CringeCon 2021

[Jamais]

What i find ironic is that everything Blizzardd is labeled as a cash grab or a scheme by the rabid haters on these forums.

However, the art and music team are constantly praised, since they deliver (zones, music, afterlives, CGI shorts) and yet, those two activities are among the most time and resource expensive without an obvious ''payback'' (srsly, most people i know turn off the music completely and couldn't care less about the zones - they just jump into raids, m+ and pvp arenas/bgs.

Couple of years ago (especially during Dragonsoul and SoO patches), Blizzard was being berrated on a daily basis for being ''lazy'' and making us have to pay for no content. Then, in the last couple of years, all of a sudden, Blizzard is evil because...there is too much content?

About the MAU thing...can anyone explain why are people still using this as a proof of evil Blizzard scheming, when it doesn't matter if you log once or 1000 times a month? You still paid for the monthly sub....

As with this thread, a large part of WoW playerbase has demonstrated over and over again that they lack maturity, reason, manners and a complete lack of self control, hence the time-gates. Honestly, i can't imagine having a normal human conversation with them irl....

[Ringthane]

The whole event was actually cringe despite the keyboard warriors pretending otherwise or being edgy saying cringe is cring, if a word works it works, perhaps they should have rehearsed or had someone proofread and tell them its cringe.

This post is so much millennial it hurts.

[Volitar]

I mean I wouldn't say cringe but yeah I don't really care for any panel that isn't gameplay focused. I remember Blizzcon was the first peek at seeing all the new classes and talents for upcoming patches or expansions...now its like voice actors telling me about their life.

[bagina]

Brightening the image just made it more obvious that she's NOT wearing anything

You need to check again. The difference in colors and texture is apparent

[arkanon]

Rammstein is still the best.

Considering their first album came out in what.....95 right? So it wasnt exactly targeted at an audience below 15. So 15 in 1995 = 40.....is that old? I can honestly say i have never heard that comment before, but the same goes for any of the "big 4" or anything from the 80s still going today - by default, the longest term "fans" will be pretty old to a teenager.

On topic, I have ALWAYS found big chunks of blizzcon pretty uncomfortable to watch. For years I would stream it on my second monitor while playing, and i would often feel so uncomfortable with some of the segments that I simply hit mute and ignored it for a while. I understand gaming and in particular "con" events have a strong appeal to a wide and diverse fanbase, and honestly I really struggle to relate to a big chunk of that community. They are just as much a part of the "community" as I am, but some of it makes me feel very, very uncomfortable.

And yes, in super woke 2021 this is obviously going to be a huge focus for the devs, whether they have any genuine feelings towards or interest in said topics or not, its just a sign of the times now.

[exochaft]

What i find ironic is that everything Blizzardd is labeled as a cash grab or a scheme by the rabid haters on these forums.

The difference is whether people believe all the Blizzard employees are a monolith, or if those in charge and/or running the show are the issue. You're arguing from the standpoint that people believe Blizz employees are a monolith, and aside from hyperbolic comments, I don't think anyone agrees with that. Any ire should usually be directed at those running the show and in charge, not the ground-level people. If there are issues that start from the ground up, it's those at the top that approve of the behavior/messaging that gets received by the customer.

When it comes to the corporate pandering that was present in some of the Blizzcon presentations, it's the exact same trite stuff you've seen from Disney, Google, Hollywood, etc. It's blatant corporate hypocrisy where the company will speak out of both sides of their mouth depending upon who they address, and it shows a complete lack of morality (or potentially just amorality in general) from the company as a whole. That doesn't mean everyone in the company is immoral/amoral, but it does mean that those in charge certainly demonstrate immorality/amorality for what they publish and show their customers.

[arkanon]

What i find ironic is that everything Blizzardd is labeled as a cash grab or a scheme by the rabid haters on these forums.

