The Business: Official Classic Plus Is A Sure Bet

Archvaldor is notorious for his clever use of game mechanics in WOW Retail and Classic. His Patreon has more devious such stuff.

He cut this video last Wednesday. He shows why he comes to his conclusions and how; he's on to something here and folks ought to be paying attention to what he's saying.

People routinely ignore Second Order effects as a mechanism. Archvaldor shows one such example in action; Forever ressurected entire sections of YouTube and Twitch that had been withering on the vine due to how Retail and Classic had been and how hostile Blizzard is to private servers.

Furthermore, Forever fulfills the promise of a fully-enclosed Walled Garden that Preach explained years ago when they launched Classic.

The reason Forever will do this where Classic relaunches do not? No resets. No vertical progression, only horizontal.

The issue is that vertical progression--raised level caps, raised item level caps, new abilities, gear upgrades--means that content tied to a past tier gets abandoned and thus induced Fear Of Missing Out in players who could access it but aren't with the cresting wave and those too far behind might as well (and do) quit until the reset hits and then they can attempt to catch up to ride the wave thereafter.

This is a nightmare. It's stupidly expensive to run, only going up over time, and it is no surprise that this always results in a seasonal business model just like Fortnite or any other multiplayer game with a meta-driven endgame mode. Better and cheaper to avoid it entirely.

That's what Forever does. That's the source of the appeal.

For Blizzard it is the catch-basin. Retail/Classic turndowns are now caught by Forever, since the same subscription fee pays for access to all three modes. Retail players, finished for the patch, can come over to Forever and pick up where they left off without missing anything. Classic players, ready for another Wrath relaunch or the rumored (but WHY?) release of "Classic Warlords of Draenor") can safely bench their Forever toons knowing that whatever they're doing will be fine while they're rushing to punch Arthas in the face one more time or reliving why WOD was such a shitfest.

And for the aging core player audience, having a mode where they can fuck off for weeks or months at a time and not lose anything is HUGE. That's why we're seeing this do big numbers. This is a win for Blizzard, and that's going to reflect well beyond what is obvious; the new Official WOW D&D releases are going to do even better because of this, which makes that alliance between WOTC and Blizzard look even better now.

Don't be surprised to see Hearthstone rolled into Magic in the future because of this.

The Culture: No Fun Allowed Still

This is not at all surprising.

Blizzard is Big Corpo. They answer to their parents, who in turn answer to Private Equity and PE gets assmad over anything at all resembling a Brand Risk.

Having seen several of the names people come up with, oversensitivity to Brand Risk must have had a fainting spell or 42 over the last few days. Slurs, pro-Commie faggotry, and more go on without issue; it's only those left of Mao or otherwise disliked by the mods. (Someone go for "Izzat Juggaad" and see what happens.)

Hell, I still remember when I got forcibly logged out just because some faggot didn't like that I named my Hunter's pet Gorilla "Harambe" (it was a white Gorilla too).

Therefore, shitposting via names must be done with subtlty and a bit of class. This is not the game of Tiggole Bitties anymore, and it hasn't been for many years.

The Business: Network Effect Convergence In Action

The shill channels are cutting videos on the new WOW tie-in book for Official Edition.

Told you that this was a defacto merger strat. Now you're seeing it in action.

You can expect more of this when the Mouse Wars book hits.

The Networks are merging.

The end goal is that THERE IS ONE ENTERTAINMENT MONOCULTURE where all IP engagement is corpo-controlled across ALL media.

People refuse to look past their own noses, so I won't be surprised to see people being unable to comprehend this being the objective, but it is.

WOW Forever pioneeers official controller support for the MMO. That can be done with a Steam Deck, which means it's a half-step away from being playable on mobile.

Tabletop, via Official Edition, is also moving to being playable on mobile.

The mobile app for Official Edition is a few years away. The merging of the two games into a single property briding over multiple media is even further away, but it is now clearly on the table; Fortnite paved the way, and this is the next step in that same business model.

I underestimated how bad the commercial side of the cataclysm that came upon the Cargo Cult is, and how devastating this damage shall shake out to be.

The Business: Welcome Back, Leeroy

This is a good sign for the official Classic Plus realm.

LETS DO THIS

LEEROY JENKINS pic.twitter.com/wLNvEfebme

— Leeroy Jenkins (@leeroyjenkinsol) September 19, 2026

The legend returns. This man couldn't be bothered to stay with Retail all this time, and he wasn't around much for the Classic releases, but here he is now for this.

Yes, the memes flowed.

But if someone who, now middle-aged, is willing to come back into the public sphere then there's sufficient enthusiasm to carry the launch forward into the long-tail business model that Blizzard promised.

