• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Insider leak on the current happenings inside Blizzard. Will be interesting to see if this turns out to be true.

Kenpachii

Member
Could be bullshit but sounds about right so far what i read from it, totally possible.

In short blizzard is in dark water, because they fail to move forwards, have no vision and basically lose consumers from the left and the right but this is mainly about wow. There is little to no hype around wow anymore even while they made record profits with there token shop and mount shop, its not looking to good for them in the long run at this point.

Main issue's

- Shadowlands being a shitshow ( newest wow expansion )
- Sylvanas story going the wrong direction
- FF14 starting to become a real pain the ass for them and its not ignorable anymore.
- Tactics on releasing expansions
- Mood in the company being complete shit, people not liking eachother, devs going wild against playerbase
- Devs avoiding blizzard it has no longer the reach of being of the best devs in the industry but more "the bad guy". which results in poor talent streaming in which drag development down.
- Devs being placed in positions they are not comfortable in or good in, because talent jumps ship and they gotta fill those positions.
- Brain drain in the company, and lack of experience all around because of jumpers.
- 2021 is so far a really bad year for PR for WoW, media / playerbase / anything evolving the game has been turned in negative news.
- From "this is how blizzard is able to fix this and that" towards "wow is no longer salvagable" is a serious issue with the mindset devs but also players and media in general + influencers are having
- Forums are riddled with "why still pay a sub and final fantasy 14 talk" is a good indication wow is in trouble.
- Problems with voice actors
- Interviews seem to be provided with approved questions from blizzard which palyers note and basically damages the company indirect on top of it ( its all negative )
- FF14 is something blizzard tries to avoid any talk or any hints from because they feel like they are far above the game even while playerbase is tanking hard. Arrogance.
- Activision is breathing down there neck and people are jumping ship because they feel the cuts coming next year if shadowland isn't going to pick up and the next expansion isn't going to do some record numbers. ( nobody on the dev side evne has faith in that )
- Blizzard moved into panic mode after there disasterious "don't u have a mobile conference".
- Forbidding devs to talk to consumers on twitter because it has been a shit show entirely.
- Asmongold seems to have a big impact on the company and it pisses devs but also blizzard itself off that one person that plays there game can have such huge amounts of impact on there product lineup, Dev groups consider asmongold "toxic masculinity and dog whistles to dangerous", while other groups of devs consider him, "saying like it is and and based"
- Probably moving more into mobile space in order to see if they can dig up that market which was already known.

In short its a shit show and frankly not suprising, we all know blizzard is moving down the drain the once so iconic PC dev that carried PC gaming on there shoulders and even gave us a peak into the future, is now a corpse that bleeds dry and has straight up nothing going on for it anymore other then milk there past success and even that people are tired off more and more it seems like specifically wow.



In mine opinion what blizzad needs to do is.

1) Move to consoles, make a console version of the game and even a mobile version. even if they look different and perform, they can always have there own servers its a good market they could dig into.
2) Hire company's and talent ( spend money to make money ) but also hire outside company's to co develop games with them and push them into the next generation
3) Make 2 mmo's one releases in 3-4 years, another one in 7-8 years from now ( long term plans )
4) Dablo 4 high budget game, dont rush it make it good and higih quality
5) Start making a high budget Starcraft 3
6) Revamp heroes of the storm or even make a second version of it
7) Produce new games and ip's a handful of them.
8) Replace there entire management team that sits at the top and get people with vision or hire them from outside other company's or even internal from people that do have idea's and push them forwards.
9) crossover games with sony/nintendo and push them also on consoles. To get free advertisement for your ip's.
10) start a big mobile division.
11) Make a new warcraft 4 with high budget going on for that one.
 
Last edited:

Roxkis_ii

Member
I just started watching Asmongold his first day on FF14. Looking back at all his wow videos before that, they are all negative. In all the comments of his wow videos, you see the same phrase "wow is the wow killer“.
 

squarealex

Member
- Devs avoiding blizzard it has no longer the reach of being of the best devs in the industry but more "the bad guy". which results in poor talent streaming in which drag development down.
Yeah, thanks "players" crying for shitty fan service + FF14 is okay but not so "omfg amazing, best MMO ever"

Blizzard moved into panic mode after there disasterious "don't u have a mobile conference".
Of course... This shit ruined developpement of Heroes of the Storm & Warcraft III Reforged. And blizzard into on panic to satisfy "players" and take all devs of this game (HOTS/W3) to make quickly D4... thanks to "players" again...
And the funny part... Diablo Immortal is not again released... This game can make a good profit to blizzard... but people prefer crying instead waiting...