I guess for the same reason some people defend every single decision Blizzard make. I think its pretty undeniable that some decisions Blizzard make are questionable at best, and the overall shift in content design philosophy is equally as undeniable. Im not saying if its good or bad, but its very obvious, and although SL has gone some way to address this, there is still a clear shift between earlier iterations of the game and now. Some will love that shift, some will hate it.

Some examples that people bring up are the "6 month sub" deal, which comes around every 2-3 months now. Obviously its not about trying to encourage ppl with an existing 6 month sub to....buy another one (an idiotic claim i have seen, from someone who obviously doesnt understand how it works), but i think its undeniable that it is clearly intended to encourage people paying monthly to instead buy a 6 month block. The questionable part comes into play when you remember that Blizzard make MORE money if you sub 1 month at a time, and if they are confident their product is engaging and enjoyable enough to keep you subbing month after month, why would they push it so frequently, and so aggressively?

This is just one example of a system of feature that the "fans" will say is a great deal and gives those committed to a 6 month sub a "free" mount - haters will say its designed to lock people in for 6 months, even if they only end up playing for 2-3 months.

[Kithelle]

It does look questionable but I'd lean more on the side of "Blizzard wouldn't do that" more than anything else

[arkanon]

My top 3 funny moments:

1) Classic Hearthstone (I laughed so much)

2) When the guy compared Diablo 2 remastered with "just like what we did with Starcraft" instead of saying Warcraft 3 reforged which is more recent.

3) When the guy, after all the announcements of retro games had to tell us "oh dont worry, we are not just a retro company, we are working on new projects also! Which we will reveal in the future"

Announcements never came

You know what the "future" means right? Did they say "in the future" or "later in this presentation"? Remake and Remaster and Rerelease are all different things.

[cparle87]

I was on about the Hong Kong stuff last year. I certainly don't feel like I need an apology for seemingly not being the target audience of their stage shows

Ikr? Like the Blizzcon where they announced immortal and all the people who got offended and went like "we don't care about mobile games, we don't want them, therefore nobody wants them, and Blizzard should apologize for "betraying" the playerbase by wasting their time making something no one wants."

[tangers58]

I wish they would just stick to legit game info.

Are people still saying cringe?

[Ausr]

What i find ironic is that everything Blizzardd is labeled as a cash grab or a scheme by the rabid haters on these forums.

However, the art and music team are constantly praised, since they deliver (zones, music, afterlives, CGI shorts) and yet, those two activities are among the most time and resource expensive without an obvious ''payback'' (srsly, most people i know turn off the music completely and couldn't care less about the zones - they just jump into raids, m+ and pvp arenas/bgs.

Couple of years ago (especially during Dragonsoul and SoO patches), Blizzard was being berrated on a daily basis for being ''lazy'' and making us have to pay for no content. Then, in the last couple of years, all of a sudden, Blizzard is evil because...there is too much content?

About the MAU thing...can anyone explain why are people still using this as a proof of evil Blizzard scheming, when it doesn't matter if you log once or 1000 times a month? You still paid for the monthly sub....

As with this thread, a large part of WoW playerbase has demonstrated over and over again that they lack maturity, reason, manners and a complete lack of self control, hence the time-gates. Honestly, i can't imagine having a normal human conversation with them irl....

Blizzard has the biggest ex-fanbase fanbase that I've ever seen that are obsessed with the company they proclaim to hate, yet love and follow everything they do.


Before anyone wants to reply to me, I'm only pointing that part out. I'm not commenting on Blizzards fans or want to compare in this case.

[Tojara]

It's suppose to be a convention lol, if you don't like what comes with it, just look for the power point slides with new features or announcements.

Do people wear blinders or something with past Blizzcons? They have plenty of moments where they talk about the community that plays these types of games and for some people hearing certain chants or catch phrases is super "cringe". Watching people on stage singing about Blizzard games or WoW in general is a bit much for me, but I recognize that certain parts of being in this 'community' just aren't for me, just like going to Elwynn forest on an RP server on weekends certainly isn't for me either. It's shocking but some people actually play an MMORPG for the "RP" part of the acronym.

