Why are Blizzard allowing themselves to sink deeper and deeper?

[Soeroah]

I like how the post ends with "I only intended to say a bit but damn" as if there's a lot being said.

Complaining about pre-patch having nothing to do but level alts, but at the same time complaining that we couldn't play for a few days because of typical new patch issues. Guaranteed the outcry would be a lot worse if there was new content people couldn't play because of the queues and bugs, and guaranteed it'd be worse if this all released within a couple weeks of the expansion as would normally have been the case when there's even less time to iron things out before the new expansion hits.

Until then, use the time to level any alts you want through the new system, or just get used to how your class plays, or get your final set up for Shadowlands done. If that doesn't appeal, take a break before the expansion. You'll probably enjoy it more.

[VinceVega]

I'm usually not the one to be negative about Blizzard, but I have to admit, they legitimely deserve everything bit of hate.

First they fucked up the SL launch. Then they gave us a prepatch of the prepatch - there's litterally nothing else to do other than level alts. After that we couldn't play for a few days due to login issues and moronic ques of 1000 people which just disconnect you in the end and restart the queue process. And last night we couldn't even quest normally (apparently Draenor became too popular and servers can't keep up).

WTF are you doing Blizz? What do you lack? Experience? Money? Why can't you do 1 thing right? Why can't you just hire some extra staff and servers temporarily and stop that fuck-fest for once?!

And should I even mention classes? Shoving them from the sky into the deep undergrounds. Ruining brilliant abilities and their mechanics. Giving classes downtime instead of making their gameplay fluid. What kind of people do they have on the designer team really? A bunch of 12yo?

Wait, maybe the story? Ummmm...not! Nothing new ladies and gentlemen! That's right, still the same'ol'Sylvie. Still a bunch of stuff happen that only start to make sense 6 years later.

Shall we go further back? How about Diablo for mobile huh? Or OW2 which is literally a DLC to the first game? Or the completely pointless remasters which almost nobody bothers with?

I was thinking to only throw a few words into my post, but look at the size of these few words. Jesus Blizzard just stop fucking up already. We waited you to milk enough money already, is it not about time to sit down on your behinds and give us something meaningful in return now ?!

I had non of the problems you desscribed... (EU)

And as others said. As long as people pay them regularly... why would they change anything? When they get the money in they need they make something right otherwise they would not get the money in the first place? Why would they change ANYTHING if it works right now and go risk that money by changing asomthing that works?

Queues on patchday? Unheard of in a online game!!!

If you are not ok with what they are doing your only way is exactly that. Don't pay them.

OW2 is not just an expansionpack, diablo 4 is coming. Diablo mobile was badly annouced but thinking they would not go into the mobile market is delusional. That is the biggest market there is in gaming. King is the moneybag of Activison.

[rrayy]

Not sure if they are being ''allowed'' to be that incompetent, I'm sure that it has damaged the company from within and that the quality of their products will continue to suffer as a result. Blizzard does continue to have a lot of fans willing to turn a blind eye on every fuck up they do which is normal for every big company who have these type of people, companies like Apple and Disney has them aswell.

Or maybe those people don't think Blizzard f'd up? You need to stop acting like your opinion is fact. This is a massive projection of your opinion. The products are still profitable and many players don't agree with your opinions.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

It's fair criticism that the prepatch is kind of a debocal because it was released on time from the perspective of no delay. So they had to snip some of the events out and move it back because of the delay. Now prepatches are always a time of wonky class mechanics and pretty broken moments but it also is usually 2 to 4 weeks and its over once you level to the new cap and have the tools the game is now designed around (for the most part, never perfect). We get to live with this one for a long while now. The server side techincal issues are pretty inexcusable, sure, but it happens.

Honestly for me I am not suprised by any of it. Really comes off as a covid launch. A lot of separated hands and departments piece mealing a product together in highly unusual circumstances. Yeah, its going to be the corporate slogan for everything that goes wrong in 2020, but when I look at this games crunch time window, look at covid lock downs in California, and put it all together it makes a lot of sense to me and I more than most hate what the game has become the past 4 or so expansions. But I got to give them a break on this one. At least that's my opinion.

[Raisei]

I'm usually not the one to be negative about Blizzard, but I have to admit, they legitimely deserve everything bit of hate.

They don't deserve this nonesense and I do not believe the first part for one second.

First they fucked up the SL launch.

Delaying the Launch so it is a better Launch is literally the opposite of fucking it up. If a few month delay qualify as fucking it up, then you might wanna turn on the news now and then and check what happens in the world atm. It's a bloody marvel that the game is launching this year at all. Dozens of movies and other things were pushed way into next year.

