4 ms·

Just another point of view here: all of the politics are irrelevant. I don't know anyone, nor does anyone I know know anyone who plays anything Blizzard produce

Just another point of view here: all of the politics are irrelevant. I don't know anyone, nor does anyone I know know anyone who plays anything Blizzard produces right now. Does Blizzard make any games that people want to play right now? I don't know. According to activeplayer.io[1] Overwatch's average monthly player count has never been higher, but of that demographic, I can't find anyone I know who plays it, so my visibility into this is narrow and limited. Clearly they're probably doing better than ever, and the loudest or most outspoken players just feel differently. At the end of the day, I don't think anything else matters besides whether or not they're producing products people want to play. [1]: https://activeplayer.io/overwatch/ https://activeplayer.io/overwatch/

praisewhitey 5y ago
Maybe this is not the best heuristic, but I'd look at where their games are ranked in number of viewers on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/directory?sort=VIEWER_COUNT https://www.twitch.tv/directory?sort=VIEWER_COUNT and their long term viewership https://sullygnome.com/game/Overwatch/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Overwatch/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/World_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/World_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Hearthstone_Heroes_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Hearthstone_Heroes_of_Warcraft/l...
- BigJono 5y ago
  I can't speak to the others, but Twitch as a heuristic is going to be extremely misleading for WoW, since it's centered almost purely around the competitive aspects (raids and M+), and almost in sync with every other part of the game going to shit, those two have grown in popularity with proper "e-sports" style coverage being introduced. The WoW devs are still very good at making raid encounters and competitive dungeons. And they have literally zero competition in that area. So as long as they don't do anything catastrophic, they'll maintain that segment of the playerbase by default.
eric-hu 5y ago
I was a very active Starcraft 2 player up until the Blitzchung controversy in late 2019. For me, Starcraft was and has been the most engaging RTS made, both to watch and play. I still haven’t found a satisfying replacement. RTS as a genre is getting dwarfed but other game types, but it has its niche. I was engaged enough with the game that I was paying for seasonal War Chests—-essentially skins, to bump the tournament price pools for pros. These war chests had community funding goals that they consistently hit and exceeded for the time I was still tracking the game. After Blitzchung, I decided to just move on from the game.
- Foomf 5y ago
  Age of Empires 2 is still getting regular updates. There aren't too many RTS games nowadays but you should give AOE2 HD a try.
  - eric-hu 5y ago
    I have, thank you for the suggestion. It’s not bad. I was hopeful going into it, but it just doesn’t do it for me to the same degree SC2 did. Main reasons: - Competitive games are a bit too long for me to watch. - Random map mode is a bit too RNG in the start with boars and sheep (I’m actually okay with this, but my buddy gets frustrated with it. If he loses interest then we can’t do 2v2s. - The base game mode (Random Map) is a bit too slow for me too. I’ve tried turbo mode, which is nice, but the economy/military doesn’t feel quite balanced. Empire wars is pretty nice, though. It’s basically a feudal age start. - Visually, a lot of units look the same. It’s hard to tell apart strategies and technology levels at a glance. This impacts both the playing and the esports aspects for me. Overall it’s still a good game. I have it installed and play AIs from time to time. I don’t try to ladder though.
vbezhenar 5y ago
I'm playing WoW since 2008 and don't plan to stop. I don't like the direction that gameplay has taken, but I understand that's because of players changed and what worked in the past, will not work in the future, so I adapt. The only thing that bothers me is western propaganda (strong women everywhere, gay characters) which significantly increased in the last years, but that's a rather minor annoyance for me.
moksly 5y ago
I think the scandals are more symptoms of the greater weakness within the company which may have a more permanent long term impact. I remember playing WoW back in the day and how great their European support was. It was groundbreaking really, and it still sets the standard for what I want out of online support. I quit back during wrath of the lich king because I got old, and didn’t really follow things until they made Warcraft 3 Reforged which I preordered. When it turned out to be a bad game I again turned to Blizzards European support but the new experience was horrible by comparison. I mean, it worked just fine but I had to wait 48 hours where as previously it was only a few minutes for an online chat back before that sort or thing was more common. So what happened in those 10ish years? Well, it turns out that all of the European supporters were laid off in France to cut costs during one of the company’s most profitable years. That’s pretty normal in large companies, but it’s also a way to become just like everyone else instead of being outstanding, and that’s where they are heading isn’t it? All the horrible sexual misconduct is another thing in the culture. It would be very criminal in my country and I hope the American courts handle it, but it’s wider effect speaks of a terrible working environment and that’s just not where you make the kind of games that made Blizzard famous in the first place. It’s a little odd to see the shift in management as well, because it’s not like Sierra or Vivendi aren’t profit exhuming enterprise organisations, but somehow they realised that the “excellence” was what made Blizzard work and I guess Activision just didn’t get that memo. I do think the politics of streamers and other influencers abandoning their games will have an impact though. But that’s just my personal opinion, and I’m not really a good source considering the only video game I play these days is blood bowl.

