Good for Blizzard - ambiguity for you.

[WARSTORMS]

Good morning,

I'm a business analyst and would like to share with you some thoughts about advertising and this blizzard mess, contrary to what you might find intuitive. My knowledge on these topics is backed up by 15 years of data analysis for large corporations. I also run my own successful accounting company in Australia. I'd love to hear some constructive thoughts about how you view this state of wow based on the following observations.

Corporate culture. - It is in blizzards best interests to hide subscriber numbers from you. Not because the game is dying - because they can hide the game is performing better than the past, in that way, they can get away with producing as little content as you deem acceptable.

Social bots/decline of MMO social interaction - I have noticed recently that people selling in game services for gold is often looked upon as a negative thing, trade chat is often antisocial and spammed with services that imitate real life products. These characters on my server are often level 60, not level one, and there are many. I am able to ignore those that advertise around my current, structured play times (usually afternoons). However if i am to log on in the morning, or midday i am again inundated with offers.

To me, this also seems to indicate game health. If they were level 1 toons then you could assume bots, if toons were boosted and churned over at the same times of day then you could also assume bots. The game has reached maturity with a mixed player base, who imitate a proven way to generate revenue. Its quite ingenious, especially if those groups of players leverage the ease of technology like square space to turn that into a legitimate way to earn gold.

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD. It has had revamps of meaningful systems like pvp tallents, texture updates, cinematics and tried very hard creating a cohesive framework that ties the past expansions, with storylines that are difficult to bring to the forefront, into the limelight in a way that makes sense, is meaningful to future expansions (such as the partnership with Beluar gaming to explain concepts of Wrath and Yogg Saron/The black empire in with the aims of the current antagonist.

What you already know about clickbait You're all aware, and likely do not watch mainstream news, because they feed you BS. It's proven that people react more to negativity than to positivity. Therefore you can assume (and this is backed up by data - you could verify by looking at the state of society) that people who understand this paradigm launch advertising campaigns around "negativity" as a sham to play off how "you" as a person, interpret and work.

Sooo. What's the deal, is it just a function that a large corporation can function better praying on the intellectual incapacity of the average human being? it's pretty obvious to look from the outside of this box to see that this narrative is written to empower people who cant conceptualise that they're not the most intelligent person in their surroundings. eveyones so mad, they think that they need to be listened to. They rant and propagate a system that makes them feel bad, continuing the cycle. Its like a parasitic way to play off idiots. "Cement yourself as the bad guy in the industry - but profit forevermore"

Do you have a place where you and others are able to communicate and debate ideas without narcissism and negativity? How do you intend to grow and mature into a human that not just understands the influences that are thrust upon you but, work to curb the behaviours by showing that they not in line with your consumer profile. Because the answer isn't - complain until i get my way.

[Tumile]

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD. It has had revamps of meaningful systems like pvp tallents, texture updates, cinematics and tried very hard creating a cohesive framework that ties the past expansions, with storylines that are difficult to bring to the forefront, into the limelight in a way that makes sense, is meaningful to future expansions (such as the partnership with Beluar gaming to explain concepts of Wrath and Yogg Saron/The black empire in with the aims of the current antagonist.

Thats just a baseless statement that anyone who actually plays the game already knows is factually wrong? Not really sure what your point is though.

I dont understand your point about Trade chat either, the fact that it's level 60's advertising over level 1's doesn't really mean anything when what people are complaining about in the context of trade chat spam is boosts, bots simply do not boosts m+15 or Raids. so it's once again an incoherrent moot point.

Literally everything in your post is grasping at straws, your just throwing around statements without any form of cohesion in your argument, where is the conclusion? What is the point that you are trying to make? "cement yourself as the bad guy in the industry - but profit forevermore" how? why? when? "this is backed up by data" what data? saying "just look at the state of society" is not data.

Only thing that makes sense in this entire post is your very last sentence "Because the answer Isn't - Complain untill i get my way." feel like almost every streamer / youtuber has gone over this before though, you need to vote with your wallet, not your voice, that is how capitalism works. and the players voted by buying store mounts and tokens, the rest of us can be as salty about it as we want, but obviously we are the minority / Not enough of a majority compared to the size of the wallets of the people still playing and paying.

[dacoolist]

Good morning,

I'm a business analyst and would like to share with you some thoughts about advertising and this blizzard mess, contrary to what you might find intuitive. My knowledge on these topics is backed up by 15 years of data analysis for large corporations. I also run my own successful accounting company in Australia. I'd love to hear some constructive thoughts about how you view this state of wow based on the following observations.

Corporate culture. - It is in blizzards best interests to hide subscriber numbers from you. Not because the game is dying - because they can hide the game is performing better than the past, in that way, they can get away with producing as little content as you deem acceptable.

