[0:04] uh
[0:26] does the international addiction to an
[0:28] internet game represent a danger
[0:31] maybe but there is also no indication
[0:33] that anything can slow the explosive
[0:35] growth of the intoxicating game called
[0:38] world of warcraft
[0:40] [Music]
[0:50] what the [ __ ] was that [ __ ]
[0:53] [Music]
[0:58] and by the way you don't want that to do
[1:00] that either you think you do but you
[1:03] don't
[1:04] [Music]
[1:08] you guys take care of this man yeah
[1:16] [Music]
[1:19] incredible 16 hours a day his mother
[1:21] says his personality has changed and
[1:23] that he's become moody and violent and
[1:26] his addiction is tearing the family
[1:27] apart
[1:30] but our actions
[1:32] are gonna matter more than any of these
[1:45] [Music]
[1:50] the power level
[1:52] where
[1:53] i basically get all the good loot and
[1:55] they get all the great experience
[1:58] [Music]
[2:08] [Applause]
[2:13] [Music]
[2:32] in the world of mmorpgs you'll scarcely
[2:34] find anyone who hasn't heard of if not
[2:37] played the world of warcraft released in
[2:39] 2004 and you would quickly begin to make
[2:42] a name for itself garnering worldwide
[2:44] praise for its innovation accessibility
[2:47] and the closeness to the community by
[2:49] its developer blizzard entertainment
[2:52] both celebrated and condemned for its
[2:54] addictiveness in the span of a few short
[2:56] months it would not only become the most
[2:58] popular of the mmorpg genre but also set
[3:01] the standard for all of those that would
[3:03] follow in its footsteps many would try
[3:06] and over the course of 15 years few
[3:08] would gain even a fraction of the player
[3:10] base of the seemingly unstoppable giant
[3:13] today though a much different picture is
[3:15] painted what was initially considered
[3:17] inspirational in the world of game
[3:19] development now leaves behind a
[3:21] controversial history marred with what
[3:23] many describe as betrayal deception and
[3:27] squandered potential leaving many asking
[3:29] the question how a snapshot of history
[3:32] of a world created within a world a
[3:35] microcosm of mayhem a virtual playground
[3:38] for humanity to show each other their
[3:39] best and their worst this is the story
[3:42] of blizzard entertainment and their
[3:44] iconic mmorpg the world of warcraft
[3:57] at the dawn of the new millennium the
[3:59] online world was growing rapidly the
[4:01] intellect of man and the advancements of
[4:03] technology combined bestowed upon the
[4:06] world the creation of the internet by al
[4:09] gore news of a new star wars movie was
[4:11] spreading the storyboard for the lord of
[4:14] the rings the fellowship of the ring had
[4:15] been completed nerd culture was about to
[4:18] reach critical mass
[4:20] and bill clinton did not have sexual
[4:23] relations with that woman and so entered
[4:25] the massively multiplayer online role
[4:27] playing game or mmorpg for short the
[4:31] creation of the first mmo can be traced
[4:33] all the way back to the 70s depending on
[4:35] your definition and standards as they
[4:38] would be text based though they had
[4:39] existed for decades it was only near the
[4:42] new millennia that they would attract a
[4:44] sizable player base although varying in
[4:46] implementation they all shared the
[4:48] central idea of an online persistent
[4:51] world to be shared with players from all
[4:53] over the globe a genre unique in the
[4:55] sense that there is no planned end no
[4:58] credits rolled nor thanks for playing
[5:00] game content would be added as long as
[5:02] there are players playing and the
[5:04] journey would only end when the player
[5:06] decided that it was over a concept that
[5:09] was remarkably foreign to many at the
[5:11] time
[5:12] in these early years many would try
[5:14] their hand in breaking through the genre
[5:16] and overall it would contain a niche
[5:18] audience some were beginning to make a
[5:21] name for themselves though such as
[5:23] origin system sleep into the online
[5:25] persistent world with ultima online an
[5:27] isometric fantasy game memorable for its
[5:30] pvp combat in particular
[5:33] mythic entertainment who would later
[5:34] develop warhammer online took their shot
[5:37] with the dark age of camelot a third
[5:39] person take on arthurian lore mixed with
[5:41] norse mythology and high fantasy
[5:44] star wars would make their debut into
[5:46] the world of mmos with the 2003 release
[5:49] the star wars galaxies an mmo with a
[5:51] more heavy focus on community and
[5:54] sandbox gameplay and most prolific at
[5:57] the time was everquest in 1999 by varant
[6:00] interactive and 99 studios decrowning
[6:03] the previously reigning champion ultima
[6:06] online just 24 hours after launch it
[6:09] would quickly become the most subscribed
[6:11] mmorpg and
[6:13] uh
[6:14] 10 000 subscribers
[6:16] yeah really 10 000 was the most
[6:19] subscribed mmo rpg at the time it would
[6:22] eventually peak at over 500 000 years
[6:25] after its launch but as history has
[6:27] shown this would yet be a fraction of
[6:28] the potential that was hidden within the
[6:30] genre a potential that had yet to be
[6:33] realized
[6:46] the mmo was on the rise and the time to
[6:48] strike was nigh and in the background a
[6:51] beast was stirring silently observing
[6:54] the strengths the weaknesses the
[6:56] successes and the failures of the then
[6:58] relatively unexplored genre blizzard at
[7:01] this point already had established
[7:03] themselves as innovators with their
[7:05] diablo starcraft and warcraft series the
[7:08] latter being a real-time strategy game
[7:10] set in a fantasy world of orcs elves
[7:13] magic and adventure and having seen the
[7:16] success of other fantasy based games
[7:18] such as everquest the table was set
[7:21] after halting development on an
[7:23] abandoned project a small team of
[7:25] developers were left in limbo and were
[7:27] searching for inspiration on their next
[7:29] game
[7:30] they had the ip they had the funding and
[7:33] most importantly the timing
[7:40] september 2nd 2001 long before blizzard
[7:44] was big enough to hold their own
[7:45] convention they held a panel at london's
[7:48] european computer trade show and it was
[7:50] then that the public for the first time
[7:52] saw the world of warcraft
[7:58] [Music]
[8:10] they made it clear
[8:12] this was not the sequel to the popular
[8:14] rts series at the time but rather
[8:16] something completely different players
[8:19] would transition from controlling
[8:20] pre-made heroes and progressing through
[8:22] a campaign to creating their own heroes
[8:25] and making their own stories the game
[8:27] would be multiplayer on a massive scale
[8:30] bringing together fans of not only the
[8:31] warcraft series but of mmos as a whole
[8:35] the reaction however was mixed some
[8:38] waited with eager anticipation
[8:40] trying to imagine their beloved series
[8:42] making its sleep into the massively
[8:44] multiplayer setting and many were upset
[8:46] at the abrupt change of focus preferring
[8:49] blizzard to concentrate on what was
[8:51] proven to work instead of taking a
[8:53] gamble into unfettered territory the
[8:55] idea of paying a monthly fee to continue
[8:58] playing was a hard pill to swallow at
[9:00] the time especially by blizzard fans who
[9:02] had grown accustomed to the one-time
[9:04] purchase models set standard by the
[9:06] company work would continue on the
[9:08] project however and the very first
[9:10] interview would be claimed by the
[9:12] computer gaming world magazine by this
[9:14] time everquest was the clear reigning
[9:16] champion but the genre as a whole had
[9:19] one fatal flaw that's the learning curve
[9:22] xp loss gear loss and even permanent
[9:25] character death were commonplace in
[9:27] nearly every game of the genre and
[9:29] combined with the large time investment
[9:31] in playing it cultivated a very niche
[9:34] and hardcore community and the everyday
[9:36] casual player would quickly succumb to
[9:38] the intense difficulty and seek
[9:40] entertainment from other more forgiving
[9:42] games it was a genre with a focus on
[9:45] character progression with death
[9:47] penalties centering around character
[9:49] regression and a steep learning curve to
[9:51] go along with it however this
[9:54] transitionary period would prove to be a
[9:56] key moment where players for the first
[9:58] time would leave single player games
[10:00] that looked like this into this online
[10:02] sprawling world they were incomparable
[10:05] to each other and although it's funny to
[10:07] think now it was an intimidating thing
[10:09] the time investment was and still is
[10:12] incredibly high you had to have a
[10:14] computer you had to have a good enough
[10:16] graphics card to run it you had to have
[10:18] internet and you had to pay a
[10:20] subscription the amount of hurdles
[10:22] standing between the average person and
[10:24] the game were already high and combined
[10:26] with the unforgiving gameplay of the
[10:28] landmark titles representing the genre
[10:30] it was just too much for the average
[10:32] person
[10:33] but it was this person this untapped
[10:36] market of new and casual players that
[10:38] blizzard would set their sights on world
[10:40] of warcraft took a completely different
[10:42] style of approach during a time when xp
[10:45] loss was the bare minimum penalty for
[10:47] dying world of warcraft made you simply
[10:49] run back to your corpse one of the great
[10:51] things here is that
[10:53] when you die and death is an
[10:54] inevitability in all these games it's
[10:56] really not that big of a deal all other
[10:58] online rpgs make death a really bad
[11:01] thing because dying should be bad right
[11:03] well in world of warcraft pretty much
[11:05] all that happens is you sit out for a
[11:06] bit you respawn back at a graveyard and
[11:08] you run and get your corpse and you
[11:10] respawn you don't lose experience points
[11:12] you don't lose your items or any of that
[11:14] stuff when hitting the max level took
[11:16] years and other games world of warcraft
[11:19] it took months for most players and when
[11:21] systems were complicated and confusing
[11:24] requiring external literature to
[11:26] understand world of warcraft systems
[11:28] were relatively straightforward and when
[11:30] character stat and template choices were
[11:32] often permanent world of warcraft
[11:34] featured costly but reversible methods
[11:37] of character progression and
[11:39] customization in other games he had
[11:41] areas designed for large groups of
[11:43] high-level players referred to as raids
[11:46] but they were commonly out in the open
[11:48] world which resulted in having to
[11:50] compete against one another for kill
[11:52] credit due to this and there was a
[11:54] greater sense of urgency to complete the
[11:56] raid in its entirety in one sitting
[11:59] before any other guild had the chance to
[12:00] catch up and bring unwanted competition
[12:03] marathon sessions of guild setting up
[12:05] 24-hour shifts was a common strategy to
[12:08] maintain dominion of these raids in many
[12:11] cases to the detriment of the health of
[12:13] the players this final fantasy 11 boss
[12:16] was engaged for 18 hours until players
[12:19] were forced to quit after they began to
[12:21] faint and vomit though this bus in
[12:23] particular was nerfed shortly after the
[12:26] incident this was the state of the end
[12:28] game for most mmos in these early stages
[12:31] however world of warcraft had been one
[12:33] of the first mmos to standardize
[12:35] instance trades where players and guilds
[12:38] could create their own unique raid
[12:39] instances resetting on a weekly basis
[12:42] and as for the raid bosses themselves
[12:45] although today seen as archaic and
[12:46] simplistic at the time they're quite
[12:49] advanced in a genre where raid bosses
[12:51] boil down to having a unique name with a
[12:54] higher health pool and increased damage
[12:56] world of warcraft would add unique and
[12:58] often at the time complex mechanics that
[13:00] required teamwork and thought to
[13:02] overcome which in turn would become one
[13:05] of the game's major selling points the
[13:07] worlds had npcs but were commonly static
[13:10] whereas the world of azeroth felt more
[13:12] alive with dynamic npcs going about
[13:15] their daily lives simply put what it
[13:17] didn't invent it improved mmos were in a
[13:20] constant state of almost theirs and
[13:23] world of warcraft was the first one to
[13:25] bridge that gap and bring it into a more
[13:27] mainstream audience and it reaped the
[13:29] rewards because of that the game would
[13:31] continue development throughout the
[13:33] years with teasers being released in the
[13:35] form of magazine interviews and trailers
[13:38] keeping the curious onlooker abreast on
[13:40] its direction and after a long alpha and
[13:43] beta testing period the moment of truth
[13:45] came on november 23rd 2004.
