Oh Blizzard, how you have fallen (Diablo Immortal).

[TheRevenantHero]

That's accurate for all f2p games, regardless of platform - the only way to max out your character is to play till the servers shutdown permanently - and buy everything before it happens. Maxing character is not exclusive to power. If it's just cosmetics - you max your character by buying the ones you want. And they keep adding more and more.

Even MMO with subscription are folly - each expansion and even patch invalidates previous "max out" while only a select few can actually max out in current content.

Diablo Immortal doesn't require any spending.



I was quite specific. if the only reason is the fact that the f2p game is p2w - that's not a valid reason for a bad review. It's a reason for a balanced review "Good game, but p2w".

Diablo Immortal is in no way negatively impacted by monetization.

I've seen it all now. Diablo Immortal is now the lowest rated game in Metacritic history. Scores of people are furious with the predatory monetization. Saying it's not negatively impacted by monetization is beyond asinine

[Witchblade77]

No, it's not a good way to express anything.

I'm Paragon 60, played a lot every day, free player, and I love this game so much. I am not feeling I am held back one inch by not spending. HOW is the monetization a problem to people?

I am not gonna be top 5 on the leaderboard for rifts, but who cares, it's a little list of names, and if you care about if your name is on it, you need to look over your life.

There is no benefit of being P2W over F2P, unless you have some weird desire to be top on the leaderboard. You can fully enjoy all the stuff the game offer, the campaign, dungeons, rifts, exploration, completing achievements etc with F2P.

how long did it take you to get at least to required minimum to not get immediately squished on hell 2? DID you get to hell 2? hell 3? were you able to go immediately? are you playing solo, or are you getting carried by paying players through content you are too weak for yourself, to get your upgrades faster? because even if you are not competitive player, there absolutely ARE roadblocks unless you don't mind never moving up difficulties, never trying something new etc.

[Tentim]

I've seen it all now. Diablo Immortal is now the lowest rated game in Metacritic history. Scores of people are furious with the predatory monetization. Saying it's not negatively impacted by monetization is beyond asinine

It hasn't if anything its inspired more. This is the future my friend the twilight of an age...

Soon gaming will return to small indie devs and the cycle will start over.

[Nymrohd]

how long did it take you to get at least to required minimum to not get immediately squished on hell 2? DID you get to hell 2? hell 3? were you able to go immediately? are you playing solo, or are you getting carried by paying players through content you are too weak for yourself, to get your upgrades faster? because even if you are not competitive player, there absolutely ARE roadblocks unless you don't mind never moving up difficulties, never trying something new etc.

Took me about 5 levels to stop getting destroyed on Hell 2, so about two days of doing my bounties etc. And I was still not getting destroyed per se, just had to pay a lot of attention to get anywhere.
Keep in mind the crucial part was that I DID clear challenge rift 30 before even hitting Paragon 30 by just kiting well. I think I failed twice in a row because I got Endugu, the Fallen Shaman from Kikura's as a rift boss and both times in maps that were bad for kiting. As soon as I got an easier boss for my DH I killed it (I think I was 27 at the time) which meant that I upgraded gear very fast in those couple of days when I was doing Hell 2 with a CR penalty. I am constantly clearing Challenge Rifts that are 100-150 CR higher than me by kiting, gathering large groups of mobs and then unloading all cooldowns on them and keeping them snared. But maybe it's DH being really good at it?

The biggest bug by far seems to be Necro minions not being affected at all by CR penalty.

[Delekii]

Maxxroll.gg has discontinued all Diablo Immortal content creation essentially permanently, with the caveat that if Blizzard were to make astounding changes to monetization to allow f2p players a path toward competitive progression they would reconsider.

https://immortal.maxroll.gg/news/max...mmortal-branch

Maxxroll.gg is the top result on google when searching for essentially any information related to Diablo Immortal, and up until this point consolidated information from some of the most influential players of the game throughout the alpha all the way through to release - including Lexyu, Dredscythe, Echohack and Gregg2G. All are likely names that anyone who consumes creator content surrounding the game has seen at some point. To note - I'm not sure what these players intend to do, I've not seen any of their content since early on in the release when none of them was particularly impressed, but all were still playing. This article implies that they will continue making content somewhere else, but I don't know where or what.

