Most damaging Blizzard action

[TheRevenantHero]

Their realy not, i respect that they follow their rules and penalizes people that break them, when i think of blitzchung i only see a little sad man that abuses other peoples platforms for his gain. Its pathetic man

If you think Blitzchung was using the platform for personal gain then you absolutely have no idea what actually happened.

[Saltysquidoon]

Blitzchung made it to normies and had a sinister political aspect to it.

Reforged was probably most damaging to longtime fans and I would say shook a lot of rusted on blizzdrones possibly for the first time ever.

"You all have phones" was pretty much limited to blizzcon drama, that said it was a slap to the face of what had previously been blizzard's core audience (pc players)

WoD was meh but the bounce back with legion so most people forgave them

"You think you do but you don't" was just a meme. Besides it's probably more correct then most people are willing to admit.

Hiding the sub count was only ever a OHNONONONO to super nerds. Casual's don't give a shit about player numbers and the business end doesn't care so long as it's in the black. It was PR in the first place, makes sense for it to go away when it stops being pr.

[Orby]

Sure, I do however think that the ones that got the most mad about it were already mad about Blizzard to begin with. People who aren't interested in gaming or what not probably don't care enough of the gaming scene to dive into it about the incident and will be at the "I don't have enough info" sort of state and leave it at that.

Same as you, I just speak from my own observations, I don't think people care as much as the people who hate them think they do. Especially since it's a situation which nothing can be proved and its only ones belief that drives the conclusions, thus people refrain from making a hard stance.

True enough I can agree with that, I just see this as getting the 'most mad' about something and being the 'most damaging to the company' (as the title implies) are two different things for me. Its only because the the Blitzchung incident reaches far more outside the gaming sphere than those others do is why I voted for it. WoD, a mobile game, a line from a con a dev made? Who the fuck cares outside of gaming? The Blitzchung incident is on another level, it goes far belong gaming, its human rights, its a state of a countries government and Blizzard bowing to those said things. WoD or a mobile game seems kind of like small fish in comparison :P

I mean for me on a personal level the Blitzchung stuff is still number one because my girlfriend has family in Hong Kong and she is very against the Chiense government on what they are doing, and has protested against it. We also had been talking about this way before this Blitzchung stuff even happened.

And to see a company I love side with China makes me sad, but no less surprised to be honest, I defended WoD, I defended Blizzard doing a mobile game, I cannot defend Blizzards actions against Blitzchung and their defence of China.

I do feel maybe the Blitzchung option shouldn't have been on there, because I feel its a no brainer. But lets say the Blitzchung incident wasnt an option I would go with Warcraft3: Reforged.

[callipygoustp]

The reputation of the game has only suffered with the people that were looking for reasons to hate it. The world at large just sees it as "nerd game #63".

It's been 6 years since WoD was release and consistently it is ranked as one of the worst expansion in the history of WoW, second only to Cata. You can't discount the continuous negative feedback that expansion received.

There are certainly a group of haters that hate for the sake of hating. Check my post history, I am not one of those. What I said about WoD has been confirmed over and over and over ad nauseum; it's far from the standard online generic "I hate this".

[Kumorii]

True enough I can agree with that, I just see this as getting the 'most mad' about something and being the 'most damaging to the company' (as the title implies) are two different things for me. Its only because the the Blitzchung incident reaches far more outside the gaming sphere than those others do is why I voted for it. WoD, a mobile game, a line from a con a dev made? Who the fuck cares outside of gaming? The Blitzchung incident is on another level, it goes far belong gaming, its human rights, its a state of a countries government and Blizzard bowing to those said things. WoD or a mobile game seems kind of like small fish in comparison :P

I mean for me on a personal level the Blitzchung stuff is still number one because my girlfriend has family in Hong Kong and she is very against the Chiense government on what they are doing, and has protested against it. And to see a company I love side with China makes me sad, but no less surprised to be honest, I defended WoD, I defended Blizzard doing a mobile game, I cannot defend Blizzards actions against Blitzchung and their defence of China.

I do feel maybe the Blitzchung option shouldn't have been on there, because I feel its a no brainer. But lets say the Blitzchung incident wasnt an option I would go with Warcraft3: Reforged.

Has Blizzard been hit though outside of fans being mad? I know there were news coverage of it... but I can't recall they were every hit financially or partnerships were ended and what not. Seems like the only thing that came from it were other companies gaining a boost by stating their stance. Then we have the fact that the entire notion of making Mei an anti-china symbol to have her banned / removed from the game I can't seem to think didn't do much except actually help Blizzard. Because she became a symbol, which is Blizzard IP. Others will just see Blizzard IP character being a symbol for support of Hong Kong. Blizzard never got in trouble from China due to it. Character wasn't removed or nothing was shut down. Nothing happened except now Blizzard have a vaguely known character that supports Hong Kong.

