Welcome back friends!
I wanted to jump right in this week and add my thoughts to all of the controversy this week surrounding Blizzards announcement that flying will not be enabled on Draenor this expansion. This coupled with the fact that Blizzard is unsure if flying will return in future expansions, has led to a lot of outrage from the community unlike we have really seen in quite a while. While I don't like the decision personally, and I'll explain my thoughts behind that, I think this topic brings to the forefront some interesting thoughts surrounding gamer expectations and Blizzards responsibility to us regarding them. I'll touch on the specific flight issue first, then move on to the greater idea. This is something I spend a decent amount of time thinking about so I is nice to have a chance to bring it up while it's so relevant.
In an interview during Blizzcon 2013, former Game Developer Greg Street mentioned how Blizzard thought back negatively on flying in zones and the limitations placed on them because of it. There was a bit of negative feed back but at that point it wasn't for certain and a lot of players just took a wait and see stance. Then Warlords launched amidst server stability issues and queue times and people were just happy to play and the flight thing just wasn't a big deal. I've said here before that I think the leveling experience up until Nagrand is one of the best parts of Warlords, and I would be lying if I said that the lack of flying isn't part of the reason why. More than other expansions, where we couldn't fly while leveling either, there was a sense of immersion. Completing sections of a zone and being told when you did based on a story thread felt great. The difference this time around was that once we hit max level, we couldn't go learn flying, and we didn't gain access to anything new because of it. In Burning Crusade we got to go to Ogri'la and Skettis that we couldn't access before. Sure they were just daily quest hubs, but that was relevant then because it was the first time dailies were a part of the end game experience. In Wrath of the Lich King, Dalaran had a flight pad that you could take off from and go anywhere, and you began the campaign against the Lich King with the Argent Crusade dailies. It felt like a increase in power, and we couldn't even access Naxxramas without flying up to the entrance (yeah yeah summon stone but you get the point). I would guess that where the problem came for Blizzard was Cataclysm. They enabled flying in Azeroth as part of the expansion features. It was part of the announcement trailer! The possibility of flying made it possible for zones like Deepholm and Twilight Highlands to be as huge and epic as they were, but the problem from Blizzards perspective, was flying made the questing process trivial. And that in turn made the process feel tedious to the players. Playing from 80 to 85 multiple times you just mounted up and flew from quest objective to quest objective without even taking in what was actually going on. I have to say I agree with the problem. For all the good that the Cataclysm revamp did to the old world questing experience, the 80 to 85 grind was miserable. However, that doesn't mean the solution is to remove flying all together, and I'm not sure that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
As I said before, there is a certain feeling of power associated with being able to fly over a world that you have conquered. Isn't that all the leveling experience is? We travel across an area piece by piece and defeat the bad guys within, and we learn about the enemies on the way. Hell, it's called gaining experience for a reason. And after I've worked my way through all the zones and I've learned about this new world or continent, I am rewarded with learning to traverse it through the air. The fantasy of that feels fine to me. I think the leveling experience should be flight free. The work that goes into everything in the world should be seen, even if it feels forced by some people. But flight always felt like a reward for leveling and making it through all that content. And Warlords to a step initially to delay that reward to a later date. We didn't know if it would be 6.1, 6.2 or when, but we all sort of thought it would come. Where the issue comes in, is that Warlords of Draenor felt lacking in rewards at level 100. Mists of Pandaria gave us dailies (WAY too many of them) to continue the story in a way that doesn't exist in Warlords. Wrath of the Lich King gave us different quest hubs at level 80 to show us what's going on with Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight, or what Tirion Fordring has in mind to confront the Lich King. In Draenor, we finish the story quest chains in Nagrand, we see the in-game cinematic between Thrall and Garrosh, and then we have a quick conversation where one person says "We should attack the Foundry" and another says "We should confront the Ogres" but it doesn't lead to anything. Our character is left standing there waiting for raids to release and that's it. It is a dry and hollow ending to an otherwise enjoyable experience. We got left to just camp out in our Garrison while waiting for dungeons for gear. I don't mind not getting flying as a reward at the end of it all if I feel like I am rewarded with something. Every expansion has a new spell and new dungeons at max level, but they have also offered other experiences as well where Draenor did not.
