The Diablo Immortal Backlash Fun Parade (The Jimquisition)

[Applause] go on I thought it said liberati may save me but it's not me it's liberati toot ma save yourself and it gets worse [Music] Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick knack knack knack knack Nick knack a few months ago on this very show I talked about why Luigi not being in Super Smash Brothers and specifically pointed out how the Piranha Plants get smaller for a Nintendo here we are lukewarm off the heels of a Super Smash Brothers Nintendo Direct where they announced the piranha plant was going to be in Super Smash Brothers now I'm not saying I've got this weird psychic link with the video game industry which has been proven time and time again by my correct predictions and that you should therefore hang off my every word but actually [ __ ] it let's say that yeah I'm saying that I'm saying that I I know everything I know everything the announcements of a new Diablo game should be incredibly exciting for the world at large not only is it a venerable and beloved series Diablo 3 is one of the most exhaustively content-rich games you could ever hope to play perhaps the last time an Activision Blizzard product could ever be called downright generous Diablo 3 is an endlessly playable action RPG with a ludicrous amount of difficulty levels should be number unica's number of difficulty levels constantly refreshing content and seasonal play that you don't need to keep buying battle passes for how on earth could Activision Blizzard screw up the reveal of an all-new T habló release by being activision blizzard of course and the Blizzcon keynote 2 blizzards Wyatt Cheng had the unenviable task of getting the audience hiked for Diablo immortal in what is easily among the biggest audience miss reads in videogame history see Blizzard had decided to step in front of a crowd of ravenous PC gaming Diablo fans and excitedly tell them about Diablo immortal a mobile phone MMO produced in association with Nettie's yeah to say the reaction was gressive is to put it mildly even merely watching the reveal on screen one can feel the atmosphere in the room Turner's Cheng who I only feel sorry for makes it more and more clear than what he's talking about is a mobile game and not the kind of Diablo follow-up fans had hoped for the scattered applause seems like a worse deal than if the room had been completely silenced only enhancing the awkwardness of the situation if you want to know more we'll be back here on the mythic stage in just a few minutes for those of you who are here at Blizzcon thank you it only went downhill from there during the Q&A session one audience member asked if the announcement was an out of season April Fool's joke the crowd started audibly jeering the news at some points which reached a head when the poor [ __ ] on stage shouted do you guys not have mobile phones a display of exasperated taunting that oddly enough did not endear the crowd to a mortal and only seemed to fuel the hostility the fallout of the announcement has resounded across the internet backlash was swift and brutal as social media erupted in disappointed outrage and shouted down anything barring the brand of diablo immortal at the time of writing the official cinematic trailer for the game has five hundred and forty thousand dislikes compared to twenty thousand likes and it's alleged this is after Blizzard re uploaded the video to mask how many dislikes it was getting and I'm sure by the time we get around to screen capping the video it'll be even worse immortals drawn further criticism for strongly resembling previously released Nettie's mobile games such as Crusaders of light which themselves are thinly veiled ripoffs of Diablo this would make Diablo immortal a ripoff of a rip-off of Diablo itself which is a concept is just kind of sad in response to the reskin allegations Activision Blizzard only describes the cosmetic aspects of the game the only [ __ ] that would realistically change in a reskin thus doing absolutely nothing to quell the gossip and in a way reinforcing it well done there as to be expected with any good backlash or backlash to the backlash was inevitable game pundits criticized the fanbase for freaking out being entitled and expects everything to be about them currently we're in the backlash to the backlash to the backlash face as games journalists are being told off a new thing pieces are being published to criticize the criticism of the criticism who doesn't love a good backlash we don't have any plans at the moment to do PC you has not have phones in all these hot takes and critiques nobody seems to be talking about the most important aspect that the outraged hatred toward Activision Blizzard's announcement is funny because it's activision blizzard and fuck'em i mean it's not a nuance take by any stretch of the imagination but since when is that company ever deserve the benefit of the doubt or a goodwill of anybody certainly not since well probably Diablo 3 some say it's presumptuous to think Diablo immortal will be a cynically produced piece of garbage that will focus on excessive monetization to make money like other Nettie's gotcha style MMOs and yes I do agree it is presumptuous I do say it's presumptuous however I also say we ought to remember that Activision Blizzard retro actively put loot boxes in call of duty 4 modern warfare remastered has patented a method of abusing matchmaking to pressure players into buying Micron's actions and ruin Diablo 3 at launch with the dreaded auction house a real money trading system that caused most in-game loot drops to be useless for player characters in order to