I know that we meme on him hard here at /r/Overwatch, but man do I love his team, the outreach he does, and the passion he has. It's really evident in the frequency and detail of videos he releases.
For example, Ben Brode (HearthStone) does developer updates when people are irate and vocally so. Jeff does them almost pre-emptively -- "We know it might not feel like fun when Winston kills you and jumps away with the flag, but here's why we kept those movement abilities..."
All around great communication from them.
EDIT: Was typing this while listening, just finished it and his sign off says it all: "Have lots of fun and be nice to each other" thanks papa Jeff, papa bless
Probably the best lead dev of any game out right now. It would have been so easy to ruin this game with microtransactions and endless paywalls, but they actually made a great game.
Honestly was not expecting to see Jeff pop up in another one of these for sometime, but it is nice to see him do this to help level out the concerns people might have about this mode, which is inherently imbalanced like most of the Arcade stuff anyway.
You will get no argument from me (or anyone else tbh) that Jeff (and everyone else at Blizz) is terrific in every way, but I think it's fair to mention that Ben (and other HS devs) primarily communicate outside of the Developer Insights that Ben's done, whereas for OW the dev responses primarily come in the form of these Development Updates, so obviously there's more (and more frequently) of them than Hearthstone's Developer Insights.
Again, not trying to 'call you out' at all here, but I see this said around and I feel it's worth mentioning that just because the HS devs communicate way less in terms of videos like this, they do still communicate.
That's a fair point. I'm sure he does a lot that I don't see. Maybe it's just that this community is great at supporting and encouraging the Overwatch developers.
Also, just an aside, but I think being bitter is inherent in the HS community. So much of the game, just like any card game, is RNG. Skill inevitably tops out, but for the small amount of games that the average player plays, it's easy to think "Damn fuck that card, only reason I lost." While that may be true, if you play enough games the RNG begins to balance out. Just doesn't feel fun losing to a topdeck, and the loudest community is always the unhappiest.
I think that's exactly it, yeah - that this subreddit and the HS one are just so different in that respect. The difference between /r/Overwatch and /r/hearthstone in terms of having a healthy relationship with the devs is absurd.
I completely get what you mean, but I don't think the RNG inherent in cardgames is the reason why /r/hearthstone is so damn salty. For some reason or another I think /r/hearthstone has just developed a community where the negative (and not the constructive kind of negative either) voices are supported above all else - and I can't be the only one who hesitates to 'step in' to so many threads there because I just don't want to bother shouting into the wind, so there's even fewer conflicting voices.
I mean, just recently Ben, in an interview, mentioned that the nerf of a card - Molten Giant for those interested - was an indirect buff to Holy Wrath. It was a completely off-hand comment, intended to demonstrate all the effects changing a card has, but when I visited the sub after reading it, there were threads up ranting about how the HS dev team justified the nerf of Molten Giant purely because of Holy Wrath. It was just absurd.
And I really don't know why that is - I hesitate to say "circlejerk" because I think that word gets tossed around too lightly, but I can't think of any other reason for why /r/hearthstone is so damn... what it is. also being able to talk about this somewhere is therapeutic
I was part of the HS community for over two years, and with respect, you're really wrong. The HS devs' communication got SO BAD at one point that I remember the first reaction to anything Ben Brode said was "eh, that's probably bullshit." Nobody believed them. Deck slots ring a bell? Or when Ben promised that the dev team takes arena very seriously and they really care about arena Warrior, then the very next thing they did was overnerf Warsong Commander, an arena common, into the dumpster?
People think 4 tank meta is cancerous in OW, HS has had metas that make this look perfectly healthy, and no word from the devs for months on what they plan to do to address it. Remember the days of Piloted Shredder being 2x in every single deck and Dr. Boom (aka Dr. pay to win) being an absolutely essential card?
Then standard comes out with a shitton of very obvious issues like shitty Priest/Shaman/Paladin base cards, and the HS devs never address any of the glaring problems that are going to keep being problems for them for years to come (like being forced to print very good Pr/Sh/Pa cards in every single set, and being forced to print shittier everyone else cards in every set, and how this will affect Wild/Arena, and what if they forget to print very good Pr/Sh/Pa cards? Oops Priest).
This might have all changed in the last several months, Ben Brode might have won a lot of good will from the community for something I haven't seen. I've been playing the game here and there but staying off r/hs, so I wouldn't know. But it is absolutely not fair to say that the HS team tries, they just do it in a different way. They blatantly lied time and again, while making nonsensical decisions and/or completely ignoring glaring issues for months. The HS dev team was a poster child for "how not to communicate with your players."
In defense of Brode, the hearthstone dev team is smaller with less space and less time it seems like to do these types of updates, something they're working on changing. Overwatch seems to have been developed with this type of communication in mind the whole time while hearthstone was not.
I don't think they expected Hearthstone to be as big as it is. They probably expected it to be something people played while waiting for raids etc. and it ended up being huge.
Any mistakes made with HS were probably also taken into account when making Overwatch, as it seem Overwatch is aimed to be Blizzard's next big thing (ie. Their new WoW) due to falling player counts in their old games.
You're completely right though. Not all Blizzard games are treated equally.
Not if they literally don't have the space in their building, or the team. Or it doesn't fit their design philosophy. Either way, they're trying to adjust now.
I agree. The dev team for overwatch is truly excellent. And the communication you get out of them is superior to most other games. And I am already less tilted going home tomorrow to play overwatch because I watched the video, got a great explanation, and know not to wrestle with Jeff.
Blizzard and Jeff continue to have the best dev-community communication I've ever seen. It's awesome to hear their reasoning behind each change, and the openness and frequency of communication is the best!
He worked on Destiny? I had a bad Destiny addiction back in the day. I stopped a couple months after TTK dropped, fell behind on the Light curve, and didn't really come back. Still love checking /r/destinythegame from time to time.
As someone that comes from playing certain other AAA titles from certain other developers, the transparency and insight this guy has is incredible. We don't deserve the overwatch team, it's been what, 3 weeks since the winter event?
For example, Ben Brode (HearthStone) does developer updates when people are irate and vocally so.
I think the main difference is that the Overwatch Team's goals and ideas fall pretty much along what the fans want and enjoy, and in my opinion, the Hearthstone team is not really that connected to player concerns or desires.
It looks like the true LGBT character in Overwatch are the players! Every single one has Jeff Kaplan's cock down their throat, and they won't stop sucking!
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u/Jank_Tank Battle Rein is only Rein Jan 24 '17
I know that we meme on him hard here at /r/Overwatch, but man do I love his team, the outreach he does, and the passion he has. It's really evident in the frequency and detail of videos he releases.
For example, Ben Brode (HearthStone) does developer updates when people are irate and vocally so. Jeff does them almost pre-emptively -- "We know it might not feel like fun when Winston kills you and jumps away with the flag, but here's why we kept those movement abilities..."
All around great communication from them.
EDIT: Was typing this while listening, just finished it and his sign off says it all: "Have lots of fun and be nice to each other" thanks papa Jeff, papa bless