On a less serious but still important note, removing flying long term effects mounts in game negatively as well. Ashes of Alar, Invincible, Mimirion's Head. All of these mounts lose their flair when they are relegated to running or hovering just above the ground. Warlords of Draenor has had a subpar offering of mounts, partly because a majority of them are ground mounts. With the exception of store bought mounts, we have a plethora of wolves, boars, elekks, river beasts, and clefthoofs all with slight recolors or re-skins for achievements or rewards. There are as many as 6 recolors for the same ground mount model. It seems like a waste to limit themselves going forward without flying. Are we not going to get new dragons or other flying mounts, or if we do will that functionality be relegated to outdated content? I look forward to hearing more about their reasoning and what they believe the other downsides are to enabling flying.
I also want to discuss this topic on a grander scale. What do we as players have the right to expect from a company? I believe we have a right for any game to be playable and mostly bug free from launch. We have a right to a certain level of communication from the developers. We have the right to have our feedback heard. It's important to note that our feedback should be heard and taken seriously, but it does not need to ultimately be acted upon. If Blizzard decides, even amidst the uproar, to leave flying out of the game in the future, we need to be given the confidence that the community feedback was taken into account. We should also be able to expect things we have earned in the game to not become obsolete. There is a certain amount of every expansion that does not carry over. Sure you can always go back and complete old dungeons and raids, but the zones themselves are basically left to rot. Profession materials all become auction house fodder every expansion. But these are all things we are accustomed to "losing" every couple of years. The difference comes when players spend time farming mounts years after it is current. Players don't want to feel like things that they care about aren't useful anymore, and they shouldn't have to. I'm not saying that the reason to keep flying around is so that the people lucky enough or committed enough to get Mimiron's Head and the like can keep feeling special. But I am saying that as the game ages more things become trivialized, and vanity items are one of the things keeping past expansions relevant outside of a section of levels. That's the reason transmog is such a popular feature. We don't have a right to demand features be included or not included. But we do have a right to let our stance as consumers speak for us.
Sorry if this post was a bit of a ramble. There is a lot tied into this particular issue and I'm sure others have thoughts out there that are worth checking out. Thanks as always for reading!
Chris
Friday, May 29, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Diablo 3 hitting its stride and Overwatch afterthoughts
Greetings Nephalem!
My gaming regiment usually rotates between everything Blizzard has to offer (with the exception of Starcraft usually). World of Warcraft usually maintains my focus through Garrison chores and raid nights. Until recently, I usually found myself logged in to Hearthstone when I feel like I have a good handle on the decks I'm seeing, and Heroes of the Storm when I don't. Lately however, Diablo has me logging in on a daily basis.
We all know about Diablo's checkered past. The nostalgia excitement around launch was quickly doused by error 37 and auction house woes. Since then, Blizzard has taken huge steps to try and improve on the game systems in order to turn the game around. They aren't quite there, but they are very close to this being the game I was hoping for 3 years ago. They have streamlined the leveling process so we no longer have to play through the campaign multiple times. Adventure mode gave the farming process some uniqueness from session to session. Seasons helped to recreate the D2 ladder system and gave us true competition in our PvE game.
Where they are hitting things out of the park for me, are the new sets and set changes introduced in patch 2.2. The Wizard, Demon Hunter, and Barbarian each got a new item set (Set details are in the links). And Wizard and Demon Hunter sets got some reworks to bring them more in line with other sets. The approach Blizzard has taken is to design each set around a specific class skill or set of skills. Wizards got Meteors flying all over the place and Slow Time bubbles trapping and punishing enemies. Barbarians are back to Whirlwinding non-stop through fields of demons. And Demon Hunters are raining arrows and spraying shots to clear out entire screens. What I love most about this approach is the sets help to strengthen the class identity. Talk Rasha's set for wizards encourages you to cast spells of all the different element types to increase the number of meteors you call down. This makes perfect sense for the masters of magic. The Unhallowed Essense set for Demon Hunters encourages you to keep you distance from enemies and increases your damage for it. In addition to strengthening the feel of each class, the sets feel unique from other sets for the same classes. Wrath of the Wastes for Barbarians feels miles different from the Legacy of Raekor set they were using a season ago. This is something they succeeded in with Monk sets last season, and something I'm hoping they continue with next season when they introduce new sets for Witch Doctors, Monks, and Crusaders.
