In the subreddit of World of Warcraft, a letter from a fan to Blizzard is causing excitement and resonates with the gaming community.
For those who are die-hard fans of World of Warcraft and have been checking the MMORPG’s subreddit in recent weeks, the fun must have long been gone. Aside from some funny memes and cool nostalgia stories, there has been a lot of complaints. The overall mood there is rather negative and according to current trends, it seems that won’t change until at least Patch 8.2 Rise of Azshara.
A long letter to Blizzard has now united a large part of the player base in the WoW subreddit. Within half a day, there were more than 23,000 upvotes and nearly a hundred “golden awards” for the post.
Who is the author of the letter? The author of the letter describes himself as a 41-year-old, grumpy and cynical man who works in marketing and hates the business. He finds it absurd that consumers should have “a relationship” with companies; they just want good products. He wouldn’t want a relationship with the company behind Coca-Cola and wouldn’t visit fan forums for Tide Pods either. Furthermore, he would never pay money to attend a large convention for Levi’s.
But with Blizzard, it’s exactly the opposite. He loves the company because he has played their games for 20 years. Even if he wasn’t good at games, like in StarCraft, he still played them because he knew they were simply good games.
The love began with World of Warcraft: He was truly a fan only with World of Warcraft, when he first stepped into Dun Morogh and began his adventure in 2004. He has huge posters of the game in his room, an Arthas statue on his desk, and for him, Blizzard has become like a football team. He always hopes that Blizzard will be successful and achieve its goals. But now that has changed, and for him, it feels like he is cheering for a team that was once the great winner, but can no longer win today.
Blizzard needs more ‘Soon’: For the author of the letter, Blizzard’s fundamental principle “Gameplay first” is what has distinguished Blizzard. Back then, games were repeatedly delayed with a “Soon”. Blizzard took their time to polish the game, and only when it was somewhat perfect, was it released. The “Soon” was always worth the wait, and one knew that in the end, a masterpiece would emerge.
“Filling bars” and “hiding features” is annoying: For the author, World of Warcraft has changed. It’s now only about the “filling of bars” in terms of reputation, island expeditions, PvP, and other features. The reward for this is almost always some kind of loot box. World of Warcraft has transformed into a “fantasy casino” where one RNG mechanic builds upon another. Some content is hidden behind mindless grind or only becomes available over the course of weeks and months to keep subscription numbers constant.
The lukewarm fans have disappeared: He concludes the letter with a clear appeal and states that the “lukewarm fair-weather fans” have since disappeared. “We are all you have left,” he writes, referring to the “hardcore fans” who still play World of Warcraft despite its flaws. He wishes that they would stop designing the game based on analyses and monthly customers. The game should be fun, and that cannot be created by statistics, but can only be judged by the customers themselves.
Much agreement among readers: On Reddit, the post has received extremely high approval with its more than 23,000 upvotes. One comment compares Blizzard to a video by Steve Jobs, in which he explains why, in his view, companies fail. In summary, companies can create a monopoly through good products. But once the monopoly is achieved, only the marketing department can drive growth. For this reason, marketing people get more power, slowly pushing out those who actually create good products, which ultimately leads to the company’s downfall.
Not every reader agrees: However, there are also opposing voices in the post. One user notes that it is not Blizzard’s fault, but the own expectations. Blizzard has always made games for the current target audience. Back then, that was “our” generation. But even back then, they sold DLCs, such as StarCraft: Broodwar, which was released in the same year as the original StarCraft. However, back then it had to be bought in a store.
Therefore, it makes sense for Blizzard to create games with loot boxes and similar systems for users who have grown up with them, and not for the “outdated” generation, with whom they cannot earn as much money and who statistically will not have many more years as customers. Blizzard is simply keeping up with the times and if a company does not do that, it is doomed to fail.
You can view the complete letter in English in our sources.
What do you think of this letter and its core messages? Do you agree that Blizzard has changed for the worse? Or is it just the nostalgia goggles at fault and everything is actually the same as always?
