Blizzard President Jay Allen Brack Addresses Controversy At BlizzCon 2019 - MMORPG.com

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Blizzard President Jay Allen Brack Addresses Controversy At BlizzCon 2019 - MMORPG.com

Before the start of the opening ceremony at Blizzard's epic event, BlizzCon 2019, President Jay Allen Brack took the stage to say a statement in order to address the cloud of controversy that has hung around the Warcraft developer since early October.

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namcost

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.

but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.

im so disappointed.

ScottJeslis

He was quite emotional about it at one point about how it was handled and he took full responsibility FWIW. It was quite touching, maybe I'm too easy going

koldmiser

I guess I'm just not that jaded. I thought D4 looked good and personally can't wait to play it.

Utinni

DMKano said:

namcost said:

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.



but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.



im so disappointed.

I thought the CGI trailer for D4 was the best thing about Blizzcon. 

Big kudos fo CGI staff at Blizzard.

However the gameplay for D4 shown was so mediocre- graphics look like PoE textures.

And the gameplay looks tired.

Yeah not great


This is not the same Blizzard anymore with so many pioneers and veteran devs gone... it's a shadow of its former self

Which veteran devs? Not many have left. Most folks that have left have been there for 25+ years and worth $2b, and they weren't developing anything in the past decade.

boris20

koldmiser said:

I guess I'm just not that jaded. I thought D4 looked good and personally can't wait to play it.

Personally my take too. Looked "promising" to me. I think people are just fishing for negative. There is simply not enough information or gameplay yet to praise or nail it to the cross. Just enough to have me optimistic and anxious to see more information. 

lugal

Free Hong Kong. Taiwan #1.

boris20

DMKano said:

namcost said:

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.

but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.

im so disappointed.

I thought the CGI trailer for D4 was the best thing about Blizzcon. 

Big kudos fo CGI staff at Blizzard.

However the gameplay for D4 shown was so mediocre- graphics look like PoE textures.

And the gameplay looks tired.

Yeah not great


This is not the same Blizzard anymore with so many pioneers and veteran devs gone... it's a shadow of its former self

PoE textures? We must have watched a different video. 

Tired? - I think the toned down, less mobs being blown up at once, slower game play looks refreshing. Blowing up screens of mobs at a time is tiring to me. 

tawess

I think it is a good of an apology as one can hope for. Sure it is not the "crawling on their knees through broken glass" that some people wanted. But that was never going to happen any way. 

I still think this was blow way out of proportion. 

tawess

But Blizzard has rotated people all the time... It is not something new.

In fact stagnation is even worse than change. Also if Star Wars and Disney in general has taught me anything it is that just repeating the same beat is not really a good idea if the beat is still out there... So trying to find a nice balance in the new Diablo between the old and the new... Sounds like a smart move. 

Utinni

Zegaloth said:

Utinni said:

DMKano said:

namcost said:

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.







but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.







im so disappointed.

I thought the CGI trailer for D4 was the best thing about Blizzcon. 

Big kudos fo CGI staff at Blizzard.

However the gameplay for D4 shown was so mediocre- graphics look like PoE textures.

And the gameplay looks tired.

Yeah not great


This is not the same Blizzard anymore with so many pioneers and veteran devs gone... it's a shadow of its former self

Which veteran devs? Not many have left. Most folks that have left have been there for 25+ years and worth $2b, and they weren't developing anything in the past decade.

https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/blizzard-frank-pearce-leaving-1203274798/



All of the founders are gone, all the original developers from Diablo are gone. The quality of life at Blizzard has been dwindling since the Activison takeover, and it will continue to drop because of deniers like yourself.

Another non apology, just more corporate double speak while dancing around any actual issues. They aren't about bringing gamers together, they are about padding their pocket book.

The founders left after being there for 28 years. Thats called retiring. Original Diablo devs left to make other games 15 years ago(The height of blizzard popularity). All of top brass from 2000 that weren't at blizz-north are still there.

tawess

DMKano said:

ScottJeslis said:

He was quite emotional about it at one point about how it was handled and he took full responsibility FWIW. It was quite touching, maybe I'm too easy going

He said every voice counts.... but they blocked all stream chat



Yeah.... they say one thing but still afraid of people posting anything about China

Afraid of..  Or just realistic about... 

