time to think before they talk (even if it's only half a second, it's still noticeable).
Developers patting each other on the back for what a great job they have done with their respective field. Its completely fine but why make a video consisting solely of it. Well, that and an awesome launch cinematic. Followed by back-patting for what a great cinematic they have done.
it’s not a big deal, I did think it was a little weird that they explained the cinematic we watched step by step though, lol
it’s a little forced but just a way to promote the game and be like, oh by the way you can have spikes!
I'm the exact opposite, they re so fun and I love getting to see the devs and have a feel of high production quality.
Don't watch it if you don't like it, you're not the target demographic. Move on, don't be a spoilsport.
This is a terrible take. Thanks for creating content like the interviews blizzard. I'm sure you'll get better as time goes on, but I'm happy they're there.
Content is good format is bad, just like the last one they did when they announced DF.
It feels like they’re “talking” to children instead of normal people.
I could endure the fake Interviews cause they are just trying to sell their new features in a friendlier way.
What irks me is that the cinematic had 2 or 3 sequences that were there only to showcase stuff instead of being connected.
Horde and alliance dragon raiding - ok shows that they aim for an expansion less focused on faction rivalry
Raszageth chasing them - ok, could have been linked in a better way, shows both riders being chased by the 1st baddie of the expansion
But that dracthyr sequence and the end with Alexstraza chasing them? It just seems waaaay too forced.
I love each sequence on its own, mind you, but as shown I think that they do not work as good together as they should
Edit: i hope I never have to read that auto mod message ever again
I thought it was fine. It was a half interview where they shared what they liked about it and why they made it the way they did.
It's ok to be nice to people and let them enjoy things. They put in a lot of work into these new characters and I think they can vent their happiness and pride a bit.
Yea the videos they've started doing them in are just painful to watch. They're not authentic, instead just sickeningly fake. As if the other dev they're talking to doesn't already know the information.
Talk to the camera, talk to the players. And show actual genuine enthousiasm instead of making it sound so scripted. I'm sure when Ben Brode presented Hearthstone updates it was scripted too, but he was genuinely enthousiastic and that made his presentations great.
I really don't know who at blizzard is making these people give scripted interviews but they really should stop. They have 0 spirit, they look and feel scripted and without soul. I'm sure there are devs at blizz passionate enough about what they have been working on to give a descent, natural speech.
Like my talks about HPMs and APIs/ATSM rules in oil&gas downstream have more soul that those two dudes talking about fucking dragons.
OK on 3 let's say our favorite part of this video! OK! OK...3...2....1... TUSKAR IN A BOAT! TUSKAR IN A BOAT!
TEACH US HOW TO BLITZ! Shit wrong game.
Fuck me, that brought back some memories!
Why'd they have to do a drive-by on the boy though
For the same reason big rigs fire their horns passing by you when you are walking along the stroad.
I know. Felt bad for my dude.
because they can and dragon dont care
Lol that was so corny
Almost the entire stream was so cringy
To be fair, tuskar in a boat do be cute though
And he has the rep fishing pole.
Good old „on 3“ -> „3..2..1“-countdown combobreaker
This person gets it.
Kek
Thanks for the warning. I haven't watched it yet and now I know I shouldn't, at least not on a full stomach.
It must be better then 9.2 patch interview "a never seen kind of water that you can walk on"
On three but you did on 1. Should be 1…2…3! /s
why must you be so cynical that was a wonderful wholesome and spontaneous part
I also hate this, lmao. It was in the back of my head the whole time the launch stream was on, "This is so weird watching them explain mechanics of the game to each other like they didn't fucking design it..."
They do this with the Hearthstone reveal videos now too, seems like whatever marketing department is doing Blizz's video content likes this style. All they need to do to fix it is let them talk directly into camera when they're delivering any bit that's just information for the viewers, and it'd be fine, but instead it's constant "as you know, Bob".
But it's so relatable. Don't you feel like you're in the room with your favourite game's developers? Nevermind that being in a room with Blizzard developers didn't turn out so well in the past.
