The Decline of Blizzard

and that is why Warcraft 3 reforged is so terrible I wish I never played a blizzard game ever the tool pains me to hear what louise has become and you shall have your wish granted funny my mind is completely blank now I could have sworn I was just upset about something but strange I don't Carly sit with me I have a tale for you oh boy is it about video games the [ __ ] you think it is of course work what do you wish to tell me old man well long ago when video games were much simpler there existed a company called Blizzard over time Blizzard released several outstanding games that one not only awards but the hearts of millions with every new title Blizzard managed to outdo themselves they were like Tom Brady and for many years Blizzard commanded great respect from gamers everywhere so so what happened the games were great right and and they kept making them I don't believe you can target a single mistake and say this is where it all went wrong although Blizzard was well loved by many gamers at some point something in them twist and contort until they were no longer that godlike beings we saw the mass there's got to be more to it than that tell me tell me everything if you insist [Music] the decline of Blizzard is not a story that was weird the decline of Blizzard is not a story about a successful business that is now failing but rather a business that continuously fails its fans Blizzard was one of my favorite game developers of all time my love for this company started when I was like five years old and I've given them more than a decade's worth of support Blizzard Jewish milord Nintendo Bungie these were the companies I knew of growing up as a kid all of them were gods in my eyes nothing makes me feel old quite like reminiscing on the first time I ever played a real computer game you know sitting there with pajama sam freddie fish math blaster dad bursts into the room sits me down and says son you're almost 5 years old but you've got a lot of Manning up to do it's time for a real game hansman Starcraft and it was like I'm Harry Potter grabbing the one that was destined for me I have so many vivid memories of playing the single-player campaign custom games loving the story voice acting I go on and on and on about how awesome these games are and hopefully I get to make a video about them someday the storytelling was out of this world but what really blew me away were the cinematics that intro to broodwar Oh I love that intro so much I parodied it in a horribly irrelevant video Starcraft was so awesome beyond what Blizzard created themselves and the map editor allowed for unique custom games that anyone could play around this time my brother and I somehow got our hands on a copy of Diablo and holy hell scares me shitless so bloody and graphic later I realized in therapy just how traumatized I was by the butcher I can still hear his voice now addicting satisfying Diablo was a terrifying introduction to RPGs years later chappal reign of chaos showed off the power of blizzards battledrums Frozen Throne comes out and it's like okay what have I done to deserve this blessing in RTS with heroes that level up in combat would set the foundation for what World of Warcraft would become and you know this part of the story I'm mr. t and I'm a knife mark what's your game World of Warcraft took the world by storm earth and Fire heed my call much like runescape Wow became a pop culture phenomenon I'll never forget the South Park episode where Blizzard and Comedy Central collaborated to make fun of the game there was so much to love about Blizzard and in their community their identity you know just the fun-loving spirit behind everything or Johnny now even though this video is going to be more on the negative side what I have a special place in my heart and memory for Blizzard as they were the great people who were a part of it and the incredible experiences they gave me that I that I bought and that's not to say they haven't done any good over the last decade overwatch was awesome Wow classic and incredible trip down memory lane look I'm not saying Blizzard as a whole is a reprehensible anti gamer movement led by Anita sarkeesian whose sole purpose is to destroy all your favorite franchises and usher in the age of the Burning Legion it's not that extreme alright truth be told I don't have much good to say about current Blizzard and that's where I want to focus on where they went wrong how they destroyed their own reputation and image in my eyes in the eyes of an old-time fan [Music] when Blizzard tasted the cursed waters of Activision and merged with them in 2008 it wasn't a highly controversial move at the time cod4 had just released eight months earlier Guitar Hero was the hottest fad since the Wii and they hadn't milked any of those franchises to death back then activision wasn't the same money-grubbing company we know today or maybe they were and they were just really good at hiding it but none of us had the foresight to predict just how much this would affect blizzards identity their culture and their games you did this to our people knowingly [Applause] [Music] our journey starts in July of 2010 Blizzard had a serious problem Starcraft 2 absolutely killed it with its reveal generating massive hype and sending shockwaves across all of Korea it had been 12 years since broodwar fans could not wait Starcraft 2 was coming out in three weeks baby however blizzards official forums had become filled with vitriol and flame wars trolling and community toxicity was spiraling out of control which diluted the discussions about the games themselves Blizzard could not have this continued with the launch of Starcraft 2 how do we change this toxic part of our community one executive asked weight loss programs and general hygiene classes another blurted out I've got it people won't talk as much [ __ ] on the internet when they can be held accountable for it so let's force everyone who