see these posts and judge for yourself . i see similar stupidity when mist of panderia launches .

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/diablo-3-forum-bans-continue-make-headlines-45167.html

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Gamer-Loses-186-Diablo-3-RMAH-Requests-FBI-Assistance-44675.html

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/We-Haven-t-Forgotten-About-Diablo-3-RMAH-Victims-Forum-Bans-Missing-Money-45052.html

A decade ago each game they made was pure gold and not many games could top it.

These days its a fast food garbage where greed = prio #1 and gamers comes last after shareholders.

10 months in wow subs equals 10 months of the same Raid raiding your eyeballs out and keep paying 12 euro a month.

It went from my #1 company to #10001 within 5 years.

This is ridiculous. I hope blizz and acti have enough enemies who will gladly spread the word about all theese failures. They are fking robbing people of their money now, its a scam and a theft and violation of fking law. They must pay for this.

I was loyal Blizzard fan. I played WCII, SC,  DIablo, WCIII, Diablo II, WoW since launch. After buying DIII only to experience fkup after fkup (hi err 37), and then getting another fkup (since you registered your account with country Russia you are not allowed to attach your Paypal to receive proceedings from RMAH) and now reading all those links, yeah, i will never ever buy another Blizzard game unless something serious happens and there is a major change.

They are not close to being the same,they operate on two totally different scales.

PART1

EA has been sued and lost by the workers who were ripped off thousands of working man hours.Their hiring practices are predominantly NEW people  because they are desperate and will work extra long hours removing their personal life.

Blizzard i have heard nothing as far as unethical treatment of it's workers,everything seems on the up n up,so i would say Blizzard treats their employees well and with respect.

Part2 

EA does and has always put out higher quality gaming than Blizzard.A simple example is way back in the 90's their Basketball game had a great life like simulation to it,even the players looked pretty good.Although EA does deliver SOME quality in their games,they are ALWAYS on a definitive time line,meaning RUSHED products that nmever reach their full potential.For many years it was standard 18 months to 2 years to produce a game,not very mcuh quality can happen in 2 years.

Blizzard has always done gaming sort of cheap.They use low quality game engines,very low poly count structures/meshes/textures.They deliver their games in a fashion that costs little to maintain bandwidth wise.Blizzard does try to deliver a complete game within the type of game it is creating.Blizzard has proven time and again their lower qaulity standards in the fact they have NOT been able to deliver console gaming.They always try to hire outside Blizzard to make it happen.

PART3

EA is more of an innovator,they have a wide array of games covering many areas of gaming over pretty much all platforms,they are in ways a lot like Square Enix.

Blizzard is a clone expert,they shop around game ideas from other games and then deliver their own twist on that core concept.Everything from the CnC copy cat core design to the EQ core design.They are a PC developer as mentioned earlier,they do not seem to have the experience or know how to deliver console.There is one other factor,it costs MORE money to deliver,so perhaps that is their excuse which would tie into part1 nad part2[cheaper game developer].

part4

EA usually does not put much effort into their games after launch,they are more a build them ,then ship everyone out to different projects.This type of management cannot be good for the longevity of their games.Their simulation games,are just sold as NEW each year allowing a better profit margin.EA is not the listening type developer,they do what they want ,when they want,that has it's ups and downs as well.

Blizzard does not like to upgrade their projects over time,but they will further fund and develop them,so that has some definite upside for longevity.Blizzard does tend to listen to their player base but of course that can be just as bas as good,it all depends i guess on what core of people you are listening to.

It's fairly ludicrous to condemn a company for a single game; add to that that a vast majority of claims are completely bogus.  That said, I'm sure there are mishaps with the RMAH considering it's a new service for Blizzard, and generally new in that it's a peer to peer transaction as opposed to a company to customer.

Though what's flabberghasted me even more is the fact that anyone would hold a candle to EA and Blizzard when it comes to the subject matter.  It truly shows how jaded many people are, and how clueless they are to the going ons of the gaming industry.  Now, if one were to say to me that Activision is on the path to such, then I'd allocate some more slack.

That said, Blizzard has in a sense pioneered free to play online games with their original Battle.net system, of which the maker of said system is also the head of Arenanet.  They have almost always catered to the masses (even to a fault with WoW, some would say) and go out of their way to provide tools (including APIs) such as world editors to people who request them.

Not only that, but they annually exploit their strength in the MMO Market to hold charity events, sell old parts to fans for charity, and donate the proceeds of pet sales in WoW to Charity as well (at first 50%, but then 100% when requested by a fair amount of people).

To top that off, they have some of the best customer service in the business.  Sure, with WoW the wait time may be a few hours for a response, but what would you expect with a large subscriber base.  They were one of the first companies to have their community managers actively respond and answer questions to the community for the past ten years and encourage retort.  Some of their answers may not be to one's liking, but they are answers nontheless when most other companies just ignore it due to the head ache.

