“Blizzard….What The Sanctuary Is Going On Here??” Part 1

November 29th, 2021 at 4:07 pm -

(NOTE: Please keep in mind that this is by all counts an ongoing editorial that’s based on my thoughts, feelings, findings, and observations. I’m not here to finger-point or name-blame, just sharing things from my perspective.)

In all my years of gaming and being part of the industry as a whole, never did I think that Blizzard — the gods of PC and console gaming, at least as far as I was concerned — would get so much heat this year. Between accusations, lawsuits, and game delays galore, it seems that ol’ Blizz has cemented a place on folks’ shit lists.

And rightfully so.

One of the things they’re in the hot seat for, is because of the “Diablo” franchise, most notably Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4. The former is their first foray into the mobile gaming market, which has a lot of fans in an uproar over. My particular gripe with DI, however, has to do with the fact that I went on the pre-registration list as soon as the game was announced and had shown up on the Google Play Store. Here I was, fully prepared to take part in some beta testing whenever it became available and completely psyched over their “Everyone can play!” mantra. And yet somehow all of that changed in 2021.

I caught wind that DI was finally going to be doing testing here in the States and I had grabbed my ‘golden ticket’ of sorts, with every intent of participating. I was met with some difficulty though, as I suddenly found out that my phone was no longer compatible to play the game. Excuse me? Since when? How was I to know that there had been an update that bumped my phone off the compatibility list at some point? And when I contacted Blizz about my issues, they did politely say “Sorry”, but just recommended that I get my hands on a more Diablo-friendly device. Not that I was expecting condolences or to have my hand held, but maybe a little more compassion perhaps? I mean, I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t effortlessly drop a chunk of change on a new cell phone or tablet….

It just amazes me how my current phone (Motorola’s Moto G Stylus) can play Fortnite, WWE SuperCard, and AnimA just fine, but now it’s not good enough for DI? I understand that as it continues to be worked on and tweaked, that’s naturally going to change things. But if the end-game result is to only have higher end devices being able to play, then why not aim for that in the first place?

As for D4, I was initially very hyped and intrigued over the latest sequel until finding out that the engine was going to be just like D3, more or less. And now with there being a delay on top of an already-existing delay, it’s hard to say how this game will end up being.

Or if it’ll be anything at all.

So…..what could possibly go wrong with Blizzard?

Apparently plenty.

And it’s ongoing.

Which I’ll dive into next time…

Shawna
Game Girl Extraordinaire