I like Blizz games ok

I've caught a lot of attention recently for what people think is picking on Blizzard.  Personally I think some of you are stupid. Especially the person who said Blizzard has a good development cycle because they have a ton of money.

So let me clear the air.

In my eyes a good development cycle has a deadline.  You have a project, you look at your team and say it takes X amount of months to make this so the release date is _________.  They may not announce the date right away but they can give a time frame I.e Borderlands 2  Q3 2012.  Blizzard says... "It will come out when it's done."

This is NOT a good development cycle.  This is the opposite extreme of the Duke Nukem Forever release. But at least they would give a date amidst the excuses. (And Mac users get to witness the suck for themselves Aug 18)  But guess what?  I bet Gearbox or whoever wants the rights to it will make another DN game within 5 years.

Whoops! Where was I? Oh. Dev cycle.  But I can hear you now. "But when it's done it's soooooo good?"  That's right. They are good. But compared to what?  Its purely "fans of the genre" that they specialize in. Fans of the genre will be fans of this genre.  Look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that Diablo 2 is not Diablo 1 with a graphics bump and the standard bigger, badder, harder and longer gameplay enhancements. There were bonuses and cool stuff but essentially you are playing a less ass-tasting version of the previous installment that tasted pretty damn good.  The jump to Warcraft 3 from 2 was a bigger leap and stretch for Blizzard but its essentially the same game with different strategies because of new races and units.

They are all well made games. I dont have a problem with their quality. I've played,enough non-blizzard games and clones to have a higher standard of gameplay by now and I hoped most would feel the same.

My beef with WoW is that its way too user friendly for my liking. By no means do I mean its easy. But there is a significant amount of increased simplicity in WoW than say EverQuest. Before I continue... Yes... WoW might be a better product than EQ but it better be when you have years to improve and fans so loyal they follow like lemmings.  That is in fact a portion of why WoW is a success regardless of the fact its good. BUT in EQ... There was a moment around level 30 or so that every single time you level up you felt like you had to jump over the flippen moon to do it. The grind!  OH MY GOD THE GRIND! It was rare to see a whole bunch of characters in one area at the level cap. In fact.. When you saw a character at the cap it was not uncommon to stop them and ask to pose for a screenshot.  You knew most of the top level guys by name because threre were so few. Thats what made it awesome.

But with expansions come balancing issues with new classes and races so naturally characters got buffed, nerfed and invalidated. Exploits were found, leveling became easier due to complaints from growing popularity.  Walking around at level 80 doesn't mean much to me cuz its not impossible. Just play.

I don't dislike any Blizzard product. There is alot of care that goes into every game.

Now recently my only actual for real problem with Blizzard is how IMO they are losing touch with their fans... and then act bewildered. "Oh our fans DON'T like us removing functionality from our games?" (Offline/LAN)

THAT is my problem with THEM. I like the games. I'm sure Diablo 3 will be fine. I'm just not going to reward them for removing something that has been pretty much standardized on PC. Their excuse of giving me the best experience when they really mean the best DRM. Just come out and say... The DRM requires you to be online for validation... And I would say "That sucks. But you're just protecting your IP"

Something tells me even those who are mad will still buy the product and Blizzard will keep selling ice to penguins. And more power to them