Social bots/decline of MMO social interaction - I have noticed recently that people selling in game services for gold is often looked upon as a negative thing, trade chat is often antisocial and spammed with services that imitate real life products. These characters on my server are often level 60, not level one, and there are many. I am able to ignore those that advertise around my current, structured play times (usually afternoons). However if i am to log on in the morning, or midday i am again inundated with offers.

To me, this also seems to indicate game health. If they were level 1 toons then you could assume bots, if toons were boosted and churned over at the same times of day then you could also assume bots. The game has reached maturity with a mixed player base, who imitate a proven way to generate revenue. Its quite ingenious, especially if those groups of players leverage the ease of technology like square space to turn that into a legitimate way to earn gold.

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD. It has had revamps of meaningful systems like pvp tallents, texture updates, cinematics and tried very hard creating a cohesive framework that ties the past expansions, with storylines that are difficult to bring to the forefront, into the limelight in a way that makes sense, is meaningful to future expansions (such as the partnership with Beluar gaming to explain concepts of Wrath and Yogg Saron/The black empire in with the aims of the current antagonist.

What you already know about clickbait You're all aware, and likely do not watch mainstream news, because they feed you BS. It's proven that people react more to negativity than to positivity. Therefore you can assume (and this is backed up by data - you could verify by looking at the state of society) that people who understand this paradigm launch advertising campaigns around "negativity" as a sham to play off how "you" as a person, interpret and work.

Sooo. What's the deal, is it just a function that a large corporation can function better praying on the intellectual incapacity of the average human being? it's pretty obvious to look from the outside of this box to see that this narrative is written to empower people who cant conceptualise that they're not the most intelligent person in their surroundings. eveyones so mad, they think that they need to be listened to. They rant and propagate a system that makes them feel bad, continuing the cycle. Its like a parasitic way to play off idiots. "Cement yourself as the bad guy in the industry - but profit forevermore"

Do you have a place where you and others are able to communicate and debate ideas without narcissism and negativity? How do you intend to grow and mature into a human that not just understands the influences that are thrust upon you but, work to curb the behaviours by showing that they not in line with your consumer profile. Because the answer isn't - complain until i get my way.

The Corp Culture at Blizz has been in freefall for years now - everything is Actiblizz heavy and BOBBY NEEDS A NEW YACHT

The decline of mmo.. Ok we all know Wow is a themepark mmo, I love it - if you dont like it, leave

Content is trivial if your content is dogshit or super grindy with ABSOLUTELY NO FUN involved (aka 80% of shadowlands)

Clickbait, I just love clicking everything

Soo whats the deal, WoW got too big, now its failing due to bad management

Do I have a place to fuck off, Discord, MMO-C.com , fuck bnet chat rooms etc - I continually have a place to chat with tons of people on tons of game

[Aloie]

You say shadowlands has more content. But I think it’s pretty darn clear that a majority of it is content we don’t want. Or at the very least is content that we might want if the systems surrounding it weren’t garbage.

[Vasti]

Thats just a baseless statement that anyone who actually plays the game already knows is factually wrong? Not really sure what your point is though.

I dont understand your point about Trade chat either, the fact that it's level 60's advertising over level 1's doesn't really mean anything when what people are complaining about in the context of trade chat spam is boosts, bots simply do not boosts m+15 or Raids. so it's once again an incoherrent moot point.

Literally everything in your post is grasping at straws, your just throwing around statements without any form of cohesion in your argument, where is the conclusion? What is the point that you are trying to make? "cement yourself as the bad guy in the industry - but profit forevermore" how? why? when? "this is backed up by data" what data? saying "just look at the state of society" is not data.

Only thing that makes sense in this entire post is your very last sentence "Because the answer Isn't - Complain untill i get my way." feel like almost every streamer / youtuber has gone over this before though, you need to vote with your wallet, not your voice, that is how capitalism works. and the players voted by buying store mounts and tokens, the rest of us can be as salty about it as we want, but obviously we are the minority / Not enough of a majority compared to the size of the wallets of the people still playing and paying.

Well the guy did do accounting in Australia. Everything is upside down there, so I bet if you read his post backwards it will make more sense at least, because right now I'm 100% with ya that this post is just pointless

[Empower]

Little to this makes any sense and if it is honestly your livelihood...well life is full of opportunity. WoW being the biggest mmo is a massive selling point. People want to go to busy games. There isn't a positive reason for them to hide the numbers it's either bad or they are incompetent maybe both.

It's more profitable as they move to monetize it more heavily I will give you that. Eventually that hits critical mass though.

[tomten]

Social bots/decline of MMO social interaction - I have noticed recently that people selling in game services for gold is often looked upon as a negative thing, trade chat is often antisocial and spammed with services that imitate real life products. These characters on my server are often level 60, not level one, and there are many. I am able to ignore those that advertise around my current, structured play times (usually afternoons). However if i am to log on in the morning, or midday i am again inundated with offers.
.

