All Hail Our Blizzard Overlords?
I’m not going to rehash everything that has been said about Blizzcon. The short and sweet description is that very little happened or was announced. I am however, going to talk about the culture of Blizzard Developers, and my perception, of their perception, of their customer base. The following post is completely, 100%, just Rer’s opinion. Seriously, its a blog post, not a press release.
Despite my recent comeback to World of Warcraft and the awesome fun I’m having, after I first left the game I quickly realized something, Blizzard is full of assholes. Now yes, that’s hyperbolic, argumentative, and way overly simplified, so let me try to bring some examples to light via other blogs.
First, from The Pink Pigtail Inn, we have a question from Blizzcon:
Question:
“I love what you guys have done with WoW, I love that there’s a lot of strong female characters, though I wonder if we can have some that didn’t look like they came out of a Victoria’s Secrets catalogue? ”Answer:
“Which catalogue would you like them step out of then? We feel ya, we want to vary our female chars more in the future. So yeah we’ll pick different catalogues.”
REALLY Blizz? That’s your answer? What have you been in your dark, closed off, secret underground development rooms for so long that you forgot simple social etiquette? This is a convention where people paid a lot of money just so they could talk to you guys face to face. Now look, I’m a guy, and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never been a very vocal gamer about women’s equality in regards to character creation and the stigmas surrounding it. That said, this question is completely legitimate (if worded a little badly), and from the perspective of someone who didn’t go to, or watch, BlizzCon, this answer looks very cold, snobbish, and just downright rude. I don’t think everyone was expecting a grand speech or anything, but Blizzard could have easily discussed how they have moved on from past years of Chain-Mail Bikinis to much more realistic (in terms of body coverage) sets of armor in Lich King and Cataclysm.
In a perfect Cataclysmic world, I think its about damn time Blizzard released new character models. Why should my Human Mage have to look like he’s been to the gym for 3 hours everyday? I don’t look like that, and quite frankly I don’t want to look like that. If there was a more scrawny looking character, in all honesty I’d choose that in a heartbeat. For Human Females its even worse, they’re all Barbies. Again, for me these things aren’t such a big deal, but the way Blizzard approaches them I find intolerable.
Next up, we have an excellent point from Syp over at BioBreak:
And more than anything else, Blizzard has set itself apart from the rest of its MMO brethren. I hate this. It’s like if there’s a huge family with lots of kids, and one becomes super-successful and stops talking to the rest of the family altogether, because who needs them? BlizzCon is symbolic of how Blizzard is flipping the bird to other conventions and the rest of the MMO industry, because who needs them? They’re totally cool with every other MMO mentioning WoW in interviews, but when’s the last time you heard a Blizzard dev reference a game other than their own?
And its sadly true, Blizzard does appear to put itself up on a throne above all others. I mean sure, World of Warcraft does have the most subscribers of any MMO, and that’s to be commended. That said, I don’t think its fair to separate WoW from all other MMOs just on the basis that it has more subscribers. Look at Warhammer Online, it may have a smaller community, but in my opinion it is the *best* community. Does that mean WAR should host its own conventions, or is on a mantle above every other game? No, not at all.
Now you may think “But Rer, Blizzard has the resources to host its own conventions, and clearly they have been successful!” Fair point, but now look at this year… nothing. Blizzard announced the Demon Hunter in Diablo 3, WHOOP-DE-DOO… Blizzard may have the resources and money to host their own convention, but if the convention lacks any substance then what is the point of having it at all? Would it really be “so humiliating” to just go to GenCon or PAX and release things there when clearly they have nothing else of importance to announce? Nah, who am I kidding, Blizzard can’t socialize with the likes of other gaming companies, that’d just be barbaric.
I mean seriously, an excellent comment I read went along the lines of “Do you see BioWare hosting their own conventions? They release higher quality games in shorter timeframes than Blizzard does, and are currently working on a $300 million dollar MMO, yet they still find the time to go and meet with other gamers at almost every convention.” Not to mention the general attitude that Blizzard has towards its playerbase, let alone other companies. I can’t help but feel that Blizzard thinks we’re a mindless throng who can’t think for ourselves given some of the responses they dished out at BlizzCon this year.
Look, at the end of the day its Blizzard’s convention and they can do whatever they want with it. I just feel that customers of Blizzard shouldn’t be okay with the status quo. Just because Blizzard is insanely successful doesn’t make it okay to be assholes to your customers. If you paid money to travel to, or watch, BlizzCon, don’t you feel a little gimped? Personally I’d much rather go to a convention that has a little bit of everything and know that I’m getting my money’s worth. I like having real discourse with the companies I pay money to, like Mythic does. This isn’t going to stop me from playing WoW by any means, but it does make me wonder… this in combination with the “we’ll do what we want, when we want” development mentality, and the RealID fiasco, does Blizzard really give a damn anymore?
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Well…
one thing i’ll say about Mythic, is that while they don’t host their own conventions, and they don’t have massive WAR stands at all the big conventions etc.
Andy, Carrie, and some of the other devs actually spend time hanging out at bars with the WAR players, spending time interracting with their community on a much more social level.