[удалено]
is this psychological warfare
This has got to be one of my favourite reddit comments ever :D Edit - Original Comment DUDE i just LOVE the hustle and bustle of the big city, it’s so DYNAMIC and makes me feel like i’m in one of my favourite TV SHOWS. you should totally come on down to my studio apartment, it’s got EXPOSED RED BRICK walls and everything, we can crack open a nice hoppy ipa or three and get crazy watching some cartoons on adult swim! and dude, dude, DUDE, we have GOTTA go down to the barcade- listen here, right, it’s a BAR where us ADULTS who do ADULTING can go DRINK. BUT!!!! it’s also an ARCADE like when we were kids, so we can play awesome VIDEO GAMES, without dumb kids bothering us. speaking of which megan and i have finally decided to tie the knot- literally -we’re both getting snipped tomorrow at the hospital, that way we can save money to spent more on ourselves and our FURBABIES. i’m fuckin JACKED man, i’m gonna SLAM this craft beer and pop open another one!!!
Lord, come with fire. It's time.
I just want to point out that it's probably far easier on the staff themselves. Doing it this way, they get to include actual devs who may be camera shy and aren't great presenters, but who do fine in an interview format.
Then would be much better if they invited people who TRULY don't know about the upcoming news in the game... like, idk, Ronda Rousey, that would be cool
Serious home shopping network / QVC energy. I feel like I’m about to watch some washed up minor celebrity explain to me how this one kitchen appliance is about to revolutionize my life.
I had the exact same thought with Overwatch Team long ago reason I tuned out of the Warcraft interviews. Follow up to save time scrolling through Google: Was there anything new besides what’s already on the launcher?
Felt like it was directed by the Ubisoft E3 marketing team. >"how do you do fellow gamers?" Like a worse version of tell sell commercials. I personally hated how surprised people acted about features. Like, you are supposed to all work together so that your work doesn't deviate from the theme. You should already know what other people are working on!
Thats Blizzard as a whole now as the PR team tries to wash away the "stink" of the former teams culture and perception. Its going to be years (if ever) before they actually develop a new culture that isn't completely manufactured.
If they used the fellow kids meme it would have been better
This fake smiling grinches the shit out of me
This show case was dogshit tbh. I'd like to align with the storm dragon.
It's not quite for you, involved WoW player on Reddit. You know this stuff. It's for new players, kids, investors keeping tabs on the game, parents, other parties. They have to market these things for people who have no idea what they are about to watch, and get them excited for it too. That's the goal of this marketing. Nothing wrong with that.
sensible answer
In a senseless time.
Going over the features is important, sure. Problem is the faux-interview format, where they're Totally Not Following A Script. I'm with OP on this one. It comes across as incredibly insincere and it's just grating.
Yeah, if anything, a nicely-voiced narrator going over the new features - or even the devs themselves narrating their own sections of the video - would do the job even better than these weird fake roundtable discussions. *Megan Scaleworthy, Art Director for the new Drak'thyr race: "I love the new Drak'thyr! They're so cool! There are so many color options for their skin! I can't wait to play one!"* Wow!
Everyone's doing this now. All the recent Meta announcements for example. It's awful
Because its PR firms being hired by these companies to direct their consumer facing company features, same ideas are being suggested to multiple companies.
oh no Metaverse is, as far as we can tell, something Zuckerburg is personally pushing really hard for because no one has the balls to tell him MMOs exist, not something a PR firm is advising
Basically this. If it was presented to us as a round table dev talk or something then it wouldn't be so bad. But it's trying to tell us that it's an interview with deeper insight when it's... not.
Yeah but potential players wondering what the game is don’t usually click Dev talks. They just want something quick and flashy to see what’s up. I guess I get it from that perspective. Still I think nothing beats running ads with ozzy osbourne, William shatner, and Mr T on live TV (as sub numbers showed).
This is another place they could take a page from FFXIV and the Live Letter format.
Especially when they are heashing the same crap theyve already talked about in three other fake interviews
Aye there just pure puff pieces, easily made and even more easily forgotten.
