This was from a Reddit AMA voluntarily held by the game director, Ion Hazzikostas where the usual vocal minority were quick to pickup on the gist of what hasn’t really been new news for those of us who have consciously moved away from Blizzard games as a whole (myself included which has been detailed throughout this entire blog pre-November 2015). Myself, I never really played WoW except all of 6 levels in the starter edition because everything about it (combat and aesthetics being the top ones) did not appeal to me.
Most of my issues were design decisions made in both Diablo III and StarCraft II as well as some of the self-absorbed messaging when it came to the community (a level of arrogance where some people there do believe that “once a Blizzard fan, always a Blizzard fan”). I’ve always maintained that the people who work on the modeling and cinematic side are incredible at their craft. I cannot say the same for many who work as actual game designers where it’s too much of a “chip on their shoulders” aspect with taking too long to realize designs they thought were sound, end up falling flat (execution wise) with players. This isn’t a Blizzard only thing too; it’s common with designers in general with the DBST (designer bullshit talk) when it comes to throwing out buzzwords/phrases like “experiences” or in the game world, “emergent game play”.
Blizzard Entertainment is very good at crafting marketing messages but has also been on a steady decline when it comes to their older adage of “release when it’s ready”; there was a time when they could do that often BUT that really isn’t the case in recent years due to how shipping schedules have an impact on Activision Blizzard (ATVI) stock. I covered this briefly with how Wall Street analysts were beginning to bake in estimates for Diablo 4 into their 2019 financial models. This isn’t to say that Blizzard Entertainment doesn’t have leeway; they do but only to a point before they have to release even though a title isn’t actually ready.
In the case of Diablo 3, that team went overboard with design iterations (creating and then scrapping designs leading up to what they had at launch in 2012) along with higher level decisions which meant using it as a guinea pig (the real money auction house) that ultimately affected its design in some areas (RNG gone wild when it came to how drops and properties were rolled thus affecting the quality level of those drops at the time).
Digressing, this is part of the driver for expanding the number of franchises in the Blizzard universe since a successful one will provide revenues to cover more quarters and afford the company more flexibility for their release schedules. For WoW though, it’s still a double-edged sword because there is this cadence involved with releasing content to keep players constantly engaged (since they are paying for it via a monthly subscription).
The above however shows the perils of trying to piecemeal out some of the designs which they couldn’t fully flesh out before launching the expansion. For one, players need to purchase the game/expansion. Then on top of that, pay that monthly subscription. Thus the “can we pay $15 per grand scheme instead of $15 per month” comment that one person made. It’s a sore spot for players who jumped into the expansion expecting something a bit more complete versus something which its game director, alluded to as something that is still a work in progress (including addressing whatever shortcomings there are for what currently exists) that will unfold over the next few months.
Sure, there are way more players who are content with the state of WoW and its expansion content; Blizzard has several million WoW players where those numbers ebb and flow with each expansion. It’s the sort of numbers that most other MMO developers and publishers wished they had.
And this leads me to an outro tangent when it comes to ArcheAge players who want to see a subscription only version. Be careful of what you wish for because I would not put it below Trion to slow release content with a subscription only version of the game. Blizzard for example is in full control of their own franchises with different sections handling various parts of those titles and have resources/budgets to match. Yet they still do miss the mark/run into constraints.
Disclaimer: for full transparency, I do own common shares of ATVI (Activision Blizzard)
P.S. – Some folks may wonder how someone like myself can be negative about Blizzard’s games while still being an investor. Key rule of thumb when investing is separating your emotions regarding the product(s) from the company’s ability to make money. Blizzard has loyal fans who will throw money at them regardless. BlizzCon for example sells out tickets every year, they make a mint additionally with virtual ticket sells as well the goody bag (they make money via merchandising of collectibles). This isn’t different when it comes to some of the franchises on the Activision side like Call of Duty.
