[caption id="attachment_1447" align="alignright" width="120" caption="This sidebar in my opinion is a pretty accurate representation of what Blizzard has become since the merge with Activision (devil picture of Kotick originates from Ars Technica)"]
[/caption]Ok Blizzard, what the fuck...
Are those advertisements I see on the WorldofWarcraft.com website? Why? Why do you need ads on your website? You make millions of dollars DAILY from recurring World of Warcraft subscriptions. Why in the fuck do you feel the need to advertise third party shit to us when we already pay you money? The only people that actually visit your website are those that play your game. Is it because we're not paying you enough money that you need to come up with new ways to generate MORE revenue from us in other ways? The fucking ads aren't even relevant to YOUR game!
I just don't get it. You offered the option for us to change our character names for $10; you offered us the option to transfer between realms so we can play with our friends for $25; hell you even added in the option to let us change our character names, as well as their SEX for $25. That's fine! I can understand the reasoning behind these types of decisions because they're optional convenience fees, and they're also services that are revalent to your game.
When I saw the ads appear on your forums, I was hoping that this was a temporary thing. The ads we saw then were at least somewhat relevant to what your game offered.
You guys decided to merge with Activision to where you guys now are now call yourselves Activision-Blizzard. Activision alone made millions with popular games like Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty 4, and despite the success of these games, even their websites don't have ads on them.
You know what this means, it means you guys are fucking SELLOUTS. None of your other websites like Battle.net, Diablo II, have ads advertising cell phones, credit cards or pizza. Sure other websites have banner links to WorldofWarcraft.com, but I wouldn't count those as ads because it all ties together with your company offers.
It's not very hard to connect the dots here. Ever since this merger, you guys have started doing things that the old Blizzard would never do. Should I point the finger at the new CEO, Bobby Kotick? Ars Technica pointed out alot of things that reflect upon this guy and upon reading up on these articles, I'd say that his way of doing business by milking out everything he can is certainly showing.
Ars Technica's excerpt on Bobby Kotick:
The only reason we care about him is that he makes a ton of money, and yes, that's great for business. I get that. But usually, when you put the devil in charge, you have the good graces to at least keep a smooth-talking demon or two around to deal with the press. With Kotick, he's very brazen about his need to squeeze every last dollar he can out of every franchise under the Activision Blizzard label. He wants to exploit his games. He wants to make sure he has a sequel every year, and don't forget the Wii and DS ports. Why have one StarCraft game if you can have three? Just because people are used to Battle.net being free doesn't mean you can't find some way to make more money from the service.
What's next? What other unnecessary method are you guys going to come up with to bring in more cash? In-game advertising? You might as well start now because you guys already seem to be heading in that direction. You guys are the #1 successful gaming company in this nation, you made a 92% increase in net revenue compared to the prior year. I don't like what I'm seeing here, the latest WoW patch 3.0.8 was a complete disaster, you guys seemed to have shifted your focus from quality, to "how much money can we make.?"
Thank god for Adblock on Firefox.
Oh did you notice how cluttered this particular blog post looked? I had to make a point by doing exactly what Blizzard did to their website... Looks like shit doesn't it?
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