Blizzard acknowledges its own mistakes in World of Warcraft. This is well received by fans who wish for much more such admissions in the future.
With nearly 20 years behind it, World of Warcraft is a fairly old MMORPG that has been through a lot. There have been many great highlights, but not everything always went according to plan – at times, some things were even really bad. However, in the past, Blizzard often downplayed these mistakes. But not with Shadowlands. This honesty is well received by the community.
Where did Blizzard admit mistakes? At the Game Developer Conference (GDC), Blizzard spoke about the player numbers and also about the last expansion, Shadowlands. Many things went wrong for various reasons, which Blizzard openly summarized:
- Story & Setting: The afterlife was inaccessible, the new antagonist was poorly developed, and established story heroes were diminished in significance.
- Gameplay: The systems did not evolve with player expectations, borrowed power, not enough variety.
- Community: Too many gaps in content, lack of transparency, felt unheard.
This openness is new regarding several fields and is also being discussed in the community.
What does the community say? In the World of Warcraft Subreddit, people discuss this admission of mistakes and the associated transparency. Overall, it is well received, as Briciod writes:
I have never seen the developers own up to a failed expansion in the entire lifespan of WoW, not even in WoD or BFA. In the latter, it was even the opposite, where they insisted on the terrible systems and told players “they wouldn’t see their vision,” and this viewpoint was also carried into Shadowlands, resulting in some of the worst years in WoW’s history. (…)
It is nice to see that their attitude has changed, and I hope we see more of this.
The fundamental Shadowlands statement is also supported by Rare_Ad_3871:
Shadowlands caused players to leave in droves to try other MMOs. It was such a wild time, and they know they messed up. Dragonflight, however, was a strong improvement.
Kievarra also believes that things are improving in WoW after many years of making mistakes and not acknowledging them:
For every expansion, there is an interview before the release where they say “We have learned from our mistakes” as a selling point for the next expansion. Ion [Hazzikostas] has done this often, which made it hard for people to believe him when he did it again during the big talk before Dragonflight. The difference is, this time you can really see that they took it to heart, because Dragonflight had one of the most drastic changes in design philosophy compared to the previous expansion.
Does Blizzard often admit mistakes? While it is rare for Blizzard to openly acknowledge mistakes in World of Warcraft, as they did with Shadowlands, this has happened in the past. In various interviews, the developers occasionally address negative aspects, such as the Azerite armor in Battle for Azeroth, which was later regarded as a design flaw. Island expeditions and warfronts also fell short of expectations – something that was also attributed to themselves and the communication with players.
They also partially apologized for Warlords of Draenor back then, as the expansion was cut short by an entire patch and the story was even changed at the last minute.
The fact that Blizzard is being more open about mistakes seems to please many in the community and is, for some, proof: They want to learn and do better. Especially Dragonflight has likely been a good step in the right direction overall.
