A little reflection on the departure of World of Warcraft from Russia and Belarus. Who will lose more from such a decision and what should the players do?
In light of recent events, Activision Blizzard temporarily left the territory of the Russian Federation and Belarus. Almost all of the company’s games are no longer available for purchase, just like a subscription to one of their most iconic projects – MMORPG World of Warcraft. But is it all so sad?
Is it such a big loss?
Everyone must answer this question for himself. And the answer will depend on how much time and money you have spent on this game. However, if you look at the whole situation as a whole, it becomes clear that the loss is not so big. I already wrote once about the state of World of Warcraft today. If you think about it, now (if we talk about the modern version of the project) the name works for the game rather than the game for the name.
How the game World of Warcraft has long ceased to be what it once was. The fact that we are not allowed to play it is, to some extent, even good. I can give a slightly crude but similar example. Recently, the guys from Coca-Cola made a similar decision. I often drink it and the first thing I thought when I saw this news was the following: “Damn … But, maybe I’ll lose weight.”
World of Warcraft: Back to where we started
But what if you still want to play? This question is much easier to answer than the previous one. As far as I know, World of Warcraft still has enough pirated servers. I’ve seen ads on Youtube a few times (when there were ads, ha). I don’t remember exactly now, but I think it won’t be so difficult to find them.
Such a decision, again, is more likely to hit Blizzard itself. Sooner or later they will return, and they will have to win back the players and their trust. I never played World of Warcraft much, but my friends did.
Some 5-6 years ago they constantly called me to various free servers. I did not dwell on them for a long time, but I remember well that there were many of them and that they were developed. Lately, they’ve been playing mostly on the official, with a subscription and everything-everything-everything. I wrote to them just yesterday.
Furthermore, what do you suppose they responded to me? Naturally, they immediately remembered what happened before and without hesitation decided to return to free servers. Just think how much Blizzard’s efforts have put Ork under the ax just because of one decision. I will not start a debate about who is right and who is wrong, it’s not my business, but the fact that our region is important to them is a fact.
Let not very important, but still important. They did localization, they sort of held events (I could be wrong about this, I never really followed World of Warcraft), they sort of set regional subscription prices, and all that. If we weren’t important, no one would talk to us like that. Well, what now? Now the players will look at it and say: “Why? We are not downright awful.” And they will, generally, be correct.
Outcome
The World of Warcraft project has always been a great MMORPG game. But lately, he has suffered greatly from the management of Activision in general and Blizzard in particular. Now they, succumbing to the general trend, have made another mistake by shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t know, maybe this decision was the lesser of two evils, maybe it’s just as impulsive as possible.
In any case, I feel sorry for the players who spent years of their lives and huge sums on this project, because you were scammed. Nevertheless, the World of Warcraft project will continue to live, thanks to all the enthusiasts. If you can call them that. Well, we’ll see what happens next.