[13:55] [Music]
[14:07] its strategy of appealing to the casual
[14:09] gamer worked well a little too well
[14:12] blizzard in no way was prepared for the
[14:14] frenzy of players eager to get into the
[14:16] world disconnects lag and rollbacks
[14:19] would persist heavily for the opening
[14:21] months and still consistently through
[14:23] the next couple of years forms daily
[14:26] would be filled with outrage demands for
[14:28] a refund and even threats of lawsuits
[14:31] the miraculous thing about it though is
[14:33] that it didn't even seem to slow its
[14:35] growth the launch today is looked at as
[14:38] disastrous and yet still people came
[14:41] back again and again how can a game
[14:43] that's playable maybe 50 percent of the
[14:45] time hold such a demand well it's
[14:48] because it was that good years of
[14:50] development had paid off as world of
[14:52] warcraft quickly became ahead almost
[14:55] immediately dwarfing all competition at
[14:57] the time and robbing them of their
[14:59] player bases it was the vampire of the
[15:02] mmo industry at its release and it would
[15:04] suck the life force out of every single
[15:07] previously mentioned staple of the genre
[15:09] but it was one unfortunate thing
[15:12] the unfortunate thing was it launched
[15:15] right when wow launched
[15:17] yeah so wow brought the whole industry
[15:20] down not just us every online game out
[15:22] there went down as soon as wyo went out
[15:24] wow was like a huge succubus of players
[15:28] went over there and drove into wow
[15:30] and it drove all our numbers down 60
[15:33] levels of progression and a world of
[15:35] challenges awaited the eager player base
[15:37] and there would be many landmark moments
[15:39] just waiting to be claimed players
[15:41] rushed to the max level and the title of
[15:43] the world first level 60 went to a
[15:46] player named zenith a troll rogue on the
[15:48] stormreaver server on december 3rd 2004
[15:52] a little less than two weeks after
[15:54] release by today's standards incredibly
[15:57] slow but back then a no-life nerd as
[16:00] onlookers weren't shy of expressing on
[16:02] january 30th 2005 the game would see its
[16:06] first raid cleared with the death of
[16:08] onyxia taken down by the guild ruined on
[16:10] the proudmoore server and many players
[16:12] for the first time got to see the famed
[16:15] epic quality items that she hoarded
[16:17] [Applause]
[16:24] [Music]
[16:27] blizzard would spend the following years
[16:29] perfecting their craft as their
[16:31] subscriber base increased so too did
[16:34] their budget and more servers would
[16:36] quickly be added to support the booming
[16:37] player base new patches would not only
[16:40] release new raid tiers but also systems
[16:43] items and much more and in may of the
[16:46] same year the subscriber base would see
[16:48] its biggest surge for the next decade
[16:52] [Music]
[16:59] okay guys
[17:00] these eggs have given us a lot of
[17:01] trouble in the past uh does anybody need
[17:05] anything off this guy one of the
[17:07] earliest videos to go viral in the world
[17:09] of warcraft was created by the guild of
[17:11] pals for life the guild was strategizing
[17:14] on how to clear out a particularly
[17:16] tricky room in the upper blackrock spire
[17:18] raid i think it's a pretty good plan we
[17:20] should be able to pull it off this time
[17:21] uh what do you think abdul can you give
[17:23] me a number crunch real quick
[17:26] uh yeah give me a sec i'm coming up with
[17:28] 32.33
[17:30] uh repeating of course percentage of
[17:33] survival
[17:35] well it's a lot better than we usually
[17:36] do uh all right
[17:38] ready guys
[17:44] oh my god he just ran in save him oh gee
[17:47] stick it clean oh geez let's go let's go
[17:50] and in the midst of the conversation a
[17:53] group member leroy charges in
[17:55] prematurely with reckless abandon
[17:57] causing the death of the entire
[18:02] [Music]
[18:08] i don't think you can cast with that oh
[18:10] my god
[18:14] [Music]
[18:20] the video was later revealed to be
[18:22] staged but nonetheless it cut on like
[18:25] wildfire and it was shared across
[18:27] multiple websites and forums making it
[18:29] one of the first videos for world of
[18:31] warcraft to gain viral popularity
[18:34] onlookers were intrigued word of mouth
[18:36] proved to be a prolific advertising
[18:38] vehicle for the game it's hard to say
[18:41] today just how many people watched the
[18:42] video as some of the uploads have been
[18:44] lost the original upload on warcraft
[18:47] movies today sits at nearly 90 million
[18:50] views and the original youtube mirror
[18:52] reached at least 46 million before it
[18:54] was taken down and surviving mirrors
[18:56] today said at a total combined count of
[18:59] around 24 million regardless it's by far
[19:02] the most viewed warcraft related video
[19:05] even to this day over 15 years later it
[19:08] was so popular in fact that it was later
[19:10] featured as a question in the trivia
[19:12] show jeopardy just a few months later in
[19:15] november
[19:16] this role-playing game out in 2004
[19:19] returns to the world of azeroth where
[19:22] heroes like leroy jenkins do battle
[19:26] and that would be the world of warcraft
[19:29] pathetic
[19:30] [Music]
[19:35] the leroy craze wasn't the only
[19:37] phenomenon to spawn from the game though
[19:39] september of 2005 saw the release of the
[19:42] zul'garub raid the final encounter of
[19:44] which was a boss named hakkar he had an
[19:47] ability called corrupted blood which
[19:49] dealt some damage to a player and if
[19:51] they were to stand too close to another
[19:53] it would spread to that person in a
[19:55] contained environment it's just another
[19:57] raid mechanic that is until one player
[20:00] intentionally or otherwise managed to
[20:02] create a virtual pandemic that spread
[20:04] across every single server the mechanic
[20:07] had one fatal flaw by getting a pet
[20:09] companion afflicted with the disease and
[20:11] then dismissing it it would persist when
[20:14] the pet is summoned once more this
[20:16] person did just that but in a crowded
[20:19] area and spread the affliction to every
[20:21] nearby player and npc
[20:24] and as long as there were living hosts
[20:26] there was no escape entire cities became
[20:28] infected by the plague
[20:36] word quickly spread and other players
[20:39] intentionally started spreading the
[20:41] disease
[20:42] ironforge stormwind orgrimmar every
[20:45] major capital city was a death hub and
[20:48] was uninhabitable by lower level players
[20:51] the spread would continue to go on for
[20:53] days until blizzard eventually hotfixed
[20:55] the disease but the resulting chaos
[20:57] remains to this day to be one of the
[20:59] most memorable moments in the game's
[21:02] history and has even been used in real
[21:04] world research of the spread and
[21:06] reaction of contagious diseases
[21:17] though there are many memorable landmark
[21:19] moments in the game's history some are
[21:21] more controversial than others in 2006
[21:25] on the illidan server a player by the
[21:27] name of fagin passed away suddenly from
[21:30] a stroke and in memoriam of one of her
[21:32] favorite activities fishing her guild
[21:34] had decided to host an in-game funeral
[21:37] service to pay one final tribute to her
[21:39] there were two problems though it was
[21:42] publicly advertised on the realm forums
[21:44] and illidan was a pvp server where
[21:47] players of the opposite faction could
[21:49] freely attack one another a guild
[21:51] stranded he now saw the thread they felt
[21:54] that they would join in to pay tribute
[21:56] but in a very different way having snuck
[21:58] through a nearby tunnel leading into the
[22:01] zone an entire raid team prepared to
[22:03] crash the funeral as players lined up to
[22:06] pay tribute to their friend the raid
[22:08] quickly closed in on the location and to
[22:11] make matters worse in an effort to role
[22:13] play many of the attendees had
[22:15] unequipped their armor and weapons
[22:17] leaving them defenseless against the
[22:19] surprise onslaught
[22:27] the funeral was quickly and easily
[22:30] dispatched serenity now would become
[22:32] infamous under server and the crash
[22:34] still stands today as one of the most
[22:36] controversial in-game events in its
[22:39] entire history
[22:40] all of these moments serve a crucial
[22:42] role in the telling of the history of
[22:44] the game and it would serve as a
[22:45] reminder of the reasons why it became
[22:47] such a success it's due not only to its
[22:50] own merits but perhaps even more
[22:52] drastically by the community that the
[22:54] world of azeroth was comprised of this
[22:57] world however was about to change
[23:02] how many of you have played world of
[23:04] warcraft
[23:07] due to the success of world of warcraft
[23:10] blizzard for the first time held their
[23:11] own event a convention centered solely
[23:14] around a blizzard games named blizzcon
[23:16] this was and remains to be a unique
[23:19] aspect of the developer to hold a
[23:21] personalized convention tailored to
[23:23] their products a form of celebration of
[23:26] not only the games that they're creating
[23:28] but also the already massive community
[23:30] that they've built the strong focus on
[23:32] the community would be something that
[23:34] blizzard would become known for and it
[23:36] created a loyalty of sorts from the
[23:38] players it felt like it was more than a
[23:41] game it was a community of people
[23:43] sharing their combined love and passion
[23:45] for the worlds that they
[23:48] us man
[23:49] you created really take care of us
[23:51] diablo starcraft warcraft fans from
[23:54] around the world would plan vacations
[23:56] around it long time friends and guild
[23:59] mates would meet each other in person
[24:01] for the first time and blizzcon as a
[24:03] whole would become a very crucial part
[24:05] of blizzard's identity from this point
[24:07] forward and in the very first convention
[24:10] held in october of 2005 a bombshell
[24:13] announcement was unveiled the world of
[24:15] warcraft is about to get bigger with the
[24:18] release of his first expansion the
[24:20] burning crusade
[24:27] [Music]
[24:35] the expansion boasted what players had
[24:37] come to expect from the world of
[24:39] warcraft and more they would step in to
[24:41] the world of the outland and progress
[24:44] through 10 more character levels new
[24:46] zones talents dungeons spells raids
[24:50] races a profession a new pvp system and
[24:54] much more it would add on to and improve
[24:57] in just about every aspect of the game
[25:00] but it's still 2005 and there's a lot of
[25:03] game left to conquer before players
[25:05] began worrying about their foray into
[25:07] the outland
[25:08] there were dragons to kill and dkp to
[25:11] acquire
[25:13] odd groups got left
[25:15] even groups got right that means one
[25:18] three five seven left two four six eight
[25:22] right and again he had casual hardcore
[25:26] and everything in between
[25:28] and there were some who took it even
[25:30] further beyond no reason to lose many
[25:32] tank and i am blaming you because i
[25:34] blame my i don't i can [ __ ] do it
[25:36] everyone can do it do it right this is
[25:38] [ __ ] videos of a more serious or
[25:41] angry nature would start to spring up at
[25:43] this point those of raid leaders chewing
[25:45] out members for failing and properly
[25:47] performing the mechanics of a boss fight
[25:50] well
[25:51] christian was feared interested
[25:54] [ __ ] was that
[25:56] crush him what the [ __ ]
[26:00] left side
[26:02] even side many wells
[26:05] now handle it
[26:08] [Music]
[26:10] the most prolific of which being dives
[26:12] the raid leader of the guild wipe club
[26:14] enyxia at this point had been slain by
[26:17] numerous guilds and after some
[26:19] unsuccessful attempts one of the members
[26:21] decided to record what would later
[26:23] become one of the biggest meltdowns in
[26:26] history the enyxia white animation
[26:32] what the [ __ ] was that [ __ ] much like
[26:36] leroy and the animation would quickly
[26:38] become popular and it highlighted the
[26:40] frustrating side of coordinating 40
[26:43] people and clearing the challenging
[26:44] raids don't play like you're just
[26:46] [ __ ] going through the motions you'll
[26:48] get your goddamn loot eventually
[27:00] shut the [ __ ] up
[27:02] you stupid [ __ ] stop
[27:05] these videos would paint players in a
[27:07] much less flattering light as many
[27:09] people would become so obsessed that
[27:11] they would shirk real life
[27:12] responsibilities and fall out of contact
[27:15] with friends quit work or school and in
[27:18] the most extreme cases cause harm to
[27:20] themselves or others
[27:22] in korea of june of 2005 the
[27:25] four-month-old child of a couple would
[27:27] suffocate when left unsupervised for
[27:29] several hours as the parents were
[27:31] playing world of warcraft in an internet
[27:33] cafe the phrase world of war crack was
[27:36] coined shedding light on the dark side
[27:38] of video game addiction particularly
[27:40] that of mmos and the consequences of
[27:43] obsession something that the media was
[27:45] not shy of reporting as world of
[27:47] warcraft due to its popularity would
[27:50] find itself at the center of this war
[27:52] against video game addiction computer
[27:54] games he's playing them an incredible 16
[27:56] hours a day his mother says his
[27:58] personality has changed and that he's
[28:00] become moody and violent and his
[28:02] addiction is tearing the family apart to
[28:05] many it was more than a game it was a
[28:07] virtual life with the graphical
[28:08] interface it attracted people from all
[28:11] walks of life and blended them together
[28:14] in the chaos of this online world
[28:16] news of the burning crusade remained to
[28:18] be scarce as it was still under nda in
[28:21] the friends and family alpha a blog post
[28:24] teasing new features would be shared
[28:26] scarcely but otherwise it was still
[28:28] largely a mystery outside of what was
[28:30] shared at the 2005 blizzcon the
[28:33] excitement was palpable and players from
[28:36] all over the world couldn't wait to get
[28:38] into the outland the beta test for the
[28:40] expansion started not too long after as
[28:43] players got to discover and explore its
[28:45] features and shortly after world of
[28:48] warcraft would become the focus of the
[28:49] cartoon series south park with their
[28:52] make love not warcraft episode the
[28:55] episode detailed the boys fight against
[28:57] the hacker antagonist and their struggle
[29:00] with video game addiction
[29:02] oh that's a big boy
[29:04] though on release it was an instant
[29:06] success many years later series
[29:08] co-creator trey parker detailed his
[29:10] worries with the episode revealing that
[29:12] he even tried to get it pulled as he
[29:14] feared that it simply wasn't funny but
[29:17] as history has shown the episode would
[29:20] become an instant success and despite
[29:22] the fact that the series at this point
[29:24] now has over 300 episodes it remains to
[29:27] be one of their most popular to this day
[29:41] [Music]
[29:42] [Applause]
[29:48] january 16th finally came and it marked
[29:51] the beginning of a new era the official
[29:54] end of vanilla world of warcraft people
[29:56] lined up outside of stores and tents in
[29:59] the freezing cold launch parties were
[30:01] held and the community was stronger than
[30:04] ever and pulled together with their one
[30:06] shared trade
[30:07] their fear of women or i mean their
[30:10] collective love for the game at this
[30:12] point it had amassed roughly 8 million
[30:14] subscribers by the expansion's release
[30:17] never once reporting a loss and holding
[30:19] on to the lion's share of the market in
[30:21] the background stirred some serious
[30:23] competition however mythic entertainment
[30:26] who developed the dark age of camelot
[30:28] sought to compete against blizzard with
[30:30] an mmorpg adaption of the renowned
[30:33] warhammer series due to its similar
[30:35] fantasy setting holding orcs magic elves
[30:39] and wizards many thought it to be the
[30:41] direct competitor to world of warcraft
[30:43] and deemed it to be one of the first of
[30:45] many would-be wow killers during the
