Most damaging Blizzard action

[Kava]

I think Diablo immortal damaged their reputation a lot, and you can see it by an insane drop in Blizzard stocks.

[Zmagoslav]

Like I said, I was just bringing up the numbers. The poster said they didn't think that wow lost 25% of the subs in MoP, but they did as numbers prove that.

There are probably 10+ reasons why subs have gone up and down the last 10 years, you provided a few or them here, no doubt. That WoW is still alive and kicking is impressive no matter what.

Out of all the available charts; what made you pick that one?
It looks like somebody with no knowledge in statistics, math or gaming industry opened "Paint" and slammed a line at the end of the chart.

[Kallor]

Turning WoW into a single player game where you're never motivated to talk to other people is the most damaging thing they did in my book. The subs didn't just dissappear because the WC3 story ended after Wotlk, they started dissappearing because the magic was largely gone with the new philosophy.

Edit: I'll also have to add, the ingame store, the expensive server transfers and race changes, etc. At one point it became obvious Blizzard cared more about making money, and that making a quality product was secondary. Whereas with the old Blizzard you always got the feeling it was just nerds doing what they loved - which is why their games were always so good.

The latter thing is probably the most hurtful thing to their reputation.

[Ghostpanther]

For myself it was the constant class changes, and those where based primarily on high end raiding and pvp. When their own date showed, the large majority of their player base was casuals. Which I think is the main reason TBC expansion was their best, as it offered so much for everyone's play style.

[Doffen]

Out of all the available charts; what made you pick that one?
It looks like somebody with no knowledge in statistics, math or gaming industry opened "Paint" and slammed a line at the end of the chart.

Not sure why they made that line(I believe it might have been one of those WoW sucks, it's gonna die kind of thing), but that chart is one who shows by graph the sub count until halfway WoD. It's the first one that pops up and it's quite easy to read.



Happy now? Whether people like MoP or not is not the issue.

One poster said he didn't believe they lost that many sub during MoP. But they did according to numbers.

[nekobaka]

Not saying that WoD was the most damaging while the highest profile at the time event of Blizzard releasing a product that was clearly not ready. Announced content was straight up cut along with other non-raid content in order to force out the game. Devs showed where their priorities are with doubled down on the encounter team focusing on raids to keep the game afloat while simultaneously admitting to the public that the majority do not do raids as an endgame including LFR while cutting post launch dungeons that was supposed to return.

Now we have WC3 Reforged that is effectively an early release game. The when it is ready motto is dead.

[RobertoCarlos]

You can't really say diablo immortal is damaging if it makes loads of money in China.

I would say the main problem blizzard have is a business culture that promotes keeping old dogs at the top and doesn't encourage healthy competition and creative freedom within the company for emerging talent to get given more creative responsibilities rather than the copy and paste and yes men approach of the seniors who have oversight

[Mosha]

Just going off personal feelings here, as I’m sure there may have been worse ones for others, but mine was without a doubt wc3.

Yes wod was fucking terrible, yes diablo mobile was fucking stupid. But those I could dismiss and be like “I’m still paying attention and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and still try out their products”.

Then wc3 reforged happened.... I don’t need to go into detail of the major shit storm this game was, so I’ll just tell you what it told me as a buyer.

It made it crystal clear what this company is about now, I would meme about shit like blizzard is ea blah blah. But this had no fucking excuse to be released. Thank god I didn’t prepurchase this garbage.

After this I have basically not been paying any attention at all to new content, I don’t give a shit what they say about any new expac or whatever. I’ll read it, I’ll see what it’s about, but in no way am I excited or plan on buying anymore. The only thing I care about if them rereleasing their old shit like TBC and that’s about it.

[Monkey]

For me personally, introducing CRZ, LFG, LFR.

Gone are the days of making strong connections via leveling and pre raid gearing. No more finding friends via daily heroic dungeon runs. Clearing 5 mans with 4 people you will never see again, let alone talk to, killed the mood for me.

[sam86]

the first one that showed they are now activision pets was "don't u have phones"
while both wc3 reforged and blitzchung incidents are way worse, the "don't u have phones" was the wake up call that show they don't give a f8ck about their loyal customers who built them anymore and trying to enter chineese market with sh8t phone games since they dominate it there
in other words, when blitzchung and wc3 reforge i was starting to expect bad sh8t from blizz, but when diablo immortal came out i wasn't expecting it at all, at worst i was expecting a mess up like WoD, which while bad wasn't blizzard just sh8tting on us and telling us to enjoy it, blizz didn't hide that WoD is a mess and Legion is a great apology for it imo
Diablo Immortal has zero excuse, it just show that their western based company doing a con in USA just to please china, if u wish so much to kiss china's a88 why not just move there?

I wonder how many ppl will get banned here since 3 of those options (ironic also the most popular) are partially related to china's growing influence over usa

[breadisfunny]

i'm torn between blitzchung incident and warcraft 3 reforged. one incident was showing where blizzard's morals really stand ($$$) and the other robbed people of a game they payed money for. (theft) only the people who still have physical working copies have any real recourse.

[Kolvarg]

You can't really say diablo immortal is damaging if it makes loads of money in China.

I don't understand the misconception here that Immortal is only for China.

Is it for the traditional Blizzard audience? Probably not.

Is China the biggest mobile gaming market? Sure.