Maxroll.gg is the closest thing Diablo Immortal had to something like a Wowhead, I'm sure they were making a not-insignificant amount of money from the content they were posting about the game given their prominence in search results.

The Decision
Canceling a game we've cumulatively put 10,000+ hours of work (and a ton of developer money) into is not something we do lightly. In fact, we've never discontinued a game before. Unfortunately, recent events highlighted below drove us to this decision:

*Economic Structure. This is by far the biggest reason we're discontinuing the Diablo Immortal Branch. The predatory Pay-To-Win system greatly exceeds what's considered the norm for mobile gaming. Gambling addictions are real and can completely destroy lives. Even if 99% of players have perfect impulse control, we still can't stomach what happens to the other 1%. This is completely against our values and we will not remain a part of this any longer.

*Disengagement & Community Response. The disappointment we felt at launch aligns with the community's. Not just from the P2W perspective, but about the game itself. While we are not game designers, we can't believe this is the state of the game after nearly 2 years of testing and feedback.

*Unrewarding Gameplay. From Hell I difficulty to Hell II and beyond, your progression comes to a screeching halt. You can either grind 8+ hours a day (despite the multitude of hidden caps) for 5, 10, 15 Combat Rating upgrades, or break down and go to the shop and get a lot more. It's a terrible feeling that extinguishes motivation to log in.

*Money Isn't Everything. Even with a poor reception, our Immortal Branch would continue to generate revenue on our end. Life is about more than money though, it’s about doing the right thing. As said throughout this post, we are sticking to our core values. We are walking away from 1.5 years of collective work, time, missed events and family obligations, development time and expensive costs to do the right thing by us and you.

*Lack of Remedy. Finally, as a team we discussed "What would it take for us to re-open the Immortal Branch"? Aside from severely limiting the infinite Pay-to-Win system and giving Free-to-Play players a real chance, we don't see a path forward for us. This is why we chose to shut down the branch prior to the first major update - we don't envision Blizzard implementing a remedy strong enough to truly bridge that gap.

There's a much fuller post about the decision at the link, these are the ultimate deciding factors.

[Witchblade77]

Took me about 5 levels to stop getting destroyed on Hell 2, so about two days of doing my bounties etc. And I was still not getting destroyed per se, just had to pay a lot of attention to get anywhere.
Keep in mind the crucial part was that I DID clear challenge rift 30 before even hitting Paragon 30 by just kiting well. I think I failed twice in a row because I got Endugu, the Fallen Shaman from Kikura's as a rift boss and both times in maps that were bad for kiting. As soon as I got an easier boss for my DH I killed it (I think I was 27 at the time) which meant that I upgraded gear very fast in those couple of days when I was doing Hell 2 with a CR penalty. I am constantly clearing Challenge Rifts that are 100-150 CR higher than me by kiting, gathering large groups of mobs and then unloading all cooldowns on them and keeping them snared. But maybe it's DH being really good at it?

The biggest bug by far seems to be Necro minions not being affected at all by CR penalty.

to clarify... what was your combat rating at the time. were you running dungeons before to raise, did you get lucky with drops? (I think I read you getting lucky with your free crest and getting 5/5 gem - that is NOT even remotely typical, hell I didn't even know it was possible, as I personally haven't even seen 2 star gems, let alone 5 star with my couple of free leggos)

I play DH as well. I know I'm not the most amazing player ever to put it mildly, but I do try and by the time I hit paragon 30, with regular upgrading and doing whatever daily content I could get my hands on, my combat rating was under 1100. minimum for hell is 1200 and at that point they are STILL considered high level mobs and hit as such. when I went to hell at under 1100 I would quite literally get one shot.

[Nymrohd]

to clarify... what was your combat rating at the time. were you running dungeons before to raise, did you get lucky with drops? (I think I read you getting lucky with your free crest and getting 5/5 gem - that is NOT even remotely typical, hell I didn't even know it was possible, as I personally haven't even seen 2 star gems, let alone 5 star with my couple of free leggos)

I play DH as well. I know I'm not the most amazing player ever to put it mildly, but I do try and by the time I hit paragon 30, with regular upgrading and doing whatever daily content I could get my hands on, my combat rating was under 1100. minimum for hell is 1200 and at that point they are STILL considered high level mobs and hit as such. when I went to hell at under 1100 I would quite literally get one shot.

