Blizzard games are too good.

[BenBos]

TEN HOURS is the most you put forth in your favorite/most highly rated games outside of WoW?
Geez, I dropped 200 hours on freaking Dungeon Defenders. And my GW2 time is starting to rival my WoW time. Mind you, the amount of free time we have may be wildly different. On the other hand, perhaps you just don't give the time of day to games outside of WoW.
What ever the case, most other MMORPGs (D3? what about TL2? SC2? ever heard of a little series called Age of Empires?) offer exactly what you just described about what's great about WoW, so you're point is...? Are you implying that there are no games outside of Blizzard games that keep people playing for hours on end?
The fact that you lived a part of your life in the game isn't an argument for it's quality. You mentioned so yourself. So again, what's your point? If anything, it makes a pretty good case for my earlier point about Blizzard being good at those "psychological ticks and tricks" that keep people logged-in.

Seriously... I don't mind having your own personal opinions but If you HAVE to drag in some other games to compare against Blizzard games don't compare the sub quality trash like TL2 and most other MMORPG's.

Whether you like these Blizzard games or not, no other games last longer in playing time by THEIR fans.

TL2 hein ? compares to D3 like an ant to an elephant in playing numbers and playing time and for the moment I don't even like the non trading D3, but that doesn't mean I can ignore simple facts D3 is a gigantic commercial success and is played by zillion of players who have fun.

I am no longer playing HS and I don't like SC2, but when I enter Azeroth I can feel the difference with other MMO's, from the first critter I encounter to the very last Dragon I see.

All of their games are simply played massively whether you "like" them or not.

Of course Blizzard games have limits. They appeal to many players but not to ALL. They are limited to address some typical kind of players: those who invest a ridiculous amount of time to just play ONE game and the typical hardcore dudes. Blizzard's main public is the "I have 8 maxed out avatars in Diablo 3 spread over PC, PS4 and XBox360."

Blizzard failed to address the REAL casual players on new media btw, like the Farmvilles of our time. That's a market still right open to them. Even their first iPad game is simply too harsh to conquer that very lucrative casual iPad market in numbers like Supercell does.

At the same time, Blizzard is working and developping way over the heads of their public even. The vast majority of players have NO CLUE about game design. The transition from a single realm play to seamless cross server play is way too difficult to grasp for the average idiot smashing a key or a joystick.

So yep, the OP is right: they are mostly too good to be limited to an industry that addresses a general IQ of 95 and has the patience of a 15 year old kid with the highest form of ADHD and is color blind.

[Gimlix]

They use to be good.

As of late for WoW, no.

Diablo 3: RoS was a nice turn around though from what was Diablo 3. Haven't played in a while though.

Heroes of the Storm is alright. Haven't played in a while.

I don't care for hearthstone and starcraft 2

WoW is a very good game, subs dont lie.
Hearthstone also one of biggest success apps on store atm.

[BenBos]

WoW is a very good game, subs dont lie.
Hearthstone also one of biggest success apps on store atm.

There is no single game in history that has had multi million subscriptions for a decade. Even CoD had to let go of its Elite subscription model after a mere 1.5 years.

That being said: WoD is incredible in beta. It is taking WoW to the next step in MMO design. People have no clue what awaits them at the moment with the new technological foundations they laid out over the past 2 years.

Instances can be laid out in the open world without loading screens and will be played cross server seamlessly, balancing out factions over all servers...

But as I stated above: this technology and its potentential far passes over 99.9% of players heads. It is just only when they encounter the end results to play in, they will be knocked out. To take just one added feature:

Players will be able to organise their own Gladiator fights with their building Garrisons, all cross server and with spectator mode included ...

With WoD it is like toying and riding with a Ferrari while the rest is having a one foot driving step.

[Jokerfiend]

You have to remember the original titles though. Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. If they were taking any elements from other games enough to warrant the title of "unoriginal", I couldn't tell you wtf those other games were because nobody remembers anything but these.

And as far as complexity goes...I play WoW at a pretty high level, as in it's second nature to use all of my 50-60+ keybinds, 1 page+ of macros, focus macros, etc. I can pick up pretty much any class and be decent with it fairly quickly at this point...

...and I'm just now getting into SC2 and it scares the shit out of me, lol. To the average person these games are as complex as they get (and pretty much are in general).

Pretty high level? With Raid finder gear on your main? Umm, sounds like some straight up BS to me.

[Heldamon]

Loved it!

