BFA, Shadowlands, Dragonflight all sucked. At this point, I’d rather have TBC Classic Release… Nay, New servers for classic starting at classic and going to wotlk EVEN SLOWER than have to sit through Fast-Paced BFA, Nasty Shadowlands, and Boring Dragonflight.
I think it was a poor choice but the next 3 expansions are already planned out. Or next 3 parts whatever they are being called. So we wont see the results or lack of for probably 3 years. Microsoft wont be hands off though so i think some are overreacting. The CEO has a business mind and wont tolerate lack of results very long.
To be fair, we’ve been getting that for a good while now regardless.
And nothing improved under him. He made some noise about carries and that was the last drop in the ocean he made seemingly. That all said however, both her and Mike should not be getting a say on the direction of how games are developed, that’s Ion’s field of authority as far as I am aware.
This might blow everyone’s minds but when you purchase a company you have officially taken it over. It’s yours, you own it. Doesn’t matter what you do with the staff, it’s already “taken over”.
When someone is talking about X killing Y, they are not referencing your individual preference. They are referencing overall community sentiment. Diablo 4 is having trouble keeping the most die hard hardcore Diablo fans. I would have substantial doubts you’re playing Diablo 4 with friends. Brand loyalty is a horrific thing, it’s one of the big things killing humanity. Use reason, punish evil. It is necessary, vital, essential.
“The sky is falling,” cried Chicken little. “The sky is falling!”
We’ve been having a fine time in Season of the Construct. The Seneschal has been a neat addition and packs a little punch itself. I really enjoy the Druid, I’ve made one each season so far. The rest of the guild is usually rolling something different every season.
As I said in another thread, I have no problem finding people in the cities or the overworld. Trade chat is a constant chatter where people are looking to group up and kill Duriel, looking for help in a dungeon, offering to carry people, or just being goofy.
I get that people don’t like it, and that’s fine. People are allowed to like different things.
At least Bobby is gone.
Not sure I’ll ever be able to unsee him as Trade Prince Gallywix though, thanks to that image that started floating around a long time ago.
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So here is the thing. In most corporate situations the president doesnt have the bandwidth to say exactly what happens to all the projects within their company. They are there to oversee the operation, and set departmental goals in order to meet or exceed the budget.
And Mike Ybarra can say his leaving was whatever it was, but he was terminated, or at best told, he would be stepping down months ago. He announced on twitter of his last day in the office. No previous message of stepping down at some date or anything like that. And if so, at Blizzcon a couple months ago, he said he loves Blizzard so much, he would have to be dragged out of there.
I think he was let go. He was brought in. Told what was happening. Given a severance package. And that was that.
To have a replacement in the position within a week of the person stepping down, at the president of a company level is fast. REALLY FAST. So more than likely they had picked Mike Ybarra’s replacement a while ago. And Johanna Faries was most likely picked, because she is good and running a profitable company.
She will work with the board of directors to set financial goals for the company, based on the budget that they create with the finance department. She will then cascade the message to departmental heads. Those heads will then make decisions to meet those goals. If they consistently arent meeting those goals, she will find someone who will.
If you think the president is going to mandate more cash shop items. Or change the direction of the story. Or really any game level decisions, you are wrong. What will happen is that she will direct the department heads to make more money. They will figure out how to do so.
The only benefit is that since Warcraft is a popular and profitable IP, they may decide that investing money into that IP will yield the greatest profits.
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Can’t believe you think it isn’t happening. Clearly you have run 0 successful business enterprises in your life.
Every product has a life cycle. WoW is near the end of it’s life cycle.
Holy crap! Is this THE Barsky from Stormrage trade chat?
Did you even play D3 on release? D4 has issues, but D3 before the xpac was DIRE.
Because it isn’t. 
The MMO market has been shrinking for years there is no way they will invest years of development time and huge amounts of money to build a new version of WoW. They will simply continue making expansions until the game eventually goes into maintenance mode.
So after worldsoul saga the end of the game. Sure sounds about right. Just like they ended Diablo.
MMO market is shrinking because no one has bothered to put out a good new game in about 15 years.
There will be more expansions most likely.
Too many people want instant gratification like Fortnite not investing years in an MMO.
IMO its the opposite. Retail is 100% Insta gratification… I mean, they literally sell you a “raid ready boost” for $70… you dont even have to play the game. You can pay $70 and you are in raid immediately. Tell me thats not insta gratification and ill have a bridge to sell ya.
The reason people dont play retail much anymore is because you solve the game in 2-3 weeks every season. Theres nothing to do, nothing to build on. Its very much CoD model.
Sure if all someone cares about is Raiding & M+. I have more thing I would like to get done than I ever have the time to do.
Her goal when coming in should be to see where all the old wow players went to and try and copy those places to pull us back.
If she is good she will guide them away from the bad and onto the good. But that is hard to determine because what is said on forums does not always reflect what is wanted by players.
Forums reflect the loudest of the player population. It’s the quiet ones who make or break a game and they really only post once in the middle of threads and are mostly ignored.
Yeah but almost anything is “sky is falling” panic level in GD.
Not a high standard to worry about.
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