Reports out of the Beta confirm that this edition of the game is sufficiently changed to make this no-FOMO, no-GOGOGO play paradigm practical and achievable. Explicit shutdowns of whines by Retail Andys about things in the Classic vein, coupled with implementation of systems that guarantee economic stability via strong gold sinks (Black Market Auction House) and solid price ceilings (vendors selling rare materials at a fixed gold cost, making it impossible to corner the market on them to jack up the price- no more Devilsaur Mafia bullshit).

I am impressed with what's there so far. I even think Air Elves are going to be fine, especially if they do tie them into the Thunderfury story somehow.

WOW 2 is here.

The Business: The Rest Out Of BlizzCon

I don't care about Hearthstone, Overwatch, or Heroes of the Storm.

Given how both the core Blizzard audience and Blizzard itself treats these games, neither do they. Therefore I haven't paid any attention to their announcements.

Warcraft matters. Starcraft matters. Diablo matters. Those three IPs sit on top--control the Network Effect for--their respective niches (MMO, RTS, ARPG) Everything else does not because it does not (CounterStrike, League of Legends, Magic- those three rule the Effects in those niches).

I implore you--Vidya and Tabletop alike--to stop being fucking retarded faggots about this. You want to know why Blizzard and WOTC signed that deal allying together?

NETWORK EFFECTS, MOTHERFUCKER!

Each recognizes the other as the dominant Network. Only a superior Network can defeat an enemy Network. They both see Fortnite and Roblox as their real enemies, so their alliance allows them to join forces on a long-term plan to defeat those threats by first consuming and assimilating their own also-rans. This is going to be far easier to do on the Tabletop end, and not just with Official DND, as it will be in Vidya but it can be, and will be, done.

Blizzard has AI expertise. WOW is making AI DMs and players. You better believe that Blizzard's expertise will be applied to WOTC's aims.

You Tabletop and Vidya people gainsaying me now are going to be apologizing to me before this is over.

The Business: WOW Forever Demo Shown

The big WOW streamers were at BlizzCon. They took the chance to stream the demo for Forever.

Xaryu showed the new Racials and Class/Race combos; Horde Skyeborne get Shaman instead of Mage but are otherwise the same.

And this new starting zone feels and looks a lot like the High Elf starting zone that Turtle WOW made mixed with some recolored Night Elf assets.

He didn't mess around much in the new zone before doing the demo dungeon, which is another video of his (as he rerolled Undead Mage for that).

But hey, at least Dwarf Hunters aren't totally subpar compared to other Class/Race combos in Forever. The metagame in Forever is going to be sigificantly different than Classic (every iteration thereof) and Retail.

As this is, something things will remain the same:

• Humans remains the best Paladins
• Night Elves remain best Druids
• Trolls are the best for ANY Horde class with defined burst windows in PVE, and contend in PVP if they can get a Swifty macro attack off.
• Dwarves are always good for treasure-hunting parties

But there's going to be meta shifts. I can already see some of them coming, but more will be sussed out when the Beta drops.

The Business: Expect WOW Forever In Official D&D

Yep, we're still on the BlizzCon beat.

Yes, they're talking a good game.

Yes, they will deliver on what they promised in that panel.

What they didn't tell you is that they are able to do so this fast by taking the code from Turtle WOW, Ascension, Project Epoch, and some other Classic Plus Private Servers when they shut them down and then appropriate it to fit their own Brand Safe version of Classic Plus.

No, unlike Conquest of Azeroth, this will not use all-new classes (I could not die as a Witch Hunter tank by the time I hit 60, and I tried). No, unlike Mysteries of Azeroth, we aren't getting proper High Elves. No, unlike Project Epoch, they aren't putting in low-level transit accelerators (i.e. ground taxis across zones). None of the new zones are those from any PServer and neither are the new dungeons.

But the concepts? Oh yeah. Camping? That's from Ascension. New subzones and their placements? Many are in or near what we saw in those PServers. The remixed classic raids? Totally from Ascension. Hyjal as a zone? Already done in PServers, and as that post-Third War scenario. Adding expansion to existing factions, new Battlegrounds reflecting known flashpoints, etc. are all their versions of what these PServers already proved to work.

It's fitting, after a fashion, that this is Blizzard doing what it was already known for: taking things that work and then polishing them to a Normie-friendly sheen.

And all of it is going to come to Official D&D in the years to come thanks to Universes Beyond. This is the WOW version that is made with Official D&D in mind.

So first you play it virtually, then at your table. Enjoy what Total Memetic Domination looks like.

