They're listening, but it takes time to do it.

The big issue is, we don't know if they're going to re-tune Vet content, even though there seems to be a lot of complaints about it (I have a V1 toon starting in Betnikh, yes, there is a lot of dissonance with difficulty. So I'm mucking about with alts for a bit for to wait and see).

I've said this before, and I guess I have to say it again, you see doom and gloom and "this game is dying/dead" and predictions of F2P even on the g-d WoW forums, and WoW isn't exactly going away or going F2P any time soon; they've always had population flux, and it's not uncommon for people to come and go from there, doing something else during an expansion's "dead year", or skipping an unpleasant expansion to come back later when things look more appealing. I already bought WoD long ago, so I will be throwing $15 at it to see what it's like, but my expectations are very, very VERY low.

ESO (or any other game) doesn't need WoW numbers to succeed; and seeing/not seeing people at your level in zone is a purely subjective thing. It doesn't mean no one is playing, it just means there's no one in your zone any more (taking my NB through Coldharbour was pretty lonely, I didn't even see hide nor hair of those notorious bot trains I heard about a month or so ago) ... but I still see lots of people in pre-50 content (maybe others are doing like me, and taking their toons up to V1 and then switching to alts.)

It is a good game. I do like being forced to use a bit of tactics, and to have to move/block rather than just standing in one place and three-shotting everything in range. It needs tweaking post-50 yes, sure. It needs some other tweaking here and there, and there are still issues, yes. But the game is also very YOUNG, only, what, three months old now:? Do you expect your three-month old baby/pet to be perfect? I have an uncle who is very impatient with pets; the only dog my cousins ever got to have lasted only two weeks, because the poor pup didn't get housetrained fast enough for his tastes (and he doesn't know that puppies can't control their bladders at all until they're about 12 weeks old, even though we get them at 8 weeks.) Give the puppy a chance - give the devs a chance, _things take time_.

Looking forward to the next Road Ahead blog.


@ShedsHisTail‌ - Corporate espionage? Yeah, I can see it; it happens all the time, but not in the way we usually think (I remember seeing an article a couple of years ago where someone who worked for Coca-Cola offered the secret formula to Pepsi, and the Pepsi dudes got offended and called the cops as a professional courtesy sort of thing. Very honourable.) It would be funny if the Blizz guys were so concerned, they sent Bashiok and other CMs over here to try to poison our minds, but in a way, I can't see them being that worried. And I don't know of any games the Chinese government has invested in; they're big on corporate espionage - they're primitive communists, with a culture that got left behind decades ago, of course they want to spy on Western companies to see how things are done, and how they can steal jobs away from North America and Europe.