Lol a 5/5! I wish, I got a 3/5 Howler's (I mentioned I got a 5 star). When I hit Paragon 30 and switched I was just over 1k CR. BUT as I said I immediately got loot unlocked to Hell 2 since I had already cleared the Challenge Rift. First day I struggled to complete my bounties, second day was somewhat easier. I did not touch dungeons or Lassal either day cause I hate being a burden to others. I easily got 4-6 legendaries each day while doing my Bounties and 3 daily BGs and I think I even got one from a Vault Raid. Upgraded at least 4/6 legendaries to Hell 2 level so the CR from those plus whatever CR I got from Paragon (do we get CR from paragon) was enough to push me over 1220 and remove the penalty. Then I grinded dungeons until 4set.

And yeah I ALSO would get one shot in hell II early on if I let anything touch me. Chill on multishot and sentries from legendaries to snare everything, run round collecting mobs, run a circle around them to group them up, drop Rain on them and push Vengeance with Crossbow Shot and Hungerer. Easier to kill 20+ mobs with CDs than to just walk and kill normally (same tactic I use in Challenge Rifts). If you run fast, their melee never hits you and if you run in circles around them instead of straight lines, you can easily dodge missile effects. But that's the point of playing glass cannons and DH is just as much a glass cannon as Wizard is.

I am now slowly collecting a PvP set but I am still missing a couple of crucial legendaries so at this point I just run close, drop Rain and rope back when they use their AoE; get to the edge of the AoEs, use Vengeance and start sniping people. I get a lot of MVP often without being first on kills simply because I am high on Assists. Do NOT let them engage with you and always fall back after taking hits. Do NOT use bandage before you are certain you don't have any DoTs running (so many whales use Seeping Bile in PvP). Once I have the right gear I think I might switch to sentries and traps for PvP so I can focus on CC.



I am probably going to buy a bundle this week though. I could easily awaken one item by buying one of the better bundles.

[HansOlo]

Have you guys figured out how deep Blizzard has fallen yet?

It seems like they made a nice product to earn from. Which is good for them(no sarcasm). This will fund WoW and D4 - which is even better.

- - - Updated - - -

Maxxroll.gg has discontinued all Diablo Immortal content creation essentially permanently, with the caveat that if Blizzard were to make astounding changes to monetization to allow f2p players a path toward competitive progression they would reconsider.

https://immortal.maxroll.gg/news/max...mmortal-branch

Maxxroll.gg is the top result on google when searching for essentially any information related to Diablo Immortal, and up until this point consolidated information from some of the most influential players of the game throughout the alpha all the way through to release - including Lexyu, Dredscythe, Echohack and Gregg2G. All are likely names that anyone who consumes creator content surrounding the game has seen at some point. To note - I'm not sure what these players intend to do, I've not seen any of their content since early on in the release when none of them was particularly impressed, but all were still playing. This article implies that they will continue making content somewhere else, but I don't know where or what.

Maxroll.gg is the closest thing Diablo Immortal had to something like a Wowhead, I'm sure they were making a not-insignificant amount of money from the content they were posting about the game given their prominence in search results.



There's a much fuller post about the decision at the link, these are the ultimate deciding factors.

Maxxroll.gg is earning from this move, by doing PR(notice that you even had to explain who they are).

Isn't that irony? This is the youtube algorithm - but bigger scale.

I actually remembered why I left this thread - people and thier thesis, that would fail the entry to highschool.

[Witchblade77]

Lol a 5/5! I wish, I got a 3/5 Howler's (I mentioned I got a 5 star). When I hit Paragon 30 and switched I was just over 1k CR. BUT as I said I immediately got loot unlocked to Hell 2 since I had already cleared the Challenge Rift. First day I struggled to complete my bounties, second day was somewhat easier. I did not touch dungeons or Lassal either day cause I hate being a burden to others. I easily got 4-6 legendaries each day while doing my Bounties and 3 daily BGs and I think I even got one from a Vault Raid. Upgraded at least 4/6 legendaries to Hell 2 level so the CR from those plus whatever CR I got from Paragon (do we get CR from paragon) was enough to push me over 1220 and remove the penalty. Then I grinded dungeons until 4set.