[Crafterofstars]

I understand peoples need to voice their concerns on changes that they feel are important. They wouldn't go through the effort if they didn't feel a level of passion towards Blizzard games. At the same time though there are plenty of others that just complain for the sake of complaining. That no matter what you do it will never be enough.

What it comes down to is if you enjoy a Blizzard product then use it, if you don't then move on to something more befitting your gaming needs. Why spend a second of your time in something you're not enjoying? I play games for you know, fun, you should do the same .

[A Dark Knight]

people are whiners, oh bo ho horde favoritism, no gnomes lore, green jesus, i had to enter my password 5 times to get into diablo

blizzard is an awesome company, and most people are bitches

[Gimlix]

There is no single game in history that has had multi million subscriptions for a decade. Even CoD had to let go of its Elite subscription model after a mere 1.5 years.

That being said: WoD is incredible in beta. It is taking WoW to the next step in MMO design. People have no clue what awaits them at the moment with the new technological foundations they laid out over the past 2 years.

Instances can be laid out in the open world without loading screens and will be played cross server seamlessly, balancing out factions over all servers...

But as I stated above: this technology and its potentential far passes over 99.9% of players heads. It is just only when they encounter the end results to play in, they will be knocked out. To take just one added feature:

Players will be able to organise their own Gladiator fights with their building Garrisons, all cross server and with spectator mode included ...

With WoD it is like toying and riding with a Ferrari while the rest is having a one foot driving step.

Yep, WoW wasn't in back either, has been at the TOP for 10 years. One of biggest succesfull game in gaming history.

[Deleted]

Yep, WoW wasn't in back either, has been at the TOP for 10 years. One of biggest succesfull game in gaming history.

Ehmm WoW is only bigest subscription based mmo. But not even close in between F2P MMOs so pls get you facts right when you post sometging. There are much better MMOs with much larger player base then WoW. And btw WoW would never get so big without Blizzard smart marketing which most of underdog mmos cant afford.

And one more thing. WoW is popular game. Popular game =/= good game.

[A Dark Knight]

Ehmm WoW is only bigest subscription based mmo. But not even close in between F2P MMOs so pls get you facts right when you post sometging. There are much better MMOs with much larger player base then WoW. And btw WoW would never get so big without Blizzard smart marketing which most of underdog mmos cant afford.

And one more thing. WoW is popular game. Popular game =/= good game.

.
F2P doesnt count because you cant really know how many people are really playing. but blizzard announces how many subs it has every 3 months

[Ehrenpanzer]

Blizzard should be the model for any game design or development company. They make their games so damn good and addicting....so polished, so awesome, so epic. They make them easy enough that almost anyone can pick them up, but they also have enough depth that they are hard to master. They have perfected their model.

For the most part yes...have their been some extremely questionable choices along the way? yes...has the last xpac and the next one been one of them? most assuredly..I personally think they are just doing what they can to keep WoW going while Warcraft 4 is in development

[Gimlix]

Ehmm WoW is only bigest subscription based mmo. But not even close in between F2P MMOs so pls get you facts right when you post sometging. There are much better MMOs with much larger player base then WoW. And btw WoW would never get so big without Blizzard smart marketing which most of underdog mmos cant afford.

And one more thing. WoW is popular game. Popular game =/= good game.

WoW is VERY popular for a Monthly subscription model and it is far ahead then any MMORPG even F2P MMO's.

It even makes like most money a year out of all games (I think prob false, but its for sure in top 5)

WoW is more then just a success.

[BenBos]

Ehmm WoW is only bigest subscription based mmo. But not even close in between F2P MMOs so pls get you facts right when you post sometging. There are much better MMOs with much larger player base then WoW. And btw WoW would never get so big without Blizzard smart marketing which most of underdog mmos cant afford.

And one more thing. WoW is popular game. Popular game =/= good game.

Several usual errors.

1. WOW is popular AND successful. it made 10 billion dollars over 10 years, not one single PC game came even close.

2. There simply were no other Multi million subscription based games that ran 10 years with Multi mullion subscriptions. Even COD had to delete its Elite subscriptions for Call of duty after 1.5 years.

3. It FAR surpasses player numbers of ANY other MMO (free to play included). And to some who want to point out at some Chinese surrogates: they don't make the same amount of money, since Chinese have far less salaries and these duds are complete UNKNOWN in the West.

4.http://www.gamespot.com/articles/wow.../1100-6421191/

All games that gather income from subscriptions/F2P microtransactions etc were included.

