That’s because troll posts and threads with spicy titles work exactly the same way that clickbait articles work.
Humanity at its best eh? lol
I used to think negativity directed at Blizzard was the natural state of the general forum population, but over time on the forums I realized that it’s really not the case. People starting threads are generally unhappy with something in the game, so it’s true for that sliver of forum activity. But outside of that, the forums were plenty capable of having a stronger balance of people that were pro-Blizzard. The vast majority of posting on any forum is always in the replies, and people making complaint posts were never guaranteed that the replies wouldn’t tear them apart.
It’s true the internet has gotten harsher in general. Social media is the worst of it, twitter probably the most among social media services. That said, I’d say the interactions on the forum always trended to an overall harsh, negative tone, it’s just that it’s gotten even harsher today.
The difference is what that tone is directed at. In earlier eras of the game, people making complaint threads were more likely than not to get hit with a bunch of responses telling them that they sucked, to “git gud,” to “L2P” (learn to play), etc. Now, those kinds of responses aren’t positive, praising posts of Blizzard - the tone certainly wasn’t positive - and they weren’t making threads saying “everything’s great, I love Blizzard!” But in essence they acted as defenders of Blizzard, by attacking complaints. “Everything’s fine, L2P” or some variation of that, was a ridiculously common refrain.
The era of downvoting also very often burned complaint threads. I lost count of the number of times I’d have to click to see the content of a complaint thread (where the content would be auto-hidden and you had to click a button to see it, exactly like with posts that get flagged too much today) because the poster got downvoted to oblivion, while the first reply mocking them got that brighter text because everyone upvoted the first person making fun of the complainer. The forums struck me as an always-brutal place in terms of tone. But the negativity was often in favor of someone, and that could easily be Blizzard at various times.
I’m not saying earlier eras were naturally favorable to Blizzard either though. I’m just saying, it has shifted around, back and forth, over time. Sometimes the game was doing better, other times the game was doing worse. Sometimes the people beat down on the forums the most were people complaining, and sometimes the people beat down on the forum the most were the people defending Blizzard. You can see it between expansions (the anti-Blizzard sentiment of WoD was massive, while Legion had a very strong mix of pro-Blizzard sentiment, with people defending the game against attacks as one of the best expansions Blizzard had ever put out). Sometimes you see those types of shifts within a single expansion.
For instance, MoP started out pretty negative (a lot of people didn’t like the general panda theme, and there was a lot of irritation at how grindy it was in the launch patch for endgam). But over time the forums got very positive towards MoP. You could see the shift happening as a direct result of the changes Blizzard made. Negativity started to rise again towards the end because of the “content drought.”
Sorry to ramble this long in reply to your post, a lot of this wasn’t really directly in reply to you, it was just kind of a larger point I wanted to make in the topic of the thread.
The forum’s never been this negative towards Blizzard itself certainly. The ratio of posts attacking Blizzard vs. posts attacking complainers has shifted enormously in the direction of attacking Blizzard. No question this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.
But the idea that these players would just leave if things were as bad as they say kind of underestimates the complexity of the game. The game’s not like a single player game after all - a lot of people have social bonds within the game. And the game itself has many different types of content. Someone posting about how they think PvE has become absolute garbage might still enjoy PvP, or vice versa. Someone who hates all the stuff within BFA content might still enjoy legacy content and leveling. There are even some people, believe it or not, who really enjoy working on pet collections and pet battles.
In a way, it’s probably an under-talked about strength. People can absolutely loathe what has happened in one area of the game, but STILL find enough worth doing in other sections.
It’s rare for a poster who is negative about BFA to actually take the stance that they hate every single aspect of the game. Usually the rage is very directed at one or a small handful of aspects.
I’d say just taking a gander around the internet in general, even outside of these forums, and it’s not WoW culture that’s dissolved into anything, it’s Blizzard’s brand value that’s just taking hit after hit after hit. They’re making one mistake after another.