In addition to all this, they are also very open about their systems and policies to an extent.  Even when WoW beta first came out to those outside their employ, the had absolutely zero NDA; they even talked about features and systems in depth, even though they weren't completely finished.

I could go on and on about how they are so far apart from EA, that even thinking they're progressing in such a direction is, in my opinion, foolhearty.  One mediocre game and a few failed experiments does not make them on the path to a company that was voted the worst in America (which in itself it nonsense, but understandable considering EA's past).

Well yes ... and no, though mostly yes these days.

WoW is nearing the end of it's life.  Sure it still has a fan-base willing to keep going with it, but it's an old game model & design with old graphics.  Blizzard will want to tap into what fans they have remaining and milk what's left in the franchise -- as much as possible, for as long as possible.

EA does this too, but they usually do it as soon as a product gets released.

It's a tough call though, since Blizzard didn't act this way when they were their own company.  Now that they are Activision-Blizzard, the only way to know for sure would be to look at their next MMO (Titan).  While D3 wasn't an MMO, it's not looking good for Activision-Blizzard, since they really pushed a real money auction house (RMAH), which allows them to skim a nice profit off the top for each transaction.

Activision, nuff said.

Originally posted by MadKing

Activision, nuff said.

Blaming it all on Activision is an easy way out and an excuse to keep beliving Blizzard of todays is the same Blizzard we knew all those years. I remember that company that brought me countless of hours of joy with Lost Vikings, Blackthrone, WarCraft StarCraft and Diablo series... but, as with every company there comes a time when things change. 

Over the time a lot of the original Blizzard staff moved on. Whole Blizzard North division was dismantled as the top names that pretty much created it established their own studios (Trion, Runic, ArenaNet among many others). The moment WoW came out the whole profile of the company changed. They needed different approach and thus hired completely different kind of people. 

Eventually even that core staff that at first build the MMO moved forward to different projects in different companies. I do not doubt people like Mike Morhaim or Chris Metzen still have bits of their old self around, but in a company the size of Blizzard and the massive scale of projects like WoW some things eventually get lost in the grand scheme. 

EA used to be the "good guys" at the start too. They just crumbled a lot faster but from very similar reasons. It's easier to be good company when you work with bunch of friends you know well. When you start being huge player it all gets watered down between the hundreads of people you have to hire and the stakes, from financial view point, get way higher. Pretty much every company in every industry has that issue. 

Originally posted by Ezhae

Originally posted by MadKing

Activision, nuff said.

Blaming it all on Activision is an easy way out and an excuse to keep beliving Blizzard of todays is the same Blizzard we knew all those years. I remember that company that brought me countless of hours of joy with Lost Vikings, Blackthrone, WarCraft StarCraft and Diablo series... but, as with every company there comes a time when things change. 

Over the time a lot of the original Blizzard staff moved on. Whole Blizzard North division was dismantled as the top names that pretty much created it established their own studios (Trion, Runic, ArenaNet among many others). The moment WoW came out the whole profile of the company changed. They needed different approach and thus hired completely different kind of people. 

Eventually even that core staff that at first build the MMO moved forward to different projects in different companies. I do not doubt people like Mike Morhaim or Chris Metzen still have bits of their old self around, but in a company the size of Blizzard and the massive scale of projects like WoW some things eventually get lost in the grand scheme. 

EA used to be the "good guys" at the start too. They just crumbled a lot faster but from very similar reasons. It's easier to be good company when you work with bunch of friends you know well. When you start being huge player it all gets watered down between the hundreads of people you have to hire and the stakes, from financial view point, get way higher. Pretty much every company in every industry has that issue. 

I'll agree with your post, except for the highlighted part.  Activision merging with Blizzard (under Vivendi) was a direct cause of their lack of quality games & content currently.  World of Warcraft was a fantastic game prior to 2009 (merger date).  It had dungeons filled with mystery and adventure (BRD, U/LBRS, Dire Maul, Karazan, Ulduarr [plans already set in motion prior to merger]). Later dungeons and raid encounters were heavily boring, limited, and linear.

Post-expansion, post-merger expansion Cataclysm was lackluster, including a boring theme, recycled daily rewards (like fishing), recycled mobs, rehashed low level content to now become "new".  It was not that new anymore.

It even excluded parts that were main highlights on the expansion, like Path of the Titans, War of the Ancients.  Although this was nothing new entirely, since Wrath of the Lich King excluded aerial combat (a decription of this is included on the inside flap of the game box for WotLK, which never came to light).

