Yong Woo and Ben Brode on the Designer Insights Video Series
There's been some talk lately, which grew from the Hearthstone 2017 Wishlist question, about wanting to see more of the Designer Insights video series and why they haven't happened very much. That lead to an explanation of why they aren't done very often and we've summarized it below.
- The team wants to do more designer insight videos.
- Ben does the videos at home in off hours due to not having a good spot at the office to do them at.
- It isn't as simple as talking to a camera for a few minutes.
- Videos go through multiple takes, and then some more after the team provides feedback. It can take days to get one episode right.
- They are working on getting space that is a permanent setup for this type of content.
- More developers being on them could happen, though some don't want to be harassed by the community.
I really don't like to make articles here personal, but the final point is one of much importance. We've gotten to an interesting point where we want more of something but due to the toxic nature of many comments directed at the Hearthstone team, no one from the team wants to come out and talk and it's actually not very interesting at all, just sad.
Although you may not agree with certain philosophies that the team may have about the game, it is important to post with respect and stay constructive. We should be welcoming communication first and foremost, so let's make that more of a priority this year and not feed those who want to cast plagues upon the creators. On the moderation side we can only do so much since we're only one site of many within the community, but as a whole, we need to stop letting the really toxic posts stew.
Anyway, back the to regular scheduled programming of the sources for this post. Oh, and if you want to vent a bit about not being able to win games, we've got our group therapy thread.
Blue Posts
This conversation has taken place over Twitter and reddit.
Tweet to Yong Woo
The initial question was posed by @Spideraxe30 wondering if they'd consider doing more.
Quote from Yong WooHas the team ever considered doing more designer insight videos since i think a majority of the community enjoys them
It takes significant amount of time for people involved to make those but we want to do more for sure!
Ben Brode Responds on Reddit
A thread on reddit which linked the above tweet got some discussion brewing about the topic so Ben decided to chime in on it. He also shared a picture of his setup. Please send us huge Hearthstone backdrops, they're rad.
Quote from Ben BrodeA little more context for you!I make those videos at home after my son goes to bed. Since daylight savings hit last spring my son goes to bed at 8:30 instead of 7:30, so I have an hour less time each night. I have to move my computer because otherwise you see my bed in the background (like in my first video) and that's a bit weird/unprofessional. Also because I record at night, I have to set up my studio lights. Once I have it all set up, I do several takes. Often I flub a line so bad I start over. I hate editing together cuts because I think it looks kind of jarring and distracting.
Once I have something I think might work, I send it to the rest of the people who care about this stuff on the Team, like Jason Chayes (Production Director). Sometimes they remind me of key points I totally forgot to mention, and I have to find another free night to do another take.
This is all pretty dumb, so we've been working on getting space that is permanently wired for making these types of videos at work. It's more challenging than you'd imagine as often we have trouble finding an empty conference room to have a meeting in, much less a room we want to leave empty all the time so nobody messes up our lighting rigs.
Regardless! I love doing videos, and I think I can convince more of the team to get involved, so it's not just me. Not everyone is as excited about being a public face as Yong and I are, though - there is a lot of harassment that comes with being more public.
My 2 month paternity leave ends next week. I'm excited to get back to work!
There are some inherent differences between overwatch and hearthstone though. Because of the way balancing shooters works, there are more opportunities to make statements.
Further, stuff like "spirit of the card" is a completely legitimate rationale and isn't just "PR."
In this day and age devs need to communicate end of story. The Overwatch, WoW and Hots teams have tons of communication and updates for their communities so you never see the boil over. With HS there is nothing for so long so the community get restless and angry THEN the devs lament that this anger is "harassment." A steady flow of communication calms the masses, it always has.
The problem is not with the community - the problem is with Blizzard's corporate policy towards Hearthstone. I am completely dazzled why Blizzard are running Hearthstone like a small fan-created game?! It is plain obvious this is the case. Otherwise I really can't understand how can a corporation of Blizzard's scale and with Blizzard's experience and skills available, continuosly fuck-up one of their hottest (in terms of player base) games right now...?!?
Why can't they hire more people to support "Team 5"? Why can't they hire testers, QAs, additional designers and game testers/balancers? Why can't they dedicate a fucking room to Brode to do his videos - what the fuck, Blizzard?!?!? You're so cheap you can't get a single room in a single location, and a camera, lights and microphone?!? For your fucking LEADING SENIOR GAME DESIGNER of one of your leading games?
Why can't they hire PR people and people who are better (and more timely and more frequent) at communicating with the community, gathering their feedback, keeping the community non-toxic, etc.? This is done in a myriad of other games and game communities, but not for HS.... WHY???
Why the hell the leading game designer should even do such a pathetic and whining post, explaining his daily challenges. No one gives a fuck - I have my share of difficulties on a daily basis too, but I do my job. We don't care what the problem is - we want the problem fixed, or at least tell us honestly why you are not fixing it.
