So you all know the story: Joystiq received a rumor last week that John Staats was terminated, but they never released any source details so I followed up to find out how they could have possibly known this. One explanation was that their recently updated FB statuses showed past employment with Blizzard. A couple of them have corrected their mistakes, but others have still left their FB profiles as ex-Blizzard employees.

Blizzard denied multiple layoffs, and most news media blogs/sites re-posted it as "NO LAYOFFS CONFIRMED". Joystiq denied any layoffs, and started throwing people under the bus.

Very well-known and public Blizzard employees and "professional journalists" found it hilarious that a profile site could ever be used for reliable information. You know, even though John Staat's recent unemployment was confirmed through Facebook.

I also discovered, much to my disappointment, that many blogs and "professional journalists" never actually read the blog entry and they misreported it on purpose to try drive up visitors I assume. There's a metric ton of misinformation out there.. if you want to know the truth, just read it from the source.

So, my last comment was:

So, this brings us all back to the original speculation. We may learn more in the coming weeks or months.

Well, it just happened. Paul Richards (who was on the Titan team for about 1 year) has just confirmed a recent termination as well.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011

LOOKING FOR WORK

The short story : A month ago I quit Blizzard after one year of service. This wasn't exactly my plan, but my hand was more or less forced. That's as far as I can discuss it publicly. I've a few promising leads -- have been interviewing here and there -- but want to see what posting this does. Call it an experiment.

If anyone's got a suggestion/contact, I'm currently seeking a full-time position doing concept art*, and would love to hear from you personally at the following address :

djunderfoot(AT)gmail(DOT)com

*portfolio
http://www.autodestruct.com/

Paul Richards (Titan Concept Artist) as you know was one of the speculated terminations in my earlier post. He had also updated his FB status entry showing past employment with Blizzard.

There are still many more to go.. and I'll update if I receive any other confirmations.

So basically, it appears that the initial reports of "NO MASS LAYOFFS" or "NO MASSIVE LAYOFFS" were defined as Blizzard as more than 1000 people. Which is incorrect and THAT rumor is false. However, when I defined "MASS LAYOFFS" meaning multiple, then YES that rumor appears to be true. Apparently, there are a lot of people who owe me an apology. :)

(Like everything on the internet though, this source might not be accurate or correct. But, like I said earlier, I'm reporting on something with real sources, a real person making the claim, and reasons to support the information. If it turns out to be one giant troll, which is unlikely since Blizzard would be purposefully deceiving the public, I'll update with new information. Simple as that.)

* UPDATE:

More confirmed names that can be added to the list of recent terminations:

(John Staats)
(Paul Richards)
Trent Kaniuga (Feb 2012 - Sr. Concept Artist, left his status as still "Working At Blizzard" too)
David Lesperance (Nov 2011 - Sr. Environment Artist Titan)
Stephen Lim (Aug 2011 - Sr. Producer Titan)
Constance Wang (Aug 2011 - PA on Titan)
Morgan Fainberg (Oct 2011 - Systems Engineer)
David Pacanowsky (Aug 2011 - QA Game Tester D3)
Jodi Armstrong (Aug 2011 - HR)
Annika LaVallee (Sep 2011 - QA Analyst)
Daniel Favela (Sep 2011 - Software)
Nick Downs (Sep 2011 - IT Admin)
Jordan Schwob (Oct 2011 - Accounts/CS)
Colt McAnlis (Jul 2011 - Titan)

There's also atleast 20 CSRs, but they worked out of call centers outside of the US so I didn't include them. These are just the ones that happened to have LinkedIn accounts with confirmed terminations, which is a very small percentage of Blizzard employees. I haven't even looked at potential layoffs with Activision either.

* UPDATE (01/18/12):

Another name confirmed! And this was one from original suspicion list.

Matt Milizia has finally made a comment on his Facebook account confirming his last day with Blizzard. This was one of the names I suspected along with Paul Richards (who was also later confirmed.)

Today was my last day at Blizzard Entertainment. It was very much time for me to move on. It was a pleasure working with such a talented team, but just wasn't a work cultural fit. I wish you guys the best.
January 13 at 3:15pm

* UPDATE (01/20/12):

Senior Game Producer Steven Parker just announced that he has left Blizzard Entertainment as well (December 2006 – January 2012).

3 days before his announcement, a couple coworkers left him some new recommendations on his LinkedIn page too.

What a coincidence. More than one termination right before their next Quarterly Shareholders meeting (February 9, 2012). :)

I've got one Closed beta key available for a lucky reader. Will be posting it here in about 5.5 hours.

This should give you enough time to register a new account if you haven't already. Check back here later, first person to use the key gets it. (You'll need to move fast to register it.) :)

And if I get any more, I'll keep posting them on the blog.

* UPDATE:

Here it is: FRAAU-US83A-WQCXK-7GV68

GO GO GO! (Please post a comment back here if you managed to get it by the way.) :)

I'll post more if I get any.

* UPDATE:

And we have a winner! (Guy who predicted his future incorrectly.) :)

Thanks for letting us know you got in.

Next time I do this, I might make up another puzzle.. make it a little more challenging.

As we all know, Drysc (aka Bashiok) first "officially" referenced Blizzard's Next Gen MMO on December 2007 (while recruiting had put out job postings during the previous April.)

"No, it is an unannounced next-gen MMO," said the rep. "And that doesn't mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either."

Sam "Slouken" Lantinga was hired as a technical lead "on a small unannounced project that was getting underway" in January 2009.

He never mentioned "next gen MMO" or "Titan" of course, but the next mystery "Untitled Project" was rumored to have started in 2009 as well.

During March 2009, Sam mentioned on his blog that he started hiring for the most urgent engineering positions.

On March 9, 2009, Sam posted on the SDL Mailing List that he was the Engineering Lead on a new Unannounced Project, and that they were looking for developers.

Hey guys, I'm engineering lead on a brand new unannounced project and we just opened two positions:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/programmer-client-software-engineer.html
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/programmer-software-engineer-gameplay.html

We're using the WoW engine at the moment, and it doesn't use SDL, but if you have experience in the industry and are interested, I'd love to see your resume.

Please follow the instructions on the job postings if you want to apply.

See ya!
-Sam Lantinga, Lead Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment

This indicates that the project he was working on was the other mystery project.

However, on March 6 2009, the Client Software Engineer job position was for for "an unannounced next-generation MMO." It changed to "unannounced title" by or before March 21.

On March 10 2009, the Software Engineer Gameplay also changed to "an unannounced title" even though it showed "Next Gen MMO" for a couple days after March 6. :)

The mystery "Unannounced Title" game was not discovered by news media on the job boards until March 22 2009 when it no longer referred to the "Next Gen MMO."

