Frost Mage Artifact Intro, Vodka Done Raiding, Blue Posts, Zarhym Leaves Blizzard

[Poysonivy]

Didn't even know Vodka was still around. Kind of makes them saying they're quitting laughable.

They didn't do so well this tier (place 23). But they were a very competitive US/World guild. With a few world 1st and 2nds. Shame the top 1% is becoming even thinner in Legion.

[bjred712]

Unless he was fired..

Not the only reason. I ran out of personal time at my last job while going back to school. I had to choose to either continue working and stop going to school or quit and continue my schooling. So I quit to continue my studies and enjoyed being a stay at home dad for a couple months.

[ElDoorO]

I'll start off with: I think Zarhym is an arrogant asshole. While I disagree passionately about the direction they are taking while and feel they have forgotten what made them popular, I find it difficult to believe that someone as elevated as Zarhym would be "fired", in the traditional sense, from Blizzard.

At most he might have been let go with a severance package. I might venture a guess that he might have been given "direction" and was given a choice: Fall into the new fold or leave with severance.

Saying WoW is on its death throes is not an unreasonable thing to say. Historically, MMO games tend to say online for quite sometime with no real comeback. UO -> EQ -> WoW -> ??

For those who are too young to remember or joined MMO's late: Before World of Warcraft -- there was Ultima Online, Everquest, and a few others that I can't seem to remember playing. Anyways, pre-WoW games required a serious grind. In comes Vanilla WoW and it's for filthy casuals, who the fuck would play that shit? There was no "buying" wood, you took your shit to a tree and got your skill up for wood to work on your BS which also required mining and a lot of other shit that took a lot of grinding. Through Wrath it got more and more casual, and picking up more and more people. In comes Cata and they mysteriously start losing millions of people when it gets harder for everyone.

My point is: Casuals *subsidize* the game for the hardcore folks. The hardcore folks wanted more content made just for them at the expense of the casuals. What did you think would happen?

There are only a few games that have lived quite a long time -- Counter Strike is one of them. So yes, "stale" games can last quite a long time in a competitive state so long as things are balanced and fair.

I think WoW made the mistake of making raiding too large for Mythic. I understand *why* they did it -- I just think it was a mistake. 20 people is not very flexible for a difficulty that requires *gear* to progress. If, however, they normalized gear on Mythic so anyone that came in was given BiS items, I think things would have been better. Personally I think raiding could be turned into something better if gear wasn't involved and instead xmog, mounts, pets, and public rankings for kills were in place. It would also mean that you can't farm Mythics in the future, leaving items obtained from it only for those that put in the effort. Just my opinion that probably several million will disagree with.

I also think Blizzard lost focus. They forgot that to run current content requires leveling and farming for fresh blood to even *begin* raiding. So, for instance, if I wanted my wife to raid -- I'd have to get her toon to 85 (or 100 now), gear her up through dungeon after dungeon, LFR (once a week), and THEN we can have another healer. In the meantime my group is stuck with a thumb up its ass waiting on RNG to give her gear so we can continue. Now -- imagine she's not my wife and lives alone with cats. How easy would it be to get disenchanted of WoW by looking at all the grind ahead with only a simple promise of this alleged raiding you hear about but have never experienced? Fresh blood is needed. Imagine if Counter Strike did this. New players start with $0 and only a knife. It wouldn't go so well. You HAVE to take into consideration new blood for the game to remain healthy.

Just my $0.02 that no one asked for...

[Gib Lover]

Always thought Zarhym was a shitter, sucks if he got fired but I won't miss him a bit.

[Heladys]

Zarhym was the best. He'll be missed.

[Yoshimitsu84]

Zarhym was the best. He'll be missed.

strongly disagree, far from the best

[Aeula]

Looks like the iceberg that was WoD left a pretty big hole in the 'titanic' mmo.

[Deleted]

More bad news. Probably doesn't mean much in the long run, but atm it's just another body blow to post-WoD wow.

I really, really hope Legion turns things back around.

[Rolly]

Always thought Zarhym was a shitter, sucks if he got fired but I won't miss him a bit.

.............

[Gadzooks]

Lol @ sinking ship comments. I've been reading them since BC. WoW is no longer in its prime but this ship will take another decade to "sink".

No, it's different. I get the "wheels are falling off" feeling, too. It just feels different now.

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Unless he was fired..

I would wager this is what happened - Blizzard's complete silence on this is the key - love him or hate him, he was a long time employee who was on good terms with the other CMs and fans. His send off should have been huge, with CMs in a thread saying goodbye and all that. Instead, an MVP had to start a thread about it in their own forums, and no CMs have replied to it.

That reeks of corporate policy regarding firings - you don't comment on them.

