You know what hurts me the most? It's that after all this time I still don't really understand what Reforged was even supposed to be. I mean, I don't think people who wanted a faithful remaster are satisfied with Reforged. Or people who wanted some actual Reforging. To me the game is some weird hybrid, where they on one hand tried to do something new, but on the other just couldn't or wouldn't commit to it.
I don't know, dude, it just seems like a mess.
Hey there! I love Wc3 so I sometimes still frequent this website. Was really excited for Reforged but since it's such a fail, I decided to just keep tabs on it in order to see if Wc3R is going anywhere or not. So that's why I am here.
Now to your point....
We don't actually know the details. Maybe they were pushed by profit$ team to remaster this game because if wc3 and wow had so much success, wc3r would also have a huge success leading to a lot of
$UCCE$$.
We actually don't know anything behind the scenes, we only know what we have been told and we can speculate.
I think something happened along the way. This is Blizzard, I bet they knew a 3D game would take way more to remaster than a 2D game. But graphics wasn't the only aspect they wanted to touch. Alongside Wc3 they also have WoW, the biggest MMORPG for 10 years now. They wanted to align everything which was Warcraft together. They wanted to retake cutscenes, update all campaign maps.... probably update how the maps play out too! They felt that a real remaster in the case of Wc3R would be to re-imagine everything.
They had a lot of content to work with from WoW. But it also required a lot of work. I bet they wanted to redo all of Illidans lines from the campaign with the new voice actor from WOW (which i wasn't a big fan at first but I started to like him). But more so there is evidence that they lacked people to do the work they envisioned for Wc3R.
We know that because they hired a different studio to do all their models. And that led to a shortage of quality. They invested money into another studio for high quality models, but then put the plug on anything else. They didn't invest any money in audio, level design or staff for that matter. If they had the staff, I don't think they would hire another studio, they would have done it themselves in house. So basically, probably sometime during mid development, all they actually had was 3D models done by another studio and everything else they needed to do in-house, which they lacked resources for.
Let's also remember they layed off a lot of people and put the plug on Heroes of the Storm. Not completely, but mostly. I think they release like two patches of content per year for that game now.
They decided to stop investing in ongoing projects, like Wc3R, which lead to being "completed" by 3 people at best.
Someone said in this thread that D4 is their only relevant franchise, well that is kind of true. I think SC2 is a really good game, but it somehow lacks presence. Warcraft is still relevant through WOW.... it still is the biggest MMORPG on the market.
I guess we are all hoping that Blizzard will bring a new game that will awe us... however they are no longer the same company who did that, because the same people aren't there anymore. It's people who make a game, not a company, but people. The people leading the company is what determines the outcome and those people are gone.
I look at Riot Games and I am 100% sure their next 2-3 games are absolutely going to be relevant to their genre going forward, because it's the same people at the helm who created the biggest online multiplayer game and who created an entire new standard for the esports scene. Yeah they did their shady deals, all big companies do. Yeah Riot Games are morally ambiguous, had scandals. But even so, when it came to general decision I think Riot Games really did go the right way and are an example about what it takes to make a great game. They are not the only ones, no, it's just the ones I am most familiar with.
Going back and looking at today's Blizzard, it's the same logo, same name, but with different employees, leaders and philosophies. Blizzard dynasty had no true successor. The empire has been inherited and run by common traders, not samurai. If you read Shogun you would know what I am talking about, if not I am going to sum it short... as a samurai you took pride in your work and you did your best to not fail your superiors. You also did your best to listen and follow. Your currency would be your honor. If something brings honor, then it would be the right thing to do. However a simple trader would just buy everything with money and had no honor, pride or any other quality which the samurai held in high regard. They just wanted money... and that is what Blizzard is today and is transforming into.... making money.
If in the future they will make great games again, it will be because they found out that you need a good product to make good money. If that doesn't hold true, then they won't make good products anymore, but they will make good money.