The Business: Beware New Starcraft (Etc.)

Maybe you shouldn't announce anything years before its purported release.

Pure vibes. Nothing of substance. Just a statement of intent, and I'm certain someone's going to get a talking to about the implications of letting a precious brownoid of uncertain provenance get the cannon fodder treatment instead of Whitey come Monday.

While this isn't a Star Citizen situation, it is a bothersome one nonetheless. RTS is not popular now, so Blizzard can't just C&D some PServer and take their code and with it their R&D. They need to deliver off entirely their own merit, and that's as lacking at Blizzard as it is in other Western AAA studios.

Consider that all of their announcements are either appropriations of others work, or "Break Glass In Case Of Emergency" releases.

Folks wanted this for decades. Only now are they getting it, and some of what's shown here echoes what's coming to Classic and is in Forever.

Furthermore, due to the crossover with Wizards of the Coast, all of this will come to Tabletop in Official D&D sooner or later- the WOW book is already up for sale.

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE NOT SEEING BECAUSE THEY CAN'T COMPREHEND SECOND ORDER EFFECTS!

This makes WOTC's annoucements at GenCon even more paradigm-shattering than I thought.

The Business: Official WOW Classic Plus Confirmed

BlizzCon's going on this weekend.

Blizzard killed Turtle WOW earlier this year, and killed Ascension last weekend (which also killed Project Epoch). That pressaged the arrival of Official Classic Plus, confirmed now.

There's a prelaunch sale going on right now on the official servers with the usual bonuses that are also usable in Retail and/or Classic servers.

This is what would get me paying Blizzard again. Retail is not only too pozzed, but the system requirements are starting to strain my machine until I can upgrade the graphics card. Classic is worthless past Wrath of the Lich King.

And, once again, Network Effects prove their worth. Blizzard OWNs the MMO Network Effect, especially within its own IP. Private Servers are now tolerated insofar as they (a) keep lapsed subscribers in the Network and (b) do the R&D that Blizzard either can't or won't do anymore because holy shit are so much of Forever's offerings exactly what the dead PServers been known for (Undead Paladins was the tell). Let them figure out what works, what new ideas hit, then C&D and shut them down to get their code to incorporate into the official game.

Wizards of the Coast would do that if they could, hence yet another reason for their pivot.

The Business: The Private WOW Server Scene Keeps Showing Tabletop Cultists Up

This got announced on July 31st.

I keep telling you that WOW and D&D are analogous due to occupying the apex of their respective media and market niches.

We see these private servers keeping coming despite Blizzard going after them because ONLY WORLD OF WARCRAFT MATTERS (as much as FF14 wishes otherwise; they had their chance to usurp WOW and MISSED- that's never happening again).

Look at what they consistently offer: giving the target audience what they want, with superior convience- same as what WOTC did and does, but no Tabletop competitor even thinks to offer. Only that Project Aurora guy has even broached the question- that's how deep in the sauce Cargo Cultists are. If this Russian-based private server can deliver half of what it promises, it will CLOWN on Blizzard hard.

This is how competition within a Network Effect works. You only win if you can deliver what the target audience wants better than the big dog. This can be done in Vidya; Tabletop should be easier, but it's not because Oldfags are retards who can't think past their nose or they'd be doing this sort of thing to WOTC on a regular basis.

This is how Blizzard deals with it: shut them down, then steal their best ideas (and code) to incorporate (in a watered down manner) on Retail and/or Classic servers.

WOTC could have done the same thing; they will not need to going forward because there will be sweet fuck-all to steal.

The Business: Wizards Confirms The Fortnite Strategy

Wizards of the Coast dropped their keynote at GenCon.

What I told you is on the cards is confirmed.

WOTC's taking Official D&D down the Fortnite route of All The Brand crossovers while outsourcing its own IP to aligned 3rd parties to make stuff and going mobile-centric with MXT. Time for the smug face. pic.twitter.com/bnQAF6U4SY

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) July 30, 2026

Major Announcements

Dark Sun returns (Season of Survival, 2027) as D&D’s first mature-rated fifth-edition setting. The harsh world of Athas features defiling magic, psionics, and sorcerer-kings. Releases include the gameplay expansion Dark Sun: Blood and Power, the adventure expansion Dark Sun: Edge of Oblivion, a map pack, DM screen, and a limited-edition Player’s Handbook with alternate art. It introduces the Scion/Psion class and carries content warnings for violence and mature themes (shrink-wrapped with a warning). Localized editions (French, Italian, German, Spanish) follow later in 2027.

