Open Letter to Blizzard Entertainment from Mark Kern

[Aliadra]

Bzzzt, wrong. My stance has been the same, I don't really care about this guy in particular, it's just another dude jumping on this bandwagon. He's just like all those streamers, milking this whole mess for views, publicity and cash. Do they, personally, make a difference in the matter? No. Are they tedious? You bet.

You care so little you feel the need to insult him, yeah. You accuse people of making up bogus numbers and then you assert that every one of these people don't care at all about matter and instead see it as an easy cash grab. You're so set on your view and incapable of even entertaining a different viewpoint that you cannot fathom that some people actually care.

You really have a thing for beating this dead horse. Every time you use the term "SJW" while trying to make a serious argument, I cringe a bit. Stop. Stop making me cringe. I have all those lines on my face already.

Yes, media and mainstream press constantly blaming the most retarded things on the "Misogynist gamers who spend all day harassing women online because they don't like women because reasons" sure is a dead horse. But I guess it's all correct and all gamers are misogynistic, racist, homophobic and transphobic because reasons. If you don't think SJWs exist go look at some of Christina Hoff Sommers' speeches. Go look at BLM activists. Go look at "White privilege" conferences and tell me it's not real.

This brilliant rhetorical gem can be turned 180 degrees - no one really cares what you think about vanilla being great or not. For the record, I don't think it was bad at all. This is not the point, though. The point is that people are throwing A LITERAL FUCKING SHIT FIT OVER THIS. You had my sympathy for a time, but the incessant whining has just pissed me off. How many threads does this have? How many shitposts in completely unrelated threads? How much whining and foot stamping and bullshit should I tolerate before I decide the entire vanilla "movement" is just fucking annoying? Well, I guess we just found out!
I dislike entitled whiny people who are unable to understand a simple "NO" I guess? People have asked, the company has said NO time and time again. They provided reasons as to WHY they are saying no. What is the mature thing to do? The mature thing is to say "ah well, too bad" and just continue with your life as normal. Stop buying from the company, too, if you're dissatisfied. The immature thing to do is to disregard the reasons and explanations given, conjure numbers based on wishful thinking (this is your argument - that it'll be beneficial, vs Blizzard's word that it will not), then throw a hissy fit over it, shit all over the game other people are in fact enjoying, then whine and cry when the obvious backlash comes and you get trolled back. Seriously, I am the last person on Earth to side with giant corporations and interest groups over valid interests of the public, and I have no illusion that Blizzard's stance on this is driven 100% by profit. But the amount of asspulling and handwaving is just too damn much. You might say I got... triggered, mkay? ;*

I don't see myself throwing any sort of shit fit over it, only somewhat over entitled assholes who thinks other people can't have something because they don't like it. Some people are absolutely blowing it out of proportion, also in this thread. Posting in unrelated discussions is pointless, no need to engage them when they do. You are here in a thread dedicated to this discussion, so complaining about the "movement" in here might not really be the best course of action. However if they really are bothersome in other threads, then I agree that it would become tiresome. And your opinion on wether or not something should be created is not really comparable to almost 250k signatures on a petition asking for Blizzard to instate something that would not impact your gameplay if current WoW is more attractive to most people.

You do realize it's very common for companies to start projects and scrap them after investing houndreds of thousands and even millions of dollars? Titan is a very good example of this, yet there was no outcry over the resources wasted that COULD have gone to WoW. Blizzard have managed to distance themselves from much of their fanbase due to bad decisions, such as things like RMAH, always-online DRM and condescending directly hostile phrases like "You think you do, but you don't". Doing this would be good PR and they already have many streamers who have pledged to give them free advertising. Even if it's not profitable they wouldn't have lost much.

Most peple throwing a hissy fit over the current state of the game mostly only hate the direction it has taken and and miss the fun they had, which is understandable. Being a twat about it anywhere is not really going to help. If you hate the current game so much you should unsubscribe. However if they start asking for legacy/progression servers there's no reason to tell them to just go away, that's just going to brood hostility.

No one is asking for anything to be changed about the current game, they're only asking for Blizzard to at least listen to the fanbase who wants to play the old game. Some people actually like playing the games they have played before. Many a times have I grabbed an old CD from my shelf and played a game I have completed many a times before. Not because "Rose tinted goggles" but because I genuinely enjoy the game. The servers aren't for people who don't care, they're for the people who genuinely want to play the game how it was before, because THAT is what they enjoyed. There are many private servers being run, some stable, some massively unstable and people play on them, not because they're too stupid to not understand they don't really like it, but because they do really like it. Not everything has to be about you and what you want. No one would care if one person asked for it, but almost 250000 signatures is a solid amount and there is no financial risk to releasing them, only a minor loss. Blizzard was built upon their good relations with their customers and now that they are large they have come to care less about how they are viewed and more about their profit margin.