[30:47] time another such game was the age of
[30:49] conan the hyborian adventures developed
[30:52] by funkom who was mostly known in the
[30:54] mmo community for anarchy online in 2001
[30:58] its selling points would be impeccable
[31:00] graphics at the time and the new and
[31:02] fresh combat system in a dark and
[31:05] visceral world featuring the fatality
[31:07] mechanic where players could execute
[31:09] each other in brutal fashion often
[31:12] described as the mortal combat of
[31:13] mmorpgs
[31:15] and the lord of the rings online by
[31:17] turbine was also in development an mmo
[31:20] of one of the most celebrated franchises
[31:22] in nerd culture history certainly posed
[31:25] as a serious threat to blizzard at the
[31:27] time
[31:28] though these contenders would be far off
[31:29] from release the competition was
[31:32] beginning to get fierce and to stave
[31:34] them off the burning crusade had to be
[31:36] as exceptional as its predecessor months
[31:39] and months of doomsaying was put to the
[31:41] test did the burning crusade kill the
[31:44] world of warcraft of course the answer
[31:46] is no the expansion was a major success
[31:50] and the subscription base rose even more
[31:52] rapidly as players explored the
[31:54] dangerous reaches of the outland the
[31:56] classes evolved and the gap between them
[31:59] was lessened while still retaining the
[32:00] features that made them special the
[32:03] raids were more challenging the bosses
[32:05] more complex and offering more to
[32:07] conquer to the ever-growing subscriber
[32:09] base and the rating scene itself proved
[32:12] to be even more difficult for players
[32:14] than what they had encountered in the
[32:15] base game with many lists today naming a
[32:18] plethora of burning crusade bosses as
[32:21] the hardest in the game's history even
[32:23] over 14 years later with some of them
[32:25] going unkilled by 99 of the player base
[32:28] until blizzard intervened themselves to
[32:31] make them easier the expansion today is
[32:33] remembered for having an extensive
[32:35] process for gaining entry to the raids
[32:37] called attunement a large series of
[32:39] story-based quests served as an
[32:41] alternate form of character progression
[32:44] and players would rarely find themselves
[32:46] with nothing to do the pvp system had
[32:48] evolved to be more competitive with the
[32:51] new arena mode where players create
[32:53] custom teams and battle and small skill
[32:55] matches to the death setting the stage
[32:57] for future competitive events in
[32:59] blizzard's attempt to gain a foothold
[33:01] into the growing esports scene the
[33:03] alliance for the first time got to
[33:05] experience a new class to them the
[33:07] shaman and for the horde the paladin
[33:10] both with two new races added to the
[33:11] game the draenei and the blood elf
[33:14] five-man dungeons rose back to the
[33:16] forefront with the advent of the more
[33:18] challenging heroic difficulty the
[33:20] expansion was packed with features and
[33:22] upgrades in its design and stands as one
[33:25] of blizzard's most critically acclaimed
[33:26] releases even to this day the lord of
[33:29] the rings also sat release in 2007 to
[33:32] serve his competition for world of
[33:34] warcraft and although receiving
[33:35] favorable reviews at the time it
[33:37] couldn't compare to the size and scope
[33:39] of wow selling under 200 000 copies in
[33:42] the first months of release and
[33:44] dwindling shortly thereafter the game
[33:46] does still run today supported by a
[33:49] niche community and is hovering around
[33:51] 40 000 active players at the time of
[33:53] this video so the burning crusade
[33:56] pressed on undaunted and in the
[33:58] following blizzcon in august the next
[34:00] expansion the wrath of the lich king was
[34:02] announced
[34:04] [Applause]
[34:08] players were teased of the land of
[34:10] northrend where they had once visited in
[34:12] the events of warcraft 3. it's here
[34:14] where they would face off against arthas
[34:16] menethil as the lich king 10 more levels
[34:20] a new class the death knight new zones
[34:23] and siege vehicle combat were just a few
[34:25] of the many new features teased at the
[34:27] convention and due to the success of the
[34:29] burning crusade there was little
[34:31] question if it would be just as good
[34:34] 2008 came and on the one year
[34:36] anniversary of the release of the
[34:38] burning crusade world of warcraft hit a
[34:40] landmark 10 million subscribers
[34:42] absolutely dwarfing any and all
[34:45] competition the up-and-coming contender
[34:47] the age of conan saw its release in may
[34:49] of 2008 and received generally positive
[34:52] reviews by the media and had sold over 1
[34:55] million copies by the end of its release
[34:57] month though ultimately the game had
[34:59] failed to retain this impressive surge
[35:01] of subscribers although reviewers
[35:03] worldwide had praised the game the
[35:05] player base condemned it as being
[35:07] unfinished and rushed as subscriptions
[35:10] quickly declined and just one year later
[35:13] funko would perform a fatality on 31 out
[35:16] of its 42 servers much like the lord of
[35:19] the rings online the game still holds a
[35:22] dedicated yet niche following by and
[35:24] large falling short of being the wild
[35:26] killer that many predicted that it would
[35:28] be
[35:35] in july in a bombshell announcement at
[35:37] the height of the game's popularity the
[35:39] power of the dark side could be resisted
[35:42] no longer as blizzard's parent company
[35:45] vivendi announced a merger with
[35:47] activision already having gained a
[35:49] reputation for excessive monetization
[35:52] and driving franchises and developers to
[35:55] an early grave many were dismayed at the
[35:57] news fearing that the same would become
[35:59] true for their beloved franchises
[36:01] including the world of warcraft along
[36:03] with ea they would gain the reputation
[36:06] of exploiting the player base to the
[36:08] fullest extent and spearheads today one
[36:11] of the largest focus on cash shops and
[36:13] pay-to-win game design and just one year
[36:16] later in september of 2009 activision
[36:19] blizzard would release the paid faction
[36:21] chain service and one month after that
[36:24] the paid race change service along with
[36:26] in-game collectible pets these services
[36:29] were seen by many as an affront on the
[36:31] integrity of the game and although not
[36:33] terribly impactful by themselves it was
[36:35] believed that they would serve as a
[36:37] gateway for more damaging paid services
[36:39] to be introduced later in september of
[36:42] 2008 the release date for the wrath of
[36:44] the lich king expansion became set in
[36:46] stone for november of the same year
[36:49] just as it was back in 2006 the clock
[36:52] began ticking for players to finish
[36:54] their activities in the burning crusade
[36:56] before the content was made to be
[36:57] irrelevant and due to the difficulty of
[37:00] the raiding scene in general they had
[37:02] their hands full there was quite a long
[37:04] draw between the final patch of the
[37:05] burning crusade and the launch of wrath
[37:08] nearly eight months but players didn't
[37:10] seem to mind due to the success and
[37:12] lingering challenge that the expansion
[37:14] had to offer those who thought otherwise
[37:16] though sought to fill in this void with
[37:18] the release of the highly anticipated
[37:20] warhammer online which such release in
[37:23] september but wasn't enough to succeed
[37:26] where the lord of the rings online and
[37:27] age of conan failed
[37:29] [Music]
[37:32] the game saw similar numbers to the age
[37:35] of conan selling 1.2 million copies at
[37:37] launch and starting off with a solid
[37:39] subscriber base of 800 000 players but
[37:43] similar to funcom's debacle it simply
[37:45] wasn't ready performance issues
[37:48] overshadowed and what could have been a
[37:49] great experience and players that have
[37:51] grown accustomed to world of warcraft's
[37:53] finely tuned and polished combat system
[37:56] immediately noticed a lack of fluidity
[37:58] with its gameplay additionally the game
[38:01] would suffer from major scandals such as
[38:04] erroneously charging subscribers for
[38:06] years of game time in a single day with
[38:08] some racking up charges and overdraft
[38:10] fees into the thousands
[38:12] similar to the age of conan warhammer
[38:15] failed to retain this early surge of
[38:17] players and servers were shut down and
[38:19] the subscriber base dropped even lower
[38:21] than that of their 2001 mmo the dark age
[38:24] of camelot the game officially shut down
[38:27] in 2013 but many deemed it to be truly
[38:30] dead just one year after its release
[38:37] [Music]
[38:44] shortly after the wrath of the lich king
[38:46] expansion saw its release and blizzard
[38:48] would once more break sales records
[38:51] plurals charged into northrend with new
[38:53] zones to explore dungeons and raids to
[38:56] conquer and a new class to discover the
[38:58] death knight was what everyone expected
[39:00] and more
[39:02] a lot more
[39:03] way too much in fact as many saw them to
[39:06] be far too powerful on release they
[39:08] would later be tuned down in upcoming
[39:11] patches replayability was amplified as
[39:14] the achievement system was implemented
[39:16] and players could collect points titles
[39:19] mounts and more through this new feature
[39:21] aimed towards completionists it would
[39:23] receive positive reviews of its many new
[39:26] features and improvements and the
[39:28] subscriptions continued their upward
[39:30] trend eventually peaking at 12 million
[39:33] just as with the burning crusade it
[39:35] seemed to be unstoppable though it would
[39:38] be where the first sign of weakness
[39:39] showed through the numbers that have
[39:41] been made public there wasn't a single
[39:43] moment where wrath had lost
[39:45] subscriptions between reports but it was
[39:47] also the first expansion where they had
[39:49] stopped gaining subscribers as they
[39:51] hovered around 11 to 12 million
[39:53] throughout the course of the expansion
[39:55] and as shown it wasn't due to any of
[39:57] these would-be wow killers in august of
[40:00] the same year the rating scene expanded
[40:02] in a big way as the third grade tier
[40:05] four the expansion the trial of the
[40:06] crusader would release with the heroic
[40:09] difficulty setting
[40:10] previously if players saw an extra
[40:13] challenge with the encounters they could
[40:15] impose boss specific hurdles or
[40:16] restrictions upon themselves for bonus
[40:19] loot achievements and bragging rights
[40:22] players would now instead toggle this
[40:24] optional difficulty setting before
[40:26] entering the raid and every boss within
[40:28] would deal more damage take more damage
[40:30] and gain extra mechanics in exchange for
[40:33] better quality loot
[40:34] this along with the mythic grading mode
[40:36] to be introduced later would become a
[40:39] landmark change in the core design of
[40:41] the game aimed to increase accessibility
[40:43] by greatly lowering the base normal
[40:45] difficulty and funneling those seeking a
[40:47] greater challenge into this optional
[40:49] difficulty setting this change in design
[40:51] would later be accelerated in the next
[40:54] expansion of the cataclysm which would
[40:56] be unveiled in blizzcon 2009
[41:04] [Applause]
[41:18] the world of azeroth was about to change
[41:20] for good as the entire old world was
[41:22] deemed to be outdated by 2009 standards
[41:26] this expansion's villain deathwing would
[41:28] ravage the eastern kingdoms in kalimdor
[41:31] reshaping them visually and mechanically
[41:34] by reworking each quest players would be
[41:36] able to explore all of these changes
[41:38] from the comfort of their flying mounts
[41:40] which were now enabled in the old world
[41:42] two new races the worgen for the
[41:44] alliance and the goblin for the horde
[41:46] would also make their debut as well as a
[41:48] reworked talent system the game was to
[41:51] go over its biggest makeover today and
[41:54] whether it was for the better or worse
[41:56] was yet to be seen
[41:58] december marked the month of another
[42:00] hallmark feature being added to the game
[42:02] the dungeon finder no longer did players
[42:05] have to travel the world to run to their
[42:07] favorite dungeons as this tool match
[42:10] makes them together and teleported the
[42:12] party directly to the entrance at the
[42:14] time this feature was received with
[42:16] overwhelmingly positive feedback and a
[42:18] welcome quality of life improvement
[42:20] though restricted to players only on
[42:22] their server at the time of its launch
[42:24] it would later be opened up to other
[42:26] servers which had the unintended side
[42:28] effect of alienating the community from
[42:30] each other previously having to manually
[42:33] form groups had served as a critical and
[42:36] natural way for players to meet one
[42:38] another and make friends and they would
[42:40] soon learn the downsides of automating
[42:42] the process by handling the formation of
[42:45] the group automatically social
[42:47] interaction was replaced with
[42:48] convenience and the social aspect
[42:50] critical to mmo gameplay suffered as a
[42:53] result by itself this negative impact of
[42:56] the system would remain relatively minor
[42:59] but in the coming years players would
[43:01] notice a trend of eliminating these
[43:03] critical social structures in the name
[43:05] of convenience and at the cost of the
[43:07] game's sense of community which many
[43:09] claim to be one of the biggest features
[43:11] to which it owed its success
[43:24] the community would also see changes
[43:26] outside of the game in july of 2010
[43:29] blizzard unveiled their new real id
[43:31] system where they're supporting forums
[43:33] for all of their games not just world of
[43:35] warcraft would no longer display
[43:37] character names when posting but rather
[43:39] real names tied to the account
[43:42] players and onlookers alike reacted with
[43:44] concern of blizzard's disregard of basic
[43:47] privacy rights deeming that their
[43:49] actions would essentially box the entire
[43:52] forum community doxing is the act of
[43:54] unearthing someone's personal
[43:56] information such as their name or
[43:58] address with the ultimate goal of
[44:00] real-life harassment today the advent of
[44:03] swatting shows the repercussions of
[44:05] those whose personal information was
[44:07] leaked
[44:14] for a company to do the work for them
[44:16] was seen as extremely dangerous flame
[44:19] wars and online disputes past present
[44:22] and future would serve as vessels for
[44:24] real-life harassment they argued they
[44:27] stated that the reason for the change
[44:29] was to cut down on forum trolling their
[44:31] logic being that if someone's real name
[44:33] was tied to their post they'd think more
[44:35] carefully about how they treat others
[44:37] and that quote removing the veil of
[44:38] anonymity typical to online dialogue
[44:41] will contribute to a more positive forum
[44:43] environment and connect the blizzard
[44:44] community in ways that they haven't been
[44:47] connected before
[44:48] another community manager put it to the
[44:50] test and in an effort to quell the
[44:52] player's fear he posted his real life
[44:55] name within one day players found and
[44:58] published his address phone number age
[45:01] and took to placing false pizza orders
[45:03] in his name and even placed death
[45:06] threats connecting him with the
[45:07] community in ways that he's never been
[45:10] connected before shortly after the
[45:12] co-founder of blizzard mike morheim
[45:14] stepped in and announced that they had
[45:16] rescinded their plans of publishing the
[45:19] player's real names
[45:20] in october blizzard pinned down the
[45:22] release date for the cataclysm expansion
[45:25] december 7th of the same year and
[45:27] despite the controversy the game in
[45:29] october would reach its peak subscriber
[45:31] count of 12 million the holidays came
[45:34] and the day of reckoning was at hand and
[45:37] the world of warcraft would suffer
[45:39] cataclysm in more ways than one in
[45:41] addition to the retuned old world the
