vak ramblings – Vaknosh Blackwolf's Refuge

Honestly, I think more than anything that’s pissed people off about finally seeing Teldrassil burn and all the events surrounding it isn’t really just Sylvanas doing her thing or the shitty writing.

I think people are pissed that Blizzard, as a company, lied. They were cowards who hid behind the “what if’s” and played on people’s intrigues only to give us exactly what we thought it’d be. That they kept going “oh it’s morally gray” and building it up as if there would be some sort of twist. Or maybe not even a twist, so much as something more to it, an explanation, a justification.

The way Blizz handled it, particularly Ion Hazzikostas, was basically just to build up the hype, tell us there was so much more to it, that we’d really see things were more than just Sylvanas being evil.

And then it was just Sylvanas being evil.

I mean, it’s shitty writing, but that’s not the point. I have dealt with much of Blizz’s shitty writing and shrugged it off. But to basically dupe your audience and say there’s more when there actually isn’t? That’s what really, really rubs you the wrong way.

If I come to you and I’m expecting an okay-if-not-perfect thing but you start going into vague intrigues of how you’ll just “have to wait and see ooo!” and keep saying vague statements of how you’ll see there’s more to it, but then what you deliver is pretty much exactly what I thought in the first place… that’s where the real disappointment lies. You feel fooled, even if you weren’t particularly hyped, and no one enjoys feeling like the fool. Especially when you paid $60+ and $15 for the privilege of being fooled.

I fully expect Ion and Blizz to spin this somehow given they are catching shit. More than likely with a “you’ll see what we have in store in later patches!” because that’s just how it goes.

Or they’ll see the outrage, see how it kept people engaged and paying, how people talking across the internet and think it was a massive success because, hey, here we are, talking about it and paying for it.

one of my favorite things about teaching the Civil War is showing pictures of people from the 1860s, especially military leaders. 7th graders will give you their honest opinion about the facial hair of the period and it’s hilarious.

If you believe that Blizzard’s Classic WoW should have any of the later expansion accommodations,

amenities, or features, you fail to understand that Classic WoW isn’t for you.

Blizzard is attempting to (or should be anyway) appeal to a very, very, very specific and niche demographic of people, and that just means you aren’t within that demographic.

The whole point of this, if you wish to be cynical, is ideally make them money or, at the very least, save them money. Furthermore, while I am absolutely sure they are pretty into the idea of it, this also isn’t just them providing a long requested trip through history – this is also their attempt to hobble the vast majority of private servers by actually giving a legitimate alternative.

They saw the demand, now they look to meet it.

But they have to be careful in how they meet it. If it’s not the nearest authentic experience that people are clamoring for, then they blow their load on a terrible first impression, it likely bombs, Blizzard looks incompetent as a business (which despite their faults, they largely avoid and are a powerhouse in the industry), claims of betrayal and lost trust fly everywhere, Reddit and tumblr and twitter become awash is memes, and worst of all for Blizz: people jump ship back to probably even more private servers than ever before.

Classic servers should be appealing to every person who swears they want that 1.0 to 1.12 feeling, even though the vast majority will likely quit before level 20 and many more following when they actually do hit level 20 and realize there’s no mounts at that level in vanilla. Again, though, Classic isn’t for these passersby (myself included) – it’s for a super specific group and Blizz somehow has to hit the nail on head with it.

So, I find the conversations about “let’s add x feature from y expansion for z reason” so silly. You just proved, this project isn’t for you – and that’s okay, not every project is. And, honestly, if Blizz is successful with this project and all goes well, they should probably release a “Classic Lite” with more accommodations as a separate server for those who want something between vanilla WoW and modern WoW.

But their first focus shouldn’t be to appease the modern WoW masses who just hope to see pre-Cata Azeroth, it should be going in with a very clear goal of what the long-term players would want and expect of a Classic WoW to enjoy themselves there and live or relive the experiences.