This year’s BlizzCon is missing something important – and that worries fans of World of Warcraft.
BlizzCon 2023 is just a few days away. The Blizzard convention will take place next weekend (November 3rd and 4th), where major announcements are expected. Especially fans of World of Warcraft can look forward to it, as the next expansion will be presented by Chris Metzen.
However, an announcement beforehand is causing great concern. The popular “Q&A” between developers and players is not happening.
Why is Blizzard doing this? The exact reason is not known. It is speculated that Blizzard wants to carefully control which questions are asked and especially answered regarding World of Warcraft this year.
A Q&A will take place, but only afterwards as a video that will be released. There will be no opportunity to experience the “live” responses from the developers, and the questions will be filtered according to Blizzard’s own preferences.
Why is this a problem? The “Q&A” panel has always been one of the most popular events at BlizzCon. Here, visitors could line up and ask the lead developers of World of Warcraft questions directly. It’s not only entertaining but has also created some of the most iconic moments in BlizzCon history. This Q&A was responsible for the “Legend of the Red-Shirt-Guy,” who pointed out a lore error to the developers and was subsequently immortalized in the game.
Many see Blizzard’s decision not to face the community’s questions directly as a negative sign. Some suspect that the presentation regarding World of Warcraft this year might be more of a disappointment, and Blizzard wants to avoid many critical questions during the convention by simply canceling the Q&A session.
This fuels the suspicion that the developers themselves are not convinced of their new product and therefore do not want to directly face the fans’ questions.
At the same time, there are arguments for not holding Q&A sessions anymore. In recent years, there have been incidents that overshadowed the entire BlizzCon. For example, during the presentation of Diablo Immortal, a visitor asked whether it was a “late April Fool’s joke” – which led the developers to respond by asking: “Don’t you have phones?” The whole incident is now a prime example of failed communication.
It’s understandable from the developers’ perspective that Blizzard wants to avoid such reactions this year.
Whether this ultimately is a sign of a “bad WoW expansion” remains to be seen – and that only in a few days.
Fundamentally, WoW is doing well right now – that’s also due to the villain Fyrakk, who is much better written than the Jailer.
