The New Flavors of Azeroth: The Official Cookbook

[RCA]

You want a hushpuppy!, nope it’s a quiethound. Actually chuckled at this, let’s take a southern snack and rename in similar words and say it’s hailing from Azeroth. Can’t believe a lot of you would even buy (1/3 discount off the bat from Amazon) but hey it’s Warcraft related so there’s that.

[Thelyron]

Do you not understand how budgeting works or were you too busy insulting a poster to remember?

Let's say they have a budget of 1000 dollars, and they divide that among their games. Now they need to pay for a book, let's say 5 dollars. They have to take those 5 dollars from somewhere. So one, or all, of the games will now have less of a budget. If they had 1005 dollars from the start, that should have all already been tied up in the games. So they either took money out of the budget for the games, or they had leftover money that they should have put towards the games, but didn't.

[TheRevenantHero]

You want a hushpuppy!, nope it’s a quiethound. Actually chuckled at this, let’s take a southern snack and rename in similar words and say it’s hailing from Azeroth. Can’t believe a lot of you would even buy (1/3 discount off the bat from Amazon) but hey it’s Warcraft related so there’s that.

For real. The recipes are always just Azeroth named recipes ripped from other cookbooks. And people still buy it. Then again, they're also the same people who likely buy Skyrim every single time it's rereleased.

[Daedius]

Bought the first cookbook, didn't make anything from it... :V

[vizzle]

Let's say they have a budget of 1000 dollars, and they divide that among their games. Now they need to pay for a book, let's say 5 dollars. They have to take those 5 dollars from somewhere. So one, or all, of the games will now have less of a budget. If they had 1005 dollars from the start, that should have all already been tied up in the games. So they either took money out of the budget for the games, or they had leftover money that they should have put towards the games, but didn't.

Sigh... only someone unemployed or employed as a grunt worker could think this way.

X money is allocated for marketing. Always. These are separate entities.

Blizzard games aren't going to shit because they spent some money on a cookbook. It's because they're wandering drunk around their offices, passing lewd photos of their female colleagues.

The point is, simply shoving more money into a game doesn't make it good when the team behind it is mismanaged to begin with. This cookbook didn't make WoW shit.

Christ.

[Algorath]

Posts like this just confirm to me that social media was a mistake. On what planet do you think the developers are writing the fucking cookbook? This would've been arranged in marketing and I doubt even Ion would have been aware that it was being written. 90% of everyone who comments on this shit sounds like they've never once had a job, let alone worked in a massive publicly traded company.

Although I agree, surely this has taken -something- to make, right? If Activision Blizzard, as a multi-dollar company has to allocate 50 dollars to have this heap of garbage made, it's 50 dollars less they have to spend on the heap of garbage that is WoW.

[MoanaLisa]

Although I agree, surely this has taken -something- to make, right? If Activision Blizzard, as a multi-dollar company has to allocate 50 dollars to have this heap of garbage made, it's 50 dollars less they have to spend on the heap of garbage that is WoW.

Chelsea has written cookbooks before for Blizzard IP's. The CM's (which are a part of marketing) and legal likely clear any licensing rights to stuff that would fall under their trademark. Insight Editions (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) publishes it and if the rest of the book business is any guide provided the advance to the author. There's nothing about any of this that says that Blizzard had to spend anything on it and even if they did it was already in a budget that has nothing at all to do with game development.

It's quite a reach to suggest that a cookbook has any effect whatsoever on the development budget or the game or anything. It's looking for something to criticize without having any knowledge whatsoever if what they are saying is true.

[Ivarr]

Activision Blizzard, as a multi-dollar company.

This is taking 'small indie developer' to a whole new level.

[Nzx]

Let's say they have a budget of 1000 dollars, and they divide that among their games. Now they need to pay for a book, let's say 5 dollars. They have to take those 5 dollars from somewhere. So one, or all, of the games will now have less of a budget. If they had 1005 dollars from the start, that should have all already been tied up in the games. So they either took money out of the budget for the games, or they had leftover money that they should have put towards the games, but didn't.

It absolutely boggles my mind that people type this kind of thing and then sit back thinking they've done something.

Out of that "$1000" also comes the charges for a plumber to come to the office and unblock a toilet, and the cost of a new desk for the receptionist, and the cost of Microsoft 365, and the cost for a BA to design a new rostering system, and the cost for the cleaners at night, and the cost of the coffee machine. This whole argument is fucking absurd.

Tell me more about how Ferrari should've spent more money on their cars than on t-shirts and caps.

[Kumorii]

Once again people get outraged because of ignorance.
The warcraft cooking recipes started as a fan project. Someone who just decided to cook the various foods in warcraft and make look good and taste good.
She garnered enough attention and now blizzard helps her put out official cookbooks.

I'm glad she managed to come so far with her passion project. There is most likely just a few people on the pr / marketing team that helps with making the actual book a reality. But it's not fucking developers or any game designers that are being pulled from games to do this I'm sure.

[MoanaLisa]

Once again people get outraged because of ignorance.
The warcraft cooking recipes started as a fan project. Someone who just decided to cook the various foods in warcraft and make look good and taste good.
She garnered enough attention and now blizzard helps her put out official cookbooks.

I'm glad she managed to come so far with her passion project.

