There will be no open Q&A sessions for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon 2019. Some smell fear from Blizzard after the incidents surrounding Hearthstone, but they say: This has always been the case.
Blizzard has published the plan for BlizzCon 2019 a few hours ago and it smells like a lot of new announcements.
However, along with the release of the app and all the information material around it, there is currently a report on social media about Blizzard: There will be no open Q&A sessions at BlizzCon.
Is there something to it? And is this really a novelty?
This is being discussed: Those who have a question about World of Warcraft can fill out a card at BlizzCon and drop it in a “gnomish mailbox.” After that, it will probably be sorted. Based on this selection, questions will be answered, along with some questions that come in via Twitter.
This annoys people: Many players believe that Blizzard is now doing this to protect itself from the announced protests surrounding the Hearthstone Hong Kong affair.
By filtering the questions, they would ensure that no critical questions are asked that have nothing to do with the topic. This annoys some fans who now believe that they will not get to see people like the “Red Shirt Guy”, who asked good and smart questions every year.
Open panels only look “open” – are always pre-filtered
This is Blizzard’s response: In the corresponding post on Reddit, Blizzard has commented on this matter. The Community Manager Ythisens explained that this has been the case for years. More specifically, he said:
This Warcraft Q&A has been held this way for years, so this is nothing new. WoW has not had an “open” Q&A for years. It is curated for the sake of time and content; otherwise, it would be an unorganized chaos.
By the way, the questions from the “Red Shirt Guy” are considered each year when he submits one. He is a valued part of the Q&A sessions, but unfortunately, his questions cannot make it every year. I cannot recall the recent reasons and the questions he could not ask, but it was nothing serious.
Source: I have worked on this every year.
Ythisens, Community Manager of WoW
Even though BlizzCon always gives the impression that people from the audience can ask spontaneous questions, these are thus pre-filtered.
This probably serves the event well, as it actually leads to more or less interesting questions and answers, and only a few questions are asked that have already been answered elsewhere.
Even the now legendary question of whether Diablo Immortal is not an “April’s Fools Joke” was actually pre-filtered. The questioner had just decided to ask something completely different than he had previously announced.
Many take it easy: Besides the critics who see this as a reaction to the Hearthstone affair, there are also numerous comments that welcome such an approach.
They would just wish that less time is wasted on the questioners making extensive introductions and often greeting dozens of people.
Why the BlizzCon 2019 will be so good for gamers, we reveal in this article:
