Why all the hate on Blizzard?

[Syvari]

Seriously guys, I can't read through these forums without tripping over people spouting incessant hate for blizzard (such as several people just saying "Blizzard" in that "name 1 company you want to destroy" forum).

I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. Yes, Blizzard has a lot of money, and no, this is not a valid reason to hate them (same goes for Microsoft). They have a lot of money because they are doing something RIGHT, that in Blizzards case being the making of awesome games.

I grew up with Blizzard games, specifically Warcraft 2 and Starcaft. Stracraft is indisputably one of the best, if not the best, RTS game of all time and is one of the most widely played tournament games in the world. The Warcraft series were also great. They seemed to be more focused on single player story mode fun (especially Warcraft 3) than competitive online play, something I can respect. Warcraft also told a great story.

Admittedly I don't own any Diablo games, but I have played Diablo 2 at my friend's house and it seemed like a pretty good RPG with a decent and dark story. I really don't know about Diablo 1 though.

Anyways, where is all this hate coming from? All Blizzards past games have been amazing! It all this hate coming from WoW alone? I'm going to go on record now by saying I love WoW. I have played WoW for 3 years now. And no, I only play it for about 1.5 hours a day (if at all, I'm pretty busy with school). It's the best MMO I've ever played. I like the raiding, I like the functional PvP system (which is rare in MMO's nowadays), I like the grouping and teaming up to kill bosses and I like the social interaction with lots of other people in general.

That's my opinion, and you can agree or disagree if you want. I don't care, I just want to know how WoW (if you hate it) justifies hating Blizzard as a company.

If you have any other reasons for hating Blizzard, please let me know so I may have a chance to see that Blizzard may not, in fact, have descended from a beam of light to lead us to the promised land of legendarily good game design.

By the way, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 look awesome.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Because some people really hate MMO games, and Blizzard made one of the most successful MMO games. Thus, they hate Blizzard because of this.

 

[IxionIndustries]

My feelings on Blizzard at the moment are neutral. On one hand, they made WoW, and bastardized entire Warcraft universe. On the other, they created some of the best and most well known RTSes ever. They balance eachother out...

....At least until SC2 comes out.

 

[thiosk]

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

Its the internet.

Its not supposed to make sense.

 

[theultimateend]

People think they are being edgy.

Most of the time they just look retarded.

 

[Contun]

I like Blizzard, they've made some entertaining games in the past but you've got to understand that people are going to have different opinions. It's what makes us......Human....

Though I think people would be more upset that Marvel is now part of Disney, I've already started to see crappy Early-Childhood cartoons based of those little toys they sell...

 

[Eldarion]

Because bandwagon hate attracts amazing amounts of stupidity.

 

[theultimateend]

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

How so?

They were joking.

 

[TheBluesader]

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

Its the internet.

Its not supposed to make sense.

And we'd make fun of it if it did. God bless us so hard.

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

How so?

See, what we have here is a failure to communicate.

@topic: Just because people say they hate Blizzard doesn't mean they aren't buying Blizzard games. Most of them are, and that's why they're mad: Blizzard takes too long to develop stuff and people really, really want their product. People are the same way about Valve.

 

[lacktheknack]

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

Its the internet.

Its not supposed to make sense.

Well it sure doesn't, as they made Diablo...

 

[TikiShades]

People think they are being edgy.

Most of the time they just look retarded.

Hey, look at me I'm edgy, Blizzard sucks, I'm on the internet.

 

[park92]

because some people wish they had as much money as blizzard but they dont have the talent or will to become rich like blizzard

 

[theultimateend]

People think they are being edgy.

Most of the time they just look retarded.

Hey, look at me I'm edgy, Blizzard sucks, I'm on the internet.

That was the perfect response I think, regardless of intent.

I hate blizzard because its part of the fascist neoconservative corporate birther leftwing zionist media.

How so?

They were joking.

Who is this "they"? Its all a conspiracy man!

The secret is out...Blizzard caused 9/11.

 

[Kollega]

I dislike blizzard for one and only one thing: they had a taste of easy money with Wow,and sold out. They wouldn't have allied with Activision if they cared for games as art. I'm pretty sure that splitting Starcraft 2 in three parts had a hidden agenda (i.e. getting more dosh).

And oh,there's a second reason: i never was a big fan of theirs in the first place,even despite my dad is,and he is respected by me. Seems that i just failed to grasp the awesome.

 

[ccesarano]

I wasn't aware I was part of some new fad.

To be honest, my vendetta is personal and not something I expect others to understand, which is why I don't really lash out about it when other people jump for joy that StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3 are coming out.

See, my big thing is 1) I find MMORPG's to be grindfests that get boring. If neither Oblivion nor Fallout 3 can hold my attention for a whole month then I sure as Hell don't want to pay a fee every 30 days to relive the tedious experience with a bunch of assholes online. 2) Again, not a fan of grindfests, and PC hack and slash games such as Diablo tend to bore me. 3) I suck at strategy games, so even if I was interested in Star/Warcraft, I'd suck too badly to be a real fan. 4) I'm a console gamer at heart, so I just don't have the same attachment to them as most.

Now, these factors don't generate hatred, but typically just a sense of apathy. I used to be apathetic towards Blizzard, though I found amusement in how they interacted with their community.

Then they started making Starcraft: Ghost, and I was like "SWEET that looks awesome!". Halfway through they hired Swingin' Ape Studios, developers of Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, to complete Starcraft: Ghost. Now, Metal Arms was the first game by Ape Studios, and also had potential for a sequel. I was looking forward to seeing this studio do more games since Metal Arms was long, had some nifty ideas and introduced new and fun tools the entire game through. At some point Blizzard swallowed Swingin' Ape Studios up as their "console division".

Then Blizzard canceled Starcraft: Ghost so they "could focus on next-gen consoles instead", even though at that point Starcraft: Ghost could have made a decent enough launch title for Xbox 360 and no one would have cared.

However, the hatred didn't begin until two expansions to World of Warcraft were released, with Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 being announced and now a third expansion to World of Warcraft.

A studio with great potential was swallowed up, and there is almost no chance of seeing a Metal Arms sequel (even though Activision-Blizzard owns so many sub-companies that I'm pretty sure somewhere in there are the rights to the franchise, who belonged to either Sierra or Vivendi). I'm pretty pissed about this.

But, as I said, personal reason. I don't know what everyone else's issue is. I thought everyone loved Blizzard.

Maybe World of Warcraft has destroyed too many relationships?

 

[jakkuss]

if you rearrange the letters in 'blizzard' you get 'al qaeda'

 

[cleverlymadeup]

well i don't hate them, i dislike some things they do such as refusal to remove gold farmers cause "it's too difficult"

anyways as for the hate, it's cool to hate and "be edgy". look at all the hate that George Lucas gets

 

[Lusulpher]

Blizzard uses it's "street cred" on past successful designs to spew out poor products now...

SOurce of the "Blizzhate" aka WoW aka thecompanythatmadethegamenononespeaksoutloudthenameofinothergoodgames.

People who hate MMOs hate WoW. People who like Blizzard hate WoW. People who like MMOs hate WoW.
It's like how Disney is uber rich selling that crap merchandise they spew on about on Disney Channel. Jonas, Hillary Duff, seeing any connections here? Rich company not = talented company.

WoW = Jonas Bros. of gaming. A company that creates the Jonas Borthers will be hatestomped until said Jonas Bros-like product, diaf.

Starcraft is the shit.
Warcraft was a poor concept piece.
Diablo I am not a fan of, but it has potential.

They delayed all of these for WoW...no mercy.

P.S. Valve put out TF2 and LFD 1/2...no one "hates" Valve, they are simply annoyed, that VAlve is taking the time to advance gaming as far as they can on their fav IP.

 

[Slick Samurai]

There are several reasons behind the Blizzard hate.

1. The most obvious, the Bandwagon of Hate. People are generally quick to jump on bandwagons that are popular, and in the WoW scene hating Blizz is very popular.

2. They feel mad that Blizz changed their class in some way that doesn't allow them to shoot lazers from their eyes. But seriously, most negative changes, although most being for the good of class balance, tend to anger the community behind that class. That's when something clicks in a few people that Blizzard has a grudge against them in some way, thus beginning their hate against the company.

3. If the hater dislikes WoW, they may dislike Blizzard for making WoW. While the different kinds of people that may dislike WoW are far too numerous to delve into, I'll just say that the hate to WoW links directly to Blizzard.

Now I myself slightly favor Blizzard. True, they merged with Activision, but they don't seem to be letting them mess with the actual game too much.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

I love blizzard. War craft and star craft have been the best RPS games in my life. Plus they brought me Diablo two, which was one RPG I could easily tolerate.