Universes Beyond launches as a new crossover initiative:

• D&D: World of Warcraft (Season of Champions, November 2026; early access ~Nov 3, full release Nov 17) brings Azeroth to the table with 13 classes (new/reimagined subclasses and specializations), 16 species (including Dracthyr, Vulpera, etc.), 60+ spells, monsters, dungeons (including reimagined iconic ones), factions with renown, mounts, and more. A map pack with Icecrown Citadel content and other accessories are planned.
• A Star Wars collaboration (Season of Rebellion, 2027) was teased, with more details to come.

D&D Icons (led by Joe Manganiello) pairs legendary creators with the studio:

• Dragonlance with Tracy Hickman.
• Greyhawk with Luke Gygax (drawing on Gary Gygax’s notes, partly through Melf’s perspective).
• Drizzt Do’Urden content with R.A. Salvatore.

Greyhawk: Crown of the Witch Queen is a full-length adventure expanding on Drelnza (vampire daughter of Iggwilv/Tasha) from classic material.

Studio partnerships for more setting content: Ghostfire Gaming (Ravenloft, 2027), Visionary Productions (Eberron adventure featuring the Lord of Blades, 2028), and Kobold Press (Forgotten Realms content, 2028).

D&D Beyond

updates emphasize making the game easier to play together:

• Live Looking for Group tools (Event Finder for stores, rebuilt Discord LFG, limited-time cheap sessions via StartPlaying).
• Upcoming features: rebuilt search, DM prep tools (scene manager, map pins, etc.), mapless encounter tools.
• New mobile app (early 2027) powered by a new rules engine.

Other notes: The Warlock video game protagonist’s patron is the archfey Tasha (voiced by Maggie Robertson); full gameplay reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live (Aug 25). The official actual-play series Dungeon Masters will visit Azeroth then return to the Forgotten Realms (Icewind Dale). Arcana Unleashed (Season of Magic) arrives in September 2026 with subclasses, backgrounds, feats, spells, and more.

The presentation positioned these as additive to core D&D worlds, with staffing increased to support both classic settings and crossovers, aiming to bring more players to the table across formats. Official details and the full roadmap are available on D&D Beyond and the Dungeons & Dragons site.

Told you so.

All that's missing is the AI bots to run games and fill out parties; those are still in the works, so we'll hear more about those down the road.

The Business: This Is What Fighting A Dominant Network Effect Looks Like

Remember what I said about the private server scene being the MMO equivalent of Tabletop's Retroclone movement?

Well, we just saw yet another expression of that being the case. Yesterday, Project Ascension launched their latest game mode: Conquest of Azeroth.

Since a lot of you are neither current nor former World of Warcraft players, I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I'm playing Ranger and Witch Hunter right now and enjoying it. I tried Barbarian during the pre-launch Stress Test, which took a bit to figure out but also turned out fine. Trying the new Support role with the Ranger class. Can't say about the rest.

What I want to explain to you is this:

1. There are Vidya analogies to Tabletop issues.
2. World of Warcraft is the D&D of MMOs.
3. Due to long-running antagonism to its legacy audience, there's been splintering that lead to cloning of past editions; this would lead to official Classic realms, but that was not enough, and neither did the recent Remix limited-time servers do that either, but rather a "Classic Plus" (Vanilla with different decisions implemented, and more content added) is what folks want.
4. Private servers fulfill this demand- as retroclones do for people who want their specific flavor of B/X (etc.) put into a single plug-and-play product. This is mostly a WOW thing, but private servers are also how dead MMOs carry on (e.g. Star Wars Galaxies).
5. Blizzard has become more hostile to this over time, and operators are becoming more savvy about protecting their operations- and not just in immediately rebranding and relaunching after a shutdown (as Turtle WOW did, twice). Other corpos are no friendlier.
6. Network Effects dominate MMOs harder than they do Tabletop, as Josh Strife Hayes proved a while back, so the only viable way to compete is to fight WITHIN the Network Effect.
7. Therefore, only WOW can kill WOW- and thus a superior private server is a threat to Blizzard.

Due to the nature of the medium, and the specific game, something like the Bros happening is going to take a different form than it did in Tabletop.

Instead you're seeing OSR, not BROSR, insurgencies; they're doing the retroclone thing because that's what works. Some wipe their asses with IP law (like Ascension), some pretend it's real and do the "legally distinct" thing, but both of them are doing clones of MMOs with proven audiences because the risk calculation of MMO launching for anyone that is not Le Big Corpo now is too high to be acceptable- and recently failures only doubled-down on that perception (Ashes of Creation also being outed as a scam).

That's why the real expansion is in competing with the dominant Networks from the inside, and as private servers have already proven to work they're going to keep working.