But it's not the only one. The US is the 2nd biggest mobile gaming market, with hundreds of millions of users and billions of revenue. And even China and US together are only roughly half of the worlwide mobile market.

If Diablo Immortal is any good, it will make loads of money all over the world, not just China.

[Kanegasi]

I voted other.

I believe their most damaging action is screwing up paladin's Salvation spells. They removed the 30 minute blessing in Wrath and turned the 10 second blessing into a hand, gave it only to protection in Draenor, then Legion prepatch where they brought back a 10 minute blessing as a talent for only two weeks to be replaced by a double divine steed talent.

I want my threat reduction back.

[TheRevenantHero]

For me personally, introducing CRZ, LFG, LFR.

Gone are the days of making strong connections via leveling and pre raid gearing. No more finding friends via daily heroic dungeon runs. Clearing 5 mans with 4 people you will never see again, let alone talk to, killed the mood for me.

I mean....most people cleared dungeons and then never spoke again before the matchmaking system. Matchmaking removed the toxicity of "I didn't like this person in my dungeon group so I'm gonna ruin their play time on the server and make sure they never get a group again."

[Monkey]

I mean....most people cleared dungeons and then never spoke again before the matchmaking system. Matchmaking removed the toxicity of "I didn't like this person in my dungeon group so I'm gonna ruin their play time on the server and make sure they never get a group again."

Not sure how you got the "most people" part of that. Did you do a game wide survey? Or are you taking your own personal experience and applying it to everyone else?

I for one made a lot of in game friends while leveling pre CRZ. Seeing the same players in the same zones as me. Grouping up for dungeons.

And in Wrath, doing the Daily Heroic dungeon for tokens. Really gave me a chance to make new connections and get some guild invites.

When I met a player who was doing poorly, I could reach out and offer advice. Then I would follow up the next day and see if they were improving.

If I ran into any toxic players, it also gave me the chance to ignore them and not have to bother with them any more.

The social aspect of WoW was what made it enjoyable for me. Those 3 things they implemented killed it.

[TheRevenantHero]

Not sure how you got the "most people" part of that. Did you do a game wide survey? Or are you taking your own personal experience and applying it to everyone else?

I for one made a lot of in game friends while leveling pre CRZ. Seeing the same players in the same zones as me. Grouping up for dungeons.

And in Wrath, doing the Daily Heroic dungeon for tokens. Really gave me a chance to make new connections and get some guild invites.

When I met a player who was doing poorly, I could reach out and offer advice. Then I would follow up the next day and see if they were improving.

If I ran into any toxic players, it also gave me the chance to ignore them and not have to bother with them any more.

The social aspect of WoW was what made it enjoyable for me. Those 3 things they implemented killed it.

Look at these forums for both retail and Classic. Then go look at the official forums. Toxic players are everywhere and introducing matchmaking finally destroyed their tactics of ruining a player's game time with rumors on a server. The social aspect of WoW isn't gone. It's the same as it's ever been. If you think it isn't, then that's just your server. I still encounter and socialize as much as I did back before matchmaking. I personally feel that all matchmaking did was prevent people from being assholes and using rumors/hearsay to dictate whether or not someone gets groups in game anymore.

[Monkey]

Look at these forums for both retail and Classic. Then go look at the official forums. Toxic players are everywhere and introducing matchmaking finally destroyed their tactics of ruining a player's game time with rumors on a server. The social aspect of WoW isn't gone. It's the same as it's ever been. If you think it isn't, then that's just your server. I still encounter and socialize as much as I did back before matchmaking. I personally feel that all matchmaking did was prevent people from being assholes and using rumors/hearsay to dictate whether or not someone gets groups in game anymore.

Those who post here and on the official forums make up a very small portion of the massive wow population. So not sure how you can extrapolate from this little demographic that server specific grouping means everyone's going to have a bad time.

And I never saw any kind of mass conspiracy to ruin players games with rumours. This must have been something specific to your server. Or maybe you?

As far as server community goes now, it is pretty rare I see someone out in the world from the same server I'm from. And when doing randoms, even more so.

So the only time I ever play with others from my server is when I'm raiding with guildmates.

Not sure why you are trying to argue with me anyways. It's an opinion thread. You might love the the fact that you get to be anonymous when out in the world. Cheers for you because they are making the game more and more solo friendly.

I don't like that, which is why I stopped playing retail.

[Ghostile]

Blitzchung 1000000%... nothing is worse than saying "i hereby deny you your right to speak because we might loose money if we didnt"

errr... freedom of speech doesn't apply when you accept a contract that forfeits it.

You are free to say what ever you want, but if you do it on someone elses platform, they have the right to control it.

[Tenjen]

I still havent figured out why people like yourself are so against following tournament rules.

Dont be pretentious. It was because their heavy handed response was extremely telling. Just how severely they reacted reeked of appeasement given how much low key their past behaviour was towards far more serious offences.

They could have punished him properly and handled it in a much better manner, communicating to the players. But they've repeatedly fumbled in their execution of such matters multiple times over.

Its clear that its because their priorities and efforts lay elsewhere other than the fans and customers. Their behaviour for Diablo Immortal, blitz, etc reeks of "marketing to the investors". In which case we are the product sold to the investors.

[Seranthor]

I still havent figured out why people like yourself are so against following tournament rules.

Because rules only matter when they are enforced the way that we want them to be /s