[Orby]

Has Blizzard been hit though outside of fans being mad? I know there were news coverage of it... but I can't recall they were every hit financially or partnerships were ended and what not. Seems like the only thing that came from it were other companies gaining a boost by stating their stance. Then we have the fact that the entire notion of making Mei an anti-china symbol to have her banned / removed from the game I can't seem to think didn't do much except actually help Blizzard. Because she became a symbol, which is Blizzard IP. Others will just see Blizzard IP character being a symbol for support of Hong Kong. Blizzard never got in trouble from China due to it. Character wasn't removed or nothing was shut down. Nothing happened except now Blizzard have a vaguely known character that supports Hong Kong.

Probably not, I don't remember checking. The only time they even tool a hit was during those mass layoffs and even they bounced back from that... Capitalism in full effect. :P

[Michael Jackson]

Pandaria, lost more than 25% of the playerbase in 6 months and allienated many Warcraft fans with its "evil emotiunz" and fat useless china copy paste pandas bullshit.

[TheRevenantHero]

Pandaria, lost more than 25% of the playerbase in 6 months and allienated many Warcraft fans with its "evil emotiunz" and fat useless china copy paste pandas bullshit.

Except the vast majority of people I've seen say that MoP was one of their best expansions. I very rarely see anyone saying negative things about it. I don't think they lost 25% of the playerbase either.

[Kazlehoff]

I marked down "other" because honestly its just a mix of everything.

for me, things started when low population realms started to die and blizzard did nothing about it. they didn't want to merge servers because of the bad press "closing" servers would bring.

and honestly, the other thing they've done recently that really put a chip on my shoulder regarding them was that every single product they release streamers get beta (and alpha in some cases) where nearly no one else does. have they considered that maybe some of us would like to start streaming, and developing that fan base, and without any kind of attraction to start, there is no incentive for anyone to look at our content? but no, lets just keep promoting the same old worn-out faces delivering the same old worn-out material. yaaaaaaaaaaawn.

[vian]

Diablo "Immoral", shows how out of touch they really are.

[Kolvarg]

Diablo "Immoral", shows how out of touch they really are.

I think it showed how out of touch and unrealistically entitled some fans really are.

[Austilias]

Except the vast majority of people I've seen say that MoP was one of their best expansions. I very rarely see anyone saying negative things about it. I don't think they lost 25% of the playerbase either.

I hated MoP when it was current, but it has aged really well and I have a huge amount of nostalgia for it in hindsight. Personally I'd rank it my joint first expansion with WOTLK.

[SirCowdog]

I think it showed how out of touch and unrealistically entitled some fans really are.

I actually disagree with this.

The type of fan that pays for a ticket to physically go to a convention are the hardest of the hardcore. They're the most dedicated fans of Blizzard, and what Blizzard does. Blizzard is, by and large, a PC-based game company. This isn't ActivisionBlizzcon. It's BLIZZcon. So when Blizzard presents an image or perception of abandoning those fans in order to pitch a PHONE GAME to those PC fans when they knew damn well that all of those con-goers were expecting a Diablo 4 release..... Well. That shows a distinct lack of understanding who their core players are.

It's not wrong of Blizzard to want to expand into other areas of gaming. There is nothing inherently wrong with Diablo Immortal. Where the blunder by Blizzard was is in pitching the idea to the wrong people at the wrong time, and in a way in which REALLY made those core fans feel like they were being swept aside in order for Blizzard to pursue profits.

Are many gamers entitled? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean Blizzard didn't screw up by the numbers here.

[Doffen]

WoD and the Phone.

Don't you guys have a phone is funny af though, to me it rather increased my rep with them. Poor guy on the stage LOL

[Greengrim]

Voted "Other" as all of the remaining options are way too recent events that really aren't the actual root of why Blizzard became assholes.

I believe their biggest mistake is giving up on the community. Selling their company and thus becoming more corporate, rather an entertainment company.

As a game producer, their main focus should be to provide pleasant experiences, not to time-gate stuff or force infinite grinds upon players. "People wanted more stuff to do" is just a lame excuse they use to justify their retarded ways of keeping people online and subbed because the share owners are the greediest bastards.

[Doffen]

negative things about it. I don't think they lost 25% of the playerbase either.

But they did.


Down from 10mill to 7.5mill = 25%

I am just arguing numbers here, if MoP was good or not is not a discussion I want to do again.

[Ghostile]

Diablo "Immoral", shows how out of touch they really are.

Aiming for The largest market on The video game business is out of touch?

[Hellobolis]

Aiming for The largest market on The video game business is out of touch?

no, but announcing it to their hardcore pc audience who paid money to be there is. should have just announced it anywhere else and it would have been fine.

[Daedius]

Making Diablo Immortal a major announcement in a predominantly PC user Blizzcon with the condescending meme "Don't you all have Phones?!"...

They pretty much shat on everyone that day at the event to cater the none present Chinese market it so obviously was for...

[Coolthulhu]

Gravity-wise, the Blitzchung incident, but the Diablo Immortal's announcement will probably be remembered forever, whereas the Blitzchung incident won't. Pretty sure many people didn't even hear about it.

Aiming for The largest market on The video game business is out of touch?

Announcing it at the Blizzcon and in the way they did most certainly was.