And finally, Sam Lantinga's resume (previously sourced here) claimed that he started work on this project in January of 2008 (and the blog said that work didn't pick up pace until 2009). January 2008 was the right time for Titan, and the Untitled Project didn't start until 2009.

So, was it another iteration of Titan (like I've mentioned in the past) or the actual "mystery" Untitled Project?

Thankfully, we've received an official confirmation from Michael Sacco!

Like this post http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/10/team-titan-timeline-and-tribulations.html that extrapolates Sam's work on a "small project" to be Titan. He was not working on Titan. It's false.

Sacco is a Writer and Editor for Joystiq.com, a former Blizzard employee, and someone who has "internal sources" and connections within Blizzard. So, this is a "very reliable source of information" on Blizzard's secret projects. (I'm also being a little facetious here since some of you are aware that Mike Sacco and I actually go back a ways, and he's a frequent reader of this blog. Still, despite his issues he's still an "official source" making "factual claims".)

He has confirmed for us that Sam "Slouken" Lantinga was working on the other mystery "Untitled Project", so we now know that Sam's blog is confirmed, the information is true (no longer a rumor), we know it's timeline, how far along it is, problems they have been experiencing, that they used the WOW engine as the prototype, and we know a great deal more information thanks to our new Blizzard source. :)

Sacco has also confirmed that Sam's resume (which he updated after leaving Blizzard) is incorrect. Even though it said he started on the Mystery Project in January 2008 (which indicates Titan), it was in fact January 2009 (according to Sacco) which would change the project from Titan to the other "Mystery 5th Project". So, Sacco is essentially confirming that his work must be on the upcoming World of Warcraft online card game. Apparently, it has been in development for a lot longer than I expected.

(Can't wait to find out what more he is going to share with us about Blizzard's secret projects. Thanks Mikey!)

Who would have thought that Joystiq would create a rumor mongering post about Blizzard layoffs, then try to scapegoat the entire affair onto a much smaller blog, only to turn around later and give them a wealth information on Blizzard's mystery game by confirming a rumor. Must be karma.

Resumes, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been proven to be a great source of information on (confirmed) leaks.. but apparently Facebook is not a reliable source of information.

I've never used Facebook before for sleuthing, but apparently that's the opinion of many. Blizzard employees (Zarhym, Bashiok, and Rob Pardo) and many many others found it laughable and ridiculous that Facebook could ever be used as a reliable source of information.

"pretty sad how if someone makes a facebook post to their friends how it can turn into rampant internet rumors about mass lay-offs lol"

Is it really that far fetched though?

I would assume that Facebook would be just as reliable as any resume, profile site, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Wikipedia entry. What's different about Facebook though, is that it's an open forum with your friends and family, you feel more comfortable, and you're more likely to be honest with your feelings and thoughts. After all, how many people have been fired for saying something on their FB profile that they shouldn't have? How many people, upon being fired or breaking up with their S.O., login immediately to their Facebook profile to update their status?

Look at Cameron Dayton's Twitter and LinkedIn slips about Titan for example. Two mistakes on two separate profile sites. TOD even warned Blizzard and other developers about FB profiles specifically. Where do you think many of his (fully confirmed, mind you) leaks and discoveries came from over the past year? :)

"On a related note, if you're in the game development field: get rid of your entire global internet footprint. You shouldn't have a Twitter account, a blog, a YouTube account, participate in any forums, play online games with people you don't know, share art or pictures, take pictures within your workplace and post them online, have a Facebook account, share details with OPEN Facebook accounts, or even have a Google account w/out making sure your Docs and Buzz are completely disabled. I don't even know where to get started.. I know way too much now."

Facebook profiles with high resolution pictures taken at work.. showing LCD monitors and whiteboards in the background.. with concept art, gaming design flow charts, and in-game images. Yeah.. Facebook photos alone can't be used as a reliable source of intel.

I don't know if any lay offs have happened, or how many, all I know is that Blizzard said that the "majority" of names listed on the blog entry were still employed with Blizzard. (Tweeted when about half the names were listed by the way.)

Zarhym: The vast majority named in that article are at work today. FB profiles can't be used to confirm anything, especially a mass trend

There are 3 ways an organization can respond to questions: Confirm, deny, or no comment. Blizzard's official policy is "no comment", but they didn't in this case which is highly unusual. And, there was no denial of multiple lay offs at Blizzard. They only said that the wild speculation and rumors were untrue (e.g. rumors of 1000 people being laid off are untrue). Tom Chilton recently did the same.. the wild speculation and rumors about Mists of Pandaria were also untrue. :) And, has anyone forgotten that Blizzard lost 10% of their subscribers.. but yet are still employing the same quantity of support staff?

So how about Facebook though.. is it a good place for leaks or reliable information?

Well, let's check. Hmm.. Assassin's Creed Revelations was recently leaked on Facebook. Dishonored gaming details were leaked on FB (Magazine cover scan) too. Killzone 3 gaming videos.. MW3 gaming details.. DNF concept art and screenshots.. hundreds of car concepts leaked, new technology or gadget concept art and hardware specs, iPad apps, concept drawings on new gaming systems, studio clips of songs and upcoming albums leaked, Facebook leaking its own code, leaked names of violent offenders, accused underage murderers, pictures of murder scenes, murder investigations, communications between violent groups or individuals, celebrity personal details leaked.. holy crap, there are a lot of legitimate leaks and investigations into Facebook.

Even the Israeli military called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details on Facebook about the time and place of their raid.

Al Jazeera reporters use it, investigations by CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, etc. Even NPR finds it an "invaluable" source of information.

“There hasn’t been any query that we haven’t gotten good sources for,” Peralta said. From finding high school dropouts to people who have recently been laid off from their jobs, Peralta said the organization regularly posts inquiries for sources as status updates on its page and receives hundreds of valuable responses.

It doesn't end there. Even Governments and authorities use it as a reliable source of information.

"Government authorities rely on Facebook to investigate crimes and obtain evidence to help establish a crime, provide location information, establish motives, prove and disprove alibis, and reveal communications."

It all depends on the data, who wrote the data, and what they wrote or did.

I think Facebook it's about as reliable as any other site out there. Some is real, some is exaggerated, and some is fake. And there are also accidents:

* Gino Whitehall has now updated his Facebook profile to show "Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" now instead of the "previously worked at" status.
* Trent Kaniuga has also completely updated his FB profile to make it more accurate. It now shows the correct "Sr. Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" as well as other updates.
* Jay Wilson left a comment on Trent's page: "I actually got asked if you were still working at Blizzard by PR at dinner last night, Trent. I reassured them you were, of course. Just remember, no such thing as bad press. :)"
* Paul Richards is involved in the conversations, and very well aware of the rumors. But, he has left his employment as the previously "Worked At" Blizzard. :)
* John Staats hasn't changed his status either.

