Boards›Gameplay

A little birdie told me something about Ghostcrawler today....

Dominick Destine·7/2/2017, 5:42:09 AM·4 votes·1,984 views

I met one of Ghostcrawlers RL friends, and apparently Ghostcrawler is a short dude that is very anti social [He finds the fans 'weird' in RL , which is strange given that he is like a DEMI GOD to the players] .... but more interestingly, he is well known for nerfing the hell out of everything (Hence one of the jokes being Ghost Crab in WoW having "Nerf Bat" as a debuff).

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=50051/ghostcrawler

I wasn't sure if this was accurate but I double checked everything and it's true. GHOSTCRAWLERRRRRRR why did you nerf Evelynn so hard? she didn't need or deserve that.... but at least I now know this isn't an isolated incident.

This also raises an age old question , WHO is in charge of balancing? Ghostcrawler or Meddler? I was under the impression that this was the Meddler era, just as originally it was the Morello era , but I seem to be wrong....

16 Comments

RiotGhostcrawler7/2/2017, 2:24:46 PM27 votes

To avoid having to rely on little birds, I'll just address this myself. :)

I am short. It doesn't bother me.

In personality tests, I always score as an extreme extrovert. This doesn't surprise me, because I get energy from being around other people, as apposed to having it siphoned off. So "anti-social" doesn't really ring true, and anyone who really knows me knows that I love to talk to players about LoL, gaming or anything. If I'm at a con or player meetup, I spend as much time as I can just getting to know players. Selfishly, it's the only way I know to get really direct, unfiltered feedback.

I head overall design on LoL. Meddler heads design on our gameplay team specifically. Gameplay is a big part of LoL, and arguably the most important part, but it's not the only part. Matchmaking and events are examples of non-gameplay teams.

Our live team, which is responsible for balance, sits within the gameplay team. That means if something goes wrong, it is Meddler's and ultimately my fault. But that doesn't mean we make all the changes, or even dictate them, ourselves.

Most game developers find it easier to nerf than to buff. If you have a game with 20 characters, and one is overpowered, it's easier and safer (in terms of the potential for bugs or unintended cosequences) to nerf that one character than to buff the other 19 (which also just leads to stat inflation over time). By contrast if one of the 20 characters is underpowered, there usually isn't the same outcry or effect on so many players.

That said, devs do have a responsibilty to try and buff characters when they can and not be too quick to nerf someone if the community is in the process of solving it themselves. I fully admit we do sometimes nerf things too much and we try to correct those mistakes.

Solideus7/2/2017, 2:36:27 PM5 votes

Seeking validation from strangers on the internet by spreading made-up rumors about people you never met in order to smear them isn't a particularly great character trait. :)

TyrekGoldenspear7/2/2017, 1:08:52 PM1 votes

Ayyyyyy Mr. Draconian.

You're back!

Ahristocats7/2/2017, 1:26:25 PM1 votes

meddler is in charge of balance

ghostcrawler is in charge of design

2 different teams

AeolusDewshining2/7/2018, 2:19:13 AM1 votes

Nerf Bat, so accurate.... Look what he did to WOW and now LOL.