The next step will be to find a way to make a WOW server that finds a way to do Braunstein style play--which, in this context, means somewhere between EVE Online, Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot by way of Guild Wars and its sequels--as was done in many a MUD before that.

And the crazy thing is, I bet some guy--and it's going to be a guy--is going to be the one to take things like Winning Secrets and find a way to make that happen.

The Business: Yes, Blizzard Broke MMOs

In the name of making it easier for the dads on the dev team, Blizzard permanently broke the game and thus the entire product category.

The correct response was to do the following:

1. Make dungeons harder, but make the loot better- both in potency and in acquisition. "Fuck You, Pay Me" always applies. Loot must drop for everyone involved, and be immediately useful; you should always get either an upgrade or (if none are to be had) the gold equivalent. If you put in work, you get paid GUARANTEED.
2. Make certain that all mans of a given role can perform necessary functions. Tanks and healers should not be doing interrupts or crowd control; that's the DPS' job, and fulfilling such utility cannot be a DPS loss or they won't do it. Healers should be situationally aware, not locked on the healthbars; either healing happens while doing utility or DPS work, or they have off-OCDs that light up to be instant nukes after doing enough GCD heals whose net effect is DPS neutral.
3. Mobs should always have something that requires CC on pain of either instant death or loss of control- not just bosses.
4. Bosses should require Tank mitigation to endure being hit at all; against Healers and DPS, squish.
5. Instant spec-change/gear-change upon entrance to the required group role, assuming that you are foolish enough to not hard-lock classes into them in the first place. This is one place where FF14 is correct in its design.
6. Design dungeons to be completable in 10 minutes or less on average. That means cutting bosses to one, and reducing trash to a handful of packs at most. Winged dungeon complexes should be the norm. This is the core problem, not the grouping issue. The reason for pre-DF being a pain was due to the time required; cut it down to something you'd see in a Scenario out of MOP and you'd see participation skyrocket. Going with a winged complex approach means that you can turn one area into three or more distinct dungeons to run, and each run would actually feel like a proper delve and not a reckless roller coaster ride.

In short, increase the friction in the content, reduce the time commitment, and spread around the tools to handle the friction..

The Business: This Shit's Coming To Corporate Tabletop

Recently the devs for Final Fantasy XIV announced what the new Beastmaster Job will be.

Since most of you don't play this MMO, allow me to define what "Limited Job" means: a Limited Job is a type of character class that is intentionally unbalanced on the understanding that it cannot engage with playable content as the non-limited Jobs do; how these restrictions manifest, and what exclusive content they access, varies by the Limited Job.

So no, Beastmaster (BSM) cannot join parties with the other Limited Job (Blue Mage) or the full Jobs (Dragoon, Machinist, White Mage, Red Mage, Warrior, Black Mage, Ninja, Dancer, Viper, Reaper, Paladin, Gunbreaker, Sage, Scholar, Summoner, Samurai, Monk, Bard). It cannot go the current level cap (100), or even access any expansion content due to being capped at level 50 and thus only to the base game of A Realm Reborn- which would be acceptable if it was open to Free Trials, but it's not (unlike Blue Mage) as you need to have Dawntrail (the current expansion as of this post) on your service account to do so.

Put this in Tabletop terms.

You're Wizards of the Coast. You announce a new Class or Subclass for Current Edition, but it's paywalled behind a specific tier on Beyond and not in any digital or print product; you can't use it in Organized Play unless you're rolling alone or in a single (sub)Class party, and you're capped at 10th level while everyone else can go to 20th or more. (N.B.: Roll For Combat has a Third Party take, which is Please Don't Sue Me Nintendo: The Class.)

Does this sound like good product design--nevermind game design--to you? It does if you're a Mammon Mobster. Those folks occupy WOTC's C-Suite as well as Hasbro's.

"This can't work."

Bullshit. It already has. The majority of Current Edition players and Referees are already hopelessly yoked to Beyond; they damn well will go along with being milked in this fashion if the value proposition for microsubscription is good enough and WOTC is smart enough to deliberately release new stuff under this model in an overpowered state (as is further incentivized with the adoption of a Seasonal content release schedule; make the new Season's new widgets overpowered and players will pay to win every single time because if they don't they lose, hard).

The only thing needed to finish this pivot is to yank Referee discretion on what players can access to use, meaning that the same optimize-your-fun dynamics we see in MMOs, Battle Royales, and Extraction Shooters will come to Corpo-Approved Tabletop because theirs is a model that maps closely to Blizzard's World First Raid Clear race model and the parallel Mythic Plus Tournament race model (and will incorporate a lot from the more PVP sort of competitive play). Racing to see who can clear modules fastest, mapping out routes, optmizing parties, all of that stuff- this is what WOTC wants for Current Edition because it's proven to make people pay, pay more, and pay more often.