Because you know as well as me that it would have been wall to wall shitposting and trolling... The signal to noise ration would have been 1:100 at best. That in turn would have turned it in to a flame war... 

tawess

DMKano said:

And that would be different than shitposting and 1:100 noise ratio from last year how???

Not at all... But it is a big step between stepping in to some gasoline with a lit match.... And rolling your self in napalm and setting it off. 

Or do you think they should have just let the flamewar erupt and then having to start to ban people... Or is it smarter to just lock the chat down before..?

RunRabbit

Lol bunch of salty haters here. Blizz gonna be fine. Apology and full blown trailer for every game expected will be more than enough to please their milk cows. Hate it or love it its the truth.

tawess

DMKano said:

Last year the chat was a total shitshow. 

The only difference is that this year they have a huge pro Hong Kong movement on their hands.

They should just stop censoring and ride the wave.

The longer they suppress speech the longer they will have to deal with protests.

So that is cute... And you can have your opinion... But that is just stupid. You admit so your self, last year was a shitshow... This year would be a shitshow that would make that a fart in space. There is no argument that can be done for letting that go... No one else would let that fly... freedom of expression or not... Because it is stupid and irresponsible and just cause a lot of work for no gain. 

IceAge

DMKano said:

tawess said:

DMKano said:

And that would be different than shitposting and 1:100 noise ratio from last year how???

Not at all... But it is a big step between stepping in to some gasoline with a lit match.... And rolling your self in napalm and setting it off. 

Or do you think they should have just let the flamewar erupt and then having to start to ban people... Or is it smarter to just lock the chat down before..?

Last year the chat was a total shitshow. 

The only difference is that this year they have a huge pro Hong Kong movement on their hands.

They should just stop censoring and ride the wave.

The longer they suppress speech the longer they will have to deal with protests.

Seems like all of the Hong Kong Pro Warriors are like you. Keyboard Warriors as I seen nothing (yet) happening at Blizzcon regarding your..crusade.

I mean, this is all you guys are doing. You are not Pro anything. You just like to "catch" the hate train and go crazy over something which you can't even hold true to .. whatever you "believe".

Because based on za internet from the past .. 1 month, we should of seen a hell unleashed at Blizzcon. 

Yet here you are. Still watching the FREE event from a company you no longer support. 

Why?! If I'm done with something, I'm done. I no longer get any interest in their products and such. So, why? 

IceAge

DMKano said:

RunRabbit said:

Lol bunch of salty haters here. Blizz gonna be fine. Apology and full blown trailer for every game expected will be more than enough to please their milk cows. Hate it or love it its the truth.

Omg, get a life already , geez! 

Aeander

DMKano said:

namcost said:

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.

but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.

im so disappointed.

I thought the CGI trailer for D4 was the best thing about Blizzcon. 

Big kudos fo CGI staff at Blizzard.

However the gameplay for D4 shown was so mediocre- graphics look like PoE textures.

And the gameplay looks tired.

Yeah not great


This is not the same Blizzard anymore with so many pioneers and veteran devs gone... it's a shadow of its former self

Are we even looking at the same footage? What I saw looked far visually better than PoE.

PoE is a hideous game at the moment. Far uglier than Diablo 3 even. It's why I'm looking forward to the graphics overhaul in PoE 4.0.

tawess

DMKano said:

Was specifically talking about background textures and color palette

 Very similar to PoE

Also lighting vfx- very similar to PoE

Not other graphics

In comparison look at project TL gameplay - that looks impressive 

See... that would have been good info to include.. seeing as we are not mindreaders. =P 

Utinni

President of the company publicly apologized at the start of their biggest event and people still saying they bow to china LOL

Just trolls at this point , nobody is that stupid.

