Decades ago, Blizzard Entertainment was respected for its great games and never received much backlash, but now the company is hated by gamers for not fixing technical difficulties in its games and not understanding its audience.
Last week, Blizzard and DreamHack, a company that specializes in esports tournaments, organized the first major Bay Area network tournament for competitive “Warcraft III: Reforged,” where players competed for a $25,000 prize pool.
“Warcraft III: Reforged” is an remastered edition of the 2002 real-time strategy game, “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos,” both of which are in the “World of Warcraft” franchise, where players control four different factions and craft complex plans to conquer their opponents.
It was about time that the game got a chance to enter esports competitions. The game requires players to know how to play their factions by learning their strengths and weaknesses and how to counter other factions.
The tournament was entertaining to watch for longtime “Warcraft III” fans. Great upsets and matchups kept viewers on the edges of their seats.
Unfortunately, major technical issues disconnected players during the game.
One of the issues occurred during an especially nail-biting series.
The game between pro players Marcus “ThorZaIN” Eklöf and Jang “Moon” Jae-ho was a best-of-three match of an underdog going against the Barry Bonds of “Warcraft III.”
Both players were one match away from advancing into the semifinals.
The third match and first rematch was in favor of Eklöf, but he got disconnected while in the lead against Jang.
In the second rematch, Eklöf couldn’t repeat the same success he had in previous matches and lost to Jang.
This felt unfair and Eklöf should be furious about these technical issues because he was only a couple steps away from leaving the tournament with at least part of the prize pool in his pocket.
After this incident, fans made a GoFundMe for Eklöf because they thought he didn’t deserve to lose the matches when he was in the lead.
It’s sad to see Blizzard get so much flack from its fans lately, but it’s a trend that is not new.
In 2018, Blizzard announced “Diablo Immortal” as the latest installment in one of its older video game series.
What seemed like a brilliant idea ended
in disaster.
Forbes criticized the reveal of “Diablo Immortal” for announcing a mobile game to a console and
PC audience.
Obviously, the fans were upset and they have every right to be, especially because the game was supposedly the big and final announcement of BlizzCon 2018.
It doesn’t end here – “Overwatch 2,” a new game that Blizzard is currently working on, is already getting criticism for being an overpriced expansion pack of the original game.
It’s time for Blizzard to start regaining trust among gamers.
If Blizzard communicates with its fans and responds to feedback, that’s already a step in the right direction.
It should’ve released a public response about this tournament to let fans know it cares.
Blizzard shouldn’t have made this remastered edition of “Warcraft III” because the original game wasn’t as problematic. Future patch updates should make the game return to that state.
