Most Upvoted WoW Reddit Topic - A Letter

Community General Discussion
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25k+ upvotes on Reddit. A Letter to Blizzard - Couldn’t have summed up my feelings about this game any better…
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/a7rrmy/a_letter_to_blizzard_entertainment/?utm_source=reddit-android

358 Likes
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That guy hit the nail on the head on everything he wrote. But in my opinion, I think its too late for Blizz now…

125 Likes
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I will say, this was incredibly well-written and the fact that it has gone viral and is now being carried across multiple channels and gotten the attention of industry publications speaks volumes about the apparent disconnect between players and the company.

I believe that either Blizzard will right the ship and rediscover what it is to make great games that are easy to play, challenging to master, and widely accessible by gamers of all playstyles; or, another company will. Already, there are signs that Epic with Fortnite, and CD Projekt Red with its Witcher Series and other games, are moving into this position.

A couple of more thoughts:

  1. When a company produces great widgets and gadgets, it often loses the ability to innovate. You often see this in hardware, but even great commoditized software as well. Blizzard has been printing money with its games for decades, because of the high quality and relatively unassailable competition for its artwork. But industry trends have moved towards multi-platform, and Blizzard needs to catch up. This is a distraction that potentially threatens its core demographic today.

  2. Activision has had a lackluster year, and as the parent company, it is looking to Blizzard to drive its profitability. You’ve seen this with an increasing emphasis on EBITDA to drive margins higher. However, this, too, can be a distraction. There are some good decisions being made now at Blizzard with bulking up development teams with good talent, and shedding distracting experiments (like Heroes of the Storm eSports, which was never a compelling Blizzard game to begin with and was, at best, a “me too” DOTA creation). World of Warcraft is, however, at an existential pivot. It is a beautiful game, and this expansion, despite all of its critical flaws and panned reception, is a work of art - from its gorgeous landscapes to its compelling storyline. And yet, the gameplay that made other Blizzard titles polished, cohesive, and compelling has been lacking this expansion.

They will make things right. Too many market forces are arrayed to ensure Blizzard is successful, and the consequences for failing are too high. I have faith.

38 Likes
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Then people will be complaining that it is still not how they want to play it. How it should be only.

No matter what they do. No matter what change/idea they try, there will be people posting about how they are wrong and how they think that it should be.

WOW is played by many types of players. Why do we all have to play the same exact way as one?

People will keep complaining over and over and over about WOW is. How is “should” be, etc.

There will never be any satisfying them. They will always find something to complain about. But still play and pay even tho they say that they hate playing and how it is now “compared to Vanilla”, etc.

28 Likes
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I read it on reddit this morning. I haven’t been around long enough to have seen the major shifts, but certainly agree with his criticisms and appreciate his pov. I’m still out of likes from supporting the dissent in the “removing 110+ lvl locking thread”, so just posting to show my support.

21 Likes
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It was a well written letter from what seems to be a hardcode fan like many of us are. It’s sad to see what Wow/Blizz has gotten to. I created a reddit account just to upvote that.

38 Likes
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He had me up to the point where he started talking about being emotionally invested in the game… lol.

Guess he hasn’t heard next summer classic is here for him.

See this is me, for wow.

At the core of all that is the ridiculous idea that customers want to engage with companies and have conversations and relationships and other such nonsense. I don’t care a thing for the companies whose products I buy. I don’t want a relationship with Coke. I don’t visit fan forums for Tide. And I will never pay any amount of money to watch or attend a Levi’s convention. I just want good products, at reasonable prices.

I 'm not a fan of corporations the way that I’m a fan of the Denver Broncos. I don’t yell at the TV when I see a stupid McDonald’s commercial like I do when Case Keenum throws another interception. I’m not emotionally invested in Nike or Google. I don’t want whoever runs those companies to be fired when things go poorly the same way I think Vance Joseph should be fired from the Broncos.

4 Likes
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Well Happy Holidays to you too.

5 Likes
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I’ll never forget traipsing through the snow and climbing the hill to see Ironforge for the first time. I’ve loved World of Warcraft (and you, Blizzard) ever since.

I stopped at the part where he directly parroted the Vanilla trailer;

Trite, deliberate, heartstrings-pulling grousing.

8 Likes
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" You stopped making an MMORPG years ago. Instead, you turned WoW into an elaborate fantasy-themed casino replicator. It’s a third-person looter-shooter designed to string players out like addicts looking for a fix."

This was a good one lol.

70 Likes
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Says a lot about reddit imho. Not in a good way either.

15 Likes
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“You no longer see me as a player, but as a payer”

Hey Activizzard, read Atlas Shrugged. Bring back makers not takers and get rid or management by having the most “pull” instead of the best and brightest.

18 Likes
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It would make for a great xmas present :slight_smile:

5 Likes
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Well I can only hope that Santa brings me my present which is a break in the Blizzard hate on the forums. Not sure even Santa can make that happen though- there are too many self-involved people here.

7 Likes
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So you didn’t read the entire letter which made alot of good points because you didn’t like one sentence, yet still felt the need to comment. Okay.

62 Likes
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You glossed over it.

He specifically touched on classic and said it’s going to fail to capture the magic it did originally.

People will play out of nostalgia or curiosity, but players won’t have that same drive to log in and play like we did before.

Especially the players who can in after Mists.

39 Likes
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But it’s not accurate.

1 Like
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Glad that you were able to parse a video game forum comment. We were all pulling for you. :+1:

“You no longer see me as a player, but as a payer”

A line that someone else noted above. Why is your generation so allergic to capitalism?

2 Likes
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It’s a bit overly emotional, but people are pretty upset right now and I think that should be the big take away for Blizzard.

The RNG loot machines are exhausting, class design is pretty crap, the GCD change is garbage, removing loot options from guilds hasn’t helped them, the guild UI is garbage, Islands are EPIC garbage. They should stop trying to fix things that aren’t broke and iterating on stupid junk no one asked for.

Class design especially can’t survive under this model of expansion specific character progression. Because when that expansion goes away, so does everything that made your class play worth a darn. It took until 7.2.5 to fix most of the Legion classes, lord only knows how long it will take to fix BfA classes. You can’t have terrible classes for half of every new expansion, that ain’t it chief. When you combine that with the GCD change that does nothing but slow down and interrupt these incomplete classes even more? YIKES

48 Likes
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Rarely do I agree whole heartedly with anything on Reddit. This time, I do. I have zero nostalgia for classic other than the friendships I had back then. My class was underwhelming and weak.

Legion felt right, we didn’t get any new talents but artifact talents and legendaries more than made up a thing we were all used to getting. The story line was amazing, the lore was engaging.

BfA just fell short and it seems like they’re taking a really long time to fix it. Granted they have a lot to fix, but still, they should be telling us what they plan to change and how so at least we have something to look forward to other than daily emissary quest and boring warfronts.

19 Likes