That’s what i believe gives them the edge over competetors, regardless of the number of subs they have right now, Mythic are very much focused on customer relations, and from what i’ve heard they always have been.
To me, I date Blizzard’s turning point to assholeness when Warcraft III was launched. Not due to the game, it kicked ass, but it laid the foundation for World of Warcraft and in my opinion, began the downfall of MMOs completely as well as Blizzard’s greatness, in a sense.
Now, I agree that WoW is a fun MMO and is obviously the most “successful” of all-time when comparing the money made to other company’s MMOs. But, think of it in this way for a second:
Back before WoW, games like Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Tabula Rasa and many, many more would have been extremely successful if they had the same amount of subscribers as they do today. Back then, a great MMO didn’t need millions of subscribers and the gamers that played it had a vastly different mindset. MMO gamers were intelligent, sociable and competent. Now, of course, the above mentioned MMOs all took something from WoW’s success and they would have been different as a result. However, my point remains the same. Thanks to WoW, many good or even great MMOs die off WAY before they should because the market has been flooded with every half-brained moron that needs to be satisfied and safe from grief 24/7. Patches are no longer waited eagerly for, they are demanded. GMs are no longer normal human beings that you can chat to, they’re corporate clones that barely assist you at all in some cases.
I’m not saying WoW should have never been. But, let’s review Blizzard’s track record before WoW:
- Lost Vikings was awesome and fun.
- Warcraft was just a great RTS and not a global scum bucket of the world’s filth known as World of Warcraft.
- Diablo was and still is one if not THE best RPG of all time.
- Starcraft took over the world and still, to this day, holds Korea hostage.
So, they were successful and humble. Now, they are corporate elitists that most old school gamers can’t stand because we know better than to be brown nosing retards.
Sorry but I can’t stand WoW and even though I played all the Beta stages, stress tests and was one of the first to log-in come launch day, I still want my original $49.99 back and the countless of hundreds of dollars I’ve spent since.
Also, after reading on BlizzCon this year, I’m glad I didn’t pay for the Direct TV PPV of the convention because I would be pissed and calling Blizzard for a refund. Seriously, a two-day convention to really just talk shit and show a new Diablo 3 class?? Really?!! Not even a release date or anything on the next-gen MMO they’re working on…
Pathetic.
Sorry cant agree Im afraid. Blizzard did actually pay hommage to EQ in their intro.
Apart from that why exactly should Blizzard name drop other MMOs? Its just not good business practice. And lets face it they wouldnt exactly have good things to say about the other games as they arent fairing very well and then they would get criticised for being condescending so it kind of defeats the purpose. Blizzard arent there to ‘help’ or bum up other MMOs they are there to create the best games they can for their fans.
As for Syps rant, im a bit disappointed but not surprised. Haters hate. Go figure
You really think Syp of all people is a hater? :S
I think he’s just frustrated, that’s all. (Though you are welcome to your opinion
)
hehe check out his previous hmm i dunno 100 posts about WoW he is a hater
I honestly stopped paying attention to things Blizzard said to their players when Ghostcrawler basically told people to eff off and it was their game and they would make things how is. This was in regards to a lot of backlash against the homogenization of dps/tank/heals, which in the end has dumbed down the game a ton.
Nice to see Blizzard is ripping off their own games with adding in the Demon Hunter to the Diablo universe…
I do admit to looking forward to Diablo 3
The WoW character models helped to make that game less appealing to me when I was deciding between playing it and EQ2 when both were in beta. The male characters were all incredibly ugly no matter the race, and the female characters had the typical Barbie look (as you mentioned) with huge donkey ears attached. Ugh! I just didn’t really find any of the characters very appealing at all, except for possibly the ones that were supposed to be ugly.
I remember back when I was playing DAOC, the Mythic devs would regularly discuss things with customers on the forums, so it doesn’t surprise me that Warhammer would have a good community.
This is interesting.
I was discussing the infamous “Blizzard Authenticator” with someone on Twitter when I read this post.
Think about it. What other company makes you feel so insecure that you need to purchase a special dongle from said company so all of your life will not be stolen.
Yea…not a one.
Blizzard is all about the bottom dollar. Luckily their game is worth it to so many, that they can do this.
I refuse to buy this dongle on principle…and will just continue to change my password every 30 days. They get enough cash as it is.
While I mostly agree with your post, I just feel the need to point out one thing.
Quote from your quote of Syp: “They’re totally cool with every other MMO mentioning WoW in interviews, but when’s the last time you heard a Blizzard dev reference a game other than their own?”
They did infact during this Blizzcon (ironically), during the intro Chris Metzen (spelling?) did a thingy where he had the audience say “geek is…” then he threw up a picture of something and spoke a little about how it influenced him/us. Amongst these there was a picture of Everquest and Chris commented something along the lines of “without it none of this would ever have been”.
So he did indeed hail Everquest as one of the reasons WoW even exists.
9 comments
Well…
one thing i’ll say about Mythic, is that while they don’t host their own conventions, and they don’t have massive WAR stands at all the big conventions etc.
