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Blizzard's become the new EA...
Vozz
Member Posts: 27
In reference to a post I read over on the official WoW forums, I thought I'd bring this up here to see what you all think of it: Blizzard's pretty much become the new EA. They have poor customer service, constant hardware and/or software problems despite a steady influx of cash (and lots of it), a horrible community they've never made any attempt to police (the whole stupid "lol" thing on the forums for April Fool's is a good example of their tolerating and even encouraging acting like an idiot) and they tend to ignore pretty much any customer request, no matter how reasonable (removing the lower level limitation in the LFG tool). So long as they get their money, they'll do what they like.
Obviously, no company is perfect, but when you take a look at Blizzard's attitude towards WoW players, as opposed to let's say Turbine's, there's a pretty obvious lack of respect that shows through, which bothers me more than their mediocre game (which really only suffers from being shallow, it's got good basic gameplay), to be honest.
...moo?
Comments
EA destroyed UO. Until Blizzard destroys WoW in the same way EA destroyed UO (read: really not a possibility) they can't even be put in the same category.
nethervoid - Est. '97
[UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|AQW|DN|SWTOR|Dofus|SotA|BDO|AO|NW|LA] - Currently Playing EQ1
20k+ subs YouTube Gaming channel
lighten up a bit...its hard to moniter 10 million players...also if you think blizzard is bad with hardware and software problems....try out soe....no game is perfect....mos mmo have software and hardware problems...
So you're saying instead of just being lazy and putting out mediocre stuff they'd have to do actual harm to a pre-existing game to reach EA's level? You may just have a point there.
...moo?
Lazy hell! They are way too busy raking in money with one hand while lighting their huge Cuban cigars with 1000 dollar bills with the other. I mean c'mon this gravy train won't run forever! Get those 5000 dollar a night high class hookers and live like a rock star while you can! It's a long fall from on high! Just ask Brad McQuaid or John Romero.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give a fish a man and he will eat for a month!
Although I well know this thread was made with the preconceived notion that "Blizzard is Bad". fact is, I doubt any MMORPG company could handle a game as large as WoW except Blizzard right now. Mythic and Funcom may get there eventually but not for a while.
Fact is, I dont see the same way you did. I thought that Blizzards customer service was not all that bad.
"tend to ignore pretty much any customer request" ..well, I think everyone can easily point to a patch note where that statement is incorrect. Many players claim their class was nerfed because of other player's outcries
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Lazy hell! They are way too busy raking in money with one hand while lighting their huge Cuban cigars with 1000 dollar bills with the other. I mean c'mon this gravy train won't run forever! Get those 5000 dollar a night high class hookers and live like a rock star while you can! It's a long fall from on high! Just ask Brad McQuaid or John Romero.
Brad! Brad? Braaaad... That name always sounded like a douche is hiding behind it. Didn't you hear? Romero is making a groundbreaking new MMO that's gona revolutionise the whole genre and make you his bitch, again.
blizzard has always for me had crappy CS and there mmo is crap as well its bland, simple and looks ...well we know how it looks, but blizzaard does not light a flame when it comes to the match of ea-games, i would say that blizzard could be close to ea-games if they shut down there best mmo and moved the devs to say something like sims online lol. Ea-games buys game companies and chews them up and spits the dev teams where they want em and shuts down the games where the devs come from, RIP DAOC, Earth and beyond, and motor city.
playing eq2 and two worlds
Honestly, the little silly things that Blizzard does (IE: the lol forum thing today), I believe, are actually REALLY good for their customer base. I mean, the little things that make people chuckle and keep people happy....no matter how silly they seem....can be a great little distraction just to put a smile on players faces.
And a smiling playerbase certainly can't be a bad thing.
Hey..sometimes it is fun to act like an idiot or behave a little silly and Blizzard encouraging that certainly isn't hurting their business and let's face it, WoW isn't mearly an MMO anymore....they have their own culture, their own lingo, their own style and it attracts a lot of people. The game ingrains itself into society and becomes something bigger than just another MMO.
100% agree with OP. And they are starting to destroy WOW, taking out elite mobs and boosting experience.