uses our forums to display their real name take that trolls oh yes that's a fantastic real idea she really liked a race where are you so okay but how do we change this toxic part of our community without spitting in their face this decision of course had the exact reaction you'd expect the forum's were flooded with complaints and one thread reached over 11,000 replies look I'm not saying let the trolls roam free and the forests of Buckland but why wouldn't you just get moderators and or create stricter guidelines for using the forum's forcing everyone to reveal personal information would not only discourage people from posting but also punish people who did nothing wrong ultimately this new change would have created more problems than it would solve so Blizzard scrapped it but the fact that Real ID was even considered as a possibility let alone plan to be implemented across the board was really just such a bizarre out-of-touch thing too to even attempt and then there's this I work in a charity if they see I am a gamer it could affect my employment prospects gamer's have been oppressed since 2010 baby but the outrage seemed to be only temporary if we only knew what was in store for us down the line lizard has a long list of battles in the courtroom none more famous than Valve Corporation the activision blizzard this of course was over the legal rights to defense of the ancients the most popular custom game for Warcraft 3 and it was a battle for the ages two of the biggest and most successful PC developers duking it out who will come out on top from what I understand valved work with dota developer icefrog who was later hired by them and they wanted to trademark dota as their intellectual property Blizzard of course didn't want that I don't want it but Valve it already filed a trademark now it's complicated but for whatever reason blizzard and valve settled out of court with valve keeping the rights to DOTA allstars for commercial purposes and Blizzard would be able to use it within their own custom games this appears to have been a mutual agreement but with hindsight we see just how badly blizzard was shafted nobody thought dota would turn into the massive eSports juggernaut that it is today but you have to wonder how could Blizzard just let the magic lamp slip through their hands many fans lost faith and blizzards ability to retain the right and provide the games they wanted well the Warcraft has been blizzards main moneymaker for years with a large diverse dedicated community throughout the Burning Legion and Wrath of the Lich King expansions the game only grew in size Cataclysm was a bit rocky but it wasn't until May 2012 that mists of pandaria released and a large portion of fans voiced their discontent this was really the turning point for World of Warcraft and what turned many people off of that game Blizzard reported that 14% of users had canceled their subscriptions a loss of 13 million players after a brand new expansion that's supposed to build the game up shortly after this Blizzard stopped publicizing their subscription numbers as showing a steady decline might further exacerbate the decline there were many controversial changes to WoW over the years among many was the dungeon finder an expedited way of finding players for raids and instances initially you had to rally up a group of friends or other players and all commit hours to tackling these intense dungeons and that was a lot of fun it created so much community interaction many of Wow's community oriented features were made more accessible at the cost of player agency World of Warcraft started to feel less like a world and more of an automated experience why leave the main city if you can just hop into a queue and find a raid or instance anyways in some ways I'm willing to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt for Wow's decline in popularity keeping a game alive for that long is gonna have some speed bumps and even though many fans have disagreed with the direction Blizzard has taken at least they finally came out with WoW classic and both games seem to be coexisting peacefully [Music] but here's where we get into the real [ __ ] maybe it was just my experience but I vividly remember the launch of Diablo 3 as being one of the single most disappointing game launches of all time next to MCC what it was that bad not only had basically all of the depth been stripped away from Diablo 2 not only did it feel like a poor man's version of Diablo 2 but it was also just straight-up broken I waited years for this game and within four hours of gameplay I was like this ain't it chief and never looked back the always online and DRM features were heavily criticized totally unnecessary for people wanting to just play single-player single-player is it says daria blow three mind if we force you to play online anyway in case you changed your mind kind of dues it happens I have no three ik sorry I can't hear you over the sound of all my money the art direction was criticized it didn't feel hellish gameplay story was awful excessive amounts of useless gear with one percent of that [ __ ] being actually usable everything was a bust it just didn't feel like Diablo the sanctity of this place has been fouled Diablo 3 was the subject of numerous complaints by fair trade organizations across the world in France alone a consumer group reported that there were 1500 complaints in four days the organization forgive me Kate choice ear Kate wittier asked Blizzard to and this is my translation tell us when the [ __ ] the game is going to be playable be straight up ok be a [ __ ] homie Blizzard responded by saying there's a sticker on the box that says internet connection required [ __ ] here's the fair trade commission alleged that Blizzard had violated consumer rights laws in South Korea hundreds of gamers from there demanded refunds which Blizzard refused to grant until a month later in Germany the Federation of consumer organizations