And yeah I ALSO would get one shot in hell II early on if I let anything touch me. Chill on multishot and sentries from legendaries to snare everything, run round collecting mobs, run a circle around them to group them up, drop Rain on them and push Vengeance with Crossbow Shot and Hungerer. Easier to kill 20+ mobs with CDs than to just walk and kill normally (same tactic I use in Challenge Rifts). If you run fast, their melee never hits you and if you run in circles around them instead of straight lines, you can easily dodge missile effects. But that's the point of playing glass cannons and DH is just as much a glass cannon as Wizard is.

I am now slowly collecting a PvP set but I am still missing a couple of crucial legendaries so at this point I just run close, drop Rain and rope back when they use their AoE; get to the edge of the AoEs, use Vengeance and start sniping people. I get a lot of MVP often without being first on kills simply because I am high on Assists. Do NOT let them engage with you and always fall back after taking hits. Do NOT use bandage before you are certain you don't have any DoTs running (so many whales use Seeping Bile in PvP). Once I have the right gear I think I might switch to sentries and traps for PvP so I can focus on CC.



I am probably going to buy a bundle this week though. I could easily awaken one item by buying one of the better bundles.

well... I'm glad you are such an exceptional player. I would get one shot by ranged that I wasn't able to dodge, but.. ok. I wasn't able to actualy play on Hell 2 until I got my score to 1200 and at that point I had to be playing carefully. I don't think I've ever had a single day where I would get more then 2 legendaries to drop through the entire day of play and I've had days where i would get none (that's finishing all the bounties, side quests and at least one contract, as well as doing vault - I cannot think of actualy getting ANY gear from vault, just hilts and gold). I don't do pvp though, because fuck that noise.

it took me until I think about paragon 42 before I could do that and I got lucky, got invited into the clan after bitching about vault in shadow chat and they ran me through temple of namari until neck dropped (yes I run flagelant). I only did Lassal 2 for the first time yesterday, prior to that I was only doing 1, because yes, didn't want to be a burden and all that.

you know I'm having a bit of dejavu here. in every MMO, I've ran into that one player who seems to have all the damn luck while the rest of us are struggling. you seem to be that player in DI. 4-6 leggendaries a day, dear god, I could only dream....

(edited to add, I also run the horadric thingie once a day, though best case scenario, I might open 1 chest in room 2 with free keys, still better then nothing - sometimes I might get a piece of yellow gear there to deconstruct, but its mostly blues and whites)

[Nymrohd]

well... I'm glad you are such an exceptional player. I would get one shot by ranged that I wasn't able to dodge, but.. ok. I wasn't able to actualy play on Hell 2 until I got my score to 1200 and at that point I had to be playing carefully. I don't think I've ever had a single day where I would get more then 2 legendaries to drop through the entire day of play and I've had days where i would get none (that's finishing all the bounties, side quests and at least one contract, as well as doing vault - I cannot think of actualy getting ANY gear from vault, just hilts and gold). I don't do pvp though, because fuck that noise.

it took me until I think about paragon 42 before I could do that and I got lucky, got invited into the clan after bitching about vault in shadow chat and they ran me through temple of namari until neck dropped (yes I run flagelant). I only did Lassal 2 for the first time yesterday, prior to that I was only doing 1, because yes, didn't want to be a burden and all that.

you know I'm having a bit of dejavu here. in every MMO, I've ran into that one player who seems to have all the damn luck while the rest of us are struggling. you seem to be that player in DI. 4-6 leggendaries a day, dear god, I could only dream....

I just started playing for the day. Run a simple crest Elder Rift, got a legendary. Yesterday I did not play a lot so when I did my BGs late at night, I got two legendaries from one BG. I think it's very high drop rate until you hit the daily hard cap (which seems to be 6). Which is why I can usually upgrade an item by a rank at least every other day if not every day. Maybe you are just very unlucky or you are not playing that much? I mean if you want to do a daily round of things, it's a Contract, 3-5 side quests, 8 bounties, 3 BGs plus a Vault Raid and a Horadrim run. After that if you want to keep playing, pick a zone with an active event and do that or just grind for bestiary pages. If you have friends on, grind dungeons. Once I hit a decent CR to run dungeons I went into Pit of Anguish with friends and were pretty much speedrunning it till we all got the set items we wanted; did like 12 runs and got 8 legendaries. The Dungeon that has increased legendary chance seems to give legendaries above the daily soft cap.