The "lol" forum april's fool was very stupid and a lack of respect towards us the players.
increasing XP gain and not as many elites for lower levels is the smartest thing ever. it helps new commers alot and, a large majority of people already have a max level char. people with alts dont group much at lower levels cause they know where to go...so. with 10 more levels on the way, having the lower levels go abit faster is only keeping the game fluint
And like EA, they are likely to continue to be sucessfull regardless of quality. I blame those who buy their crap just as much though. If nobody bought EAs junk they would either change, or die. For some reason crappy games + crappy support = high sales it seems
But I have to say, they are still a LONG way from EA. Hopefully they stay FAR away.
constant bugs? where? i played WoW for 2 years and the worst bug i ever saw was that giant bug in AQ (though he did drop some sweet stuff). Blizz are not like EA at all. your asuming that their market dominance= evil, corrupt, crappy service style company. EA is seen as a bad company because they are business smart (and its paying off for them). Blizz is not as smart as EA (hence why it is owned by Vivendi, which is a VERY business smart company) and its real goal is to make decent games.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
I guess it's a matter of personal taste, then. I find being unable to get anything done on the forums (asking for tech support, for example) to be damn annoying. I also don't think it's particularly funny when someone asks when the arena tourney servers (which people paid 20 bucks to play on) are going to be back up and a bunch of forum idiots spam him with "Blizzard pwns u hardcore lawlz" and other such crap. The "lulz" filter only encourages these morons, in my opinion.
As for tech issues, Blizzard isn't running servers for 10 million people, remember? They have affiliates overseas in Asia doing the work for them, so 10 million is stretching it a bit. Still, several million is a pretty heavy server load, but how does that account for their server performance and uptime getting worse over the past few years? You'd think they'd have tried to do their best to iron out these sorts of problems.
...moo?
You see this is what I find funny. People will complain about Blizzard's customer service or their product but yet they still are playing Blizzard games. If people really feel that they are being slighted in any possible way then the best way to make a statement is to not buy their products. It's just that simple. Gamers have more say into what should be made or done by companies more than they realize it.
As far as customer service and staying true to orginal, direct and vison of a game. Blizzard is far worse than EA.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
I actually use to have a growing problem playing world of warcraft. First, the ground and buildings would disappear and my framerate would turn to shit. This later led to my computer screen turning completely black during gameplay, then my screen going into power-save mode...not a good sign.
So, i went to their costumer service forums and they had a HUGE list of possible problems and solutions. I tried some, mostly the easy ones, while downloading many third person programs that do things like monitor programs using a significant amount of my cpu and also monitor my computer's temperature. ONE thing i ignored was that my powersupply by dying, even though blizzard listed it as a possible reason. I thought to myself, my computer is fine when im not playing WoW, therefore it must be a problem with WoW.
I eventually got so pissed (missed an SSC raid) that i just decided that maybe it was my powersupply and bought a 500w (overkill) powersupply the next day. COMPLETELY fixed the problem.
I had previously posted on their forums and even emailed the blizzard tech crew, received informative responses, but ignored some of their advice.
The fact of the matter is, computers are tricky bastards that can have so many different things go wrong with them making it hard to pinpoint the problem. But, the solution to any problem is out there, you just need to keep on trucking.
I'm still playing World of Warcraft? Really? Last I heard, I quit 2 weeks ago. My forum account is still active until the 12th, though... and I was trying to help someone with a Mac technical problem this morning, which was damn near impossible until I had the bright idea of downloading NoScript and using it to block the stupid "lol" stuff.
...moo?
The level of intelligence found in this thread is amazingly low.
If you hate Blizzard...fine. If you hate that Blizzard is so popular that no one will ever make the MMO of your dreams as a result...fine. If you are mad that Blizzard nerfed your class....fine. But even suggesting their customer service is anything but stellar is just plain dumb. Suggesting they ignore their players is also dumb. Real dumb...like Courtney Love kind of dumb.
I've played right on about half the MMO's made. Of every last one, WoW has shown to be the best customer service and best continued and frequent game updates. The only one which comes close is CoH, but due to working with a MUCH smaller team...they really can't compare (nor should they, for what they do.). SOE is complete trash, EA is complete trash, CCP has some pluses...but falls kinda short....the list goes on and on and on.
Before you go assuming things about me, understand this: I really don't like WoW. Really really. I had my fun with it, and moved on because it could not sate my particular gaming need. I would never go back to it, and can not even force myself to level in the 20's on that game anymore...REGARDLESS of how much they improved (note, I said improved....because that is what it is.) leveling for lowbies. I. Hate. That. Game.