threatened legal action against blizzard for their lack of transparency with the DRM consumers inability to resell the game and then there was the auction house a feature Blizzard implemented to make everyone's gaming experience much better right if the gameplay wasn't shallow enough this [ __ ] atrocity of a feature made it so players could literally put in real money to buy the best gear this undercut the entire point of playing Diablo 3 the quest for gear comes from playing the game killing monsters doing quests that's what makes it fulfilling not by entering your credit card information it was one of the earlier and more egregious forms of microtransactions as Blizzard took a cut of all the profits it took them two years to realize how damaging the auction house was and would shut it down completely in March of 2014 at this point we all started to worry and wonder how could Blizzard continue to get into legal trouble how could this company with a stainless track record bungle it so badly with Diablo 3 how could they betray us we didn't live up to the high standards that we really set for ourselves as well continued to lose subscribers fans took it upon themselves to recreate the Wow game they wanted many private servers popped up offering different iterations of Wow that were no longer playable do you think when Burning Legion came out that it was the best here's your server wrath of the lich king here's your server vanilla here's your server miss Stahl Reyes it wasn't legal but it showed a surprising demand for that classic vanilla experience at its height nist aureus had 800,000 registered accounts naturally having that many people flocked to a service that you don't operate is bad for business and in this case copyright infringement the solution shut it down boys they pulled out their warhammer sent a cease-and-desist or a notorious was shut down but that only seemed to further agitate the already upset fanbase a petition popped up begging blizzard to consider a vanilla version of wow it received over 280,000 signatures they couldn't deny the facts anymore a lot of people didn't like WoW anymore and they wanted the old version and naturally Blizzard was upset because they felt fans weren't appreciating or understanding the work they were putting in remember that one bug that really pissed you off that we fixed like two years ago still there in the past while it was within their rights to terminate the server for three and a half years no alternative was offered by blizzard and this was made all the more worse when J Allen Brack the new CEO answered this question have you ever thought about adding servers for previous expansions as they were then no and and by the way you don't wanted that to do that either you think you do but you don't here's a lesson in healthy business practices don't tell your consumers what they don't want show them why they want what you're working on better yet listen to what your fans are asking for and meet that demand there's no point in showing this kind of contempt towards your audience unless your goal is to purposely damage your own reputation and goodwill and then J Alan Breck started talking [ __ ] about classic Wow other expansions were so orgasmically good remember when you had to like spam cities and say need a tank need a tank need a tank during the Burning Crusade days you don't remember that because now you just push a button that says go to the dungeon you would be a fool to want the older obsolete inferior version of Wow don't [ __ ] patronize me with the shutdown the historias team went to blizzards HQ and gave an 80 page essay on the development of the server and looked and sounded like Blizzard was going to work with some of the notorious devs to create Wow classic that would have been awesome read some goodwill with the community and these developers would make great representatives of that community it would inspire faith in the company but they never actually worked with them and it really shows the sinful pride of Blizzard for a long time they just couldn't accept the fact that vans didn't like the newer expansions and how Wow was changing but they were the ones out of touch not the community did you guys not have fun yeah you guys Blizzcon is the annual convention held by Blizzard it's a massive exciting event that showcases and promotes all their major franchises celebrities make appearances famous bands close out the show it's just epic who's this guy this is a dwarf and you know I prefer a little person well okay not many developers have an entire convention at their disposal and it's just blizzards way of showcasing their power getting fans hyped to consume product but in 2018 Blizzcon became the opposite of that hear ye hear ye fans of diablo behold the new experience you've been waiting for Diablo 4 immortal so we knew we want to use mobile devices as the platform duty for a new Diablo game because nothing brings a family together like slaying demons you want to explain yourself what are you doing people were confused and through a series of hilarious questions in the faces of the developers the situation started to get out of hand so how long is Diablo immortal been in development and how is it affecting other Diablo projects well you may or may not have heard I can't imagine the embarrassment of having the crowd of people at your own convention turn against you but it should showcase just how out of touch you are with them in particular majority of the games are PC oriented with Blizzard hearthstone being one of the other mobile games why bring it to mobile are you trying to reach a new audience of players what we remember about Blizzcon 2018 is the charcoaled remains of the PR department Hey just was wondering is this an out of season April Fool's joke [Music] no lizard said they were surprised by the negative response what now either they're lying or they are once again supremely and genuinely out of touch with