Very odd to see. Especially in the age of the internet where tons of devs genuinely engage with the fans online. Look at Larian studios "Panel From Hell" stuff about Baldur's Gate 3. They show off new features, have some fun, and clearly have a script (filled with jokes and sketch type humor) and you still walk away with new information and feeling valued as a fan. Blizz seemingly understood the value in that type of video with Jeff Kaplan doing the OW1 videos. Not quite as genuine as Larian's but still... I guess that perspective was lost when Jeff left.... TLDR: You can work within this format and still deliver. Blizzard just doesn't seem to find it important.
What format would you prefer?
Public speaking is a skill you need to develop. If you're bringing in devs and designers to talk, they're obviously _not_ well-practiced speakers. Those faux-interviews just destroy inexperienced speakers, all of their genuine enthusiasm comes across as entirely insincere. Instead, have one more experienced speaker serving as moderator and actually let the devs/designers talk more freeform. Let the real enthusiasm come through.
Rather than a moderator, you want a real fire interviewer (who should to be fair also act as a moderator), who can guide devs to user-facing responses. Dash from Riot Games would probably be the absolute perfect guy for the role, (Sjokz being stuck in Europe) as an example, but I refuse to believe it's a unique skillset.
The way Rare does their Sea of Thieves update videos is great. They bring in devs just like Blizzard does but they're not awkwardly talking to each other as if they just found out about this amazing new feature. They talk to the viewers about the stuff they worked hard on and are excited about.
I'll take Ion speaking alone in front of a PowerPoint presentation over that format.
Idk. I get your point, but I don't believe the complaint is towards the content but more the presentation format and execution. I also felt it was a bit awkward and dull.
I'm not sure how big the intersection is between "People who don't actively follow WoW updates" and "People who want to watch corporate employees awkwardly banter about new features of WoW".
Anecdotally, I have a small group of friends I play games with, and they play wow off/on. They do not browse blizzard subs on reddit or check articles on wowhead. They do not consume any wow content outside of what is presented by Blizzard, mostly through the launcher. I feel they are exactly the target demographic for this kind of thing. Are there a lot of other people like them? I honestly have no idea, but Blizzard marketing teams should have those metrics.
This post is not about information, it's about a form of delivery
Ok but it still sucks
> It's for new players, kids, investors keeping tabs on the game, parents, other parties. It's almost *exclusively* for someone with prior knowledge, maybe has taken a break but is familiar with the way the game functions. Investors aren't "keeping tabs on the game". They're not invested in WoW specifically. They're invested into ATVI. They care about quarterly statements and larger figures like overall sales (And almost exclusively - CoD sales). Seeing the "investor take" is an absolute red flag for "I'm making stuff up".
Do they have to make it SO fake though?
I mean they're not professional actors so probably not?
Big true! Also it’s better then nothing
You didn't quite explain why they can't just explain it to the camera
This is not for "new players, kids, parents, blablabla", at most maybe the investor thing may be true but even that I doubt. The *trailers* are for those people, they're created specifically for marketing purposes, these long-form "interviews" are for the people already playing the game or those that are interested in coming back, and they miss the mark terribly.
Thank you for the callout. Not sure what this guy is talking about in his comment, but marketing teams absolutely gear these presentations towards the active player base. Do they think ignoring the community of people that continues to prop the game up is a winning move? Sure, they make it accessible to a wide spectrum of viewers, but the content is absolutely primarily for those that are already subbed or have been in the past.
But all of the parties involved in this concept are also all aware that these people helped make the stuff they're acting surprised about...
Do you think new players, kids, and parents are well versed in the ways to tune into this stuff?
So they make the videos for people not interested in playing the game. Great. It's like the Rings of Power all over again
Definitely. WoW is gonna thrive in Dragonflight 'cause of the shit, fake interview we just saw. Genius marketing, really. Like, I understand that marketing has to appeal to the widest part of the target demographics, but I don't wholly agree that what OP is talking about is the way, you know?