Let's be fair, there are still some things that require fixing. The leaderboards continue to be tarnished by exploits at the start of every season. The trial system makes the process of attacking the leaderboard tedious and inconsistent. And as with any competitive game, class balance is an ongoing task. Blizzard as shown they are committed to improving Diablo 3 and I'm excited to see they steps they make going forward.
Blizzard is quickly cranking through gameplay videos for specific heroes on the Overwatch Youtube. There are notable updates to UI and targeting reticles. We get a few good looks of how heroes interact with one another, and we see how a game plays out from start to finish. Take the time to check them out if you are anywhere near the excitement level I am for this game. As usual, OneAmongstMany has a nice breakdown of the Zenyatta video. There are a lot of nuances that he makes note of that I won't try to replicate here in writing.
Well that's going to be it for this post. Just a short one this week.
Thanks as always for reading,
Chris
My gaming regiment usually rotates between everything Blizzard has to offer (with the exception of Starcraft usually). World of Warcraft usually maintains my focus through Garrison chores and raid nights. Until recently, I usually found myself logged in to Hearthstone when I feel like I have a good handle on the decks I'm seeing, and Heroes of the Storm when I don't. Lately however, Diablo has me logging in on a daily basis.
We all know about Diablo's checkered past. The nostalgia excitement around launch was quickly doused by error 37 and auction house woes. Since then, Blizzard has taken huge steps to try and improve on the game systems in order to turn the game around. They aren't quite there, but they are very close to this being the game I was hoping for 3 years ago. They have streamlined the leveling process so we no longer have to play through the campaign multiple times. Adventure mode gave the farming process some uniqueness from session to session. Seasons helped to recreate the D2 ladder system and gave us true competition in our PvE game.
Where they are hitting things out of the park for me, are the new sets and set changes introduced in patch 2.2. The Wizard, Demon Hunter, and Barbarian each got a new item set (Set details are in the links). And Wizard and Demon Hunter sets got some reworks to bring them more in line with other sets. The approach Blizzard has taken is to design each set around a specific class skill or set of skills. Wizards got Meteors flying all over the place and Slow Time bubbles trapping and punishing enemies. Barbarians are back to Whirlwinding non-stop through fields of demons. And Demon Hunters are raining arrows and spraying shots to clear out entire screens. What I love most about this approach is the sets help to strengthen the class identity. Talk Rasha's set for wizards encourages you to cast spells of all the different element types to increase the number of meteors you call down. This makes perfect sense for the masters of magic. The Unhallowed Essense set for Demon Hunters encourages you to keep you distance from enemies and increases your damage for it. In addition to strengthening the feel of each class, the sets feel unique from other sets for the same classes. Wrath of the Wastes for Barbarians feels miles different from the Legacy of Raekor set they were using a season ago. This is something they succeeded in with Monk sets last season, and something I'm hoping they continue with next season when they introduce new sets for Witch Doctors, Monks, and Crusaders.
Let's be fair, there are still some things that require fixing. The leaderboards continue to be tarnished by exploits at the start of every season. The trial system makes the process of attacking the leaderboard tedious and inconsistent. And as with any competitive game, class balance is an ongoing task. Blizzard as shown they are committed to improving Diablo 3 and I'm excited to see they steps they make going forward.
Blizzard is quickly cranking through gameplay videos for specific heroes on the Overwatch Youtube. There are notable updates to UI and targeting reticles. We get a few good looks of how heroes interact with one another, and we see how a game plays out from start to finish. Take the time to check them out if you are anywhere near the excitement level I am for this game. As usual, OneAmongstMany has a nice breakdown of the Zenyatta video. There are a lot of nuances that he makes note of that I won't try to replicate here in writing.
Well that's going to be it for this post. Just a short one this week.
Thanks as always for reading,
Chris
Monday, May 11, 2015
The Truth Behind the Blizzard Q1 Earnings
Hello friends and welcome back!
First, let me say sorry for the delay in putting this post together. I had some real life things take over for a week or two that included a flight across the country and being somewhat unplugged. However, that's behind us now and fortunately, it has given me time to really think about some of the events that took place while I was away.
