One of the problems that has plagued World of Warcraft over the last few years has been the art style. The team at Blizzard was trained on the latest trending art style in other games, which involved realistic textures. However, the new Warcraft perspective was proving difficult for the artists, so they were experimenting with hand-painted textures. Despite the difficulties of hand-painted textures, the team was able to come up with a final design that would not have been visible from the perspective of the player. The team tried hand-painting textures first on a single building to see how they would look.
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Server issues
While Blizzard claims that they will make customers aware of server issues and keep them up to date, many players claim that Blizzard’s response times are far too slow and their customer support is not very helpful. The problem is particularly acute since Blizzard implemented its last major patch in late March. In a post on the official WoW forum, the developer admitted that there were some temporary server problems but said they would be resolved within a few hours. Players complained about crashing realms, long lag times, and frustrating waits to play.
In the early days of World of Warcraft, rumors swirled about the purchase of a new data center for the game. People even posted messages on forums saying that they would send their Itanium Blades to Blizzard’s data center. However, Blizzard didn’t respond to these rumors and continued to make hardware purchases. The monitoring room at Blizzard’s data center was full of monitors and charts, displaying weather patterns and other information. In the middle of the room, rows of computers were located in various locations. Obviously, the game had become a major headache for many players.
Sexual harassment scandal
Activision Blizzard has responded to the sexual harassment scandal in World of Warcraft by making some of its best developers mad and traumatic. One such developer, Jeff Hamilton, revealed that almost no work is being done on the game right now. The company released a statement about the situation, which promises to change the game to make it more inclusive. However, some gamers are boycotting the game to show their support for the women who came forward and made allegations of sexual harassment.
Activision Blizzard was hit with a lawsuit after two female employees complained of sexual harassment. Several allegations were made against developers and staff at Blizzard, including former creative director Jeff Donais. The employees claim that Blizzard made inappropriate comments and posted pictures of them posing as models. The allegations are based on an investigation that started in 2004 and is ongoing. But the allegations are far from over, and many employees are still battling the company.
Leveling through multiple incarnations
In recent years, Blizzard has made leveling through multiple incarnations of World of Warcraft a major problem. EverQuest has 26 expansions, raising the level cap and adding layers of content. Players who already have max-level characters can easily consume these additions, leaving them with a stale bottom layer. A solution for this growing problem is to implement class rotations that allow players to continue leveling through multiple expansions.
Blizzard recognizes that older players and new players both want to level alts and is continuously developing ways to speed up this process. For example, experience gained leveling through an older expansion has consistently been decreased with each new expansion. A growing number of players are bringing friends into the game, giving them heirlooms in return for a chunk of their character’s experience.