their community am I so out of touch no lizard your fan base is mostly a PC gamer demographic those are the people who buy tickets to Blizzcon if you want to make a phone game make a phone game but don't expect your fans to give a [ __ ] or not bombard you with questions like is there any plans to make this playable on PC or is this strictly mobile forever nothing Blizzard's ideals and principles were shelved in favor of tapping into the mobile gaming market if you didn't think they were selling out with the auction house you sure did now did you guys not have phones to play your tablet to video game development is notorious for how hellish it can be an extremely competitive market filled with stressful deadlines long hours hectic work weeks and worst of all uncertainty of consistent employment when a game is finished and out the door many employees have to wonder if they too will be sent out well Blizzard answered that question by laying off 800 employees in February of 2019 800 people with families and lives and an income they need benefits insurance gone well employees this has been real educational now but now it's time to part with that Oh Activision Blizzard's saying get the [ __ ] out of my building during this time Activision Blizzard reported 7.5 billion dollars in sales 1.8 billion dollars in pure profit crack the goddamn scam bottles what an accomplishment you guys remember the WiiU yeah it was pretty gross and flopping super hard back in 2014 Nintendo was not looking good and at that point the boss Satoru Iwata took a pay cut to keep his employees employed that was at a time when Nintendo saw a 30% decrease in profits people look to big companies for guidance we want to feel good about where our money is going is it going to Bobby Kotex wallet or is it going to the people down and dirty on the front lines who sometimes work 70 plus hours a week Nintendo made a statement about the importance of their employees and Blizzard did the same they were just radically opposite statements I get that a company may take on more workers than they need overtime an Activision Blizzard might not have been able to find a place for these 800 Lost Souls but does that make it any less disheartening for a company to be celebrating its greatest success without sharing that with some of the people who made that happen in June 2003 the leaders of the Diablo project left Blizzard North feeling like they weren't involved with the big decisions anymore and unable to guarantee their own employees compensations and futures the Blizzard North executives protested they even went so far as to tender their resignations unless they were heard unfortunately those resignations were accepted in 2019 perceptions around blizzard had completely changed and in October of 2019 a professional hearthstone player the martyr blitz Chun made a political statement in support of the Hong Kong protests while on a live stream as Americans we are naturally sympathetic to those who have had their freedoms stripped away unfairly they say a man never really knows himself until his freedoms been taken away such as the undisputed case in China now I'm not trying to grandstand but china isn't exactly the paragon of human rights yet Blizzard's monetary ties to China like many other US companies they have to tiptoe around China's strict guidelines to release their products in their country they are very picky and very profitable China's actually a free and loving country I'm out not taking any chances Blizzard ban his ass [ __ ] those new casters no payment you're gone you're banned hope you learn your lesson speaking out about human rights issues on our platform this is not a political platform except it is when it's convenient for us now I did a whole video on this subject please check that out if you're at all interested I summarized it a lot more in depth so I'll be brief on its own it's a [ __ ] up decision but with the George Floyd protests it also shows the real double standard and hypocrisy you band blitz Chung docked his pay fired the casters involved all because he supported a protest in Hong Kong and you have the gall to post this on Twitter as if your company represents this statement wholeheartedly racism has no place in our society or any society except Hong Kong in China the those societies are cool nothing's wrong with them all is well consumed product even if you weren't just another company morally grandstanding on these protests and this issue while it's current is blatantly hypocritical outrage was so astronomical at Blizzard that the United States Congress asked them to reduce the punishment muhfuckin Congress got involved you [ __ ] up so badly boycotts were gaining traction Blizzard had yet another PR nightmare on their hands now they eventually reduce the punishment but never actually directly addressed the criticism only vaguely stated that we will do better going forward J Alan Breck deserves a lot of flak for how he handled this situation you're supposed to be a leader and at this point Blizzard employees were probably feeling every decision you've made some bad to us [Music] finally we arrived to present-day Warcraft three reforged a dream come true for me you have no idea how badly I wanted to see the custom games and multiplayer revived and to get hyped about it as if Warcraft 3 was a brand-new game this is Blizzard the latest and most damning [ __ ] of all with a chance to revitalize one of the most important video games of all time with a chance to revive the community get new gamers into it into RTS games genre that has been dying Blizzard left the Warcraft 3 community in a worse place than if they had never touched it how can a company actually deteriorate a product's value eighteen years later that's a topic for your business class especially since the game still had an active community and you tore out features and content that they've enjoyed for years the way Warcraft 3 launched is beyond