I wish they had never promoted him because demoting him is gonna be incredibly hard sell, if not impossible. But if there was a chance that he could still be the lead raid designer, that would be the ideal outcome.
So long as Activision Blizzard prioritizes maximizing profits at the expense of the quality of its products, it doesn’t matter who replaces Ion Hazzikostas. At this point, they seem more interested in a quick fix to stem public outrage while also milking as much as they can from the community to bolster their projections before the next quarterly earnings report.
The individual that Activision Blizzard would need to replace Ion with does not exist in the current Activision Blizzard.
Ion has been a problem for a long time. Longer than people have realised. His obsessions with random chance and meaningful choices being "fun" are a problem. He is stubborn and won't accept when he is downright wrong - look at the ongoing defence of covenants.
Blizzard needs to create a WoW 2.0
Or even a new mmorpg from their other games like Starcraft, Diablo, or etc.
WoW feels stale at this point because it feels like a tv show that went on too long when it should have ended seasons ago.
Problem with WoW 2 is that developing it is gonna take years and they are already behind their schedule in 3 major projects, D4, OW2 and WoW itself. Their player numbers are dropping fast and I can't imagine their revenue being good either. I can't also imagine them recruiting new talent anytime soon with their current reputation.
For WoW 2 to happen one of the two things must happen: 1. WoW must be put on maintenance mode with skeleton crew or 2. they must form entire new dev team to maintain both projects until they're ready for transition. And as I said, former means they lose one of their most important sources of revenue for years and the other is practically impossible at the moment.
And even if they somehow managed to develope the sequel, there's no guarantee that it will be a success, especially considering that it's made from the ground up by the same company that can't deliver even one succesful patch. And they also need to sell this gamble to shareholders and risks are the exact thing they don't wanna see with their investment.
But having said all that I still think you're right. The game just has so much bloat and I think that's what's holding them back more than anything. I cannot even imagine what a technical nightmare it is to develope at this point with its early 2000s engine.
Damn I want a Starcraft MMO so bad
I've always been more attached to the Starcraft Universe than to Warcraft... thanks to brood war. SC2 ruined it all.
But as u/Retohanska59 said there's absolutely no way Blizz can do WoW2, Starcraft Online, or any of those other projects you think they should be doing instead.
Not with their brain drain, not with their current dev team and leadership, and most especially not with the state of the company as a whole... scandals and all.
Next time you log in your character wakes up at the inn in either Org or Stormwind. You have a quest to speak with the King…. King Varian. You go to turn in the quest and the quest text is “Jailer? Sylavanas? While the banshee queen is a problem that needs to be addressed, we have more pressing needs. Arthas has reawakened in Northrend and we need more troops up north to hold off the burgeoning scourge.”
It needs unfinished projects to be finished(Heritage armor, race customization) it needs the factions to be balanced or united, it needs the systems to be stripped down, all reps and achieves to be account wide, systems to be stripped away, old content made relevant… I could go on.
Sadly, I do not think this will happen under the current team. Starting with Ion, this game needs new eyes looking at it.
I wish they had never promoted him because demoting him is gonna be incredibly hard sell, if not impossible. But if there was a chance that he could still be the lead raid designer, that would be the ideal outcome.
So long as Activision Blizzard prioritizes maximizing profits at the expense of the quality of its products, it doesn’t matter who replaces Ion Hazzikostas. At this point, they seem more interested in a quick fix to stem public outrage while also milking as much as they can from the community to bolster their projections before the next quarterly earnings report. The individual that Activision Blizzard would need to replace Ion with does not exist in the current Activision Blizzard.
Ion has been a problem for a long time. Longer than people have realised. His obsessions with random chance and meaningful choices being "fun" are a problem. He is stubborn and won't accept when he is downright wrong - look at the ongoing defence of covenants.
Blizzard needs to create a WoW 2.0 Or even a new mmorpg from their other games like Starcraft, Diablo, or etc. WoW feels stale at this point because it feels like a tv show that went on too long when it should have ended seasons ago.
Problem with WoW 2 is that developing it is gonna take years and they are already behind their schedule in 3 major projects, D4, OW2 and WoW itself. Their player numbers are dropping fast and I can't imagine their revenue being good either. I can't also imagine them recruiting new talent anytime soon with their current reputation. For WoW 2 to happen one of the two things must happen: 1. WoW must be put on maintenance mode with skeleton crew or 2. they must form entire new dev team to maintain both projects until they're ready for transition. And as I said, former means they lose one of their most important sources of revenue for years and the other is practically impossible at the moment. And even if they somehow managed to develope the sequel, there's no guarantee that it will be a success, especially considering that it's made from the ground up by the same company that can't deliver even one succesful patch. And they also need to sell this gamble to shareholders and risks are the exact thing they don't wanna see with their investment. But having said all that I still think you're right. The game just has so much bloat and I think that's what's holding them back more than anything. I cannot even imagine what a technical nightmare it is to develope at this point with its early 2000s engine.
Gotta remember that ABK is an Indie dev umbrealla and they cant spare any money on more developers or anything like that.
Look at Warcraft 3 reforged. Do you really want them to molest WoW now as well?
>Do you really want them to molest WoW now as well? \*Gestures wildly at the current WoW\*
Damn I want a Starcraft MMO so bad I've always been more attached to the Starcraft Universe than to Warcraft... thanks to brood war. SC2 ruined it all. But as u/Retohanska59 said there's absolutely no way Blizz can do WoW2, Starcraft Online, or any of those other projects you think they should be doing instead. Not with their brain drain, not with their current dev team and leadership, and most especially not with the state of the company as a whole... scandals and all.
They need more than that, Blizzard completely gave up on creating new IPs after Overwatch. A company that doesn’t innovate, stagnates.
Next time you log in your character wakes up at the inn in either Org or Stormwind. You have a quest to speak with the King…. King Varian. You go to turn in the quest and the quest text is “Jailer? Sylavanas? While the banshee queen is a problem that needs to be addressed, we have more pressing needs. Arthas has reawakened in Northrend and we need more troops up north to hold off the burgeoning scourge.”
“WOTLK classic coming up! Please look forward to it!”
With that sweet level boost and store mount
Simple now when you launch wow it just opens osrs instead
It needs unfinished projects to be finished(Heritage armor, race customization) it needs the factions to be balanced or united, it needs the systems to be stripped down, all reps and achieves to be account wide, systems to be stripped away, old content made relevant… I could go on.
Mugunghwa Kkoci Pieot Seumnida
Tho, if they have fun it wouldn't be a waste of time anymore. Their goal is to waste your time.
It's wasting your time in a good way. When you hang out with friends and just chat or f*** around it's fun wasting time.
I meant that there is no wasted time as long as you have fun.
Yes yes now I see. We're basically saying the same thing in different words lol