Man, I was really looking forward to Blizzcon 2019. After the dumpster fire that was 2018 and Blizzard’s mishandling of Blitzchung controversy, something was bound to slip through. If you didn’t want to click the link and cut strait to the quick on what happened, Blitzchung is a professional Hearthstone, a game owned by Activision Blizzard, player who dawned a mask and said “Free Hong Kong, revolution of our time.” He was banned for a year and all his prize money taken away, and the casters of the event who interviewed Blitzchung were banned to never work with Activision Blizzard for life. After a week of silence, the casters and Blitzchung’s bans were reduced to 6 months and Blitz got his winnings. That is just a taste of the controversy. There was even a letter signed by US Congressmen/women. I’m telling you, it’s worth a read. This all happened right before Blizzcon 2019. Needless to say, I was excited. Had the popcorn ready just waiting for shit to hit the fan. Sadly, there was really only one noteworthy incident, and it was really lame. I mean, look at this. The real meat of the video is at 4:28, but I included the dude’s original question to show how the developers, people who have no control over anything that Activision Blizzard does, are willing to answer boring ass questions.
Everybody wants to be a Meme Lord. Dude had to ask a snoozer of the question and let the developers answer it for 4 minutes before his nuts dropped enough to bring up Hong Kong. If he had just run up with conviction and genuine anger, I would have liked it way more. It just felt weak. What I’m saying is, he didn’t stick the landing, 2 out of 10. Plus one point just because everyone was watching Blizzcon just for this to be brought up, but you are not Red Shirt Guy 3.0. Then there is that kid. Who was basically so cringe that no one wanted to touch the Hong Kong controversy for the rest of Blizzcon. So, congratulations you two. Blizzard thanks you for your service.
I mean look at Blizzcon 2018’s reaction for its big reveal from PC gamers on a game no one wanted, a mobile version of Diablo.
Genuine anger and sadness. It set the mood for the entirety of Blizzcon 2018. It was a train wreck, and it was great. They tried to make up for it this year by revealing Diablo 4, kinda. We got a cool CG trailer and there was a playable demo on the ground floor. Now, I don’t know anything about game development, but I’m not convinced the demo couldn’t have been thrown together in a year just so they could have Diablo 4 on the ground floor to save face. Expect Diablo 4 to be released some time after 2022 and look nothing like the demo. Keep you hopes low until closer to an actual release.
In any case, the WoW Q&A hosts this year, Taliesin & Evitel, handled the Hong Kong deal like champs. The only reason that snot-nosed kid even got to say anything on the mic was because Tali was just being nice. Heh, no good deed, I suppose. This year’s hosts are just massive WoW fans. Maybe they like WoW a little too much. Look at this whole Twitter slap fest they had with some other massive WoW fan. I’ll break it down. The mysterious big bad for the next WoW expansion’s concept are got leaked. This dude made a YouTube video about it after everyone had already seen the picture. Content creators are mad at this content creator because he made the leak more well known instead of sitting on it like the other content creators. Got all that? Look here:
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Look at that! Wow! WOW!! …. I was going to say “no one cares”, but clearly people do which is somehow worst. I’ve said it before. Blizzard’s stories are crap. Not even leaks are exciting. I know that’s just my opinion. I am right though. Some people really like this super PG, more G than PG, shit. Whatever, I’ve already talked about WoW at length. People need better things to do than argue on social media. I’m pretty sure alcoholism would be healthier.
I liked it when Blizzcon was every other year. I think they should go back to that. Big main stage reveals seem much more doable every other year than every year. Not gonna happen. People now want their annual Blizzcon drama, and Daddy Kotick wants a new yacht.
So, I knew I would end up playing WoW Classic. All the things I said I hated about it still hold true. It’s just a slow shitty experience, but I’ll touch on some of the good things I do like about Classic.
Man, it’s simple. So few abilities that you actually need to use on rotation. By comparison to Real WoW where you have to 7 – 9 abilities you have rotation between all the time, Classic is a piece of cake. Even with the old talent tree, people only do meta builds anyways so customization is pointless. As a Warrior Tank, it just wack-a-mole making sure the mobs stay on you. That’s it. Wipes come when someone over pulls. The gear progression is simple. Dungeon till you can raid. It sucks because I don’t really like the PVE in MMOs. They do have the PVP system out now, but getting the highest ranks is a nightmare. I’m just never going to see any great gear. I accept that.
I wasn’t going to jump into Classic without a large guild. The Right Reverend and I finally caved and joined the Goons after some idiot was telling us for years that we should. It’s a good fit. They are almost as lazy as we are.
One of the biggest positives of Classic for me is that you can kind of do whatever you want. By that, I mean; you know your one route for gear. That is the endgame. Nothing is stopping you from spending a ton of hours getting your gear. Anything else you do is pretty much up to you. It feels more like a game than a job. Actual WoW with it’s time gating bullshit feels like a job now, but any freedom Classic gives you Mists of Pandaria did better. I’ve already said as much.
Hrmm, that’s about all that’s good about Classic.
Going to put Activision Blizzard posts on hold for a while. Talk about other stupidness here soon.