An April Fools’ joke from over 12 years ago has become a reality in World of Warcraft. But hardly anyone finds it funny anymore.
Blizzard has been known for years to play some jokes with the community on April 1st, “April Fools’ Day.” Usually, a few silly features for games are announced that are far from reality. Often, there are also “fake patch notes” for World of Warcraft to troll the players a bit. However, after twelve years, one of these jokes has now been taken seriously.
What was it about? In the “Fake Patch Notes 2006,” there was an entry under “User Interface” that read:
“A global cooldown has been added to all abilities and spells.”
Back then, it was funny because it was unthinkable that even more abilities could be affected by the global cooldown.
With Patch 8.0, however, this has largely been implemented. Aside from various interrupt mechanics (like Kick or Counterspell), almost all abilities are affected by the global cooldown. Blizzard stated that this made using abilities feel more like a decision and that players wouldn’t just link 4-5 skills in a macro.
The connection was only noticed late: It took a few months for someone on Reddit to find the connection between the ancient fake patch notes and the current state of World of Warcraft. However, it was immediately recognized – there have been nearly 13,000 upvotes so far.
A few changes to the global cooldown were quickly rolled back by Blizzard.
What is the global cooldown? After activating a spell or ability, there is a short pause during which no other ability can be used. Therefore, players cannot use multiple instant casts or abilities in succession but must wait for this cooldown. Since it affects almost all abilities, it is called the “Global Cooldown” (GCD).
The community reacts sarcastically: In line with the current rather negative sentiment in the WoW subreddit, the community reacted with sarcastic comments.
- “Is there really any more evidence needed that the game has become its own joke?”
- “Next, we’ll have it that the global cooldown is affected by the global cooldown.”
- “Sometimes I think that Blizzard uses the old April Fools’ jokes as a guide. Pandaren made it into the game after all.”
Some players, however, take it with a positive sense of humor. It is said:
- “Hey, at least we can assume that we will still get the Bard class!“
Why are players complaining? The changes to the global cooldown of many abilities have been hotly debated for months. The loud part of the player base is complaining because it has made WoW slower and less exciting. Everything now feels “clunky” and inappropriate.
How do you feel about the changes to the global cooldown? Do you even notice them, and do they bother you? Or have they already become second nature?
