What would it take to restore my confidence in Blizzard?
Consistent results.
As of late, Blizzard has a long record of missing the mark they set for themselves.
- BfA was supposed to be an expansion about faction pride! The Horde can be proud of being genocidal zealots willing to follow the nearest zombie that shouts, “Lok’tar Ogar”, and the Alliance can be proud of being humans or having your house burnt down.
- Azerite armor was supposed to fix the problems Artifacts had. They didn’t playtest this gimmick at all before it came out.
- Corruption was supposed to replace titanforging as a cool, new bit of RNG. It still had the problems of titanforging, but with a different coat of paint.
- Island expeditions were supposed to be entirely new content generated each game! But, they all felt the same.
- Warfronts.
- The art team has gotten the budget for brilliant, CGI and more animations than they know what to do with! But, the story team is too far up their own rears to put together a single, satisfying beat.
- Garrisons were supposed to be player housing! They most certainly were not.
- A chief complaint of BfA was having too many overlapping systems and chores. They kept chores in Shadowlands, but reduced them to weekly instead of daily. However, the made the rewards cost too much to ever reasonably see. And then they started Shadowlands off with just as many systems as BfA had to end with!
- They led us to believe customization was going to last all expansion, but they still missed some big fan requests, and the discrepancy between the top and bottom races is laughable.
Prediction on 9.1 Screw Up
They’ve said they’re going to scrap the rep grind requirements for flying. Which sounds great, but they’re instead making us farm renown for it. I’m going to guess the grind is just as long and tedious for Shadowlands flying as it was for Legion and BfA, because Blizzard hasn’t figured out (or don’t care) why we didn’t like the rep grind.
So… I’ve seen a ton of suggestions I agree with.
Yes, I’d love to see Kotick kicked just as much as the next guy. I wish Hazzikostas and Danuser were replaced (maybe not fired, but like… returned to an individual contributor role). I’d love to see player housing and improved feedback and more customization and a better story and an old-world update.
However, none of that guarantees that any of it will be good. Blizzard just has a talent of taking a good, simple idea and implementing it precisely the wrong way. Replacing Hazzikostas and Danuser doesn’t mean we’ll get a better replacement. They’ve already messed up player housing once. They’ve already missed the mark on customization. They think they’re telling an amazing story right now, and some people are lapping it all up.
Frankly, I want to see them make another Legion. Sure, Legion had its flaws, but it didn’t beat you over the head with them like BfA and Shadowlands have. An expansion that isn’t perfect, but is simple and enjoyable. That takes the highlights of the game and builds on them and doesn’t try to reinvent the core gameplay loop of WoW. That tells a simple story, but a fun one.
Then, I want to see them do it again. Look at WoD, Legion, BfA, and now Shadowlands. Legion is really shaping up to be a “one hit wonder”, like they just stumbled into fun design. If they want my confidence? They need to be able to make Legion consistently.
There is no short-term fix that could restore my confidence in Blizzard. It would take at least two expansions of consistently creating an enjoyable gameplay and story experience. Of making promises and delivering on them. Then take that, and make three-out-of-four expansions good! Make the bad expansions the exception instead of the rule, and then I’ll have confidence in them again.
And if they could wipe those smug grins off their faces while they do it? All the better.