Chelsea has also done cookbooks for A Song of Ice and Fire (2), Overwatch, Elder Scrolls, Hearthstone, Star Wars, Firefly and others. Some of her books are available in French and German. She's a professional cookbook writer at this point and making cookbooks on licensed IP's is what she does. It's really unlikely that Blizzard is paying her to do anything. I'm quite sure she has a solid relationship with her current publisher which is an imprint of Simon & Schuster. She has had cookbooks published by Random House.

Here's a link to her author page on Amazon.

[Alexplode]

Lol but sadly this is not going to sell well.

[Skulltaker]

Let's say they have a budget of 1000 dollars, and they divide that among their games. Now they need to pay for a book, let's say 5 dollars. They have to take those 5 dollars from somewhere. So one, or all, of the games will now have less of a budget. If they had 1005 dollars from the start, that should have all already been tied up in the games. So they either took money out of the budget for the games, or they had leftover money that they should have put towards the games, but didn't.

But they don't have to pay for that book. The author is an independent entity. All they 'invest' is their IP. You have exactly no grasp whatsoever of how licensing works. Do you think Disney has to allocate resources from Marvel Movies to make Marvel Lego sets? Are you really this fucking stupid?

[MoanaLisa]

Are you saying that after all that's been happening lately, it's random that they release this cookbook so close to the FF one? Doesn't matter if they used to have one, it matters that they followed suit on the marketing of the cookbook when there are so many things lacking in WoW that they could learn from FF instead of this.

The Final Fantasy cookbook isn't due out for a while yet (November). The book that Blizzard is just now getting around to saying something about came out nearly three months ago (June) and was announced several months before that. If you were an informed person about any of this I have to say I don't understand your logic. There are lots of cookbooks based on fantasy and gaming IP's. If anything Square Enix is very late to the party.

[Graeham]

FFXIV also launched a cook book recently. I don't know why it's a shock to so many WoW players that optional merchandise tied to a game is extremely profitable - especially for present day gamers.

[Skulltaker]

Although I agree, surely this has taken -something- to make, right? If Activision Blizzard, as a multi-dollar company has to allocate 50 dollars to have this heap of garbage made, it's 50 dollars less they have to spend on the heap of garbage that is WoW.

Dude, it's called licensing. One creator approaches the holder of any intellectual property and says 'we'd like to take your IP and make product X with it.' The Licensing department then checks wheter or not that is in the companies interest. For example: Harry Potter Lego sets are something that benefits the Harry Potter IP. It is a huge money maker. Officially licensed Hermione Granger Sexdolls on the other hand would probably get you a lot of bad press. So these are declined.

The creator and IP holder come to an agreement. Let's stay with Harry Potter and Lego. Warner Bros. allows Lego to use the HP trademark and IP to make a Lego Hogwarts set. Now the fine people at Lego start bricking around. Warner Bros does nothing at all, aside from sending them some digital files for promotion, Logos, etc. Once the set is done, it's thrown at the market, and people buy it. Warner Bros get's a share of the profit. So, if you buy a Lego Hogwarts set, some of the cash you spend goes to Warner Bros, some of it to Lego, some to the store you bought it at, and everybody wins.

Livensing IPs is incredibly profitable, you'd be stupid not to do it. This book is going to make Blizzard money, and at best it will cost them a few hours of an intern mailing Chelsey artwork.

Can't believe I have to spell this out for your.

[Kumorii]

FFXIV also launched a cook book recently. I don't know why it's a shock to so many WoW players that optional merchandise tied to a game is extremely profitable - especially for present day gamers.

It sorta seems like hating on shit just to hate on shit is a trend...which is odd.

[Bladesyphon]

FFXIV also launched a cook book recently. I don't know why it's a shock to so many WoW players that optional merchandise tied to a game is extremely profitable - especially for present day gamers.

It's not that it's a shock, it's that anything Blizzard does = bad, terrible, how dare they, but then these same people give other companies a complete pass for doing literally the same thing.

WoW still offers a copious amount of mounts to be earned in game with each patch, raid, and dungeon that's released, but when they release a store mount, it's as though the company suddenly became responsible for the western wildfires. Meanwhile, XIV is lucky to get a single new mount per patch that's earnable in game, and often that mount is just a remodel of existing mounts, and instead puts their coolest looking mounts, including multi-person mounts, on their cash shop for $20-30 a pop, but that's okay because that money goes to future development projects in the game (it doesn't, and most of XIV's subscription is used to fuel other SE projects).

It's a level of hypocrisy that exists on the internet in pretty much one form or another in regards to any company that person A doesn't like. Anything they do that's percieved as bad, they'll cry to the heavens about it, and how that company is the worst for doing it. But if a company they like does it, it's totally okay. Look at the WoW cookbook, this is something that pretty much every major game company does for their most popular IPs, it's become a fairly common practice over the past few years. Blizzard even put one out back in 2016, but suddenly it's no longer okay five years later, and they're just "Copying another company", even though based on existing facts, it's more likely the case that the other company (in this case SE) is copying the trend themselves.

But hey, we can't use logic when it comes to hating on Blizzard. We must blindly hate the company, no matter what they do, even if what they're doing is actively mending and fixing the problems they were exposed to having earlier this month.

[Wangming]

It sorta seems like hating on shit just to hate on shit is a trend...which is odd.

True. Now it's time to sit down and think. Why on Earth did it end up like this? You don't get an antagonistic, jaded, perpetually complaining fandom accidentally.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Oh a cook book! Could be something for vegans? Still, I would lay my hands on that pudding. This all looks so tasty. First we get new toys now this? This is paradise.