Lazy hell! They are way too busy raking in money with one hand while lighting their huge Cuban cigars with 1000 dollar bills with the other. I mean c'mon this gravy train won't run forever! Get those 5000 dollar a night high class hookers and live like a rock star while you can! It's a long fall from on high! Just ask Brad McQuaid or John Romero.
Brad! Brad? Braaaad... That name always sounded like a douche is hiding behind it. Didn't you hear? Romero is making a groundbreaking new MMO that's gona revolutionise the whole genre and make you his bitch, again.
Not to get too off topic here, but as a Brad, I think someone named Tomislav has very little ground to stand on.
Ironically, I think that WoW's basic gameplay is just fine, although I don't appreciate the stuff Blizzard's slapped on to it (arena and the like). I've played more than my fair share of MMOs and I happen to think that WoW's customer service is horrendous. I've been double billed 3 months in a row, had to wait 4 days for a GM to get back to me about my missing armor (due to Outlands crashing), had all sorts of pet pathing problems supposedly caused by a hotfix, and dealt with all sorts of other crap that's basically ruined any trust I had in Blizzard's quality control.
As for class balance, I had a warlock as my main. To be honest, the class was mostly fine, even somewhat overpowered. However, having quite a few alts that I played on occasion, I could easily see how Blizzard simply seems to be ignoring some classes for no reason that anyone playing is aware of. (see shaman changes) Believe it or not, my experiences with SOE tech support (when playing EQ2) were nothing but positive.
Last but not least...the MMO of my dreams? Meh, that's never likely to come along, Blizzard or no Blizzard. I'm not thrilled with so many people trying to copy their style, but there will always be niche games like Eve (or the much more popular LOTRO) looking for their piece of the pie.
...moo?
WoW is the only game in the US that gains subscribers. EA has no clue. They are another SOE.
To the OP:
I do not like Bliz, nor WoW. I have my share of playing, and have serious issues with their CS that my entire guild quit. So I am not a fanboy by any stretched imagination.
As much as I do not like Bliz, I would have to recognise the pressure they are facing. 10 million, or 5 million, the size of the active playing population is huge. Whenever they have issues, say a patch or something, they are looking at 1million+ customers knocking at their door any time. You need an army to tackle the waves of influx, and turnaround time of 3-4 days for non-life-threatening issues is already a miracle. Try lodge a complaint to the gov't about some minor issues. If you get a call in 2-3 days, you are very very lucky.
Bliz trying to kill their game? This is the worst joke I have ever heard. Try another line of reasoning pls, that is the worst possible way of putting forth your argument. How about suggesting that Bliz is a Russian spy company deliberately trying to kill the MMO industry?
I do not play WoW any more, its years since my last log in. Our guild has moved to another game, and later on I quit MMOs. So I am not talking as a WoW lover. I do not encourage people to play WoW. I do not recommend WoW generally, but for better reasons that the ones you put forward, reasons more credible.
In the 2 1/2 to 3 years I did play....I never once got double billed, I never once had an issue with armor going missing, and anytime one of my friends ever had to use the GM's they were responded to within 2 days time. Most gamebreaking bugs are fixed inside a week of them finding it, and and odd terrain glitches (especially those which affect either raid or PvP encounters) are usually hotfixed within a month.
None of the 12 or so friends of mine that played had any trouble either. I would call your case very unique...and I can already tell you why your armor issue happened. Blizzard only does armor replacement ONCE. They don't even care WHY they have to replace it....they give all players one free armor recovery. If they didn't replace yours.,...you already blew it. Chances are...you blew it on something they deemed "your fault" too...since they've been known to offer more than one replacement if a server history check shows them the issue was on their end.
But I don't wanna make too many waves on this subject...as there ARE exceptions to any rule. I will say that LOTRO is far from a niche game....its a pretty standard MMO. Gandalfs WoW...if you will. EVE, though, is a niche game. I'm also not so thrilled about people trying to BE WoW. But, the market IS better for that style of game right now. Designers haven't quite figured out that FFA PVP ensures a sandbox game will become super niche.
...moo?
This was the first time I've ever had to replace any armor...the only thing I've ever had them undelete was an old paladin of mine I decided to play again. If my experiences with Blizzard have been unlucky ones, then good for the rest of the people with problems, I suppose. However, reading Blizz's tech forums makes me think they're more common than you assume.
As for LOTRO, I don't think it's a niche game because of its gameplay; more because of its theme and lore. I tried the trial not too long ago and the game seems mostly full of Tolkien fans. It does play like WoW with some tweaks.
...moo?