Is Blizz the root of all evil?

[Sword_of_Doom]

Some thoughts on why Blizz "is the root of all evil".

1. False Promises--At the risk of oversimplification, i honestly have never bought a game where the game manual you get in the box is not usable for the game you play. There are so many differences between the game manual and the game itself its remarkable people are not using the word "fraud".

2. Missing Battlegrounds and Honor System (as described in their game manual)--Again, i can't remember a game that i have bought in the last 5 years where such major components of a game were left out. I would like somebody to try to give me examples from other major MMO's where this has occured. This is terrible mistake and its costing them big time. The funny thing is, the major content patches we are going to get in the future, will be content we were supposed to have on Nov. 23, 2004. Blizzard will try to pass it off as new content.

3. Realm instability--I have played other major MMO's (namely Everquest) and have never ever experienced realm instability like i have for WoW. The frequent Sunday crashes, followed by Monday, Tuesday, WEdnesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday brought a few of us here at the Lurker Lounge to our knees. It was only 3 weeks ago where our realm (Stormrage) was brought down for 24 hours that it seemed to clear up the frequent crash problems. We have experience realm stability until this most recent patch.

4. Maintenance days--Realistically, there hasn't been to many other companies out there that have struggled to the extent Blizzard has had with maintenance days. One thing that Blizzard could have done to alleviate the complaining was to actually give realistic maintenance time windows (for example 6 AM to 11 AM, rather than the 6 AM to 10 AM they normally gave). This would have solved a lot of the complaining that went on in the forums. The funny thing is 3 weeks ago they finally listened and extended their maintenance period by 2 hours. What cracked me up is Tyren or Eyonix trumpeted that on the official boards as if it was novel idea.

5. Patching--Disaster after disaster. This most recent patch was horrible. My latency is consistently in the red (1500+ latency) and is rendering the game unplayable. Not sure what they are going to do about this because i do not think it will stop. Bored 60's finally have something to do that is far easier than instance runs, the farming of characters. They will do this until Battlegrounds comes out which means months.

6. Poor Communication--Blizzard promised (from Mike Morhaime himself) that they would update their playerbase if any problems occured with the realms. That was and is a complete lie. They continue to struggle with providing accurate and timely updates.

7. Monthly fee--Charging the highest or close to the highest monthly fee in the MMO business createds expectations of excellence. I am more than willing to pay a high fee for a worthy product. Blizzard has shot themselves in the foot by charging a high fee and providing the above service.

What would make me happy?
1. Realm stability--I have a new computer (with a decent graphics card and ram) with a high speed cable connection so i should not be experiencing the problems i do. If they can maintain the realms the way they have been prior to the last patch i am happy as a clam.

2. No more false promises--I just want to be told the truth. For example, 3 weeks ago when they took down the Stormrage realm for 24 hours, they blatantly lied as why they did. First it was they had problems with the patch and then it turned into, we have taken down your realm to put in new servers. I wasted a day sitting at a computer with expectations that it would be up at some point in time during the day. All they had to say is, "We screwed up and we are fixing our screw up. REalms will be down for 12 hours as we put in new servers. Thanks for your patience."

3. Better communication--Inform the playerbase what is going on.


Miscellaneous
In conclusion, i hope people have noticed i have not complained about the game itself. Admittedly, this is the best game i have ever played, bar none. The game is so addictive, my wife hates me (not really but coming close. She thinks it is a "waste of time."). But the game is so immersive and beautiful i can play this game endlessly. The game itself is not broken; its the architecture and the management. Getting 1/3 right does not make for a successfull MMO. Fixing the architecture and management problems will take time but will go a long ways towards making this the most successful and best MMO of all time.