Last year, J. Allen Brack announced the Classic WoW Edition. At the time, there was still a lot of work to be done. But whatever you do, do NOT praise or thank Brack for Classic WOW. If it were up to him, there would be no Classic WOW. In fact, if it weren't for him and other key actors, we would have had WOW Classic well over four years ago. And, at the time they would have had better access to more accurate server data, making the game closer to the original vanilla state.

Just because he announced it, or takes credit for it, it doesn't mean he actually had anything to do with it.

A lot of it had to do with other actors (ie, certain employees) behind the scene and pressure from WOW fans. Even with that very sad introduction, and one of the cheapest videos they've ever had to make (playing old CGI videos in reverse), that presentation had more cheers than I've ever heard from Blizzcon in a long time. The last time I felt that level of excitement was back when Diablo 3 was first announced. Despire the weak fanfare, it's going to do very well for at least the first couple years.

There are certain actors within Blizzard that hate Classic WOW though, and have actively worked against bringing it back for many years.

Most fans don't realize just how bad morale within the organization has been, and it's constantly getting worse. Several employees, including highly recognized names, are and will be exiting the company with the exodus continuing into the foreseeable future. Morale is just terrible right now, I can't even begin to describe how bad it's been over the past few years. Even though this recent "changing of the guard" will seem to be the reason for a change in company values, it's not actually the case. Don't be fooled. Their values have been changing for a long time now.

Now, as we watch the future of the company unfold, everything will be in the hands of Jethro "You Think You Do But You Don't" Brack: 'Morhaime Maimed. Brack Boss.'

A Rise To Power

Brack is the perfect specimen of the company's future. He has been rising rapidly through the ranks, because he shares the same values and goals of his best buddy Bobby Kotick. Not many know that Bracks true passion was Diablo 2. He loved the old Diablo franchise, played other similar Action RPGs like Path of Exile, and also played a little Starcraft but not a huge fan of it. Just because he worked on World of Warcraft, it doesn't mean he liked it though. I think the toxic community had something to do with his hatred towards the game, and it's completely understandable.

You know all of those "Diablo-like" changes that were made in World of Warcraft (e.g. talents/skills, attack effects, scaling, quest timers, map quests, reward systems) over the past few years since Cataclysm? Influence by Brack. It was almost as if he wanted to hurt the game just because he was made responsible for it. And he was known for avoiding "irritating" WOW fans. I don't think he liked WOW fans much.. he would try to dress like "them" during conventions, but it was just for show.

In addition to Diablo, he's huge into mobile games and the monetization of games. Regarding the Diablofication of WOW, you probably noticed all of those other money-making strategies that there slowly implemented into WOW? You can thank Brack for that too. Brack, Bobby, and Ray Gresko are all essentially on the same page and now leading the future of Blizzard.

On one hand, this is good news for Diablo fans. J.B.'s rise within the company is clear indication of where development priorities lie. Brack didn't agree with many decisions made by Mike Morhaime, and wants to take the company in a different direction. His own direction. The focus will be the monetization of products, whereas Mike used to prioritze "value". Please note however that this has already been the case for the past few years though, and has nothing to do with the change in leadership. One example of "good news" is that there's a mobile Diablo game in the works. It should be announced very soon. Unfortunately, the project was outsourced to some NetEase developers if I recall, and they're just re-skinning an existing ARPG Chinese game while pumping it full of IAPs, locked content, paid loot boxes, etc. I suspect a lot of it will be hidden at first, and then slowly "added" to the game later. The Diablo mobile game probably won't be out until 2020 and I heard it's garbage - so it will probably do very well for the company! Honestly, though, it'll be awful and the best class in the game will be the "Uninstall Wizard". I suggest you pick that class.

There's also a Starcraft PC/console game being explored, and Diablo IV in active development, but there's no interest in another MMORPG like WOW. Brack's passion was the Action RPG genre after all, and the company now functions around his whims. There is also an internal mandate to push eSports, but it's not something Brack is pushing himself nor even particularly interested in (he's given that responsibility to someone else).