[45:44] talent system would also see an overhaul
[45:46] altering the traditional freeform three
[45:48] tree talent system into specializations
[45:51] players would be forced to pick just one
[45:53] and lose access to many spells iconic to
[45:56] the other two the trees as a whole would
[45:58] also be simplified and the amount of
[46:00] points to invest reduced
[46:02] class and item balance in general would
[46:04] also be at the forefront of changes in
[46:06] the expansion mostly through the form of
[46:09] removal spell drinks were removed and
[46:11] all abilities now just had one rank that
[46:14] skilled with your level and were trained
[46:16] automatically and much more the
[46:19] cataclysm expansion is seen by many to
[46:21] mark the point when the rpg and mmo rpg
[46:25] was made to be lower case as it
[46:27] transformed into a much simpler version
[46:29] of an already straightforward game
[46:32] as world of warcraft straight further
[46:34] and further away from its social and rpg
[46:37] roots a community of private server
[46:39] players would grow larger and larger
[46:41] with each expansion independent groups
[46:44] took to hosting past versions of the
[46:46] game the most prolific of which being of
[46:48] its original state referred to as
[46:50] vanilla
[46:51] though its beginnings were humble this
[46:53] private server community would
[46:55] eventually grow large enough to become a
[46:57] problem for blizzard they would find
[46:59] themselves embroiled in legal battles to
[47:01] protect their ip from infringement and
[47:04] would eventually influence a major
[47:06] developed project many years later
[47:08] regardless they showed once more that
[47:10] they had no difficulty in selling
[47:12] expansions as once again they broke
[47:15] their own sales record with cataclysm
[47:17] selling a staggering 3.3 million copies
[47:20] on release day but unlike the previous
[47:23] expansions they had not seen an overall
[47:25] increase in subscribers post release
[47:27] instead remaining steady at the 12
[47:29] million mark it had been stuck at since
[47:31] the beginning of 2009 and for the first
[47:34] time since its inception in 2004 the
[47:38] world of warcraft would see a loss in
[47:40] reported subscribers in fact cataclysm
[47:43] would fail to gain subscribers in a
[47:45] single reported quarter in its near
[47:48] two-year run discounting the release of
[47:50] the next expansion the mists of pandaria
[47:53] which would be announced in october
[47:59] [Music]
[48:03] the initial reaction would be very mixed
[48:06] the theme of the expansion was so
[48:08] unexpected that many thought it to be an
[48:11] out-of-season april fool's joke players
[48:14] would explore the mysterious world of
[48:16] pandaria with a new race the pandaren
[48:19] and a new class the monk dungeons were
[48:22] getting a special challenge mode to
[48:23] bring relevancy once more to five-man
[48:25] content and scenarios would be queueable
[48:28] micro dungeons designed for three
[48:30] players and the pet battle system was
[48:32] also implemented a minigame reminiscent
[48:35] of the popular pokemon franchise as for
[48:38] the talent system it would be simplified
[48:40] even further into the tier system
[48:42] offering more impactful choices but at a
[48:45] reduced quantity of just six points to
[48:47] invest
[48:48] and most controversially crossroads
[48:51] zones would eventually be implemented
[48:53] where players of differing realms would
[48:54] be able to see and interact with one
[48:57] another due to the falling subscriber
[48:59] base brought on by the cataclysm there
[49:01] were far too many servers running for
[49:03] the dwindling player base and as a
[49:05] result the worlds were starting to
[49:07] become barren by grouping servers
[49:09] together blizzard aimed once more to
[49:11] breathe life into the world of azeroth
[49:14] while many looked at the expansion as
[49:16] something new and fresh many more would
[49:18] be immediately turned off by its
[49:20] aesthetics and due to the downward trend
[49:22] in subscriptions skepticism if it would
[49:25] be a success was at an all-time high
[49:28] this was still far into the future
[49:30] though and the current focus remained to
[49:32] be cataclysm which at this point was
[49:34] still steadily losing subscribers in
[49:36] november along with the final raid
[49:39] dragon soul the lfr system would see its
[49:41] release similar to the dungeon finder
[49:44] released in the wrath of the ledger king
[49:45] expansion this would allow players to
[49:47] match make with others in a queue-based
[49:49] raiding mode doubling down on their
[49:51] design of trading away critical social
[49:54] and rpg functions for the sake of
[49:56] convenience and accessibility to
[49:59] accommodate for the increased
[50:01] disorganization that came with
[50:03] queue-based matchmaking the difficulty
[50:05] would be lowered even further than that
[50:07] of the base normal difficulty it was
[50:10] from this point forward that players no
[50:12] longer needed to even join a guild to
[50:14] experience the endgame content they
[50:17] didn't need to read strategies and they
[50:19] didn't even need to speak a single word
[50:21] in fact as blizzard deemed it an issue
[50:23] that 100 of the player base were not
[50:26] completing these raids in their entirety
[50:28] the accomplishment of clearing a raid
[50:30] would be more accessible than ever
[50:32] before but as a result the
[50:35] accomplishment would mean nothing from
[50:37] this point forward
[50:38] during this time another would-be wow
[50:41] killer was beginning to generate
[50:43] interest star wars galaxies at this
[50:45] point had been shut down in order to
[50:47] bolster the subscriber base of star wars
[50:50] the old republic developed by bioware
[50:53] and published by
[50:55] uh
[50:56] uh-oh
[50:57] it would be attempt number two for star
[50:59] wars on the massively multiplayer scale
[51:02] this installment promised a unique and
[51:05] fully voice acted campaign for each of
[51:07] their classes a space shooter component
[51:09] with a customizable ship a thriving end
[51:12] game for pve and pvp and perhaps most
[51:15] importantly it was during the first time
[51:18] where the reigning champion showed
[51:19] weakness while ultimately the previous
[51:22] contenders failed on their own merits it
[51:25] can be argued that the tremendous
[51:26] success of the world of warcraft during
[51:28] their debut certainly made them look
[51:30] worse in comparison now that this
[51:33] weakness was showing though the timing
[51:35] was ideal would the old republic succeed
[51:38] where its predecessors failed
[51:40] ex-subscribers disillusioned with the
[51:42] direction that the game had taken
[51:44] throughout the cataclysm looked at the
[51:46] old republic as the true successor this
[51:49] time players have been doomed saying the
[51:51] imminent demise of world of warcraft
[51:53] ever since its launch in 2004 only this
[51:56] time the game's downward trend would
[51:59] support their claims
[52:00] so the moment of truth came the launch
[52:03] arrived and like many other mmos before
[52:05] it the old republic launched too early
[52:08] in an attempt to release it during the
[52:10] holiday season it was rushed out and
[52:12] would suffer from technical issues game
[52:15] breaking bugs and questionable design
[52:17] decisions most notable of which is their
[52:20] use of the hero engine which proved to
[52:22] be poor in an mmo environment there
[52:25] would be a short delay between the
[52:26] player casting a spell and that spell
[52:28] actually landing
[52:30] [Music]
[52:36] [Music]
[52:38] an issue they attempted to rectify by
[52:40] tying an animation for each ability to
[52:43] make it seem more natural as a result
[52:45] though the combat felt very sluggish and
[52:48] awkward and those used to the crisp and
[52:50] smooth nature of the world of warcraft's
[52:52] combat system noticed the huge and
[52:55] immediate downgrade in quality this
[52:58] combined with other disappointing
[52:59] features such as their spaceship
[53:01] component being entirely on rails
[53:03] hindered its success in its crucial
[53:05] launch period the game had sold over 2
[53:08] million copies and held 1.7 million
[53:10] subscribers which was around the sixth
[53:13] of the world of warcraft subscriptions
[53:14] at the time the closest that any recent
[53:17] mmo came to rivaling wow's popularity
[53:19] since its launch in 2004
[53:22] but much like the lord of the rings
[53:24] online the age of conan and warhammer
[53:26] online the star wars the old republic
[53:29] suffered a similar fate and the
[53:30] subscriptions quickly plummeted not even
[53:33] eight months later it would convert to
[53:35] the free-to-play model often seen as the
[53:38] death sentence of mmos today the game
[53:41] holds a total of five servers once again
[53:44] coming nowhere near being the wow killer
[53:46] it was predicted to be
[53:49] you were the chosen one
[53:53] it was said that you were destroyed
[53:54] world of warcraft
[54:02] [Music]
[54:04] time marched on and the mists of pandari
[54:07] expansion would release in the month of
[54:09] september and for the first time since
[54:12] the release of the wrath of the lich
[54:13] king expansion they saw an increase in
[54:15] subscriptions though the eagerness of
[54:17] the player base was notably diminished
[54:20] as this would be the first expansion to
[54:22] fail and breaking sales records for
[54:24] blizzard upon release falling 30 below
[54:26] than that of cataclysm barring this
[54:29] initial surge they would be unable to
[54:31] halt the downward trend that had begun
[54:33] since the launch of cataclysm as
[54:35] subscribers would quickly drop from 10
[54:37] million at launch to 9 million then aid
[54:41] and around 6.8 at its lowest point a
[54:43] drop of over 30 percent and the players
[54:46] were starting to feel the effect of a
[54:48] world that grew less active with each
[54:50] passing day cross realm officially saw
[54:53] its release which would make the world
[54:55] seem sprawling once more but once again
[54:57] at the expense of the server's community
[55:00] which would be present only a name from
[55:02] this point forward seeing the same
[55:04] players and guilds on your server
[55:06] consistently turned out to be an
[55:08] integral part of establishing a
[55:09] community that was only realized once it
[55:12] was taken away the world once more had
[55:14] players in it but due to the large
[55:16] amount of servers that would be grouped
[55:18] together players scarcely saw or
[55:20] recognized other players from previous
[55:22] adventures the basis to form a community
[55:25] which had been a key reason for its
[55:27] success was now a distant memory the
[55:30] world was in a predicament and blizzard
[55:32] had a difficult problem to solve a
[55:35] nearly empty world with little community
[55:37] or a full world ironically enough with
[55:40] no community though innocent enough on
[55:42] launch crossroad was seen today as a
[55:45] necessary evil for a problem which true
[55:47] solution lies in recapturing subscribers
[55:50] now lost an issue that blizzard would
[55:52] struggle with for years to come as the
[55:55] once iconic mmorpg now barely resembled
[55:58] an mmo due to its destroyed social
[56:00] structures and barely an rpg due to its
[56:03] abandoned rpg elements which would be
[56:06] taken a step further in march of 2013 as
[56:09] the game saw another major change with
[56:12] its first instance of forged loo
[56:14] released with the throne of thunder raid
[56:16] loot had the potential to have an
[56:18] increased quality regardless of the
[56:20] difficulty at which the players defeated
[56:22] the bosses having previously lost
[56:25] longevity in the raiding scene through
[56:27] the reduced base difficulty they had
[56:29] hoped to regain it via randomized loot
[56:32] and although it was relatively tame at
[56:34] the time of its release this forging
[56:36] system would later be seen by many to
[56:38] get out of hand and help diminish and
[56:41] confuse the reward structure that had
[56:43] been standard for the game for eight
[56:45] years at that point time passed patches
[56:48] released new raids and systems debuted
[56:51] and much changed with the expansion in
[56:53] the year of 2013. something that didn't
[56:55] though was this ongoing downward trend
[56:58] of subscribers in blizzcon 2013 blizzard
[57:01] would announce its next expansion the
[57:04] warlords of draenor the player base
[57:06] would journey back to the world of
[57:08] draenor an alternate reality before it
[57:10] was corrupted into what they knew as the
[57:13] outland in the burning crusade expansion
[57:16] it's here where they would establish
[57:17] forward bases known as garrisons and
[57:20] elantra campaign against garrosh
[57:22] hellscream the leader of the united orc
[57:24] army known as the iron horde who were
[57:26] set to invade the land of azeroth at
[57:29] this point the private server community
[57:31] had gained considerable traction as
[57:34] players yearned for the game that had
[57:36] originally captivated them and were
[57:38] becoming more and more unruly as the
[57:40] retail version strayed further and
[57:42] further away from its roots and they
[57:44] began campaigning blizzard to officially
[57:47] develop and support this past version of
[57:49] the game in a q a panel during the
[57:52] convention one such player asked for an
[57:54] official answer on the possibility of a
[57:57] legacy server the question was fielded
[57:59] by j alan brack at the time a production
[58:02] director for world of warcraft and he
[58:04] delivered this now infamous answer have
[58:07] you ever thought about adding servers
[58:09] for previous expansions as they were
[58:11] then
[58:14] no
[58:15] [Music]
[58:17] and
[58:18] and by the way you don't want to that to
[58:20] do that either you think you do but you
[58:23] don't
[58:24] remember when you had to like
[58:27] spam cities and say need a tank need a
[58:29] tank need a tank during the burning
[58:30] crusade days you don't remember that
[58:32] because now you just push a button that
[58:34] says go to the dungeon
[58:36] you don't want to do that though the
[58:37] quote would draw immediate ire of the
[58:39] legacy community it would prove to be an
[58:42] integral moment in its development
[58:44] serving as a rallying cry of sorts and
[58:46] bringing more and more attention on the
[58:49] possibilities of developing such a
[58:50] version of the game the answer was seen
[58:53] as dismissive and out of touch
[58:55] especially considering the fact that
[58:57] private servers at this point had grown
[58:59] to new levels of popularity and with
[59:02] this dismissive answer the questions
[59:04] started turning into demands and
[59:06] discussion of its viability or not and
[59:09] serve to fend the flames of a community
[59:11] becoming increasingly disillusioned of
[59:13] the world of warcraft and blizzard in
[59:15] their current state
[59:19] [Music]
[59:23] as the players were leaving blizzard had
[59:25] sought to recover financially through an
[59:28] increased focus and impact of their cash
[59:31] shop and against all assurances
[59:33] previously made shortly after their
[59:35] merger with activision they would
[59:37] finally turn the corner in december of
[59:39] 2013 and officially implemented the cash
[59:42] shop in-game and along with it came the
[59:45] most impactful service today
[59:47] the level boost
[59:48] leveling was now skippable as players
[59:51] could pay 60 dollars to immediately be
[59:54] fast tracked to the maximum level and
[59:56] jump right into the end game by and
[59:58] large the most impactful paid service at
[60:01] that point what was at one point seen as
[60:03] a cornerstone of mmo design was now
[60:06] skippable through an officially endorsed
[60:09] service the consequence and investment
[60:12] of picking a class investing time into
[60:14] it leveling it and learning it were
[60:17] thrown away sacrificed like many other
[60:19] features for convenience accessibility
[60:22] and short-term financial gain further
[60:24] damaging its already crippled rpg design
[60:28] the backlash was immediate but little
[60:30] did players know it was just the
[60:32] beginning and the standards of paid
