Will Blizzard ever tell the truth?

[Lightbull]

I don't know why this "Blizzard lies" bullshit is still going on. It's literally just Blizzard changing their minds after saying something in public. It's not like they have malicious intent.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Its not the company that is lying dude. What you are describing is a lack of communication between the development departments and whomever tells us the things they tell us.

That's way scarier than flat out lying, but either way you have no reason to care. Your primary interest should being the best you can be within the game and if its not then you have no reason to complain about what they are "lying" about. If you are by chance a top world raider I sympathize but surely you understand that this is how the game has been for a while - its not balanced around people who play it 8 hours a day for months on end.

[Kathranis]

Blizzard does like to lie, often.

There's a difference between lying and changing their plans.

I don't think there's a single thing Blizzard's developers ever say that isn't couched in some sort of disclaimer that they may change their minds. Every single press release they post has a 100 page legal boilerplate at the bottom explaining that forward-looking statements are always subject to change.


Either they express their ideas and then people like you call them liars when plans change, or they don't express their ideas.

Threads like this one are exactly why they're so hesitant to speak to the community about game design. They say "we're thinking about doing something but we're still undecided," and six months later you or someone virtually indestiguishable from you turns that into some sort of commandment etched into a stone tablet that they can never veer from without you creating a thread to whine about all their broken promises.

[weedburst]

they could have easily said "we could make vanilla wow for you, but we don't want to right now, we don't think it's the right time," which would have been true but they didn't want to deal with the fact that people would only want it more if they said that, so they lied.

the new lie seems to be that this is some MASSIVE undertaking... the game is done, it's been done for more than a decade, and they have already told us that there is a working version of it on new hardware that they're playing on. so it seems to me like hiring a full team to work on a finished game and they have the task of maybe polishing a few things about the game or tweaking things to make it run smoother on new hardware should take roughly a few months at most assuming they are hiring professionals. somehow people are saying this will be out in 2 years... what?... excuse me?... the game is done, polish it, get the servers ready and release it in March like we all know you can or tell us that you want to hold back the release date just because you can, they're lying because that would cause people to get angry, so enjoy your 2 year wait for a game that will be ready 3 months from now at most.

[arr0gance]

Blizzard doesn't lie. Its idiotic fanbase can't handle frank discussions about anything without hanging onto their every word like they're wholesale promises of shit they never said. If 95% of the people who identify as the community weren't functionally retarded, I'm sure we'd have far more positive feedback from the developers.

[Deleted]

they could have easily said "we could make vanilla wow for you, but we don't want to right now, we don't think it's the right time," which would have been true but they didn't want to deal with the fact that people would only want it more if they said that, so they lied.

the new lie seems to be that this is some MASSIVE undertaking... the game is done, it's been done for more than a decade, and they have already told us that there is a working version of it on new hardware that they're playing on. so it seems to me like hiring a full team to work on a finished game and they have the task of maybe polishing a few things about the game or tweaking things to make it run smoother on new hardware should take roughly a few months at most assuming they are hiring professionals. somehow people are saying this will be out in 2 years... what?... excuse me?... the game is done, polish it, get the servers ready and release it in March like we all know you can or tell us that you want to hold back the release date just because you can, they're lying because that would cause people to get angry, so enjoy your 2 year wait for a game that will be ready 3 months from now at most.

How bout you get some proof ready for us on all your idiotic statements?

[Eurhetemec]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

Came to this thread for a post like this. Was not disappointed. 10/10 would get screamed at by Jack Nicholson again.

- - - Updated - - -

Threads like this one are exactly why they're so hesitant to speak to the community about game design. They say "we're thinking about doing something but we're still undecided," and six months later you or someone virtually indestiguishable from you turns that into some sort of commandment etched into a stone tablet that they can never veer from without you creating a thread to whine about all their broken promises.

Pretty much exactly right.

This is why with Classic servers they've avoided saying almost anything beyond "We will do them", because literally ANYTHING they said which seemed like an idea, not a promise, just a vague idea or half-finished thought would be taken as an IRONCAST PROMISE by people like the OP. So I imagine they'll keep pretty quiet until they close to release.

[Zathrendar]

All I know is that there are now void elves and blood trolls. Just when you think they couldn't create more subspecies for the two races!

[VyersReaver]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

Pure gold, right here.

[Ashkiman]

You should see the real world, people lie quite a lot there

[FuxieDK]

They never said it was "impossible." They said it would be difficult, specifically to integrate the game with their current infrastructure (battle.net accounts, billing, casc storage formats, server hardware, etc.).

It's amazing how so many people in this community will only hear what they want to hear.

Actually, they did say something along the lines "Vanilla servers are impossible, because the code simply doesn't exist anymore"...

