It's a shame watching the quite literal rage that has come about from a company announcing a product decision that wasn't the one that some portion, however large, of the community wanted. Assuming Kotaku is correct and there is still a new Diablo separate from this in the works, then it's a societal disgrace to watch grown adults raging out over a mobile game being announced ESPECIALLY in the context of the game that they actually want is ALSO in the works.
I find it odd that you demand some sort of standard from the game journalism community but find no need to expect a reasonable standard from the gamer community.
"Hey, we're working on the game you want. In the mean time here's another game for different users."
"Noooooo! I've been betrayed! This is the ultimate insult!!!!"
And as much as people don't want to admit it, gamergate was the same thing.
I've spent a lot of time gaming in my past, but there's something unhealthy floating around here. If you saw this own behavior in your own son or daughter you'd recognize it instantly.
And now to take this one step too far, to where I'll get negative responses: It's almost as if the hundreds of hours spent in online cultures where flaming vitriol is spewed at the smallest slight has developed a subculture where (obviously not all) but a significant group of people can't handle when things slightly deviate from their wants.
It's funny, but I'm reminded of Willy Wonka's factory tour.
You know what pc gamers don't like? Pay2win. And any business model that usually runs on mobile that is not buy once (or monthly subscription), because in any other situation, the game is focused on pulling more money for you.
That’s why people feel betrayed by a mobile game. They created their average customer to be of a specific niche, then they create something that is completely out of that niche. What's your expectation there? Did you ever try to show a ballet instead of a soccer game at the stadium? I bet the problem would be much worse.
And to be fair, I don't care at all (and I stopped being a Blizzard fan long long time ago), I just find ridiculous that people can't understand why the fans are angry.
They created the fans, then created a game that is completely against their fanbase.
The largest, from what I gather.
Speaking as a non-fan, it was an egregious mistake to announce it at a conference geared toward hardcore Diablo consumers. This is conspicuously glossed over in social media commentary: had they announced it online in business-as-usual fashion no one would care. Instead we're directed to shame fans about not collectively giving a fuck about mediocre cash grabs.
Because that business model is profitable, and entertainment is a business like any other. If you don't like it, you are free not to play it. Besides some potential for gambling addiction (about which state lotteries are a far more important target for your ire if that is your concern), mobile games produce no externalities whatsoever.
I continue to be completely mystified with the concept of outrage about video games. If you want to be outraged about corporate behavior, there are a multitude of examples of corporate malfeasance with actual negative externalities, such as the coal industry's contribution to climate change.
And then the gaming 'media' calls theys guys out as assholes, which really shows how strings are really pulled behind the curtains.
Precisely this. It's not that feeble because you must remember what Blizzcon is. Know your audience. Blizzcon audience has paid $199 to get in. They are quite hard core PC gamers. If your main show for them is something they are not interested of course they are gonna be unhappy.
If Blizzard wants to change Blizzcon they should tell the audience that "Blizzcon 2018 is focused on mobile" before they buy the tickets.
Don't suddenly change the theme and expect a good reaction
Well, absolute outrage is not absolute. This isn't something that's accurately metered. As with everything in outrage culture, the media tells us the outrage is palpable and we simply accept it. Users voicing their displeasure on reddit / twitter / youtube in any capacity is all it takes for the rags to twist this into an apocalyptic, mouth-frothing rage machine. It's a complete joke. The barrier to typing a few words for the world to see is paper thin. Displeasure isn't rage.
It's easy to manipulate discourse this way because anything can be construed as utter outrage.
What is unique in gaming is the feedback loop that happens. First the media responds by saying the guy is an asshole. Then the gamers respond with more vitriol. Then there is "Everyone hating the mobile diablo is a misogynist" kind of tweets. Rinse and repeat.
Do note I'm not justifying it. Merely trying to reason about why especially in gaming these outrages escalate into insane heights instead of dying in meh after a day or two.
We have been seeing this kind of vicious circle elsewhere too lately. As an example the latest Star Wars film where it ended up so bad that if you didn't like the film you were a Russian troll.
The complaint here is that Blizzard is abandoning the people who made them rich, and the off the cuff remark about phones is proof of the latent disrespect they have for their customers. The fact that it was an awkward unscripted remark is what makes it sincere, and shows what lies just under the surface when they don't have their marketing staff to edit their press releases.
"OH, they're doing it to make more money" isn't a good excuse. They already make enough money. Blizzard should reciprocate loyalty to the people who are loyal to them, and that breach of respect is why people are mad.
"I can see" doesn't make it reasonable, nor rational. Maybe because you're deeper in it you're more acclimated, but to most viewers it's like saying "I can see my 5 year old throwing a tantrum, crying and throwing his clothes off in the middle of the grocery store because he wants to eat the ice cream now and not wait until we're home."
The “do you guys not have phones?” remark was in response to the crowd booing. It got a few laughs at the time.
What about the concept of outrage about programming languages, frameworks, web browsers, operating systems, laptops, phones, open source? I guess 99.9% of the population would be mystified with the outrages that we can see on Hacker News.
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17221527
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413572
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940144
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18052923
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17927972
(just few recent examples, the list could go on)
Diablo is just a goddamn video game.
The Super Bowl is "just a goddamn game" too. The Harry Potter series is "just a goddamn book" and Game of Thrones is "just a goddamn TV show". I'm sure whatever leisure activities you enjoy can easily be given a sneering dismissal as well.
Are we not allowed to have passion for our hobbies?
Not only that, they have an impact on democracy. The importance of FB, AMZN, AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT to society has never been higher. The relevance of ATVI to anything important is, to a first approximation, zero.
