Jeff Kaplan and the en-shittification of Blizzard

[Hafiz]

Jason Shrierer wrote a book about blizzards corruption:

https://books.google.ca/books/about/Play_Nice.html?id=MGPyEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

it’s so good it should honestly go into your booklist Leo.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

9 minutes ago, Alexop said:

@Natasha Tori Maru i only played PvP. I mean I don't care about how shit Blizzard management is or was, idk how they pulled it out but wotlk pvp was just artwork. The classes had such different abilities, strengths and weaknesses but still it was balanced. Not just that but you needed serious skill and Intelligence to be good at it. It was not like PvE, in PvP you are against other humans who can outsmart you all the time. 

Now of course I am not a game developer, I just picked the game that was in front of me like a pig eating what he finds in the trough. A game developer sees things that normies don't.

I did some PvP - totally different ballgame! I only ever got to dualist rank though. Classes are way too homogeneous now with 6 different solutions for every combo. Needless complexity and trying to cater to every player. Only did twos in arena and battlegrounds 

[Vynce]

21 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Morrowind, Rayman, Patapon 2, Dark Souls 2/3, Warlords Battlecry 3, Dark Could.

Not necessarily in that order.

I am probably forgetting some other great ones. That's just off the top of my head.

There are many other very good ones.

Divinity Original Sin 1/2 are really good.

UN Squadron for SNES is a perfect game.

Sidearms for the TurboGrafx is awesome.

Geometry Wars is a perfect game.

Donkey Kong Country games are near perfection.

Stardew Valley is a perfect game.

Subnautica.

Millenial gamer type beat. Stardew is the goat though. Already excited for Haunted Chocolatier (ConcernedApe's next game). 

[LordFall]

@Leo Gura Donkey Kong Country is dope. MMORPGs are cool though if you get into the right one. I never got into World of Warcraft but I played a huge amount of Dofus, Fly for Fun and Tera online. 

[Leo Gura]

I played a lot of the early MMOs.

I will never play an MMO that isn't sandbox.

Edited March 14 by Leo Gura

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Leo Gura EverQuest? We going back 🫠

You were probably into Vidya around the same time I was - my Dad and I used to build PCs and I recall MS-DOS os nshit. 8-bit PC games were my first introduction 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

3 hours ago, Hafiz said:

Jason Shrierer wrote a book about blizzards corruption:

https://books.google.ca/books/about/Play_Nice.html?id=MGPyEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

it’s so good it should honestly go into your booklist Leo.

I'll check this out - really appreciate the link 

[Leo Gura]

35 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Leo Gura EverQuest? We going back 🫠

You were probably into Vidya around the same time I was - my Dad and I used to build PCs and I recall MS-DOS os nshit. 8-bit PC games were my first introduction 

Not quite that old. EverQuest 2. Which was meh.

Edited March 14 by Leo Gura

[Alexop]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I played a lot of the early MMOs.

I will never play an MMO that isn't sandbox.

Yea, the leveling in WoW is kind of boring, never amazed me. Very themepark. The only thing that caught me was endgame pvp. Which was something else. Imagine counter-strike but with spells, abilities, symbiotic teamwork, team strategies, strategic positioning etc. you needed months in order to master one class in arena.

[Butters]

Even though I was hating on WoW here I actually started playing again today 😁 

I've read about the changes and I really like the idea of Chromie time. I'll just be questing and doing some battlegrounds and see how it goes. 

Haven't played since Cata btw, starting as a Monk now, just to respect the chronological order.

Back in the day I only really cared about PvP.

Edited Monday at 06:14 PM by Butters

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Butters The current expansion?

I am pretty much retired from the game now.

I get more pleasure & satisfaction from work, fitness and banal life tasks now. Funnily enough. I make it fun

[Butters]

6 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Butters The current expansion?

I am pretty much retired from the game now.

I get more pleasure & satisfaction from work, fitness and banal life tasks now. Funnily enough. I make it fun

Yes, but it works a little different now than back in the day. You just download the game and can level through any past expansion up to level 70 on the regular subscription. Only after that would you buy the latest expansion, or just level another character.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Butters yes I am familiar with how it works now, I played up until Midnight 🙂

You will enjoy Chromie time !

[mmKay]

I played WotLK since I was 9 to age 17 for 12h a day

I used to livestream PVP back in 2012 and someone recorded it and uploaded it to YT

.

The quality was so bad! I had a 2 MB internet connection. The audio and footage is off sync lol. Maybe I should have kept streaming on Twitch. I averaged 100-150 viewers back then

 

There is also a tournament I played with some blizzard commentators .

 

00:08:15

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by mmKay

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@mmKay I was so addicted. Played from vanilla through to dragonflight. 860 days played.... On just one character. Scared to /played the alts

This is me playing Shadow Priest DPS - I frapsed this one and did the video (pretty simple back in the day)

 

 

This is me healing Infest (not my POV, I am the raid healer) as a discipline priest during our progression takedown of the Lich King ☺️☺️☺️

 

I was playing with my boyfriend at the time, and when we killed the boss, apparently we screamed so loud and jumped that my family thought we were having some sort of Tantra fuck session. 

Thanks for sharing! 

[AerisVahnEphelia]

On 13/03/2026 at 0:05 AM, Natasha Tori Maru said:

I wish there was a full on breakdown in-depth interview that went into Blizzards history (and the Activision merge).

Jeff Kaplan goes into how turd operations and marketing people eat the soul of good game designers and creators, and guts out a business. I really enjoy interviews with the guys behind Blizzard (I am a huge Chris Metzen fangirl huehue).

NGL I hate Lex Friedman 

 

 

WoW also has become so corrupted by the woke ( tbh for once this is true ) ( and corpo capitalism at the same time, both worst world together )
 

Edited 35 minutes ago by AerisVahnEphelia

[AerisVahnEphelia]

1 hour ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@mmKay I was so addicted. Played from vanilla through to dragonflight. 860 days played.... On just one character. Scared to /played the alts

This is me playing Shadow Priest DPS - I frapsed this one and did the video (pretty simple back in the day)

 

 

This is me healing Infest (not my POV, I am the raid healer) as a discipline priest during our progression takedown of the Lich King ☺️☺️☺️

 

I was playing with my boyfriend at the time, and when we killed the boss, apparently we screamed so loud and jumped that my family thought we were having some sort of Tantra fuck session. 

Thanks for sharing! 

I m a guild wars 1 player. ( and I smoked the game though, best waste of my life, would do it again )

never liked WoW much. I still know all the map I leveled up some character on private serv that's about it.