World of Warcraft's community council is a failure (because of course)

Gordon_4

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I feel like the entitlement has only grown due to Blizzard's behavior towards them. Because Blizzard refuses to address of acknowledge feedback since day 1 basically, players have had to deliver their feedback in more and more extremely obnoxious ways, not just to get Dev attention but also create enough stir on the forums that Blizzard had no choice but to address it.

When you treat people like spoiled brats, then spoiled brats you will create.
For fuck sake, most of their player base are (allegedly) adults but can’t simply do the grown up thing of closing their wallets and walking away? Blizzard isn’t an abusive spouse holding all the money and power or a mafia Don to whom you owe fealty. They making fucking video games; if the game isn’t fun or respecting your time just fucking stop paying and leave it in the dirt.
 

CriticalGaming

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For fuck sake, most of their player base are (allegedly) adults but can’t simply do the grown up thing of closing their wallets and walking away?
Bro how do you think microtransactions became a thing? You think it was just kids feeding into their ultimate team habit?

They making fucking video games; if the game isn’t fun or respecting your time just fucking stop paying and leave it in the dirt.
i wish that was how it worked, but you are forgetting the most addicting thing about MMO's......the friends you make on the game. I hated WoW for years before i quit forever, and I only stuck around because SOMEHOW my stupid fucking friends wanted to keep raiding every week. Ugh. My friends suck.
 

BrawlMan

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Bro how do you think microtransactions became a thing? You think it was just kids feeding into their ultimate team habit?
I think most of realize who was buying what, @Gordon_4 is just only pointing it out.

i wish that was how it worked, but you are forgetting the most addicting thing about MMO's......the friends you make on the game. I hated WoW for years before i quit forever, and I only stuck around because SOMEHOW my stupid fucking friends wanted to keep raiding every week. Ugh. My friends suck.
Most of my friends didn't even play WoW. The ones that did dropped off at some point, or moved on to another game or MMO. I never saw much appeal in MMOs, because of the asking price on subscriptions and I proudly don't regret my decision. Too much of a time sink, and I got other games to play. A friend of mine tried to get me in to DFO a couple times, but I was not feeling it, and the game could not fill the void of meeting wanting a Streets of Rage 4 at the time. Other brawlers to play as well; better time spent there.
 

CriticalGaming

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Most of my friends didn't even play WoW.
Neither did mine, but the friends you make through guilds and random groups on the game often become quite lasting, and it's those friends that keep you around.

I never saw much appeal in MMOs, because of the asking price on subscriptions and I proudly don't regret my decision.
I thought the same thing about Everquest and other MMO's too. I thought why would I ever keep paying for a game when I can just buy a game and be done with it. But then a bunch of my co-workers at Activision (when I worked there before it became satan's sex party) they all played wow. And my boss bought me the game.....now that I think about it, I think this is how cults form....anyway I figured it was free for a month so why not give it a try.....and 14 years later I quit.

Other brawlers to play as well; better time spent there.
I didn't know you liked brawler video games. Reminds me of another forum user who was a big fan of FPS games with big manly guns in them. I wonder what happened to him.
 

Samtemdo8

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imo ignoring the council is the right move (or rather not making it in the first place would have been, teh short term PR boost isn't worth the long term headache), blizzard doesn't know what to do but that doesn't mean a bunch of rando will know any better. People are incredibly bad at knowing what they really want and by design the people in the council are the wrong one to ask in the first place. Blizzard need to know why people are dropping and find way to attract new player, the people in the council would be people who haven't dropped the game and probably been playing for a really long time, ie literally the wrong people.

WoW became popular on a couple of pillar:
1) MMO were the next big online thing, WoW rode that wave beautifully but it's long past. Currently the hero shooter/fortnite wave is the one at the moment but its starting to abate, I doubt MMO will come back and be the next wave (my bets is stuff like Genshin impact), so that's not something they can count on.

2) They made a casual/themepark MMO compared to everquest, they could double down and make it even more casual, but FF14 got that cornered so it's doubtful that would work.

3) Good lore built from warcraft 3, mmo make an absolute mess of lore and are terrible way to get people excited for new lore. Even now almost 20 years ago the lore is still mostly dominated by character from warcraft 3 because those are the one people care about and no one really give a crap about the one introduced in the mmo. If blizzard could get their head out of their ass and make warcraft 4 in under 2 years and at the same time make a soft reboot of the WoW lore to align with it I think that could work, but it would need to actually be good which might be a tall order for them atm (plus RTS are really not popular atm, maybe consider making a different kind of game set in warcraft world).

But I think their best action would be to just shake down w/e cash they can from WoW and pour the resource into making new IP, overwatch was the biggest thing for a couple years so they should know that they can make new IP and make a shiton of cash from that.

For what's it's worth (ie nothing) as a former semi hardcore wow player I left because raid healing became really boring. But the reason why it was boring was because in the previous expansion (cata) they changed healing to be much more interesting (ie less spamming the same 2 spell and more mana management) and players hated that so they reverse course hardcore and made healing super boring to appease them.
I'd argue the lore got ruined even early on, specifically by the second expansion, but overtime we grew to like the best retcons because of what it gave us at that time.

Dreanai, Garrosh Hellscream, etc.

But it reached critical mass by Shadowlands.

I've already have my own fanfiction headcannon of how WOW lore and world building post Warcraft 3 using what they provided.

As for the healing situation you mentioned, that is a prime example of why player feedback can be sometimes detrimental to the game.
 

laggyteabag

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Really, bigger than CD Projekt Red?
Well, yes.

CK Projekt made a bad videogame.

Blizzard has been abusing their staff members, supporting the abusers, whilst also making bad video games.

