jpiepiora

@(Unverified)

Uh... wow. Apparently you really despise people who play differently than you.

@LucentWolf

Uhm, I'm 40 on my main and have a 18 alt, play probably about 6 hours a day, have most of the datacrons that I can reach and have done all the quests (barring a couple heroics that turned grey). I haven't skipped any dialogue in the process.

Don't be so upset at people who play differently. They're not yelling at you to speed up, don't yell at them to slow down.

@Stanimir

I've got nothing bad to say about people who take their time, but I don't understand why they'd be upset about people who level quickly. The article is a question asking if you play way or the other.

I will echo other comments here and say that stating that you beta tested a game at some point in order to bring some sort of mythical credit to whatever you're commenting on... is dumb.

Now if you beta tested something, and then bring up a specific and relevant example that supports your argument, sure, that helps.

I really enjoyed this optimistic outlook on integration.

Uh, yeah.

I think it's time for people to realize why Blizzard is doing this, despite the fact that it's upsetting so many forum goers. Let's take a quick look at an article where Frank Pearce discusses numbers.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/05/25/blizzards-pearce-wow-will-return-to-growth/

When asked if it had hit its peak as far as the number of players went, Pearce said: “No, I don’t think that at all.“ I mean, you can look at that number and if you look at some of the details around it… In China, for example, we haven’t even launched Wrath of the Lich King yet, and that expansion is already 18-plus months old.“ They’re still playing The Burning Crusade there, because we’re waiting for approval for Wrath from the appropriate agencies. And once we get that approval and launch Wrath in China then I think we will see growth.”
Pearce added Cataclysm will probably see some “win-back” from players who had broken from the game.

“Whenever we launch an expansion we usually see some win-back from players who have set WoW aside temporarily,” he said. “Hopefully we will get some people back from Cataclysm as well. I don’t think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily, but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further.”

It's that last line that I think is particularly telling. Blizzard has run dry on interested PC gamers. I'm sure the vast majority of that market has already checked the game out and are either playing or not. I expect that Blizzard intends to focus on more non-gamers and casual gamers in the future. It's a market they can afford to advertise to and adjust the game for. If this is the crowd they are marketing to than they want their games to fit a certain positive image.

Now you can, and will complain about how attaching real names to accounts isn't as simple as linking a account handle to all of your Blizzard titles, but that doesn't dovetail as nicely with Facebook, does it? Facebook games gained alot of steam, and lost it over the course of the past two years. Mafia Wars made nearly $50 million a year ago. There are alot of people with gamer mentalities on that service who haven't experienced a proper MMO.

Many folks will simply stop posting on the forums, which is also fine. The forums don't make Blizzard money, they aren't used to refer players to the game. The forums cost Blizzard money, between network traffic and moderator salaries. They also don't serve as a friendly place where new players can gain the knowledge they need to enjoy the game more. Forumcraft is an utterly unintended side-effect of World of Warcraft, and it sounds to me like Blizzard is tired of it. I'm sure that Ghostcrawlers tanking of the forums a year back or so is further evidence that they simply can't ignore the fact that their forums are a filthy hive of scum and villainy.

So in the end, you might not like it but Blizzard is shaping their entire online experience to connect more people to it by removing any barriers that they see from earning more subs. If they lose the 500,000 people right now, which they won't, who cares when there are millions left to earn from other markets?

Sounds like an MMO. Please explain to me how many MMO's you've played thet have bears that you don't kill?

I've been following this game from the get-go, I can't wait to play it!

I know the dev team worked on Dreamfall before this, but is that game set in the same world as this? I haven't played it but I would if it was related to this MMO.