Normies want this. Casuals want this. Tourists want this. They say they don't, but Revealed Preferences prove that they do.

WOTC wants Normiebux. This is how you get it. Cargo Cultists can't even grasp what's going to happen, but they're going to find out sooner than later and they'll be forced to either conform to stay in the Network or get left behind.

This is as radical a change in their Just So Cargo Cult paradigm as the Clubhouse model is, and like the Clubhouse it's far more social and Normie-friendly so they'll lose out by resisting it. The pressure from above will be overwhelming; the Clubhouse coming from below removes their road of retreat, trapping them in the middle and unable to move out of the way.

Their time is over. Shit like this will be why, and they will not be admitted into the Clubhouse; they're done.

The Culture: The Magic Comes From Unexpected Interactions And Their Consequences

Never let it be said that your hobby has no greater value to society, not after World of Warcraft has generated more than one research project due to fuckery done by players.

Oh, that PVP incident? That video is still up.

To this day, no regrets for ganking those folks.

This, like it or not, are the sort of moments that hobbyists remember. Not the popping of Loot Pinata #1138 and the collection of Best In Slot Item (For This Season).

The Real Game in Tabletop is likewise made up of such moments. The #BROSR has already had several of them, some of which I've participated in (Too Cute To Die!), and the consequences of these events are still playing out up to several years later.

This, again, is why Tabletop is not a Narrative medium. You can't storywank your way to making the magic happen, and you never have.

The Business: The Unspoken Strength of Network Dominance

Speaking of "competition from within", Blizzard's doing a certain degree of Return To Form after getting a scare from Final Fantasy XIV.

Much as TSR and Wizards of the Coast change how the game plays when they make new editions of The Only Game That Matters, Blizzard does the same with every expansion of The Only MMORPG That Matters.

What they have done is nuked the capacity for Addons to read combat data and thus tell the player what to do during a fight, triviallizng all but the most difficult encounters (and yet somehow not stopping Bob there from standing in the fire; it's been 21 years, and he still stands in the fire- you've been kicked from every raid group in the game for a reason, Bob)

The reason is to regain control over encounter design. The cover is FF14, which has maintained a total ban on Addons since A Realm Reborn and nukes the hell out of those that get caught, demonstrating that--contra the naysayers--such a ban is viable to implement and enforce; now Blizzard is doing just that to go live with the next Expansion release next year.

The reveal of the new Player Housing system is also a reaction to the (very flawed) system in FF14.

In both respects, this is Blizzard returning to form; taking the most successful elements of a competitor's offering, clone it, and refine it to perfection. Blizzard does not have a single original thought and never has; they copy, steal, and refine- they do not innovate at all.

You may not think that this is enough to neuter any threat from FF14, which is the only MMO to present a challenge in years and only because WOW shot itself in the foot with Shadowlands while Square Enix had a one-two punch of fantastic Expansions (Shadowbringers and Endwalker) followed by a massive disappointment (Dawntrail) while Blizzard recovered with Dragonflight and started doing Memberberries hard with its Classic and Remix seasonal servers.

Blizzard, once again, neutered a rising threat by Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing the threat's most popular elements.

Now we have The WOW Bubble, which includes the private servers (despite Blizzard's wishes), slowly choking out all other MMOs- starting with those closest to it.

This is why Network Effect-based dominance is so hard to beat; you have to wait for the leader to massively fuck up, exploit that fuckup, and then continue to beat that leader like it owes you money--preventing its recovery--until you pull off the Sith Succession Strategy and usurp the Network to become the Dominant property.

Blizzard with WOW, like TSR/WOTC with D&D, have fucked up HARD more than once but the would-be coup-masters always run out of gas before they can seal the deal so when the inevitable comeback hits they get shattered and tumble down the rankings below where they started (most of the time). That's what happened with WOW, and more than once with D&D, but now both properties are so dominant that an Out Of Context Blcak Swan now has to hit--and to hit directly---like a Colony Drop to allow any future wanna-bees the chances that others squandered.

We are now in a world where, if you care about actually playing the game no matter what, you are stupid to defect from the Network; you just find a specific iteration within it. This story is yet more proof of it.

The Business: Proof That MMOs Are The Digital Counterpart of Tabletop, Down To The Retro-Clones

I said previously that the private MMORPG server scene is the Vidya version of Tabletop's retroclones. This proves it.

That is the Vidya version of Dark Dungeons, Basic Fantasy,Labrynth Lord, and other D&D/Chainmail clones.

