I’ll be honest. I truly hope that this is a hoax. I’m pretty sure that it is. Yet because it is being discussed and circulated by others, for the sake of the hypothetical, I will outline how I would respond to such news and what I believe it would mean to me as a long time customer of Blizzard Entertainment if that were the course taken.
To preface. I have played this game from week one of classic. I played Warcraft 1 and 2 and 3 prior. If they, they being Blizzard Entertainment choose to pack up their toys and go home, rather than doing the required work… yet again, then I gotta level. There is absolutely NO way in utter hell I would ever play any new World of Warcraft title or anything else from whatever Blizzard morphs into. How can I trust you with Diablo, if you burned it all down with Warcraft?
I will tell you why I can’t.
A long post incoming, but worth reading if you care about the company as I do.
A.) Minimal Effort:
Ever since this game started, it’s had one big issue. That it was fun, yes but it could of been so very much more. The biggest issue in WoW was and is wasted potential. At least since WoD on players have been waiting for Blizzard to realize this and to make changes to rekindle that potential. In short players have waited for Blizzard to have a ‘come to Jesus’ moment.
B.) Delusions of Self-Importance:
Issue B ties into Issue A heavily. Instead, Blizzard Developers have stubbornly and ignorantly, ignored and disregarded thousands of pages of feedback for a study of nearly two decades.
They seem to have only contempt for people who earnestly post ideas or solutions. Most of those players were only posting the ideas because they wanted the game to be better. Some of the ideas may of been bad. Others might of been excellent. But at least you had players that were willing to give a crap.
Yet even if the ideas were posted in the most respectful way possible, it usually resulted in snide responses at best from the Blues. Other times the suggestion was something so fundamentally simple that the only reason it was ignored or dismissed was because it made things ‘too much fun’.
Why? Not sure, but it definitely seems like it is because they are always reaching for the lowest hanging fruit, a minimal effort, or really were too absorbed in metrics to remember that this was and remains a game. Not a job.
C.) Toxicity from Developers, leads to toxicity from Players:
Some of us remember various Developers statements. I remember the Beta where you had MVPs as T-Rex avatars harassing players. I remember the good ones, like Tseric and the crappy ones like Rygarius and Mr. “Paladins are a Support Class” Kalgan.
Some of us have not forgotten what was said and see the same still happening. So if that’s been the case since forever, why in the hell should we trust that things will change since the same company oversees them even still? Change the name and expect a change?
Nope. I will not.
D.) Player Agency / Investment:
As a player, I’ve built a lot of things over 18 years time. If you think I’m going to appreciate the deletion of all of that stuff, or just blithely throw all that away to join a new WoW II because Blizzard or “Insight” decides to pull the plug when the game is still fully capable? You are mistaken.
There would be nothing you could say, or produce that would make me change my mind. Why is this? Because you were not good stewards of the game, the lore, or the players the first time. Let’s be honest. You weren’t very good with Diablo II the first time either.
I remember countless “Realm Down” messages, and it made me almost not buy WoW in 2004. Glad I did as I made friends and it was good, though always hobbled by Blizzard’s stubborn ‘rockstar’ behavior.
E.) Standing for Nothing, Division on Everything:
I’ve already got serious issues with this company’s employment practices and it’s ongoing efforts to appease fringe minorities on the internet. Why would I spend my money on a company that has ample temerity, yet lacks the will to censure employees that insult it’s player base? I will not.
Deal with your own house before you talk down to players and attack us for the problems in your company. We the players did not do any of the things that got you investigated. WE did not hire the sexists, racists etc. That was you. That is all on you, reinforced every time you refuse to censure them while they say rotten things about the players on Twitter.
If you remove a NPC to one individual because of X, remove the other one when another does the same. Excusing a person’s behavior because of their gender, race, orientation, etc…
Well, that just makes me want to go elsewhere because it’s clear then you have the wrong people internally and those people are simply using a bad situation to their advantage not unlike what happened when Activision bought Blizzard from Vivendi.
F.) Continuity must be Continuity:
WoW II can only works if player characters move with it. Without that it’s the end of an era and I like many others will leave it as that, while avoiding and cutting away from a company that has strung it’s players along and fed them lie upon lie upon lie.
I say this because if you think I’ve got some sort of nostalgia that will draw me to come and check out WoW II? You think wrong. I will only give Blizzard time of day if they change, and show the positive change by embodying it.
Look it’s really simple. Fact is I cannot trust the company to get WoW II right if they decided to rage-quit WoW I and then tried to convince me they have “changed”. Nope. As Gandalf says to Saruman, “the guest that escapes via the roof will think twice before using the front door.”
You want to make WoW respectable again? You want to make this game rival FFXIV?
That game is World of Warcraft. Not a successor. Understand that fact.
So now that we’ve gotten through all that, here’s solutions.
Here’s how you fix this game. These are just my personal pet peeves, so if others have suggestions I would be very happy if they listed serious, or reasonable suggestions in this thread. While I doubt Blizzard will pay attention (as they never have) if the game is to end, I’ll go out doing my best to the end.
