The more I play WoW the more I get the impression that the game's dev team are a bunch of art school frat boys, with very little understanding of actual game coding or design beyond the purely aesthetic, and very little understanding of how people interract in the real world (Why the PvP in the game is seriously lacking in many respects).
Sucess has most certainly gone to their heads, as they are unwilling to accept and act on criticism, are largely ignorant of the community, and must go their own way instead of using proven and effective methods of game development and management.
The list of ill concieved additions to the game that facilitate or encourage griefing or cheating is always increasing, while the obvious method of controlling them, ie giving GMs the ability to actually moderate players, and not just act as in game customer support, seems to be beyond Blizzard, because even if a player is an a-hole, they are a paying a-hole, so Bliz stand to lose out doubly if they have to pay and train GMs, and have them ban players.
Testing is where they fall down in a big way. PTRs are not a suitable place to test game features, as they are not an accurate representation of what happens on live servers, with players split between many servers, and not drawn in by the novelty of what is being tested to the point where they will tolerate faults to a much greater degree. Proper organised play testing with a proper reporting system would give much more useful information, but of course, that is another area where costs are cut. Valve are a great example of a company that understands how to conduct effective play testing, and it shows in their games.
WoW is a success only in terms of the number of players it has, and resultingly, the amount of money it's making for it's shareholders.
Among the gaming press and gaming community at large, it is far from being noteworthy for any other reasons, and is largely seen as a joke.
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