My birthday today, and Blizzard FFing Entertainment · 11:16pm Jul 13th, 2013
I only bring this up because it is the final nail in the coffin for me writing any more related to "World of Ponycraft."
Blizzard has successfully sapped all of my affection, both for the game and for them as a company.
I have my gripes and criticisms about the game, but what has really done it is the offensive and disrespectful nature of their employees. In particular, one of their forum mods by the name of "Omrakos," who normally sticks to moderating the "tech support" section of the battlenet forum, but who left his or her roost to attack me personally in a story forum thread where I jokingly had a character use the meme-phrase "I'm back, bitches."
Nevermind that the actual wording of the forum code of conduct reads, and I quote:
--
(Obscene/Vulgar language)
This category includes both clear and masked language in posts, signatures, and/or links to websites containing such language or images which:
- Are an inappropriate reference to human anatomy or bodily functions
- Are pornographic in nature
--
For which this hardly qualifies. I've naturally opened a ticket of my own to challenge this, but regardless of the outcome, I'm disgusted and offended that their PIS employee will go out of his or her way to attack me for a harmless not-even-a-breach of the rules, while so many others actually go unpunished for much worse. I have been unhappy with Blizzard Entertainment for some time now, despite being a loyal customer of theirs since the DOS Era. I'm old enough to have first played the Diablo beta from a CD I got from PC Gamer magazine. I'm old enough to have purchased the original Warcraft from a retail chain that no longer even exists. I defended Warcraft 2 against Command and Conquer back when everyone used mailing lists and ICQ.
Bit by bit, though, they've worn away at that nostalgia and good will.
Anyway, this is turning into an angry rant. And one that I really didn't want to have on my birthday of all days (hopefully going into NYC and meeting some friends and family will shuffle all this ire into the back of my mind). But it has some relevance to my work here.
I don't think I can write for a franchise and a company I've come to dislike, like World of Warcraft.
While I'm glad I finished World of Ponycraft and that people enjoyed it, and I may revisit it to proofread and remove errors (of which I know there are still a bunch), I don't think I will ever be writing in that universe again. Unless something major happens, Blizzard Entertainment has lost this one person as both a costumer and as a friend and true believer. I don't think I could muster the creative desire to have anything else to do with 'their world.'
Happy birthday, though
You have taken what you liked out of the game and made it yours. World of Ponycraft is your creation and there is no reason to drop it, just because you've lost hope for one of its "parent worlds".
(Still hoping you will write some more one day. I'm still continuing my side story, "A Day at the Quest Hub", even though the work is going rather slowly nowadays.)
1209266
What he said. And Blizzard lost me when they essentially shat on PvE in favor of PvP.
Ouch, that's too bad. Sorry this had to happen on your birthday of all days.
By the way, Happy Birthday!
But, I can sorta feel where you're coming from. Not in the same way mind, but somewhat. Square-Enix has been a frustrating company in recent years and they are only slowly coming back in some gamers' good graces. It's sad too, because they were a company that could do no wrong not too long ago.
Well, maybe getting away from WoW will help you cool down. And who knows? Maybe somewhere down the line things will become better and the sins of the past will be forgotten. Either way, only do things that are fun!
Have a good time in New York!
Happy birthday Cap'n!
"This is your birthday song sorry it's not very long!~"
Happy Birthday, good sir.
A shame to hear about this thing with Blizzard. I don't PC game, so honestly I've got no strong feelings one way or the other about them, but this isn't the first time I heard of unfair treatment at their hands.
So...
Any plans for a new series then?
I enjoyed your WoW crossover very much. I haven't played WoW for over 3 years now, having quit before the Lich King expansion arrived, but reading your story made me nostalgic (even though I don't know much about the more recent developments in the WoW lore). So, thank you very much for having written it!
Now, regarding Blizzard... well, they are a corporation, and I guess it's important to make a distinction between their creative team and their day-to-day employees and all the business side of the thing. Keeping this in mind has helped me previously when corporations utterly destroyed stuff I loved...
Happy Birthday, capn!
I feel your disappointment with Blizzard. That company has been one big let down in recent years.
On the other hand: I have so much more time for other stuff since I dropped WoW.
I'm sorry that happened to you, but I hope that your birthday and all that goes with it was enough to see you through and in to better times.
The employee explosion that WoW necessitated, the merger with Activision, the attrition of core team members; the Blizzard we both loved ceased to exist sometime in 2005.
The betrayal of trust I went through was rough, and it was a slow, gradual process. Sucks that you get the accelerated version on your birthday.
Well despite all that, happy birthday!
not to put to fine of a point on it, but blizzard doesn't care about us old timers. they want the young punks who just got out of, or are still in, high school. their collective atitude shows it as well.
Well Happy Birffday!!
They lost me at Diablo III.
I've remained adamant over the years that 60 cap was best. :3