Then they gave us a prepatch of the prepatch - there's litterally nothing else to do other than level alts. After that we couldn't play for a few days due to login issues and moronic ques of 1000 people which just disconnect you in the end and restart the queue process. And last night we couldn't even quest normally (apparently Draenor became too popular and servers can't keep up).

Wanna bet that a ton of these connection issues stem from some angry kids DDoSing Blizzard on launch day? There are literally thousands of people getting enjoyment from ruining these days. Or a rival company even pays them. Not to mention that for the EU there was the strike in Paris. So before you blame everything on Blizzard sit back a moment and think.

WTF are you doing Blizz? What do you lack? Experience? Money? Why can't you do 1 thing right? Why can't you just hire some extra staff and servers temporarily and stop that fuck-fest for once?!

What they lack? Some positive feedback for ONCE. There is more then enough entitled unqualified rambling about how bad the game is, that Ion should be fired and how every change is the biggest insult in someones life.
Lots of the things the Devs have done with the pre-patch are great, Exile's Reach is fun to do, classes feel completely fine, the new customization options are superb. But all of that does not matter because YOU did not get what YOU wanted, so Blizzard cannot do anything right.

And should I even mention classes? Shoving them from the sky into the deep undergrounds. Ruining brilliant abilities and their mechanics. Giving classes downtime instead of making their gameplay fluid. What kind of people do they have on the designer team really? A bunch of 12yo?

You need to learn what a prepatch is. Our classes are atm not at max level ability-wise, so of course there are gaps in rotations and not everything is smooth. Then there is the obviously removal of Corruptions which buffed classes with unnaturally high stats. Over the course of SLs we will again aquire higher stats and things will fall into place.

Also, from what I have tried out, seen and heard, the classes are absolutely fine. My DK and DH both feels very good to play, surely they are slower then when I could buff them to 70% base haste with Corruptions, but yeah, I kinda expected that. Go figure.

Not sure what you expected, that we keep the powerlevel we are at now and the game just powercreeps? Must be your first expansion then.
Also also, I love how you insult the Devs of being 12yos while throwing a tantrum that most kids would feel ashamed for.

Wait, maybe the story? Ummmm...not! Nothing new ladies and gentlemen! That's right, still the same'ol'Sylvie. Still a bunch of stuff happen that only start to make sense 6 years later.

Good to know. I assume you have been given exclusive insight into the entire expansion story for the next 3 years? I am so jealous.

Shall we go further back? How about Diablo for mobile huh? Or OW2 which is literally a DLC to the first game? Or the completely pointless remasters which almost nobody bothers with?

*shrug* Some projects work, some don't. When you work for a company that sells things, you learn that not everything you create is a huge success. Diablo Immortal might flop, Diablo 4 on the other hand already looks like a great game.

I was thinking to only throw a few words into my post, but look at the size of these few words. Jesus Blizzard just stop fucking up already. We waited you to milk enough money already, is it not about time to sit down on your behinds and give us something meaningful in return now ?!

As others said, if you are this unsatisfied, go and play Final Fantasy before that one dies just like all the other "WoW-Killers" did. If you wish to remain in the game learn how to give meaningful feedback. "Blizzard stop fucking up" is not meaningful.

[Greengrim]

@det

I like how everytime someone disagrees with me you're like "YEAH RIGHT?!" . Kind of gives me the laughs. Everytime.

I like how the post ends with "I only intended to say a bit but damn" as if there's a lot being said...

Nonetheless, I wrote more than I intended to.

And I apologize if it's not structured or anything. English is not my mother tongue. And I didn't really didn't mean to write anything highly detailed or comprehensive anyway.

Or maybe those people don't think Blizzard f'd up? You need to stop acting like your opinion is fact. This is a massive projection of your opinion. The products are still profitable and many players don't agree with your opinions.

First you advise not to mass project opinions, then just go ahead and mass project your opinion. You feeling ok in there little brother?

It's interesting, every franchise / company eventually turns to shit. I don't know of any exception to that rule. Suppose it's in the natural order of things.

I like to believe it's the corporatations that ruin it in the end, by making things more about money, rather than quality and innovations.

I really don't know you want us to discuss here...

I wanted to see if others also think the same way.

Anyway, you're not obliged to discuss anything anywhere with anybody, so I dont really understand your intentions either.

the big boogie man activision lol,that has ZERO to do with actual development and the tech end of these things,but sure....anything to make you sleep better at night thinking some big bad boogie man ruined the game and not the natural decline of it over time

I believe he's right though. Like I mentioned to another person above, corporations simply do what they do best - demand cash! This means the actual development starts circling more around "hey guys how can we please the directors with more cash" rather than "hey guys how can we please the players with better quality".

Simple examples that point towards confirming that are time-gates and endless grinds. Stuff which are ridiculous in their nature, but nonetheless, keep players subbed.