Personally, I would call this "bad news" for the WOW fanbase and others in their library. But good news for the Diablo franchise.

So, there are four things you can count on that will happen in the Diablo universe:

1. There will most definitely be a Diablo IV.
2. There will most definitely be a Mobile Diablo game (outsourced to a Chinese mobile/gambling dev like NetEase or Tencent.)
3. There will most definitely be a Diablo 2 Reamstered edition with HD graphics and QoL improvements. His favourite game of all time.
4. Diablo 3 will be abandoned, except for a small team to maintain existing. Has always hated this game too.

While all of this is happening (maybe I should have called this the "Decade of Diablo"), you'll see a decline in all of their other major games: Starcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and unfortunately WoW with more push into IAPs to make up more lost subscribers.

Reputation On The Line

Simply put: Blizzard's priorities will basically be Brack's. Blizzard will be working on games that J.B. personally wants to play. And there are only a few things Brack likes.

Call me JB. This is my cool tinder profile and I'm a cool dude who likes to party with sexy people.

TURN ONS: Diablo, Light-sabers, Outerspace Flying Games, Gambling, Mobile Games.

TURN OFFS: Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, fanbois, and things regular people enjoy.

Once Brack is in "full boss mode", the teams are expecting a lot of changes over the next few months, as well as more layoffs, once Morhaime is out the door. I'm expecting things to work something like this: there are games that Brack wants to do, and they can't UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE fail. Brack made a totally srsly pinky-swear to Bobby that his games will make bank after all. So, he needs to cancel current unrelated projects, move everyone over to the projects he wants, and read the riot act: "Do these games right or you're fired."

The future of an unannounced Overwatch game are unknown. It's a L4D clone and might be okay given the financial successes of the Overwatch gambling game. There have been on-and-off development of a robot combat game and that Starcraft FPS. Those will probably be canned. It was essentially COD Infinite Warfare, but set in the SC Universe and it wouldn't have done very well. I think there's a Pet Battle mobile game too, which is really just a passion project for the Pokemon Go fans in the office, but it will come as no surprise if those employees are axed or transferred. I think most of these pre-Brack prototype projects will be cancelled.

It's crucially important that "Bracks games" succeed extremely well, and that there will be no massively embarrassing moments like the memes Brack has created for himself. Reputation and perception of Brack and the company, under Bracks rule, is vitally important. And, the Diablo mobile and Diablo IV launches most be completely smooth and greatly succeed, even if it means exaggerating sales numbers, manipulation, or scheming that cannibalizes existing franchises.

He also doesn't want WOW Classic to succeed, but as long as he remains hands-off I think it should be fine. If the game fails however, you'll be sure that Brack will be gloating. I don't think it will however.

How This Impacts the World of Warcraft

Brack's Diablofication of WOW includes plans for a "Paragon-like" or "Prestige" Leveling System within World of Warcraft. He's trying to get the teams to create new ways of increasing re-playability of World of Warcraft without having to generate new content. Basically, he's asking his team "how will be get fans to keep playing the game by spending the least amount of money possible?"

Because the core high-level game system that governed player addiction in the early days of WOW have been slowly ripped out in exchange for more trendy instant gratification models, the current version of WOW completely relies on new content, exploration, and a continuing story line to attract players. Most of the other systems and models that drove player enjoyment and engagement no longer exist due to ignorant decision makers so they have to rely on very expensive content consumption methods to keep the revenue flowing.

So, a new approach is to possibly have the player replay 1-60 over and over again, allowing the player to reset their level back to 1 in exchange for more power (ie, a Prestige System). For example, a 1% increase to Power each time. Another approach, thanks to the automated scaling system, is to increase mob difficulty each go around and resulting in better rewards, like the Diablo "Inferno Difficulty v2" scaling system. Or maybe, they'll have access to a Talent Tree and get points each round that they can distribute.