WOW has more market share than numbers 2-9 ... COMBINED.

[Baconeggcheese]

I feel like they just do it less bad than everyone else.

I've yet to come across the game company that feels like their devs also play the games that they make at any kind of competent level.

I love the diablo franchise, super invested into it, they continue to make such insanely simple mistakes that anyone could have realized that it baffles me that they managed to give live with these things for d3.

Same thing with WoW as well, so many design decisions that anyone who actually plays these games even casually would have went *uh, no that's a horrible idea*.

That said they've dominated my entertainment for over half my life so. Kudos keep on doing it less bad than everyone else please.

[Gimlix]

Several usual errors.

1. WOW is popular AND successful. it made 10 billion dollars over 10 years, not one single PC game came even close.

2. There simply were no other Multi million subscription based games that ran 10 years with Multi mullion subscriptions. Even COD had to delete its Elite subscriptions for Call of duty after 1.5 years.

3. It FAR surpasses player numbers of ANY other MMO (free to play included). And to some who want to point out at some Chinese surrogates: they don't make the same amount of money, since Chinese have far less salaries and these duds are complete UNKNOWN in the West.

4.http://www.gamespot.com/articles/wow.../1100-6421191/

All games that gather income from subscriptions/F2P microtransactions etc were included.

WOW has more market share than numbers 2-9 ... COMBINED.

Someone who knows what he is talking about!

There is no game that can beat WoW if it comes to things like that. How much you hate WoW or not, it's just the truth.

[Deleted]

The only good game they have is WoW. Most of everything else they produced is kitsch.

[mauserr]

I think Tucci works for Blizzard. I've never seen him say anything actually negative about them, He regularly justifies questionable things they do and attacks anybody that voices anything negative about Blizzard.

You say the store mounts are "ok because they are optional" They aren't obtainable in game, that makes them not optional for me, at the same time while Im paying $15 a month I'm unwilling to pay them additional money when the game is supposed to be NOT pay to win. Clearly it is pay to win, but oh well.

Blizzard has gotten a lot worse in the past few years.

I'd make a witty comment ridiculing you in a somewhat NSFW way, but I've just recovered from a ban from speaking the truth in again a NSFW way, so I'll abstain from doing that, at least until all of my active infractions expire.

Another thing is that you need to brush up your understanding of Pay2Win because it is clearly lacking. You are uneducated and you spit uneducated nonsense. How is having a mount which provides no actual benefit when compared to any other flying mount equals pay2win? What advantage do you have over other players who don't have it?

A modified version of Blizzard's quote, just for fun. "Literally nobody has ever bought a store mount, looked at it, and thought: I won the game."

[Tucci]

TEN HOURS is the most you put forth in your favorite/most highly rated games outside of WoW?
Geez, I dropped 200 hours on freaking Dungeon Defenders. And my GW2 time is starting to rival my WoW time. Mind you, the amount of free time we have may be wildly different. On the other hand, perhaps you just don't give the time of day to games outside of WoW.
What ever the case, most other MMORPGs (D3? what about TL2? SC2? ever heard of a little series called Age of Empires?) offer exactly what you just described about what's great about WoW, so you're point is...? Are you implying that there are no games outside of Blizzard games that keep people playing for hours on end?
The fact that you lived a part of your life in the game isn't an argument for it's quality. You mentioned so yourself. So again, what's your point? If anything, it makes a pretty good case for my earlier point about Blizzard being good at those "psychological ticks and tricks" that keep people logged-in.

No, I have 420 hours in Borderlands 2, 64 hours in Torchlight 2 (compared to over 480 on D3), hundreds of hours in multiple other games...But I was referring to single player games because people were mentioning them earlier and you only put that much time into them. Other games (like TL2) get much more time put into them...but there's a reason why there's only around a thousand people on at any given time in TL2.

Your bitterness is showing really really hard. Optional mounts in the story are not pay to win and you haven't presented any kind of clear reasoning behind why it is. You are just ranting and raving and personally attacking someone because they disagree. Pathetic really.

You didn't quote anyone but I'm assuming you're not replying to me, lol.

Pretty high level? With Raid finder gear on your main? Umm, sounds like some straight up BS to me.

