WAR exit interview

[bean]

What flavor of ice-cream do you like most?

A) Mustard
B) Whiskey
C) Asparagus
D) Anchovy

If none of these flavors are your favorite, too bad. I don't really want to know what you think about my crazy ice cream flavors; I want to find out which of my crazy-ass flavors you hate least.

While I've greatly enjoyed Warhammer Online and will probably return to it after the fall rush, I just took their exit interview and it was absolutely filled with questions that had sets of answers that did not correctly express my opinion of why I left or what would bring me back to the game. Plus, some of the questions had the same sort of answer given several times while others were only represented once. For instance, when asked what improvements to the game would make me interested in returning there were 4 variants on improving social aspects of the game (helping other players, socializing with friends, and two more that I forget), but Realm vs. Realm wasn't even separated into open RVR and scenarios.

The important information about why I became bored with the game and what I want from it to return is easy: They need to rebalance scenarios so that they are all very close to equally rewarding instead of having a select few that are by far the best xp/time and thus the ones that pop in the queue most frequently. If they wanted more information, I'd tell them specific fixes I would like in poorly balanced ones like allowing us to instantly grab flags in the CTF scenarios in order to reduce turtling and make the games more active.

Mythic is infamous about having a very hands-off approach to their fanbase. I absolutely understand that, and like WoW devs, they literally have hundreds of thousands of people who would like to discuss what they like and dislike about the game. . . but if you are going to do an exit interview, why make one that is going to give you false results?

[Ancalagon]

Mythic is infamous about having a very hands-off approach to their fanbase. I absolutely understand that, and like WoW devs, they literally have hundreds of thousands of people who would like to discuss what they like and dislike about the game. . . but if you are going to do an exit interview, why make one that is going to give you false results?

Its just poor survey design, since obviously the results you get depend on the questions you ask. Evidently, the issues you raise are so far from their thoughts that they didnt think to include it in the survey. Do other WAR players feel the same?

PS, if I absolutely had to, I would choose whiskey.

[Lint of Death]

Um, anchovy, maybe? At least then I could, like, put it on a Caesar salad or something.

[sparkfizt]

I selected "other" alot and wrote in my beefs. Probably ensuring my opinions will be dropped off the face of the earth when they collate the data.

[bean]

I selected "other" alot and wrote in my beefs. Probably ensuring my opinions will be dropped off the face of the earth when they collate the data.

Most of the questions didn't have write-ins and limited the field for the write-in so much that I still couldn't give them useful information.

I'm pretty sure since they gave us 4 options that are about socialization in the "how to get us back" question, they are going to make a bunch of community features that most of us won't give a shit about.

[Deadend]

My problem with WAR was that I couldn't stick with the bubble and ended up having to solo, the leveling speed just bottoms out at lv 20, but quests do not show up more. It just became a different, less fun game.

I kept finding all those PVE events.. but no one was there to do them with. The game honestly has both too much, and too little content at the same time. It needs some kind of AI Director to direct players together. such as trying to get all players to do quests in the Orc Tier 2 zone or something, well.. at least instead of Chaos or Dark Elf for a bit of time... as there are not enough players in some level ranges to make the game fun.

[bean]

Deadend - I actually agree with you here. . . I find it odd that someone actually made a game that suffers from too much content. . . and I do mean suffer.

Public quests are absolutely great, and when you are on a high population server and making use of the easy public group features, it feels wonderful. Unfortunately, once people start getting past rank 20 and the ranks are more difficult, the level ranges start to go crazy.

My brother and I were able to do a lot of content with guild groups because people would travel to one another to do public quests and would even do public quests too low for the highest member or too high for the lowest. However, after 20 you also get that big instance that opens up. . . and sometimes people want to go do open PvP or scenarios. There is really just so much to do over every level range that the group-focused content becomes difficult to access. This happens in WoW too, of course. . . but because there is really only one or two instances for any given level range, it isn't too difficult to recruit people for them if you do a server-wide search. In WAR, after rank 20 there are literally around 20 scenarios, open PvP areas, public quests, and instances that all require groups to complete. So while there are almost definitely enough people in your level range to do any number of these, getting people to decide which one to do or simply lucking upon them doing them is a bit difficult.

[CptTripps]

I do 90% of my leveling in Open RvR and Scenarios with a quest being completed here and there when it is convenient.

I am having a good time in tier 3 as the battles are far more epic. I like all the different style scenarios and got my first major loot bag from a keep take last night.

I am just happy I don't have to do quests or ever touch a PvE mob to improve my character. Even PQ's, as cool an idea as they are, I could really care less.

[court12b]

so how long has War been out now, 2 months? Do you guys think it's going to make it? I'm curious what WOTLK launch day was like on the War servers..... I'm envisioning tumbleweeds.

[Lint of Death]

so how long has War been out now, 2 months? Do you guys think it's going to make it? I'm curious what WOTLK launch day was like on the War servers..... I'm envisioning tumbleweeds.

People are certainly going nuts right now in the lowest tier because today's WAR patch just released two new classes, even though for this week those new classes are exclusive to those who participated in a recent event.

[bean]

so how long has War been out now, 2 months? Do you guys think it's going to make it? I'm curious what WOTLK launch day was like on the War servers..... I'm envisioning tumbleweeds.

Overall, it's really good. It will definitely make money and be around for a long while.

It remains to be seen if they really listen to their community though. I think they read a few forums, but that is kind of crappy because they listen to people who are:

1. Fans who support anything they do;
2. Crazy; and
3. very few posts from normal users who have enough time and interest to campaign for changes they think will make the game better.

The crap filter on forums is about 90% crap and 10% good feedback, so what generally happens on most boards is that the forum moderators who are in charge of sifting through this generally either bring up community information they agree with and campaign for and/or they bring up the hottest topics which are most often not directed at general game designs but very specific things like particular class abilities.

What really needs to happen is for designers who are smart and understand game design to actively read forums and especially new posts. They should read the hot topics too, but they need to read broadly and think of things that genuinely make the game better.

It's a good game already. I'll play it again for sure. However, it could be even better.