this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 184 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It’s a cultural issue.

People at Larian had one objective the entire time - making a genuinely good D&D based game. If the money comes, that’s incredible. And it did come.

People at blizzard make games with the goal of making money. The era of making something fun has been long over in this studio

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 80 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It seems that publicly traded game companies simply can't help themselves from becoming this (e.g. Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA).

It's very sad, but at least there are still a few private AAA companies and indies who seem to make fun games for the sake of fun games.

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 65 points 2 months ago

Once you go public, you've practically forced yourself into aiming for infinite growth. "Just enough" revenue is not in the vocabulary of these people

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 42 points 2 months ago

That’s what happens when MBAs start making too many product decisions at a tech company, and game companies are no exception.

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[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago

It's an ownership issue.

Larian is privately owned by Swen Vincke. They can concentrate on making good games because they don't answer to anyone but Swen.

Blizzard is publicly owned. It has to answer to greedy and short-sighted shareholders.

[–] arefx@lemmy.ml 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't buy or play their trash any more. It ain't the 90s or 00s any more. Blizzard is ass.

Ea, ubisoft, Blizzard. The games aren't even that good

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

Yeah, pretty much. A lot of their games appear on a 80% sale half the time, and even then it's still not worth it. It's not even about the money, it's about being disrespected by the dogshit they continue to release.

I would rather give my time to a passionate indie studio, where the people put together a genuinely unique experience

[–] TacticsConsort@yiffit.net 133 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Even if Blizzard games haven't had a high note since 2016, I would like to remind everyone that the company still had absurd amounts of goodwill and customer loyalty for a large and corporate studio at the time, with fans owning and actively collecting literal decades of merchendise.

Things only really truly collapsed for Blizzard and saw their goodwill vanish when they openly supported and endorsed the chinese oppression of Hong Kong.

Specifically, the winner of a Hearthstone tournament was interviewed after his win and gave the pro-Hong Kong slogan "free Hong Kong, the revolution of our times", which there was absolutely no rule or stipulation against. China demanded that the company not endorse that (because authoritarianism), but Blizzard ACTIVELY WENT THE EXTRA MILE to strip the player of his prize money and ban him from all future events alongside other punishments, specifically in the name of appeasing the chinese government.

It wouldn't be fair to expect a game company to singlehandedly stand up to an authoritarian regime that loves to make people disappear. But it is absolutely fair to recognize that Blizzard's actions very clearly demonstrated that they weren't just doing this because they were threatened into it- they were more than happy to actively endorse the chinese government's oppression of Hong Kong. And THAT is what we should always remember about Blizzard's morals and principles, or lack thereof.

[–] CountVon@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's the event that gave me the push I needed to request deletion of my account with them. I won't give them another dollar for as long as I live.

[–] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Same, was just starting wow classic with my partner as she'd never played wow before, that made us both cancel immediately and never give them another cent.

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Reminder that that event happened IN TAIWAN.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 15 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I'd forgotten all about that.

All the sex pests felt like a "good" reason to quit WoW but I'd say my real reason was it had become a piece of shit that didn't value my time, and I'd honestly been looking for a reason to quit for a long time.

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 112 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Just wait until GabeN retires and the inheritors of Valve start to enshittify it. Unless GabeN had a good succession plan in place, or GoG can swoop in and become the new standard, things might get rough. I might stick to retro games from then on.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 74 points 2 months ago

Ugh, the thought of some generic investment company swooping in and running Valve hurts my heart.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm seriously concerned about this, yet I keep using steam because of the convenience.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago

Steam is currently a good company so I am happy to support it. If it enshittifies then I will stop using it and sail the high seas if need be.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Steam is privately held, so there's plenty of reason to be hopeful. The recent rapid enshittification of what feels like every company is mostly due to US laws that require publicly traded companies to squeeze every last dollar out or face severe penalties. Privately held companies are not subject to those laws, and so they can stay actually decent and care about their customers without threat of legal repercussions. An example is Lego Group - there's some valid criticism, but legos have stayed a top quality product for nearing a hundred years - and show no signs of suddenly degrading in quality. So, I wouldn't worry unduly about this until Valve announces an IPO. Then you should start worrying.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My hope is that Gabe actually gets direct brain connection technology off the ground and he uploads his consciousness into an everlasting machine so he never has to retire.

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[–] UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Luckily BG3 is on GOG. I don't think I've bought a new game on steam for years, granted I don't play a lot of games nowadays.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I bought BG3 on GOG simply because it was on GOG, otherwise I would have waited a few years. I want to support AAA games being release on GOG at release because it doesn't happen much. GOG isn't gonna take over Steam, because largely the industry isn't going to support DRM free AAA games.