Blizzard/Activision had their Q1 investor earnings call. By now I'm sure if you are still stopping by my page then you have seen the info and heard some views and opinions on what it means. I want to go through it and use it to look at the big picture. It may only be a small synopsis but I think it speaks volumes about what we can expect going forward as Blizzard fans.
First, lets touch on the small stuff we already knew about. Overwatch Beta is coming this Fall, and Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is in closed beta. I will say that Blizzard's decision to make Legacy of the Void a standalone game is a great decision for the longevity of the game. Starcraft is already an intimidating game for new players to get into, so leaving cost of up to $100 to pick up the three games would only compound that. The hype around Overwatch continues to be strong despite no real news since PAX East. There are rumors of a friends and family Alpha beginning due to Overwatch strings in the Battle.net client becoming active, but we don't have any way to confirm that at the moment.
Heroes of the Storm had 11 million beta sign-ups and launches on June 2nd. This isn't that important for a free to play game. What truly matters is how many people stick around after playing. Heroes of the Dorm was a nice start into showing people the depth the game has to offer. Any time a non-traditional sport is given air-time on ESPN there is negative feedback. The original airing of the World Series of Poker was met with some skepticism and is now a mainstay every summer. It caused a boom in the game that led to a jump in attendance from 839 in 2001 when it originally aired, to 2,576 the following year. That number has seen a steady increase to 6,683 in 2014. Now it would be foolish of me to think that Heroes of the Storm is going to become a regular part of ESPN's weekend line-up, but we have to start somewhere. The League of Legends World Championships got up to 8.5 million concurrent viewers last year. Compare that to the World Series game 1 which pulled in 12.2 million. An esport pulling in 2/3 of the viewership of a World Series game is nothing to scoff at. Especially when you factor in that the traditional form of viewing League of Legends matches is through streaming services and VODs. Despite the negativity from some of ESPN's fans and analysts, the network is smart to want a piece of the esports pie. Maybe eventually we will see Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends instead of Bowling on ESPN2 on Sundays during football season.
I want to tie the Hearthstone and World of Warcraft numbers together because I think they are intertwined. World of Warcraft is down 3 million subscribers from the last earnings call. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. People come back to check out the new content and once they've seen it, they leave again. Warlords hasn't done much to keep the interested but not invested around for long. I touched on a lot of this in a previous post so I won't repeat it now, but I'm less shocked by the 3 million loss than I was by the jump back up to 10 million at the start of the expansion. I expect we will see this trend to continue as the game continues to age. When the next expansion hits we will see a spike to the 8-9 million range then a drop back off to 6-7 million. Hearthstone going up to 30 million players worldwide helps to stem the bleeding of the Warcraft revenue loss. If 1% of Hearthstone players purchase the 40 pack bundle Blizzard makes $15 million (ignoring exchange rates and all that). I can guarantee that 99% of the player base is not going free to play. When you add in the adventure modes at $25 each and just normal player purchase habits, it is safe to say that Hearthstone has outperformed Blizzards loftiest expectations.
Hearthstone has given us a window into the future of Blizzard. They can no longer remain the MMO company, or the World of Warcraft company, and they know that. They have expanded full force into Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm and soon Overwatch. By broadening their scope of games they are bringing in potentially new players to their franchises, and from there it has a ripple effect. How many people began playing Starcraft because they enjoyed Warcraft 2 and the same company was making a sci-fi version. How many WoW players picked up Hearthstone because it was something new that was at the same time familiar. In just 2 years they have doubled the number of games in their stable, and with Overwatch on the horizon they potentially have four IPs that their players are invested in. There will undoubtedly be another game in the Starcraft universe after Legacy of the Void. World of Warcraft will get continued support as long as people are willing to pay for it. And as long as people care about the characters in all of these worlds, players will be drawn to Heroes of the Storm.
Despite the negativity surrounding the WoW side of the earnings call, the diversity of their portfolio is beyond exciting. We have games and expansions to look forward to for the foreseeable future, in varieties for nearly everyone. And as the world of esports grows Blizzard has solidified their place in the forefront of it. All in all we have a ton to be excited about.
Thanks again for reading,
Chris
First, let me say sorry for the delay in putting this post together. I had some real life things take over for a week or two that included a flight across the country and being somewhat unplugged. However, that's behind us now and fortunately, it has given me time to really think about some of the events that took place while I was away.