- Forbidding devs to talk to consumers on twitter because it has been a shit show entirely.
Just see Overwatch when you talk too much to satisfy retard Genji/Tracer Player... (Brigit is legit, sorry kid)

It hurt me... but people deserv this to ruined Blizzard itself...
 

supernova8

Banned
I remember recently when I tried WoW (again for the first time for a while) and personally I thought the whole starter island thing was bullshit. Just give me back the normal starter system.
 

Kholinar

Banned
Blizzard is in deep shit right now but I think this 'leak' is just some disgruntled fan compounding onto the already sorry state of things to make shit feel worse than they already are. WoW is still an incredibly popular game that still prints tons of revenue for ActiBlizz, and while PR isn't exactly on their side at the moment, I don't think their offices are on fire. Like, come on. Feeling threatened by FFXIV? It's a wonderful MMO, but it's not the WoW killer people think it is, and it most likely never will be.
 
Last edited:

Salz01

Member
I don’t know why they have not ported wow to consoles….Xbox supports mouse and keyboard and potato PCs can run wow

I personally don’t understand either. I think there is even a hack or add on that can play wow with a controller.



Found this quick, but there are other videos. I always thought the game install size would be a problem, but it’s like 50 to 60 gig for all of it. So I’m not sure if they can’t figure out a price point to include all the expansions with the base game… or what, and then on top of it charge a monthly fee that’s not really done anymore.
I think now, they are just waiting to go free to play on pc when subscriber counts hit a certain level, and then bring it to console.
 

Xenon

Member
I don’t know why they have not ported wow to consoles….Xbox supports mouse and keyboard and potato PCs can run wow

Keyboard and mouse support on consoles is fringiest of the fringey. Anyone who cares about that already has a PC.

Besides no one gives a shot about WoW on a console now. They'd be better off using the designs and story to make an original game, Warcraft Ghost.
 
These 2 for me always kills a company:

- Devs being placed in positions they are not comfortable in or good in, because talent jumps ship and they gotta fill those positions.
- Brain drain in the company, and lack of experience all around because of jumpers.

Of course, the problem is management, it always is. Also, some devs talking more than they should (FF14 recent fight) makes wonders with the public perception.
 

Ailike

Member
Whether or not its insider information, it seems reflective of the current situation, so even if it isnt pure truth, its a mirror of the truth.
 

night13x

Member
Blizz is long gone. The gamers world moved on from them and their BS. Wow has not moved the needle in a vary long time while FF14 still does. Being stuck in the past vs moving forward and progressing. Also blizz internal atmosphere has been toxic for years. Nobody is suprised - even if by chance this "leak" is false.
 

YukiOnna

Member
They've invited Yoshi-P to their studios a number of times according to him though and plenty of staff play the game. Are they really that salty?
 

kiphalfton

Member
They're like bioware. They just won't die, no matter how many crappy games they release and how irrelevant they've become.
 

ZehDon

Member
A singular individual with vast knowledge of the inner workings, and the thoughts and feelings, of the entire Blizzard organisation - ranging from the support level no-bodies to the name-dropped higher ups in charge of creative - who's knowledge and interactions are so all encompassing, so vast, and so utterly complete, that they have knowledge of, and is able to comment on, every single major issue, topic, or thought currently in play within virtually any and all aspects of the WoW community... also posts on 4Chan after being "chewed out". Their comments just so happen to confirm every juvenile thought, ranging from "all new hires are 100% woke", to "all 'old guard' all love Asmon and hate SJWs", and on to "we all crunch all the time"... for a patch without a release date.

Can we ban this type of unsubstantiated garbage already - especially with OPs with tag lines like "could be bs, but sounds about right". Fucking worthless.
 
1) Move epe to consoles, make a console version of the game and even a mobile version. even if they look different and perform, they can always have there own servers its a good market they could dig into.
2) Hire company's and talent ( spend money to make money ) but also hire outside company's to co develop games with them and push them into the next generation
3) Make 2 mmo's one releases in 3-4 years, another one in 7-8 years from now ( long term plans )
4) Dablo 4 high budget game, dont rush it make it good and higih quality
5) Start making a high budget Starcraft 3
6) Revamp heroes of the storm or even make a second version of it
7) Produce new games and ip's a handful of them.
8) Replace there entire management team that sits at the top and get people with vision or hire them from outside other company's or even internal from people that do have idea's and push them forwards.
9) crossover games with sony/nintendo and push them also on consoles. To get free advertisement for your ip's.
10) start a big mobile division.
11) Make a new warcraft 4 with high budget going on for that one.
So you want them to either maintain or completely remake all their existing games, while simultaneously starting development on sequels for most of them, along with two separate MMOs, a "handful of new games and IPs", collaborative console titles with both Sony and Nintendo, and several mobile titles handled by a completely new division of the company.