artificially create a need for said auction else that last point is worth noting as it shows that even back in 2012 Activision Blizzard has been gunning for a way to aggressively monetize the Diablo series gameplay be damned before the system was patched out players were predominantly given in-game loot that their own character couldn't equip all part of the psychological manipulation that all microtransaction economies employing with a whole bunch of useless loot you were boxed in to having to use the auction house to get rid of it and by ship you could use after that failed spectacularly the game's loot drops had to be overhauled so players would mostly get [ __ ] they could use this is one of several situations that clearly evidence how triple-a games are purposefully vandalized in development for the sake of profit and in the time since 2012 the uncontrollable greed of Activision Blizzard only gotten worse since over watches popularity kick-started the year of the loot box random chance microtransactions have been a big part of Activision's revenue stream making billions off in-game gambling systems mountain titles like call of duty and destiny to Activision is also one of the publishers that now put the micro transactions in after launch so they're never mentioned in reviews or any pre-release stuff sneaky [ __ ] shitbags and by all accounts the Mike transactions added to call of duty black ops 4 recently are [ __ ] obscene now while it is early days and there is a chance Diablo immortal will somehow ignore the overwhelming monetization possibilities of a mobile MMO there's no way in hell Activision hasn't earned its pre-emptive disgust and disdain for the potential exploitation that could occur again they don't deserve any benefit of any doubts I'm through giving massive corporations a chance the announcement itself was just the worst possible way active list could have handled it to do it as the major reveal of Blizzcon to a crowd of people who couldn't be less interested - then double down on the contentious atmosphere by shouting at him about phones there was no way this wouldn't fall the [ __ ] apart it's one of those how did you think this would go situations as anybody could have reasonably expected a crowd of PC centric fans ravenous for compelling diablo news to see through the plastic - in sincere excitement instantly which they did for a game actor Blees could have announced in dozens of alternative ways hey just was wondering is this an out of season April Fool's joke but let's have a think about why the mobile market in particular is so disappointing for people Mobile announcements of games never seem to go over well among super invested series fan bases and while that can very easily be written off as hardcore gamers hating casual games for the casuals it's not like the mobile market has itself been made easy - like I speak as someone who wants championed mobile games as important and creatively exciting things where productions like Infinity Blade pushed technical boundaries and titles like doodle jump provided ultimately addictive gameplay but over the years since it exploded mobile gaming has become miserable with only a few hard to find gems hid among the [ __ ] like million onion Hotel onion time what's happening to Diablo appears to be in line with what's happened to other highly regarded classic PC franchises that major publishers desperately want to monetize Electronic Arts has created a ground bed of justified cynicism for mobile spin-offs Dungeon Keeper mobile was legendarily despicable a free to wait game that required regular 24-hour waiting times to excavate a single block of the map and less players stumped up cache to speed things along taking a game that people had been hungry for more of since the 90s and turning it into that that thing was [ __ ] degrading EA would later pull a similar stunt with command & Conquer rivals which started off promising that has since been riddled with loot boxes and pay2win systems because it's a mobile game and mobile games apparently have to do that now if Diablo immortal had been announced five years ago or so I'd have been genuinely excited for it the mobile market was promising at one point but it's a long been overtaken by clash of clans or candy crush ripoffs an endless stream of overly monetized Gacha trash the triple any publishers only helped speed that along rather than bring incredible high-quality games to the platform they indulge their baser instincts and joined in with the free to web games gambling games and similarly insulting products what I mean to say is there's a reason a [ __ ] good reason for people to not give a [ __ ] about mobile games and be actively annoyed at their existence and it's because of what game companies did to poison the entire [ __ ] concept the game industry made its bet on this one so I'm far from feeling sorry for anyone that people shat on diablo immortal [ __ ] spare me the pity party now there are points to be made in the backlash to the backlash your mobile spin-off is at heart to whatever it's not actually offensive as a spin-off and it doesn't mean by a long shot that diablo 4 isn't happening when i say it's not offensive I mean you know the mobile market is trasher already and I consider almost anything on it to be fully disposable so whatever I'm not personally pissed off that this game exists it's just a shame it didn't happen half a decade ago when there was still hope for mobile games as a nonsense blizzard is working on you Diablo shits and I can in fairness see how one could look at the backlash and see a bunch of people angry that they didn't get the toy they