Is Blizzard returning to its old virtues? At least Cortyn is optimistic because there are signs that Blizzard is on the rise.
It is no secret that the last few years have not helped Blizzard’s reputation much. An endless wave of negative news began and simply did not end. With all the incidents, it’s almost difficult to keep track of everything. After all, a lot has happened:
- The Hearthstone issue with Blitzchung
- The mass layoffs during a record year
- Departure of many key developers
- Botched announcement of Diablo: Immortal
- Ruined launch of Warcraft III: Reforged
- Location closure in France during the pandemic
Basically, Blizzard has stumbled from one shitstorm to the next and has hardly had a quiet minute to bring some positive news – after all, there have been virtually none.
Finally some good news
In the past days and weeks, however, there have been several news items that give me hope. I see it as a glimmer of hope that things at Blizzard are moving in the right direction – at least from the players’ perspective. Especially three points stand out to me at the moment.
Free BlizzConline: The substitute event BlizzConline, which will take place in February 2021 and replaces the original BlizzCon 2020, is free for everyone. All streams are free to watch. You might think that this should be standard for a purely promotional event, but one had to purchase a virtual ticket for the BlizzCon every year.
It remains to be seen whether the BlizzConline is only free because the program is significantly reduced – however, this is fundamentally good news. Due to the ongoing pandemic, many people will likely still be at home at that time and therefore have the time to follow the event. The number of viewers will surely increase significantly if it is all free.
The end of multiboxing: Quite unexpectedly, Blizzard communicated a rule change regarding World of Warcraft. The use of software that transmits inputs to multiple WoW clients simultaneously is no longer permitted. Anyone using such software risks losing access to their WoW account.
Such software was used by multiboxers. These are players who play multiple accounts simultaneously and control a whole group of characters in parallel. Now and then, you see entire swarms of druids in WoW collecting herbs, mining ores, or picking on individual victims in open PvP.
This makes multiboxing nearly impossible in the future. While it is still allowed to own and play multiple WoW accounts simultaneously, the control must be done manually – for example, by tabbing in and out of the game.
These two points – the BlizzConline and the multiboxing – are both aspects where critics have always said: “Blizzard wants more money, so this won’t change.” Now Blizzard seems to be foregoing the revenue from the virtual ticket and the subscriptions from multiboxers, which will likely end soon after this announcement.
Delay of Shadowlands: For some fans, the delay of the WoW expansion Shadowlands may have been negative news, but I was pleased. I still remember the times when Blizzard would release the phrase: “It is done, when it’s done.”
Blizzard once stood for high quality, and if that quality takes weeks or months longer, then that’s just how it is. Making a concession in this direction again, even if it means some will cancel their pre-orders, is a right and important step for me. I prefer a late but good game to one that comes out early but only causes frustration.
It remains to be seen whether the delay was sufficient. However, the mere willingness to delay such an important title as Shadowlands again is, for me, a good sign.
There are also other small things in other games that really please me. In Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard recently turned the Brawl mode into a permanent ARAM – which I have always wished for.
Hearthstone is soon bringing a new reward system and has prepared the probably most interesting game mode of the last years with “Duels”. I’m currently playing it in early access and am already very enthusiastic. With a little polish, Blizzard has struck gold here.
Some doubts remain – as always
Despite all these good developments, there are of course still doubts and concerns. After all, Warcraft III: Reforged also delayed its release date to refine its quality. We all know how that turned out – namely catastrophically. They probably should have postponed Reforged by several more months.
However, I had good insight into the beta of Shadowlands and I am quite positive that the release will at least go smoothly, even if larger balance changes will still be pending in the weeks after.
I hope that all of this is a small impulse in the right direction and that Blizzard is currently working hard to improve its reputation with the players a bit. Whether that actually succeeds, we will probably find out after the launch of Shadowlands and whether the expansion can live up to what the fans expect.
At least, I still allow myself some days of hope. Being cautiously optimistic seems to me to be a good mindset at the end of this cursed year.
How do you see Blizzard’s development in the past weeks and months?