[60:34] advantage in the game would sink lower
[60:36] and lower in the coming years
[60:39] time passed and two things remained
[60:41] constant a decrease in subscriber count
[60:44] and stagnation the final major patch of
[60:46] the expansion i had released in
[60:48] september of the previous year 2013 and
[60:52] other than the addition of the level
[60:53] boost the game saw no updates until the
[60:56] warlords of draenor pre-patch in october
[60:59] of 2014 an astounding gap of 13 months
[61:03] in the game's development this had
[61:05] marked the longest drought yet and
[61:07] subscribers fled the game in record
[61:09] numbers as the mists of pandaria failed
[61:12] to retain the migrating player base
[61:22] november came and with it the launch of
[61:25] the warlords of draenor expansion
[61:27] despite the game's troubles a
[61:29] combination of marketing and hype led to
[61:31] a rather successful expansion launch
[61:33] sales-wise over 3.3 million players had
[61:37] expansions in hand ready to step through
[61:39] the dark portal for a second time and
[61:41] subscription skyrocketed to 10.5 million
[61:45] the highest it had been since the launch
[61:47] of the mists of pandaria and it holds
[61:49] the record of the largest surge in
[61:51] subscribers for expansion launches
[61:53] though unfortunately for blizzard
[61:55] history would repeat itself in more ways
[61:57] than one as once again they had failed
[62:00] to retain the spoon as problems soon
[62:03] arose after launch oh that's nice every
[62:06] [ __ ] server that i even play on is
[62:08] offline
[62:11] oh yeah
[62:13] it looks like mine aren't the only ones
[62:15] they had come under a ddos attack as
[62:18] their servers were flooded with
[62:20] artificial traffic until they shut down
[62:22] from the strain this would go on for
[62:24] several days as law enforcement
[62:27] investigated into the matter meanwhile
[62:29] though players would become increasingly
[62:31] frustrated as the game remained to be
[62:34] mostly unplayable the culprits were
[62:36] eventually stopped but the damage had
[62:38] been done and the game experienced its
[62:40] worst launch since its initial release
[62:43] in 2004. what's more once the issue
[62:46] subsided players were met with what is
[62:48] now widely considered to be one of the
[62:50] worst expansions in the game's history
[62:53] the main feature of the expansion the
[62:55] garrison system isolated players in
[62:58] their own instance where they could
[62:59] recruit followers start an herb garden
[63:02] mine and craft and even use the auction
[63:05] house with the correct buildings
[63:07] although convenient it served as yet
[63:09] another future to alienate an already
[63:12] fractured community from each other and
[63:14] the game at times seemed as if it was
[63:16] single player a problem made worse by
[63:18] the massive hemorrhage of subscribers
[63:21] that was yet to come just as how the
[63:23] expansion broke subscription records on
[63:25] launch it also broke records for lost
[63:28] subscriptions shortly after as players
[63:30] saw a little enjoyment from what was
[63:33] eventually ousted as an unfinished
[63:35] expansion as many of the features
[63:37] previously teased would be left on the
[63:40] cutting room floor including new systems
[63:43] two major cities battlegrounds another
[63:46] zone and even an entire raid tier to
[63:49] name just a few time between patches
[63:51] would grow even larger and the patches
[63:54] themselves delivered less content the
[63:56] expansion held a total of just three
[63:58] major raids throughout its entirety with
[64:01] every expansion proceeding having at
[64:03] least four the combined effect of
[64:05] instanced garrisons and players flocking
[64:08] away made the new world seem dead and so
[64:11] more and more servers would be connected
[64:12] to each other in an attempt to bring
[64:14] life back into the dying world as
[64:16] subscriptions plummeted to an all-time
[64:18] low since its initial rise in vanilla at
[64:21] 5.5 million it was announced shortly
[64:24] after that they would no longer report
[64:26] subscription numbers stating that there
[64:29] are better indicators of business
[64:31] performance the message was clear where
[64:34] they had lost revenue and subscriptions
[64:36] they gained several times over via the
[64:38] paid level boost success was no longer
[64:41] tied to a healthy player base but rather
[64:43] revenue and although looked at today has
[64:46] an embarrassing period in the game's
[64:48] history financially it lifted the
[64:50] developer to new heights combined with
[64:52] other cash shop services the level boost
[64:55] and the warlords of draenor have played
[64:57] a large role in activision blizzard's
[64:59] best financial quarter to date
[65:02] the influence of the cash shop now fully
[65:04] realized it would be taken a step
[65:06] further in march of 2015 with the
[65:09] addition of the wow token where players
[65:11] could exchange real money for in-game
[65:13] gold or on the other hand use gold to
[65:16] purchase a token to pay for the
[65:18] subscription fee or convert it into a
[65:20] balance only spendable on blizzard
[65:22] products regardless of the method it
[65:25] would prove to be a massive commercial
[65:27] success for activision blizzard earning
[65:29] them record profits during record low
[65:32] subscriptions a long time had passed
[65:34] since the cash shop's initial rise in
[65:37] 2008 those who warned of the dangerous
[65:39] path that world of warcraft was set on
[65:41] as other predictions unfold slowly over
[65:44] the course of several years at this
[65:47] point in the game's history it was
[65:49] possible to buy levels it was possible
[65:51] to buy currency and with this currency
[65:54] you could buy items and even services
[65:56] from other players such as raid or arena
[65:59] carries and a list of things that you
[66:01] couldn't buy was now far shorter than
[66:03] the list of things that you could buy it
[66:05] was at this point that the game was
[66:07] deemed by many to be paid a win as
[66:10] real-life purchases now had a clear and
[66:12] heavy impact on the power levels between
[66:14] different players behavior that
[66:16] previously warranted suspensions was now
[66:19] officially endorsed and advertised and
[66:22] any semblance of integrity the game had
[66:24] left was abandoned though at this point
[66:27] subscriptions were no longer being
[66:29] reported morale of the game's future
[66:31] continued to decline
[66:33] [Music]
[66:38] in august of the same year at the
[66:40] gamescom convention the next expansion
[66:43] legion would be announced the long-lost
[66:45] broken isles were discovered and the orc
[66:48] warlock gulban unleashed a second
[66:50] burning crusade upon azeroth it would
[66:52] feature a new class the demon hunter
[66:54] among many supporting systems such as
[66:57] powerful and unique artifact weapons
[66:59] that players could obtain and level up
[67:01] as an additional form of character
[67:03] progression each class would have a
[67:05] story driven order hall campaign quest
[67:07] line a new legendary system would be
[67:09] added where for most activities in the
[67:12] game players had a small chance to
[67:14] obtain powerful legendary items to
[67:16] further enhance their characters daily
[67:18] quest hubs would be replaced with world
[67:20] quests offering a greater variety in
[67:22] daily activities which had become
[67:24] standard for several years and the
[67:27] mythic plus system an infinitely scaling
[67:29] timed challenge mode to bring dungeons
[67:32] back once more as a focus of end game
[67:34] content after the warlords of draenor
[67:37] the confidence of the players was at an
[67:39] all-time low and many would hope that
[67:41] legion would be the expansion to redeem
[67:43] it although subscription numbers were no
[67:46] longer being reported it had tied the
[67:48] release day sales records set by
[67:50] cataclysm several years prior selling a
[67:52] total of 3.3 million copies on release
[67:56] quarterly investor reports would also
[67:58] provide promising data on the overall
[68:00] reception of the legion expansion
[68:02] suggesting higher play time per player
[68:04] mostly due to the success of its major
[68:06] features the expansion as a whole proved
[68:09] to be a much needed recovery the order
[68:12] halls being public locations that
[68:14] players shared served as a base of
[68:16] operations and unlike the previous
[68:18] garrison system didn't harm its own
[68:20] social aspect world quests compared to
[68:23] the old daily hubs offered much needed
[68:25] variety in players daily activities and
[68:28] mythic plus high activity as players
[68:31] enjoyed the timed ever increasing
[68:32] challenge that they provided most of its
[68:35] features were received well and with a
[68:37] solid rating scene to support it it's
[68:39] generally looked back at favorably by
[68:41] even the most embittered fans with its
[68:44] criticisms primarily being drawn from
[68:46] its reward structure the legendaries due
[68:48] to their low drop chance and high impact
[68:51] on gameplay would be a source of
[68:52] frustration so much so that they would
[68:55] receive a re-haul late into the
[68:56] expansion where players could purchase
[68:59] specific pieces with a new currency and
[69:02] similarly the forging system also
[69:04] contributed to this atmosphere of luck
[69:06] by holding too much power and character
[69:08] progression at this point it was called
[69:11] titan forging which had a much larger
[69:13] eye level range compared to the more
[69:15] tame thunder forging first introduced in
[69:17] pandaria items could roll up to 60 eye
[69:20] levels higher than that of their base
[69:22] which made it possible to obtain mythic
[69:24] rating quality gear from even the most
[69:26] mundane activities world of warcraft and
[69:29] mmos in general already have a high
[69:31] amount of luck tied to progression but
[69:34] this added layer of needing the right
[69:36] piece to drop and for that piece to
[69:38] tighten forge shifted the reward
[69:39] structure further from time investment
[69:42] to blind lock and combined with the
[69:44] legendary system many players would
[69:46] liken the expansion to a slot machine
[69:49] though overall legion would be received
[69:51] quite well it was meant with troubling
[69:53] news from within senior vice president
[69:55] of story and franchise development chris
[69:58] metzen who had been with the company for
[70:00] 23 years at that point had announced his
[70:02] retirement exciting burnout panic
[70:05] attacks and the desire to spend more
[70:07] time with his family as the primary
[70:09] reasons for the decision
[70:12] what a casual
[70:13] having been one of the most
[70:14] public-facing figures and the primary
[70:17] visionary for the world of warcraft and
[70:19] the characters who inhabited it it was
[70:21] seen as a tremendous loss with fans and
[70:23] co-workers alike commenting on his
[70:25] influence on the franchise
[70:28] along with this newfound growth of
[70:30] legion the private server community had
[70:32] also been thriving and in 2016 it was
[70:35] larger than it had ever been at that
[70:37] point with most congregating to a server
[70:39] named nest eldrius
[70:42] so many goddamn people
[70:44] this is literally the surface been up
[70:46] for about ten minutes and people are
[70:47] just entering and this is the scene the
[70:50] server had been hosting over 130 000
[70:54] active players worldwide an impressive
[70:56] feat for a game that users had to seek
[70:58] out on their own their success proved to
[71:01] be their downfall however as in april of
[71:03] 2016 and blizzard had sent cease and
[71:06] desist letters for those responsible for
[71:09] running the server threatening legal
[71:10] action if they refuse to shut it down i
[71:13] personally had a private investigator
[71:15] hired to track me down by a legal firm
[71:17] that represents blizzard
[71:19] he called numerous people in my life
[71:22] including my employer my owner of my
[71:24] company to confirm information about me
[71:27] so he could serve me papers at 10 pm on
[71:29] a wednesday night slamming and knocking
[71:32] on the door freaking the crap out of my
[71:34] wife and waking up my baby daughter in
[71:36] the next room
[71:37] they would comply shortly after as tens
[71:40] of thousands of players logged in one
[71:42] last time to say farewell to the
[71:44] community that they had built the
[71:46] shutdown although completely within
[71:48] blizzard's rights legally naturally
[71:50] sparked outrage among the private server
[71:53] community a petition was created for an
[71:55] officially developed blizzard legacy
[71:57] server and it would reach nearly 300 000
[72:00] signatures in the span of two weeks and
[72:03] although it didn't provide immediate
[72:05] results much like the infamous you think
[72:07] you do but you don't quote it would
[72:09] prove to be a critical moment in
[72:10] classics history
[72:15] [Music]
[72:23] the next expansion would be revealed at
[72:26] blizzcon 2017 and players learned of the
[72:29] battle for azeroth having thwarted the
[72:32] second burning crusade the horde and
[72:34] alliance now turned their attention on
[72:36] each other and would stage an all-out
[72:38] war over a new resource called azerite
[72:41] this resource would serve as a way to
[72:42] empower a new amulet the level of which
[72:45] would unlock traits in accompanying
[72:47] armor pieces the system had been set up
[72:50] similarly to the previously successful
[72:52] artifact system and advertised increased
[72:54] customization and player agency allowing
[72:57] them to tailor their characters to suit
[72:59] their gameplay style you might find a
[73:01] power that makes you think twice about
[73:03] using a talent that you'd previously
[73:04] written off and you will certainly find
[73:06] combinations that reinforce your
[73:09] favorite way to play your character one
[73:11] of the main methods of obtaining this
[73:13] resource were through island expeditions
[73:16] where a team of three players could
[73:17] fight against another team of players or
[73:19] ai for azerite found randomly throughout
[73:21] the island with random enemy selection
[73:24] placement and quests serving as the
[73:27] primary means of attempting to add
[73:29] replayability and longevity to them it's
[73:32] something that we're calling dynamic
[73:34] replayability
[73:35] every time you come to this space the
[73:37] puzzle is different the creatures are in
[73:39] different locations there are additional
[73:42] gameplay elements scattered throughout
[73:44] the world and it's always a little bit
[73:46] different warfronts were a new feature
[73:48] which were reminiscent of the original
[73:50] strategy games that the mmo was based
[73:52] off of in here you would battle for
[73:54] resources and construct and upgrade
[73:57] buildings and fend off troops with the
[73:59] ultimate goal of defeating the enemy
[74:01] commander these wouldn't be the only
[74:03] announcements the world of warcraft team
[74:05] had though
[74:07] and i want to talk about
[74:10] ice cream
[74:13] ice cream is great
[74:16] ice cream is one of my favorite desserts
[74:19] personally
[74:21] i love chocolate
[74:23] and i love cookies and cream
[74:26] cookies and cream is actually
[74:29] my all-time favorite dessert
[74:32] [Applause]
[74:35] but i stan i understand that for some of
[74:37] you
[74:38] [Applause]
[74:39] your favorite flavor
[74:42] is vanilla
[74:44] [Applause]
[74:47] though for years they had claimed a
[74:49] re-release of previous versions of the
[74:50] game was impossible world of warcraft
[74:53] classic would be unveiled combining the
[74:56] updated legion client with old data
[74:58] discovered on a backup of a backup held
[75:01] onto by an ex-employee a small team
[75:04] dedicated their efforts in providing a
[75:06] home for the ever-growing population of
[75:08] vanilla fans in place of the one that
[75:10] they had not so long ago taken away
[75:13] details of development would follow
[75:15] shortly after with a philosophy of
[75:16] changing as little of the game as
[75:18] possible in an effort to most accurately
[75:21] recreate the experience as it was from
[75:23] 2004 to 2007 including a phasing
[75:26] schedule to match roughly the original