Blizzard/Activision had their Q1 investor earnings call. By now I'm sure if you are still stopping by my page then you have seen the info and heard some views and opinions on what it means. I want to go through it and use it to look at the big picture. It may only be a small synopsis but I think it speaks volumes about what we can expect going forward as Blizzard fans.
First, lets touch on the small stuff we already knew about. Overwatch Beta is coming this Fall, and Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is in closed beta. I will say that Blizzard's decision to make Legacy of the Void a standalone game is a great decision for the longevity of the game. Starcraft is already an intimidating game for new players to get into, so leaving cost of up to $100 to pick up the three games would only compound that. The hype around Overwatch continues to be strong despite no real news since PAX East. There are rumors of a friends and family Alpha beginning due to Overwatch strings in the Battle.net client becoming active, but we don't have any way to confirm that at the moment.
Heroes of the Storm had 11 million beta sign-ups and launches on June 2nd. This isn't that important for a free to play game. What truly matters is how many people stick around after playing. Heroes of the Dorm was a nice start into showing people the depth the game has to offer. Any time a non-traditional sport is given air-time on ESPN there is negative feedback. The original airing of the World Series of Poker was met with some skepticism and is now a mainstay every summer. It caused a boom in the game that led to a jump in attendance from 839 in 2001 when it originally aired, to 2,576 the following year. That number has seen a steady increase to 6,683 in 2014. Now it would be foolish of me to think that Heroes of the Storm is going to become a regular part of ESPN's weekend line-up, but we have to start somewhere. The League of Legends World Championships got up to 8.5 million concurrent viewers last year. Compare that to the World Series game 1 which pulled in 12.2 million. An esport pulling in 2/3 of the viewership of a World Series game is nothing to scoff at. Especially when you factor in that the traditional form of viewing League of Legends matches is through streaming services and VODs. Despite the negativity from some of ESPN's fans and analysts, the network is smart to want a piece of the esports pie. Maybe eventually we will see Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends instead of Bowling on ESPN2 on Sundays during football season.
I want to tie the Hearthstone and World of Warcraft numbers together because I think they are intertwined. World of Warcraft is down 3 million subscribers from the last earnings call. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. People come back to check out the new content and once they've seen it, they leave again. Warlords hasn't done much to keep the interested but not invested around for long. I touched on a lot of this in a previous post so I won't repeat it now, but I'm less shocked by the 3 million loss than I was by the jump back up to 10 million at the start of the expansion. I expect we will see this trend to continue as the game continues to age. When the next expansion hits we will see a spike to the 8-9 million range then a drop back off to 6-7 million. Hearthstone going up to 30 million players worldwide helps to stem the bleeding of the Warcraft revenue loss. If 1% of Hearthstone players purchase the 40 pack bundle Blizzard makes $15 million (ignoring exchange rates and all that). I can guarantee that 99% of the player base is not going free to play. When you add in the adventure modes at $25 each and just normal player purchase habits, it is safe to say that Hearthstone has outperformed Blizzards loftiest expectations.
Hearthstone has given us a window into the future of Blizzard. They can no longer remain the MMO company, or the World of Warcraft company, and they know that. They have expanded full force into Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm and soon Overwatch. By broadening their scope of games they are bringing in potentially new players to their franchises, and from there it has a ripple effect. How many people began playing Starcraft because they enjoyed Warcraft 2 and the same company was making a sci-fi version. How many WoW players picked up Hearthstone because it was something new that was at the same time familiar. In just 2 years they have doubled the number of games in their stable, and with Overwatch on the horizon they potentially have four IPs that their players are invested in. There will undoubtedly be another game in the Starcraft universe after Legacy of the Void. World of Warcraft will get continued support as long as people are willing to pay for it. And as long as people care about the characters in all of these worlds, players will be drawn to Heroes of the Storm.
Despite the negativity surrounding the WoW side of the earnings call, the diversity of their portfolio is beyond exciting. We have games and expansions to look forward to for the foreseeable future, in varieties for nearly everyone. And as the world of esports grows Blizzard has solidified their place in the forefront of it. All in all we have a ton to be excited about.
Thanks again for reading,
Chris
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