But, wait one second. If they're updating their FB profile to be accurate, doesn't that mean they're serious about having correct FB information in the first place? I thought FB wasn't supposed to be reliable and it's all incorrect information? Perhaps this means that FB profiles are indeed reliable sources of information for certain Blizzard employees after all? Jay Wilson said he was talking to PR at dinner last night.. was he lying, or did Facebook just become a reliable source of information? :)

Also, look at the flip side of the coin. Consider what information was picked apart and shown, versus what was left out. I only talked about 8 potential names, for example, and mentioned a dozen others that I couldn't get any confirmation on their last working date (some were confirmed to be unemployed, but I couldn't confirm when their last day was.) What I didn't write about, though, were the hundreds of other names that were still showing employed and yet still accurate. If you have a report with 1000 names on it, but 2% of the information is incorrect, could that report still be considered as a reliable source (with a caveat)?

tl;dr; If Blizzard is saying FB profiles are inaccurate, then the opposite must also be true. The thousands of FB profiles showing "still employed" must not be correct or reliable. :)

I think I'll use Facebook again for certain investigations though. I realized some interesting stuff about it, discovered some new things, and it's an untapped resource for me. I've mostly focused on other sources of information.

* UPDATE:

Just an interesting update here.

Trent Kaniuga was indeed laid off and part of the same group as other layoffs. His last day at work was in February. However, he changed his status to "Working At Blizzard Entertainment" and left it that way even when he was no longer actually employed by Blizzard.

Q3 2011 Conference

A copy of the transcript can be found here.

Mike Morhaime stated that WoW "finished the quarter with 10.3 million active subscribers worldwide", so that would be subscribers as of September 30, 2011 as opposed to right now. This also confirms that this older post now holds true: even after the Cataclysm launch in China during this quarter, the 4.2 content launch, and the simultaneous WoW Starter Edition launch, they still lost a considerable number of subscribers (11.4M to 11.1M to 10.3M). Remember too that these are "Active Subscribers" which represent a significantly larger of real players (vanity figures are common in the industry).

Mike Morhaime also said,

While the majority of these declines are coming from the East, World of Warcraft continues to be one of the most popular online games in China and remains by far the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world.

I guess, I can say this, the majority of the declines were in the East. China still represents more than half of our global player base and historically, December has been a very good month for subscriber trends.

Note that the majority of the decline was from China, but China also makes up the majority of subscribers. So, it makes sense that if subscribers dropped worldwide, that the majority on average was from China. :)

"Active Subscribers" in China are even more skewed in terms of real players, and if there are declines in China, it is much more representative of a larger player decline than in NA or EU. (China subscriber counts include IGR players and active prepaid cards.)

It's also of interesting note that this blog has claimed many times that Chinese WoW players make up 50% (or higher) of total WoW subscribership. It was based on research, speculation and predictive analysis of past announcements.. however it was met with great hostility and disbelief. There were many "here's your tin foil hat" comments in response to the claim that Chinese gamers made up 50% of subscribers. Finally, though, there's now something official on the subject from Blizzard. And consider this, if Chinese players make up more than 50% of total players, then you can use Chinese figures to determine real players as opposed to subscribers. NetEase, for example, has actually released real player figures.. which is something that has never done in NA or EU. :) This Blizzard comment has actually confirmed what TOD (and myself) have been writing about for a long time in regards to "Subscribers".

Q3 2011 - Live Stream Viewers

So, if you remember this post, I was expecting Mike Morhaime to talk about virtual ticket paid viewers (e.g. "make note of Mike Morhaime's special wording of Virtual Ticket Live Stream viewer counts.")

My prediction was based on all past trends:

1. Blizzcon 2009: Mike said "more than 50,000" live via Pay Per View.
2. Q3 2009 Report: Mike said "tens of thousands on Pay Per View."
3. Blizzcon 2010: Mike said "more than 100,000" paid DirecTV customers.
4. Q3 2010 Report: Mike said "95,000 paid viewers following along via DirecTV."
5. Blizzcon 2011: Mike said "more than 60,000" DirecTV viewers.
6. Q3 2011 Report: SUDDEN CHANGE!

I was really hoping this would happen. The one thing you'll learn about Mike is that he's very consistent and detail oriented. He now says, "more than 1 million online viewers." It looks like Mike might be a reader here after all. :)

Q3 2011 - RMAH and Q&A

I also mentioned last week about the whole PayPal/Battle.net integration. According to Mike, they'll be testing the real money systems very soon.

We've also been testing the gold auction house functionality through the Beta and are gearing up to test the real money systems very soon.

This will just be for beta members.. and it will probably be for the Battle.net credit system only. Blizzard will give beta members a certain amount of credits, for example, to practice using in the in-game RMAH. For the PayPal aspect (e.g. real money), that part will probably be done by employees working in conjunction with PayPal. As for integration and instructions for all other gamers, that announcement should go out one or two months before retail/digital.

During the Q&A portion of the call, Mike sure was put on the spot. Almost all of the Q&A questions were Blizzard related, which was unusual. Apparently, there's some concern about how well MoP was received. On a related note, check out the Mists of Pandaria Preview Trailer, and compare Likes/Dislikes to WOTLK and Cata. I've never seen anything like that before.

2012 Expectations

This isn't related to the Q3 call, and it was something that I have already been preparing so I figured it would fit nicely into this post.

I was digging around through old job posts looking for anything Titan related. One thing I found interesting, though, is that all references to those old Fraud Specialist and Fraud Manager positions have been completely wiped off the face of the internet. :)

It's was written about back in this post, and TOD had also backed it up with some Google results (1 2 3 4). They're all completely gone now and it's pretty interesting. Apparently the jobs were publicly available for a week or two, and then after it was posted it, it was suddenly removed from all websites (e.g. Blizzard and recruiting agencies/outsourcers) all at once. They were pulled even a month before the deadline. :)

(By the way, if you ever find references to those positions in old archival websites, let me know.)