[Alroxas]

The Blizzard of today are a bunch of scripters and designers with a lot of passion (they'd have to be to accept the absolutely terrible wages Blizzard pays) but ultimately that Blizzard "punch" hasn't hit in a decade.

Well to be fair to Blizzard, back in the day it was a smaller company and not beholden to shareholders. Blizzard of today is accountable to shareholders who expect a certain ROI so they can't necessarily do novel things if it's not a guaranteed hit.

Part of D:I is basically taking the IP and partnering up with NetEase to try to capture that mobile money that is being reported on in the last few years. It would be criminally negligent for ABK (especially after the acquisition of King) to not leverage some of Blizzard's IP in the mobile market. (Which they have with D:I and Warcraft Arclight Rumble)

The problem that I have (and others) is that ABK could have taken a "higher" road and put in less "predatory" MTX systems. Maybe that's NetEase's influence but Blizzard should have taken a stronger stance against it.

- - - Updated - - -

Are you getting paid hourly for this or...? I just don't understand what you're getting out of the discussion at this point.

Join the rest of us and start ignoring @Elim Garak... Honestly I don't believe there's any point in engaging with that poster given the post history and number (just in this thread alone)

[Nymrohd]

Well to be fair to Blizzard, back in the day it was a smaller company and not beholden to shareholders. Blizzard of today is accountable to shareholders who expect a certain ROI so they can't necessarily do novel things if it's not a guaranteed hit.

Back in what day? You'll need to get way, way back.

[Alroxas]

It seems like they made a nice product to earn from. Which is good for them(no sarcasm). This will fund WoW and D4 - which is even better.

Likely true but that doesn't mean that we as fans of Blizzard's IP can't be upset about their specific direction. And concerned that despite what ABK PR has stated, that some of the concepts of MTX from D:I starts making it's way to Blizzard's non-mobile games.

Maxxroll.gg is earning from this move, by doing PR(notice that you even had to explain who they are).

Perhaps but it also means that they're willing to take the financial hit of not making anymore D:I material to take a stand. Short-term it may dampen their relevancy to D:I (and lost website traffic/monetization there) for a longer term branding benefit.

[Witchblade77]

I just started playing for the day. Run a simple crest Elder Rift, got a legendary. Yesterday I did not play a lot so when I did my BGs late at night, I got two legendaries from one BG. I think it's very high drop rate until you hit the daily hard cap (which seems to be 6). Which is why I can usually upgrade an item by a rank at least every other day if not every day. Maybe you are just very unlucky or you are not playing that much? I mean if you want to do a daily round of things, it's a Contract, 3-5 side quests, 8 bounties, 3 BGs plus a Vault Raid and a Horadrim run. After that if you want to keep playing, pick a zone with an active event and do that or just grind for bestiary pages. If you have friends on, grind dungeons. Once I hit a decent CR to run dungeons I went into Pit of Anguish with friends and were pretty much speedrunning it till we all got the set items we wanted; did like 12 runs and got 8 legendaries. The Dungeon that has increased legendary chance seems to give legendaries above the daily soft cap.

or maybe you are just that lucky??? because running a rift with a simple crest gives me nothing but blues. I feel lucky when I get a yellow. I'm not sure if you read entirety of my rant, but all the things you say I should do? i DO and said that I do in that run. I feel lucky if I get 1, maybe 2. when we were running temple it was bonus loot dungeon and it took 5 runs for the neck to drop and want to guess how many leggos I got in that time? if you say zero, you'd be correct.

I tend to end up with 2/3 bestiary pages per day on most days, cause I found that most reliable way for me to get upgrade materials for gear is to do every side quest I come across in addition to the bonus chest for complete 3 you get from adventurer in Westmarch. all that extra killing adds up. sometimes... I get a leggo from bestiary rewards. most of the times - I do not.

the ONLY thing I got lucky with is that horadric boost thing that drops from aspirant chests. somehow... I managed to get it even before the fleshcraft hydra one. from the second chest in the first room. that's as far as my luck goes. meanwhile the game keeps waving the shop at me every step of the way.

I'm still playing because i did get that clan invite and they so far have been a lovely bunch of people and the gameplay loop itself not counting the loot issues - is fun. but there absolutely ARE loot issues. and it makes me wonder if the game is deliberately throttling my rng a lot more then yours since I did make like 3 small purchases (2 cheap dungeon packs and season pass) cause you know... they already spend some money, lets make it just difficult enough so that they maybe spend more. or something. except this is basically leading me to do the exact opposite.