belief but illustrates just how far detached Blizzard has become from not only their past but their fans we didn't live up to the high standards that we really set for ourselves no [ __ ] I speculate it was released in the state it was because of shareholder pressure something that ex members of Blizzard have said is tampering the way the company used to operate fans were beyond upset and Warcraft 3 reforged rightfully takes the crown for lowest review score on Metacritic there is even a parody website called Warcraft 3 refunded that just made fun of all the [ __ ] Blizzard had peddled about this game I won't go into every detail I'll link some videos that do if you're interested but here are the main points one blatantly misleading marketing led people to believe this classic title would have all its cutscenes remastered and remade what we got was not that in fact homeboy here actually showcases how the cinematography is less dynamic and interesting than the 2002 version I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth if I have to do you hear me to the ends of the earth it is there that your true destiny I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth if I have to do you hear me to the ends of the earth it's like they didn't even try to tons of core features of the game from 2000 to 2003 were not reimplemented ranked ladders gone if you play multiplayer prepare to get ass blasted because there is no ranking system at all 3 art direction was butchered you gross what is that sick original warcraft 3 does look extremely dated but everything is way more colorful and unique recognizable for classic warcraft 3 and even Starcraft 1 had a system implemented to prevent people from being dropped from matches if your connection was interrupted or a little shaky at times you get like a 45 second countdown timer and if your internet was good then the match would continue reforged does not have this being pulled early on Laura I was trying to go for a greedy ancient watery but if this is canceled with my oh damn that was not a bad BM leaving of the game this was a disconnect once again I am almost a higher percent sure yeah no I would never do this but there's enough mana I don't need a blog page I don't need you you're benched and looks like another drop if your internet connection isn't perfect you will be dropped from matches instantly this happens even in campaign missions where you get an automatic mission failed screen a delayed game is eventually good but a rushed game is forever bad Warcraft 3 reforge represents blizzards complete lack of empathy or care for their older games and the fans who still play them they just pissed on their own legacy and these problems barely scratch the surface and now Blizzard is forced to take their sweet time fixing things that never needed to be fixed in the pursuit of money and who knows what else Blizzard has lost their identity being one of the core titans of the industry and seeing them false so far fall lower than the likes of bungee is just sad man the franchises they used to be known and loved for are not what they once were where they used to be dedicated towards the fans now they are dedicated to the shareholders it's no longer about what do the fans want but rather what can we get away with blizzards sins are numerous tempting to disclose private information of their users to solve an issue that could have been fixed by better moderation introducing microtransactions that undercut the core design and fun factor of a game people waited 12 years for allowing a rival company to steal the commercial rights to one of the most popular games of all time changing Wow into something fans didn't want failing to provide fans with the experience they had been begging for until an independent group rose up to challenge Blizzard completely miss reading their audience by building up hype at their convention for a game their fanbase has never expressed interest in countless tone-deaf out-of-touch responses to valid criticism tossing out 800 employees like yesterday's trash during their most financially successful year punishing people who dare speak on important political and social issues taking a stand with China letting internal strife and protests run rampant within the company tarnishing their own legacy with a careless disregard for the state of Warcraft 3 reforged these are just the monumental blunders the ones that have affected me the most if you want to see current sentiment towards Blizzard go to their YouTube channel where the like dislike ratio is up in the air and most videos have comments disabled and if you take into consideration that Blizzard said they were going dark on overwatch too information couple that with the Diablo 4 reveal and it just seems like a desperate attempt to shift players focus from what a [ __ ] company they've been to whoa look at these new titles but that's just my theory Blizzard has proven time and time again where their morals lie and it's not with the consumers anymore so now do you see the decline of blizzard I do but what's what my son what happens now will blizzard ever would redeem themselves will I ever be excited for another title that is for them to decide we can only wait but if I were you act man I wouldn't let go of hope let's go before leads you astray I didn't into me [Music] you

Channel: The Act Man

Views: 2,238,289

Rating: 4.8722653 out of 5

Keywords: world of warcraft, diablo 4, starcraft 2, world of warcraft classic, blizzard bans blitzchung, blitzchung ban, overwatch 2, blizzard, the act man, act man, decline of, gaming news, Activision, activision blizzard, nostalrius, nostalrius shutdown, warcraft 3, warcraft 3 reforged, blizzard china, blizzard games, diablo immortal, heroes of the storm, diablo 3, warcraft 3 reforged gameplay, blizzcon, history of blizzard, blizzard boycott

Id: 1G6oRuu9tLg

Length: 37min 43sec (2263 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020