Anyways, Blizzard is hiring for Summer 2012 internships. A whole ton of them. I think they'll probably receive more serious instructions, though, on keeping confidential information off of their resumes moving forwards. Interns are a pretty good resource for new discoveries. :)

This intern position in particular interested me:

"The strategic initiatives team focuses on broad initiatives that address company-wide or development-specific opportunities and challenges. Our projects range from strategic planning to organizational and / or operations initiatives to purely quantitative analyses. Our roles are as varied as our projects. We may support, research, consult on, or drive projects. Some past and present efforts include: business analysis and visioning for the D3 Auction House; the development leadership councils; the side projects program; quantitative and qualitative analysis of cross-company survey data; franchise development; assistance with BlizzNet (Blizzard Entertainment's internal intranet); email Mike and ask the execs; Blizzard Entertainment academy; and other initiatives aimed at helping fulfill the top development, business and organizational goals of the company."

It's interesting in that one of their first duties will be "business analysis and visioning for the D3 Auction House." They'll be hired during a time when D3 will be well underway, but they're still interested in future vision and expansion of the D3 Auction House. Blizzard is looking for fresh perspectives, new D3 RMAH features or services, and probably ways to leverage the D3 RMAH and apply to Titan (assuming the new business venture is successful).

Overhyping Titan?

I have also come to the conclusion that I might be overthinking Titan too much, and setting my expectations too high.

Paul Sams once noted, "We're confident in Titan. It's an awesome one." and "We're playing it already. It's a total ball to play." He was describing a prototype of course, which would still be backed with concept art and a strong vision.. but his wording of the game makes it seem like there's more action involved than the typical "turn based" combat experienced in WoW.

It's also what Blizzard has NOT been saying about the game that convinces me that Titan is being overhyped. They're not saying, "it takes gaming into a whole new direction" or "it's innovative, it's different and awesome". Every description of the game is the same as how they once described World of Warcraft.

Cameron Dayton's description of the game even portrayed a fixed history, philosophy, heroes, villains, and a main story line. This isn't a customizable or immense world shaping game, it's a standard MMORPG with combat (heroes/villains), new characters, and a new story to tell.

I don't think Titan will be taking gaming into any new direction. The "Next Gen" term is just referring to the graphics engine and really nothing else (except for maybe in-game revenue generators). There's also Titan transmedia at work.. since there are new colorful characters in this game, there will be novels, comic books, t-shirts, toys, mousepads, posters, etc.

And also interestingly, the development team has been focusing more on player and NPC design than "monsters" or "creatures".

I'm expecting that it will be a standard MMORPG/FPS like WOW, but targeting additional demographics. I'm inclined to support Daeity's earlier posts; modern setting, low scifi, low fantasy, a multiverse of environments, a large world full of users and NPCs (one server per region, everything can live in different countries, times, or locations in-game), and the storyline could be anywhere from modern wartorn countries, to parallel dimensions, to time travel, or maybe just a messed up Doctor Who story with multiple times existing at once.

In a massive world, with a large number of players and their own market place, it makes for a great opportunity to exploit D3's RMAH. D3 will make the decision, though, whether it will be implemented in Titan or not.

Future Predictions

And, for those watching trademark registrations,

• In 2012, about 3-4 months before Blizzcon you will see a registration for a strange name. It won't be Titan, but rather the D3 expansion pack. (Of course the name might be obvious, like "Heaven's Sin" or something.)
• During Blizzcon 2012, they'll announce the D3 expansion pack, there will be demos, a video, and 1 new class. New PVP features, and a new profession probably developed by the S.I.T. to further exploit RMAH usage and growth.
• Diablo 3 will also have new friend invite systems and "Scrolls of Resurrection", but they'll probably not be announced during Blizzcon.
• In 2013, D3 X1 will be released and WOW X5 will be announced (once again, trademarked shortly before Blizzcon.)
• In 2014, X5 released and assuming no more delays, the real Titan game name will be registered and demonstrated at Blizzcon. This is when everyone rushes to get domain names.
• The Titan trailer will be a mind blowing graphical festival of the eyes with a deep commanding voice narrating. Pants will be crapped, fans will spontaneously combust, and burly men will swoon. But it will just be another MMO with really cool graphics.
• After WoW X5, I think the development and delivery trend is going to change. They'll be very few and far between, and Blizzard will probably push their Digital Download platform, make the expansion packs smaller, and pretty much just turn them into DLC packs (instead of full blown expansion experiences).
• And, SC2: HOTS/LOTV fit somewhere up there too, but I think they're going to be delayed.

Blizzard reads all of this of course, and I'm the only site doing it. :)

* UPDATE: With Blizzcon 2012 being cancelled, I'll still keep the same timeline just without Blizzcon.

Looks like Blizzard is doing yet another archive of the entire site. :)

Daeity told me to expect this. Every once in a while, I'll see almost a thousand hits from 216.148.0.72 (Blizzard) viewing every single page in under 0.05 seconds each.

Typically, there's normal monitoring of certain posts, but every once in a while they'll use (what I assume) is a webpage downloader app to capture the full blog, check it for leaks, keep a record, give it to their lawyers, who knows. All of the exit links are captured as well, which is why I assume it's automated.

I thought you guys might be interested in knowing this sort of stuff, since no one else really writes about it.. although, I assume it happens elsewhere. Superegatory, for example, received MANY visits from Take Two for example during the GTA V resume discovery. :)

They're still doing the pull right now and they'll capture this post last.

(If you're reading this, check out this post here. It's a satire about Diablo 3 X1, but you might be able to pull some real ideas from it for your next expansion pack.)

One of Joystiq's Blizzard tipsters (Steve) has informed them that John Staats has been let go. He was a Senior Level Designer (Level 2) on Titan. You'll find this news on plenty other sites, so I won't go into it too much. (Unless I dig up some other information that they haven't already announced.)

Other prior Titan troubles are detailed here.

* Update (11/07/11):

This "tip" could have been something as simple as his Facebook status update. He changed his status to no longer working at Blizzard, but he was still working there Oct. 25th at least (based on his comments).

If this was the reason, there may have been some more terminations as well. One of John Staat's Facebook friends, Trent Kaniuga has also changed his FB status to "Worked at Blizzard" as opposed to everyone elses "Works at Blizzard". He was a Sr. Concept Artist for Diablo 3 and was present at Blizzcon 2011.

(I don't use Facebook, so I'm not too familiar with FB sleuthing.. maybe you guys can investigate and confirm if this is correct or not?)

* Update (11/07/11):

Facebook status updates are also showing "Worked at Blizzard" (past tense) now on Dana Marie Bishop (Curatorial Assistant, was at this past Blizzcon and uploaded a bunch of personal pictures 3 days ago), Gino Whitehall (Concept Artist), Matt Milizia (Senior Environment Artist), and Paul Richards (Concept Artist) on the Titan team.

There are a dozen more, at least, recent Blizzard employees now showing "Worked at" as past tense.

