It is really funny to see Activision micromanaging Blizzard when back in the Vivendi days there were frequently multi-year periods where Activision massively outspent Blizzard to produce sales figures roughly on par with what Blizzard pulled in years where they released absolutely nothing. Activision was buying, cannibalizing and closing studios to cynically push annual release schedules (A’la Guitar Hero) just to compete with guaranteed money from monthly subscriptions w/ World of Warcraft.
While I understand the need to maximize profits as a publicly traded company, I would hope that a video game publisher would understand the value of playing the long game instead of chasing every last penny in the short term. Blizzard played things safe for years and treated their reputation as being more valuable than gold- to the point that the number of projects they pulled the plug on or canceled from '94 to 2012 was greater than the number of games they actually shipped. And that dedication to polish meant that they had the best reputation in the industry; from Warcraft 1 to Starcraft 2, Blizzard didn’t really publish a bad game. If you didn’t like it, it was probably because you fundamentally didn’t like what was being presented; if you fundamentally dislike the gameplay of MMORPG’s you probably weren’t going to be convinced otherwise by World of Warcraft, if you fundamentally disliked RTS’s, if one was going to change your mind it was probably either Starcraft or Warcraft 3, but that’s as good as it got.
For Activision and Co. to fundamentally misunderstand what made Blizzard worth being acquired by Davidson and Associates back in the day- who specifically looked at Blizzard because they gave a sense that they were a video game company being run by adults- you are not going to understand why what you’re doing is going to kill the brand, and run the risk of putting you out of business.
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the problem is at this. people will continue to forgive blizzard, and look the other way, because they prey on the fact our childhood, and love for the game keeps us hoping for better, because we see what a monster it can be, and they know we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we keep in the same cycle every time. We can’t abandon it, because no other MMO as good as it may be, will satisfy that urge WoW gives. It’s unique in it’s own amazing way, and sadly, they prey on that, they get their income, we keep hoping for better, they make promises, and next xpac comes up saying they’re gonna fix what was wrong last xpac, rinse wash repeat. “But our actions will mean more than any words we say” is a statement that we will keep eating, because its the only food they give us
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I don’t think Blizzard is the problem in this situation. This very much sounds like Activision bearing down on them yet again and sticking their grubby paws where they don’t belong.
two of them? only one actually stopped RWF.
what’s the second?
Kael’thas and Vashj were both broken. Vashj was beaten because of a glitch from what I remember.
Remember when Blizzard would not stand for anything less than perfection.
Warcraft 3 Reforged was my first clue
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Not buying D4 but I’m excited for D4 only because I want to see the complete trainwreck if it fails.
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My issue is if it goes down the path of Diablo Immortal favoring microtransactions/cash shops etc.
D3 was designed all around that RMAH that bombed halfway and people were selling Act 1 Tristram Inferno gear for millions. I love the Diablo Series, but the old games were less about these rifts and speed run trials (analogous to the mythic + ) and that type of content wasn’t what kept me playing.
D2 for me was rushing players, farming for rune-words, and having silly PvP battles at the bridge in Act 1 for hours on end. Treadmills aren’t my thing.
Apparently, this new philosophy sells well and unfortunately will go down that path favoring either a mobile/PC dual access game or have so many features of such that it will sell high then plummet fast as a cash grab unless there are consistent and desirable content patches that (me being a pessimistic person) are of lesser value logarithmically.
This is the current fate of WoW and more favorable to developers who can focus on the next project in shorter fashion.
Hello, I see you posted a thread about releasing Dragon: A Flight of Fancy early. Haha, I’m pretty sure anyone that understood what was going on with the class changes during Alpha/Beta knew that the expansion was released early! They never actually finished the specs or the trees and the sweeping changes we are seeing right now is a direct result of that!
Thanks for your post and have a great day!
Exactly this. When morals are on the table, that’s what makes it hard to keep going. May have no choice but to unsub soon. There is zero passion behind development.
Yep. He has nothing to lose at that point anyway.
some jobs even have fun options on applications.
were you fired
did you quit
did you quit before you were fired
blizzard jsut beat him to the punch. they fired him before he quit.
I don’t think that is the sting they’d think it will be. PAst few years…getting let go by blizzard will not have people going why were you let go.
Its more like why…did you stay so long. they make EA when they were really bad (and really didn’t care) look good. damn we aren’t bottom of the hidden employee satisfaction polling out there. Fix this now…we exceed in all things. We will be the worst dammit!
EA at least pays better. still treats employees like crap…but they pay them at least.
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Sick punchline is you get the good game that is better staffed with retail version.
we make fun of classic devs saying they have almost none or maybe interns even.
at this point…I fear there may be more truth to that jest than there should be.
why I wander feb 8.
I left the other game when eve’s dark ages were officialy setting in. Someone has lit some candles there. its…gotten better. Not out of the tunnel yet…but they gave me a flashlight and I think I see the end jsut a bit further down. That is progress.
now I do the same with wow. I see darker ages coming, both versions, and blizzard choosing to curse the darkness over lighting a candle. been there…I don’t like bumping into walls.
hopefully unlike eve they won’t take 4 years to light those candles. they got this…if they try.
Completely expected. ATVI is trying to pad up the stock evaluation prior to the MSFT acquisition. They have been rushing out everything they can.
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You can’t convince me that Nokmud Offensive was not designed to help speed up the release. The dungeon is soooooooooooo rushed. They just got the world zone, threw on mobs, and bosses.
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I think they were working off well it worked for plaguefall.
NOt really. I personally did not like the place as open world or dungeon. get my chest if there to fill up 100% quest and leave. And the dungeon was better with boss 2 skip. the dude had nothing of true value. wan’t even any class’ lego dropper. Boss 3 spider was, for rogue at least that I recall . Time padder was all he was.
I differ from devs view on player motivation. want peoeple to not skip, give them a reason to kill everything. Loot to be real direct there. pay people for their time. even the side stuff. otherwise people will go…skip.
I do not feel like the game was rushed at all. I have had so much to do. I have my 2-3 chars I do high end raiding on, and then an endless amount of non-mandatory world content on my alts for fun. I feel like all of that stuff is fleshed out and enough to get is through a first patch and beyond.