Warcraft III: Reforged Developer Update
In addition to the developer update, Blizzard added the ability to quickly get a refund for Warcraft 3: Reforged.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Hail War3 Players,

We’ve been following the discussions the past couple days and want to thank you for your feedback as well as your support. First off, we want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted, and we’d like to share our plans for what’s coming next.

There were a few hours during launch day where we experienced server-load issues that impacted players’ ability to jump right in, but we were able to resolve those later in the day. Separate from that, we’ve seen community feedback about different aspects of Reforged that we wanted to take some time to address.

Before we go on: the team is excited that Warcraft III: Reforged is finally upon us and we’re fully committed to supporting the game for a long time to come. The next few patches and updates we’ll discuss below are just part of our ongoing plans. This game is an integral part of the Blizzard DNA, with a team that loves Warcraft III, and we’re looking forward to pouring our hearts into Reforged and the Warcraft III community for the long term.

One of the concerns with Reforged that we’ve seen are the visuals when selecting Classic Mode. We’ve identified the bug causing the colors and shading to look different from the original Warcraft III, and we’re testing a fix that will be incorporated in a larger patch addressing this issue and others. We expect to release that late this week. The patch will also address many other known issues, such as fixing some portrait animations and audio bugs, implementing some UI fixes, and more. Please keep an eye out for the patch notes for a detailed list of all the bug fixes.

Another area of concern we’re seeing is regarding online features such as leaderboards and clans, which applies to all Warcraft III players, including those who haven’t purchased Reforged. At BlizzCon we talked a lot about how the team is actively working on standing up the back-end to ensure a smooth transition to this new MMR system, much like we did with StarCraft: Remastered. As with Remastered, these and other features will be included in a major patch for Reforged, which will also address the issue for players of the original game. We’ll share release plans as work progresses in the coming weeks—please be assured that the team is hard at work on standing these features up.

There are some individual concerns we’ve seen that we’re not currently planning to address and we wanted to give the community a heads-up. As of Version 1.30 of the original game, we saw very low usage of tournaments and of the Reign of Chaos ruleset, so we removed both in mid-2019 (in Version 1.31). Eliminating the maintenance for underused elements has helped us streamline our overall support of the game and focus on areas impacting the most players. That said, we do anticipate that players who prefer Reign of Chaos will find custom games with similar rulesets, which we hope will help satisfy that concern.

Related to that, as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art).

We know this update doesn’t address all questions, but we’re committed to the development and support of this game. We hope you’ll keep an eye out for this week’s patch and future updates and let us know what you think as we continue fine-tuning things. Until then, thank you as always for your support and passion for Warcraft III. We appreciate all your feedback and will continue to keep the Warcraft III community updated on everything we’re working on.

Sincerely,

The Warcraft III: Reforged Team
This article was originally published in forum thread: Warcraft III: Reforged Developer Update started by chaud View original post
Comments 218 Comments
  1. Phagelives's Avatar
    How bout we r sorry for not communicating, and we will refund everyones take the game back I dunno finish building the game ?
  1. GreenJesus's Avatar
    No that is not what you said at blizzcon. You said the cinematics wouldn't change. I saw nothing about the in-game cutscenes. Change your website and stop the false advertising. Why didnt they just release the game when all the multiplayer issues were figured out si they dont break peoples games they already had?
  1. EyeOculus's Avatar
    It doesn't address the elephant in the room.

    People are outraged because it resembles more a HD mod for the original game than a "reforged" one.

    Lacking QA first and foremost.
    Old, upscaled cinematics.
    Advertising with a cutscene that isn't in the game.
    No overworked cutscene to begin with.
    Lacking custom campaigns.
    Lacking ladder.
    The EULA of the world editor.
    And so on...

    It's funny they talk about "preserving the true spirit" but cut and changed dialogue and TFT units in RoR campaigns.
  1. hulkgor's Avatar
    I'm not as angry as a lot of people seem to be, nor am i upset about so many issues as others, but it just fell flat... i was expecting something special and didn't get it. Some of the cinematics are just laughable.