[75:28] release schedule and as requested by the
[75:31] playerbase the absence of many features
[75:33] such as the dungeon finder looking for
[75:36] raid mode and the end game cash shop to
[75:38] name just a few combined with legion's
[75:41] recent success the outlook of the game
[75:43] was looking more promising than ever
[75:45] before the battle for azeroth soon saw
[75:47] its release in august of 2018 selling
[75:50] 3.4 million copies on its first day
[75:53] breaking the record initially said by
[75:55] cataclysm in 2010
[75:57] however when the honeymoon phase ended
[76:00] the faults of the expansion started to
[76:02] become clear
[76:03] the azerite armor system which was said
[76:06] to hold major traits that altered how
[76:07] classes played instead were a series of
[76:10] incidental procs that rarely did
[76:12] anything other than increased damage
[76:14] done healing throughput and damage
[76:16] mitigation with some being just base
[76:18] stat increases you might find a power
[76:21] that makes you think twice about using a
[76:23] talent that you'd previously written off
[76:25] and you will certainly find combinations
[76:27] that reinforce your favorite way to play
[76:30] your character
[76:31] not at all as gameplay altering as
[76:34] advertised
[76:35] and despite bfa being centered around a
[76:37] faction war warfronts were exclusively a
[76:40] pve game mode that were also nearly
[76:42] impossible to lose with the only
[76:44] recorded losses resulting from the
[76:46] entire team waiting within the base
[76:48] until they were overwhelmed wow i'm
[76:51] screenshotting this due to this extreme
[76:53] lack of challenge there were seemed to
[76:55] be more of a chore than anything else
[76:58] and as for island expeditions players
[77:00] saw little replayability in the
[77:02] randomized selection of enemies and
[77:04] behind the bells and whistles was a
[77:06] simple and repetitive truth rush to get
[77:08] the required amount of azerite before
[77:10] the enemy team does and as a result the
[77:13] game mode would become very repetitive
[77:15] very quickly the story would also come
[77:18] under heavy criticism the whole
[77:20] expansion would have a heavy focus on
[77:22] sylvanas windrunner the leader of the
[77:24] forsaken of the horde and throughout
[77:26] bfa's two-year run she would face many
[77:29] major lore characters and even entire
[77:31] armies outwitting them at every turn or
[77:34] dispatching them with ease and combat
[77:36] the decision she made often came with no
[77:39] reasonable explanation or logic leaving
[77:41] the player based in the dark for the
[77:43] entirety of the expansion and many would
[77:45] liken her to a mary sue a fiction
[77:48] archetype who is inexplicably free of
[77:50] any and all weakness such traits are
[77:53] also common through self-inserts which
[77:55] there was also evidence of as a writer
[77:58] for blizzard would roleplay as a major
[78:00] character nathanos blightcaller on
[78:02] twitter the narrative structure remained
[78:04] ambiguous throughout the entirety of the
[78:06] expansion with most criticism being made
[78:09] towards the ending as was custom with
[78:11] the final boss of an expansion since the
[78:13] wrath of the lich king players were
[78:15] treated with the finale cut scene they
[78:17] would typically run a few minutes and
[78:19] were fully voice acted animation
[78:21] presentations is it
[78:23] over
[78:26] at long last
[78:29] no king rules forever my son
[78:32] though for the battle for azeroth the
[78:34] old god nazath would be the finale with
[78:37] years of anticipation building up as his
[78:39] existence was referenced several times
[78:42] up to the final patch of the expansion
[78:44] and where players expected a similar
[78:46] voice acted dialogue between the major
[78:48] lore characters and their thoughts on
[78:50] defeating a god they were instead met
[78:52] with the same footage i just droned over
[78:55] in a monotone manner the feedback was
[78:58] immediate and clear
[79:00] and shortly after its premiere the video
[79:02] would be unlisted as blizzard tried to
[79:04] hide the blundered finish to a blunder
[79:06] of an expansion
[79:12] come on guys let's go play video games
[79:15] the initial wave of excitement quickly
[79:18] soured as all three major systems of the
[79:20] expansion fell short of their goals they
[79:23] would later be addressed in major
[79:24] patches though players would have to
[79:26] wait nearly a year following their
[79:28] initial release in response monthly
[79:31] active users would start taking a dive
[79:33] and in an attempt to bolster engagement
[79:35] metrics the expansion would aim to rely
[79:38] on what many described to be an
[79:40] excessive amount of activities designed
[79:42] around daily and weekly timers by the
[79:45] end of the expansion's lifespan this
[79:47] would be the full list many would
[79:49] comment that the entire game at this
[79:51] point had devolved into a list of chores
[79:54] that she had a limited amount of time to
[79:56] complete aimed to keep players in a
[79:58] gerbil-like routine of going down a
[80:01] checklist for their daily session
[80:03] instead of feeling rewarded for their
[80:05] playtime and dedication many would feel
[80:07] punished for missing sessions and
[80:09] questioned their reasons for playing to
[80:11] begin with and just two months after
[80:14] release blizzard would suffer another
[80:16] devastating departure as co-founder mike
[80:19] morheim announced that he was stepping
[80:21] down as company president promoting
[80:23] then-executive producer jaylen brack to
[80:26] take his place more troubling still
[80:28] these people weren't quitting game
[80:30] development they were quitting blizzard
[80:32] later in 2020 morheim would announce a
[80:35] new company dreamhaven and under its
[80:37] umbrella were two studios moonshot games
[80:40] and secret door of which many former
[80:42] members of blizzard would be employed in
[80:45] its announcement they would stress that
[80:47] the goal of the company would be to
[80:49] prioritize product quality and player
[80:52] experience over short-term financial
[80:54] pressures a development mindset that
[80:57] many fans say activision blizzard had
[80:59] abandoned long ago chris metzen would
[81:02] later found warchief gaming which is
[81:04] dedicated to developing worlds and
[81:06] tabletop experiences and outside of
[81:08] world of warcraft the former hearthstone
[81:10] director ben brode would launch the game
[81:13] studio's second dinner ex-starcraft 2
[81:15] developers would join frost giant and
[81:18] work towards developing a new rts and
[81:20] lightforged game was opened by former
[81:22] blizzard engineer matt shimbari and
[81:24] would later partner with dreamhaven
[81:26] morheim would be just one of many long
[81:28] time talent leaving the company in
[81:30] recent years and his departure would be
[81:32] instrumental in what would later be
[81:34] known as brain train afflicting the
[81:36] developer slowly but surely the people
[81:39] who made blizzard what they were were
[81:41] departing this rash of departures would
[81:44] be downplayed as ordinary for the world
[81:46] of game development and that the games
[81:47] were more about the team rather than
[81:49] individual members but internally
[81:52] employees shared a different story
[81:54] rather that these people were
[81:55] irreplaceable mentors and that they drew
[81:57] inspiration from each other and that
[81:59] each departure would be accompanied by a
[82:02] negative cascading effect to those left
[82:04] behind and just months later another
[82:07] co-founder frank pierce would be the
[82:09] next to announce his departure leaving
[82:11] just alan adam as the last co-founder
[82:14] standing development with classic was
[82:16] progressing steadily and a release date
[82:18] for the summer of 2019 was announced a
[82:21] new game within the warcraft franchise
[82:23] was also revealed warcraft 3 reforged
[82:26] would advertise fully remodeled
[82:28] characters and animations as well as
[82:30] retuned maps and campaigns in this
[82:32] modern day remaster with the set release
[82:35] year of 2019 this would later be delayed
[82:37] to january 2020 in an official post
[82:40] exciting delays in development and the
[82:42] desire to retain a high quality standard
[82:45] that the player base held them to though
[82:47] not pertaining to the world of warcraft
[82:49] directly but would transpire with the
[82:51] development of warcraft 3 and other
[82:53] titles revealed the priorities and
[82:55] development practices of blizzard as a
[82:57] whole and set the standard of how they
[82:59] would treat their community across all
[83:01] franchises world of warcraft included
[83:03] this was also the blizzcon where they
[83:05] announced a mobile diablo game which was
[83:07] met with
[83:08] [Music]
[83:09] a less than desirable reception
[83:12] [Music]
[83:15] did you guys not have phones yeah you
[83:17] guys all have identified well that's a
[83:19] story for another time to make matters
[83:21] worse the following years although
[83:23] financially successful would prove to be
[83:25] the most damaging to their reputation
[83:27] though reaching historic revenue
[83:29] earnings treatment of their employees
[83:31] would become the focus of negative press
[83:33] in february of 2019 800 employees would
[83:37] be fired many without warning and were
[83:39] left crying in the parking lot this is a
[83:42] trend that would continue through the
[83:44] following years of record-breaking
[83:45] profits with massive layoffs and
[83:48] multi-million dollar ceo bonuses
[83:50] following shortly after in one instance
[83:53] employees would be given gift cards to
[83:55] the games that they just got fired from
[83:57] working on on their way out hey here's
[83:59] some overwatch skins
[84:01] you're fired by the way and in other
[84:03] cases the amount of people fired would
[84:05] be underreported combined with the poor
[84:08] reception of the battle for azeroth the
[84:10] reputation had quickly started to sour
[84:13] from that of a community first industry
[84:15] innovator to one operated on greed
[84:17] predatory business practices and the
[84:20] cold treatment of their employees and
[84:22] even their player base little did
[84:24] everyone know though the worst was yet
[84:26] to come
[84:33] since 2008 they had hosted an esports
[84:36] event called the arena world
[84:37] championship or awc where high-end
[84:40] competitive players would face off in a
[84:43] style competition
[84:44] of the game's arena mode for cash prizes
[84:47] ranging from 120 thousand dollars since
[84:49] its inception in 2008 to 280 000 in 2018
[84:54] for 2019 however they had announced a
[84:57] special campaign where players would be
[84:59] able to contribute to the ever-growing
[85:01] prize pool two new toys the transmorpher
[85:04] beacon and some faction-themed fireworks
[85:07] were made to be available in the in-game
[85:09] cash shop and to encourage sales 25 of
[85:12] the proceeds would contribute towards
[85:15] the prize pool of both the arena world
[85:17] championship and also the mythic dungeon
[85:19] international stating that the support
[85:21] of the players would help take the wow
[85:23] esports scene to the next level they
[85:26] also assured that a minimum price pool
[85:28] of 500 000 would be offered split up
[85:30] evenly between the two events
[85:32] considering that all announcements used
[85:35] verbage such as help or contribute the
[85:37] player base had assumed that this 500
[85:40] 000 prize pool would be funded by
[85:42] blizzard as they had done for a decade
[85:44] prior and that the proceeds of the toy
[85:46] sales would
[85:47] well contribute to the total as stated
[85:51] after the campaign had concluded though
[85:53] fans were dismayed to learn that they
[85:55] didn't help nor contribute as blizzard
[85:58] pocketed what they would usually put up
[86:00] and put the responsibility on funding
[86:02] the entirety of the prize pool on the
[86:04] player base as confirmed by an awc
[86:07] participant snucks
[86:09] so so let's rephrase this
[86:12] so people gave blizzard so much money
[86:15] boyzer decided to give themselves even
[86:17] more
[86:18] right so they collected around 2.6
[86:22] million dollars give or take
[86:24] and um
[86:26] instead of adding prize money for
[86:27] themselves they just pocketed 2 million
[86:29] and decided to just
[86:31] use the money that the community gave us
[86:33] and
[86:34] pay for their tournament
[86:37] both competitors and viewers expressed
[86:39] their anger stating that they had felt
[86:41] deceived and that the good nature of
[86:43] those wishing to support the esports
[86:45] community of blizzard were taken
[86:47] advantage of blizzard would never
[86:49] acknowledge the controversy and the
[86:51] prize pools were funded solely by the
[86:54] crowdfunding campaign and despite the
[86:56] self-proclaimed success in raising the
[86:58] funds crowdfunding such as this would
[87:00] not be repeated for future tournaments
[87:02] presumably due to the intense backlash
[87:04] that they received
[87:10] [Applause]
[87:18] [Music]
[87:24] world of warcraft wasn't their only
[87:26] franchise that would be at the center of
[87:28] controversy as soon after their
[87:30] hearthstone division would attract the
[87:32] attention of national media here's a
[87:34] story which just won't go away
[87:36] activision blizzard it has suspended a
[87:39] gamer and taken his prize money away
[87:42] because he made
[87:44] comments supporting hong kong protesters
[87:47] the protests in hong kong were at their
[87:49] climax at this point having been a
[87:51] british colony until 1997 when
[87:54] sovereignty of the territory was
[87:56] returned to china hong kong would retain
[87:58] a separate legal and economic system
[88:00] with basic human rights safeguarded in
[88:03] contrast to other cities in china which
[88:05] are heavily governed by the
[88:06] authoritarian central government though
[88:08] in march of 2019 a bill would be
[88:11] proposed that would allow extraditions
[88:13] of fugitives to mainland china which
[88:15] infringed on these rare freedoms and due
[88:18] to china's opaque legal system would
[88:20] allow the prosecution of citizens for
[88:22] political purposes
[88:24] citizens held marches in protest which
[88:27] quickly turned violent after they were
[88:28] fired upon with tear gas rubber bullets
[88:31] pepper spray and even live rounds as the
[88:35] situation spiraled out of control
[88:37] in october of the same year a tournament
[88:40] competitor jung naiwan or blitzchang
[88:43] after a victory took out a face mask
[88:45] similar to those being worn by the hong
[88:47] kong protesters and voiced his support
[88:49] to them quoted liberate hong kong the
[88:52] revolution of our times
[88:57] the feed was quickly cut and the
[88:59] following day blizzard announced that
[89:01] blitz chung had been banned from
[89:03] competing further in the tournament in
[89:05] addition to revoking the prize money
[89:06] that he had won up until that point
[89:08] totaling ten thousand dollars
[89:10] additionally he would be banned from
[89:12] competing for a full year and the two
[89:15] casters interviewing blitzchang at the
[89:16] time would also be fired
[89:19] as a result activision blizzard would
[89:21] swiftly come under heavy criticism as
[89:24] many saw morality cast aside for vested
[89:26] financial interests
[89:28] players of another team american
[89:30] university would add their voices to the
[89:32] protest which was also quickly censored
[89:35] and condemned by blizzard spirits
[89:39] and that is game wpi with the win the
[89:43] winners similar to blitzchang they would
[89:45] also be banned from competing in future
[89:47] tournaments this time for six months
[89:50] shortly after then president j allen
[89:53] brack released a statement saying that
[89:55] the penalties were not appropriate and
[89:57] that blitz chung's winnings would be
[89:58] reinstated to him and that his ban would
[90:01] be reduced to six months down from 12
[90:03] and also state that their business
[90:05] dealings with china had no influence on
[90:07] the initial penalties brac would open up
[90:10] the following blizzcon with an apology
[90:12] to the mishandling of the situation
[90:14] stating that their actions would speak
