/games/ - Games

After the Activision buyout, Blizzard’s leading game designers would go on to ruin AAA gaming for millions of people. Personally, I think blizzard’s mentality for accessibility is what caused the problems.

Blizzard used to keep world of warcraft (WOW) easy. Old WOW used to be simple to learn and simple to play. The progression system was easy, so was the combat, and the quests were simple to understand. For most players, the game wasn’t too competitive and it was easy to make friends.

Milsims like Arma and Squad still have that “easy to learn, easy to make friends” kind of appeal. Even the early soulsborne series had that “simple in design, easy to find fun” appeal despite what the masochists claimed about the souls series. Most AAA games released by blizzard and other high-ranking studios abondoned this approach to game design.

Blizzard catered to the hardcore players too much and made WOW hard. I’m glad that the devs are going back on most of the changes, but the damage and legacy is all still there. Multiplayer shooters are worse than ever. It’s basically impossible to get into any new multiplayer game without being bombarded with endlessly convoluted systems and a hardcore player-base. Gaming is so much harder now. Even games that should feel easy like path of exile 2 play as if I need a manual again to understand what’s going on.