BlizzConline 2022 Event Cancelled - Reimagining Future BlizzCons

[Scabb]

It can technically be both, but I agree that corporate likely has very little to do with these decisions. If anything, corporate is just letting the lunatics run the asylum because they need said lunatics to keep the company from completely falling apart. In reality, everyone in this scenario is basically pandering with no adherence to any sort of grounded morality, because either they're nuts or are in self-preservation mode for the immediate future. There's a ton of parallels to this in politics and social events outside of gaming, but they all stem from the same source and enable the worst of human nature to thrive (but that's another long discussion).

Long-term, such a trend at ActiBlizz cannot last with repercussions because despite all the pandering, none of their decisions at any level in Blizz appear to reflect the needs and/or wants of their customers. While some people have their kinks to pay someone to spit in their face and treat them terribly, I highly doubt his is representative of the vast majority of ActiBlizz customers. If it is... well, we got more serious problems than what a gaming company is doing.

Good to see one can actually have intelligent analysis and conversation on MMOC.

I 100% agree. Longer term they will need do something about the game and what their customers want, it's just a question of timing and that time is unfortunately not now and unlikely with the current team.

I imagine there will be some new hires, some transfers to other properties and the clique will get broken to the point that change becomes a possibility. Whether that is soon enough for many is another matter.

[Hawg]

They haven't finished getting things straightened out yet.

Exactly, sticking with Blizzcon would have challenged them with a firm deadline to get things straightened out.

[Soon-TM]

Does this mean next blizzcon cosplay contest won't allow cleavage to fit with their prioritarily expressed values as of recently?

It will depend on the cosplayer's gender, I guess. If it's a female cosplayer, she will either have to wear a burka or cosplay as a bowl of fruits

[Grimlokh]

"Most of our top talent were abusive fucks, most of our game directors are out, our staff is demoralized, and we have nothing to show for it except lies and coverups, so we may as well keep battle-passing our way to profit while we continue our efforts to hide all this and minimize legal action against us, trying to avoid as much public hate as possible. But we love you and we care about you, really. And we love games, and we are passionate about it and our community bla bla bla bla"

[Soon-TM]

Blizzard nerds Disney the way a crackhead needs Jesus. I almost hope Activision tries to sell the IP off as it continues to lose value and tries to distance itself from it. With the corporate PC cleanup, might as well be under the Disney umbrella, and at this point, Disney might be the only company that might be able to restore value to it.

Fuck it, I want to see Lich King on ice in a crossover with Frozen.

Well, the narrative is already quite Disney-esque, and we just had Elsa Proudmoore in all her Mary Sue glory in BfA... We still do, btw.

[Graeham]

The slide into irrelevancy continues, then.

I don't think there's much that the company can bring to the table that will reverse its fortunes at this point. I'm reminded of how badly Cyberpunk 2077 blew up. Most people who were excited about it left when they were burned by it and enough time passes that they just stop caring because they've found other things to fill their free time with.

[cozzri]

Lol. this sure answers my question the other day about their plans for and info dumps events. Can't say I'm surprised they cancelled this, morale is at an all time low, they have jackshit to show us for the future. And even a carefully cultivated online event where they can control the media someone somehow will manage to slip something by them like the last two times. Leaves me wondering when or how the next major announcement will come.

Chances are the the event would be hijacked by disgruntled employees to use as a venue to continue protests against management and push for more unionization demands to be met. Smart move by the leadership trying to squash possibility of traction towards unionization. We all know how Blitzchung went, and he didn't even have any invested interest with the company, can you imagine this happening at a public event with their very own employees? Absolute PR disaster, axe laid at the root of the tree.

[FelPlague]

I knew you were a Blizzard shill but really? A HOTS update? Come on even you can't believe that.

? they are still updating hots my dude, just slowly, yeah its dead but its still producing content, just waaay slower then normal.

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This confirms that d4 is not coming before like 2024 and ow2 is not coming next year either lol.

Wow i am bookmarking this, nevermind the fact ow2 has already been confirmed for 2022.

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I don't understand people blaming this on "cancel culture" or "wokeness'". "Corporate culture" did this. Literally no one was asking for them to remove the things they've been removing: They're doing it specifically so they can tell their investors they're doing something about "the boys-club culture"

imagine not even knowing how to read.
it has been confirmed many many many many many many times over now the changes have literally NOTHING to do with investors.

unless i guess you also think the moon landing was faked.

[tankbug]

What Blizzard says:

"We need to rethink our events so it's a place where everyone can feel welcome and safe."

What Blizzard means:

"We've got nuthin..."

[FelPlague]

They say they will announce stuff.... they NEVER did that outside of events. I HIGHLY doubt we will hear anything substantial for Diablo, OW or wow anytime in 2022. If we are lucky we will get the black temple annoucnement and maaaaaaybe a 9.2 general outline.

Haven't they talked about how they have new stuff (that is not announced, so no OW2 or D4) in the works for ages now? Have we ever heard of it anywhere? How do they manage to put out next to nothing with such a huge dev team is mind boggeling... Nearly every other game companie works their asses of an still manage to tell us what they are doing. Dev diaries left and right. Look ar paradox. Every WEEK!!! they tell us what they are working on. BLizz has the joke of a dev diary for D4 and that is it.