Aeander

DMKano said:

Utinni said:

President of the company publicly apologized at the start of their biggest event and people still saying they bow to china LOL

Just trolls at this point , nobody is that stupid.

Not everyone bought the apology. Many saw it as an empty apology just to save their ass financially 

Calling everyone with different opinion stupid trolls.... /bravo

I'm not sure what you actually expect. I expected an apology. I didn't expect them to start publicly flogging themselves like a masochistic Catholic. 

All I wanted was an apology and the announcement of a proper PC/console Diablo project. I got both. I'm fine with this outcome. 

Iselin

Woops... wrong thread.

sneakerz007

DMKano said:

namcost said:

console sales for diablo 4 meaning lessor graphics to appease console peasants.... ugh.



but wait, there's more, "lets take all the diablo 3 assets and simply make them more realistic, then shove them into diablo 4" like come on. they aren't even trying anymore.... even watching the video, all I see is diablo 3 revamped graphically to be more realistic and less cartoony, which essentially means tweaked skinning and then more polygons. just sad.



im so disappointed.

I thought the CGI trailer for D4 was the best thing about Blizzcon. 

Big kudos fo CGI staff at Blizzard.

However the gameplay for D4 shown was so mediocre- graphics look like PoE textures.

And the gameplay looks tired.

Yeah not great


This is not the same Blizzard anymore with so many pioneers and veteran devs gone... it's a shadow of its former self

It's like the old saying wash, rinse, spin, repeat. Looks like devs are taking that notion and putting it into games. This company came from nothing and into something and now its nothing....

QuarterStack

Aeander said:

DMKano said:

Utinni said:

President of the company publicly apologized at the start of their biggest event and people still saying they bow to china LOL

Just trolls at this point , nobody is that stupid.

Not everyone bought the apology. Many saw it as an empty apology just to save their ass financially 

Calling everyone with different opinion stupid trolls.... /bravo

I'm not sure what you actually expect. I expected an apology. I didn't expect them to start publicly flogging themselves like a masochistic Catholic. 

All I wanted was an apology and the announcement of a proper PC/console Diablo project. I got both. I'm fine with this outcome. 

There's this thing when it comes to something like an apology.. it's called "sincerity".

As in, truly believing and feeling what it is you're saying.

Was Blizzard apologizing sincerely? Was it a genuine mea culpa?

Or just a hollow, scripted, but nice-sounding word-salad so they could say "see? We apologized"?

It's like someone apologizing for doing something wrong. Are they truly repentant for what they did? Or are they sorry they were caught?

Some people have finer tuned BS detectors, and are better than others at discerning between the two.

Some people will do so even if they *really* love the company and want to see them do good, but can't turn a blind-eye when they don't, because they really like their games. I consider this group to be the most intellectually honest of the bunch.

Then there are others who will defend the company no matter what they said. They'd have applauded Blizzard for their "strong stance" and "not backing down" if they didn't apologize at all. If the guy came out and said "Oopsie!", they'd say "See? They admitted they goofed! What more do you want?"

Then there are people whom, no matter what Blizzard said.. it wouldn't be enough. Even if they gave themselves 100 lashings on stage, there are people who would say "Nope. Still not enough. I want them to lose their house, all their money and to never work in the industry again".

People have made which side they're on very clear in this thread. On both sides of the fence.

Wizardry

The first statement was more from the heart .a more accurate representation of how they felt because of what they said or were about >>protecting "our BRAND".
Now it sounds more like a long term prepared speech.
So imo they are NOT sorry but just making a speech to yet again ,save their BRAND.

So as far as i am concerned,Blizzard puts their BRAND far above people and their values,morals and does not care one bit about anyone other than Blizzard's BRAND and their pocket books.

Horusra

DMKano said:

ScottJeslis said:

He was quite emotional about it at one point about how it was handled and he took full responsibility FWIW. It was quite touching, maybe I'm too easy going

He said every voice counts.... but they blocked all stream chat



Yeah.... they say one thing but still afraid of people posting anything about China

If you knew anything about YouTube you should know if a popular video starts a lot of Hong Kong/China stuff in the chat they shut it down.