Hope nobody pays you for your services and you offer them pro bono because, wow, you really dont know much about what you're talking about.
You cant spam as lvl 1 in group finder, so thats why you dont see any level 1... Not because some made up fiction about them not being bots.

[baseballfan]

You sound like you want to work for Blizzard for some reason. To say that Shadowlands has more content than the past three means you are probably just like Blizzard's analytics team. The content given is barely passable as anything. Therefore, for the majority of the playerbase (especially the ones that left), thinks that content counts as no content. If content cannot keep someone engaged (or subbed), then it really isn't content.
You can't discredit everything negative that comes out as people looking for attention/money, but I feel like it is an easy and lazy scapegoat for someone who is strictly analytical, like you and Blizzard's share holders.

How insane is it to say they are hiding subscriber numbers because the game is actually growing? You say they are hiding numbers because they want to be lazier, even though they are supposedly "gaining subscribers". First of all there have been plenty of articles and conference calls that says they are losing numbers, and there is an extremely larger chance that numbers are going down and have been since WoD (or whenever they chose to start hiding numbers), it was looking bleak then and even more bleak now. So there is no chance they are gaining numbers. Even if they happen to be gaining numbers, it sure as hell isn't in the west. If they want to transition their game to a cash cow and sell it to the East, then so be it, but ultimately they will lose all the gamers in the west that BUILT THE GAME, which would be ultra pathetic.

Complaining about getting their way can be a good thing and a bad thing. I think it really comes down to the competency of the devs at the time. If the devs are super competent, then I feel they would not have to cave to outside pressure, but when the devs have no clue, they will try to do anything to get anyone back to play their game. There are some complaints that are worth looking at and some that aren't. Some that make the game actually better and some that push it towards a worse game.

Anyways, I'll agree with Tumile and say I don't understand the point of your post.

[Ringthane]

Looks like a bot... Smells like a bot...

Must be Chicken Drummer v2.0.

[khazmodan]

I really think that the best response to this post was already done in "Billy Madison";

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD.

Sooo. What's the deal, is it just a function that a large corporation can function better praying on the intellectual incapacity of the average human being? it's pretty obvious to look from the outside of this box to see that this narrative is written to empower people who cant conceptualise that they're not the most intelligent person in their surroundings.

Do you have a place where you and others are able to communicate and debate ideas without narcissism and negativity? How do you intend to grow and mature into a human that not just understands the influences that are thrust upon you but, work to curb the behaviours by showing that they not in line with your consumer profile. Because the answer isn't - complain until i get my way.

Thanks for the laughs.

[Jakerel]

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD. It has had revamps of meaningful systems like pvp tallents, texture updates, cinematics and tried very hard creating a cohesive framework that ties the past expansions, with storylines that are difficult to bring to the forefront, into the limelight in a way that makes sense, is meaningful to future expansions (such as the partnership with Beluar gaming to explain concepts of Wrath and Yogg Saron/The black empire in with the aims of the current antagonist.

Let me just use this analogy right here to explain that content doesn't always = game play.

I have a big bag of crisps/chips. There is the edible crisps/chips in there, and usually some inert gas like nitrogen filling up the remaining space in the back to prevent bacterial growth and thus my food going stale. The idea of my bag of crisps/chips is that I eat them, but I can't eat the gas used to fill the bag to prevent my food going bad. I need the gas in there to stop my food from going bad, but it does nothing to add to my eating experience, it just allows it without any nasty surprises.

Most of the revamps, or texture updates and the cohesive story framework work to bring the game into what it is, but not all them add to the playing experience. And this is the fault that lies within what Shadowlands is becoming with content. Blizzard has this grand scheme, this long thoughtout plan to tell this huge narative the stretches across the cosmos, and they are taking us players along for the ride. But they forget we have to get there, and with the kind of scope the have in mind, that takes time and we have to sit through that. It's like when a movie takes 75% of its run time to plan out for its sequel, you end up wanting that more than what you are currently watching. Blizzard has reached that point with World of Warcraft, where the plot points we get are all working towards some bigger picture that will come down the line. The content they add to the game ties into that, as it has to tell that narative too, and then they build these systems and game mechanics around that too.

There is no way that just over 19 years ago, when the employees at the time were writing what the did for Warcraft 3, that they expected it to tie into stuff now. Nobody expects them to have thought of this such a long time ahead, likely most of it only goes back structurely 3-4 expansions. Blizzard are taking what they had, and using it to write a narative as they go along, and it shows. Because of them building the content around this long narative, the content is suffering. No one wants to go into a raid to try and stop someone who will potentially end the world in the next raid if they plans aren't stopped now.

