---
title: 'World of Warcraft - Pandora''s Box'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=BazitK-ZgDk'
video_id: 'BazitK-ZgDk'
date: 2026-06-17
duration_sec: 0
---

# World of Warcraft - Pandora's Box

> Source: [World of Warcraft - Pandora's Box](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BazitK-ZgDk)

## Summary



## Transcript

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