Compare this against the videos for Turtle WOW and Project Epoch. You'll see that just in the World of Warcraft niche, the most dominant one (as it is to MMOs what D&D is to Tabletop, including its total domination of the niche to the point of reaching escape velocity and leaving all competitors behind due to its Network Effect strength) specifics on how a given server interprets the prompt of (Version) Plus--as there are other servers focus on specifc expansions--varies significantly from each other and from the official version of that iteration of the game.

If Blizzard--and now Microsoft--were smart they'd do what WOTC did 25 years ago and do their own version of the OGL and d20 System Trademark license, but they're not so they won't and instead Lawfare is the order of the day; Ascension, Turtle WOW, Epoch (partially) are set up to be immune to this due to international jurisdiction arbitrage rendering US court judgements moot. Tabletop, by comparison, need only either use a given license (OGL formerly, now Creative Commons) or scrupulously avoid Trademark and Copyright violation (a lot easier in Tabletop) to do the same- Palladium's continued existence proves this.

What is going to happen after this wave of Lawfare fails to knock out the designated targets--the biggest private servers--is that Blizzard and Microsoft are going to attempt a more grayzone approach by pressuring payment processors to deplatform these servers or get them on Mastercard's shitlist (which does the same thing).

If that doesn't work, and it may not, the lobbyists beseige DC, London, and Brussels to get (Super-)State regulation to do it for them. If they frame it properly, that will happen and it may work against all but the Big Two: Ascension and Turtle, both of which structure their operations to be proofed against that using the same rules that the Billionaire Set use to protect their wealth and influence. (Read the Panama and Pandora Papers, folks.)

Any further attempts to fuck with the system will be shut down because it touches that Third Rail; Blizzard and MS will either have to do Cyberpunk Dystopia things like hiring mercs to murk them, or call Ryan Dancey to consult on how to pull off an OGL scenario. Count on the latter, eventually.

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Project Ascension is Free To Play; this specific server goes live on Friday the 3rd at 9:00AM Central Time, and others have other play modes including one still in the works: Conquest of Azeroth (all new classes on a fresh class-based server). Ascension also hosts Project Epoch (also F2P), the other recent Classic Plus World of Warcraft private server and--after recent developments--handles all administration. Turtle WOW (also F2P) remains the oldest surviving private server, the MMO counterpart to Labrynth Lord.

The Business: There Is Only Competition WITHIN The Network

The Critical Role revelation confirms what I have long explained: There Is Only One Game That Matters.

While D&DTube continues to huff that copium like they're having heart attacks (because they are; they need to hold their delusional beliefs that their dogshit matters), what I am seeing manifest as concrete reality is what Ryan Dancey explained 25 years ago: there is no competition between Network Effects within a niche, but only within that network (and thus only within that brand).

I started saying "Just play D&D" for a reason. Note that I did not say which version.

I can get people to play 1st Edition. It is far harder to get people to play anything Not D&D, even if it's close like a Palladium game, because they trust the brand and disdain all else. Furthermore, being that this is a group-centered hobby, everyone can agree on D&D and will refuse Not D&Ds. Thus you get people not playing anything but D&D because no one else can agree on anything else.

The Off-Brand D&Ds (the clones) get traction because they are still D&D, to the point where even the most lame retroclone beats the most successful Not D&Ds.

Why? There is no risk to the Normies in playing it because it's still within the network, brand or no. To overcome this you need a massive brand, and that is not at all guaranteed as the Star Wars, Warhammer, and Conan experiences show. (Call of Cthulhu endures because it is the D&D equivalent in its niche, same as why Traveller and HERO/Champions does.)

What does this mean? There is only a VERY NARROW window of competition in the hobby, commercially speaking. Since most folks don't get it without parallel examples from beyond the hobby, here it is:

Because WOW recovered from its Shadowlands botchjob in record time with Dragonflight, and Final Fantasy XIV flubbed its chance to pull off the Sith Succession Scheme by botching its follow-up to Endwalker with Dawntrail, WOW retained its position of dominance in the MMORPG marketplace. Furthermore, the recovery was so strong that WOW has begun to break away from everyone else as WOTC pulled off with D&D when 3e arrived 25 years ago.

The reality is that most people do not bounce between MMOs. They stay within a single MMO, either playing that game or not any MMO at all, and only Blizzard has figured this out.

What WOTC has figured out under Dancey is how Network Effects create that bubble effect. Blizzard figured it out almost 25 years later, but they tacitly allowed for it for years by ignoring the rise of the clones--private servers--until Nostalrius got too loud to ignore; this would later lead to official Classic WOW servers, mirroring WOTC having to make past D&D editions available again to blunt the demand for retroclones.