But yes, people should stop making this into the potential end of the world and quit bothering people in other threads. Mods could easily make a well maintained sticky for this subject to limit the flood of threads.

[bledgor]

Oh look the 295125125125151521 thread this month about vanilla servers. I think I am done with MMO till this shit is gone, the mods are fucking useless, and if I hear one more person blather on about how "great vanilla wow was" I will find where they live and shoot them.

Infracted. Post constructively

[Eliseus]

Oh look the 295125125125151521 thread this month about vanilla servers. I think I am done with MMO till this shit is gone, the mods are fucking useless, and if I hear one more person blather on about how "great vanilla wow was" I will find where they live and shoot them.

I'm sorry what? Who is the problem?

[Indigenously Abled]

Oh look the 295125125125151521 thread this month about vanilla servers. I think I am done with MMO till this shit is gone, the mods are fucking useless, and if I hear one more person blather on about how "great vanilla wow was" I will find where they live and shoot them.

Yay some honesty from someone.

[Wolfheart9]

Oh look the 295125125125151521 thread this month about vanilla servers. I think I am done with MMO till this shit is gone, the mods are fucking useless, and if I hear one more person blather on about how "great vanilla wow was" I will find where they live and shoot them.

According to the mods: "We have all of maybe 2 threads about the new server concept that are open and a handful that we've closed, which will vanish from the current list of threads soon enough. There isn't enough interest or reason to open an entire new forum section to host a couple of threads." So take that with what you will. They seem content with how things are, despite most posters lumping the shutdown, vanilla, and pristine servers all as one so it's talked about in each different thread.

[AztechZero]

Oh look the 295125125125151521 thread this month about vanilla servers. I think I am done with MMO till this shit is gone, the mods are fucking useless, and if I hear one more person blather on about how "great vanilla wow was" I will find where they live and shoot them.

Vanilla WoW was/is great, to me. Maybe not to you, but that's okay buddy ;D

[Thage]

As I've said on Reddit: This is absolutely stupid. No one should give a shit about Mark Kern.

A massive waste of paper, too.

Yeah, like, I get why people want classic servers, and I'm not opposed to the idea, but Mark Kern is pretty well near the bottom of the list of people you want to adopt as a spokesman for your movement about what will make a successful game, right there alongside post-Daikatana John Romero and post-Spore Peter Molyneux. This is a guy who single-handedly destroyed an MMO's development so thoroughly that the odds are exceedingly good he killed the company that developed it (right now, it's on life support from its parent company as they try to salvage the project into something they can put on shelves). Just because he was part of a successful team doesn't mean he's the one the accolades deserve to go to, when every project he's touched since then has been an unmitigated disaster of horrible judgement and decision-making on his part as he coasts by on his former glory into positions he's vastly underqualified for.

[Wolfheart9]

Vanilla WoW was/is great, to me. Maybe not to you, but that's okay buddy ;D

I think it's more the growing situation of people bashing others for liking the current form of WoW and commenting in threads all over how great Vanilla is and if only you would see the light and blah blah blah, it gets really annoying. On the same note, the people telling others you're an idiot for enjoying Vanilla and you don't know what you like and so on are just as bad. To have an opinion on it, in a topic about that situation? Sure, but it's getting a little crazy.

[Jinpachi]

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[Alvito]

He's always been an advocate for the gamers, a public figure that can focus our voice when we don't have the fame to be heard ourselves. Hitch his wagon to something he has nothing to do with?? Did you even do any research before making that comment??? He was on the lead dev team for Vanilla WoW.. the original form of the game that set it all in motion. Some people just spout crap I swear.

Was is the key word there. He was a employee there a decade ago.

[Eliseus]

What makes your guys opinion of where WoW should be or shouldn't be more credible than Mark Kern?

[Dewragg]

Sorry for the wall of text in advance:

I stopped playing the retail WoW because i actually feel disgusted just by logging in. The game has changed so much from when i started playing that (just in my opinion) it is an empty shell of what it was. my first video game ever played? Pac Man on the Atari 2600. So needless to say I was a console player since pc's were way out of price range back then and pc gaming wasn't even a thing yet. Eventually i discovered pc gaming and loved it. Played all kinds of games and do you know what? I can still load up those games and play them right now. This game, WoW, is the first game I have ever played and seen where you can't do that. So in order for me to do just that, i had to go the "P" route. Do you know what? i would rather play that version on an official Blizz server where server crashes and bugs wouldn't be acceptable in a heartbeat! I would be fine if all blizz asked was in order for you to play legacy you must have an active WoW account. After all they are a business trying to make money. I also know a lot of others who feel the same as I do. All that is being asked for is not unreasonable. it is also possible, if you didn't notice, or more like chose to not notice, blizz didn't say it was not possible. Blizz responded that it would only be difficult. So when legion flops on it's face and even more people quit playing, just you watch how fast legacy servers will be up and running. many, myself included already decided to not buy legion until game direction is changed and fixed for the good of the game. i will give the dev team credit where due, and there have been some changes for the better but too many changes for the worse.

