Here we go:
https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/78278-patch-1062-april-fools-patch-notes/
PLUNDERSTORM, THE SEQUEL
Coming very soon, we’re releasing a completely non-PvP sequel to Plunderstorm. This event has no PvP whatsoever, and it’s super easy to pick up all the rewards, as they’re just laying on the ground in the relative safety of the starting zones! Look for this relaxing in-game activity on your calendar under the name “Noblegarden”.
lmao
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A joke I sometimes play on April Fool’s is sending a series of plaintive, emotional letters to Horde members pleading for peace and mutual understanding and then when they come to finally make amends and breathe easy for the first time since they’ve been born I shout “April Fool’s!” and then start another faction war.
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I think I’m finally ready to give up Warcraft for good.
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yup, every bit as funny as a bullet to the head golfclaps badly
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I feel like this just proves they’re salty because PVE players didn’t like Plunderstorm. But it’s their own fault for bad marketing.
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the biggest gripe ive seen is just that its pvp.
so much so that ive seen
“its pvp, i wont touch it”
“do the quest then run in the storm”
“i shouldnt have to pvp for mogs”
doesnt seem like a marketing issue
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As a company the one thing you should do when you upset and disappoint a lot of your customers, is to follow that up with mocking them.
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The dungeon part reminded me of a Civvie 11 bit, so that at least made me smirk. I also found the Class Changes bittersweet, if still just as mildly amusing as the rest.
I swear I saw signs of a Sasquatch down by Olivia’s Pond the other night.
To be fair, most customers deserve to be mocked.
Nah. Just customers who choose Horde. I mean why would anybody pick a faction that doesn’t have access to something as simple as chairs?
The marketing issue is the same one they had with the Diablo mobile announcement a few years ago:
- Players expect an announcement
- Company doesn’t anticipate what players have expected
- Company gives players something completely different that will only interest a part of the player base
- Players not interested in the announced game are highly disappointed and become verbal
What should have happened was that the secret “pirate” event should have been not mostly contained in Plunderstorm. It was fine to introduce Plunderstorm as the centerpiece of the event, but it should have also contained:
- A mini PVE questline in-game in Retail to give players something to tie in to Arathi and pirates. It could have been as short as the Gilneas one, but it wasn’t there.
- A mention that the March Trial of Style contained pirate hats.
- A mention that this month’s Trading Post would be pirate-themed.
- Plunderstorm titles transferred to Retail and Classic as earned.
Literally, that would have been enough, but they didn’t even mention the Trading Post or Trial of Style. If they would have tossed in some other things, like earning a recolor pirate themed transmog by opening Plunderstorm chests or introducing the thin-bodied Kul’Tirans to Retail, it would have been baller and a lot more people would have been excited. I’d venture more like 80% of players.
The problem was, it was a secret patch that everyone expected to be for everyone. And it wasn’t - it was primarily for PvPers regardless of what they tried to say in the video. That doesn’t mean that PvPers don’t deserve new games. They absolutely do. But if you’re going to pull the “secret” card, your secret has to be a reward for the general populace, not a percentage. It would be the same if they decided that the secret event was on mobile. Imagine the fiasco.
i don’t know if you remember, but a few years back there was a BIS PVE item that was actually a PvP item. It was almost universally panned and I thought at that point, Blizz would never try to cross the streams again. I guess they have short memories.
I work in marketing and this whole affair made me cringe.
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Our Horde brethren are more than welcome to use our chairs!
not really mocking though is it?
thats what they want. walk around, collect stuff, get rewarded
every patch, secret or not, is some new quests, new raids, new 5mans, new pve content. nothing really for pvpers. and ps isnt even traditional WoW pvp, so this massive overreaction about it being pvp just feels like itll be the sort of thing to discourage them from trying anything new
Coming very soon, we’re releasing a completely non-PvP sequel to Plunderstorm. This event has no PvP whatsoever, and it’s super easy to pick up all the rewards, as they’re just laying on the ground in the relative safety of the starting zones! Look for this relaxing in-game activity on your calendar under the name “Noblegarden”.
This was 100% mocking the player base because the devs were salty that we didn’t appreciate the BR the way they wanted us to and PVEers requested a PVE mode more like a warfront.
Again, we didn’t appreciate it because of the way they marketed it. The BR was just fine as a BR. But they tried to convince us it was PVE by adding the transmogs, pets and mounts as rewards and by devs in the video telling us that the PVE happens during the “gathering” phase of the BR. They gave us a PvP event and tried to mislead the player base into believing it was for everyone. Then they made a “joke” of a request that a looooooot of PVEers asked about. They’re misreading their casual player base and it will hurt them if they keep doing things like this.
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*Ahem. *
Gnomes.
Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.
i hope this over reaction doesnt stop them from trying new things
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I really wish that I could give this multiple thumbs up. A sharp dose of reality that I hope the decision makers over at Blizzard don’t ignore.
Thank you Kirsy.
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Honestly even leaving aside the PvE stuff, I think it was fair that people imagined it would be a world of warcraft content patch. Maybe with some PvE, PvP and story stuff going on. Instead it’s a whole new game mode. Unique. Unexpected. Kinda cool even. But they should have tempered our expectations somewhat by at least clarifying that it was not a typical content patch.
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They should hire you to run their marketing dept and yes, they’ve had issues like this with announcements, communication, etc before.
“DoNt YoU gUyS hAvE cELLpHoNeS?”
10.2.6 was specifically labelled as a DF patch. Clearly, it wasn’t that at all and should not have been ever framed that way.
And not for nothing, but don’t hide transmog behind a whole separate game mode that people didn’t ask for and many don’t like. I play WoW, because I like WoW. I don’t pay for a battle royale and I have no interest in doing so.
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