And yeah, a lot of people who quit the game say nothing when they leave. Most who quit say nothing. A lot of the people complaining are the people who have seen their friends list go from being a large list of people online to do content with to being a wasteland of people who have been offline for months. And they know why their friends quit. And they know those reasons are legitimate reasons, and it bothers them too, but there are still some parts of the game they themselves like.
Blizzard would be foolish not to listen to their complaints. The idea that it’s safe to assume they aren’t sincere about the problems (because they themselves haven’t quit yet) is a really dangerous approach for Blizzard to take.
Well, yes and no. People who are (or were) pro-Blizzard’s current approach to something are also on the forums tons. That said, the amount of time they spend on the forums will usually be reduced if they’re enjoying the game more. But they’ll still be on the forums regularly. Some people just like to read opinions and share opinions, and that’s really the main demographic of who participates on the forums.
The other thing is that a lot of people multi-task. The game often requires waiting around for things. Waiting for queues to pop. Waiting around in a raid group for PvE or PvP while the raid leader takes time to form the raid and fill up the slots. Waiting for a friend to log in who you plan to run some dungeons with. Waiting for your raid to pull the next boss because the tank had to take a 5 minute bathroom break. I sometimes feel like I get 2/3rds of my internet browsing done, and 1/2 of my posting done, while alt tabbed in the game waiting on something.
Also, no way to know what ratio this would be, but I’ve always suspected that a metric ton of the posting that happens on the WoW forum is being done by people when they’re at work. It’s not that they’re choosing to do the forum rather than play the game, it’s that they’re bored at work and getting away with some procrastination behavior, but it’s not like they can install the game on their work computer.
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Ive seen my fair share of topics where some guy just says something, and in the middle of saying something makes an off the cuff remark that maybe vaguely references something political. Then they just leave while everyone is seething with the irresistible urge to argue their point. You can make a game of it if you’re bored enough
If I went into work as a little ball of rage trash-talking everybody I would be fired instantly. Or my work would make it mandatory that I saw therapist before I could return. However you do that online and you get 15000 followers.
The fact that this is become the norm and it’s just okay with everybody is the problem and it’s also become the norm on these forms and that’s the point I was trying to make that’s what bothers me
yeah…no you don’t in the slightest lmao.
I’m still having fun too. How many 15 year old games doing this well? I don’t know.
All the complaints I hear are the same complaints I heard 15 years ago when I started. WoW always been grindy and it is less so now than it was in my experience. And you get more for grinding than you did in the past.
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Many older games are growing, rather than shrinking.
You good Orc. Me like you
I mean thats your work, all im telling you is that if you set out a dish of vinegar and a dish of honey, flies will actually take to the vinegar more.
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Like…? Genuinely curious.
Which 15 year old games growing? I’d like to have that list. I don’t know many such old games growing. Sounds like someone saying something based on confirmation bias than reality. I know of no friends that are playing 15 year old games unless they’re a retro-gamer for competition or playing a new iteration of an older game.
I love people like you you’re the ones who walk into a room full of everyone yelling at each other and Shout "Hey Guys! The Sun is Out!’
There are people that make life worse and there are people that make bad days more bearable.
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I’ve had my issues over the years. I always come back. No matter what, Blizzard has ALWAYS made games that are easy to learn and hard to master. Their minute to minute gameplay in every genre is smooth as butter and best in class. And yes, that even applies to a certain remaster getting downvoted to oblvion as we speak. Runs flawlessly, feels light as air to play. Moreover, the amount of hours of entertainment I get for what I pay from their games is simply unmatched.
People like you or would I call Silver Lining people.
It’s like last summer at work everyone was complaining in the meeting about how hot it was. One person spoke up and reminded us all did our air-conditioning division made a 500% profit. Everyone stopped complaining and started smiling
I’m an eternal optimist
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you okay op?
Need a hug or something?