(On a side note, I have actually followed Gino Whitehall's artwork in the past.. for a while I had thought that he was part of the Titan team or at least worked in the same circles.)

Was there a major overhaul a day or two before the Investors Call tomorrow? Maybe an announcement of restructuring within the organization? A loss in subscribers would explain Customer Support lay offs, for example.

If you guys are "FB gurus", let me know if this information is correct or if I made a mistake. I don't think it's a mistake though, as it looks pretty legit. It would make sense too, for a mass layoff shortly before an investor call (ie, rather than announcing it during the call and then laying off everyone at the end of the week. It's better to surprise employees for security reasons, as cruel as that sounds.)

Confirmed: When you are set as employed in FB, it will say "Works At". When you change your status (quick uncheck) to remove employment, it says "Worked At.." instead. They don't have new employers to revert to and they were most recently employed by Blizzard (e.g. many employees who were at Blizzcon are now showing "unemployed" statuses.) This all could be a mistake on their part, but they're all avid users of Facebook and changing their Employment status like this would be highly unusual. This appears to be a mass (multiple not "massive") layoff.

On a related note,

I was preparing a post for November 8th (in addition to the Quarterly Results Call), to basically show what to expect from Blizzard in 2012. But, if these layoffs are confirmed tomorrow, I'll have some more to write about. What's most interesting, though, is that they won't need any of these employees for Diablo 3 "crunch time" meaning that the game is much farther along than most people suspect. The only thing holding them back now are probably still those technical challenges and the RMAH integration.

* Update (11/08/11):

Looks like I can add a couple more names to the list, if the Joystiq rumor is true and FB is the source of their "tip". Joshua Horst (Producer) and Andrea Toyias (Casting and Voice-Over Director). Andrea was actually one of the Q&A Panelists for Diablo 3 at Blizzcon. I could have sworn that Peet Cooper (Sr. Environment Artists for Diablo 3) had Blizzard listed on his FB account yesterday, but now it's gone. (This doesn't necessarily mean he was laid off, but maybe he knew about the FB sleuthing and decided to hide his employment listing.)

There are at least 20 other people I see that are "no longer working" at Blizzard, but I can't find any other evidence of their last working day - so they're all unconfirmed for the moment.

(And yes, for those who were going to ask, I'm getting a LOT of hits from Blizzard offices on this situation.)

* Update (11/08/11):

Some outside forum posters are taking this news as bad or taking their reasoning for these layoffs too far (e.g. "lost subs", "bad blizzcon", "pandas"). Just to clarify, if this rumor ends up being true, this is just a perfectly normal process and a "seasonal" activity that's based on development timelines. This happens all the time, you just don't know about it since official announcements are never made. Titan is not cancelled, there just appears to be some reorganization to keep their vision and performance on track. Besides, "Titan" is just a name.. it can be applied to any number of different MMOs they are testing internally. This is very good news for Diablo 3, however, since typically there are layoffs following development completion. And as always, make sure you read comments too.. they further expand on a lot of these blog posts. :)

* Update (11/08/11):

Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym (Jonathan Brown) has claimed that it is all false evidence, that the status changes were just accidents, and it's all just basically rumor mill while there have been no terminations at all.

"Tons of speculation based on false evidence. Score one for Internet rumor mill? RT @blakex Yeah, just read that article..."

Bashiok (Micah Whipple) is also confirming the same, that no one has been laid off. Apparently, it's all just accidental.

So there you have it. The Blizzard response is basically "Nothing to see here, move along."

Does their official stance on speculation still apply if official statements are made by Blizzard employees using official Blizzard game names and on platforms used for dispensing company news releases?

"Blizzard Entertainment does not comment on rumors or speculation."

Of course, both LinkedIn and Twitter are public sources as well and anything you see written on there is also false evidence and speculation (Zarhym Logic™). No one in their right mind would ever publish accurate employment information on their Facebook profiles for heaven's sake. That's just crazy tin foil hattery. So, I wouldn't believe any information you read about on Twitter either.. it's highly inaccurate and should not be depended on.

* Update (11/08/11):

Zarhym (Source):

I'm not in PR and won't officially comment here on rumors or speculation. You control the quality of your reporting. @titan_mmo

But.. but.. you already did comment on rumor and speculation! :)

Mike Sacco (Source):

@talkingcongas I seriously hate that Daeity person

Hahahaha.. say, wasn't Sacco that guy who said Blizzard has never had any security breaches or leaks?

Official statement released on public forums:

Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don’t discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about ‘massive layoffs at Blizzard’ is just a rumor.

Thread locked.

Now.. is that a "rumor rumor" or a "Tom Chilton rumor"? :)

Note: He's referring to a "massive" layoff rumor on the forum. On this blog, I'm just speculating on "mass" layoffs. I know it's not "massive".. maybe a dozen or more. Strange that he worded it that way though. Also, I thought that Blizzard Entertainment did not comment on rumor and speculation? Interesting..

* Update (11/08/11):

Joystiq.com has confirmed that there have been no layoffs.. including the one they originally reported themselves..

They wrote:

Yesterday, a handful of gaming news sites reported that a senior designer working on the new Titan MMO had gotten laid off by Blizzard Entertainment.

And then they linked back to themselves as the source of these rumors. Okay.

Anyways.. "layoffs never happened" and "Blizzard employees still have their jobs."

As per Joystiq, John Staats, Trent Kaniuga, Paul Richards, etc are all still employed with Blizzard. No one has been laid off recently.

(* March 2012 Update: All 3 of those employees were indeed laid off around the same time.)

Funny comments on their post though. Apparently, I was the one who started the rumor that John Staats was laid off. Joystiq is also claiming that the FB investigation revealed HUNDREDS of Blizzard employees laid off. Funny.. I thought I speculated on 8 names and assumed a dozen or so IF the rumor (started by Joystiq mind you) was proven true.

* Update (11/08/11):

Joystiq.com has two conflicting blog posts now. In one corner, we have Blizzard and Joystiq claiming that there have been no layoffs. Everything is just rumor, hence untrue. In the other corner, they're confirming that John Staats was indeed terminated.

So, this brings us all back to the original speculation. We may learn more in the coming weeks or months.

* Update (11/14/11):

Another FB profile confirmed. Paul Richards was indeed let go as speculated. I think we'll see a lot more layoffs over the next coming months too, and I'll continue to monitor.

(Continuation here. 12 employees were later confirmed, not including the several dozens of Technical Support and CSR positions. Under the WARN Act, a "mass layoff" can consist of 2 or more individuals too. So whether you use the legal definition of "mass layoff" or a mass of layoffs, they both apply.)

