Blizzard has finally addressed the issues with Warcraft 3: Reforged. However, they do not readily admit to any faults.
Since the release Warcraft 3: Reforged has been surfing on a wave of negativity and criticism. It’s no surprise, as the game was released with numerous bugs, missing features, and broken promises. After long days of silence, the community manager Kaivax has now published a lengthy statement from the developers in the official forum, answering some questions and outlining upcoming plans.
What was said? Although the post is quite long, Blizzard only addresses a few of the problems in detail. In summary, they intend to tackle the following issues:
- A patch is intended to fix the issues with the “Classic” mode, meaning when playing with the old look of Warcraft 3. This includes sound bugs as well as graphic issues, such as faulty shaders or missing animations for unit portraits. The patch for this is expected to be released this week.
- Leaderboards and clans, as well as a functioning MMR system for match finding, are planned to come in one of the future patches.
- The tournament mode and the ruleset exclusively for Reign of Chaos will not return. These features were already removed in previous patches due to their infrequent use, thus consuming fewer resources regarding support for the entire game.
- The cutscenes are unlikely to be further revised. After BlizzCon, they thought long about it and did not want to distort the original experience of the game further, which is why they mainly use the new models and some new animations.
There is no timeframe for most changes yet. However, they intend to keep players updated in the coming weeks.
Our Schuhmann believes that Warcraft 3 simply has no priority at Blizzard.
How players are reacting: The comments in the thread correspond to the prevailing negative mood. While a few players think it’s good that there’s finally a reaction, the overall sentiment is negative. For many players, Warcraft 3 is already lost, and they will not give the game another chance. This at least comes through in many comments, which often just say, “Too little, too late” or “I got my refund, I’m done.”
Cortyn says: Honestly, I view the entire statement as damage control and it only tangentially addresses many questions. A rough timeframe for the patches and the implementation of changes would have been helpful. What really “triggered” me was this sentence:
First, we want to say that we’re sorry for those of you who did not have the experience you wanted.
Blizzard does not apologize for their product being unfinished and not matching their advertising claims; rather, they apologize for the apparently differing expectations of the users. How could anyone expect to receive a finished game that functions relatively bug-free?
Why can a company like Blizzard not just once say honestly: “We messed up and we’re sorry for disappointing your trust. We are working tirelessly to fix these issues and want to deliver you what we promised and what you deserve.”
But I suppose I am just expecting too much.
