Warcraft sounds too frightening. While the Blizzard leadership is considering such things and wants to make the universe more appealing to the masses, they are losing sight of the fans who built the company – so concludes an industry observer.
What is the current situation? A few days ago, we reported on an interview with Holly Longdale and Ion Hazzikostas, who have been guiding the direction of World of Warcraft at Blizzard for years. There, the vice president explained, among other things, that they want to bring Warcraft to as many people as possible and that they are not so happy with the name looking back: Warcraft sounds so frightening.
This interview was taken as an occasion by industry observer Peter Girnus (who actually comes from the field of cybersecurity) to point out a development at Blizzard in a lengthy post on X.
Warcraft also likes to show its cute side these days, as in this trailer:
What kind of development is this? Peter Girnus writes his post from the perspective of the Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard, looking back at the 30-year-old Warcraft franchise. His first accusation: The company collects feedback from focus groups who want increased accessibility for Warcraft. Most respondents have probably never played a Warcraft game.
In the second step, he criticizes the statements from the interview:
Our vice president told an interviewer that we want to offer players “weddings, raids, and new adventures.” She mentioned weddings first. Before raids. In a game called Warcraft. Nobody in the room batted an eye.
She also said: “No one thinks the same about Warhammer.”
She unfavorably compared our franchise to a competitor. Officially. As a defense of the franchise.
Peter Girnus on X
The increased accessibility, according to Girnus, serves to reach a larger TAM. TAM stands for Total Addressable Market, meaning the maximum theoretical target audience that one could reach with their product. Blizzard is no longer focused on subscribers or the community that has made this franchise (and Blizzard) great. It is all about TAM.
Girnus calls this the “Disneyfication,” a term that players are also frequently mentioning in this context: “Unpleasant things are turned into cute things. War into weddings. Orcs into mascots.” Everything must be family-friendly at best.
However, Girnus sees a major problem with this orientation: “TAM does not write posts in forums. TAM does not write farewell letters. TAM does not have 20 years of muscle memory and lore knowledge and raid nights from which real friendships have emerged.”
According to Girnus, it is not the name Warcraft that is the problem. “The issue is that old players are slowly not recognizing us anymore.”
What are the reactions to the post? Peter Girnus receives prominent support for his analysis. Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra writes on X:
Long live Warcraft.
It has always been about conflict.
This is the house on which Blizzard was built.
Many other readers also agree with Girnus:
- Montana Rodes writes: “That is why my entire guild no longer plays WoW. Most of us have been around since Vanilla.”
- Sky Wlker criticizes: “You tried to turn WoW into Guild Wars 2, and now it is a Disney game. Congratulations.”
- William Alves adds: “The vampire managers have finally sucked the last drop of soul out of Warcraft: weddings before raids, cash shop traps designed to milk anniversary earners, and a creative director who was involved in the naming and now complains that the name is too scary.”
A development that started many years ago
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz evaluate this analysis? Peter Girnus describes a development that has long been observable at Blizzard and has long been criticized by fans of Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft.
Since the enormous success of World of Warcraft starting in 2005, the company has changed. From less than 500 employees, more than 4,500 were employed in just 4 years. The new benchmark was set. The focus shifted towards service games. Blizzard increasingly faced criticism for its decisions, announcements, and delivered quality.
In this context, worth reading:
The unbelievably poorly implemented announcement of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon 2018 remains a cautionary example that Blizzard continues to develop past the core fans to reach new target groups. Projects that were important to long-time supporters, such as the remake of Warcraft 3, were meanwhile driven against the wall due to their poor implementation.
In addition, there is a development that we have observed for years everywhere: Brands are increasingly being expanded into mega-franchises that aim to conquer all platforms with series, movies, and games, and with merchandise the living and children’s rooms.
Disney is demonstrating this with Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avatar, and others. Many others are following suit. So we can assume that actions will follow Holly Longdale’s words: Warcraft will become larger, more omnipresent, more accessible, and more family-friendly.
From my perspective, however, it cannot be said outright that this focus on larger target groups automatically leads to a worse outcome. Quite the opposite: Blizzard is currently doing a lot right. Housing for WoW is being very well received. Overwatch has been restructured. A lot of new things are coming for Diablo. Additionally, a trailer recently proved, that WoW can still be very dark.
So it’s not all black and white. It always depends on the implementation in detail. Moreover, it must be said: A large part of the fans has long felt that not enough has happened with the beloved Warcraft universe: Blizzard believes they have underutilized Warcraft – the community thinks: Oh, really?
