Josh Strife Hayes just premiered this video.
A timely release, because yesterday the new raid in World of Warcraft just released and it was already cleared within an hour on Normal mode once the servers came up from a very lengthy maintenance session that doesn't speak well for either the company or for California's infrastructure. The reaction from the target audience is less than neutral; they hate it--look at that Dislike ratio, on an unlisted video--because every bad writing trope that got called out before Shadowlands released got confirmed here- including my own "Write By MadLibs" comments. See for yourself
The enthusiasm for this patch isn't there. Between incompetent, amateurish, and insulting writing and incompetent, half-assed game design--including broken and bugged quests, despite EIGHT MONTHS to get this ready, even their value cohort of raiders just ain't feeling it. They're going through the motions, but they don't care and it would not take much right now to induce them to leave.
Like, say, a better game with top-tier raids that are no less demanding of player skill both as individuals and as a team- like Final Fantasy XIV does with Savage and Ultimate raiding.
Which brings me to WOW's top influencer: Asmongold.
When he streams, he normally has 50-60K viewers on Twitch. Roughly one in four are paying subscribers. He is always on top when he streams, and his second channel--also monetized--is now also pulling five-digit viewer numbers with about the same ratio of subscribers. He may look like a loser, and he plays that role, but he's not; he's not at all hurting for income, and he's taking care of his mother with it.
He is WOW's biggest magnet, and the company--as it is now--hates him for it. He is exactly the player the SJWs running the show want to replace with compliant soyboys and simps, and thus he single-handedly kept the game a going concern in the realm of gaming public relations far better than anything Blizzard has ever done. To say that they repay such loyalty with dogshit is an understatement; he's actually banned from Blizzard events.
So, when the most important asset the company has for PR goes off the reservation to play their top competitor and gets massive six-digit viewer ship for it as well as a hearty welcome by Twitch's FF14 streamers, it's a big deal and any competent marketing/PR guy recognizes this fact. Square Enix? Some of their guys go into Asmon's chat and purchase gift subscriptions to random chatters. Blizzard? Official silence, and unofficial hostility in public.
Why in God's name would you play a game made by people that hate you?
A critical mass has finally gotten the hint and made the move, because Asmongold wants to reach the cap and raid in 14 and that means everyone he brought with him will (a) follow him there, (b) take out full accounts with paid time to do so, (c) buy the upcoming expansion to keep up with him and that (d) means more people doing more actual play across the board.
To say that Square Enix isn't noticing is to be so very wrong. The people bothering Asmongold over the weekend got banned or suspended on Monday, taking hits like bolt of lightning hurled by Zeus in one of his many spasms of anger at mortal arrogance. Blizzard, by the way, have never said or did anything thing to address the exact same problem in all the years Asmongold played the game--either Retail or Classic--and won't change now; they can't be bothered to protect an asset. SE can and does. Go where you're valued, Asmon.
And yeah, Asmongold is enjoying the game. He's engaged the narrative and picked up tanking in 14 with ease. (Just needs to stop moving when he doesn't need to, so he stops fucking over melee DPS.) Because the leader of the pack is in public enjoying the thing, it is clear to the pack that it is okay to enjoy the thing. The pack does what the alpha says it may do. This is it, the moment of decision, where the momentum shifts and we can see the rival begin to overtake the champion.
To quote Terenes Menethil, "No king rules forever."
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