Is the out of hand commercialism:

I had my time with World of Warcraft, as most of us have. I played pre Burning Crusade, and quit well before the Wrath of the Lich King. It wasn’t time i’d give back, because I understand why people enjoy it, and even more why people grew to loathe it. I was a mild fan of Blizzards IP’s, but realized thay wer somewhat (read: mostly) plagarized from Warhammer. Warcraft was a solid RTS, and loads of fun online. The MMO venture for the series was so mass appealing, that I don’t have to tell you how mass appealing it is, you most likely already know. But ever since the commercialism started a couple years back with the Shatner, Mr. T, Ozzy and company’s “What’s Your Game” TV spots, I feel the reputation that the game held for its more mature fans began to dwindle. Blizzard seemed to hit a plataeu of populatity, and needed more carrots for the stick in order to keep the subscriber numbers. Syp actually has a wonderful post about the way the core game was mutated in order to appease old and new customers.

This latest iteration of marketing gone awry just makes me cringe. When I buy a game, I want the game’s creator to either spend the return on upgrades for the game, or on the next game. I dont want them selling me WoWtain Dew, or a Dell WoWtop , or anything else that’s not…a game. It’s like buying a Ford, and then seeing advertisements for Ford Ice Cream. No thanks.