So, I was reading an interesting post on DiabloFans about difficulty levels. Basically, the "tl;dr" version is that based on various interviews, Beta gameplay, and Blizzard quotes about the four D3 difficulty levels, it seems that the game will be very easy to play and that players won't hit the expected level of difficulty until sometime in Hell mode (e.g. Hell is the new Normal.)

I thought it was a delightful and thought provoking article. He had citations and sources, it was speculation of course since the game's not out yet, but it does rather raise some interesting theories, thoughts and concerns.

Normally, I just skip everything on Diablofans because it's the exact same article posted on every other gaming forum, blog, and fan site. They only post official announcements, official videos, changes to FAQs, official posts about class changes, website changes, Blue posts, etc.

However, this one stood out because he took pieces from many different interviews, and put them together into one cohesive idea. The author, Magistrate, provided reasons, proof, and sources for his concerns.

But unfortunately something happened:

I apologize for any undue amount of negativity that this post conveys. I highly value your feedback and will do my best to improve my approach to writing content that you read in the future. No, no one asked me to say this. I say this because I care about the community that's been gathering here since 2006. When you're not happy, I'm not happy.

-Magistrate :)

Geeez.. what did those MONSTERS do to him?

He was voted down to hell, the readers got really angry, he received hate mail and threats, and he needed to issue a public apology to the community.

I didn't see any negativity at all in his post. But apparently when you question decisions or talk about concerns on upcoming class changes, you're a hateful, raging, conspiracy nut who despises Blizzard and all of their games.

Does any of that sound right to you? He strayed into forbidden territory ("Dude.. you should have just copied-and-pasted the latest blue post about icon colors being changed.") so they ripped him apart. I hate these toxic environments.

But, you know.. there was something about the website that I found very strange that could explain the "Don't Think, Don't Question" attitude. I was getting quite a headache looking at the website, so I put on some "special 1980's style sunglasses" that I had found back in an old abandoned church next to a shantytown in LA. Suddenly, it all made sense.

Here's what the webpage looked like before the sunglasses:

And, here's what it looked like after the sunglasses:


So yeah, it makes a lot of sense now. Now, I always thought that the difficulty levels were going to be pretty easy too. Except until you hit maybe the middle of Hell and then the Inferno difficulty. The reason for having such a harsh difficulty wall in place is because it forces players to upgrade their equipment.. and that equipment can only be found on the Real Money Auction House. Blizzard pushes players to a certain point where they hit a wall, and in order to get past the wall, Blizzard pushes them into the RMAH where only the best gear can be found. That's what I would do if I was a standard marketing and financial staff member. :)

It's probably going to be a quiet week here, at least until November 8th (when there will be a lot of big news items.) So, I'll be getting all of the smaller posts out of the way today:

• Unfortunately, both the Activision Blizzard and Take Two financial calls will be taking place on the same day at the same time. For the upcoming Activision Blizzard call, you can expect the same "Better than expected Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results" announcement. Even if there were poor results, they'll always be "better than expected". Mike Morhaime will talk about how successful Blizzcon was and he'll summarize all of the prior announcements (e.g. D3 CE, WOW Annual Pass, and the new expansion pack. Basically anything that makes the investors money.) I'm also eagerly anticipating the D3 Release Date (although, SC2 was announced just 3 days before the investor call in 2010). If there is no release date announced by next week, that probably means more technical difficulties and longer delays. He will probably also release the number of attendees during Blizzcon, which should be higher than what was announced on the first day.


• During the investor call, make note of Mike Morhaime's special wording of Virtual Ticket Live Stream viewer counts. :) He'll talk about the DIRECTV customers, but conveniently leave out live stream viewers paid directly to Blizzard. The DIRECTV viewer counts will probably be a little bit higher too than what he first announced during Blizzcon 2011. Masking direct live stream customers is a great way to show improved revenue actually. If I was an investor and there was an extra $20 million in monthly revenue, for example, I would have had no idea where it actually came from and I would assume that it was from subscriptions. This brings up an interesting theory; during 2011 when there were no new game releases, they couldn't hide lost revenue due to declining subscribers (so the information was casually mentioned during the call, but never officially announced.) However, during periods of major revenue spikes (e.g. new games sales or Blizzcon), their revenue figures can be massaged and subscriber numbers don't need to be brought up. So, will Mike Morhaime discuss subscriber decline or will it be left out next week? :)


• Assuming everything stays on course with the D3 release schedule, you should also expect a PayPal/Battle.net integration website and instructions in the coming months. It will probably be announced atleast a month before the release date, and will allow players to setup their "Cashing Out" account, integrate with B.Net, learn about how to use it, and start depositing money into their B.Net credit account in advance of the D3 release. You might see some signs of this if the webpage is taken down for maintenance in December, for example.


• The DC Universe Online website was down all day yesterday, pissing off a lot of players who wanted to try out the new F2P change. I guess they ran into some major problems.. I was hoping to get an account going myself, but learned too late that they provided a link on their Facebook site due to their technical difficulties. I'm in no real rush though.


• The new GTA V trailer had some nice visuals. With all of the enhancements made to GTA IV PC, though, it looks kind of bland. :) I'm hoping that buildings will be more explorable in GTA V.. in all of the others, you could only enter certain structures.


• NBC's Grimm finally aired. It turned out to be exactly as I had pictured in my mind. The original preview had already given away the entire story. The pilot episode was very bad, I hope it fails. And there were so many inconsistencies, like a small 2 block park that suddenly turned into a huge forest. Or the impossible TARDIS-like mobile home owned by the aunt; it's 4 times as big on the inside than it is on the outside, it has a steel floor but super creaky wooden boards when he walked across them, women won't weigh anything inside the mobile home (his girlfriend walked right in without making a sound on the impossibly creaky boards), and there's no vibration or shaking inside the mobile home when it moves (candle sticks, books, ornaments, etc all standing up straight.) I hope they have a new sound guy for the next episodes too.. it was terrible, and even the screams were the same clips used in a thousand other shows/films from 20 years ago.


• I'm hoping to make up a video about Grimm actually.. just need to find the time to learn the software.


• I also regularly watch Boardwalk Empire. Not on the top of my list, but it's something to kill the time. I totally didn't expect that knocked up mistress being discovered by Agent Nelson's wife. The guy was such a psychopath, I was half expecting him to wait until the child was born, kill the girl, and then surprise the wife with an "adopted" child that was in fact his own. She was so desperate to have her own child after all.


