wow Preach's Trip to Blizzard HQ Video Part 1

[Staff 1,378]

Preach has uploaded a video of his trip to Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California. The video contains interviews with General Manager John Hight, Executive Producer Holly Longdale and Game Director Ion Hazzikostas.

It is important to point out that Mike paid for the trip himself and it was not sponsored by Blizzard.

Key Takeaways

• Preach is hopeful of Dragonflight and the "new Blizzard".
• Blizzard made many executive changes in the leadership for the better.
• Blizzard is focusing on fluid player feedback.
• They want to come up with new things for the game. They are referring to the current era as "Era 3".
• They discussed where World of Warcraft will be in 10 years from now.
• The team wants to focus on evergreen content that will be relevant beyond expansions.

The video is 1 hour and 12 minutes long; you can watch it below.

[Dejo93 984]

Don't trust Blizz, but I'll believe what Preach says

[Brightamethyst 83]

2 hours ago, Staff said:

• They want to come up with new things for the game. They are referring to the current era as "Era 3".

Huh. I wonder where they think the eras start and end.

Personally I would have guessed we were about to start phase 4.
Era 1 - Vanilla, BC, Wrath
Era 2 - Cata, Pandaria, Warlords
Era 3 - Legion, BfA, SL
Era 4 - DF and onward

[Arcling 877]

His decision to stop covering the game came during the peak of scandal with Blizzard lawsuit. It felt insincere to me, just to drive clicks with "end of an era" title. Making a video with a title like "I'm taking a break" wouldn't attract the same amount of attention. Well, that era didn't last long! I get it, it's a business decision for him, perhaps other type of content wasn't making as much for him. Speaking of eras, it's the same thing they advertised before with Zereth Mortis patch. As if all this story was planned all along and wasn't just marketing.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Arcling

[Nicenoob 6]

I'm not a journalist either but it would of been nice to dive a little deeper. What lessons have blizzard taken from classic's popularity other than it was surprisingly popular ? Are blizzard more willing to pay attention to their older existing customer base or are they content to side-line them into the classic sub game while focusing on the newer and younger customer base for the retail game ?

Originally the game started out with a serious feel to it and was more mmo based but now feels like a Disney version as blizzard target younger and younger audiences. If this trend continues where will we be in 10 years ?

Edited November 26, 2022 by Nicenoob

[ChaosDecides 30]

Access media is all about exactly that, access. I doubt he's going to go visit Blizzard HQ and then be brutally honest afterwards. Bye bye access if he does that. 

[Arcling 877]

13 hours ago, ChaosDecides said:

Access media is all about exactly that, access. I doubt he's going to go visit Blizzard HQ and then be brutally honest afterwards. Bye bye access if he does that. 

Most of his questions were on the safe side, something that is usually asked during most interviews. He certainly toned down his criticism.

[DavidB333 0]

I enjoyed the video and as a casual player was glad to hear that the mandatory tasks for leveling are not needed as much. Also that "Priest" had decided to leave the game after ten years as I had after about 7.......and then created this rare interview with the top folks at Blizzard.....very cool.......I was going to hold off a Dragonflight and wait to see the players experiences in the forums and here at Icy Veins.......I like the evergreen content idea.....similar to blogging in content marketing 🙂 ........

On a different level, Nothing mentioned about the pending Microsoft acquisition of Activision that might be blocked by the FTC. This is hanging over all their heads now and for the past year....so the discussion about going forward probably also includes with or without Microsoft.
"For almost a year now, the industry has been operating under one major assumption about how the competitive landscape is going to look in the coming years – namely that by some point in 2023, Activision Blizzard would become a subsidiary of Microsoft, with the $68 billion acquisition seeing the giant publisher slotted in alongside Xbox Game Studios in Microsoft’s newly minted Gaming division."
"f the Microsoft deal unravels, those issues will come back to the surface – joined by a new current of discontent from those who were hanging on in the hope of seeing financial rewards in terms of stock options and other bonuses from the Microsoft buyout. I don’t doubt that a company like Activision Blizzard could survive the collapse of this kind of buyout deal, but the problems it could cause for morale and staff attrition could be very significant – not to mention the likely hammering it would cause for the company’s share price."

Edited November 27, 2022 by DavidB333