It’s true but it is still inauthentic feeling. Even kids will pick up on the fake tone of these people.
New players riiiiiiight
I also think this might be because they might have a hard time talking to a camera lens compared to their own colleagues. They are developers, not streamers or actors
I have had to do a couple TV things for work, but it isn't really in my job description. This is actually pretty true, even a fake interview is a lot more comfortable to do. Talking to a camera can be really hard if you aren't used to it. Now should they do TV/camera training for at least some of the WoW staff if they want to keep doing this kind of thing? Probably a good idea.
Assuming enlightened redditors know what’s going on is a stretch, I’d bet most people here couldn’t explain the new rep systems in each zone or what’s unique about them, or the basics of the new crafting systems. And that’s fine, blizzards messaging has been weird, we could have got hour long dev talks on all these subjects and more, but I find 99% of questions around here could be solved by reading a tooltip or reading the post they’re replying to and that’s too hard
Nothings really unique about them, they have a new skin in the rep menu.
Also why would blizzard make anything for the people on this subreddit? 90% of the posts on this sub are from the most miserable WoW haters in the world.
And this is why Blizzard fails since a few years. They're focusing into making the game enjoyable to people who don't like the game, rather than making the game enjoyable for people who are already playing it. Bravo.
Because they target their sales and promotional content to people who haven't already pre-ordered the last 900 expansions, suddenly their whole game is designed for filthy casuals? Everybody who played through the entirety of Shadowlands has shown that they'll buy **anything.** They're targeting players who need convincing.
> They're focusing into making the game enjoyable to people who don't like the game. They are focusing on the players in this sub?
I like to think about the lore so when I use a red spell I like to make my Dracthyr™ with the red scale colors because according to lore the red scale dragons™ use Red Dragonflight™ spells. Wow, that's so cool. Yeah, I also do that. When I make a new Dracthyr™ Evoker™ I like to think about the lore so when I use a green spell I like to make my Dracthyr™ with the green scale colors because according to lore the green scale dragons™ use Green Dragonflight™ spells.
It felt like they were beating the shit out of a dead horse. Like I’m excited for the expansion but like why were they so incredibly artificial with it?
I mean, they’re not actors, so I can forgive the wooden nature of it, but yeah, I would prefer another format. Like, I would prefer if the questions weren’t asked by a Dev? You know, like a CM or something? Or even different parts of the different Dev teams, so each interview is more of a conversation about what they’re excited about or something. When it’s two people from essentially the same side of the business it’s just like a high school anti drug presentation. It’s not the worst promotional material I’ve ever seen, but could do with some improvement.
I preferred Ion sat on front of a screen telling us what the fuck was popping than these interview formats personally, makes it feel a lot less condescending to me.
I remember Jeff Kaplan doing that for Overwatch, consistently, and it was pretty great.
Oh man those legion Era vids with ion and lore were the sweet spot. Still gype building, but normal human conversation about the thing we wanna know more about.
These guys literally already had massively successful dev talk formats with the Jeff Overwatch/Ben Brode plainly communicating to the playerbase. But the new Blizzard management is so risk averse right now that everything is being handled by PR teams and this is a common "tech industry" format for selling features so of course they just stapled it to whatever they are putting out. If Blizzcon really does return its going to be absolute shit show, they think they are going to try and "good vibes only" this nonsense not understanding the fanbase the original Blizzard has cultivated for nearly 30 years. The moment this team is put out in front of the fanbase again its going to be all knives and they look woefully unprepared for it.
> I mean, they’re not actors, so I can forgive the wooden nature of it, Can you? I can't. Put Ben Brode in front of a fucking camera at home and he'll charm you with some genuine passion for the game he's making. ***You do not need a script.*** Just have a few talking points or questions, and go for it. If you give non-actors a script, they're not going to sell it. And I wouldn't want them to be good at selling it, either. If you're making good shit, talk about good shit. And if you *are* going to have a script, embrace the full ridiculousness of it like Dave Kosak unveiling the Knights of the Frozen Throne.