wanted for Christmas Diablo a mortal will likely be a success and likely rake in tons more cash for a corporation for which no amount of money will ever be enough and a lot of people who boycott games often end up playing them anyway so the protests may be for naught also any personal harassment being directed at individuals within Blizzard is just not [ __ ] on hate the company not the individual [ __ ] decisions in the game industry are made by board members you'll never know headed up by CEOs you'll never interact with who give not a single [ __ ] about you nor the employees getting attacks at the ground level you're not just a nasty [ __ ] for harassing individuals you're Reds Armas actively wasting your time but getting snarky at a Q&A drowning out official social media posts and disliking actor blesses YouTube videos not only fair game but [ __ ] funny because [ __ ] Activision Blizzard as a company [ __ ] mobile games for what's been done to them and [ __ ] the triple-eight game industry just for a lark even if it is entitled even if it is sour grapes there is nothing Activision Blizzard has done to earn anything better than that it's an exploitative predatory greedy company that champions unregulated gambling and makes its own games worth two cokes more money out of an already paying audience that money will then go off to [ __ ] offshore tax havens so they can keep even more than they deserve and let's not forget it's the Triple A games publishers themselves that pushed for brand loyalty and gamer identity as part of their marketing every e3 is a monument to excessive hype and over excitement and zealous agin Activision especially of bred fanbase rivalries over their major game releases and publishers on the whole of notoriously stayed silent in the past when that zealous fandom has spilled over into toxicity turnabout my love's is fair play then actively stew in a venomous juice of its own creation they asked Fazil ously loyal fan bases this is the end result [ __ ] them Diablo immortal is not the first time an old guard PC series has been given a mobile game to the booing of the fans and it I fear won't be the last as we've seen with Dungeon Keeper and command & Conquer these old RPGs and strategy titles have systems in them just right for monetary exploitation whether you're paying for schools have loot to unit builds or sped up wait times you'll give an ample chance to be preyed upon and manipulated by a game you're meant to be playing for entertainment but triple-a publishers don't care about entertainment anymore they care about engagement the simple act of interaction a chance for them to get into your head and swindle increasing amounts of cash from you something tells me we'll be seeing more game series get these mobile titles not just like Diablo immortal where they've clearly been gunning for monetization for a while but like Dungeon Keeper mobile where a publisher didn't see potential in a new game for years and years until they realized they could stop mic transactions into it and it's gonna suck because it's the triple-a industry and sucking what they do predominantly money from your wallet sucking money from your wallet is what I was going forward there with the sucking and the wallets and their money now I don't typically look for myself on social media I see what people saying about me unbidden because I've only got a shred of self-esteem left and I'd like to keep it thank you very much but my man Justin art director on the show and he likes to look here and there see if he can find some fan art or people getting their Jim Puglia merchandise in because that's going out to people people have been receiving that now awesome but he stumbled across a thing that's been going around and I scarcely believe it myself but apparently because I've not cited with Activision Blizzard on this whole Diablo immortal thing some people are cracking on that I'm a right-wing conspiracy theorist now yes no I don't know what kind of logic that's based in and yes it is so self-evidently moronic a sentiment that to try and seriously argue with it is to device everybody in the world that could possibly be involved I have no idea and that's not even out of left field there's not a field on the planet that that could have come out of here's something I made earlier regardless of what's been floating around I'm not going to apologize for doing what I've always done on this show which is to not in the least a bit trust a multi-billion dollar corporation Activision Blizzard especially and see the worst in what they do because that's all they seem to do is the very worst they could do so now I'm not sorry that in this situation I don't side with Activision Blizzard at all and I'm not sorry for Activision Blizzard's I don't feel sorry for them at all for the reasons I've given and for the most important reason which I've reiterated throughout the video which is [ __ ] [ __ ] and thank God for me guinea pigs don't follow fashion me [Music]

Channel: Jim Sterling

Views: 868,782

Keywords: The Jimquisition, Jimquisition, Jim Sterling, Commentary, Criticism, Games, Game, Gamer, Gaming, Videogame, Video Game, Diablo, Diablo Immortal, Diablo III, PC, Mobile, Mobile Game, Blizzcon, Activision, Blizzard, Activision Blizzard, RPG, MMO, Role-playing Game, Roleplaying, Online, NetEase, Controversy, Outrage, Angry, Furious, Backlash, Journalism, Pundits, Entitled, Money, Greed, Microtransactions, Call of Duty, Loot Boxes, Command & Conquer Rivals, Dungeon Keeper Mobile, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Id: LCGx_tFHIvw

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018