[90:16] louder than words but our actions are
[90:19] going to matter more than any of these
[90:20] words a phrase that the blizzard
[90:22] community would quickly become very
[90:25] familiar with
[90:26] in the same blizzcon the new expansion
[90:28] for world of warcraft would also be
[90:30] revealed players would enter the
[90:32] shadowlands and join factions called
[90:35] covenants similar to the order halls in
[90:37] legion these would serve as a base of
[90:39] operations for players to conduct their
[90:41] campaign and also gain unique abilities
[90:44] and perks they would also explore the
[90:46] tower of tour guest a randomized 1-3
[90:49] player dungeon crawl with powerful
[90:51] affixes to power up their characters and
[90:53] upon completion and gain the ability to
[90:55] craft legendary armor pieces similar in
[90:58] function to those of the legion
[91:00] expansion though following the poor
[91:01] reception of the battle for azeroth many
[91:04] more would look at the reveal through a
[91:06] more critical lens
[91:14] though their current projects were met
[91:16] with mixed reactions world warcraft
[91:18] classic had seen its release in august
[91:21] of 2019 to surprising success initially
[91:24] holding only a handful of servers it was
[91:27] quickly overwhelmed and new servers were
[91:29] created to hold the surprising amount of
[91:32] people that had longed for the azeroth
[91:34] of years-long past upon launch interest
[91:37] was so underestimated that queue times
[91:39] would balloon up to several hours and
[91:41] even months following the release for
[91:43] some of the highest population servers
[91:46] some aspects of the game would age well
[91:48] such as a renewed sense of community and
[91:50] a heavy focus on traditional rpg
[91:52] elements and other aspects such as
[91:55] assault and archaic raiding scene and an
[91:57] eventual stagnation of content would
[92:00] remain to be problem areas within the
[92:01] game as well as botting as the game grew
[92:04] in popularity so too did third-party
[92:06] websites offering in-game items or
[92:09] services in exchange for real money a
[92:12] practice that's against the game's terms
[92:14] of service
[92:15] these sites oftentimes use automated
[92:17] programs to obtain this currency and
[92:19] blizzard would be ineffective in
[92:21] controlling them throughout the duration
[92:23] of classic even though they were
[92:25] relatively easy to spot by the players
[92:27] as displayed many times by content
[92:29] creators within the community i found a
[92:31] warrior mob grinding in tonaris having a
[92:33] bit of trouble getting to his target
[92:35] cheating had always been and continues
[92:37] to be an area where blizzard would
[92:39] perform poorly even in the current
[92:41] version of the game but due to the more
[92:43] fragile nature of the economy in world
[92:45] of warcraft classic and its community it
[92:47] would have greater negative consequences
[92:50] though cheating was to remain a problem
[92:52] area due to its traditional design and
[92:54] the absence of what many now deemed to
[92:56] be an overly intrusive cash shop it
[92:58] proved to hold the attention of a wide
[93:00] player base consistently through its
[93:03] year and a half run though not every
[93:05] re-release was to be met with the same
[93:07] success
[93:17] warcraft 3 reforged side's release in
[93:19] the following january though delayed as
[93:22] they ensured to maintain a high quality
[93:24] standard it was universally met with
[93:26] negative reviews as players saw a little
[93:29] polish with the remaster citing a poor
[93:31] ui copious bugs a low frame rate missing
[93:35] features from the original and
[93:37] consistent crashes the latter of these
[93:40] issues would take the spotlight and the
[93:42] competitive scene shortly after
[93:44] in their very first major tournament in
[93:46] a quarterfinal match between two top
[93:48] players moon and thorsing a crash
[93:50] occurred at a key moment the score was
[93:53] 1-1 and thor zane seemed to be on track
[93:55] to take the win but suffered a
[93:57] disconnect mid-match tall zane smells
[93:59] blood in the water he's going in for the
[94:01] kill here we have banners ready mountain
[94:03] king was a little hurt this is all
[94:04] buying time for the towers we have no
[94:06] breath of fire by the way it is drunken
[94:08] haze so big miss chance on these dragon
[94:10] hogs and
[94:12] a disconnect
[94:14] that fight was
[94:16] the most important one in this game yet
[94:18] the match would then be restarted
[94:20] despite thor saint's advantage and he
[94:22] would once again retake control of the
[94:24] rematch and once again suffered a
[94:26] disconnect thank you already has enough
[94:28] mana i don't i don't need a blood mage i
[94:30] don't need you
[94:31] you're benched
[94:32] once this
[94:36] and looks like another drop
[94:39] just happens
[94:40] oh wow
[94:42] that's thousand i think yeah i kind of
[94:44] like his position here in this game
[94:46] again yeah this is so frustrating the
[94:49] match would be replayed for a third time
[94:51] and moon having adapted to thor's name
[94:53] strategy at this point was the one to
[94:55] take the lead and eliminated thor zane
[94:58] resulting in the forfeiture of the large
[95:00] prize pool he surely would have won
[95:02] twice though they are the most impactful
[95:05] as they happened during a quarter-final
[95:06] match these would not be the only
[95:08] disconnects to occur in the tournament
[95:10] as competitors in lower level brackets
[95:12] would also become victim to random drops
[95:15] at key moments years later an internal
[95:18] investigation would reveal that they
[95:20] knowingly released the game in an
[95:21] unfinished stage unwilling to delay it
[95:23] for a second time in fear of losing the
[95:25] pre-orders they had already amassed it
[95:28] was also noted that the entire project
[95:30] was hamstrung by a low budget due to its
[95:33] low potential for being a big earner for
[95:35] the company internal sources would also
[95:37] share their struggles with exhaustion
[95:40] anxiety and depression for more than a
[95:42] year and at their warnings of the game's
[95:44] unfinished state being largely ignored
[95:47] in order to make the tight release
[95:48] schedule negative reviews continued at a
[95:51] steady pace and as did refunds as
[95:54] players were less than impressed at the
[95:55] level of polish that they received
[95:57] compared to what was promised the
[95:59] classic game teams would be shut down a
[96:01] new team now in their place and in a bit
[96:04] of irony in a bloomberg interview a
[96:06] blizzard spokesperson repeated the same
[96:08] failed promise made by brac a few months
[96:10] prior that their work in actions would
[96:12] speak louder than words
[96:16] a delay was also announced with
[96:18] shadowlands this time from october to
[96:20] december once more sighting that extra
[96:23] polish is needed before a release would
[96:24] be made and despite the struggles with
[96:26] the battle for azeroth blizzard proved
[96:28] as they have many times that selling
[96:30] copies wasn't the problem as shadowland
[96:33] sold an impressive 3.7 million copies on
[96:36] launch day alone much like its
[96:38] predecessor though not long after the
[96:40] initial launch the expansion's major
[96:42] features would be the focus of criticism
[96:45] the tower of tour gas or chore gas this
[96:47] player soon likened it to suffered the
[96:49] same fate as island expeditions from the
[96:52] battle for azeroth and quickly became
[96:54] repetitive as with most systems that
[96:56] reset on a weekly timer as for the
[96:58] expansion's high levels on the ma due to
[97:01] the player's inability to mount it was
[97:03] seen to be unnecessarily frustrating to
[97:05] navigate and formulaic to other such
[97:08] zones released in the past by now
[97:10] players were noticing a pattern of
[97:12] high-level zones with new reputations
[97:14] and excessive daily timers such as
[97:16] quests regulate enemies and treasure
[97:19] chests as for covenants and they
[97:21] received a mixed reaction with some
[97:23] praising the unique abilities and
[97:25] aesthetics obtained from choosing a
[97:26] specific faction and others condemning
[97:29] them for being unbalanced thus burdening
[97:31] them with regret if they had made a poor
[97:33] choice some people's classes 40 of their
[97:36] damage is just their covenant ability
[97:38] they're all over the place they're a
[97:40] mess some would also take issue with
[97:43] being locked out of a large amount of
[97:44] content offered from the other covenants
[97:47] as choosing one meant excluding three
[97:49] others though a time-gated quest was
[97:51] available should they feel the need to
[97:53] switch
[97:54] for better or for worse blizzard would
[97:56] stand their ground at launch but also
[97:58] stated that they had the ability to pull
[98:00] the rip cord to give players more
[98:01] freedom with covenants should the
[98:03] systems be received poorly this comment
[98:06] would start a movement called pull the
[98:07] rip cord which they would comply to
[98:10] nearly a year later in patch 9.1.5
[98:13] as for the story many would see it as
[98:15] even worse than that of the battle for
[98:17] azeroth expansion the plot somehow
[98:20] became even more confusing and
[98:22] contradictory requiring external
[98:24] literature to follow along as even
[98:26] youtube channels dedicated to the lore
[98:28] of the game and difficulty piecing
[98:30] together the disorienting storylines
[98:33] they would not be shy in expressing
[98:34] their frustration how many books are you
[98:37] gonna [ __ ] get out of me how much
[98:39] money am i gonna pay before i can
[98:41] finally explain the lore to the people
[98:44] that want to know about it to the degree
[98:46] that it's actually comprehensible
[98:48] i will never serve
[98:51] major cutscenes would continue to be
[98:53] unlisted on their youtube channel in
[98:55] response to the negative reception only
[98:58] time will tell of the fate of the
[98:59] shadowlands if it'll go down as a good
[99:02] or a bad expansion but players are quick
[99:04] to note the similarities between it and
[99:06] the battle for azeroth where the major
[99:08] systems are released in a poorly
[99:10] implemented state only to be addressed
[99:12] in patches several months later and many
[99:15] at this point would take notice to a
[99:17] rising contender within the mmo genre
[99:19] over the years final fantasy xiv would
[99:22] slowly but surely gain a sizable
[99:25] subscriber base following a failed
[99:27] initial launch in 2010 after listening
[99:29] to player feedback the mmo was remade in
[99:32] many ways and relaunched in 2013 it
[99:35] would see steady growth due to these
[99:37] improvements and also the shortcomings
[99:39] of the world of warcraft and as players
[99:41] became increasingly embittered with
[99:43] shadowlands they started migrating over
[99:46] including major streamers and youtube
[99:48] channels creating more tension within
[99:50] the already tribalistic mmo community as
[99:53] players content creators and even
[99:55] employees would take shots at each other
[99:58] over social media
[99:59] though subscriptions remain to be hidden
[100:01] third-party analytics began favoring
[100:03] final fantasy xiv to be the most active
[100:06] mmo with blizzard even sending out
[100:08] surveys attempting to gauge interest in
[100:10] it for the first time in many years it
[100:13] was becoming clear to many that the
[100:15] world of warcraft was losing its hold on
[100:17] the genre
[100:18] [Music]
[100:21] it's treason
[100:22] then
[100:28] at blizzcon 2020 the next step for
[100:30] classic was announced and as many
[100:32] expected players would begin their
[100:34] second journey into the outland in the
[100:36] burning crusade classic much like the
[100:38] base game the first expansion would be
[100:40] recreated closely to its original run in
[100:43] 2007 but with one exception the addition
[100:47] of a major cash shop element the
[100:49] character boost we are going to offer a
[100:51] level 58
[100:53] boost for purchase but it does come with
[100:55] some restrictions so it's going to be
[100:57] one per account
[100:58] um it's not going to be usable on blood
[101:00] elf or draenei
[101:02] it'll have some done for many players
[101:04] the feeling of anticipation was quickly
[101:06] replaced by that of betrayal as
[101:09] character boosts among other paid
[101:11] services such as the wow token were
[101:13] specifically stated not to be released
[101:15] in the classic version of the game as
[101:17] they didn't exist back then ultimately
[101:20] the character boost would be a one-use
[101:22] service bringing any character to level
[101:24] 58 and was offered in a bundled package
[101:27] that also included other digital rewards
[101:29] including a mount a pet and a toy
[101:32] ignoring the fact that they had lied
[101:34] blizzard would pitch then it was
[101:35] intended for new players who didn't have
[101:38] the time to level um there's a lot of my
[101:40] friends for example who who maybe um
[101:42] didn't really play classic when it first
[101:44] came out right and so now they're behind
[101:47] and they're interested in playing the
[101:48] burning crusade we want to make sure
[101:49] that those people are served too
[101:51] and one of the ways we could do that is
[101:52] provide a boost
[101:54] to people who are interested in coming
[101:56] back though this was contradicted in the
[101:58] fact that the service was purchasable by
[102:00] everyone even by those who already had
[102:02] high level characters in addition to the
[102:05] boost blizzard had also announced
[102:07] classic era servers for those who
[102:09] preferred the vanilla state of the game
[102:11] but this too would be met with
[102:12] controversy as there would be a 35
[102:15] charge in transferring characters to
[102:18] both states of the games as characters
[102:20] that players spent the past year and a
[102:22] half leveling and gearing would be
[102:24] dangled in front of their faces in the
[102:26] login screen behind the paywall the
[102:28] outrage was a media and blizzard would
[102:31] respond by lowering the charge to 15
[102:34] down from 35 as for the boost the
[102:37] community was quick to point out the
[102:38] dangers of releasing such a service such
[102:41] as the abandonment of the old world and
[102:43] albats which had already been a major
[102:45] problem in classic would become
[102:47] empowered with the ability to skip
[102:49] towards the end game making them capable
[102:51] of farming higher level materials almost
[102:53] immediately thus having a greater
[102:55] negative effect than they previously had
[102:58] many also warned that accepting a
[103:00] service as major as this would leave
[103:02] classic down the same familiar road and
[103:05] that it would suffer the same fate of
[103:06] the game that spawned its existence to
[103:08] begin with in addition to creating an
[103:10] unfair paid element that let players pay
[103:13] to skip what other players had already
[103:15] worked for though these worries would
[103:18] ultimately be ignored and a level boost
[103:21] was released despite the backlash
[103:23] footage of boosted characters botting
[103:25] started to appear immediately literally
[103:28] every single bot without fail was a
[103:30] level 58 boosted character the
[103:33] limitation of one per account for bots
[103:35] is completely irrelevant as expected for
[103:37] them it's just a huge time save from
[103:39] actually having to level and mini-san
[103:42] old world now abandoned as the boost now
[103:44] loaded the majority of the player base
[103:46] directly into the outland one of the
[103:49] core design philosophies of classic had
[103:51] been betrayed a large portion of the
[103:54] player base at this point were refugees
[103:56] from current world of warcraft due to a
[103:58] large part of the overzealous cash shop
[104:01] which was promised to be absent in the
[104:03] recreation shortly after a wow token
[104:06] with the green burning crusade
[104:07] background was data mined and players
[104:09] took to the forums creating numerous
[104:11] threads asking for confirmation whether
[104:14] this was planned to be released in