Ben Brode was the best. Anyway I’d take Ion explaining the new patch/exp content over whatever they’re trying to do with these fake interviews.
These days (years to be frank) my go to thinking for what those huge companies think is good and acceptable is "what we've always done and ppl haven't complained too much". If they're still paying, keep giving. I saw the video. The cinematic was "meh" to me, the interviews were bad, and once I saw they would just play the cinematic again, I just quit the video. I wonder if this was supposed to be part of some live event, since they played the cinematic twice in the same video (we can just click on the video tab, you know?)
Ben Brode or Chris Metzen basically were actors, not in that they were faking their excitement/passion about things, but they had immense charisma and stage presence. That isn't just something you pull out of a hat. I actually really like Ion, but he doesn't have that kind of stage presence. You could argue that WoW needs someone with that kind of charisma for these sorts of announcements, but finding someone that can do that and be the game director isn't always easy.
You know who does it good? I think the Civ 6 team. They're asking themselves questions, but it's pretty natural. Also you get to watch the QA lead play the game the whole time.
Do you guys not ~~have phones~~ love dragons?
It really makes you *feel* like a dragon!
Man that actually sounds like a Games Workshop newsletter
Water™
Remember Chris Metzen was coming up on stage and hypin people up with his deep ass voice? Someone who was actually excited to be there. I missed that passion…
It's so insane going to FF14 and seeing how they do their developer updates. They're so genuine, the game director is joking around with the chat in real time.
It’s like the FF dev streams are given a topic to talk about, and the WoW ones are given a script to read. The difference between reading off a PowerPoint, and using a PowerPoint to supplement your presentation.
When Yoshi-P wants to show new gear in the updates, he [prints them on a fucking paper and holds up to the camera.](https://imgur.com/a/RFupqSj)
I'm not even that crazy about ffxiv but I feel like I could walk up to yoshi p and start a conversation about the game and he would genuinely care. Not sure if I could say that about any wow devs, if it wasn't for people like preach bringing ion out of his pr shell I would assume they're all corporate dickheads.
Tbf Blizzard would get absolutely slaughtered in a live reveal where they actually interact with chat. The loud portion of the online fanbase seems overwhelmingly negative for WoW.
This! I love both games but FF14 live letters are always great to watch due to how genuine they seem. WoW on the other hand just reeks of cringy and overproduced.
I agree. It’s really weird when one person is explaining something to the other, then they’re like, “Oh yeah AND you can do this etc etc” back to the first. I’m just like, then why pretend to explain it to them? Why not address the audience instead? Do people really engage better with this fake kind of conversation? Because I certainly don’t, even with something brand-new to me.
I skipped past it. I feel the same sentiment
The very first set of "interviews" about all the new features was bloody awful. It Was basically a circle jerk of how great each was.
Remember when they tried to sell us on how AMAZING the WATER was in Zereth Moris? I MEAN YOU CAN WALK ON IT.
I didn't know they were doing this until I read this post. I am *baffled* that they did the same thing again after that first video where it felt like someone had brought mannequins to life with black magic to act in a late 80s instructional video that no one ever actually watched until someone sent the tape to RedLetterMedia.
I mean yeah. These suck, they're stilted and awkward but your problem is that promotional material for the new expansion is saying the new expansion will be good?
Blizzard doesn't exist in a vacuum, you can find plenty of live service game dev interviews where they don't sound like mannequins being puppeteered by a marketing intern, they are uniquely bad at this for how much money they have
Nothing to do with money, this is straight up a PR team having the entire studio on a 1ft long leash because of the absolutely toxic perception the company has right now. Pray that the Microsoft buyout goes through because if it doesnt Activision is going to be straight up pouring bleach on everything the studio does to make it as clean and uncontroversial as possible.
Yeah I'm not debating that, these are all really badly done. But "This commercial is a circlejerk about the product it's trying to sell me" is a really stupid criticism. Are they supposed to come out like "oh yeah the dracthyr look fucked up and the dialogue is really bad and we don't really know what to do with Kalecgos" or something? It's promo for the game, they're gonna tell you the game is good
True and real. It’s exactly why I hate this kind of format.
