Mists of Pandaria discussion

[Jester]

Yes, it's a learning curve, but the A team didn't have anyone's shoulders to look over and make sure things were right.

Everquest.

The B team had that opportunity and still screwed up. There's a difference when you've got no one else's mistakes to go on where as you have someone else's mistakes and the ability to ask them and still make the same kinds of mistakes. That is where the problem lies. A team had no understanding of exactly where they wanted to go with WoW when they started, the B team knew where WoW was going and had the advantage of seeing what the A team did and probably still had the ability to communicate with A team members to get advice and they screwed up and they're driving away subs across all sectors of the game, hard core and casual.

The game seems to be in good shape. Is that because the A team learned all the good lessons, and the B team just picked them up off the shelf? Or did the B team actually do a pretty decent job, and everyone's just getting bored (and therefore nostalgic)? The internal dynamics of Blizzard are opaque to me. I don't know who did what. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the same is true of you, and all of us.

I do know, having seen people in this industry from the inside, that the things that become the receptacles for blame from players and forums, do not necessarily bear any resemblance whatsoever to the actual problems.

-Jester