OK, I understand if that was the case in the first year (or even two years), but it's been 3-4 years since the inception of HS now and this game IS SELLING, so there should be plenty of money for re-investing. Why the fuck Blizzard keep being so fucking cheap and killing the game slowly with their unwillingness to become better and progress??
No. The problem is posts like this. You assume much, but you actually know very little because you aren't there.
I dunno about you, but Ben Brode has to be one of the greatest company spokesperson out of everyone I've seen, so they did a fantastic job choosing that one person to interact with the community. It's difficult to hate him, and you can't help but hope to see him in everything; kinda like the way it is with Nintendo, and both companies have a lot in common.
Hearthstone is already in a better condition than it used to be, and while the updates and efforts may have taken awhile, it's not hard to notice the changes. I look forward to see more back and forth communication with Team 5, much like the way Nintendo has decided to open up from their ninja cave.
In case you're wondering: this post is very much a part of what they're talking about. You spew a bunch of toxic bullshit to make yourself feel better. You could make the same points calmly and logically, but instead you get all worked up into a lather. (The multiple alternating exclamation points and question marks really add to the thoughtfulness - thanks for that.)
ooh he used alot of exclamation points, caps and questionmark so everything he said is incorrect and irreverent.
I actually agree with lot of his points, and many of it are why large amount of people who love this game feel frustrated with the game development. Many of these actually could have been avoided considering how significant this game is to for massive corporate like Blizzard now and it seems like it's not changing anytime soon even with overwhelming community feedback.
So Blizzard made with Hearthstone a year ago about 20 million dollars per month. And they are unable to give Ben Brode a room with a camera? Or hire a community manager?
Oh besides the "evil community" there are a lot of constructive criticism and suggestions out there, even confirmed by the devs (e. g. ladder system, > 1 year old bugs, etc.). The problem is, nothing happens and nothing is communicated. Three months ago Ben Brode said that they are unhappy with the ladder right now. What happened since then? Did they work on something? Did they receive enough feedback? Any ideas? Plans? Something?
That is what makes people angry. The spent hours on suggestions and ideas to improve the game and everything goes to waste because either no one listens or no one answers.
ya know, that is a good point that i cannot refute: why the fuck can't activision/blizzard give the head of their most profitable children's card game a fucking room, chair and some lights in the office so he can make some vids? lol seems pretty ridiculous to me as well. ONE of ben's bosses has to be going to sleep at night like, 'welp around this time ol' ben should be doing a vid for hearthstone right after he puts his kid to bed,'. like what?!
Yet another poster without the foggiest idea of how to make a card game. For the billionth time: it's not possible to make "good cards all the time." If every card was "good" then no card would be good - they'd all be the same. "Good" only has meaning if "bad" exists.
the hs community is full of boolies confirmed by blizz
It is true. Harrasement is a no-go and shouldn't be done. Still, there is a "but" to the story. It happened often that the developers were dishonest to the community. "More deck slots too confusing for new players" or mistakes were done with certain cards. They weren't just honest. The same goes for information regarding plans, were the game is leading, which features they are working on currently. If the community feels more involved, more listened to, more cared about, the community will be less toxic. I'm sure about it.
Still, their behavior do not permit harassment. I want to be clear about that. I only want to show that there is to a degree a reaction included to actions that were made
I guess It would be fun to have Designer Insight about Desinger Insights :)
It's hard to blame them for not wanting to put themselves out there personally as a target for all the hate. Whenever they try and give some insight into their thought processes they just get a ton of threads/posts saying some variation of "Team 5 is retarded, Brode should die" troll stuff. If a group constantly berated and belittled you I doubt you'd want to purposely seek out contact with those people (unless you were a masochist, which I think a lot of the people here might be since they apparently hate the game and the people who make it but still play the game anyway). If you want them to open up and give us insights into their thought process and listen to what the community has to say then post constructive feedback. Memes and hate speak won't help make the game better for you or anyone else.
There is a lot that goes into making this game that we as outsiders are not aware of, nor can we fully appreciate the issues Blizzard has to grapple with that we are aware of. I don't always like the choices Blizzard makes, nor how fast they get around to doing things, but I respect the difficulty of what they do and when I do post I try and give thoughtful feedback that explains why I feel the way I do.
But I saw someone on here awhile ago post something I didn't believe at the time.
it went something like this "blizzard acts and treats this game like a small Indy game"
but then you see this post and apparently they can't make more designer insight videos because. He doesn't want to wake up his son because they're filming at his house. And there "working on getting a new space" wtf why don't you already have a space to film. This is some pretty simple stuff
This community basically gets what it deserves at times. And it's not just the people that make the hateful and harassing comments either, it's the people on Reddit who upvote them so they are at the top of the replies.
Wait a second, a multibillion dollar company cannot find a space to film?
And of course it's studio quality or nothing...only the best is good enough for HS connoisseurs.
Always love waking up to a comment graveyard. Thank you to the people who downvoted those that deserved it.