praisewhitey 5y ago

Maybe this is not the best heuristic, but I'd look at where their games are ranked in number of viewers on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/directory?sort=VIEWER_COUNT https://www.twitch.tv/directory?sort=VIEWER_COUNT and their long term viewership https://sullygnome.com/game/Overwatch/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Overwatch/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/World_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/World_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Hearthstone_Heroes_of_Warcraft/longtermstats https://sullygnome.com/game/Hearthstone_Heroes_of_Warcraft/l...

BigJono 5y ago
I can't speak to the others, but Twitch as a heuristic is going to be extremely misleading for WoW, since it's centered almost purely around the competitive aspects (raids and M+), and almost in sync with every other part of the game going to shit, those two have grown in popularity with proper "e-sports" style coverage being introduced. The WoW devs are still very good at making raid encounters and competitive dungeons. And they have literally zero competition in that area. So as long as they don't do anything catastrophic, they'll maintain that segment of the playerbase by default.

eric-hu 5y ago

I was a very active Starcraft 2 player up until the Blitzchung controversy in late 2019. For me, Starcraft was and has been the most engaging RTS made, both to watch and play. I still haven’t found a satisfying replacement. RTS as a genre is getting dwarfed but other game types, but it has its niche. I was engaged enough with the game that I was paying for seasonal War Chests—-essentially skins, to bump the tournament price pools for pros. These war chests had community funding goals that they consistently hit and exceeded for the time I was still tracking the game. After Blitzchung, I decided to just move on from the game.

Foomf 5y ago
Age of Empires 2 is still getting regular updates. There aren't too many RTS games nowadays but you should give AOE2 HD a try.
- eric-hu 5y ago
  I have, thank you for the suggestion. It’s not bad. I was hopeful going into it, but it just doesn’t do it for me to the same degree SC2 did. Main reasons: - Competitive games are a bit too long for me to watch. - Random map mode is a bit too RNG in the start with boars and sheep (I’m actually okay with this, but my buddy gets frustrated with it. If he loses interest then we can’t do 2v2s. - The base game mode (Random Map) is a bit too slow for me too. I’ve tried turbo mode, which is nice, but the economy/military doesn’t feel quite balanced. Empire wars is pretty nice, though. It’s basically a feudal age start. - Visually, a lot of units look the same. It’s hard to tell apart strategies and technology levels at a glance. This impacts both the playing and the esports aspects for me. Overall it’s still a good game. I have it installed and play AIs from time to time. I don’t try to ladder though.

vbezhenar 5y ago

I'm playing WoW since 2008 and don't plan to stop. I don't like the direction that gameplay has taken, but I understand that's because of players changed and what worked in the past, will not work in the future, so I adapt. The only thing that bothers me is western propaganda (strong women everywhere, gay characters) which significantly increased in the last years, but that's a rather minor annoyance for me.

moksly 5y ago

I think the scandals are more symptoms of the greater weakness within the company which may have a more permanent long term impact. I remember playing WoW back in the day and how great their European support was. It was groundbreaking really, and it still sets the standard for what I want out of online support. I quit back during wrath of the lich king because I got old, and didn’t really follow things until they made Warcraft 3 Reforged which I preordered. When it turned out to be a bad game I again turned to Blizzards European support but the new experience was horrible by comparison. I mean, it worked just fine but I had to wait 48 hours where as previously it was only a few minutes for an online chat back before that sort or thing was more common. So what happened in those 10ish years? Well, it turns out that all of the European supporters were laid off in France to cut costs during one of the company’s most profitable years. That’s pretty normal in large companies, but it’s also a way to become just like everyone else instead of being outstanding, and that’s where they are heading isn’t it? All the horrible sexual misconduct is another thing in the culture. It would be very criminal in my country and I hope the American courts handle it, but it’s wider effect speaks of a terrible working environment and that’s just not where you make the kind of games that made Blizzard famous in the first place. It’s a little odd to see the shift in management as well, because it’s not like Sierra or Vivendi aren’t profit exhuming enterprise organisations, but somehow they realised that the “excellence” was what made Blizzard work and I guess Activision just didn’t get that memo. I do think the politics of streamers and other influencers abandoning their games will have an impact though. But that’s just my personal opinion, and I’m not really a good source considering the only video game I play these days is blood bowl.