And a funny analogy: it's like what Apple did with the charger and iPhone 12. "Save the planet" my ass. They just want to score a few extra bucks per sale. And a lot more by selling separate chargers. It's all about the money.

[Relapses]

I wanted to see if others also think the same way.

Anyway, you're not obliged to discuss anything anywhere with anybody, so I dont really understand your intentions either.

I like how you cut off the first part after that post because it literally described what you're apparently shooting for here: Meaningless platitudes from internet strangers who agree with your very completely original and new opinion that Blizzard sucks at making video games. I guess you're free to have this opinion, just as I'm free to question why you wasted everybody's time by making this thread.

[rrayy]

First you advise not to mass project opinions, then just go ahead and mass project your opinion.

I did no such thing. Wow is profitable. That a fact. Many people disagree with your opinion. That is also a fact. I never even gave an opinion.

[pepine]

Simple answer is... Activision.

It's been confirmed by Blizzard/Ex-Blizz employees anonymously and even fucking lowkey Mike Morhaime himself that Activision were going for heavily profit driven tactics at the cost of experience or by telling the game teams to put questionable hooks/timegates/ways to keep people subbed in the game. Basically pulling the strings not directly on game development but telling Blizzard to find quesitonable mechanics to put in games such as lootboxes in OW or heavy timegates/mechanics to keep people logging into WoW even if they were heavily disliked such as Corruption.

When the former founder is saying this I doubt that it's a lie. Considering 1100 employees have been sacked in quick succession (300 during a global pandemic which is a pretty awful thing to do) the writing is on the wall. Activision are glad to keep giving their CEO's a raise but treat 10 year + employees like dirt.

[Ryzeth]

What a cringe thread.

[Greengrim]

They don't deserve this nonesense and I do not believe the first part for one second.

Everybody has a right to have a personal opinion.

Delaying the Launch so it is a better Launch is literally the opposite of fucking it up. If a few month delay qualify as fucking it up, then you might wanna turn on the news now and then and check what happens in the world atm. It's a bloody marvel that the game is launching this year at all. Dozens of movies and other things were pushed way into next year.

Delaying anything after you announced a specific date is a fuck up. If they announced a date, they took upon the responsibility to launch quality content. If they delayed becase the quality is not yet there - IT IS INDEED A FUCK UP!

Wanna bet that a ton of these connection issues stem from some angry kids DDoSing Blizzard on launch day? There are literally thousands of people getting enjoyment from ruining these days. Or a rival company even pays them. Not to mention that for the EU there was the strike in Paris. So before you blame everything on Blizzard sit back a moment and think.

We don't need to bet anything. There's precautions that can be taken against bad launches despite the actual cause, and we've seen that. Not sure which expansion it was (think Legion) that launched without a single problem. It is possible. But for some reason Blizzard choose not to reproduce that success.

What they lack? Some positive feedback for ONCE. There is more then enough entitled unqualified rambling about how bad the game is, that Ion should be fired and how every change is the biggest insult in someones life.
Lots of the things the Devs have done with the pre-patch are great, Exile's Reach is fun to do, classes feel completely fine, the new customization options are superb. But all of that does not matter because YOU did not get what YOU wanted, so Blizzard cannot do anything right.

Jeez, I wonder why they don't get positive feedback. Could it be perhaps, BECAUSE THEY KEEP FUCKING UP?!?!

Exile's reach is fun for day1 players. Customizations are too few - not sure if you're aware, we didn't even get all of them.

You need to learn what a prepatch is. Our classes are atm not at max level ability-wise, so of course there are gaps in rotations and not everything is smooth. Then there is the obviously removal of Corruptions which buffed classes with unnaturally high stats. Over the course of SLs we will again aquire higher stats and things will fall into place.

So first you tell me classes feel fine to you, and 2 lines below you're already explaining how it's fine to have haps and not be smooth? You feeling ok?

And regarding classes, I was refering to what we see in beta builds. I understand that in prepatch is normal for things to be off balance. But it's also normal for the prepatch to have content. And we did get a bunch of stuff, but sadly no content (exile's reach excluded).

I assume you have been given exclusive insight into the entire expansion story for the next 3 years? I am so jealous.

I don't know what will happen, I just know Sylvanas was kept in the spotlitght for way longer than I would personally want to see any character. And I also know that things that happened or were mentioned back WotlK and Legion start to make sense just now.

*shrug* Some projects work, some don't. When you work for a company that sells things, you learn that not everything you create is a huge success. Diablo Immortal might flop, Diablo 4 on the other hand already looks like a great game.

I do work in such company, and I do agree with you. That's is exactly why I ask: WHEN, will the fuck ups stop and WHEN will we start to receive the quality a company such as Blizzard should naturally provide?

[XDurionX]

Why are the people who understand the least always the loudest?

[Greengrim]

Simple answer is... Activision.