Andy, Carrie, and some of the other devs actually spend time hanging out at bars with the WAR players, spending time interracting with their community on a much more social level.
That’s what i believe gives them the edge over competetors, regardless of the number of subs they have right now, Mythic are very much focused on customer relations, and from what i’ve heard they always have been.
To me, I date Blizzard’s turning point to assholeness when Warcraft III was launched. Not due to the game, it kicked ass, but it laid the foundation for World of Warcraft and in my opinion, began the downfall of MMOs completely as well as Blizzard’s greatness, in a sense.
Now, I agree that WoW is a fun MMO and is obviously the most “successful” of all-time when comparing the money made to other company’s MMOs. But, think of it in this way for a second:
Back before WoW, games like Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Tabula Rasa and many, many more would have been extremely successful if they had the same amount of subscribers as they do today. Back then, a great MMO didn’t need millions of subscribers and the gamers that played it had a vastly different mindset. MMO gamers were intelligent, sociable and competent. Now, of course, the above mentioned MMOs all took something from WoW’s success and they would have been different as a result. However, my point remains the same. Thanks to WoW, many good or even great MMOs die off WAY before they should because the market has been flooded with every half-brained moron that needs to be satisfied and safe from grief 24/7. Patches are no longer waited eagerly for, they are demanded. GMs are no longer normal human beings that you can chat to, they’re corporate clones that barely assist you at all in some cases.
I’m not saying WoW should have never been. But, let’s review Blizzard’s track record before WoW:
- Lost Vikings was awesome and fun.
- Warcraft was just a great RTS and not a global scum bucket of the world’s filth known as World of Warcraft.
- Diablo was and still is one if not THE best RPG of all time.
- Starcraft took over the world and still, to this day, holds Korea hostage.
So, they were successful and humble. Now, they are corporate elitists that most old school gamers can’t stand because we know better than to be brown nosing retards.
Sorry but I can’t stand WoW and even though I played all the Beta stages, stress tests and was one of the first to log-in come launch day, I still want my original $49.99 back and the countless of hundreds of dollars I’ve spent since.
Also, after reading on BlizzCon this year, I’m glad I didn’t pay for the Direct TV PPV of the convention because I would be pissed and calling Blizzard for a refund. Seriously, a two-day convention to really just talk shit and show a new Diablo 3 class?? Really?!! Not even a release date or anything on the next-gen MMO they’re working on…
Pathetic.
Sorry cant agree Im afraid. Blizzard did actually pay hommage to EQ in their intro.
Apart from that why exactly should Blizzard name drop other MMOs? Its just not good business practice. And lets face it they wouldnt exactly have good things to say about the other games as they arent fairing very well and then they would get criticised for being condescending so it kind of defeats the purpose. Blizzard arent there to ‘help’ or bum up other MMOs they are there to create the best games they can for their fans.
As for Syps rant, im a bit disappointed but not surprised. Haters hate. Go figure
I honestly stopped paying attention to things Blizzard said to their players when Ghostcrawler basically told people to eff off and it was their game and they would make things how is. This was in regards to a lot of backlash against the homogenization of dps/tank/heals, which in the end has dumbed down the game a ton.
Nice to see Blizzard is ripping off their own games with adding in the Demon Hunter to the Diablo universe…
You really think Syp of all people is a hater? :S
I think he’s just frustrated, that’s all. (Though you are welcome to your opinion
)
hehe check out his previous hmm i dunno 100 posts about WoW he is a hater
I do admit to looking forward to Diablo 3
The WoW character models helped to make that game less appealing to me when I was deciding between playing it and EQ2 when both were in beta. The male characters were all incredibly ugly no matter the race, and the female characters had the typical Barbie look (as you mentioned) with huge donkey ears attached. Ugh! I just didn’t really find any of the characters very appealing at all, except for possibly the ones that were supposed to be ugly.
I remember back when I was playing DAOC, the Mythic devs would regularly discuss things with customers on the forums, so it doesn’t surprise me that Warhammer would have a good community.
This is interesting.
I was discussing the infamous “Blizzard Authenticator” with someone on Twitter when I read this post.
Think about it. What other company makes you feel so insecure that you need to purchase a special dongle from said company so all of your life will not be stolen.
Yea…not a one.
Blizzard is all about the bottom dollar. Luckily their game is worth it to so many, that they can do this.
I refuse to buy this dongle on principle…and will just continue to change my password every 30 days. They get enough cash as it is.
While I mostly agree with your post, I just feel the need to point out one thing.
Quote from your quote of Syp: “They’re totally cool with every other MMO mentioning WoW in interviews, but when’s the last time you heard a Blizzard dev reference a game other than their own?”
They did infact during this Blizzcon (ironically), during the intro Chris Metzen (spelling?) did a thingy where he had the audience say “geek is…” then he threw up a picture of something and spoke a little about how it influenced him/us. Amongst these there was a picture of Everquest and Chris commented something along the lines of “without it none of this would ever have been”.
So he did indeed hail Everquest as one of the reasons WoW even exists.
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