"You Don't Listen to the Loudest People in the Room" – World of Warcraft: Forever Head Discusses How to Approach Feedback Flood

Holly Longdale, executive producer of World of Warcraft, spoke at PAX Australia ahead of the upcoming release of World of Warcraft: Forever. Her remarks on the full appeal of the beta and how the team is handling the wave of feedback from early players drew particular attention. Read more

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World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Langdale has spoken at PAX Australia ahead of the impending release of World of Warcraft: Forever. Of note were his comments on the sheer popularity of the beta and how the team handled the waves of early player feedback.

First reported by PCGamesN , Langdale called the influx of players to the World of Warcraft: Forever beta "crazy" and said there had been "no bigger beta" in Blizzard history. This is in line with Longdale's previous statement after the server cap was raised in the WoW Forever beta almost immediately after its release.

Longdale then addressed the issue of feedback from this beta, saying that while Blizzard is "pleased" with the engagement levels, the company needs to be selective about what it listens to. "Social media wasn't really a thing when these MMOs came out, so we had very centralized areas where we got feedback. Now it's coming from everywhere," he said. And I think the lesson we've learned most over time is, "You don't listen to the loudest people in the room."

It's worth noting that the Forever team has been quick to implement changes in the beta, as feedback has been received. One recent example is the Skyborne sprite models, which are being overhauled to better fit the classic retro WoW style. There have also been changes to dungeon loot, spell buffs (shout out to droids), and other tweaks over the past few weeks. This, Langdale said, came from a combination of community input and data-driven research.

However, WoW Forever seems to be built with the knowledge that not everyone will be happy with the decisions made. As Longdale says, "You just have to accept that you're not going to please everybody. We have to make some calls, determine, 'What is our game?' what for Who is it for?' We have to try to walk that line as much as possible because otherwise you're going to give a little to a lot of people instead of a full experience.”

World of Warcraft: Forever seems to have captured the hearts of both veteran and regular WoW players, although it differs significantly from the modern version of WoW and the classic remasters. Whether it can maintain a strong community after its full release on November 4th remains the big question.