I fully support this plan, if only because it would probably result in Bobby Kotick getting fired for bankrupting the company.
 

Zannegan

Member
Most of this doom and gloom is a collection of problems a corporate overlord wouldn't care about. Meanwhile, the leaker handwaves away the record profits made from selling mounts and whatever in the light of widespread but undefined dissatisfaction among players.

All in all, it reads like the ranting of an irate fan that truly believes A. business is a popularity contest and B. their echo chamber represents the feelings of the playerbase at large. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised of things at Blizzard are a nightmare, but I'm convinced this leak is 100% fabricated.
 
Last edited:

4EZCOOLDART

Member
I read a recap of the Sylvanas plot from the last 3 expansions and it's real dumb. I enjoyed the hell out of Warcraft 3 back in the day and played WoW for the first 3 or so expansions but the really seem to have thrown the story down the drain.
 

Reallink

Member
I don’t know why they have not ported wow to consoles….Xbox supports mouse and keyboard and potato PCs can run wow

Cause anyone willing to hook a KB/M up to an Xbox/PS to play WoW already has no fewer than 3 - 5 old PC's more than capable of running it. The KB/M is the stumbling block for console players, not the PC, it's an insurmountable barrier of entry. Building and balancing gameplay around furiously mashing 20 different hotkeys simultaneously and moving around with typing keys is a non-starter for console players, full stop.
 
Last edited:

Hari Seldon

Member
I don’t know why they have not ported wow to consoles….Xbox supports mouse and keyboard and potato PCs can run wow

Because there could be zero crossplay with the PC version as the PC version has mods which give such an overwhelming advantage that it would be like playing COD with a mouse and keyboard vs someone with an n64 controller.
 

Neil Young

Member
I mean, there's going to be SOME problems with the development of a game that's been around for 16 and a half years. Between WoW and COD....every company would LOVE to have their issues.
 

Arsic

Gold Member
Honestly influencers and content creators helped drive the game down and down.

I get it, you're frustrated, you're a long time player, and you gotta get clicks. It's way easier to get views shitting on stuff than being positive.

The whole thing is so blown out of proportion though. The game is far from dog shit. It has millions of players, and the ones not dunking on it online are most likely logging in, having fun, hopping off. Cancel sub when burnt out, come back when new stuff hits.

Gamers nowadays expect content every God damn week/day to keep their ADHD brains filled. No life guy blazes 24/7 for a few weeks then complains the game has no content or content is bad, yet spent hundreds of hours to get there. That voice has a megaphone and it spreads.

As a casual WoW player I loved my grind the last 2 months from level 1 to doing raiding on normal. The issues do exist in WHAT you grind at end game and how you do it. Plus them retconning content progress on legendaries etc is BS.

The core issues with WoW are easily fixable but studying ff14 isn't the fix. It needs to look at games like Destinh 2 and path of exile. The constant flow of content from expansion to expansion for D2 needs to be commended. And it keeps weekly resets fresh, and new seasons exciting.

WoW is far from dead, and most would gladly sing its praises in a heartbeat if Blizzard would :

Address the issues the community is bringing up in a video or post.

Address what they will do to fix it and an ETA.

Take feedback on if their fixes are poop and do what players recommend within reason.

Engage in more open discourse and drop the corporation money man can't speak disconnect from its community.

Apologize and work for a better game. It took FF14 a long time to get on the right track from the 1.0 launch.
 

Dev1lXYZ

Member
I gave up playing for a while after the 9.1 intro. I’m sick of the sneaking sections making their way into each patch. My friend who practically lived in Azeroth for years was in the same section and he was like…..this lady won’t shut up saying the same thing over and over……you’ll know the part, fellow WOW players. 😂😭It feels like they aren’t even trying at this point. Our guild is practically dead because the Legendary piece reset really pissed our heavy players off so bad they quit. The next point is the big one for me: Shadowlands dungeons are awful and are a pain to replay over and over. BFA’s were better all around; the aesthetics were on point and the mechanics flowed better and actually made sense.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
No attachment to Blizzard or Activision for that matter so whatever happens happens but I am hoping for Diablo IV to be real good because im very interested in playing it. Other than that, meh.
 
