Rawr!
So... I have been very frustrated with Blizzard as a company lately. I was one of the thousands upon thousands who protested the 'no flight again ever' thing. I should have copy and pasted my forum posts, but I didn't so oh well, but basically, for anyone who doesn't know, WoD gets more and more lackluster as it goes on, more and more boring and tedious. People started leaving in droves because of the sheer issue of NOTHING but chores to do at max lvl. So Blizz very foolishly decided that the people who were left were the 'hardcore' fans and said they didn't want to put in the effort to design flight anymore. They pretty much had a riot, but not really so much because of flight itself, though flight is liberating, but because of the way they had been treating their customers.
Blizz announced the no flight thing on a third party website no one watches the day before a holiday weekend in the hopes that no one would notice, and if they did, that it would blow over in three days. During that time, they were bombarded on twitter, the forums, everything, with pure rage from their playerbase, not only for the silly decision, but also, for the way it was done, and yet, they responded over the weekend on twitter with comments such as "We are listening. Tell us how to make the game better without flight." or "Just because we don't agree with you and don't respond doesn't mean we are ignoring you." even though that is the literal definition, but anyhoo, they were being very very condescending about the whole thing, especially after they had always led everyone to believe that flight would be added to WoD.
Back before it even launched, they said, "there will be no flight during the beginning, so that you have to do land work and appreciate our content we made, but we will add it later."
Of course, Blizz, they tried to say that they never 'actually said they would add flight, just that they might', and so players themselves had to go back and do the research and find the documents, the comments, and fight back against their own company they love with the company's own words in writing. Blizz was confronted with multiple times they had actually used terms that meant 'for sure we will'.
So then people started asking for their money back for the new saber mount from the Blizz store, which, when advertised, is shown flying over Shadowmoon Valley in Draenor. Blizz refused, so then people started saying it was illegal in the state of California to false advertise, and though you cannot take Blizz to court as a player, per the agreement you sign when you play, you can, as an American citizen, take them to court, over breaking laws.
At this point, Blizz announced that they would have a giant Q&A about the new content in 6.2 and everything, and plz to hold off on anything til then. After 10 days, they would do this. So the rioting continued, because again, Blizz was not responding, just blowing everyone off, and not addressing player concern. What started as 'no more flight ever' had become 'we know how you should have fun in our game, and you should accept what we say and do at all times, or gtfo'
Now Blizz didn't need our money, as players. Now they were putting out reports, as well, during this, saying, the loss in sub's didn't matter, because they could always suck more money out of current players with in store mounts, pets and also, with tokens. They didn't need every player to stay, cuz each player was expected to be worth more revenue.
People just got more furious and left in droves. People had been posting their 'leaving the game' in the forums, but now, it was thousands of people leaving, instead of only hundreds.
Blizz postponed the Q&A. They had to 'carefully consider how to address the needs of the players'
The truth is, that they finally decided to change their mind about flight, and make it that you have to complete achievements you would probably complete by playing the fullness of their content in WoD anyhoo.
Now you can unlock some achievements, and boom, you can fly, in a later patch. This seemed fine to me, but what wasn't fine was all the hurt Blizz had caused, the realization that they didn't care, and the utter disappointment in their mind set. What also wasn't fine was 6.2 itself.
6.2 is nothing, absolutely nothing, but a giant grind fest of chores and annoyance. The chores are not fun. The grinding is not fun. The rewards are not awesome. It is just a giant zone of things that want to kill you for you to kill for some crystals to buy a couple of ok items, like the raven mount, and then the rest are all wasted on gear you can get better than of in the raid.
The raid is full of repeat of other raids, the mechanics are just all dodge or die, and the bosses are re-skins of previous content. Even Gore sits in a pool imitating Yog, letting his belly mouth float in the water with the exact same mechanic when you first walk up to him to fight him. Everything is just a green glowie of stuff you have already seen.
Now I could get flight, but why? What content is there worth putting in any effort to do? I came to realize that WoD is quite simply, no fun, at this point. I could waste my hours farming felblight, grinding out dailies, or just murdering enough in each little area that I fill the bar to the right of my screen. That is it. There is nothing else.
On top of that, after everything that happened, I feel kind of sick about Blizz. There can only be two causes I can reasonably comprehend for their actions, and neither are comforting.
Either, on the one hand, they are that arrogant and genuinely want the players to only enjoy the game how they dictate, streamlining the game to the point that player invented adventure is bad and not listening and paying them for telling you how to play is insubordination so go play something else, or, they are actually purposefully trying to 'kill' WoW because it is not cost effective in their mind to keep it up when they have other, new, easy to produce games on the market.
Either way, they are gift wrapping their customers for other games. Customers who would have gladly kept throwing their money at them if only they deserved it. Customers who did love WoW and love Blizz and actually didn't really want to leave, but were pushed into it. Customers like me.
I have ended my subscribing to WoW. I am 'paid' thru October, but honestly, I don't know if I wanna stay. I certainly don't care about playing. I log in maybe once or twice a week, just to toss a 'hi' to my old guildies. I wouldn't touch it again if not for them. If I do keep the game up, it would be with a token a month, which I know gives them an extra 5 bucks, but, well, it is easier to stop playing and not feel bad if you just waste in game gold, and plus, I don't hate Blizz. Honestly, I am heartbroken that this is the stance and direction they are going.
Blizz has already announced that they are now done with WoD. They will not be adding anymore content to it, cept maybe something to introduce whatever new expansion they make. They want more money faster, so another expansion already suits them fine, more 60 bucks a pop from everyone, 70 for CE, but also, WoD is no fun, and the players they still retain, they will try to keep and string along and squeeze as much money out of that they can, and at this point, new content is the only thing that will make anyone play WoW.
Personally, I don't know if I can care about whatever they put out next. I don't know if they have ended my interest, much like GW2 did back when they destroyed the game for me. I have never played GW2 again, after they did that, despite it being free for me. I have good memories of the game. I don't wanna play it when it is less than that.
I feel this way about WoW now. So, I have purchased a new game, which I have wanted to play for a while, but didn't, because I was unsure of it, knowing no one else really who played it, but, well, I need something fresh and fun. I need something that feels epic. So, I picked the game that always inspired me and kept my eyes wide with awe as a kid and teen- Final Fantasy.
So far, it has been an excellent choice, and I would recommend the game to anyone. It has so much more 'filler content' than WoW, so if you get sick of all the 'normal' MMO stuff, like raiding and pvp and dungeons, there is still lots to do. The game is more involved, and rewards effort, plus, the FF aspects are refreshing and nostalgic. The storyline is incredible, which as a writer myself, I certainly appreciate being immersed in an in depth story I can get emotionally involved in. I am thoroughly enjoying my dive into the game, and am not even max lvl yet.
WoW has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and FF14 is filling me with that childlike wonder at gaming again, which is a relief, because I have been a gamer since I was 5 years old. I need it. I need it like I need to eat or need to write. I try not to let companies that hurt me keep me from playing at all, and apparently, so do many of their former players, since the number one game people are going to when they leave WoW is FF14. And unlike Blizz, who puts out worse and worse content, seemingly on purpose, and cares about the dollars per customer as the most important thing, Square Enix put out FF14 in the first place, and got bad reviews, so they spent their own money and resources to make it BETTER because they cared about making the game great. I find that very comforting about their company. They care if their players enjoy their game. They want it to be amazing. They want it to be worth buying.
And so, they will be getting my money.
Rawr :)