Now WOW players that don't want to play Retail have Official Classic (past editions) and private servers (clones) to stay in the WOW bubble indefinitely. They never need to learn a non-WOW game. D&D is not only in the same boat, it's been there for three generations longer.

This is why the #BROSR is a viable threat, and Le Indie Darlings and other Non-D&Ds are not; the Bros compete within the network, so what they say and do is recognizable and applicable to the doings and interests of hobbyists and Normies whereas Non-D&Ds might as well be aliens pretending to be real people.

You want to challenge D&D? Do it from the inside. You get nowhere otherwise, and after 50 years that is not a conclusion that you can gainsay in good faith anymore.

The Culture: The Endless Clone Complex Is Not Just A Tabletop Thing

You all know World of Warcraft even if you never played any version of it.

It is the D&D of the MMORPG marketplace. Therefore it would not be surprising that, just as later D&D editions aped WOW to varying degrees, so would WOW somehow ape what's going on in D&D.

"Clones?"

Yes, like all the B/X clones that the OSR still publishes. That's been a thing in the WOWsphere for several years, called "private servers", and like the B/X Clones all of them are different takes on the same idea: "Do (X) but 'better'." For WOW, the latest Classic Plus server (going live this weekend) is Project Epoch.

The two others of note are Turtle WOW and Project Ascension. Yes, there are more; yes, you can waste time on a subreddit about them; no, most of them are not worth your time unless you're out to scratch a specific itch.

"But why all the clones?"

For the same reason B/X clones clog off so much shelfspace: it's what gamers will buy and (sometimes) play, save that the three aforementioned are all Free To Play.

And, as with Tabletop, most WOW players suck harder than a 12 volt Hoover on overdrive; the Hardcore clip videos (where there is no ressurection spells, so if your man dies he stays dead) show this daily. The Soup Aisle is real, and not just a Tabletop problem.

20 year old game, more extensively documented than World War 2, and people still can't be bothered to Git Gud- especially the Muh 20 Year vets. Sound familiar?

So cheer up, folks, we're not the only gaming sector plagued with these problems.

The Business: Commercially-Driven Product Design In Action

It is difficult for some people to comprehend what I am talking about when I say that commercial incentives have perverse effects when it comes to game design.

That is why I have to go outside of Tabletop to find comparable examples from time to time, so again I'm pointing to World of Warcraft to illustrate the point.

TLDR: Blizzard's game design for Retail WOW is so bloated that most players can't execute their bloated rotation of abilities to achieve the necessary damage/healing output while staying alive and avoiding mechanics. To rectify this, they are putting that rotation on an in-built macro so that most players--those unable to not stand in the fire and meet the damage thresholds required--can meet those requirements on the two lowest difficulties (because no, you still won't be able to do that on Heroic or Mythic in raids or high levels of Mythic+ in Dungeons).

Why?

Commercial incentives. Specifically, the incentive to maximize player retention by making low to mid-level endgame content participation metrics higher by reducing the barrier to entry present because over 80% of the population cannot perform to standard and execute encounter mechanics competently.

"Really?"

Fuck yes, it is. It's been a problem since Vanilla--Classic, these days--such that there's been PARODIES.

And at the high level, that capacity max out performance while executing mechanics is what wins World First races- and with it, prizes and prestige. PVP is no less a massive filter for attention and execution capacity, which is why those that are hardcore about it are as big on practice as professional athletes.

To keep the participation rates up, they nerfed the requirements to perform in order to beat encounters. Participation rates means retention rates go up, which in turn keeps revenue from subscriptions up and increases revenue from the Cash Shop.

There's your real incentive.

This has nothing to do with making the best possible game. This has everything to do with Line Must Go Up.

You can see this same thinking take place with commercially-driven Tabletop publishers also, like Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop (but this drives so many others), and it is this force that perverts game design away from making a proper game into a Viable Product (and now, the Minimal Viable Product) as the basis for Endless Product Slop.

This is what the Colony Drop ended by killing the commercial viability of Tabletop.

This is why you need to stop bothering with selling product as anything but a self-sustaining hobby; the incentives by themselves are sufficiently corruptive to pervert it into something that cannot meet requirements.

Now consider what would done to actually unfuck WOW if commercial incentives weren't driving everything, but instead the incentive was to refine how the game worked to achieve the promised gameplay experience 100% of the time. That's what Tabletop is again able to do, and should because the money's gone- and with it, the clout.

That's the difference. If you need to be paid to be in Tabletop, you don't belong.