Ghostcrawler speaks on Arenas and Battlegrounds
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 28th 2009 at 7:00PM
On Arenas
- "Players go where the loot is." - on why he thinks Season 5 has less participation, pointing to the fact that it's easier to gear up through PvE
- "Getting 100% of WoW players into Arenas is not our goal. Getting 100% of players who like to do Arenas into Arenas is a goal."
- "I hope it's obvious we would not have gone for that new system if we did not think it would offer an enormous improvement over the old one." - on Blizzard's planned move to a new rating system (again) in Season 6, where teams start from 0
- "It actually takes a great deal of time to make a BG. It isn't the map creation; it is making all of the rules work. We are working on building better tools though to streamline that process." - responding to a post saying that Blizzard can crank out a Battleground every 8 weeks
- "If we offered epics through BGs, it would basically be (right now at least) some kind of grind fest."
- "We would LOVE to offer good gear through BGs, don't get me wrong. We just haven't figured out a great way to do it yet."
- "I think this is fair. We have some BG plans up our sleeve." - on the accusation that Blizzard has focused on Arenas and largely ignored Battlegrounds
Filed under: Blizzard, PvP, Battlegrounds, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
sladedarkonis Mar 28th 2009 7:05PM
Isn't there supposed to be a new battleground or something?
exiled247 Mar 31st 2009 11:25AM
I don't think we need a new bg, what we need is for manning issues on SotA to be fixed. I'm on Malygos and have not been able to finish it because of lack of players. granted everyone can find other bg's to do, but maybe the amount of people required should be lowered. Sure , 50-1 is a bit unfair, but as long as both sides are close to evenly matched let it go on! (or give a tenacity buff)
georgeasmith Mar 28th 2009 7:05PM
Maybe they should have waited for 3.1 before starting S5. New talents and class changes would have gotten me more interested.
Malkeior Mar 28th 2009 7:34PM
Part of the problem is that S5 started after alot of people busted Naxx.
yokumgang Mar 28th 2009 7:10PM
How odd that you post a picture of Mr. Krabs, yet the crab on the forums (GC) really doesn't seem to care about Arenas.
Balius Mar 28th 2009 7:42PM
Perhaps there's a modifier missing. Clearly they want more people in Arenas, that's not really in question. What they are apparently trying to do is make arenas more appealing to the sort of people who can like that sort of thing.
"Getting 100% of WoW players into Arenas is not our goal. Getting 100% of players who {COULD} like to do Arenas into Arenas is a goal."
jaenicoll Mar 28th 2009 7:51PM
Arenas and BGs should be optional and their numbers governed by their natural popularity. I sure hope Blizzard doesnt return to the previous policy of bribery and necessity forcing people grudgingly to Arena's.
I think the new system of keeping the better Arena items exclusively for those that put in the effort to skill up and do well in Arena is a vast improvement. And I can't stand Arena's and will unlikely ever see any of those items, but I am happy for those that do.
Maybe their are less easy wins from people doing their minimum 10 games per week but I think Arena and WoW are better off this way.
vinniedcleaner Mar 28th 2009 7:51PM
Face it... death match went out with Quake, which is all arenas are..
that, and a way for the epeen fluffers to have their 'fish in a barrel'
Verit Mar 29th 2009 8:13PM
Arena is like quake deathmatch where the opposing team (and sometimes your team) start out with the best weapons.
One thing about Quake that one would argue is that it was perfectly balanced.
I think that's why people don't pvp more in WoW - its horribly unbalanced.
Xavs Mar 28th 2009 8:00PM
Someone tell me I'm not the only one that read the thought bubble in that dudes voice.
ScytheNoire Mar 28th 2009 8:05PM
Fact is, Arena's suck. It's been that way all along. It's been a failure overall.
Deewee Mar 29th 2009 8:27AM
Arena doesnt suck... the Class Balance does.
Ghostcrawler is a MORON and should be fired.
I sometimes wonder if he is playing the same Game as we do.
Fyve & Boomstick Mar 29th 2009 2:33PM
@Deewee, Definately, his mature, reasoned, and coherent responses to feedback rather than using CAPS to reinforce a point sure do make him stand out as the moron.
Ashley Mar 28th 2009 8:08PM
Arena should loose the score, and just keep the points, giving you 10 for each match you play, and 10 extra for each kill your team gets (or what ever number so people don't QQ that they're welfare epics...before they run off to a naxx run and come out with several new pieces of gear, plus badges, within a few hours, which somehow aren't welfare epics cause they spent 5 mins reading the tactics on wowwiki...pure skill!!11)
Also classes which are squishy should get a arena only buff so they can't be 3 hitted. I mean, we have crowd control, but its obviously not enough.…it'd be enough if we could keep them there for a guaranteed 4 seconds and somehow instantly do 6k+ DPS. That's how it feels for me at the moment, anyway…
Candina@WH Mar 28th 2009 8:13PM
Blizz has crossed a line. The Arena initiative is 'to large to fail'. :-)
They want 100% who want to Arena to arena. And they want to, in general, broaden the Arena's appeal.
Lets do some theoretical math? If we say 60% of the WoW population participated in S1-S4. And there has been a 65% decline in Arena participation.
What you are left with is .33 x .6 or ~20% of the population of WoW now Arena's.
So, we go through round, after round after round of 'balance' issues for 1 in 5 of the WoW players. Give it a rest Blizz
Menchi Mar 28th 2009 8:26PM
"He also clarifies that "bring the player not the class" is a PvE goal and doesn't necessarily apply to Arenas."
So does anyone else see a glaring problem with this sentence. Arenas are supposed to be the balanced place where player skill at their class is what determines the winner. I can't see arenas being fun if that isn't the case.
Yet in PvE having class variety is actually something that makes the raid more enjoyable as players have to work together and bring things down as a group.
NekoAli Mar 28th 2009 8:29PM
If they want 100% of the people who want to Arena to do so, then everything they have done since Season 3 has failed.
The new arena maps are not good. Random events are a bad gimmick for the arenas. I can live with them, but I prefer the old maps more.
Mostly though, you get no reward for participating in arenas unless you're a high ranked team. Nothing at all you can't get without doing arenas. It's fine if some things are restricted to high ranking teams, but as it stands now, the casual arena player gets nothing for playing. That right there is why participation is so much lower.
I'd love to play arenas, but I can't because any casual teams don't survive more than a few weeks before people stop bothering to show up, at best. Either you play seriously, or you don't play at all.
Para Mar 29th 2009 5:45PM
You have hit the nail right on the head with this post but it will probably just be downvoted by the same "PVE WAS DESTROYED BY ARENAS" screaming idiots who arent being brought to raids because they have no skill and are blaming it on nerfs to classes where they are needed or because they are not number 1 on the damage meters. Either way their constant whinge is getting annoying.
Domilol Mar 28th 2009 8:41PM
Losing players that didn't enjoy playing Arena isn't going to make Arena tank. Hate to break it to you, but the que times for me, (2100+ team) on the most part haven't changed allot from BC.
Emorich Mar 28th 2009 9:01PM
i think what they need is the creation of more stats like resilience, as well a retooling of that. offer epics for PVP that are only good in PVP. they did that to an extent in BC, but i used my S4 chest until i replaced it with the T7. resilience ate a lot of the itemization cost, but not nearly enough to make it PvP only. if they had another stat that people could build, it would help