Blizzard have had a tough month, heck a tough year, and I'm not yet sure how far this hole is gonna get dug. Things started getting rough for the legendary company all the way back in 2018 with the announcement of 'Diablo Immortal' (Which still isn't out yet) and the situation seems to have only progressively worsened since then. This seems to be the way of once beloved studios like Bungie, Ubisoft, Bioware and Bethesda but somehow it seemed to hurt the public even more so when Blizzard turned to the corporate side. They were supposed to be the chosen ones. They were meant to bring balance to gaming, not leave it ruins. And this coming storm of public dissent was pushed to tipping point with the release, and butchering, of Blizzard's classic title; Warcraft 3.
One of the biggest problems with Warcraft 3 is the one issue that Blizzard can never solve for it's audience, and that is the way that they gutted the online infrastructure of the original title and replaced it with the new one. It's an incredibly transparent and cynical way to encourage everyone to hop to your new release whereupon players are subject to their meticulously penned litigation. These are the terms and conditions which prohibit the use of borrowed assets, (killing some of the most beloved mods), and forces all custom game creators to relinquish monetary and moral rights for anything they create for no other reason than to allow Blizzard full creative control the next time someone makes a 'DOTA' using their tools. (Real classy, Blizzard)
This in particular was seen as an active attack aimed at the creative community of Warcraft and they have responded in kind. If Blizzard were so eager to take ownership of everything that their fans had made, than those same fans would put their efforts to putting together the kinds of games that Blizzard really don't want on their resume. For the past week there have been a whole slew of custom Warcraft 3 games that feature very... edgy objectives. The kind of games that I don't even feel comfortable naming on this blog, and the kind that I'm sure Blizzard are even more uncomfortable to see circling around their community. It's a very crass and crude way of protesting against oppressive rules but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find it to be particularly amusing. This sort of toxicity (Yes, I hate that word too) that is bubbling around the community today is entirely Blizzard's fault and it's up to them to try to mend that wound. (If they can even be bothered.)
But that isn't the only way that the community have been lashing out against their former heroes, and this other method is a lot more family friendly. You see, another big point of contention amidst the fans is the way that the advertisements and marketing for 'Warcraft 3: Reforged' straight-up lied about the content the game would hold. There were promises of cinematic cut scenes, improved story elements and improved graphics, but only that last bullet-point was adhered to and in such a way that the improvements aren't even noticeable in active play. These misleading marketing points lasted on their official 'Warcraft 3: Reforged' website all the way up to, and beyond, the full launch, so past the point where fans could prove beyond a doubt that the cinematic cutscenes trailer (which was embedded on the website) is entirely false.
Incensed and aggrieved, it was only a matter of time before Warcraft fans got together to pull of some sort of grand gesture to Blizzard and, short of a lawsuit, a parody website seemed like the best idea. The 'Warcraft 3: Refunded' website shamelessly mimicked the official site and systematically tore down all of the marketing falsehoods with prejudice, ensuring that anyone who happened upon this page looking for information would leave knowing exactly what kind of trick Blizzard was trying to pull. This method even managed to get a reaction from Blizzard as, if you check today, you can find that they have removed their embedded video teasing the 'cinematic cutscenes' and are trying to pretend that it never happened. (It's a good thing, then, that the internet is known for forgetting things.)
Finally there was the big anti-consumer move where Blizzard attempted to kill any attempts at getting a refund despite failing to live up to promises. They threw up roadblocks around those who attempted to ask for a refund, ran appeals around in circles with particularly condescending arguments and straight up banned anyone on the official forums who advised folk on how to get around their draconian systems. In the end, however, the backlash was too virulent and Blizzard were forced to concede defeat. Refunds are now being automatically issued and fans are taking full advantage of this, most basic of boons.
With all this vitriol churning around the community, you would have thought it would absolutely behove Blizzard to get ahead of everything with a carefully measured response on the matter, and that is exactly what they did not too long ago. Although if you were looking for a statement in which they owned their mistakes and committed to improvements, you may be a little disappointed. Instead, Blizzard gave the old "I'm sorry that you're upset" argument whilst playing up the absolutely insane line that "We stand by the quality of our games". Yep, Blizzard stands by the quality of their poor remake with crappy online infrastructure, oppressive terms and conditioning and obsolete models that were outsourced anyway. This is the hill the Blizzard wants to die on. (Well, okay then.) Even J. Allen Brack, Mr CEO himself, echoed a similar sentiment in an earnings call, proving that Blizzard have absolutely no shame in the modern age.
I'd imagine for some it must be heartbreaking to see an institution like Blizzard trip themselves up time and time again, but the rest of us saw this coming the second that their board shook blood-covered hands with Activision. I see this as proof that you can't share the same table with the devil without picking up some of his dining habits and hope this is warning to all those who still look at EA's subsidiaries and say "Well you can still trust 'insert company here', EA won't ever change them." I suspect that the Blizzard debacle is still yet to reach it's zenith and that we'll really get an idea of where that is with the launch of Overwatch 2 later this year. Finger crossed that I'm wrong, I still actually kinda like that game.
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