Not surprising, I know. Annual passes are beginning
to wear out and the game is, what, nine months into the Dragon Soul patch,
which had arguably the crappiest lasting power since Patch 3.2 (ToC). Bear with me for a moment, though. This
article provides a very interesting piece of info: the name of Activision's
CEO, which also became Blizzard's CEO following the merger in 2008.
Some people have said for a while that the merger damaged
Blizzard's ability to deliver quality content, but I never took them seriously.
First, Blizzard was already controlled by a public company, Vivendi Games, before
the merger. Second, it was said then and now that both companies retained their
respective structures, independent of each other.
But here it is. The guy's "commenting" on
WoW's sub loss, which was supposed to be out of his administrative umbrella. The
wiki article says very clearly that he is the CEO of the combined company. And I
don't know about you, but my experience with these career bureaucrat types is:
if they have an idea of how to make things better, they don't hesitate to pass down
the "suggestion".
Coincidence or not, he became Blizzard's official CEO
months before the release of Wrath of the Lich King, AKA Wrath of the Casuals.
Since then, there has been a marked change in Blizzard's attitude - they became
less relaxed and more like a regular public company. It's hard to define, but
here are some examples.
They became more statistics-driven. Their
public-relations department tightened control. They increased the push to
"modernize" several aspects of the game (i.e. make it more
streamlined - Random Dungeon Finder anyone?). They introduced several cash-cow
"services" and promotions, some of which were once unthinkable, like faction
and name changes, and a massive experience bonus with the recruit-a-friend
program. The game began to actively rely on things like pets, mounts and
events, things that had once been mostly decorative. Got the idea?
Admittedly, this is mostly speculation. It's
likely enough that these moves towards "EA-ization" were actually the
result of a spontaneous shift of opinion within the company, "moving on
with the times" and whatnot. Still, it sounds fishy.
Blizzard's development policy, one of the things that
made them, well, Blizzard, was to make a compelling core game before anything
else. Then they'd worry about
accessibility and cute doodads and stuff. Do you see that happening nowadays?
Yeah, thought not. MoP is all about providing "alternatives", which
suggests they really have no clue as to what they need to focus on.
Blizzard's old development policy was the kind of
philosophy that defines a company. Companies that have a successful, cherished
vision rarely change them as drastically as Blizzard has done, unless the
change is imposed from the top by someone who believes he knows better. I'd
wager that's what happened in their case.
So, was the merger the occasion on
which the spreadsheet
came to Blizzard? We'll never know for sure, unless an employee tells
the world how it really happened (throwing his job out the window in the
process).
All I can say is, hope Valve remains privately held.