    That said, the ease of a refund just made me get it. 40€ is an absurd price for the product they released.
  1. Erous's Avatar
    I read that as "We as developers had performance review goals and we developed and released just to develop and release. We decided not to operationalize it one bit. In fact, you think you're mad? lol. Our support Operations team in Cork refuses to take the support of this trash pile. Instead, our developers are attempting to support the mess. The patch is coming out this Friday because we have run out of our overtime budget."
  1. arkanon's Avatar
    Blizzard "Sorry, not sorry, you didnt listen at Blizzcon. You are the problem, not us"
  1. Kyphael's Avatar
    Seems Blizzard spends more time apologizing than designing and developing.
  1. Stickiler's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by darkthunder View Post
    Then why the f**k did you literally advertise the game as having 4 hours worth of remastered cutscenes, and at the announcement for the game at Blizzcon 2018, showed a very different cutscene for Culling of Stratholme, compared to the original version or released Reforged version? That is literally the very definition of false advertising.
    At Blizzcon 2018 the plan was to have all the remastered cinematics etc, and that came with the story changes. The community kicked up a stink, and so they walked those changes back, and at Blizzcon 2019 said they wouldn't be changing the story or the cinematics.
  1. joxur's Avatar
    Sorry about the game. Here’s something steam can do to make you feel better.
  1. catalystical's Avatar
    At the very least add the old game to the launcher. Damnit.
  1. JacobusRex's Avatar
    *reads response*

    *laughs*

    I can't tell anyone how much this defensive, self-serving response pleases me. They're trying to spin it like they actually care now that they're losing 10's of thousands of dollars on refunds.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stickiler View Post
    At Blizzcon 2018 the plan was to have all the remastered cinematics etc, and that came with the story changes. The community kicked up a stink, and so they walked those changes back, and at Blizzcon 2019 said they wouldn't be changing the story or the cinematics.
    It doesn't change, however, the fact that they never updated the advertising on their website accordingly.
  1. Jahaga's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Phagelives View Post
    How bout we r sorry for not communicating, and we will refund everyones take the game back I dunno finish building the game ?
    They're already issuing refunds to those who request it on the Blizzard support page. It's quick and there's no extra bs. I requested a refund last night and it was already processing back into my bank account within minutes.
  1. NoiseTank13's Avatar
    I could have sworn I read this non-apology drivel years ago, that's how much PR speak was in it.
  1. bmjclark's Avatar
    Say what you want about their apology but they added the ability to get a refund quickly if you want it. So take it if you're not happy.
  1. Liarparadox's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kyphael View Post
    Seems Blizzard spends more time apologizing than designing and developing.
    Yeah they are great at PR and so don't really need to release a good product. People will "give them time" to fix the game. smh
  1. Zyky's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by hulkgor View Post
    I'm not as angry as a lot of people seem to be, nor am i upset about so many issues as others, but it just fell flat... i was expecting something special and didn't get it. Some of the cinematics are just laughable.

    That said, the ease of a refund just made me get it. 40€ is an absurd price for the product they released.
    This sums up my feelings too. I'm upset and disappointed, but not angry. I took my refund and I have no intention of repurchasing until they followthrough with their -still- advertised features that aren't there.
  1. Liarparadox's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NoiseTank13 View Post
    I could have sworn I read this non-apology drivel years ago, that's how much PR speak was in it.
    Agreed. If people pay attention and carefully listen to and read their "apologies" or their "acknowledgement of mistakes" they are just pure PR speak, aka, nonsensical bullshit to keep those addicted fanboys emptying their wallets.

    It works.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Scrod View Post

    Meanwhile behind the scenes: "Can you believe we got those idiots to buy Warcraft III again? What else is lying around here that we can throw a coat of paint on and sell?"
    Yep. I'm pretty sure this isn't the last of these "remakes".

    While i'm not as upset as other people, I can understand where people are coming from and I was expecting more. I wouldn't have bought the game but I don't own WC3 anymore so thought I'd give it a shot.
  1. Lucetia's Avatar
    My only main problem with it is that the graphics are choppy. When looking at even the main menu it feels chopping and you can see a black line that fills down 3 different blocks like a gradient. Other people I have talked to noticed this too so I know its not something on my end. Granted I haven't dived too far into it because that gradient effect gives me a headache after a bit. There are probably other issues, but that's my main concern.

    Some of the graphics do feel out of place but that might be more due to different varying quality of models being used in places.
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrod View Post
    Blizzard in 2020:

    "This game is an integral part of the Blizzard DNA, with a team that loves Warcraft III, and we’re looking forward to pouring our hearts into Reforged and the Warcraft III community for the long term."

    Blizzard in 2021:

    "Warcraft III? What's that?"

    Meanwhile behind the scenes: "Can you believe we got those idiots to buy Warcraft III again? What else is lying around here that we can throw a coat of paint on and sell?"
    I mean...idiots bought up Classic so why WOULDN'T they remake games to sell them?

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