Open Letter to Blizzard Entertainment from Mark Kern

[Deleted]

Hilarious end to this whole deal, I must say ;D

Thread inevitably devolved into shitposting, whining about those terrible SJWs, defending poor poor opressed Mark from said SJWs taking away his freedom of speech ;< As expected. Blizzard answered this and moved on of course, you're still at square one, Mark is getting jack shit for answer for his condescending vid to Blizzard, drama will slowly die down, vanilla players will settle for Kronos (?) or w/e the new realm is cool these days, time goes on, and ofc the only thing that will outlast it, long after most people forget what Nost even was, will be a cohort of indignant manchildren with a newfound grudge towards some EVIL TERRIBLE SJW CHICK (likely a feminist, gasp! shock!) blocking someone or other on Twitter over some crass and dumb post most likely and then REFUSING TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE (the temerity! the bitch!) to the oh-so-impartial self-proclaimed internet judges who just wanted to determine whether she had the right to do so or was she, in fact, being a terrible SJWWWWWW (let's be serious here, this is a serious thread dammit!... OF COURSE SHE WAS! the harlot!).

Yay gamergaters! I'm making a note here: great success.

[Deleted]

Except for 10 years of NO from "Current" blizzard employees, who according to you know more than Mark?

Except that there was no "10 years of NO". That's another meme from anti-vanilla crowd that is not based on facts.

Very old posts from many years ago are irrelevant to today's situation. Interest in vanilla servers spiked only recently, after WoD disaster. Recent posts are not "NO", though they are not "YES" either.

[Deleted]

Except that there was no "10 years of NO". That's another meme from anti-vanilla crowd that is not based on facts.

Very old posts from many years ago are irrelevant to today's situation. Interest in vanilla servers spiked only recently, after WoD disaster. Recent posts are not "NO", though they are not "YES" either.

Okay, 7 years? I don't know.

Very old posts from many years ago are irrelevant, but very old devs from many years ago aren't?

[Thimagryn]

He knows way more than anyone posting in this thread

Actually he wouldn't, considering he has no direct connection to Blizzard. He's resulted to having to contact them through a video with public petitioning. If he were that in-the-know, he wouldn't have to make a petition in the first place to contact his ol' boss. Haven't you ever wondered why a former developer would even need to make a public petition? This is pretty unheard of in the industry.

Since none of other former Blizzard developers stepped up to contradict him, current developers are silent apart from one blue post, there is nothing to counter Mark's validity.

That's because there's nothing to contradict. Mark hasn't said anything that's worth publicly denouncing, he's only proposing what we already know is possible. The question is not whether Legacy Servers can work, it's whether or not they can turn a profit.

[Deleted]

The question is not whether Legacy Servers can work, it's whether or not they can turn a profit.

And the only way to find that out is to try it.

[Addict]

Hilarious end to this whole deal, I must say ;D

Thread inevitably devolved into shitposting, whining about those terrible SJWs, defending poor poor opressed Mark from said SJWs taking away his freedom of speech ;< As expected. Blizzard answered this and moved on of course, you're still at square one, Mark is getting jack shit for answer for his condescending vid to Blizzard, drama will slowly die down, vanilla players will settle for Kronos (?) or w/e the new realm is cool these days, time goes on, and ofc the only thing that will outlast it, long after most people forget what Nost even was, will be a cohort of indignant manchildren with a newfound grudge towards some EVIL TERRIBLE SJW CHICK (likely a feminist, gasp! shock!) blocking someone or other on Twitter over some crass and dumb post most likely and then REFUSING TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE (the temerity! the bitch!) to the oh-so-impartial self-proclaimed internet judges who just wanted to determine whether she had the right to do so or was she, in fact, being a terrible SJWWWWWW (let's be serious here, this is a serious thread dammit!... OF COURSE SHE WAS! the harlot!).

Yay gamergaters! I'm making a note here: great success.

Yo, GGer here, not in favour of "poor fragile victim mark", rather against his involvement in all of this since i have experience with him from when he was very vocal in gamergate and personally suspect nothing will come out of it that is good for the legacy people.

Not everyone nagging at SJWs are gamergaters by default.

[Simplex]

I don't know why exactly should he be invited to Blizz HQ in the first place. They're in talks with Nost team already, they are the ones who created the petition right? Also, the only point of that petition was a question, whether it is possible to provide a license for private servers, nothing more. Also, unlike Kern, the Nost team can probably provide some detailed and relevant data about their playerbase.

For the record, I signed the petition myself, as I believe Blizz should re(rererere)consider their stance on the matter, and they did. I'm not okay with it being flapped around as the potential active playerbase or whatever, because it's not.

[Deleted]

If you're a crazy extremist feminist, you're kinda inviting those internet rape threats...

Whining about some text or w/e makes you a "CRAZY EXTREMIST FEMINIST" (tm), even though WoW community whines about any random shit 24/7? Okay.

Rape threats are something you can... "invite" by having an opinion? Okay.

TIL, I guess.

[Deleted]

snip

What about those people who whine about the top hat item from a quest being now Worgen-only? I guess they must be over-the-top British. The rascals! We should totally threaten them with rape taking away their tea and crumpets!

Please.

[Aggrophobic]

Wasn't that after she moaned on twitter that she wasn't given early alpha access to overwatch or something like that? And isn't she one of those "dyed hair" feminist types that was involved in getting the 'too sexist' dialogue boxes of NPCs changed in WoW together with Perculia?

If you're a crazy extremist feminist, you're kinda inviting those internet rape threats...