I like how the text starts with easily identifiable information. Add some magical knowledge of all departments and a sprinkle of ominous predictions, write it all in Word (with greentext) and replies are guaranteed.
My favourite part was "let's see if this turns out to be true". There's literally NOTHING in there that even remotely resembles a real prediction since all there is are lazy accusations, speculations and tales from someones ass.
 

Starhowl

Member
They died with the release of World of Warcraft - that's pretty much open knowledge to me since 15+ years.. I loved their games like Warcraft II, Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft III but they never managed to return to their former greatness. I guess they didn't care because getting players hooked to MMO-juice pays out more for than creating great games.

My human eyes never understood the deformities of their MMO characters and my eye-brain sensory every time was wondering how the quest texts could be read without a pain in the ass, considering their low contrast. 😵
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Honestly influencers and content creators helped drive the game down and down.

I get it, you're frustrated, you're a long time player, and you gotta get clicks. It's way easier to get views shitting on stuff than being positive.

The whole thing is so blown out of proportion though. The game is far from dog shit. It has millions of players, and the ones not dunking on it online are most likely logging in, having fun, hopping off. Cancel sub when burnt out, come back when new stuff hits.

Gamers nowadays expect content every God damn week/day to keep their ADHD brains filled. No life guy blazes 24/7 for a few weeks then complains the game has no content or content is bad, yet spent hundreds of hours to get there. That voice has a megaphone and it spreads.

As a casual WoW player I loved my grind the last 2 months from level 1 to doing raiding on normal. The issues do exist in WHAT you grind at end game and how you do it. Plus them retconning content progress on legendaries etc is BS.

The core issues with WoW are easily fixable but studying ff14 isn't the fix. It needs to look at games like Destinh 2 and path of exile. The constant flow of content from expansion to expansion for D2 needs to be commended. And it keeps weekly resets fresh, and new seasons exciting.

WoW is far from dead, and most would gladly sing its praises in a heartbeat if Blizzard would :

Address the issues the community is bringing up in a video or post.

Address what they will do to fix it and an ETA.

Take feedback on if their fixes are poop and do what players recommend within reason.

Engage in more open discourse and drop the corporation money man can't speak disconnect from its community.

Apologize and work for a better game. It took FF14 a long time to get on the right track from the 1.0 launch.
You are right that WoW has good bones and could be salvaged. The art design is infinitely better than any other MMO out there by a significant margin. The entire problem is that the current designers of the game cannot fix it. They are all data driven metrics people, not the old hippies of the golden age. Fun needs to be the first, second, and third concern. Not twitch eyeballs. Not e-sports. Fun.

The first step is to take a deep cut as to why the game was once fun, and is now considered not fun by a large amount of people. The most root cause explanation for why the game is not fun now but used to be fun is this: the OG game was designed for drunk morons. The modern game is designed for sweaty esports assholes.

Example:
Modern progression raiding: load up on every add-on, watch all videos, study like a fiend, get bitched at if you are not high enough in the meters.
OG Raiding: Get blitzed on a friday night and miss your heals because you are fucking off in the side chat channel with the other druids, but you win anyway because it is 40 people vs mechanics simple enough that even a drunk retard can understand.

What is more fun?

They need to look at every system in the game and ask themselves, "Does it make the game fun for the average person who just wants to drink some beer and play some games?" If no, then it needs scrapped.

The most obvious improvements:
1. 3rd party addons need nuked from orbit and it should have happened 10 years ago, sooooo many bad things about the game are related to allowing addons: overly complicated boss fights and needing to design 10 layers of "systems" to get around simming are the two biggest ones. Both of these are directly related to addons.
2. Eliminate any path for 3rd parties to develop offline raider IO scores. If you don't play wow and dont' know what this is, imagine the dumbest thing possible for a video game company: allowing a 3rd party to scrape the player data and develop user skill scores that players in the game use to gate who can do what. It is soooo dumb that Blizzard still allows this.
3. Eliminate sharding/phasing and go back to actual server communities. Get new tech that is not complete garbage and can allow more than 50 people on the screen at a time like you could in vanilla.
4. Need to completely stop worrying about esports and twitch viewership. It is ok if the sweatiest assholes on the earth clear the raid in the first fucking hour it drops. It literally doesn't matter to 99.9999% of the player base. Designing around these fuck faces is the dumbest shit ever. That is like designing a high school physics 1 test around the idea that Zombie Isaac Newton might show up and take it. Similar with arena and mythic+. No one but the sweatiest of the sweaty wow players gives a flying fuck about watching this shit on twitch. It will never get you more players, just drive players away in the long run.
 
Top Bottom