• Do you guys have any "interesting blog" suggestions? I'm having a hard time finding some really good blogs to read. Everything out there is the same old stuff, and it's awful boring. Where are all of the good blogs or sites? I pretty much only check up on Tobolds and Wolfshead occasionally (and Titanfocus now, of course). Tobolds feels like it's rushed though.. like he needs to make at least one post a day, so the quality suffers. Wolfshead I like, but he only makes an update once a month, and this last one was a 3 month hiatus. If I only made posts here once a month, there would be some amazingly huge articles. :) Is there a secret forum somewhere where people discuss really interesting non mainstream topics? Maybe someone should create one, with an elite invite list for people from differing fields of expertise or industry connections.


• And finally, some Titan related "blasphemy". This might be a good topic to expand on later, but here are some of my initial thoughts. Everyone is highly anticipating Titan, and Blizzard has talked about how great the game is to play. They always describe it as raising the bar and "next gen", implying that the game will be better than WOW. We all believe it, and I'm guilty of the same. But what no one is talking about is "what if Titan fails?" In all of the hype, I just forgot that WOW might just be Blizzard's most successful game ever and Titan will never reach the same heights. The one thing that Blizzard is really good at is making sure they release only great games.. it's a lesson they learned probably around 2000 and when Diablo 2 came out. If they had the same game design philosophy that they do now, they probably would have never started work on WC Adventures or allowed the Hellfire expansion pack. Starcraft Ghost would probably have still started development and cancelled though when they realized that it didn't meet Blizzard's quality. The same might happen with Titan. It's still in very early development, and if it doesn't meet Blizzard's level of quality standards, it could be scrapped, substantially delayed, or the game completely redesigned from scratch but still using the same game code ("Titan") so as not to scare their investors. Hell, for all we know, there could be 3 different Titan games currently being worked on. :) If it does get delayed, cancelled, or does not perform as well as WOW, the "TITANic: Too Big To Fail?" memes will be endless. What if it ends up being a kids game, or targets stay-at-home moms like Zynga, thereby alienating the bulk of Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft players? Maybe Titan was a bad choice in a code word for the game. Perhaps there's a curse? :)

Awesome news that just came out of Piranha Games. MWO (F2P) will be launching Summer 2012.

You can register your Pilot Name right now. Get your very rare name before anyone else does. I got a really good one. :)

The FAQ is located here. Basically, it's a PC exclusive Free to Play MMO. MWO is running an "offset timeline" to BattleTech and in 3049. No melee combat, no vehicles yet, Mech team-based. The Atlas, Hunchbask and Jenner Mech designs have been confirmed, and the Clans will be making an appearance.

* UPDATE:

PC Gamer has an "exclusive" article on MWO.

Oh right! DC Universe Online is going F2P tomorrow too. I'll probably play it for 1 or 2 weeks before getting bored, but it should be interesting.

Here's another interesting use for Google Alerts: finding out when someone steals credit. :)

(Mynsc, this is something to be prepared for on your own site. Don't be surprised if someone rips off information from your site, even blatant copy and pastes.)

On this blog, it's something that happens all the time. Taking credit for research or posts from here, copying and pasting "thoughts" and "opinions" as their own, and I've even seen gold guides ripped off from here, put into book form, and then sold as part of a gold making package.

Here's the latest from a blog entry on SC2SEA.COM.

It's not exactly that hard to link directly to the source either. Here you go.

This is what the original quote looked like:

What mynsc said at the top is the real deal, but thanks to everyone for letting me know to never joke around before we go live on the DTV feed....

Geoff and I were just killing time and joking around. etc. etc. etc.

And here's what Dox changed it to:

Kat Hunter herself stepped forward with the following public statement as well:

Originally Posted by Kat Hunter

Thanks to everyone for letting me know to never joke around before we go live on the DTV feed....

Geoff and I were just killing time and joking around. etc. etc. etc.

No links to the site, no citation, and clearly edited to not reveal it's source. Stay classy, Dox.

Here's the whole thing in full if you're interested:

By the way, Kat Hunter never did return to check on her comment or to see if anyone responded. It was sort of a drop in never to return PR paste. Pretty much exactly as I expected. :)

* UPDATE OCT 31, 2011:

Apparently, Dox took credit for yet ANOTHER post from this blog too.

Here's all he wrote:

Note that this is not officially confirmed by Blizzard yet, but the source is credible and I wouldn't create a thread about it if I didn't think it was true.

Diablo 3 will be released on January 17th, 2012.

He makes it sound like it's his own internal sources that told him this. :)

If you're looking for a new TV show to watch, I'd recommend Sky 1's "SPY".

Not the greatest title for a show these days, but it's a pretty good spy spoof and shows some really excellent potential. They are 3 episodes in, and each episode is 30 minutes long (incl. commercials, so roughly 22 minutes without).. I just discovered it today by accident.

Sadly, the show will be mostly overlooked in North America, but if you appreciate well written dialogue, verbal humor, and something that's not over the top, you'll really like this show.

Tim is in a custody battle with his ex-wife, when he quits his job. He applies for a job as a civil servant doing data entry, but discovers during the job interview that he has been offered a job as a trainee spy for MI5.

I usually have a problem with a couple cast members on most American TV shows, but I think you'll like all of the characters on SPY, even the annoying bratty son.

You might not like the show, but atleast someone is making you aware of it. :) You should give the first 3 episodes a shot, at least. (I have different tastes, and most of my friends think I'm crazy for enjoying films like Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, Red Dwarf, Monty Python, Dr. Strangelove or TV shows like Arrested Development. They're more into sitcoms and reality series, which I can't stand.)

My guide is very simple and it's just one page:

1. If you want to make money creating Diablo 3 gold guides, don't bother.

I was thinking the other day about the indeterministic nature of Diablo 3, and came to the realization that trying to make a Diablo 3 Gold Guide is going to be very difficult and practically pointless. All of the gold guides will be very simple, they'll all look the same, and they'll all be very short.

Here's Why

In World of Warcraft, there's just so much to do and so much variation (even when the game first came out). There's mining, gathering, crafting, services, dailies, special quests, and a thousand more forms of farming. There are mods to improve gold and item gathering. Due to the massive variety of quests, some can be bugged to give extra XP or gold. There are mobs that drop varying quantities of gold, materials, or different XP gains. Each mob has a specific loot table so that you can farm groups of mobs over and over to get a certain item or crafting material. Bosses also have specific loot tables, so that you can keep farming the same boss or instance to get it.

But Diablo 3 is nothing like that. The massive variety is gone, specialized mob drops are gone, loot tables are gone, gathering is gone, special quests are gone, etc.

