Most damaging Blizzard action

[Hellobolis]

the policy changes revolving war3 reforged will actually affect me in the future. cheapskating the remaster is one thing and they can in theory revert that in future remasters, but the custom map scene is probably RIP forever.

Blitzchung is way overrated, that's just blizz following the local law. that time they changed hearthstone cards for china reasons in not-chinese versions worries me more.

[callipygoustp]

The lack of "promises" fulfilled for WoD I believe is the most damaging action Blizzard ever committed. WoW has never recuperated from that. If they hadn't fucked WoD so bad I think the game would be magnitudes more popular than it currently is.

Note: I don't think WoW is dead or dying. I think the reputation of the game suffered and little has been done to undo the damage done.

[Redroniksre]

Better save your Diablo 2 CDs. If the remaster is true, it gonna be destroyed like WC3 was.

It never hit me when they talked about Reforged, but it did in hindsight. If they tell people that those with the original D2 will be able to play with those who purchase the remaster, that is your red flag. There was no real way for them to make it work with WC3 -unless- they were both running the same client. If you are worried about it, keep your eyes out for that "feature".

[Cosmic Janitor]

On going to doubt The investors Even Care about subcount as a number, as The money moving is More important metric.

Is your shift key broken?

The flow of money will only tell you the current state of the product. You can cheese that fairly easily with temporary measures. Actual number of customers on the other hand says something about your market reach, customer satisfaction and potential for growth and therefore longevity of your product(portfolio).

Again, I'm not even faulting them for it, every traded company comes up with metrics that make them look good in one way or another.

[Hellobolis]

Better save your Diablo 2 CDs. If the remaster is true, it gonna be destroyed like WC3 was.

this reminds me i need to go and backup the patches for original war3 and d2 before they eventually stop being available.

[Ghostile]

Is your shift key broken?

The flow of money will only tell you the current state of the product. You can cheese that fairly easily with temporary measures. Actual number of customers on the other hand says something about your market reach, customer satisfaction and potential for growth and therefore longevity of your product(portfolio).

yeah my phone is retarded.

Naturally you can manipulate short term numbers, but who in their right mind is going to react to spikes without looking at the big picture?

[Obelisk Kai]

The most damaging Blizzard action depends on the context of what was being damaged.

For their overall reputation and confirmation that corporate culture has consumed them I would go with the Warcraft 3 reforged debacle and the Blitzchung incident, a one two punch whose impact will haunt them for years to come.

But for WoW specifically, Warlords of Draenor. How that expansion went live still defies belief and the damage is wrought upon the game is still evident after all these years. All the decisions they made in WOD and each time they were able to pick the wrong one.

[Kumorii]

Definitely reforged since that's a huge dip in quality which will make people careful of any other remaster they release and even new games.

[GreatNameForSmurfingExTee]

Nothing really damaged Blizz.

WoD
Meh, some liked it - Others didn't. As always.

Hiding sub Count
Still you can check the Stocks, Reports and everything. Blizz isn't just WoW.

Diablo Immortal (“you all have phones, right?”)
People expected something else, didn't get what they wanted -> REEEEEE and that's it.

Blitzchung incident
This was just a massive Reddit circlejerk. 2 Weeks after it nobody gave a F and even nobody bothered what Blitz said.

WarCraft 3: Reforged
It sucked, right? Is it fixed? Does it still suck?

[Dadwen]

I'd say WOD while it still had hints of the old Class designs and such, it was the start of the new crap design philosophy they've seem to keep doubling down on since then.

*almost ties in with their “You think you do, but you don’t” attitude.

[Lahis]

On going to doubt The investors Even Care about subcount as a number, as The money moving is More important metric.

Which is why they have switched to a model where they can push extra services to lower number of subs for a net gain in revenue.

[valky94]

id say WC3 reforged, sure immortal announcement had big backlash, but everyone forgot in about a month,
the majority of people didnt care about blitzchung,
reforged was probably the first time blizzard released an unfinished/untested/rushed/broken product

dont @ me with stupid replies like WoD or BfA etc.

[Vorkreist]

I love this paradox.

"Blizzard makes bad games because they want money"

Cutting costs and pushing shit content for the brainless part of the fanbase brings enough money it seems.

[valky94]

Most damaging move however... has to be pandaland. That's where they lost a lot of old school players and fans and where the downfall started.

pandaria was an amazing expansion, classes/specs were great, raids were amazing, zones were amazingly done (WP art team), cant say much for pvp as im not a pvper, but i think pvp was at a great spot aswell

[Tyrilion]

Well it has been one big rollercoaster of shitshow ever since the DoN't YoU HaVE phOnES?!! -incident.

But bowing down to The Pooh when Blitzchung dared to say he supports human rights gotta be the biggest mistake they made during the past year and a half.

This just shows how little you know about what actually happened and why they did it, Blizzard states in their terms for events, that air time is not to be used to personal messages and opinions, its about the event. blizzard never once said that they agreed or disagreed with what he said, he broke the rules and got punished for it. No one to blame but himself. If he wanted to put out a message use your own stream, not a live cast that is meant to be about the event.

Imo, Diablo immortal wasn't great, but the sale to Activision still irks me. If anything they are the ones limiting what blizzard can actually do.

[TheRevenantHero]

I love how so many people are claiming the vast majority of people forgot about Blitzchung or didn't care yet here we have a thread where people both care and remember. The only reason Blizzard took action was because of their Chinese shareholders. They think their money is more important and although Blitzchung's comment was him making a statement against the Chinese tyranny, Blizzard punished him because they didn't want to lose China's money. I think it was Blizzard's worst actions because they showed that they don't give a shit about their players. They care about money and nothing else.

[valky94]

This just shows how little you know about what actually happened and why they did it, Blizzard states in their terms for events, that air time is not to be used to personal messages and opinions, its about the event. blizzard never once said that they agreed or disagreed with what he said, he broke the rules and got punished for it. No one to blame but himself. If he wanted to put out a message use your own stream, not a live cast that is meant to be about the event.

dont bother, you cant reason with armchair warriors

[Dommie530]

I love how so many people are claiming the vast majority of people forgot about Blitzchung or didn't care yet here we have a thread where people both care and remember. The only reason Blizzard took action was because of their Chinese shareholders. They think their money is more important and although Blitzchung's comment was him making a statement against the Chinese tyranny, Blizzard punished him because they didn't want to lose China's money. I think it was Blizzard's worst actions because they showed that they don't give a shit about their players. They care about money and nothing else.

Thats realy not how it works buddy, but if you people keep believing your fan fiction then thats fine by me. People with even half brain, can understand it had nothing to do with that

[Shaetha]

The lack of "promises" fulfilled for WoD I believe is the most damaging action Blizzard ever committed. WoW has never recuperated from that. If they hadn't fucked WoD so bad I think the game would be magnitudes more popular than it currently is.

Note: I don't think WoW is dead or dying. I think the reputation of the game suffered and little has been done to undo the damage done.

The reputation of the game has only suffered with the people that were looking for reasons to hate it. The world at large just sees it as "nerd game #63".

[LordVargK]

Blitzchung by far. Its a worrying trend in the world, all the others are just how the industry is moving (Bad refreshes, or catering to new areas, but done poorly).

I have the feeling that this was only a big deal in the USA, because the USA is scared of losing it's biggest superpower status to China. Trump ranting about China every week does also not help.

Outside of the US nobody really cared; at least gaming news sites did not.