[–] Flipper@feddit.org 17 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Why should they enshitify a service that is printing money with minimal effort? Right guys 🥲.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

because they don't understand why it's printing money

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because most of these MBA fucks don't understand the concept of piracy being a service problem. They have run perfectly fine systems into the ground because they insist on making it infinitely harder to use legit services than to just rip shit off.

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[–] gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

it's a very closely held private company, gaben absolutely has someone to take his place with ideals similar to his.

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[–] Linktank@lemmy.today 91 points 2 months ago (8 children)

They lost me before this line, but I will never forgive and never forget:

"What you guys don't own phones?"

[–] BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago

It was evident that they had completely lost touch with their player base at that point

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (3 children)

"You think you do, but you don't!"

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[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 68 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I miss the Warcraft II and StarCraft days. You could tell they were serious by their cutscenes, but also knew they were having fun, and wanted the player to as well, by the gameplay and Easter eggs. “Line must go up” took over, now it’s all cash grabs. I will not buy a game from them at full price again.

[–] criitz@reddthat.com 26 points 2 months ago

It hasn't been the same company that delivered that gaming magic in the 90s since, well, the 90s.

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[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 56 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Blizzard is dead. At the time they were Activision. Now they are Microsoft. The blizzard that existed to make StarCraft, warcraft and diablo only exists in name.

[–] TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I don't know, the World of Warcraft dev team recently unionized and got Chris Metzen to return as creative director. And, personally, as a current WoW player (War Within is great so far btw) the whole feel of the studio is so much better than during Shadowlands when things were bad and I quit the game. I think that Warcraft at least is having a bit of a comeback now.

Overwatch 2 is awful tho

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[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Ever since they banned that StarCraft II pro for protesting china in Hong Kong, I've uninstalled battle.net and didn't look back.

I rather buy a game from EA.

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Blizzard died quite a while ago. Even if the same dudes are still making decisions at the head of the studio after the Activision buyout, clearly they have dementia or some other cognitive defects.

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think the execs were always somewhat shit, even when they were making good games. It's just their creative team miraculously managed to make good games despite the shitty execs.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Yeah, they used to have a Caste System in Blizzard HQ where badge color decided your importance. And get this, their tech guys, security guys, and hardware guys (not firmware) were all the lower caste lmao.

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[–] Zomg@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

It's a shame, I liked OW1, even with the tired meta and 6v6 more than I liked OW2.

The loot boxes weren't predatory, allowing unlocking of skins and content without spending anything extra was a nice balance in my opinion that I wish more games did.

They took OW1 and bastardized it, it deserves the rating it has. It used to be that new versions of games were better.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

It really is a shame. I played so much OW1, and then suddenly it changed to be like all the other modern games with sleazy monetization that I avoid.

[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 13 points 2 months ago (6 children)

It used to be that new versions of games were better.

I for one am very interested to see the quality differences between worker owned game studios and corporate studios. But last I heard they had only just started unionizing.

And a programmer friend I talked to couldn’t comprehend why he would want to be in a union.

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[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The loot boxes weren't predatory

Ehhh, they were basically the same thing as a slot machine. The battlepass is certainly worse, as it just encourages rampant (not so) microtransactions, but just because the current battlepass system is really predatory, doesn't mean the old loot box system wasn't predatory at all. It was just less predatory.

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[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 36 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It was easy to predict a downward slide as soon as they merged with Activision.

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[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let me introduce you to Wizards of the Coast

[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 19 points 2 months ago

IMO the issue isn't WotC, it's Hasbro. WotC is their golden goose and they're squeezing it for everything. I haven't checked their recent earnings calls but I wouldn't be surprised if WotC is still their only subsidiary where the revenue isn't declining.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Concorde would have loved to get 115,000 reviews...

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

Hulu was really good a decade ago. Then they put ads in and created a higher tier. Nobody was surprised when it happened again some years later.

In Ukraine starlink was being hailed as a hero before Elon decided to turn off Internet access in areas he deemed Ukraine to be "too aggressive".

Goodwill doesn't deserve it's reputation. It uses minimum wage exemptions for disabled people to pay it's staff below minimum wage.

Edit to add - Destiny 2 was the other one I was thinking of and couldn't quite place. Great PvE shooter with great story, and they killed it to force people to buy DLC.

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but they'll never learn because tons off people keep shoveling money at them.

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[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (5 children)

CDPR? admittedly they're really good at gaining it back again, kinda homer simpsons vibes where they repeatedly fuck up but then make an honest attempt to make things right only to repeat the cycle all over again.

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[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago
[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If you think that's bad, wait 'till you hear about the working conditions.

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