That isn't correct. In 2008 Activision was merged with Vivendi games. Vivendi still had ownership until 2013. At that time Activision Blizzard bought control of the company from Vivendi. Blaming Activision is a sign of stupidity any time however. Because Blizzard is to blame for Blizzard.
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
Blizzard is doing remakes and so is the whole industry. Just take a look at how many companies are pushing out remakes of old classics because they sell. It is all just demand and supply.
“Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life” “Logic will get you from A to Z; Imagination will get you everywhere.”
At this point I am certain people are just looking for a scapegoat either for their own personal crappy choices or to excuse what goes on at blizzard. Even right now when Activision seems to be hitting it out of the park last few years with Crash, Spiro, Tony Hawks. Somehow bad things that happen in Blizzard is also Activision's fault.
What would happen to perception (in it being more corrected to what people are experiencing) if people just stopped using the name 'Blizzard' when referring to that agency?
I mean, Activision and will continue to use it for business purposes, but if the public (especially the former lovers of their games) stops using it to acknowledge that is doesn't F'n exist anymore as an entity... then what?
Then I think people can start to let go of the disappointment of loss from the death of that creative group and have discussion that is more clean, more authentic to what the actual quality of this current, operating group of develops is putting out.
But that would take some presence of mind, more purposeful speech, and seeing some value in burying the reference of 'Blizzard' (and maybe ascribing honor for the good work that they did in the past and simultaneously not dragging that name through the feces that is being spat out today).
I don't think deifying the name of "Old" Blizzard would do the discussion surrounding Activision-Blizzard any good.
Every game is one of their greatest hits so that isn't saying much. Diablo 3 isn't forgotten either. It has a current PTR and a new season starting soon. Just because you choose to forget it doesn't mean it actually has. Just as majority of people forgot Diablo 2 even if it was still popular. Same thing with WC3 prior to the re-master.
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
WoW = usually fun, at least for a certain time. no need to pay sub, few euros für expansion...worth it.
Hearthstone = One of the best card games out there
Diablo 3 = had a bad start but also turned out to be a good in the end
Overwatch = shooters are not my cup of tea but even here I had a few months of solid fun
So guess what. Just because you don't like those games does not mean they are garbage.
People are just overexaggerating. Ideals and passion are neat when you have a small company going...but the bigger
the company the more complicated things gonna get. What do you think why the big players are still around?
How many companies took risks and just vanished in the past 20 years?
I wonder if you complainers have ever worked at a company that has more than 20 employees...you seem to have
absolutely NO clue how big companies work and how complicated things can get.
Blizzard has the biggest fanbase of ex-fanbase players I've ever seen who are so bitter about them they devote all their free time into doing so. Had a problem with WoW and quit? Probably mad the game didn't explode when they left a forum post saying they quit. Not being automatically in Diamond/Platinum placements in OW even though they suck? Fuck you, Blizzard.
I don't think I've ever seen another gaming company have this devotion of not liking it. Even moreso than EA.
Disclaimer: I'm not a Blizzard fanboy and I think there are problems with games, but the positives outweigh the negatives to me as of right now minus Hearthstone because fuck that piece of shit.
Just don't reply to me. Please. If you can help it.
Clearly it's time for Diablo 3 Remarketed.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
No seemingly about it - they're all very much gone and have created their own studios or retired.
Mike Morhaime left and founded Dreamhaven.
David Brevik left ages ago and did Hellgate London and Marvel Heroes.
Rob Pardo founded Bonfire Games.
ArenaNet (Guild Wars) was founded by multiple Diablo/Warcraft developers.
Ben Brode grew Hearthstone from the ground up and then randomly vanished to make his own studio.
Max and Erich Shaefer made Runic Games, which made Torchlight 1/2/3
Carbine Studios (Wildstar) was made by former EARLY WoW devs.
Greg Street (Ghostcrawler) left ages ago and is now head of creative development for Riot, who is apparently making a LoL MMO.
Chris Metzen left to be a Dad, then founded a tabletop company. Obviously still voices Thrall though.
Nick Carpenter, who was VP of Art & Cinematics, left in 2016 to go to Bonfire Games with Pardo. He's responsible for the overall creative vision of all Blizzard games.
Dustin Browder, who headed Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm but started in WoW left to join Dreamhaven.
They're pretty much all gone at this point.
Back in the early 00s with the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. My personal golden era of gaming. Hundreds and hundreds of platformers, RPGs, racing, fighting and action/adventure games and yes FPS games too. So many awesome story driven games were to be had back then if you actually looked (and you didn't have to look very hard either). If you think it was just all FPS and MMOs then to me it doesn't sound like you played a whole lot of games back then.
Matter of fact the way you describe the 80s and 90s as well, to me, sounds like a very narrow minded and ignorant point of view. The 80s and 90s did indeed have a plethora of arcade style games but there was also lots of RPGs, fighting, and adventure platforming games and a lot of them didn't have "stupid difficulty". If you were any sort of a competent player you could complete those games in a decent amount of time and with relative ease. A lot of them also had epic stories to follow. It wasn't just all "get the high score" arcade games.
As far as "copy paste" games go they've ALWAYS been a thing in video game history. There's not one era where you could tell me that every game was unique and felt different. Every single game out there is similar to another in some way, shape, or form whether by a little or a lot ESPECIALLY these days. So it's not just something the 90s had. It's like complaining that a game is repetitive when pretty much EVERY single game in existence whether it be a sport like football or baseball, a board game, a card game, or a video game. ALL games are repetitive in some way.
- "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black" - Jo Bodin, BLM supporter
- "I got hairy legs that turn blonde in the sun. The kids used to come up and reach in the pool & rub my leg down so it was straight & watch the hair come back up again. So I learned about roaches, I learned about kids jumping on my lap, and I love kids jumping on my lap...” - Pedo Joe
The most difficult thing to do is accept that there is nothing wrong with things you don't like and accept that people can like things you don't.
You're wrong.
Things have changed, quite dramatically. The people managing things back then operated on a model of "Give the creative people resources, have them produce something, make money off of it". The model relied on giving the creative people freedom. That is gone in the modern corporate model. Everything is top down now. The creative people are instructed what to do very precisely. Their output is micromanaged to the extreme.
This is primarily because of the development of data analytics that did not exist in the past. You have no idea how minute these things go. Do you think all this crap with endless collectibles came from nowhere, or because designers thought it was good design? No, it is because they literally employ psychologists and analysts to determine the rate at which people should get collectibles to maximize addictive potential.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death