Warcraft III: Reforged Developer Update

[Espire503-1823]

@Kaivax

Hail War3 Players,

We’ve been following the discussions the past couple days and want to thank you for your feedback as well as your support. First off, we want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted, and we’d like to share our plans for what’s coming next.

You should have ended this statement here.

@Kaivax

There were a few hours during launch day where we experienced server-load issues that impacted players’ ability to jump right in, but we were able to resolve those later in the day.

This is to be expected. The people who complain about this have always complained not getting in right away….I’m use to it from the Vanilla days of WOW.

@Kaivax

Separate from that, we’ve seen community feedback about different aspects of Reforged that we wanted to take some time to address.

Before we go on: the team is excited that Warcraft III: Reforged is finally upon us and we’re fully committed to supporting the game for a long time to come. The next few patches and updates we’ll discuss below are just part of our ongoing plans. This game is an integral part of the Blizzard DNA, with a team that loves Warcraft III, and we’re looking forward to pouring our hearts into Reforged and the Warcraft III community for the long term.

Now this is an interesting point to bring up. This is not an integral part of Blizzard DNA, its an integral part for those of us who grew up with Warcraft series. It is what made us fall in love with RTS games. So, if you claim its part of your DNA, then the amount of effort, time and energy should have reflected it. Did you expect anything less from people who have played the original game for over a decade?

@Kaivax

One of the concerns with Reforged that we’ve seen are the visuals when selecting Classic Mode. We’ve identified the bug causing the colors and shading to look different from the original Warcraft III, and we’re testing a fix that will be incorporated in a larger patch addressing this issue and others. We expect to release that late this week. The patch will also address many other known issues, such as fixing some portrait animations and audio bugs, implementing some UI fixes, and more. Please keep an eye out for the patch notes for a detailed list of all the bug fixes.

Thank you. Again, bugs, while annoying, is expected.

@Kaivax

Another area of concern we’re seeing is regarding online features such as leaderboards and clans, which applies to all Warcraft III players, including those who haven’t purchased Reforged. At BlizzCon we talked a lot about how the team is actively working on standing up the back-end to ensure a smooth transition to this new MMR system, much like we did with StarCraft: Remastered. As with Remastered, these and other features will be included in a major patch for Reforged, which will also address the issue for players of the original game. We’ll share release plans as work progresses in the coming weeks—please be assured that the team is hard at work on standing these features up.

Never did the whole ladder thing, but again, thanks for addressing this.

@Kaivax

There are some individual concerns we’ve seen that we’re not currently planning to address and we wanted to give the community a heads-up. As of Version 1.30 of the original game, we saw very low usage of tournaments and of the Reign of Chaos ruleset, so we removed both in mid-2019 (in Version 1.31). Eliminating the maintenance for underused elements has helped us streamline our overall support of the game and focus on areas impacting the most players. That said, we do anticipate that players who prefer Reign of Chaos will find custom games with similar rulesets, which we hope will help satisfy that concern.

As someone else has posted, it was very buggy; yet Blizzard never did anything to correct it.

@Kaivax

Related to that, as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art).

Really? So by downgrading the cut scenes, you are trying to stay more true to the game? I’ll call you a liar right here. How about the real reason now? You did not want to invest the time and money to give us the upgraded cut scenes to give more life to the game, and instead cleaned up the ones already in place. I would have been okay with that, but during Blizzcon, you folks made it out to be that the new cut scenes were going to be a big thing. I’m more disappointed and upset that you are still showing the video of the high-end product that will never come to be. You should have been straight forward with us from the beginning.

@Kaivax

We know this update doesn’t address all questions, but we’re committed to the development and support of this game. We hope you’ll keep an eye out for this week’s patch and future updates and let us know what you think as we continue fine-tuning things. Until then, thank you as always for your support and passion for Warcraft III. We appreciate all your feedback and will continue to keep the Warcraft III community updated on everything we’re working on.

Sincerely,

The Warcraft III: Reforged Team

Things you should have addressed, but instead of letting people vent, you are shutting up, which is only going to continue to flame this fire.

Denying all refunds

Banning Players for getting around your BS way to deny refunds

Copyrighting everything

Blizzard, I’m going to say something that most people do not want to admit to themselves, but frankly, someone must check you on this. You have surpassed EA as the biggest douche in the industry (and after Battlefront 2….this took some serious effort to accomplish). You folks have become the new pinnacle of what not to do to the community that built you up.
Perhaps one day you will return to the days of gamers making killer games for other gamers (the group that would have hired or bought the DOTA idea and given props for it, instead of the giant corporation that is now copyright happy)…but the truth of the matter, that is just a pipe dream. Bad idea, after bad idea, you no longer care about your community. At least you will now get your wish to push your mobile idea to the next generations.

[Illiduk-1511]

@Kaivax

we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were

Lying scum. The new cutscenes were one of the MAIN selling points of the game, being one of the first features announced with the game.

Now you’re just going to go back on that and say “well actually we never wanted nor planned on doing that to preserve the original spirit”, so why even mention it in the first place?

To get pre orders. Every lie you’ve crafted was intentional; you NEVER planned to fulfill ANY of the new features that were announced, you only announced them to guarantee sales.

Disgusting. This is basically a nothing-post. No resolution to the real issues. This isn’t activision, this is all on blizzard.

Don’t think the community will just forget this; this is a permanent stain on blizzard.