Solutions:
1.) Merge Factions. No more Alliance and Horde outside PVP.
2.) Content without time-gates. If employees won’t work, find those that will.
3.) No more E-Sports. PVP is not your future. Call of Duty has that covered.
4.) Playable Ogres. More importantly? Coherent story. Sylvanas’ redemption is bad.
5.) Ability Customization. IE: Shamans can throw “Death Bolts” instead of Lava Burst.
6.) Player Housing.
7.) Professions fixed.
8.) Full communication weekly or monthly. Defined plans players are included in.
9.) Massively improved customization of character avatars.
10.) Stop wasting your resources on Classic Servers. Merge Classic to Retail.
11.) Understand that you have squandered all ‘good will’ and ‘good faith’.
12.) Understand that this can only be repaired with honesty and will take time.
1.) Merging Factions is actually a very simple flagging process in the engine. You simply change all flags to the same faction. The Pandaren showcase this well in their zone. The game assigns a flag that marks you friendly or unfriendly and then everything else is built off this flag. Alter it and the race can be mailed gold, join guilds, communicate etc. That is what should be changed.
Horde and Alliance would and should still exist, but the system of how the game treats enemies would need a revamp. I think having factions which are neutral and which players pledge to like factions or Covenants would solve this.
In Capital Cities, everyone is expected to behave as per a sanctuary.
Make specific Capitals that can be raided in War Mode and go from there.
In Battle-grounds your Faction or Covenant choice would matter, being only overwritten by the Guild you are pledged to. This would make Guilds in turn a much more important thing, which is long overdue for more relevance.
Additionally I would keep the Factions that exist a thing. To enter a City like say Stormwind, as an Orc or Troll; you’d have to do quests and rep with the group to eventually earn the right to enter. That’s a solid way of keeping Factions, but also blurring them enough so in time they fall away.
Reputation would of course necessarily need to be turned Account Wide. This is something Players wanted for a while and which is overdue for implementation.
2.) When I say no more excuses, I mean no more halfway non-committal answers. Like what happened in BFA where they strung players along on Zandalari and Kul’Tirans until players were near ready to revolt. No one appreciates being treated like that. Give a solid answer or don’t give one at all.
3.) E-Sports and PVP are and have been the cancer of this game from day one. All bad balance ideas and a mass of the toxicity of the game can be traced back to PVP which is at it’s core about dominating other players and doing things ranging from /spitting to doing worse to the player corpse or so on.
WoW was never intended to be an E-Sport. It should remain an RPG first and foremost. That means while Battle-grounds and War-Mode have their place, neither should ever be more important than the actual game. Sylvanas rage is tied to this.
As a character goes, she has caused more strife in the factions and was used to justify the wars, and hate more than any other. Thus a redemption for such a character is in many ways suspension of belief at best, and ham-fisted at worst. I will reserve final judgment till I see how they end the story but one must remember all the events from Wrathgate to BFA. Giving a pass because half her soul was missing, is just poor story-telling.
4.) Ogres. I mention this because it’s a no-brainer that should of been in the Classic Game. Simple no brainers are sometimes the best solution. If you have a issue with X. You find a solution for X. You do not go. “Oh well” and ignore the issue for 18 years.
5.) When I say ability customization, I mean what City of Heroes had. A system like Transmog where a Class opens a panel and can tailor their spells to different hues and effects so that their avatar truly represents them.
This means if you wanted to be a Dark Shaman, you could tailor your Lava Burst to say Magatha’s “Shadow Burst” or if you were a Paladin, you could shift your abilities to Blood Red or Silver representing Blood Elves or -gasp- Night Elven abilities. In essence? More Green-Fire oriented quests.
6.) Big in Final Fantasy. Was intended in the original WoW. Should be added. You can have items drop from bosses or be crafted. This would improve the playability and add a true gold sink to the game as it would be strictly cosmetic. Cosmetics are the future of WoW.
7.) This ties directly into 6. Professions need to matter again. I have a Blacksmith who has maxed out from Classic to Shadowlands. I rarely if EVER craft anything. The system that was made for Legendaries could of worked, but it was far too prohibitive in how the upgraded versions were made.
There should be perks for each Profession. A smith for example should be able to repair or even improve their weapons. An Alchemist? Perhaps should be able to blend Flasks to use two at once. Some random ideas but there’s plenty of room.
The point is no one is using them right now, and that’s a issue. You know and I know people log in, do Korthia Crystal quests and Dailies and then log out. That should not be the premier Gold generation method. Callings that relied on your vocation and were more lucrative than a normal set might be a solution.
8.) More communication. I don’t care if it’s weekly or monthly, but a simple 10 minute fireside chat where you discuss plans for the future would go far to calming most people’s concerns about the game being ‘adrift at sea’.