We won't hear anything at all untill at least the end of 2022, of that i am sure. Always the same stupid sentences, "we are proud of what we are doing. We have much in the works. We managed to create great content" WHere? Where the f*** is that excatly? Is anyone still working at blizz?
That stupid 9.1.5 patch who gives us stuff we told them the game needed from the freaking start.... and we should... thank them for it?

God damn i love wow but this si so frustrating it is not even funny. They should tell us SOMETHING and stop with the shitty corporate talk all the time without telling us anything at all....

they have announced stuff outside of events all the time my dude... you serious?

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Chances are the the event would be hijacked by disgruntled employees to use as a venue to continue protests against management and push for more unionization demands to be met. Smart move by the leadership trying to squash possibility of traction towards unionization. We all know how Blitzchung went, and he didn't even have any invested interest with the company, can you imagine this happening at a public event with their very own employees? Absolute PR disaster, axe laid at the root of the tree.

blizzcon was never going to be in person this year... it was going to be online again...

[Houle]

they have announced stuff outside of events all the time my dude... you serious?

please enlighten me: when in the last 5-10 years have they EVER announced anything majorly important outside of an event?
majorly important, as in, new games, xpacs, big patches or release dates for big games like OW2 and D4.

[Al Gorefiend]

90% sure there will never be another Blizzcon.

The only purpose for blizzcon was the expac reveal everything else was hyped up dev noise that only ever has a 50% chance of not being forgotten about.

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What Blizzard says:

"We need to rethink our events so it's a place where everyone can feel welcome and safe."

What Blizzard means:

"We've got nuthin..."

"We need to crowd a packed convention center in Anaheim with 10,000+ people who express the majority of their social interacting within an online fantasy game, fill it with booze and cosby suites, and we need to make people feel safe".

[Ezzet]

Wow i am bookmarking this, nevermind the fact ow2 has already been confirmed for 2022.

Bookmark it all you want, "confirmed" is pretty bold statement when talking about blizz atm, you are either gonna get a really washed OW2 with a lot of content stripped or it will gets delayed.

[FelPlague]

please enlighten me: when in the last 5-10 years have they EVER announced anything majorly important outside of an event?
majorly important, as in, new games, xpacs, big patches or release dates for big games like OW2 and D4.

Major patches have been announced outside of events all the time.
hell shadowlands release date got announced outside of an event.
most expansions release dates have been announced outside of events
legion got announced at gamescon instead of the usual blizzcon

8.3 literally got announced a month before blizzcon, here if you want proof. https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-war...-eldritch-god/
8.2 also got revealed outside of an event
8.1 was also revealed outside of a major event, my dude most major patches get announced outside of events. and reveal dates for stuff get announced all the time outside of major events.

like seriously do you think wow only has 1 patch a year? they do reveals ALL THE TIME outside of major events.


and again, this is not "no event" just "no big event" they literally say themselves they are still going to do announcements, just no big event.

[Dolus]

Blizzard summed up in an animated gif.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Blizzard nerds Disney the way a crackhead needs Jesus. I almost hope Activision tries to sell the IP off as it continues to lose value and tries to distance itself from it. With the corporate PC cleanup, might as well be under the Disney umbrella, and at this point, Disney might be the only company that might be able to restore value to it.

Fuck it, I want to see Lich King on ice in a crossover with Frozen.

It will never happen. This stupid idea that Blizzard would sell the IP is based on nothing but "lol disney", because corporations on that level don't just sell IPs like Warcraft. The only examples of that happening are private people cashing out by selling to these large corporations. No finacial analyst could ever justify selling something that could easily generate you another couple of billions down the line. Well, unless the court collectors are already raiding your offices and put "seized" stickers on everything.

[Rhelyo]

Nothing lost really.The only things i watched on blizzcon was the 1 hr whats next pannel for WoW which usually they presented the next expansion cinematic and some very early scetches on what we could see there,unless the convention took place mid expansion and we generally got the next patch preview. Other thing i watched was the 1 hr Q&A which usually people were asking dumb questions that very little of the community cared and the devs took their time to answer (usually under 10 questions for 1 hr).
I couldnt care less for the Esports panel.
So now that we get next expansion announcement soon outside of Blizzcon i dont really care if the convention takes place or not.

[Nerovar]

The only purpose for blizzcon was the expac reveal everything else was hyped up dev noise that only ever has a 50% chance of not being forgotten about.

Yeah, I'm sure all these people invested that much money just to see glorified advertisements. I feel like you're leaving out a part of the puzzle here.

[Vomax]

Wish they could be more honest instead of using so much corporate-speak. Just say that:

* We don't have much, if anything, to announce.
* Our resources are better spent elsewhere as a result.
* It's not as though every year had a BlizzCon, and that's OK.
* In light of what was revealed to go on behind the scenes at previous BlizzCons, there's a need to overhaul the event.

Simple.

Yes, but not from the front end.

All the negative shit was what was happening behind the scenes. It has nothing to do with the people attending the con and having a good time.

It is one of the most amazing times and events of the year. Dont change. Just clean the scar tissue

[Beefhammer]

Exactly, sticking with Blizzcon would have challenged them with a firm deadline to get things straightened out.

Um you don't fix a culture with a deadline.