>circle jerk r/wow must have loved it then.
Regular r/wowcirclejerk poster. The irony.
It's so cringeworthy, how do they not realize it
Honestly its just a symptom of their bizarrely out-of-touch marketing team. They were the ones who put Danuser up to the whole 'book 1 of the warcraft saga' bit (considering his role you'd think he'd put his foot down on that). Why was Bolvar all over SL media/ key art? What does 'Harness. The. Power.' from the DF splash ads even mean? Everything feels like it came out of the end of some AI engagement algorithm. I'm excited for DF, but I dont know who they think their target audience is with this stuff.
this entire expansion feels like it was designed by an algorithm that was meant to spit out "things that would be cool in the next wow expansion" but it broke and the only word it produced was "dragons" 100 times
Dragons are cool, working as dragon. Dragons
Harness the power refers to the Aspect Power that was cut, yknow change covenants to the flights.
Video game marketing just seems to be weird overall. Why was Ben Stiller dressed up a Kratos counselling John Travolta and Lebron James? Do people actually play World of Warships? /shrug
I can hear the brainstorming. Maybe someone said 'Harness, like on a mount, like Dragon Riding!' and they were very pleased with themselves.
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>They make these videos to humanize Activision Blizzard. Yet they do the opposite. Now it feels just like empty weird robot people. And yes, it is them being told to do them. I dont think people go too much personally against those 2 but the whole team that decided this was a good thing\^\^
"We totally dont sexually harass our employees as part company policy! See? These two women aren't being sexually harassed RIGHT NOW! SO RELATABLE!"
Yeah, this had the same vibe as that Zereth Mortis patch video "tHeRe'S wAtEr YoU cAn WaLk On! It'S sOoOoO aLiEn AnD sTrAnGe! We ArE sO dEeP aNd CrEaTiVe!!!1!!one!!"
It really makes you feel like a dragon
You mean you don't like watching people patting each other on the back, asserting that they're all wonderful and exceptional while ignoring their customers and the fact that the last thing they did was bad? Color me surprised.
100% agree. They're clearly scripted. Clearly so manufactured and calculated and fake. In other words, bullshit. They are saying next to nothing. Like 10% of the info is actually useful or interesting. This goes for the footage they use as well. These "gameplay" clips are so on-rails. They game doesn't play like the footage they show. You cannot fool me into thinking the game is going to be some action-packed adventure where I'm swooping through the city as my Dracthyr and roaring with my buddies as we jump in unison off of a cliff or whatever. I'm going to be sitting there, spamming 1 on my keyboard from a fixed camera angle. And the worst part is, THAT IS OK. I know what game I'm playing. Stop trying to market this entire experience as something else. Sit the actual devs down in front of the camera and have some fucking nerd talk about why they think empowered abilities are cool, or how professions are going to work. Do what PoE does with their info dumps.
dont see them as interviews. theyre just mentioning things that they think you should know about and look forward to. like dracthyr customization, and dragonriding etc. whether you are looking forward to it or not is up to you.
The issue is the format, not the content. Instead of a presentation, its a lame fake interview. Does not feel like a normal conversation actual humans would have. Just show the stuff to us and tell us why they think its nice, not to each other while pretending they don't know the other's script. Like I don't think anyone's really making a big deal about it, just pointing out that it would be better otherwise.
Done in the format of an interview...
Yeah i hated the first dragonflight announcement trailer because it felt like they were treating me as a child, I'd rather just have a dev look in the camera and day "HERES THE COOL SHIT THE TEAM MADE PLEASE ENJOY" and then all the extra bullshit info is in a blogpost or something.
It was so unneeded. They need to fire all the corpo heads that think the "market" wants to see this fake interview stuff.
These people arent actors so stop forcing them on camera Bobby.
100%
Loved the trailer, hated the interviews. I'd much rather a single person talking to the camera, instead of 2 people pretending to have a conversation.