So yeah, Blizzcon has always been a celebration of their games and community, not sure how that's a surprise to anybody. Due to how the social landscape of both games and the world are constantly evolving, it also shouldn't be a surprise that games and companies start to become more progressive. You might not agree with it (I don't with all of it either), but I can just choose to not view it and skip towards the things I want to (like an adult does).

For somebody who just cares about announcements and upcoming changes to the games (which is me as well), this Blizzcon didn't feel a whole lot different than any of the past ones. You can cut Blizzard a bit of slack considering it's a pandemic ridden world and that the spectacle of the event is obviously a bit smaller too. It's quite obvious that a giant event housing tens of thousands of people in a giant convention hall is going to have way more shit to show and playable demos.

TLDR; There was plenty of announcements and upcoming features. Personally think 2018 Blizzcon was worse on that front (WC3:Reforged, Diablo Immortal announcement, and Classic WoW).

[arkanon]

Blizzard has the biggest ex-fanbase fanbase that I've ever seen that are obsessed with the company they proclaim to hate, yet love and follow everything they do.


Before anyone wants to reply to me, I'm only pointing that part out. I'm not commenting on Blizzards fans or want to compare in this case.

I would put forward that a large portion of the "this game sux I quit" crowd actively play the game they claim to have quit to this day. The outright lies on these forums are mind boggling - just recently someone argued for PAGES and pages that they were stuck at 190 ilvl and nothing had dropped and the game was broken. This was proven wrong when they linked their armory which linked their Raiderio which showed they had completed multiple dungeons at or above 215 ilvl....

In short, dont believe everything you read on thee forums, however, I personally know some people who frequent this forum or others and havnt played a Blizzard game in close to a decade.

[Sithalos]

The start of Blizzcon with Brack's long winded corporate speech about nothing, and the whole "covenant pride" call was one of the hardest things to watch, not going to lie.

[deviantcultist]

I like how they showed the rogue's exposed "underbits" on stream and no one even as much as commented on it

Cause we live in an era where showing appreciation for an attractive female in a more sexual way, fictional or not, is considered "objectifying women" by certain vocal minorities.

[Sorrowseer]

This post is so much millennial it hurts.

Ok boomer/zoomer.

[Konteil]

Because it's shorter than 'secondhand embarrassment'?

i love it. this is the opposite of cringe heh heh

[arkanon]

The start of Blizzcon with Brack's long winded corporate speech about nothing, and the whole "covenant pride" call was one of the hardest things to watch, not going to lie.

I skipped all that stuff - it was off my chart that ranges from "hey, im really enjoying this" all the way up to "yikes, i hope no one sees me watching this because this is pretty embarrassing" - this was WAY off the top of the chart. The horde / alliance cries are bad enough, but this was just........beyond uncomfortable. I actually skipped all the way to the first trailer.

When they were talking about the actual games, it was fine, enjoyable, usual stuff. But as usual they spent SO MUCH time talking about anything BUT the games - the community, friendship, love, togetherness, inclusiveness.....Im not against any of those things, its fine, but this is supposed to be about the GAMES - leave all the touchy feely crap for a Ted Talks about love in the gaming community or something.

[Relapses]

I skipped all that stuff - it was off my chart that ranges from "hey, im really enjoying this" all the way up to "yikes, i hope no one sees me watching this because this is pretty embarrassing" - this was WAY off the top of the chart. The horde / alliance cries are bad enough, but this was just........beyond uncomfortable. I actually skipped all the way to the first trailer.

When they were talking about the actual games, it was fine, enjoyable, usual stuff. But as usual they spent SO MUCH time talking about anything BUT the games - the community, friendship, love, togetherness, inclusiveness.....Im not against any of those things, its fine, but this is supposed to be about the GAMES - leave all the touchy feely crap for a Ted Talks about love in the gaming community or something.

The sad reality is that Blizzard simply didn't have a whole lot of games-related information to dump. I'm hoping to be proven wrong but we're unlikely to see the next content patch until August or September.