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Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

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Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#331

Post by gizmo385 »

raydev wrote: post #302
AlexandrB wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This analysis is probably correct, but it's also depressing as hell because Fortnite is a shallow, money-hungry game. Nothing like Blizzard's best work from the past (Diablo 2, Starcraft) that could be played for years with no "season passes" or other MTX.

> Fortnite is a shallow Hate to take offense to this, but as someone who plays Fortnite competitively, it is absolutely not shallow. It's so much more than just another FPS.

I think Errant Signal has a great video [1] dissecting the appeal and breadth of content in Fortnite. It's not my cup of tea, but I certainly don't think you can call it "shallow". On the other side, Folding Ideas has a great video [2] (that the Errant Signal video references) dissecting the monetization systems in Fortnite and their negative aspects.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNukmNDq60Q [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#332

Post by vbezhenar »

dstaley wrote: post #37

I've been an off-and-on World of Warcraft player since the Burning Crusade days, and I honestly think that Blizzard is struggling to evolve the MMORPG genre into something suitable for the modern day. There was a great article in Kotaku[1] that illustrated this quite nicely. Essentially, what made World of Warcraft successful when it launched can't really exist today, especially with our hyper-connected world. Blizza…

For me the issue is, that in attempts to modernize the WoW, they alienated the game for me, as I no longer feel welcome in the game. The kinds of game interactions I used to have are gone. Game wants to put me into some bounds that make me feel uneasy. It tries to force me into a playstyle I don't like. And, worse of all, they periodically are trying to remind that they did not forget about players like me, so my hope is not gone but they constantly fail to deliver those promises, disappointing me again and again. I'm in a kind of weird love-hate relationship with WoW.

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#334

Post by hnick »

freshair wrote: post #29

"Do you guys not have phones?" -Blizzard staff in 2018, in response to booing fans upset that Blizzard wouldn't make a PC version of a game those same fans obviously wanted to play. This company has been contemptuous of their players for years. They fell into that classic trap of "If we [do something that will alienate all our customers] we can get 10x as many customers from [untapped market]" As anybody should have…

The feature downgrades of 'bnet 2.0' or whatever they called it that they announced when Starcraft 2 came out was the beginning of the end. SC2 as a game was fine (not amazing for me but plenty liked it) but everything around it was a mess. D3 solidified this trend of them losing the plot.

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#335

Post by broknbottle »

Diablo 3 was garbage. They stopped development of HotS because it wasn't pulling LoL or DotA numbers and Overwatch while overall fun feels slightly off (for me it's the sluggish movement from lack of running..). Activision Blizzard can fall off a cliff for all I care. They were a company that literally put out hit after hit for years and now they are in slow death spiral.

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#336

Post by Silhouette »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #141
jandrese wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard kinda killed the RTS genre with Starcraft 1. It's basically the perfect RTS so everything that came after it seems inferior. Even Starcraft 2. There are still niches for specialized audiences, like historical battles with a more strategic bent, but for mass market RTS nothing has been able to beat a 23 year old game.

I much preferred Supreme Commander, but then again, I'm not the eSports clicks-per-second type of gamer.

I remember enjoying SupCom back in the day. I find it interesting that it still seems to have a small but loyal following thanks to ongoing, fan-driven development like Forged Alliance Forever. I can't imagine it's making anyone much money any more, but the game was good enough to build an enduring bubble around it.

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#337

Post by kstrauser »

loosetypes wrote: post #329
Grimm1 wrote: post #9

Blizzard has released only the WoW expansion and some minor hearthstone expansions in the last 3 years. They have not really pushed any major IP releases. Acti-Blizzard is as profitable as ever though largely because of the MTX they've baked into COD and other games, their mobile games, and things like their overseas market penetration working out for them. That combined with the fact they've lost a significant amoun…

I’m excited to see life in the Diablo franchise after (personal opinion) the abomination that was Diablo 3. But I’ve really lost trust in the company and have a hard time imagining Diablo 4 being much better than Diablo 3. Diablo 2 Resurrected looks intriguing and seems to be going about things in the right way, involving the community, etc. but I believe it’s a contract job by a third party? I have a hard time imagi…

Am I the only person who really liked Diablo 3? I introduced my wife to it as her first game in the genre, and we’ve spent a lot of hours making team runs through hard dungeons. For sheer “let’s kill 300 things at once” endorphin hits, it’s great.

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#338

Post by [deleted] »

raydev wrote: post #302
AlexandrB wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This analysis is probably correct, but it's also depressing as hell because Fortnite is a shallow, money-hungry game. Nothing like Blizzard's best work from the past (Diablo 2, Starcraft) that could be played for years with no "season passes" or other MTX.

> Fortnite is a shallow Hate to take offense to this, but as someone who plays Fortnite competitively, it is absolutely not shallow. It's so much more than just another FPS.

[deleted]

Re: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years

#339

Post by [deleted] »

tokipin wrote: post #250
nemothekid wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Overwatch faces stiff competition from Valorant and other competitive small team FPSes, and also has overlapping audiences with battle royale FPSes. The competition isn't driving away people from Overwatch. The game is incredibly stale, and IMO, is probably the death knell of full price online games. There has been little to none new content and changes to the game. The competitive community has always complained a…

Overwatch is a frustrating game to play because they almost have it right. It's almost there, if they could just tweak a couple things. A good example is the overtime system. One of the worst ideas in games I've run into. For one, it creates artificial and spiky emotions in players, which just burns people out. It's amazing they don't realize basic things like that, which means they actually haven't had the right tal…

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