Blizzard is making promises once again that they're going to give us expansions faster. HAHAHAHA COME ON. PLEASE. Yeah like Blizzard is going to do that. What they're doing now makes money so why change it up. There are these fat stacks of cash at Blizzard HQ and there is nothing that's going to change that. They're going to make promises right now, right before the expansion, and then they're not going to do it. 

Here is why: there isn't a WoW fan, there is a Blizzard fan, and Blizzard is making it a point to make all of their games "talk" to each other. That's why you can chat between them. That's why your friend list ports over between the games. That's why there is this major push by them to make supporting games for their hallmark titles. 

Think about it - right now there is WoW, D3, and SC2 and you're a fan of one of them if you're a fan of Blizzard. One of them has your main character, either your main in WoW, your main profile in SC2, or your main character in D3. You play one of these games but there are times where the game isn't updated. That's when Blizzard funnels you into the wide world of alternate titles that require no effort to start, have nothing to make you keep playing when you have something else to do, and have quick, fast, and furious seasons in order to make sure that it's okay to quit for a bit and come back to. 

Effectively, Blizzard is force feeding people every bit of content that they want in the gaming industry outside of just simulation and people are eating it up. They're not going to launch faster expansions, they're going to make money, and they make money by making players play more profitable titles in the downtime between their main games. They're double dipping everyone and here is some more hilarious facts. 

First of all, the battle.net balance crap is just that - crap. D3 players who didn't cash out are now stuck with this battle.net balance that they can either buy heroes in HotS, buy mounts in WoW, or buy cards in Hearthstone. They spend that money like water and now they're addicted. They've had a taste of the good life and it's time to spend spend spend. 

Blizzard just wants your money and they're building an empire, a conglomerate of entertainment, and no one cares to look or listen. They're quietly carrying around their hearthstones on their iPads and playing HotS or Hearthstone or the soon to be Overwatch while waiting on the expansion. When it hits, people are gonna play WoW for 6 ~ 8 months, then quit to go play once again either another hallmark game for a bit (this is about time one of their expansions come out) or one of their alternate titles. 

Here's another thing, the expansions are timed out in this perfect coordinated way in which you are always coming up on an expansion when you get tired of the previous. Reaper of Souls was in March and most players played it through June. That's left four months of Hearthstone... which released a mini-expansion "Naxxramas." That came out in July~August, which is enough content thereabouts to get us to where we are at now - the WoW expansion. 

Oh and for those who can't stand the WoW expansion and are going to quit after they reach level 100, guess what's waiting for you? A new Hearthstone expansion that literally is going to force you to buy cards and regret that you used up your gold for these new cards that you HAVE to have in order to compete. Hahaha at you! 

I mean, it's okay I guess. I guess we all just don't talk about it. Because I know for a fact I've handed Blizzard large percents of my yearly income because I'm that much of a fan. Subscription fees, expansions, character transfers, card packs, and soon to be hero unlocks are all things that fuel Blizzard's upcoming entertainment conglomerate. 

Sometimes in editorials I like to balance out everything with an alternative way to make things better, but sadly what Blizzard does works and we're all totally okay with it, if not estatic. See BlizzCon and how happy people get when Blizzard announces new ways for you to spend money. Remember how StarCraft had three entire race campaigns, WarCraft III had four race campaigns, and SC2 has just one? Yet the crowds cheered as Blizzard put on its biggest troll face. 

We'll give Blizzard their money and they'll give us the best of each genre with the most polish. We are the puppet and they are the puppet masters, yet I do pray for one day for the true WoW killer to come and deliver us from Blizzard's neverending grasp. Until then, I'll see you in Azeroth.  


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Last Updated: Mar 18, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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