Whatever you say? Follow through. If you can’t? Own up to it, explain why you can’t. Explain what changed and then where you go next. Players will be reasonable and if they aren’t they couldn’t of been convinced anyways.
9.) Customization and Character Avatars are how players interact with WoW. So that should be a core priority. It is one that has been over neglected for too long. Address this. Merge races that should be, like Mag’har and Orc, High Mountain and Tauren, Human and Kul’Tiran, Dwarf and Dark Iron and then give both groups access to all of the customization options the other has.
Keep a few limits where Lore applies, like no fire-beards for non Dark-Irons but loosen up significantly and then expand what you have. Ample numbers of fan-renditions exist. Buy the artists work, hire them and implement them. Most would do this work as a labor of love.
10.) Classic Servers should of never been added. You kissed up to a pack of IP Pirates and divided the player base. That was the Everquest error too. If you want to bring Classic back, bring it to retail.
How you do, is malleable. I recommend a Caverns of Time Portal that connects Old Azeroth to new Cataclysm era Azeroth. This also frees you for other revamps of the world if you decide to do so in the future. You could then easily add a new portal to Cataclysm Era WoW, if say you made a “Light Assaulted Azeroth” world.
Let’s be honest. You already have crossed the rubicon by allowing people on the BC Classic Servers to raid Naxx so what does it matter now? The dilemma and problem to solve shouldn’t be “We can’t allow this because it invalidates X player’s past achievement”.
Rather the solution should be. “How can we add this, while making the difficulty comparable to what X player did in 2006?” This logic then could be applied to MoP’s Challenge Modes and to the Legion Mage Tower as well.
11.) Not taking the bull by the horns sooner and offering non-commital podcasts, instead of acting with bold and decisive steps to solve the problems has squandered almost all of the good will Blizzard built since the 90s. You need to accept that you will not be treated as rock-stars. Not for a very, very long time. Honestly that ego is what contributed to the downfall.
You as a collective blew it. Making a mistake is fine. But now you have to learn from it.
That means rage-quitting and putting WoW in Maintenance mode will only engender more anger and ill-will. No one can trust you with WoW II if you can’t fix WoW I. You can claim I don’t know what I’m saying, but I’ve got a hunch I do. Judging that we’re in this situation, time seems to prove me right and the guys who were let go, wrong.
12.) You can rebuild WoW back better than it was and also easily compete with Final Fantasy. Yes there is a lot of bloat to WoW, but what do you expect? The game is 18 years old. Rather than treating that as an unsurmountable enemy, why not use the massive amounts of backdrop you have?
Smaller scaled missions that sent players back to Argus, Kul’Tiras or other forgotten vistas using the phasing technology could make WoW arguably the largest game world in existence. Especially if you added new quests in those zones.
Older zones should not become irrelevant because of the expansion. A good example is Ardenweald and Drustvar. You have to go back to Drustvar to speak to a Thornspeaker. More stuff like this would be a good thing. Make us believe the game-world is a coherent and breathing world. Not, 'This time on World of Warcraft Z!"
Closing:
You can rebuild the trust you lost. Both in the professional sector, and with your players. But it will take time and humility. If you make a good faith effort to do so, it will be reciprocated. If you offer half-way efforts, that too will be reciprocated. It’s really that simple.
Good luck Blizzard. Hope you make the right call.
Just remember that if you rage-quit the game, you are going to be NCSoft 2.0.
And remember this fact. Yes, we pay you for content. But the content’s quality, and the timing of content’s release is the ultimate issue here. It is not the game. Timegating is not helping the matter. It just angers your players further. If your employees can’t hack it, hire those who can and offer them a wage that isn’t borderline poverty. You have a entire playerbase which would be happy to assist.
But that leads to the elephant in the room.,
The ultimate problem you have, is that there are/were? some bad eggs in upper management that partly due to political ideologies, and partly due to personal biases, severely resent the idea of WoW ever being better. They see things like WoW as the problem.
It is because of this rotten core, that they hire tired and passionless individuals who would rather gossip about office politics instead of working on stories about Jaina, Thrall, Uther, Arthas etc. as the players want. Those same people would also much rather crawl over broken glass than see the game succeed and see their ‘vision’ proven wrong.
Clean up the nonsense, and quick or learn how little ‘ruin’ you have left.
Edit: Because I don’t want the leak posted in picture format, I am removing it on the advice of my non-existent fiduciary consultants, in whom I have complete and total faith of their sincerity. Honest.
Edit#2:
Despite the contempt from various posters, I’ll go into detail in this post about the 12 points I made. I do this because unlike most of the negative posters on this thread, I do genuinely want to see the game succeed and the anger that I and many other players have; comes primarily because we know that it can succeed; but we also are very aware that there is a desire from many to see it fail.
Try to remember who really matters. The player that comes to Blizzcon in Dreadmist attire. The player that helps a total stranger out in the open game world. The players who try to be positive despite all the negativity. Those few are here because the game matters.
If they don’t matter to you, then you’ve lost more than your way, you’ve lost your soul.