It's been confirmed by Blizzard/Ex-Blizz employees anonymously and even fucking lowkey Mike Morhaime himself that Activision were going for heavily profit driven tactics at the cost of experience or by telling the game teams to put questionable hooks/timegates/ways to keep people subbed in the game. Basically pulling the strings not directly on game development but telling Blizzard to find quesitonable mechanics to put in games such as lootboxes in OW or heavy timegates/mechanics to keep people logging into WoW even if they were heavily disliked such as Corruption.

When the former founder is saying this I doubt that it's a lie. Considering 1100 employees have been sacked in quick succession (300 during a global pandemic which is a pretty awful thing to do) the writing is on the wall. Activision are glad to keep giving their CEO's a raise but treat 10 year + employees like dirt.

Very much correct.

- - - Updated - - -

Why are the people who understand the least always the loudest?

Please feel free to enlighten me. Which part of what I wrote is not accurate?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Delaying anything after you announced a specific date is a fuck up. If they announced a date, they took upon the responsibility to launch quality content. If they delayed becase the quality is not yet there - IT IS INDEED A FUCK UP!

Do you share the same opinion with TBC? Please answer honestly if you can.

[Mysterymask]

..you know I barely give Blizz money these days..and its more or less because I just don't care to play wow as much as I did. I'll still play every so often but I just dont....
and the thing is if I felt even HALF as angry as ya'll do about Blizzard..I wouldn't even be here or playing their stuff but its like anything they do they might as well of slept with your wife, shot your dog, and burned your house down.

[Eurhetemec]

They should send polls to players asking if they love WoW. If they respond yes, then they should be given the ability to speak directly to Ion via Zoom call where they're able to tell him exactly how the game should be run. It's the only way we can ensure our voices are being heard!

The horrifying thing is that basically half the people complaining on here probably think that's entirely appropriate and how it should indeed work.

[Greengrim]

There is a huge philosophical debate to be had here.

You later mention Apple. Did anyone innovate more than them (not debating f the "stole" the idea) with the smartphone (and made shit tons of money in the process)?

What good is innovating anywhere if you go bankrupt in the progress. Peter Molyneux comes to mind. Innovative games, eventually ppl went "WTF" and stopped buying them.

Ofc it is about money. And ofc it is about us rewarding innovative products. So we are back to square one. The reply you hate. Stop rewarding companies for products you hate. Support innovative companies.

If it is all about money, then you should hate the people who BUY the stuff. A company will indeed make whatever they think sells best. It is what they do. It literally is what they are all about.

Finally, something we can actually discuss, instead of you hating on me for sharing my opinion.

I never questioned Apple's philosophy and/or actions. I would be an absolute fool to do so. They are indeed the best in what they do and they utilize that to the absolute maximum, like this charger trick for example.

Just like them, Blizzard are also considered one of the (if not THE) best, and just like them, they also use similar tricks (time gates and grinds) in order to net more money ultimatively.

That's the only reason I mentioned Apple.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Have they even enough developers to call themselves a videogame studio?

Well considering they're currently making OW 2, Diablo 4, Unannounced Starcraft title (there were listings awhile back and they officially ended SC2 deployment), Hearthstone with 3 expansions each year, and Shadowlands I think they have plenty of devs.

[Raisei]

Simple answer is... Activision.

It's been confirmed by Blizzard/Ex-Blizz employees anonymously and even fucking lowkey Mike Morhaime himself that Activision were going for heavily profit driven tactics at the cost of experience or by telling the game teams to put questionable hooks/timegates/ways to keep people subbed in the game. Basically pulling the strings not directly on game development but telling Blizzard to find quesitonable mechanics to put in games such as lootboxes in OW or heavy timegates/mechanics to keep people logging into WoW even if they were heavily disliked such as Corruption.

When the former founder is saying this I doubt that it's a lie. Considering 1100 employees have been sacked in quick succession (300 during a global pandemic which is a pretty awful thing to do) the writing is on the wall. Activision are glad to keep giving their CEO's a raise but treat 10 year + employees like dirt.

A company trying to make profit? An ex-employee making disgruntled statements over his former company (while opening his own competing gaming company)?

The scandal! Never before have I seen such a hive of scum and villainy. Call the mob, don't forget the torches and pickforks!

Really people, get out into the world some more. You are writing these things as if they are somehow a unique thing that only happens to Blizzard because they are the devil on earth. All of these things are completely standard in all areas of industry...
Somehow people think that because it is a gaming company it does not have to maximize profits and never has to let employees go, but that is nonesense.

[Kumorii]

How did they fuck up the pre-patch launch when it launched with things they wanted to include?
You know what I did when pre-patch launched? Went in to check customization and then I logged off because there is no new content for me to do just yet.
I knew there wouldn't be any just yet... so eh.