That's kind of a stupid way to think, wouldn't you agree? Judging how good someone is by their gear? You don't have to be a rank 1 glad or clear heroic raids to play at a high level. By high level I mean skill level in general being higher than most people and having a better grasp of game mechanics and how everything works, using every available resource to get ahead, etc. When I do decide to do something, I do it well. I'm currently not playing. Especially not my main who has I think 1 or 2 available bag slots. Just waiting on 6.0 and the toy page and extra void storage page so I can actually play him again. But if I feel like clearing heroics, I'll ask my GM to be invited and I'll clear them. You get to a point where your performance is no longer an issue for the most part and you can just focus on everything else.

[Polarthief]

Just for fun, I'm going to break down my thoughts on each game.

- Warcraft (RTS): Only played WC3, but WC3 remains one of my favorite games to this day, and quite possibly has more hours logged into it than any other game, WoW excluded (due to AFKs and whatnot, it's unfair to include WoW really). While I never really cared for the single player campaign, I looooooooooved custom maps! I remember watching my best friend play Skibi's TD and immediately saying "I WANT TO PLAY THAT RIGHT FUCKING NOW". Sadly though, going back to WC3 usually results in 99% of games being DotA.

- World of Warcraft: WoW is constantly evolving and in Vanilla-Lich King, I enjoyed it greatly. Never really had many complaints back then, but looking back now, as an adult, I can see a lot of the poor design choices it had, though still being a great game. Now, Cata-WoD, I have a mixed love-hate relationship with it, but it's still one of the best MMOs out there.

- Diablo: Barely played D2 and played the hell out of D1 and D3, Diablo set the bar for games of the Dungeon Crawler RPG genre. While Diablo 3 had an awful launch and, while being a well made game, suffered greatly from design choices, it's overall a pretty decent game. It's gotten a lot better as of late with the new(er) design team, though I quit a few months ago because it just feels like there's something missing to keep me playing.

- Starcraft: The game I've played the least of so I can't comment too much on it, Starcraft is an RTS just like the old Warcraft series, and definitely has a nice feel to it. I'm personally not a fan of the "Sci-Fi skin of Warcraft RTS", so I didn't really bother with it too much, despite owning classic SC and SC2. I'll say it's a pretty good game, but it's not for me. (Still waiting for WC4 though!)

- Hearthstone: Mmmm, Hearthstone... Personally, I feel like this was their most overhyped game because it delivered so poorly and generated so much hype through the closed beta event. Hearthstone, advertised as a 'casual' card game because of how simplistic the mechanics are, but is very inaccessible due to progression through winning only and being forced to "PvP" (see the HotS section below for a bit of clarity on it). Hearthstone, while I still do the dailies and will continue doing them, is by no means 'casual' outside of its simplistic design that even your grandmother can play. Just don't expect to get anywhere by playing casually.

- Heroes of the Storm: While only in Alpha, HotS is probably my favorite game of their main 5 modern-day titles to date, and I'm not even a big fan of MOBAs. HotS takes League of Legends, and strips out the annoying parts: Items, leveling up skills each level, the talent trees (Masteries), Runes, and the snowballing/bad behavior elements, and puts them into a Blizzard-themed game of teamwork and fun. HotS is by far my favorite MOBA because there is no killstealing, no snowballing, and forced teamwork, as a TEAM-BASED GAME SHOULD BE. In addition, it has daily quests that give you extra money, and even allows you to do them in Bot matches which are fairly easy, allowing you to not only practice and master heroes, but allows you to progress (EXP and gold) without being forced to PvP (this is why I feel Hearthstone has a very poor design). Even if you lose a match, you still get gold and EXP, so you can learn from your mistakes without being upset that you spent time and not progressing (again, unlike Hearthstone).


Overall, I'm quite happy with Blizzard's polish, despite some iffy areas (D3's first year, modern day WoW team, and the Hearthstone design), and hope they continue to deliver high quality games to us.

[Daws]

At one time Blizzard where my favourite games company, unfortunately they've punched the money grab ticket once to often and there public relations just gets worse (the whole here's a new feature followed by oops we didn't have time, on twitter no less, has gotten very old). On WOW I play for the raiding the rest doesn't have the content to keep my attention and the solo play is simply forgettable and bland. Starcraft is amazing from beginning to end for but Diablo was a major let down (but hey it was free since i Subscribed to WoW for a year). Oh and if you haven't seen it yet go check out the honest review of Diablo. So all in all Blizzard are a mixed bag for me.

Now for my money current best developer is CD Projekt RED (people behind Witcher), there work ethic is amazing free DLC, patches with real content the fans want, abandoning DRM and not being afraid to actually talk openly and honestly on what they are currently doing.