The problem is the things they chose to hold on to versus the things they changed.
There’s so much potential still in this game while keeping its roots. I truely hope they find that balance.
7 Likes
I wonder do any of WoW’s devs play other MMOs. You have a lot of MMOs where the devs cite playing WoW but I don’t really see that from WoW. Stubbornness and traditionalism does not have a place in MMOs because they are supposed to be living worlds. Those are things that hold games back from changing and growing.
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As casual, I assure you, its a perfect comparison.
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Here’s a thought. Balance the classes. The maw is he ruining the story for when gameplay is lousy.
WoW can’t support two factions anymore due to the free fall of subs. When WoW had 12 M subs they could have two sides. However, WoW is currently hoover at around 1 M.
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LMAO that’s a generous way of putting it
There’s not much they can do with the overwhelming majority of competitive players being horde. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out.
Cracking down on rmt boosting and merging the factions will help people find groups. The game is practically dead on alliance
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Spot on correct. What irks me is that they’re acting like this is primarily just to give the players something they’ve been asking for.
The reality is that they’ve profoundly mismanaged the faction divide for years on end, just sitting back and watching, doing nothing, as more and more and more people flocked to the Horde in unprecedented numbers.
The fact that they’re having to take steps to make cross faction instancing possible is a huge, just astoundingly enormous embarrassment to them. I hope people realize that.
Or… everyone just drink the kool-aid and think all of this is just to give us something we’ve been asking for.
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Don’t forget they were stubborn about the covenants being a choice too. Stubborn about removing conduit energy. Stubborn about letting players fly.
Enough is enough
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Or them just finally admitting what we already knew. They screwed the Alliance high end content over years ago and there is no way to fix it this last stage of the game.
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Ion’s statement really puts a twist in my knickers.
I suggest Ion and ALL of the other developers that proudly announce that they are “stubborn” and “traditionalist” stop for a moment and take a look at the CORE VALUES that are supposedly still a part of Blizzard.
GAMEPLAY FIRST - Everything we do at Blizzard Entertainment is based on the success of the gaming experiences we provide our players. The goal of each discipline within the company – be it art, programming or customer support – is to make our games as fun as possible for as many people as we can reach.
COMMIT TO QUALITY - “Blizzard polish” doesn’t just refer to our gameplay experiences, but to every aspect of our jobs. We approach each task carefully and seriously. We seek honest feedback and use it to improve the quality of our work. At the end of the day, most players won’t remember whether the game was late – only whether it was great.
PLAY NICE;PLAY FAIR - In our business first impressions are important – but lasting impressions are everything. We strive to maintain a high level of respect and integrity in all interactions with our players, colleagues, and business partners. The conduct of each Blizzard Entertainment employee, whether online or offline, can reflect on the entire company.
EMBRACE YOUR INNER GEEK - Everyone here is a geek at heart. Cutting-edge technology, comic books, science fiction, top-end video cards, action figures with the kung-fu grip…. Whatever it is they’re passionate about, it matters that each employee embraces it! Their unique enthusiasm helps to shape the fun, creative culture that is Blizzard Entertainment.
LEARN AND GROW - The games industry is ever-changing. Technology improves, techniques change, and design philosophies become outdated. Since the founding of Blizzard Entertainment, we’ve worked to improve through experience, teaching one another and cultivating the desire to be the best at what we do. We see this as an individual responsibility as well as a company one. Employees can count on their peers, managers, and the company itself to be supportive and help them gain the knowledge and training they need.
THINK GLOBALLY - Everywhere on the planet there are people who play Blizzard Entertainment games. While respecting the cultural diversity that makes people unique, we strive to grow and support our global gaming community. We also seek the most passionate, talented people in the world to enrich our company and help us forge the future vision of Blizzard Entertainment.
LEAD RESPONSIBLY - Our products and practices can affect not only our employees and players – but the industry at large. As one of the world’s leading game companies, we’re committed to making ethical decisions, always keeping our players in mind, and setting a strong example of professionalism and excellence at all times.
and last - but certainly not least:
EVERY VOICE MATTERS - Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas.
They need to take a good, long look at those values (and at what Blizzard has stated that those values actually mean), then do a little introspection and see just how far their stubbornness and traditionalism have led them from what is really important.
In my opinion, they have either failed or done very poorly at each of those core values.
It is so sad that they have put their ego and pride ahead of producing a game that gamers want to play.
Very sad.
But - on the upside - the recent changes are at least a token effort to maybe begin to improve things.
Edited to add the definition of each core value as found on Blizzard’s website.
38 Likes
Sad, but needed.
At least they are now self-aware.
1 Like
Either way the philosophy applies. Because it’s with everything. You have to change with the times or wither away.
Now we need more factions. Like a dozen more. I never could figure out how some races were drawn into one or the other. It should be more like Pandas. We do an intro whereby we judge the actions of each one
1 Like
This. So. Much. This.
Instead of making two concurrent and sometimes overlapping stories based on faction, Blizzard have always opted to bring in neutral factions to tell a singular story with only one narrative line. In the process, they’ve stripped the factions of their identities and left them hollow shells.
Imagine if instead of the Silver Hand becoming the Argent Dawn and then the Argent Crusade, that the Horde had developed it’s own Paladin order instead. Imagine if the Cenarion Circle had grown to welcome Shamans in the Alliance, while the Earthen Ring embraced Horde Druids, rather than sending both groups into neutrality. Imagine if the Horde actually did something with the Magisters as an organization, rather than Blizzard constantly flip-flopping Dalaran’s allegiance between Alliance and Neutral.
That’s to say nothing of how any of our playable races or their nations never get any kind of development, unless they’re brand new. Stormwind is such a generic human kingdom that it only stopped being interchangeable with every other kingdom when Blizzard started making the other kingdoms different. Orgrimmar is Orc town, but so generically so, not giving us any insight into the old clans, their traditions and histories.
Blizzard failed to do anything with the factions that wasn’t tearing them down.
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quietly nudges some other pillars to check how deeply they are still rooted 
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Translation:
“We’ve lost a ton of subs in the last year and hope this will at least stem the tide and maybe even bring in a bunch of new/returning players.”
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Funny thing is that letting us fly during an expansion’s launch patch would be the traditional approach.
It’s Ion’s War on Flying that’s the New Thinking (and needs to stop).
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This guy i wouldn’t trust to tie his own shoes. So of course he ruins the whole story of the game with some bogus ideology.
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