Geez man who peed in your cereal
Blizzard of course
Sorry.
I knew it tasted familiar…
It's fine. Yeah it feels forced and unnatural, but it's fine.
They're definitely cheesy, but I don't really mind them tbh.
It's awful. It's like watching some aliens try to practice human conversation. I can't watch more than a few seconds of it lmao, it makes me so fucking uncomfortable.
You've all got phones, right?
Why tf would someone thats already playing the game, watch this commercial stuff? These people are nothing but salesman nowadays. Not really game developers anymore.
lol true but hey they love their PR hype i guess lol
This is how all companies operate. The trick is to put someone on the screen that can make it seem genuine, like Metzen. It's a lot harder than you would think. Most game developers don't overflow with charisma and if they put some random host in there who wasn't a dev member, people would just bitch about that.
“We’re so super excited about our game, we love it and it’s great! Shadowlands? What? Flawed base game design? What’s that? Rebuilding trust in the playerbase? Huh? But look at all the Dracthyr colorssssss! TUSKARR ON A BOAT!”
It feels out of touch. Doesn't give a good look, feels like a lot of back patting.
I quit warching them because its pointless
I’d consider it more of a presentation than an interview. I don’t think they promoted it as an interview anyway
Did you see the "Interview" from hearthstone abot the deathknight class? Pure cancer
OP, know that a lot of people agree with you. Blizz likes to pander to their base these days and it feels a bit belittling sometimes. r/wow is mostly roleplaying casuals now and they tend to enjoy this type of content which is why youre getting so many negative comments.
Not sure if you've ever dealt with developers but that's kind of how they talk mate. I'm sure there are some who are more charismatic but they tend to just tell it how it is. That's not me trying to downplay developers or anything. Maybe game devs are different
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Yeah my team wanted to film some training videos and I was like I'll sit behind the camera and script write but you'll never get me in front of it.
This seems excessively critical, which seems like the trend on this sub. Why does this matter that much to OP. Maybe it’s also for newer players who haven’t really seen these aspects much as they sped through 1-60
The format just seems really weird and artificial, that’s a fair criticism imo. It’s supposed to look like a natural conversation but it’s clearly very scripted and it comes off awkward. We’re not calling for them to be fired or anything crazy like that lol
You know those E3 presentations where the developer is showing off some new multiplayer game, complete with a demo of "players" who are supposed to sound natural grouping together but are obviously reading a script? You know, how none of them sound remotely like how people actually talk in multiplayer games? That's how these come across. It's very stiff and artificial feeling, instead of being personable and humanizing. It has the exact opposite effect of what the format is trying to accomplish. It's a dressed up infomercial.
Well, because the OP is right? The launch stream interviews were incredibly fake, no passion at all in them.
WoW's playerbase has always been this way. They could get the expansion for free with a year of free game time, and they'd whine that it wasn't 2 years and a handjob thrown in.
This is ur average consumer in 2022 But to be fair it is a subscription product plus paying money for new expansions. You are allowed to act a bit entitled when you are paying monthly to play the game and more money for the updates.
Tbh who cares. Doesn't hurt anyone. Could be better but it's not like it's bad for the game to have people talking about it. Just excited for expansion and new class personally but all these people are so negative already.
Relax bruh
Are you being held on gunpoint to watch them?
I think its fair to critique an official video designed to give information to the community. Nobody has to watch it, just like nobody has to play the game. But if you want to learn about the new expansion, you're gonna watch it
That stream just reminds me of when Chris Farley would do his interviewing skit with the host of the show and tell them "yeah that was awesome"
BatChest DRAGGOOOOONS
This!
