this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 95 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Blizzard has already lost it's soul to corporate greed a long time ago. Nothing to see here but empty cash grab husks.

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 37 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We hear you valued customer, that's why we are happy to announce Overwatch 3! Note: overwatch 2 will be inaccessible when 3 launches.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 35 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Coincidentally, Overwatch 3 will also be inaccessible when Overwatch 3 launches, because not enough people will have learned their lesson"

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Finally, Overwatch 3 is Overwatch 2 with an extra map, and a new subscription model.

[–] illi@lemm.ee 6 points 7 months ago

But this time we will release PvE for sure (someday)!

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

That's Microsoft favorite part. You don't have to keep selling it

[–] caut_R@lemmy.world 66 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Ok, but how much Blizzard is even left at Blizzard? lol

[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

About 2 years ago I wondered the same, so I collected a bunch of data (of 'who worked on which game') and used D3.js to make a graph thingy:

Downside: It's up to Shadowlands, not Dragonflight; Also, the few little circles pulled more left are mentioned multiple times in the same Credits, just under different roles.

The thick green circle is Customer Support (though this was before the mass-layoff by MS).

Live version here, but it's SUPER janky - changing selections will generate a new graph lower down the page.

Raw JSON data here - I had to install Retail WoW (F2P is good enough), dig into the game files to find the .html files that contained the credits and then convert that whole pile of doodoo into JSON.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Around tree fiddy.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 48 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Can they please not? I'd rather not have Blizzard stay Blizzard, seeing what they did to WoW, SC2, D3, D4, DI, Overwatch and worst of all, Heroes of the Storm.

[–] AlolanYoda@mander.xyz 29 points 7 months ago

And to their employees

[–] redracc@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The most recent expansion for WoW has been really good. Blizzard has been transparent with their changes and have been listening to the community. Recently the alpha for the next expansion has released and seems very promising with positive response from the community.

So I disagree, I'm glad microsoft is letting blizzard developers do their own thing. After the tumultuous expansion Shadowlands, a lot of the old guard for blizzard were removed and the current executive producer Holly Longdale has been doing a great job.

[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The most recent expansion for WoW has been really good.

Vanilla good, Wrath good, or Legion good?

[–] Ashtear@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

Not Wrath or Legion good, if the numbers are any indication. While the community has generally been positive, Dragonflight simply hasn't sold very well.

The expansion's over, anyway. They have officially moved the expansion cadence to only two major patches from three.

[–] redracc@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thats a disingenuous question...

I can't speak to your preferences as there are multiple different ways to play an mmo. I can, however, speak to the community's perspective and I have not seen the wow community be more positive about the current expansion since modern wow.

[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not really, since those have been the most popular expansions. It's easiest to measure up to, no?

[–] redracc@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Its hard to judge community response for wrath or vanilla for a game made 16+ years ago (lots of people tend to looks things back with rose-tinted glasses).

I've been playing since MoP and started doing high end content in WoD. So from this perspective, I can say that I haven't seen a more community response for the game since then, including legion. No endless grind for power, blizz being transparent about changes, and they are also listening to feedback.

Additionally, Shadowlands did a number of Dragonflight's sales but recent reports indicate that more subscribers are coming back to retail wow and the expansion does not have the post-expansion drought of subscribers.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh I had not yet heard that they're turning the ship around. That's really really cool. After all this time I just stopped following stuff around it since it got so depressing over the years.

She's the one from WoWC, right?

[–] redracc@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

She was working on classic before being promoted to her current position. Regardless, the entire wow dev team has been incredible these past few months. There has been such an influx of news of upcoming content these coming weeks its almost hard to keep up. Hoping that they can keep on the gas as The War Within comes out.

[–] NekkoDroid@programming.dev 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Overwatch

Don't worry, the person behind Overwatch 2 left in 2021 and is still held in high regard by a lot of people :)

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

person behind Overwatch 2

is still held in high regard

Ouff. I guess marketing earned their bonuses, sure.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you talking about Jeff Kaplan..? He was against making a sequel, and was against locking heroes behind a battle pass.

[–] NekkoDroid@programming.dev 2 points 7 months ago

He is the one that still wanted to make Project Titan work. Overwatch was the crawl, PvE was suppose to be the walk and then they'd have the run with the MMORPG.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1771227101112205572

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Have they done something to SC2? I quit playing that game years ago, but it seemed like they were done touching it, and it was still in its original glory.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Yeah they just stopped updating it and let all their RTS talent go to other companies to make their own games.

[–] Cybersteel@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

The age of empire remasters was pretty so probably nah

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I want the old Blizzard back. The one that didn't release a game until it was finished. And then kept fine tuning. The one that was ducking great

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

And the one that sexually harassed female employees

[–] illi@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

I mean... isn't that today Blizzard too?

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure when this happened. I'm referring to the WarCraft 2 and StarCraft times.

[–] GlitchZero@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

So are they.

[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

better destroy capitalism then

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

And also what does that mean?

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 31 points 7 months ago

A toxic workplace, almost no customer support, and plenty of micro-transactions?

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

It means they're okay with Blizzard launching expansions on maintenance day, so that nobody can actually play until the day after the game is released.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 7 months ago

Article didn't really have any purpose to it.

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 6 points 7 months ago

It reminds me of the line of defense some people have over sexual harassers - most recently Gérard Depardieu "oh it's Gérard, that's just how he is, leave him be" when he got sexually explicit in front of a 7yo

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Wait, do they mean 2016 Blizzard, or 2024 Blizzard? I feel like no one is happy letting 2024 Blizzard stay…

Funny thing is, now it’s adding to the list of terrible failing games Microsoft has put out from companies that used to matter. Who remembers Redfall?

[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

They gonna let blizz be blizz, insofar as microsoft gonna keep giving the macroshaft. They gonna fuck you, but when they're done, they let you keep your ass. Wouldn't be much use to them without it...