I simply can't help noticing the striking difference to the reaction to SyFy's cancellation of The Expanse.
I don't think it's fair to claim that. Lotteries have been around a lot longer and gambling addiction has had a lot more time to be studied. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if mobile games turn out to be as bad or worse than lotteries. The sheer amount of effort into creating addictive game mechanics and leveraging of statistical methods, such as A/B testing, puts traditional casinos and state lotteries to shame.
Having said all that, you don't have to look very far to see some alarming articles about the effects these products have on young children [1].
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/style/phones-children-sil...
And Blizzard is free not to listen to the otherwise more than justified response.
And when they have to close because all the fanbase has moved on, and we get thousands of tweets about how great the developers working there were, and how sad it is they don't have a job any more, we'll be free to ignore them.
The "but climate change" is just whataboutism because gaming isn't important to you, so why aren't people paying more attention to what is important to you.
edit to clarify: This may sound a little hostile but it isn't intended as such. I'm just explaining that some people really do care about this stuff just as you really care about your own hobbies or pet cause.
And yet you don't see people who follow those hobbies throwing an absolute fit like gamers are now doing continuously.
Because emacs-vs-vim used to a flame-war guarantee, and the stupid thing is that nobody is impacted by another persons text-editor, unless they are sharing a computer that can't have both installed (so anything with more than 30mb hd)
For the last ~4 years, everything from game reviews that gamers disagreed with, to character stencils, have been positioned as the worst things to ever happen to gaming. Some in the community liken it to actual discrimination against gamers.
People are always going to be upset when something they're passionate about gets ruined. Being continuously attacked by the game press also sets up the whole conversation to be very hostile.
The internet is great for consumer rights. Consumers hold all of the cards and corporations are there to serve them. I don't think anyone should be feeling sorry for companies will multi billion dollar marketcaps or mainstream press. They are not ever going to be the victim.
Compare this to Fallout Shelter. No-one minded as it was not made to be the prime of a show, especially one not focused on mobile gaming.
Even announcing it before wc3 remastered would have produced way less outrage.
It’s like having a classical music festival suddenly change into heavy rock and then whining about how the audience is entitled. There is nothing wrong with either music style. It’s just the sudden switch from what the audience expected that’s jarring.
From the article:
"it’s a fully fledged Diablo experience on mobile, which everybody will get to play, and hopefully, which will bring new heroes to Sanctuary as well as welcoming our community back into it and something we’re very excited about."
Blizzard has simplified their games to grow their customer base, such as the Cataclysm expansion to World of Warcraft. These simplifications have not been well received by the existing players. My reaction to Diablo Immortal is skepticism about how much crunch there will be. Diablo 3 was not terribly interesting for me after you got past the first few playthroughs, compared to Diablo 2 or more modern ARPGs like Path of Exile.
It's not really anger, it's disappointment; if Immortal turns out to be a great game, I'll happily buy it. The noises Blizzard are hearing from the fans are basically a reminder that they have lost customers when trying to get new ones.
I already used the concert analogy but it’s good. If your rap music concert suddenly switches into techno the audience may be angry without being entitled edgelords. It’s about knowing your audience. And most importantly communicating it.
I don't understand why the response from people that should know better is to act surprised at them, and feel justified in stooping to such low levels and pettiness themselves.
Well, I guess I can make guesses as to the "why," but none of them are answers that would let me sleep well at night if I were the one doing it. Maybe the sleep deprivation is why they're so cranky.
Gamers: "Is this a joke? We don't want mobile Diablo"
Game Press: "Gamers are whiny, entitled, toxic babies"
You can see it here for yourself: https://i.redd.it/6mgpttba94w11.jpg
It's been this way for a long time and was the reason Gamergate became a thing (see "Gamers are Dead"). The worst part is that because the journalists in the game industry are friends with the journalists in the mainstream media, their take on "toxic" gamers gets spread beyond the industry and their own actions never get called out aside from grassroots movements.
In the end, people who don't have time to research the topic themselves, believe the narrative they're told thus empowering the journalists to continue to attack their audience.
I realize how stupid I was at that point, and while I don't think I went "full-on-mysogyny", I was definitely holding a somewhat dated viewpoint which I regret now.
"In the end, people who don't have time to research the topic themselves, believe the narrative they're told thus empowering the journalists to continue to attack their audience."
They are definitely not representing the consumer here.
Any publications out there that might be an exception?
That said, Niche Gamer is alright if you don't mind seeing a lot of anime in their articles. I don't care for anime games as a rule but it doesn't offend me either.
>The explosion of outrage has many on social media discussing the extent to which video game culture enables entitlement. It’s not surprising, after all, that there’s been some pushback on the idea of a mobile Diablo game. What’s shocking here is the sheer amount of molten vitriol that’s pouring in over what seems to be a pretty cut-and-dry situation: A proper new Diablo has been and continues to be in the works, and Diablo Immortal is its own thing that’s not detracting from that. Also, the game itself is fine, if a little too shallow. No harm, no foul—aside from maybe some hurt feelings over unfulfilled expectations. And yet, people have decided that this is the ultimate betrayal, all because a single game isn’t hyper-focused on the diehard PC and console crowd. It’s fine and understandable to be skeptical of a big company, but the reaction here is wildly disproportionate to what Blizzard’s actually done.
Or see Mashable https://mashable.com/article/diablo-immortal-hands-on/
Or this https://twitter.com/WillJPowers/status/1058446033724694528
Gaming journalism is just terrible trash. The fact that these companies are trying to be immune and there are people who get paid to defend them is outrageous. No other medium does that.
And people wonder how the hell do they get away with p2w and gambling mechanics in games.