Look at Blizzard 10 years ago.

StarCraft 2 had recently been released - to critical and commercial acclaim - and the game was still being supported by excellent expansions, and the game was a massive eSports title.

World of Warcraft was still in its prime, just coming off of Wrath of the Lich King, which was the game's highest point, at least in terms of subscribers.

Blizzard were also just about to release Diablo 3 - the sequel to one of the best ARPGs ever - presumably to great success.

They were respected developers, making great games. It was their golden age.

....

And then they spend the next decade chipping away at their reputation.

Obviously Diablo 3 was a disaster.

StarCraft 2 has ran its course.

Heroes of the Storm is basically dead.

World of Warcraft is on its second bad expansion in a row.

Overwatch is in limbo.

They even dug up the corpse of Warcraft 3, and then promptly ruined it.

And now the company is receiving abuse allegations left and right, whilst being sued by the literal government, all whilst bleeding senior staff members, and continuing to make poor decisions for their existing games.

I'd say that is a little more significant than a single overhyped, buggy release.
 

Drathnoxis

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Well, yes.

CK Projekt made a bad videogame.

Blizzard has been abusing their staff members, supporting the abusers, whilst also making bad video games.

Look at Blizzard 10 years ago.

StarCraft 2 had recently been released - to critical and commercial acclaim - and the game was still being supported by excellent expansions, and the game was a massive eSports title.

World of Warcraft was still in its prime, just coming off of Wrath of the Lich King, which was the game's highest point, at least in terms of subscribers.

Blizzard were also just about to release Diablo 3 - the sequel to one of the best ARPGs ever - presumably to great success.

They were respected developers, making great games. It was their golden age.

....

And then they spend the next decade chipping away at their reputation.

Obviously Diablo 3 was a disaster.

StarCraft 2 has ran its course.

Heroes of the Storm is basically dead.

World of Warcraft is on its second bad expansion in a row.

Overwatch is in limbo.

They even dug up the corpse of Warcraft 3, and then promptly ruined it.

And now the company is receiving abuse allegations left and right, whilst being sued by the literal government, all whilst bleeding senior staff members, and continuing to make poor decisions for their existing games.

I'd say that is a little more significant than a single overhyped, buggy release.
Quite possibly Blizzard's fall has been greater, but I feel like CD Projekt's fall was more sudden and explosive. They went from being heroes to villains basically overnight.
 

CriticalGaming

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Quite possibly Blizzard's fall has been greater, but I feel like CD Projekt's fall was more sudden and explosive. They went from being heroes to villains basically overnight.
The difference is, when CDPR announces their next game people will still be excited for it. Next time BLizzard releases anything, nobody will give a fuck.
 

09philj

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But not every MMO does that. FF14 doesn't do that. There are no infinite systems in FF14, you can very much "beat" the game and unsub until more content comes out. The devs even encourage this mindset because they respect their players and they encourage the playerbase to play other games between content that interests that given player.
There are also strict limits on how much endgame progression you can do in a week, and systems that encourage you to only do a bit every day.
 

CriticalGaming

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There are also strict limits on how much endgame progression you can do in a week, and systems that encourage you to only do a bit every day.
Funny thing about this, is back when WoW was good it also had limited progression per week. There was a tight limit on dailies you could do, and you could only run a raid once a week. There were no persistant and endlessly farmable progression systems.
 
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BrawlMan

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Funny thing about this, is back when WoW was good it also had limited progression per week. There was a tight limit on dailies you could do, and you could only run a raid once a week. There were no persistant and endlessly farmable progression systems.
I bet you that changed the moment, the merger between Blizzard and Activision happened.
 

CriticalGaming

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I bet you that changed the moment, the merger between Blizzard and Activision happened.
Actually no. TO be honest WoW really didn't start to fail until the launch of Warlords of Draenor, and even then it was just a lackluster expansion. Legion was the first expansion that really saw an infinite system which players tolerated because it was a legendary weapon and it was cool as fuck. But then it became a dumbass necklace in Battle for Azeroth, and in Shadowlands it's just "juice" not even tied to any specific item.

I think a lot of people want to blame Activision for why Blizzard sucks. But in reality I don't think it was Activision's fault. I think Blizzard just got too caught up in being a rockstar that they didn't realize they were huffing too much cocaine and not actually doing their jobs.
 
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BrawlMan

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Actually no. TO be honest WoW really didn't start to fail until the launch of Warlords of Draenor, and even then it was just a lackluster expansion. Legion was the first expansion that really saw an infinite system which players tolerated because it was a legendary weapon and it was cool as fuck. But then it became a dumbass necklace in Battle for Azeroth, and in Shadowlands it's just "juice" not even tied to any specific item.

I think a lot of people want to blame Activision for why Blizzard sucks. But in reality I don't think it was Activision's fault. I think Blizzard just got too caught up in being a rockstar that they didn't realize they were huffing too much cocaine and not actually doing their jobs.
Oh no, I'm not blaming Activision entirely, but they definitely has major influences way later and after the fact. Good to know about in this case that it was mainly all Blizzard's fault. Thank you for that bit of news.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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It’s one in the same, ABK. All under one umbrella of a shitty drug fueled frat house atmosphere. The issues might be isolated between divisions but what difference does it make in the grand scheme of things when the whole conglomerate is a dumpster fire.
 
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BrawlMan

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It’s one in the same, ABK. All under one umbrella of a shitty drug fueled frat house atmosphere. The issues might be isolated between divisions but what difference does it make in the grand scheme of things when the whole conglomerate is a dumpster fire.
Best post in the thread. This thread is done!
 
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