While the lack of aerial combat was attributed to pre-merger, most of the lacking content can be directly linked to post-Activision merger.  Cataclysm to have more end game content than any previous expansion (on Activision-Blizzard's sales brochure for Cataclysm) .. well no it didn't.  Not implicitly anyways - maybe they thought LFR was end game content /shrug.

"becoming" ?!

IT ALREADY IS.

Activision-Blizzard is really no diffrent from EA in their actions.

Originally posted by MadKing

Activision, nuff said.

I don't know man, it looks like you said nothing. It's like saying "ditto"  or "yadda yadda yadda".

It could mean anything...so 'll just presume you mean "It's Activision. They are awesome and one of my favorite companies! I  love them!! yeah!!"

Blizzard is nowhere near becoming the new EA. If that was true, D3 would be released like this:

• 3 acts on release day
• Act 4 as DLC for $10-20, most likely on release day
• Modes harder than Normal would be DLCs

etc.

isnt that what they are doing with Starcraft 2? releasing the game 3 time instead of once?..Sounds close to DLC to me :P

Originally posted by Netspook

Blizzard is nowhere near becoming the new EA. If that was true, D3 would be released like this:

• 3 acts on release day
• Act 4 as DLC for $10-20, most likely on release day
• Modes harder than Normal would be DLCs

etc.

if blizzard was the new EA

it would not have made history wth the FASTEST selling PC game ever .. Diablo 3

Originally posted by Yaevindusk

 

It's fairly ludicrous to condemn a company for a single game; add to that that a vast majority of claims are completely bogus.  That said, I'm sure there are mishaps with the RMAH considering it's a new service for Blizzard, and generally new in that it's a peer to peer transaction as opposed to a company to customer.

Though what's flabberghasted me even more is the fact that anyone would hold a candle to EA and Blizzard when it comes to the subject matter.  It truly shows how jaded many people are, and how clueless they are to the going ons of the gaming industry.  Now, if one were to say to me that Activision is on the path to such, then I'd allocate some more slack.

That said, Blizzard has in a sense pioneered free to play online games with their original Battle.net system, of which the maker of said system is also the head of Arenanet.  They have almost always catered to the masses (even to a fault with WoW, some would say) and go out of their way to provide tools (including APIs) such as world editors to people who request them.

Not only that, but they annually exploit their strength in the MMO Market to hold charity events, sell old parts to fans for charity, and donate the proceeds of pet sales in WoW to Charity as well (at first 50%, but then 100% when requested by a fair amount of people).

To top that off, they have some of the best customer service in the business.  Sure, with WoW the wait time may be a few hours for a response, but what would you expect with a large subscriber base.  They were one of the first companies to have their community managers actively respond and answer questions to the community for the past ten years and encourage retort.  Some of their answers may not be to one's liking, but they are answers nontheless when most other companies just ignore it due to the head ache.

In addition to all this, they are also very open about their systems and policies to an extent.  Even when WoW beta first came out to those outside their employ, the had absolutely zero NDA; they even talked about features and systems in depth, even though they weren't completely finished.

I could go on and on about how they are so far apart from EA, that even thinking they're progressing in such a direction is, in my opinion, foolhearty.  One mediocre game and a few failed experiments does not make them on the path to a company that was voted the worst in America (which in itself it nonsense, but understandable considering EA's past).

 

Lol, did you even read the articles he linked to?

And battle.net /policies is all in the past. I hate to say it but Blizz is but a shell of its former glory. Charity is for PR nowadays. And about those worldeditors, thats why Diablo 3 has moddability right?

The most ironic part is that in blizz games, an often recurring theme is how the hero gets corrupted.

Blizz had it all. I really held them in high esteem.  Now they've fallen; like arthas became the lich king, how the hero of diablo 1 became diablo, blizz is becoming EA.

heres the thing it just doesnt matter if they are or not because people are addicts and continue to push record sub numbers and sales . If people are not willing to let them go then they will continue to do what they do without a worry in the world. Its why EA does what it does to this day but luckily people spoke with their wallets for once and ditched swtor making EA have to answer to its share holders and go on the defensive. People will not stop playing blizzard games and they will not stop supporting blizzard. Honestly blizzard went down hills years ago and no one said a word about it. Everything seriously you can hate in the genre blizzard does and they do it profitably.

Lets seee cash shop in monthly sub game - check

expensive character transfers and faction changes even if your server dies you cant go no where without 25 bucks - check

buggy content that sometimes doesnt get fixed for months - check

constant nurfing of classes for no reason and half the time no patch notes on it -check

expensive game expansions even years later that most companies include for free - check

customer service that reads from a script - check

I can keep on going but rabid blizzard fans will in a heart beat tell you how wrong you are and blizzard is the best. I do not at all see any difference in EA or Blizzard , they both answer to their shareholders and not their fans. Both have an attitude if you dont like it see ya later we have a zillion more people willing to pay for what you hate.