For the past two days, every single thread on r/hearthstone's front page has been discussing this. Blizzard really fucked up. From one pr disaster to another.

I've long since accepted that Blizzard is a grey, hollowed out shell of its former glory that only seeks profit. Every single one of the great minds behind the original games has left or been driven out. It's run by money-grubbers who don't have the skill and soul to create new great games, so all they can do is remaster their past successes and pander to the widest possible audience with temporary, generic shit.

I think more discussion and Blizzard bashing is a good thing. China's censorship has started seeping into a lot of places in the west.

 

I've decided not to play the second I saw that humiliating kow-towing post from BlizzCN's account. Either they take a stand and show some testicular fortitude, or I'm done with them quite frankly.

 

Add another name to the list of people telling Blizzard to get stuffed.

 

Not gonna lie, I'm really looking forward to all the anarchist Mei and Winnie the Pooh cosplay that's gonna be all over Blizzcon. It's gonna be hilarious.

Also kinda sad, cuz up until this whole thing, the show looked likely to be much, much better than the last couple of years. But the sheer entertainment value of watching blizzard squirm more than makes up for it.

 

Assuming they let them past security, which may well be assuming too much.

 

It's not really surprising that Mark Kern is opposed to this. I mean he gets upset about Blizzard over things far less important

 

That's fair, but like, a Winnie the Pooh costume just needs tan pants, a red shirt and a can of face paint you can hide in your bag. Unless they really ramp up the security bag checks, it wouldn't be hard to sneak that in.

 

As I'm going to be attending my 4th Blizzcon next month, good luck getting it through security. They really take their bag checks seriously - and all cosplay has to be pre-approved.

I'm sure some folks will sneak in some stuff - but they'll get kicked out/banned real quick.

As for what's going on? I'm hoping to see Blizzard do a turnabout and offer a mea culpa but I'm not holding my breath. They seem to have only one play in their playbook, turtle down for 9 months before J Allen Brack makes a half-assed remark signalling that they recognize they did something bad, but not to worry - they'll find a new way to fuck up very shortly.

 

Terms of use were violated which should obviously have received a ban and other fines, but the kowtowing that followed cleared up any pretence that rules were merely being applied.

 

I've been a Blizzard fanboy since I was eight. I've gone to a few Blizzcons and they've been the best experiences I've ever had. I've played all their games, spent a stupid amount of time on WoW, and they've been one of my main forms of entertainment my whole life.

At this point, though, I'm done. I know they've been going downhill over a long period of time, but this has just been a final nail cementing that the Blizzard I liked is dead and has been for a while.

I hope this wave carries through over three weeks and Blizzcon gets protested.

 

My only hope is that the nerds are going put up like they never did for Area 51 and Naruto Run into Blizzcon wearing Winnie the Pooh cosplay.

THEY CAN'T STOP YOU ALL.

 

Ironically enough, I was on a Shenzhen - Hong Kong -Macau tour the past week. And due to this, hadn't kept up with the news at all. And there was a medical emergency at home the week before that.

So haven't touched WoW for the fortnight. `\(o.o)/`

 

Back in retailland:

Azshara prog is a nightmare. It's just such a spastic fight of which no parts are truly enjoyable. The line that spawns across the center is annoying at best and deadly at worst. The LOS mechanics are obnoxious. Watching ranged DPS get beckoned elicits slow motion NOOOOOOOOOOOs from the entire raid.

360 pulls into the boss and with a decent comp and decent players who are infinitely frustrated. Not a single p4 pull. We've killed the third add one time - as of last night.

My ability in keys has deteriorated since the end of last season but it's picking back up again. Emissaries while not being hard to deal with for organized teams end up slowing runs significantly and the new set of affixes are on a whole more average in terms of difficulty but also on a whole less fun. Tyrannical should be removed.

 

Official Blizzard Statement is out.

It's not long, but if you want the tldr of the message, they backed down on stealing Blitzchungs winnings...

...but doubled down on gargling Xinnie the Poohs huney.

 

To be perfectly honest whatever the politic view is, I don’t think a platform created by a gaming company should be used as a means to spread a political view.

I’ve seen a lot of things that blizzard did over the last couple of years that I don’t quite disagree but this one I can’t say I do.

Just because you agree with the politic view in question doesn’t mean thta blizzard is at fault to act punishingly.

 

The outrage isn't over the fact that Blizz punished Blitzchung. If they had simply given him a couple of month ban and not denied him the prize money people wouldn't have made a stink.

The real nauseating part was the response they sent in China. "We strongly condemn the player and the casters on what happened in the game last weekend , and we firmly DISAPPROVE people to state their own political POV in any tournament. The player will be banned from the tournament, and the casters will never be granted the chance to cast any official tournament from now on. Besides, we will firmly PROTECT THE PRIDE OF THE COUNTRY just like what we always do."

It doesn't get much more bootlicker than that.

 

Goddamn...
Where is this story even headed...
Draenor was the last point it was this jarring from a lore perspective. :/

Although the zones do look good... >_>

 

So the whole "There must always be a Lich King" line, in order to control the Scourge... I guess they just forgot about it, huh?

Also, Sylvanas just soloing the Scourge and Bolvar using Lich King powers - I mean, I wouldn't necessarily mind it if happened progressively, rather all at once in a cinematic trailer with absolutely no effort on her part, but this just looks so fucking weak. I'm not even a big World of Warcraft fan, I play the occasional game with someone, and sure, WoW had its fair share of weak moments and inconsistencies, but this one is - I don't really know how to describe it. WoW cinematic trailers tend to be shit that really hypes up people. This here? Nothing.

 

For those like me who aren't in the loop:

Yeah this is the first expansion trailer that didn't hype me up. Even after I stopped playing they'd always make want to go back, this one just made me laugh.

 

I don't really play the current WoW, but there's several things wrong with what you're stating.

Using the Lich Kings powers? Most of the powers the original Lich King possesed was because of Frostmourne (Which was destroyed), also worth noting that Arthas was more powerful than Bolvar ever was. The Lich King at this point only possesses the Helm of Damnation (which is the artifact that allows him to control the undead.) There's a reason he see's himself as a jailor more than anything else.

You're also asking if they just forgot the part of "there must always be a Lich King to control The Scourge", they certainly haven't. If anything, the entire point of this cinematic was to unleash the Scourge by breaking the helm.



Though, I do agree that the trailer really failed to hype me up, pretty dissapointed in that.