Over the last few days, a great uproar has emerged over the future of the Diablo franchise, with many gamers who have supported Blizzard Entertainment from the beginning decrying Blizzard’s decision on Diablo Immortal.
For the uninformed, Diablo Immortal. Also, Diablo Immortal probably has the video game trailer with the worst like-dislike ratio of all time (standing at 15k : 395k, or 26.3 dislikes to 1 like as of this post.)
Right.
Many people have come out with their own interpretations of why Diablo Immortal is so disliked — with many stories of nostalgia and the kind of love that users attach to the experience of Diablo in the past, it is no wonder that the players feel such an affront when confronted with a perceived ‘perversion’ of the form of Blizzard games.
This perversion comes because fans believe that Blizzard, by turning to mobile gaming as a medium, has commodified the experience and franchise of Diablo. In other words, Diablo Immortal is considered to be just another cash grab.
It doesn’t help that the mobile gaming market is notorious for providing shallow and superficial gaming experiences, to be tucked away into pockets and pulled out during train rides. If you wanted to skip a level or have a spare life, have a microtransaction. That’s the promise of the free to play mobile model and its monetization.
We can argue here that what made Blizzard successful is the power of their brand — they’ve been successfully harnessing it for years now, with the story behind games like Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo having propelled many a youngster’s childhood experiences with narrative, including mine. Blizzard has already successfully harnessed the power of their brand through a collectible card game like Hearthstone. The digital card game players pull out their wallets fast and furiously; they’re willing to pay for mobile experiences.
The mobile game market continues to expand further and further, accounting for more than 50% of the global gaming market.
It seems that Blizzard has been caught between tapping upon this market with their existing franchise. If they re-use the assets they had been preparing for Diablo 4 for Diablo Immortal, a game that was never initially designed for mobile, and postpone Diablo 4, that would alienate its nostalgic fanbase. So then, how can a company successfully navigate balancing critical and commercial success?
Well, what I can argue is that the reputation of Blizzard really hinges upon those who grew up playing their games. While it’s difficult to judge games even with frameworks like the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics model, we can point to the numerous articles examining this exact phenomena of nostalgia and how it affects our constant return to video games.
Personally, my childhood was filled with playing Protoss and Bisu builds, massing huntresses as a Night Elf, playing way too much DotA. In my young adulthood, I found myself drawn to Hearthstone as it launched, and utilizing the Destiny Cloud Fist hellion-banshee open build when SC2 first begun, propelling me to master league. I led multiple raids in World of Warcraft and defeated bosses with a variety of guilds. Blizzard Entertainment was the cornerstone of my childhood, as I am sure it was for many others.
The main thrust: of course companies must remain accountable to their shareholders, but they must recognize their fanbase and see what led them to success in the first place. This comes from an understanding of their users. When we’re developing our products, we must always keep our users in mind — they keep us afloat, they keep us going and doing what we love.
What we see today is grace, the innocence of developing a game for its own sake, shattered for the sake of profit. It’s part of a broader trend — look at firms like Voodoo and King. (Go, Candy Crush for Kids, Candy Crush for young adults, Candy Crush!) What we need is grace again; games that will characterise eras and make people feel nostalgic in 20 years time. Who will do it? (I’m hard pressed to see Clash Royale as a game that characterises childhood.)
Blizzard must balance its commercial interests with maintaining its fanbase, and that may mean not jumping on the trend and giving up the perceived quick route to monetising through mobile games. The suggestion here might be to develop a new franchise based on the Starcraft or Diablo universes, to emulate the success of Hearthstone — or perhaps, just to recognise the desires of a North American / European, English-speaking audience, and the role nostalgia can play in those desires.