[gcsmith]

The issue isn't would people play or try out servers, it's would they play long term in a game with no content updates and where raid fights weren't about complex mechanics but pure numbers. I mean seriously, the most difficult vanilla bosses were difficult due to lack of add one, afk players or mathematically impossible (c'thun - who fell as soon as he was hot fixed).

Also, assuming they allowed Addons people would be using group finder Addons ASAP, standing in stormwind going "lfg sunken temple" for 20 minutes before running to the dungeon wasn't fun.

[Deleted]

Yeah, like, I get why people want classic servers, and I'm not opposed to the idea, but Mark Kern is pretty well near the bottom of the list of people you want to adopt as a spokesman for your movement about what will make a successful game, right there alongside post-Daikatana John Romero and post-Spore Peter Molyneux. This is a guy who single-handedly destroyed an MMO's development so thoroughly that the odds are exceedingly good he killed the company that developed it (right now, it's on life support from its parent company as they try to salvage the project into something they can put on shelves). Just because he was part of a successful team doesn't mean he's the one the accolades deserve to go to, when every project he's touched since then has been an unmitigated disaster of horrible judgement and decision-making on his part as he coasts by on his former glory into positions he's vastly underqualified for.

All that nonsense is based on reddit post written by anonymous employee.

I don't know what really happened, but using anonymous reddit post as basis to discredit developer who contributed more good to WoW than all current developers combined is rather pathetic.

Even if some parts of that post are true, its irrelevant. Being CEO and being developer are not the same things. He sucked as CEO because he was thinking as developer. He wanted to save failing game, he wanted quality, but his employees were too incompetent to make quality stuff and he didn't care to sugarcoat it. Of course such behavior is bad for money making, so he might have been sacked. Money > quality. Who's the bad guy here, one who tried to save game that was already failing badly due to incompetence of everyone working there or those who sacked him because of money?

If that article is something to judge people for, WoD developers are pure geniuses. Less content, more expensive -> more profit. Perfect CEO material.

Use your brain. That article doesn't discredit Mark in slightest.

[Cannibalus]

As I've said on Reddit: This is absolutely stupid. No one should give a shit about Mark Kern.

A massive waste of paper, too.

If that article is true... he shouldn't even have the balls to ever appear on the internet.

[Wolfheart9]

All that nonsense is based on reddit post written by anonymous employee.

I don't know what really happened, but using anonymous reddit post as basis to discredit developer who contributed more good to WoW than all current developers combined is rather pathetic.

And even if some parts of that post are true, its irrelevant. Being CEO and being developer are not the same things. He sucked as CEO because he was thinking as developer. He wanted to save failing game, but his employees were too incompetent to make quality stuff and he didn't care to sugarcoat it. Of course such behavior is bad for money making, so he might have been sacked. Money > quality. Who's the bad guy here, one who tried to save game that was already failing badly due to incompetence of everyone working there or those who sacked him because of money?

If that article is something to judge people for, WoD developers are pure geniuses. Less content, more expensive -> more profit. Perfect CEO material.

Use your brain. That article doesn't discredit Mark in slightest.

Speaking of WoD, it dawns on me that the Blizzcon announcing it was like Austin Powers 2. When asked about all the timey whimey wibbly wobbly stuff and to explain it, both Blizz and Bazzle said 'Try not to worry about it, and just enjoy yourself'..

Probably a comparison that was made before, but for me.. *mind blown*

[Indigenously Abled]

post-Spore Peter Molyneux

I feel like I'm missing something. Spore had absolutely nothing to do with Molyneux, aside from the nods to Black & White.

A post-Too Human Dennis Dyak would be more in line with the Romero comparison.

[bigbaddan]

I don't know what really happened, but using anonymous reddit post as basis to discredit developer who contributed more good to WoW than all current developers combined is rather pathetic..

Source needed.

[Deleted]

If that article is true... he shouldn't even have the balls to ever appear on the internet.

Its reddit. Facts are irrelevant and everything is blown out of proportion.

Applying basic logic filters to that post tells different story: employees were incompetent, so Mike was telling them to redo stuff. Shareholders would rather release crap than lose money, so they fired Mike because he was not content with mediocrity.

However that is irrelevant to his contributions to WoW. Which were more than what today's developers did.

[Deleted]

I'm loving the butthurt coming from blizzdrones, they just want everyone to shut up so they can go back to their little safe spaces where no one points out how bad WoW is in its current form. Well guess what, tough shit, this is only the beginning and the demands are only going to get louder and louder, this is going to be the great shitstorm of our times. Don't understimate mob power, I would be surprised if we aren't playing legacy servers or at the very least hardcore mode/pristine servers in a year's time.

Keep it civil