[Nymrohd]

or maybe you are just that lucky??? because running a rift with a simple crest gives me nothing but blues. I feel lucky when I get a yellow. I'm not sure if you read entirety of my rant, but all the things you say I should do? i DO and said that I do in that run. I feel lucky if I get 1, maybe 2. when we were running temple it was bonus loot dungeon and it took 5 runs for the neck to drop and want to guess how many leggos I got in that time? if you say zero, you'd be correct.

I tend to end up with 2/3 bestiary pages per day on most days, cause I found that most reliable way for me to get upgrade materials for gear is to do every side quest I come across in addition to the bonus chest for complete 3 you get from adventurer in Westmarch. all that extra killing adds up. sometimes... I get a leggo from bestiary rewards. most of the times - I do not.

the ONLY thing I got lucky with is that horadric boost thing that drops from aspirant chests. somehow... I managed to get it even before the fleshcraft hydra one. from the second chest in the first room. that's as far as my luck goes. meanwhile the game keeps waving the shop at me every step of the way.

I'm still playing because i did get that clan invite and they so far have been a lovely bunch of people and the gameplay loop itself not counting the loot issues - is fun. but there absolutely ARE loot issues. and it makes me wonder if the game is deliberately throttling my rng a lot more then yours since I did make like 3 small purchases (2 cheap dungeon packs and season pass) cause you know... they already spend some money, lets make it just difficult enough so that they maybe spend more. or something. except this is basically leading me to do the exact opposite.

I mean I don't know what to tell you. I did my dailies outside BGs today and got 3 legendaries so far. Have a Shadow War so I'm waiting for Assembly now and will do a bit of a grind later tonight. Maybe ask around in clan chat to see what their experience is with loot drops?

[Witchblade77]

I mean I don't know what to tell you. I did my dailies outside BGs today and got 3 legendaries so far. Have a Shadow War so I'm waiting for Assembly now and will do a bit of a grind later tonight. Maybe ask around in clan chat to see what their experience is with loot drops?

so i asked in clan, and so far it seems like your luck is abnormal, not mine. /shrug

[rhorle]

Well to be fair to Blizzard, back in the day it was a smaller company and not beholden to shareholders. Blizzard of today is accountable to shareholders who expect a certain ROI so they can't necessarily do novel things if it's not a guaranteed hit.

Blizzard sold to a parent company before they were even called Blizzard. They have always been beholden to someone and have always cared about making money. You are just using shareholders as a scapegoat for all the problems you have with Blizzard instead of putting the blame on Blizzard.

From Wikipedia: "In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and eventually Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates"

[Alroxas]

Blizzard sold to a parent company before they were even called Blizzard. They have always been beholden to someone and have always cared about making money. You are just using shareholders as a scapegoat for all the problems you have with Blizzard instead of putting the blame on Blizzard.

From Wikipedia: "In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and eventually Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates"

Well then something must have changed from Blizzard back in the day to present day Blizzard where they often seem to ignore the founding principles that they have enshrined as part of their company culture.

Additionally we didn't see as many changes in leadership until Activision came along, so it's likely that Blizzard's priorities shifted enough that the "old guard" (Rob Pardo, Nick Carpenter, Mike Morhaime, Chris Metzen, etc etc.) left Blizzard. Sure some of those departures may have been personal reasons but others are a bit more interesting. Pardo + Carpenter and Morhaime left to found their own studios, Bonfire Games and Dreamhaven respectively.

Obviously for those that stayed in the industry, you have to wonder what factors (if any) drove them away from ABK. Lack of freedom to do what they were passionate about? Restrictions from shareholders/bean counters? Differing visions/priorities?

[rhorle]

Well then something must have changed from Blizzard back in the day to present day Blizzard where they often seem to ignore the founding principles that they have enshrined as part of their company culture.

In majority of the cases it is the player/fan/individual that changed and not Blizzard as a company. That is why shareholders are used as the bogeyman that forced X thing that a person doesn't like.

[Ghost of Cow]

More of this weird mythology about "The Legend of Blizzard", I see.

It was always a business. It was never your gaming buddy that cared about putting smiles on the faces of children and yadda yadda. It always wanted to make money above all other concerns.