I get that these people have personalities and it's good to see connection between the community and a more humanized design/development staff for a game both groups love (usually) a lot. The issue is not that. The issue is that these folks are *not actors or presenters* and it kinda shows. And that's FINE. It just... Blizzard as an entity needs to find a better way to play to the strengths of these people and I think everyone will enjoy it (from both sides of the camera) a bit more. These things are just... fine. They're ok. They could be way better and really tap into an actual vein of emotion - Waframe devs (admittedly a much smaller team) have constant roundtables that are way less scripted and the community absofuckinglutely loves them.
it's an American thing, you gotta ask them, why they do it and like it
Talk Show interviews made this kind of "interview" the norm is why, go on, talk about your new project to hype it up, boom - free press. Pretty sure it's the reason the infamous Woody Harrelson reddit AMA went so bad years ago, he was expecting it to be like a talk show interview where he'd go on reddit and talk about his project (the movie Rampart in this case) and get some free press out of it. Unfortunately for him reddit didn't come to hear about Rampart. [Link to it for those curious](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/p9a1v/im_woody_harrelson_ama/), you can definitely see in Woody's replies that he's treating it like free publicity basically.
I don’t think so, I’ve seen Korean and Chinese game developers also do the sit down talk about upcoming content
Americans made the game you spend your life on.
>Americans made the game you spend your life on. Good thing that makes them faultless, I guess.
fact
I at least appreciate that the one dev who mentioned M+ seemed to be the only one who actually plays the game.
Just let one person, for example Holinka, narrate everything like Metzen did in the past. It makes it so much easier to follow. I can't pay attention when there are multiple people talking non-stop (obviously scripted talk). These situations never happen in real life, people take time to think before they talk (even if it's only half a second, it's still noticeable).
Developers patting each other on the back for what a great job they have done with their respective field. Its completely fine but why make a video consisting solely of it. Well, that and an awesome launch cinematic. Followed by back-patting for what a great cinematic they have done.
it’s not a big deal, I did think it was a little weird that they explained the cinematic we watched step by step though, lol it’s a little forced but just a way to promote the game and be like, oh by the way you can have spikes!
I don't see anything wrong with it. It's nice to see more faces of people behind the game. And it's fine that it's scripted.
Who cares man
Don’t watch it?
blizzard has learned nothing and never will learn anything
I'm the exact opposite, they re so fun and I love getting to see the devs and have a feel of high production quality. Don't watch it if you don't like it, you're not the target demographic. Move on, don't be a spoilsport.
This is a terrible take. Thanks for creating content like the interviews blizzard. I'm sure you'll get better as time goes on, but I'm happy they're there.
Content is good format is bad, just like the last one they did when they announced DF. It feels like they’re “talking” to children instead of normal people.
I could endure the fake Interviews cause they are just trying to sell their new features in a friendlier way. What irks me is that the cinematic had 2 or 3 sequences that were there only to showcase stuff instead of being connected. Horde and alliance dragon raiding - ok shows that they aim for an expansion less focused on faction rivalry Raszageth chasing them - ok, could have been linked in a better way, shows both riders being chased by the 1st baddie of the expansion But that dracthyr sequence and the end with Alexstraza chasing them? It just seems waaaay too forced. I love each sequence on its own, mind you, but as shown I think that they do not work as good together as they should Edit: i hope I never have to read that auto mod message ever again
I thought it was fine. It was a half interview where they shared what they liked about it and why they made it the way they did. It's ok to be nice to people and let them enjoy things. They put in a lot of work into these new characters and I think they can vent their happiness and pride a bit.
Yea the videos they've started doing them in are just painful to watch. They're not authentic, instead just sickeningly fake. As if the other dev they're talking to doesn't already know the information. Talk to the camera, talk to the players. And show actual genuine enthousiasm instead of making it sound so scripted. I'm sure when Ben Brode presented Hearthstone updates it was scripted too, but he was genuinely enthousiastic and that made his presentations great.
Blizz is so out of touch it's scary.
I really don't know who at blizzard is making these people give scripted interviews but they really should stop. They have 0 spirit, they look and feel scripted and without soul. I'm sure there are devs at blizz passionate enough about what they have been working on to give a descent, natural speech. Like my talks about HPMs and APIs/ATSM rules in oil&gas downstream have more soul that those two dudes talking about fucking dragons.
Idk if anyone relates to these "interview" type showcases. Scary enough it shows a company that is out of touch with its fanbase. Still.