They are going to be paying very close attention to the Classic WOW release, which will influence their decisions.

Oh right, Classic WOW Will Be Kicking Off Soon

Speaking of Classic, I should be getting an invite to the "pre-alpha" test shortly. Friends & Family will be in the beta early next year and then the various media influencers will be contacted, and get invites, around March or April. Although in all honestly, there's not much different between the "Alpha", "Beta", and "Final". Betas aren't betas anymore. For several years now, they've been promotional tools. Just a few bugs found and corrected, but they're really only for marketing.

Here's what I know so far:

• It's not a perfect replica. There are a lot of new things added and changes that players will complain about.

• Engineering items are being tweaked and will not be same as before. Wall jumping works in some parts, but not others.

• It won't be a separate install. You will be able to log into the Classic realms using your existing client.

• Your total character limit will have a different counter for the Classic realms, allowing you to create up to 10 new slots.

• You can switch between old Classic graphic settings, and the new updated models one.

• There's a planned release schedule of content, like Naxx, ZG, MC, etc. coming out on a certain schedule. I think it was announced already?

• Battle.net Chat will work in the Classic game.

• There will be a public beta test during the first half of 2019. The final game will be out on "some Tuesday in August". Likely Aug 20th or 27th.

• Although there are no official Achievements within the Classic game, there is a hidden achievement tracking system in case the stats can be used later.

• I'm told the sales team is scheming a way to artificially increase subscriptions ahead of launch. Basically they are planning some way where players can reserve a limited number of character names by paying for individual subs.

• A specialized / limited character transfer system will be available some time after launch.

Finally, there is a very interesting system to be announced that should attract a large amount of existing Retail players that may not have been originally interested in playing Classic.

Essentially, it works like this: devs are expecting many "tourists" to play Classic that will eventually lose interest due to the difficulty. However, the Retail WOW Players will actually be rewarded for hard work and perseverance if they continue. There are multiple hidden Achievements being tracked within Classic, that you are rewarded with in Retail. So, by reaching certain levels in Classic, you will receive Achievement rewards in Retail for example. Classic subscription is linked to Retail as well, but sadly you can only play one or the other due to an intentional Battle.net account restriction.

There are some opportunities available for players who might have missed out on vanilla WOW too. A Character Transfer system is planned that's connected to (the popularity of) Classic WOW and a future TBC expansion server. Players will be able to transfer characters between Classic Realms only. However, players will eventually be able to transfer a Character OUT of the Classic Realm (but nothing IN.)

For example, PVP Ranks like High Warlord transfer with the character, so they're worth grinding in Classic. There are rare items, recipes, pets, and achievements that could only be attained in Classic. And, also mounts such as the Swift Zulian Tiger that players will finally be able to obtain when ZG goes live.

Not only that, but players have an option: keep playing Lvl 60 in Classic, transfer your character OUT of Classic into Retail OR transfer your character to the new TBC realms (if/when they go live.) This is where players are given options: if Classic exceeds expectations, a TBC launch and other expansions are planned. On the TBC realms, players will be given the option to CONTINUE their adventure (character transfer), create a new player and start from scratch, or a paid power level boost to 60. It all sounds interesting and a great money-maker for Blizzard (all of those paid character transfers and paid boosts.) There are a bunch of different limitations though (ie, level, timing, where to where, etc.) on how the Character Transfers can happen however.

From everything I've been told, I think this is a really awesome idea. Blizzard is well aware that Classic WOW will requireme a significant investment of player time (and therefore revenue), so they want Retail players making use of it as much as possible, while also playing their "regular game". The crossover system between the two games provides a huge amount of re-playability and excitement for players. And by shifting characters from Classic to other realms, they will want to create new characters on the old realms again too. It creates a huge cyclical system of engagement. In the end, this will significantly drive up their subscriptions, subscribers, and overall revenue. Highly effective if they do this right. I'm excited.