Blizzard is not acting like BFA is failing

[justandulas]

Bfa May be a lost cause but what company comes out and blasts their product while it’s dtill being consumed?

Even coke backed new coke in the face of way way way worse scrutiny, until they brought back classic coke and then they could openly admit the mistakes.

But you can’t expect them to cut themselves off at the knees mid expac and be like “nobody bother til Next time” do you?

[Casperite]

What is with this obsession with wanting the WoW devs to grovel for forgiveness?

Welcome to the world of self entitled brats who think everyone owes them something.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

What do you want them to do? Revert everything back to 7.3, take the game F2P, and work on a different expansion?

There's resources sunk into BFA, and you can bet they're already waist-deep in putting resources into 9.0.

They're out there talking constantly about where BFA went wrong, and even acknowledging things they'd like to change in the future. An Azerite redesign is coming in 8.2, and Ion's been actually really vocal about wanting to restore that "sense of reward" for stuff like leveling and raiding.

But it will come on Blizzard time. Don't wanna wait, I hear there's another popular MMO with an expansion coming this year, and another popular MMO that either just got one or is going to get one (do I look like I keep up on ESO news?).

[Averrix]

Why would they say they failed with it? I mean, who would just come out and say "Yeah, we failed, sorry" That would just drive even more people away and make people lose more faith in them. They have to just keep doing PR damage control until the next expansion and say things aren't as bad as people are making them out to be.

[Zenfoldor]

I will admit I was very disappointed in BFA. However, it isn't the most disappointing game from a revered developer this generation. I'd say it's top 5 though.

I may try it personally with the new patch, but at this point I feel like just waiting for the next xpak.

As for the devs, who cares how they act. Fixing the game is the only hope for BFA, not how devs act, imo.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Let's be real. In american business culture you only every admit that something is wrong when a marshal comes to you with a forclosure notice in hand. Until that point everything is hunky dory, even if you and the company are litterally ablaze. That is true even more so, when they can still boast the highest "nickel and dime" makrotransaction numbers in that branch of the company.

[Benedictu]

Things aren't bad. The sky is not falling. This Xpac is just the most mediocre, non-innovative, non-creative, phone-it-in xpac we've ever had. Some people are fine with that, apparently, since sales have not taken a nosedive. Expect more of this 'if it aint broke don't fix it' dev mentality of non-innovation and mediocrity. Big changes could mean failure. Ion is the type of guy who will take the course of least resistance.

[Osmeric]

Raid participation looks to be down substantially from Uldir. I don't remember it falling nearly this much in Legion.

[mojusk]

maybe because its not as bad as some self proclaimed game dev experts on the internet say it is

[Yunaqt]

My takeaway from the interviews was Blizzard acknowledging they made several mistakes, and saying that they plan to remedy them as BfA continues. That's a pretty big thing coming from an environment where even the slightly admission of error can carry the threat of loss of shareholder support. They've said they didn't test Azerite Traits well enough, and that their vision for the Heart of Azeroth lack the same kind of lore buy-in that the Artifacts in Legion had. They've even acknowledged that ability pruning had the unintended side-effect of making the classes less fun, which is a pretty significant admission given the volume of player complaints about it.

So yes, I think the last brace of interviews have been a step in the right direction from Blizzard. BfA isn't "failing," but it could definitely be better than it currently is, and it's heartening to see Blizzard acknowledge this fact and give us at least some sign that they're planning to remedy it.

I have to agree, it seemed obvious that the 5th ring was a band-aid fix while further being hashed out how to bring the azerite system to a better place. I'm feeling really optimistic about 8.2 though which is great, considering I am actually enjoying BFA. But I am purely a raider so that's a front that's been solid in BFA, so keeping me well engaged.

[Eldar45]

They defended their Twitter/Selfie Cam patch, so you'll never hear them apologize for a thing. And as far as "no company will ever say their product failed", Final Fantasy absolutely did, and it went a long way to building trust and confidence in their revamp.

I went and found the apology: "...I would like to take the time to personally apologize once again to all those players who have been affected by the extended World login and character creation restrictions which have been in place for the past several days", Yoshida writes on the game's forums. "I also understand that apologies will not help you get logged in, so I would like to give you an update on the situation at hand and the various measures we are currently employing to alleviate the situation."