[Kokolums]

I don't know why this "Blizzard lies" bullshit is still going on. It's literally just Blizzard changing their minds after saying something in public. It's not like they have malicious intent.

The reason people believe there is malicious intent is a lifetime of watching corporations in every field (not just video games) around the world swear up and down they are doing things honestly only in the end to reveal that, yes, there really was malicious intent. Its in the news every day that yet another corporation was corrupt, rigging the system, taking bribes, promising oversight and then ignoring crimes, etc. of course theres going to be plenty of people who suspect that, behind the scenes, blizzard is guilty of similar things such as rigging arena rankings, failing to fix problems out of sheer laziness, lying because they can, etc. it doesnt really help when they hire a lawyer like ion who gives very lawyer-type responses. Sometimes ion sounds like he is defending Enron with his carefully chosen words.

Im not saying i believe blizzard is corrupt. Im saying that they are a corporation and that will draw criticism from people who have been wronged by corporations.

[Sapphire35]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

I lol'd. Well done. I love the little subtleties you added.

[Flarelaine]

Blizzard kept claiming for A LONG TIME that vanilla was IMPOSSIBLE.
Now they announced it.

I hope you are still in school and may yet pick up proper reading and comprehension skills. Blizzard never said Vanilla was outright impossible; they said it would be one hell of an undertaking.

If someone is lying here, it is you.

[Sylvaeres]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

My god, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life

[valky94]

Not blaming the game itself.

Blizzard does like to lie, often.

For instance, about Arcanocrystal - "We don't want to nerf something players already have."
Ok, fair point...
...except they nerf legenaries in the same time.

Ok, legendaries, OP! So let's nerf dungeon items.

Say, Drape of Shame? YEAH, nerf!


When (IF) is Blizzard going to stop lying?

They employ quite a few competent designers.

It is sad that they are not allowed to express themselves.

its harder to get an high ilvl arcanocrystal than it is to get a high lvl drape of shame, you can kill jim once per week (if hes up) and get a 860(?) base ilvl with a chance to coin one and beg RNGesus for WF (not counting token vendor on vindicar since it works for drape of shame aswell), while drape can be farmed for 100 times a day, as long as you find a lower kara key, and drape was bis for all healers if they could get a good ilvl (i think its still bis if you can get a rly high ilvl 930+), cuz the 10% was huge, arcano isnt bis for all classes/specs

[Aucald]

I don't think Blizzard maliciously lies or deceives people as commonplace strategy - more I think it's that Blizzard is a collection of people who may speak without full knowledge, or from a personal standpoint, or without due consideration. Ideas, guidelines, and plans can also change at the drop of a dime as well - so a developer may say X at some point only to find external circumstances force them to backtrack or act in a different manner than their previous statement. This isn't helped by the tendency for the player community to take anything that is said as incontrovertible gospel. Statements such as "we'd like to" or "we plan on" or "the goal is" become facts bound in iron, and if expectations, plans, or goals change during development there is a proverbial riot from people who seem to feel they were promised those things in the final product.

Not saying Blizzard couldn't do with some improvement on communication to the players - that's an arena that can always be improved and iterated on. But I definitely don't think they set out to maliciously deceive or mislead the players they depend on.

[Victos]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

Did you order him to be kicked?

[Icechaosss]

I'll answer the question. You want answers?

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth!


Son, we play in a game that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by huntards with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Trend? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You QQ for crappy legendaries, and you curse Hazzikostas. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Hazzikostas' lies, while tragic, probably saved Gnome lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in Goldshire, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "Elitist," "Curve or don't bother," "and 940+. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent looking for carries. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the game time nor the inclination to explain myself to a noob who logs on and /sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "ty" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you spend 4 weeks farming that legendary and stand post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

10/10 You deserve a medal.

[Kathranis]

Actually, they did say something along the lines "Vanilla servers are impossible, because the code simply doesn't exist anymore"...

You know, people say they said that, but I can't actually find a firsthand source. Only references to a deleted post by a forum poster speaking on their behalf as a software developer.

The closest I can find to that sentiment are from CM posts in 2008 and 2010 by Drysc and Zarhym, respectively:

Drysc: "...We were at one time internally discussing the possibility fairly seriously, but the long term interest in continued play on them couldn't justify the extremely large amount of development and support resources it would take to implement and maintain them..."

Zarhym: "...There's no switch to flip on the realms to roll back years of patches and changes, and we don't intend to invent one so that a very small minority of players can play what we feel would be an inferior cousin of the World of Warcraft of today."

Back in 2010, Tom Chilton said that, at the time, they "probably" wouldn't consider "pre-Cataclysm" servers because the team didnt think they would retain enough players to be worth creating, maintaining, and supporting a second version of the game. In 2012 GC expressed the same sentiment on Twitter.