[104:15] classic and once more were simply
[104:18] ignored still to this day several months
[104:21] later there's no confirmation yes or no
[104:24] of their plans to implement it into the
[104:26] game this betrayal proved to be the
[104:28] final straw for many of the player base
[104:31] including the highly intelligent not
[104:33] monotone
[104:34] and physically attractive youtube user
[104:36] mad season show whom after 16 years
[104:39] playing and seven years on youtube had
[104:41] announced his retirement the heart and
[104:43] soul now ripped away once more classic's
[104:46] population began to wane drastically and
[104:49] the remaining players would comment on
[104:51] the second foray into the outland
[104:53] becoming more and more empty with each
[104:55] passing day some of those who remained
[104:58] chose to rebel by targeting other
[104:59] players who had purchased the level
[105:01] boost bundle by performing an in-game
[105:03] mode slash spin on anyone seen riding
[105:06] the deluxe edition mount in response
[105:09] blizzard disabled the emone when
[105:11] targeting another player all right let's
[105:12] see if we can spit on someone
[105:20] wow forum threads expressing concern
[105:23] with classic's future were ultimately
[105:25] ignored but to a community that acted
[105:28] against their interests blizzard's
[105:29] response would be immediate and clear it
[105:32] was revealed later that omar gonzalez
[105:35] who was one of the few responsible for
[105:37] taking action and making the classic
[105:39] recreation a reality had silently taken
[105:41] lead from blizzard to join secret door
[105:44] under dreamhaven contributing to the
[105:46] ever-growing list of people who didn't
[105:48] quit developing games but rather quit
[105:50] developing games for blizzard
[105:52] entertainment not long after jeff kaplan
[105:55] a 20-year veteran of blizzard and
[105:57] director of overwatch announced his
[105:59] departure this news would come as a
[106:01] surprise to the community as the sequel
[106:04] to overwatch overwatch 2 was still in
[106:07] development kaplan himself had gained
[106:09] the reputation as a leader and wholly
[106:12] passionate about his craft so to leave a
[106:14] project before even seeing its release
[106:16] came off as abnormal and many feared
[106:19] that something was deeply wrong with
[106:21] blizzard behind closed doors and prior
[106:24] to this another industry veterans since
[106:26] its release in 2004 alex of frasier
[106:30] would also quietly drop from the company
[106:32] in june of 2020 the manner of which he
[106:35] moved on however was also abnormal as
[106:38] had been customary with the more
[106:40] recognized veterans of the company
[106:42] taking their leave there was no farewell
[106:44] post nor even an acknowledgement by
[106:46] blizzard though the true reason for his
[106:48] departure would soon become clear
[106:50] [Music]
[106:53] so-called cube crawls in which male
[106:55] employees apparently drink a lot of
[106:57] alcohol as they crawl through their way
[106:59] through the cubicles often engaging in
[107:01] inappropriate behavior toward female
[107:04] employees the agency saying it seeks
[107:06] among other remedies pay adjustments
[107:11] on july 23 2021 activision blizzard once
[107:15] again became the center of national news
[107:18] as the world would learn the details of
[107:20] a two-year investigation and lawsuit by
[107:22] the state of california of continuous
[107:25] sexual misconduct and discrimination of
[107:27] their employees the investigation
[107:29] alleges that female employees in
[107:31] particular were underpaid and subjected
[107:34] to regular sexual harassment by
[107:36] co-workers and superiors in the report
[107:39] it was revealed that one employee
[107:41] ultimately committed suicide during a
[107:43] company vacation this would occur after
[107:46] pictures of her vagina had allegedly
[107:48] been passed around a company party the
[107:51] investigation also described cube crawls
[107:54] where employees would become intoxicated
[107:56] and prowl to the workplace subjecting
[107:58] co-workers to unwanted sexual advances
[108:01] lewd behavior and make inappropriate
[108:03] comments about rape and other intrusive
[108:06] or demeaning behavior
[108:08] the news shocked the blizzard community
[108:10] and served as the final straw for many
[108:12] its players and content creators began
[108:14] to migrate away favoring other mmos such
[108:17] as final fantasy xiv activision
[108:20] blizzard's response would be swift and
[108:22] attempted to mitigate the allegations
[108:24] stating that the dfeh the plaintiff in
[108:27] the lawsuit had distorted their claims
[108:29] and had rushed to file an inaccurate
[108:31] complaint and that they were sickened
[108:33] and found the manner of which they
[108:35] investigated and reported to be
[108:37] reprehensible referring specifically
[108:39] that the employee's suicide had no
[108:41] bearing on the case the response was
[108:44] quickly deemed tone deaf by onlookers
[108:46] and employees alike who staged a walkout
[108:49] in protest of the allegations and the
[108:51] cold response by their employer shortly
[108:53] after activision ceo bobby kotick also
[108:56] denounced the response stating that it
[108:59] was tone deaf and that fair and
[109:01] respectful treatment in the workplace
[109:03] was of the utmost importance not long
[109:05] after he would hire a firm made famous
[109:08] for union busting for amazon to
[109:10] investigate their hr practices months
[109:12] later it was revealed that it was he who
[109:15] had originally drafted the initial
[109:17] response and having another executive
[109:19] sign it in her name that is the very
[109:21] same one that he denounced it was also
[109:24] revealed that he had prior knowledge of
[109:27] several sexual assault cases in the
[109:29] workplace and settling them out of court
[109:31] and failing to make them public in one
[109:33] instance he threatened the life of one
[109:36] of his assistants in response of this
[109:38] news being made public he would
[109:40] reiterate his commitment to the safety
[109:42] and equality of his employees
[109:46] [Music]
[109:47] anyone who doubts my conviction to be
[109:50] the most welcoming and inclusive
[109:52] workplace doesn't really appreciate how
[109:54] important this is to me in august the
[109:57] dfeh accused activision blizzard of
[110:00] destroying documents relevant to the
[110:02] investigation in violation of their
[110:04] legal obligation to not tamper with
[110:06] evidence of an ongoing lawsuit though
[110:08] this claim would be quickly denied by an
[110:11] activision blizzard spokesperson
[110:13] pictures and conversations relating to
[110:15] the cosby suite were also leaked the
[110:17] nickname for a frasiabee's hotel room
[110:20] from blizzcon 2013 after the former
[110:22] comedian bill cosby who had at that
[110:25] point faced multiple accusations of date
[110:27] rape in an internal email president
[110:30] jalen brax stated his respect and care
[110:33] for equal treatment and that gloria
[110:34] steinem a well-known activist for
[110:36] women's rights was a revered name in his
[110:39] household having failed to grind the
[110:40] reputation to reach exalted despite
[110:43] being human and having the diplomacy
[110:45] racial
[110:47] what a casual the response wasn't
[110:49] received very well for some reason and
[110:51] shortly after he would step down as
[110:53] president ending his near three-year
[110:55] tenure and was replaced with a
[110:57] two-person team jen o'neal and mike
[111:00] yabara the former of whom would announce
[111:02] her departure just three months later
[111:04] stating in an email to activision's
[111:06] legal team of her lack of faith of their
[111:08] ability to change and that she herself
[111:10] faced sexual harassment earlier in her
[111:13] career at activision she also revealed
[111:15] that she was being paid less than her
[111:17] co-leader and then although equal pay
[111:19] was negotiated by both she and mike
[111:21] yabara it was only offered to her after
[111:24] she announced her resignation she also
[111:26] described attending a 2007 party with
[111:29] bobby coddick where scantily-clad women
[111:32] danced on stripper pulse yeah well
[111:35] i'm gonna go build my own game dev
[111:38] studio with blackjack and hookers as for
[111:41] my kibara he would quickly come under
[111:43] controversy not long after his new
[111:45] position for a tweet advertising selling
[111:47] raid carries for gold while this isn't
[111:50] against the game's terms of service it
[111:52] remains to be a controversial point
[111:53] within the world of warcraft community
[111:55] as it edges the line of pay to win due
[111:57] to the players ability to purchase gold
[111:59] with real money as details of the
[112:02] investigation unfolded many employees
[112:04] would quit or be fired including senior
[112:07] game designer jonathan lacraft the lead
[112:10] level designer of diablo 4 a level
[112:12] designer of world of warcraft as well as
[112:14] the inspiration for the overwatch
[112:16] character jessie mccree and diablo 4's
[112:18] game director luis boriga was also
[112:21] revealed to no longer be a part of
[112:23] blizzard leaving the upcoming action rpg
[112:25] without two critical leaders in the
[112:27] middle of its development in response to
[112:30] mccree's involvement in the scandal it
[112:32] was announced that the character mccree
[112:34] would be renamed and that once again
[112:36] actions would speak louder than words
[112:41] blizzard at this point would also begin
[112:43] a series of in-game changes such as
[112:45] removing items and references they deem
[112:48] to be inappropriate given the
[112:49] circumstances such as changing pictures
[112:52] of women into fruit in-game joke emotes
[112:55] that were deemed to be highly
[112:56] controversial would also be removed if
[112:59] there are any children in the room right
[113:00] now i advise you at this point to cover
[113:02] their ears i'd like to fart in the tub
[113:05] amidst the lawsuit as tensions were at
[113:07] an all-time high a senior systems
[113:09] designer of world of warcraft revealed
[113:12] that almost no work is being done as the
[113:14] lawsuit was unfolding this sparked
[113:16] outrage among the player base as they
[113:18] learned that they were paying for
[113:20] content that was no longer being
[113:21] developed in an expansion which had
[113:24] already seen updates at a sluggish pace
[113:26] in response to the backlash a senior
[113:29] game producer labeled those complaining
[113:31] as part of the problem as employees
[113:33] continued lashing out and placing blame
[113:36] on their players and community figures
[113:38] blizzard would see a major restructuring
[113:41] of their teams during this time as these
[113:43] employees either quit or were fired many
[113:45] of which holding important positions in
[113:47] games that were in mid-development
[113:49] causing major delays in production in
[113:51] november of 2021 he was revealed by
[113:54] blizzard chief financial officer armin
[113:57] serza that the company isn't planning to
[113:59] include both overwatch 2 and diablo 4 in
[114:02] their 2022 financial outlook report
[114:05] indicating that neither release will see
[114:07] their debut in all of 2022 due to delays
[114:10] in development as a result financially
[114:13] they would suffer their worst loss in 13
[114:15] years as stock prices fell by more than
[114:18] 14 percent in a single day bringing its
[114:21] year-to-date losses to 25
[114:24] in december employees revealed
[114:25] suspicions that their breast milk was
[114:27] being stolen nursing mothers would label
[114:30] and store packages of breast milk in the
[114:32] break room refrigerator and when
[114:34] retrieving it later would find that some
[114:37] or all of the milk would be missing
[114:39] while other items in the refrigerator
[114:40] would remain undisturbed though as of
[114:43] this video no evidence exists of the
[114:45] alleged protein rich caper when reached
[114:47] out for comment an activision blizzard
[114:49] spokesperson replied stating that
[114:52] there's no use crying over spilt milk
[114:54] speaking of milking blizzard would also
[114:56] increase focus on micro transaction
[114:58] offers including mounts pets and
[115:01] cosmetic outfits often seem to be vastly
[115:04] superior to those acquirable in-game
[115:07] their prices would also be criticized as
[115:09] their highest package would demand a
[115:11] price tag of 55
[115:13] nearly matching that of a full aaa
[115:15] release as onlookers reacted with ah at
[115:18] the lack of awareness or care that
[115:21] blizzard showed to its community and
[115:23] image
[115:24] as of this video the results of the
[115:26] lawsuit are pending but regardless of
[115:28] the outcome it'll surely stand out as
[115:31] one of the darkest moments in the
[115:32] company's history one that's becoming
[115:34] increasingly difficult to break out of
[115:37] as scrutiny remains to be at an all-time
[115:39] high due to the destroyed trust between
[115:41] they and their community as a result a
[115:44] situation has been created where any
[115:46] flinch positive or negative is met with
[115:49] a dominating pessimism employees daily
[115:52] suffer abuse not only from the outside
[115:54] but is recently discovered also from the
[115:57] inside today they stare down the
[115:59] seemingly insurmountable task of
[116:01] repairing the damage caused to their
[116:03] relationship with their community with
[116:05] each passing day their environment
[116:07] representing a battlefield more so than
[116:10] that of a game development studio while
[116:12] this itself is an unfair situation many
[116:15] deem it a consequence of casting aside
[116:17] the goodwill of their player base
[116:19] consistently over the course of three
[116:21] tumultuous years in the midst of the
[116:24] scandal it was announced that blizzcon
[116:26] was cancelled for the year of 2022 and
[116:28] that it would see a major restructuring
[116:30] if and when it returns
[116:32] initially a heavily community focused
[116:34] innovator with franchises that redefined
[116:37] genres now leaves behind a sullied and
[116:40] controversial legacy in one of the most
[116:42] jarring and unforeseen falls in game
[116:44] development history quarterly reports
[116:47] show a consistent downward trend of
[116:49] active users but at the same time
[116:51] record-breaking revenue as patience and
[116:54] goodwill are continuously traded away
[116:56] for short-term financial profit just as
[116:59] how it breathed life into the genre with
[117:01] its birth in 2004 so too does it with
[117:04] its decline in the modern year its fall
[117:06] giving rise to a new generation of mmos
[117:09] eager to claim the crown it once wore
[117:11] with pride and ambition as players
[117:14] community figures and employees depart
[117:17] in record numbers a particularly iconic
[117:20] phrase of theirs is seen to be more and
[117:22] more prophetic with each passing day
[117:25] no king rules forever
[117:36] we are going to offer a level 58
[117:38] boost for purchase but it does come with
[117:41] some restrictions so it's going to be
[117:42] one per account
[117:44] um it's not going to be usable on blood
[117:46] what the [ __ ]
[117:52] [Music]
[118:01] we got a lot of people waiting to be
[118:02] young sentenced to their eternal
[118:05] afterlife man
[118:09] [Music]
[118:13] send them in
[118:20] the state of california is suing video
[118:22] game company activision blizzard for
[118:24] sexual harassment and discrimination
[118:27] city basically suspended
[118:30] and took away ten thousand dollars in
[118:32] his
[118:35] [Music]
[118:44] i don't want to live what you're seeing
[118:51] [Music]
[118:59] who feel alone and are now feeling weird
[119:01] because they're stuck between a weird
[119:03] spot of supporting the company that
[119:04] makes the game and not wanting to
[119:06] support these weird [ __ ] ass grabbers
[119:09] interestingly the board of directors of
[119:11] activision rallying to mr kodak's side
[119:14] almost immediately
[119:17] [Music]
[119:23] i see
[119:26] only darkness
[119:29] before
[119:32] [Music]
[119:47] um
[119:49] [Music]
[119:58] i am truly grateful
[120:03] [Music]
[120:14] [Music]
[120:38] you