There's nothing wrong with him promoting his board game. It's not like he did all this petition stuff to shamelessly self promote himself.
Oh wait-
Note to myself: Dont play the board game.
Not sure if it's this thread or another related one, but there's a new buzzword going around: PROPAGANDA! So let's look at all sides on this topic and their supposed propaganda:
Since there aren't a lot of strict anti Legacy people, I'll lump those with don't care/concerned/so-called White Knights together:
1). Pointing out Kern's failings as a leader/dev and problems that arose while at Red5 (sourced, albeit some heresay by an unnamed employee)
2). Pointing out concerns of the impact that Legacy can have on retail (not will, but could)
3). Debating if people would stay subbed long enough to actually bring a profit or if worth it at all for Blizzard
4). Debating old vs new WoW and whether it should be regressed on a separate server.
5). Allegations that some pro Legacy followers made threats to a YT personality to physically assault her.
6). Pro Legacy have rose tinted glasses and ignore failings of vanilla
Pro Legacy:
1). Stating that expressing concerns about a feature automatically make you anti Legacy, and sometimes anti WoW
2). expressing concerns or citing information about someone's past are direct attacks and spreading propaganda
3). Mark Kern has no fallacies when it comes to WoW and nothing else he's ever done has no bearing on anything else, ever
4). Citing any proof offered by anyone against their ideals has no proof and is wrong and resulting to ad hominem attacks
5). Stating that Legacy will do nothing but good for everyone
Just some things to consider when accusing one side of spewing propaganda.
I would agree, if it were not for the fact that despite being a developer of WoW, none of us here would have knew of him, or would ever know. The fact we're talking about him is a testament to the self promotion. After all, it's not just an open letter to Blizzard; it's an open letter to Blizzard from Mark Kern
Personally I'm grateful that this guy got involved and by doing so, he really legitimized this issue it appears. Not just him, but a variety of twitch streamers, youtube personalities and others helped accelerate the momentum on this issue and the chances of some good things coming from this ordeal seem to be getting bigger and bigger. So for me, I don't care if Mark Kern made this about him, I personally don't think that's the case at all though, rather he's a credible voice that got blizzard's attention in a way the players themselves were having trouble in doing.
Put simply, he wrote an objective post in what he's seen happening from these forums, to which you (1) imply that he is disconnected, showing that you believe he has no real input into the matter. You then (2) then imply that you are attacking him by way of your comments of disconnect and being a polemic anti-polemic.
When questioned as to your post doing exactly the things he is addressing in an attempt to get stopped, you then (3) answer back with a sarcastic response in an attempt to undermine my question as to what you are doing. Witty though it was, you are continuing the habit he is in fact stressing that some people are known to do.
He was doing the same thing he was claiming was so terrible. Over the top characterization of other people here, and the fact is, that's all he seems to do. Its easier to just point it out in a sentence or 2 and move on. There are people who have something to say in these threads bloated with diatribes, just have to pick when and where.
now if it was an open letter to blizz from Rob Pardo, totally different thing. He may still be under a contract clause which prevents him from making any public statement on blizzard business decisions without pre-clearing with them (such as he might make as part of general comments at a conference/presentation).
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Okay, so here's one for the conspiracy people. I was thinking about one one Moana's posts about Blizz meeting to discuss legalities of Nost becoming a Blizz supported server. Here's the conspiracy, are you ready? Mind about to be blown:
This was all discussed, planned, and executed BEFORE NOST WAS EVEN SHUT DOWN!!! Now hear me out. Blizz has stated Legacy is something they'd like to do and always discuss, but never able to get off the ground with everything going on. They hear about this Nost server, a server that's popular amongst the Vanilla fans, and the brain wheels start turning. At some point, they start e-mailing each other and plan. Blizz approaches Nost very simply, "we can shut you down legally, but here's a better proposition, we would like to endorse you. We will negotiate a contract that states you get to manage and run a Legacy server, but you need to abide by our decisions and rules, and you can even keep some of the profits as a monthly charge will be implemented."
Well, this is a great idea right, but how do we get it rolling to seem official? Obviously Blizz can't outright endorse them, otherwise they have to endorse all other private servers doing the same thing. So now they go back to the original statement, "let's 'shut them down.'" Also, Blizz needs someone to spearhead the movement, who would they know that has ties to WoW but no affiliation with them anymore? Enter Kern (who's entrance to the Legacy cause seems kinda convenient on its own). A man who knows Blizz with no ties to them, but if he joins the Legacy crew becomes relevant again and can promote his new game company he's working on.
Do you guys get it!!!??? This was all planned from the get go to get right to this point! A blizzard approved Legacy server where they take little risk but still keep rights on and get a little profit while Nost stays in business and makes fans happy.
MIND...FUCKING...BLOWN!!!
Okay, I'm tired and wanted to be funny, please don't take this to heart and hope you all get a chuckle from it.
How about not designing the content to be cleared on launch day?For context, we were talking about how to keep raiders that feel like there is no content left in the game after beating the last boss interested in the game, obviously there are no good answers when attempting to cater to people like that.
I had a mix of heroic and mythic gear from blackrock foundry and HFC normal (2 difficulties down) had HUGE player power upgrades in the form of new trinkets, new tier sets and ring items. The best choice by a mile was to go stomp over every boss on the easiest difficulty on day 1 rather than actually progressing anything, and blizzard designed the game to be that way.
Blizzard designed the game to appeal to mass market. They are still trying to find that balance (in my opinion) with things like LFR and mythic difficulties with normal/heroic as an in between. Now, I'd be fine with them removing normal or heroic, but not both as there is a progression to it. If all you are looking for is the lore and wanting to kill bosses to see the story, or maybe don't have time to dedicate to a guild or raid schedule, then LFR fits that bill. If you are looking for the challenge and feels of taking down the bosses on the hardest difficulty and working together with your guild and pushing yourself as a player, then go mythic.
I dont know. For me, its fine with the legacy realms.
But, keep in mind. The majority of people on nostalrius were there mainly because it was free.
Getting legacy realms is fine by me, and i would prob. create a trashy and dusty alt on the realm. But i would never main it. Been there, done that. But having an alt for re-live the old days could be fun. Even tho i wouldnt give a damn about the character