I didn't mind Zarhym. He had a good sense of humor, and my couple of interactions with him were positive. It's just a shame the old guard is now gone, and the only ones left standing are that candle chick, who only seems to post about kittens, and Lore. Oy. That's just a damned shame, right there. For all the shit he took over the years, especially for the dev's fuck ups and bad decisions, he deserves better than this.

[merex760]

Not directly WoW related, but EQ Next was officially cancelled this morning. All signs are pointing to WoW being the last big budget MMORPG. The genre is dying, no one wants to take a big risk with it anymore. The future is f2p MOBAs and loot shooters. Depressing.

[amythist]

Based on his person twitter account, he seems to be implying he doesn't have anything lined up yet.

It amazes me a lot that someone would leave their job before securing another though...

doesn't necessarily mean he has nothing lined up just that he can't talk about it, could have a non compete clause in his contract that says he can't work at another game company for x months, so has something lined up but can't officially say it

[Keile]

They never said Azmodunk was only available from Heroes of the Dorm. They simply said that those participating can win one FREE, while the rest of us would have to dish out the usual $15 for the Legendary Skin.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Based on his person twitter account, he seems to be implying he doesn't have anything lined up yet.

It amazes me a lot that someone would leave their job before securing another though...

Or he might have a few months of pay so feel no need to have a new job lined up. You know, how it works for those that are privileged enough.

[subanark]

I think WoW made the mistake of making raiding too large for Mythic. I understand *why* they did it -- I just think it was a mistake. 20 people is not very flexible for a difficulty that requires *gear* to progress. If, however, they normalized gear on Mythic so anyone that came in was given BiS items, I think things would have been better. Personally I think raiding could be turned into something better if gear wasn't involved and instead xmog, mounts, pets, and public rankings for kills were in place. It would also mean that you can't farm Mythics in the future, leaving items obtained from it only for those that put in the effort. Just my opinion that probably several million will disagree with.

</puts on rose colored glasses>
The reason that WoW lost so many subs is that other companies got their shit together and released a non-MMORPG that a good chunk of WoW players actually wanted. They play WoW since it was and still is a good game, but it wasn't the kind of game they really wanted. WoW is now just trimming down to its core players who really do want to play MMORPGs.

[Blur4stuff]

if blizzard completely scrapped raiding and put those resources into 5 man/solo/pvp content they would have more subs

[Deleted]

Sad to see Vodka quitting. Was hoping to see more of them in Legion and ofc Paragon too. MMorpg's dying out for Mobas? Please don't let the mobas take over... Hate Mobas and shooter games...

[Xenyatta]

I'm also leaning towards he got fired. Usually there's a huge post about it from Blizzard itself, the employee write a huge tearful goodbye or at the least says something more than "Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm no longer with Blizzard & won't be using this Twitter account anymore." That, to me, sounds angry and somewhat bitter. There's usually more ceremony than he got especially since he was a long time CM.

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And didn't Vodka quit once already a few years ago? They came back?

[teidden]

Sad to see Vodka quitting. Was hoping to see more of them in Legion and ofc Paragon too. MMorpg's dying out for Mobas? Please don't let the mobas take over... Hate Mobas and shooter games...

Who gives a hoot if they are leaving seriously. every xpac a major guild or two leaves. The game is still here. Here some tissues to all those who need them over Vodka. Seriously.

BTW nothing wrong with mobas.

[Blayze]

I'm also leaning towards he got fired. Usually there's a huge post about it from Blizzard itself, the employee write a huge tearful goodbye or at the least says something more than "Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm no longer with Blizzard & won't be using this Twitter account anymore." That, to me, sounds angry and somewhat bitter. There's usually more ceremony than he got especially since he was a long time CM.

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And didn't Vodka quit once already a few years ago? They came back?

I guess he Tseric'd himself.

As for why Cata bled subs, it was because it was too grindy and difficult. That's why 4.3 gave us Raid Finder, dungeons that didn't make you want to claw your eyes out, and a feature players had been begging for for years, after an expansion of being told to L2P--Blizzard were desperate to slow their game from bleeding out. And it worked.

Unfortunately, the shit Blizzard had pulled in Cataclysm tainted players' perception of Mists, leading to much unjust blaming of "lol pandas" on the fact that it didn't completely reverse the damage Cataclysm had done to the game--that and there were some missteps, like dungeons being worthless past the first week of doing them and the Timeless Isle being just a series of rare spawn timers instead of actual content.

Still, Mists had done well enough--and LFR proved itself enough--that enough players gave the game another shot with WoD. And holy shit, did Blizzard ever burn through that player goodwill. Turns out the entire game was now the Timeless Isle treasure hunt and Mists' lack of worthwhile dungeon content.