[CaptainJack-11336]

@Kaivax

There are some individual concerns we’ve seen that we’re not currently planning to address and we wanted to give the community a heads-up. As of Version 1.30 of the original game, we saw very low usage of tournaments and of the Reign of Chaos ruleset, so we removed both in mid-2019 (in Version 1.31).

I don’t really have much of a problem with not keeping RoC parameters around; however the tournament feature I do. Did you guys really not expect that there would be a significant influx of new players with the release of Reforged? I think it’s pretty obvious that with more people potentially playing standard multiplayer games that this feature would see renewed use.

[Valcrist-1164]

wow did you guys even bother reading anything or just decided to put out a typical bs PR response? Not only did you guys 100% false advertise your game and continue to do so on your website, you released a dumpster fire of a product in every way and you FULL on knew what you were giving us. The game looks like absolute trash, the visuals are beyond embarrassing , on top of that the game runs like crap, the cutscenes are choppy, not fluid and clearly rushed, the character models are jokingly put together some look like there faces were ran over by a car…

At this point i can no longer TRUST anything blizzard does anymore, fooled me twice so fool on me but blizzard is dead to me, tired of false promises, false hype, and unpolished releases, time and time again i hear the commitment speak from blizzard and time again the games turn out worse and worse…

[TYRONE-12409]

How was Disney California adventure and taking Friday off?

[Zeretuel-1464]

Yeah I really dont like their excuse. The opening cinematic that was completely redone? guess what, it looks amazing and still heald true to the origninal. Thats how we wanted all the cutscenes. And if people wanted to see the original cutscenes as they were? guess what, you could have just left classic wc3 on their computer alone and they could go back to old cutscenes whenever they wanted.

[anon17840660]

Well put. They are trying to gaslight us and it isn’t working this time.

Brack and Kotick should resign. Preferably both.

[HappyPlace-1996]

@Phase-1599

Kaivax,

I know you probably won’t rely this message or even read it. Just realize there are A LOT of long time Blizzard fans who over the years of “do you not have phone” moments have lost faith in the company. What the final product of Reforged has done has only solidified these views of disappointment to your company.

This game is so bad, it actually attacked my childhood.

There’s a limit to how much they can rubout on the hope and loyalty of their fans.

[Dogcyn-1466]

What a complete half-*** response. You (Blizzard, you) still refuse to take responsibility for anything you’ve done wrong and now you’re playing off what is currently available in the game (WC3 Reforged) as if it’s a benefit, even though you scrapped half the original features. FFS Blizzard… We used to love you. Now you’re just another scummy corporation. It’s sad, and disheartening.

[Poimtyend-1540]

You clowns lie your asses off for two years and you think this ‘response’ is somehow adequate.

You dont deserve any trust whatsoever.

[Ardim-11743]

@Kaivax

Related to that, as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art).

This doesn’t even begin to address the problems with Reforged’s campaign quality. Some of the cutscenes where animations and spell graphics tied to those animations played are simply not present in Reforged. Mal’ganis dying, Medivh transforming, etc. etc.

It’s an unfinished rush job. There’s 0 belief in my mind that any heart and soul went into this product.

[ughash-1530]

@Kaivax

Related to that, as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show

Could’ve communicated this better.

[Nuu-11449]

This response is the epitome of smiling through gritted teeth.

[Dogcyn-1466]

The only way they will listen is if we answer with our wallets.

[powerwordjon-1435]

The Blizzards team loves warcraft 3 so much they outsourced the art updates to a different company. Sick play

[bell-1679]

You are making excuses for a horrible release. Die hard fans already had this exact game-with more features-on their battle net account. If they did not, they weren’t die hard fans. I wanted what was shown at Blizz Con and was very happy it was being reforged. I played the original often and I was a huge fan of the game so I squealed with delight to see an updated version. What I did not want to do was pay so much for a graphics overhaul. This was lazy on your part. Release what was advertised and not what you are excusing as die hard fan request. Let them play the original with the graphics updated if they want that feel. Give everyone else what you advertised.

You broke my hopes with this, not that anyone needs to care. I once had issues with Battlenet realID and posted my thoughts on it. A Blizz community manager actually called me to make sure I knew they were listening and my voice mattered. It made me fall deeper in love with your company. This release and the Blizz attitude with it makes me realize it’s time to think about breaking up. And at least take a break. No more preorders for me, that’s for sure. Some of us still remember the dance studio promises.

You are still advertising 4+ hours of reforged cut scenes. Might want to change that.

[ThunderPope-11137]

They won’t even do that. They will just say there isn’t a viable market for strategy games in 2020 and focus on leeching money from whales in their other games.

[Grond-1801]

Dear Blizzard employees, stop apologizing to people that will never ever be happy, you are not doing any favors to the company or the game, you are only looking weak.

[SaRx-2198]

Blizzard take a look at this post that i made and maybe you can actually answer something about your advretised game .

We need to talk about these graphics

Well the reforged version is an improvment to the 2002 one graphicly that is , but something is not adding up in my brain . If you look at this footage : MFPallytime Plays Warcraft III Reforged @ #Blizzcon2018 - Hands on First Impressions - YouTube that’s from blizzcon 2018 demo not a trailer or anything actual gameplay of the game . You can see pretty clearly that the graphics are superior to what we got with the current reforged and to be honest why i pre ordered in the first place . Now ,…

[Apocalypze-2376]

The lighting in the unit icons (in game) is pretty bad IMO. Is this going to be adressed?