[StillMcfuu]

Good morning,

I'm a business analyst and would like to share with you some thoughts about advertising and this blizzard mess, contrary to what you might find intuitive. My knowledge on these topics is backed up by 15 years of data analysis for large corporations. I also run my own successful accounting company in Australia. I'd love to hear some constructive thoughts about how you view this state of wow based on the following observations.

Corporate culture. - It is in blizzards best interests to hide subscriber numbers from you. Not because the game is dying - because they can hide the game is performing better than the past, in that way, they can get away with producing as little content as you deem acceptable.

Social bots/decline of MMO social interaction - I have noticed recently that people selling in game services for gold is often looked upon as a negative thing, trade chat is often antisocial and spammed with services that imitate real life products. These characters on my server are often level 60, not level one, and there are many. I am able to ignore those that advertise around my current, structured play times (usually afternoons). However if i am to log on in the morning, or midday i am again inundated with offers.

To me, this also seems to indicate game health. If they were level 1 toons then you could assume bots, if toons were boosted and churned over at the same times of day then you could also assume bots. The game has reached maturity with a mixed player base, who imitate a proven way to generate revenue. Its quite ingenious, especially if those groups of players leverage the ease of technology like square space to turn that into a legitimate way to earn gold.

Content . Shadowlands has more content that any expansion in the last 3, more than legion and certainly more than BFA and WOD. It has had revamps of meaningful systems like pvp tallents, texture updates, cinematics and tried very hard creating a cohesive framework that ties the past expansions, with storylines that are difficult to bring to the forefront, into the limelight in a way that makes sense, is meaningful to future expansions (such as the partnership with Beluar gaming to explain concepts of Wrath and Yogg Saron/The black empire in with the aims of the current antagonist.

What you already know about clickbait You're all aware, and likely do not watch mainstream news, because they feed you BS. It's proven that people react more to negativity than to positivity. Therefore you can assume (and this is backed up by data - you could verify by looking at the state of society) that people who understand this paradigm launch advertising campaigns around "negativity" as a sham to play off how "you" as a person, interpret and work.

Sooo. What's the deal, is it just a function that a large corporation can function better praying on the intellectual incapacity of the average human being? it's pretty obvious to look from the outside of this box to see that this narrative is written to empower people who cant conceptualise that they're not the most intelligent person in their surroundings. eveyones so mad, they think that they need to be listened to. They rant and propagate a system that makes them feel bad, continuing the cycle. Its like a parasitic way to play off idiots. "Cement yourself as the bad guy in the industry - but profit forevermore"

Do you have a place where you and others are able to communicate and debate ideas without narcissism and negativity? How do you intend to grow and mature into a human that not just understands the influences that are thrust upon you but, work to curb the behaviours by showing that they not in line with your consumer profile. Because the answer isn't - complain until i get my way.

The art of using a lot of words to say nothing is strong with this one.

You don't make any points and your main subjects are at best short of critical thought and at worst complete misinterpretation of your own evidence.

Culture: this isn't culture its strategy. And your claim is only identifying a side effect of not announcing subs. There are 2 reasons why Blizz doesn't announce subs; their strategy has changed from targeting subs to milking subs for mtx, and it allows them to control the narrative.

Social Bots: endemic of the above problems, people taking advantage of the majority of the player base attracted through Blizz's previously mentioned strategy change.

Content: SL has one wheel, its content for gear. It's apart of their overall strategy, the whales want their easy loot. The other mentioned expansions had other wheels, some for xmog (islands, hidden appearances), story (suramar), or just progression/rp (garrisons, class halls, suramar, warfronts).
SL doesn't have these hooks, if the content doesn't directly feed the wheel for gear it gets little dev time and no attention (Maw, Torghast).

And then after this you go on a tangent about clickbait and what not which never comes to a definitive point.

[Sorrowseer]

This takes, they are so hot, they mock australians who complain its hot on a hot day, thats how hot it is.

[Zyrinx]

I guess Ion is back from vacation. I hope he doesnt retroactively veto those Nightborne customizations!

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Somebody woke up today and went about their day and it eventually lead them to writing this post.

[Devilyaki]

By content you mean running around picking up boxes to hand in for boredom rep grind them yes Shadow lands has the best content yet -_-;

[Cosmic Janitor]

Somebody woke up today and went about their day and it eventually lead them to writing this post.

Feels like a possible Postal prequel.

[GreenJesus]

What was the point of trying to validate what you say by saying "im a business analyst with 15 years of experience" if the content you wrote is complete garbage? No data? No graphs or cool graphics? No actual analysis? Everything you wrote could have been written by a 14 year old that browses 4chan.

[vizzle]

Australia might be the only Western country where someone with such undeveloped communication ability could run a business, much less in an analytical role. My god. What in the world are you trying to say overall.