Blizzard gamers are not smugly "entitled." Nor are they toxic, and they most certainly are not made about a mobile version of Diablo because they hates the wemyzn (the craziest blue-check theory I've seen so far).
Since I was producer on Diablo 2, a lot of people have been asking for my thoughts on the whole "Diablo Immortal" fiasco. I hate to say it, but what you are seeing is Blizzard not understanding gamers anymore.
There is nothing wrong with having a mobile version of Diablo. In fact, I would have wanted one as an option. But the way it was hinted at, and presented, and the failure of Blizzard management to predict the backlash caught me my surprise. Blizzard used to be really gamer driven
Blizzard coyly played up the Diablo hype, which is a good move, but failed to anticipate that their PC based audience was going to expect...well...a PC based announcement. And that following all that hype up with a different product is a huge bait-n-switch feeling moment.
Blizzard has said now, that they are working on multiple Diablo projects. They really should have dropped a teaser for their PC based project alongside their mobile announcement if that's the case.
But what is really telling, is that this surprised them. They were expecting backlash, but they didn't have a plan for it. They didn't predict the wave. Any Diablo gamer could have simply TOLD you what would happen if you asked.
Blizzard never used to have to ask, because it was made up of hard core gamers from top to bottom. We used to say we were our own harshest audience for our games. I would have had a line of devs outside my door telling me this was a bad move.
The fact that Blizzard was a) unprepared for this reaction and b) had no plans to mitigate it even knowing some of it was coming, is a great disappointment to me. It smacks of "Ya well, suck it down" (sorry J. Romero, wasn't your fault).
This isn't a toxic gamer issue, it's not an entitlement issue. It's just bad PR handling and ...a bad culture on the part of Blizzard I'm sad to say. It's a culture that says "we know better" and fits right in with "you think you don, but you don't."
Maybe you don't know better, anymore, Blizzard. Maybe you've really lost touch with gamers and you are now in some billion dollar a year ivory tower. That needs some reflection on your part. Because that's out big businesses fail. Remember Nokia? Remember Blockbuster Video?
Today's devs needs to talk to gamers all the time. Game dev has gotten so big it's easy to lose touch. Many devs stop playing games as they start making them professionally. You need to make an effort to connect and tear down the corporate wall and get to know your audience.
And I like how Blizzard isn't blaming their customers (yet), but say they are "passionate." That's pretty good so far, but an apology an a PC reveal would be better. They are busy with Blizzcon wind-down, but I hope to see a better response after all this.
As for mainstream game journalists, they ARE blaming gamers, and so are a lot of know-nothing devs in mobile and indie. To them I say: be prepared to lose a lot of customers and money. Because it's never right to blame your customers for your own PR blunders and learn nothing.
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