Not that I care for Mark either, he seems to be desperately wanting to be the spokesperson for 'male Gamers' to the point I'm expecting him to start many pointless crowdfund projects... Everytime there is some 'seemingly' large outcry from gamers about one thing or another, he jumps on it and tries to pretend he is the spokesperson...

The heck is wrong with you? I don't necessarily agree with her but "inviting thoes rape threats"?, thats a pretty disgusting way to look at it.

[docterfreeze]

Why won't people let this go?

I really don't see why people want classic servers. Yes, I played back then. No, it wasn't that great. Can anyone provide actual reasons why they believe the game was so much better back then?

inb4 "It was more fun." and "It was actually challenging."

Do you remember how lame boss mechanics were? Those fights were not challenging. Your characters were just really weak from how bland the classes were. There were so few useful abilities back then.

60 Pages later, you probably already got an answer, but here is mine.

1. Vanilla had a community

2. Vanilla was fun

3. Vanilla deterred casual play.

4. Vanilla had massive PvP battles

[Deleted]

60 Pages later, you probably already got an answer, but here is mine.

1 is somewhat true, but live still has a community (except it's far less, well, mandatory), 2 is subjective, 3 is blatantly untrue (most players were just dicking around the world with mouths agape, how many did actually raid back then? or do serious pvp?), 4 is the product of a lack of pvp system, world pvp started dying the day BG's were introduced.

[ls-]

60 Pages later, you probably already got an answer, but here is mine.

1. Vanilla had a community

2. Vanilla was fun

3. Vanilla deterred casual play.

4. Vanilla had massive PvP battles

Vanilla was casual and player-friendly game by 2004 standards, that's the reason why WoW became so popular, it's casual as fuck.

However, by today's standards Vanilla WoW was sorta haco.

[docterfreeze]

1 is somewhat true, but live still has a community (except it's far less, well, mandatory), 2 is subjective, 3 is blatantly untrue (most players were just dicking around the world with mouths agape, how many did actually raid back then? or do serious pvp?), 4 is the product of a lack of pvp system, world pvp started dying the day BG's were introduced.

Alright it didn't deter it, that was the wrong word. However, casuals could only experience a small fraction of the game, unless you put a good amount of time into the game you would not see a single raid boss. It made getting epics from raids feel a lot more rewarding.

I'm comparing it to today's game.

[Deleted]

Alright it didn't deter it, that was the wrong word. However, casuals could only experience a small fraction of the game, unless you put a good amount of time into the game you would not see a single raid boss. It made getting epics from raids feel a lot more rewarding.

I'm comparing it to today's game.

Fair enough. Personally I liked beginning of Cata the most, when it comes to challenge/reward. Heroics were solid, raids were solid but not insanely hard to get into, epics weren't exactly rare, but they were meaningful enough.

Not tenable in the long run precisely because too few people saw the raids, though ;(

[Deleted]

3. Vanilla deterred casual play.

That is completely false. Just because there were some raids that required massive amounts of effort doesn't mean that the game wasn't completely casual friendly. Unlike today, there was actually tons of content other than the current raid instance. I never stepped into a single raid in vanilla, yet I enjoyed all my time in it. And I knew many actual "casuals", people who were not gamers and did not play anything else, get into WoW and enjoy it because their boyfriends or whatever were playing.

[Echo of Soul]

Alright it didn't deter it, that was the wrong word. However, casuals could only experience a small fraction of the game, unless you put a good amount of time into the game you would not see the inside of a raid. It made getting epics from raids feel a lot more rewarding.

I'm comparing it to today's game.

But that's okay isn't it? If I don't have the time or don't want to go to the gym every day I can't really expect to get in shape can I?

I personally don't have as much time and the same drive to go all the way to the top as I did when I was younger. But I don't think they should design the game around my inability to do scheduled raiding.

I'm perfectly fine with grinding dungeons for valor points so I can buy gear and doing dailies for rep gear. LFR should really be removed from the game in my opinion, I try to avoid it as much as possible since I get so bored to the point of falling asleep while doing it and it feels like the effort I personally put in doesn't make any difference what so ever.

[cholobanger]

60 Pages later, you probably already got an answer, but here is mine.

1. Vanilla had a community

2. Vanilla was fun

3. Vanilla deterred casual play.

4. Vanilla had massive PvP battles

All past tense occurrences that was fueled by brand new content and lore being discovered for the very first time as one big player base. Can't see why people can't let go of this idea since the game has moved on.

[docterfreeze]

But that's okay isn't it? If I don't have the time or don't want to go to the gym every day I can't really expect to get in shape can I?

I personally don't have as much time and the same drive to go all the way to the top as I did when I was younger. But I don't think they should design the game around my inability to do scheduled raiding.

I'm perfectly fine with grinding dungeons for valor points so I can buy gear and doing dailies for rep gear. LFR should really be removed from the game in my opinion, I try to avoid it as much as possible since I get so bored to the point of falling asleep while doing it and it feels like the effort I personally put in doesn't make any difference what so ever.

Yes I'm saying it's a good thing. Only the most dedicated players should get the best gear.

- - - Updated - - -

All past tense occurrences that was fueled by brand new content and lore being discovered for the very first time as one big player base. Can't see why people can't let go of this idea since the game has moved on.

On Nost, the things I listed still occurred even though it was 12 year old content.

[Echo of Soul]

Yes I'm saying it's a good thing. Only the most dedicated players should get the best gear.

Yes and the key word there is dedicated. No matter if you raid, pvp, run dungeons or just craft all day long the rewards should be based on your time and/or effort. Really difficult content would award gear faster and really easy content should award it slower but the end result would be the same. That's why I liked the valor point system mainly in wrath. You could get the same gear as a raider just by running dungeons but it would take you months to complete.