Yea, entirely different scenario.

BFA isn't so much bad as it is not as good as Wrath, Mists, or Legion. I don't see what is so wrong with it that people put it under WoD or Cata.

[Tumile]

Every interview they give they talk about what they did wrong, with azerite, expeditions, pruning, etc. and what they learned. What do you want? Obviously they aren’t going to say ‘BFA failed’, a) because it’s not true and b) because you don’t say that about your own product. You learn and improve.

Not disagreeing with the rest, but a) it is true, theres been a huge drop off in players, and the only estimates that we can make off of information we can yoink from 3rd party sources lead us to believe that its pretty fucking big, such as 50%+ if the API readings were anywhere near accurate (of which i dont think so) we're talking an estimate loss of over 85% of their legion subscribers, even if we make that 1/4 and say 20 odd percent drop off, that is a HUGE failiure from a business stand point, not sure what you are smoking when u say it isnt a failiure

[Asrialol]

I dont think anyone can prove that WOW Has been hot garbage since WoD to a whiteknight

Did you really just call me a whiteknight for asking someone making a claim to prove that claim?

Interesting. You're making yourself seem quite clever.

[justandulas]

I went and found the apology: "...I would like to take the time to personally apologize once again to all those players who have been affected by the extended World login and character creation restrictions which have been in place for the past several days", Yoshida writes on the game's forums. "I also understand that apologies will not help you get logged in, so I would like to give you an update on the situation at hand and the various measures we are currently employing to alleviate the situation."


Yea, entirely different scenario.

BFA isn't so much bad as it is not as good as Wrath, Mists, or Legion. I don't see what is so wrong with it that people put it under WoD or Cata.

I’d easily have it below cata or WoD due to how progression works now, the loot systems having more in common with diablo 3 than vanilla or Everquest, nothing meaningful ability wise added and only losses everywhere, gcd changes, the neck is hot garbage compared to the artifact weapons, and once again the game is no longer an mmo rpg and it is an mmo arpg

That’s great for those who like it, but the one size fits all progression system lost me

[Catblob]

Not disagreeing with the rest, but a) it is true, theres been a huge drop off in players, and the only estimates that we can make off of information we can yoink from 3rd party sources lead us to believe that its pretty fucking big, such as 50%+ if the API readings were anywhere near accurate (of which i dont think so) we're talking an estimate loss of over 85% of their legion subscribers, even if we make that 1/4 and say 20 odd percent drop off, that is a HUGE failiure from a business stand point, not sure what you are smoking when u say it isnt a failiure

You've pulled numbers completely out of your ass based off a rumored number that you don't even think is remotely accurate... and you're going to use that as your evidence?

[Barzotti]

Not disagreeing with the rest, but a) it is true, theres been a huge drop off in players, and the only estimates that we can make off of information we can yoink from 3rd party sources lead us to believe that its pretty fucking big, such as 50%+ if the API readings were anywhere near accurate (of which i dont think so) we're talking an estimate loss of over 85% of their legion subscribers, even if we make that 1/4 and say 20 odd percent drop off, that is a HUGE failiure from a business stand point, not sure what you are smoking when u say it isnt a failiure

Can you share your sources, please? "Estimate loss of over 85% of their legion subscribers" lmao

[Th3Scourge]

Ion has a legal background. The acknowledgement of BfA's shortcomings is as close as you will ever get to an admission of failure.

[justandulas]

Can you share your sources, please?

Just go by facts and listen in to atvi investor calls. To be fair, WoW isn’t the only victim but player engagement has hemorrhaged across all of Bnet the last year.

Even if Bfa is worse than the worst case scenario population wise; it doesn’t explain why Starcraft, overwatch, diablo 3, black ops 4, etc are all dying bad deaths population wise

I honestly don’t know why all of them are so down but it’s down for sure

- a concerned investor

[Otimus]

No company acts like any product is failing until they have something better to show in it's place, or it's like... causing people to die or something.

The only company I can think of that has actively done that off the top of my head is Sega, where they treated the Saturn like a failure while it was their only device on the market. You don't want to make business decisions like Sega.

[Queen of Hamsters]

They sit on facts and figures that the fans have no access to.

That being said, acting like your product is a disaster, would be a business disaster.