If you compare the two gaming experiences, you can look at it this way:

• players are only able to go from one zone to the next. They are all in order like a game on rails. You can only move forwards or move back into one zone at a time.
• all of the mobs in the zone drop the exact same amount of XP and gold.
• basically, there are thousands of the "same monster" in each zone, and you can only get a different monster by moving into the next zone. In zone 2, all of the mobs are level 7-9, they all drop level 7-9 items. In zone 3, all of the mobs are level 10-12, they all drop level 10-12 items. And so on..
• there are no loot tables.
• there are no mods to help you, improve gathering, or make the AH easier to use.
• when you kill the boss at the end of the zone, they all have the same chances of dropping the exact same items.
• there's no such thing as "farming" anymore. It's more simple: just kill everything in the zone because they all drop the same stuff.
• all of the mobs drop the same crafting items too, so you can't farm specific mobs for items or mats.
• because you have your own private world now, there's no competition or rarity of mobs to drive up prices on the Auction House. Meaning, they're of less value to you and not worthwhile to "farm".
• "farming" bosses just drops more rares, but you can kill larger quantities of weaker monsters to get the same drops.

Basically, "farming" is gone. It's non existent in Diablo 3. If you want to "farm" items, it's now "farming" on the Auction House. That's where you know the specific items will be.

So, what does this leave for Diablo 3 Gold Guides?

There might be some guides on which classes are the most overpowered and in combination with certain skills. But, that's just a class guide and not a gold guide. It really just helps you kill mobs faster. (Classes will also be balanced regularly by Blizzard, so things will change. I would recommend becoming an altoholic so stay on top.)

There's no farming anymore, everything is just random selling on the Auction House.

There could be "gold guides" about what the best gear, items, or equipment for your character is. But, what's the point if the Auction House already does this for you? (e.g. the gear/skill matching system.)

The only useful guide would be a list of item rarity. All mobs have the same drop chances, but some items have more rare drop chances than others. That's where true value is determined.

So, there might be guides on how players can scan the Auction House more efficiently and what items and recipes to search for. If the items are being sold for really cheap, and the seller doesn't know the true value, they can be resold. Even better, recipes can be bought (if the seller doesn't know it's true value), and then multiple items crafted and resold from the single recipe.

But, that's all very common sense stuff. A guide isn't needed to tell people that.

And according to Robert Bridenbecker, they don't expect market manipulation to be possible. That means, no cornering or markets, no rare selling strategies, everyone just has the same chance of getting the same drops and selling the same stuff as everyone else. Everyone now has an equal chance of making the same money... whether they're skilled farmers or AH strategists.

Supply >>> Demand

His comments really concerned me actually, they're anticipating that supply will always be significantly greater than demand. WOW is much different. Plus, that's not very good for an economy.

I hope this isn't true though. From the sounds of things, when the game first launches there will be a lot of crazy selling and buying too, because no one will realize how valuable items truly are.. they'll just go by their short term benefits. Once things settle in though, I think Diablo 3 will have a massive penny market. Everyone will be selling their drops for pennies, just slightly above the listing fee and other cuts, and the both Auction Houses will be flooded with items.

All items will be selling for 10 or 20 cents. And people will buy them because they're so cheap. "Oh wow, only $0.20 for this armor upgrade? Buy! Oh.. another leg piece, and only for $0.10! Buy!"

Within the massive penny market, avid sellers might make $0.20-$2.00 per day selling hundreds of items (after hours and hours of work). But Blizzard will be profiting 10-20% of all earnings from the millions if not billions of player transactions per day. :)

Besides the massive penny market, there will also be those very rare and sudden drops that any player has a chance of winning. That's what keeps players going.. that chance to "suddenly win" a $10-50 item. People will be addicted to this, and that's where the true gambling nature of the game comes in.

The Best Diablo Gold Guides?

Unfortunately, the best gold guides will be about cheating and exploits.

Within the legitimate Diablo 3 game, you'll want to read guides on how to make the most efficient killing machine. Techniques, class, and skills to build the best AOE class you can.. and which zones have the most number of mobs in the smallest amount of space.

Finding mobs that give birth to smaller mobs (and killing those) is probably the most efficient (like the "Mothers" in the first zone). And you'll want to keep resetting the zone over and over. The game is about killing quantity, and not quality or specific farming. It might even be worth killing more mobs instead of bosses since time is a factor. Diablo 3 is all about KPM (Kills Per Minute.)

Other tips? Don't buy anything. Ever.

Selling gold and characters will provide the most consistent revenue. If you're a gambler, focus on drops.

Watch patch notes (unsure if there will be a D3 PTR) so that you can know if certain item drop chances will change, if items will have their modifiers changed, or if drops will be removed (if existing items remain, this will increase their rarity and possibly value.)

When the time comes, I'll probably create a few of my own gold guides.. but I think they'll mostly focus on the Auction House, areas with the most condensed monster groups, and probably player tricks or exploits.

Kat Hunter dropped by and left a comment about the Warcraft 4 affair in the comments section here.

I can confirm it was indeed her (if the Blogspot account didn't give it away) as she also sent it from a Blizzard work PC.

She came here from the Reddit post if you were interested. I wonder if Mike Morhaime reads Reddit often too?

Still, it's nice that someone from Blizzard finally left a comment after all of their visits. I think it's the first time they ever commented.. I don't have access to the older blog information before August though.

• "The Players Wanted It". I love it when Blizzard says this. Apparently, the reason for the new Pet Battles system is because players wanted it. Blizzard also said the same thing about the cash money auction house: players wanted it. Online only requirement and no mods for Diablo 3? Player want this because that's how it was in Diablo 2. Paid faction changes? Players wanted it. Create both factions on a PVP server? Players. Real ID? Players. Removal of Real ID? Players again. Character naming restrictions? Players. More restrictions? Removal of restrictions? Pandas? You get the idea. It's all completely true though.. it's like those commercials where they say, "Doctors agree that this is the best medical product." All they need are two doctors, who can have a doctorate in basket weaving, to promote the product. Players really did want these changes.. even if it was just 2 Blizzard employees who asked for it. Whenever they say "players want this", it's really "the business wants this." Why are the things that players REALLY want never done? Vanilla servers come to mind, and it's been a major discussion since TBC when there was no technical barrier.


• Bethesda has been denied their appeal in attempting to stop Interplay's development of the Fallout MMO. I'm actually hoping Interplay wins this battle, but not in the way or for the reasons you might be thinking. They have both been pretty sneaky on both sides, but in my opinion, Bethesda has been far more cruel during this war. I think that the Fallout MMO development progress has actually been very slow by Interplay on purpose, and they're really just holding the IP hostage. Bethesda's lawyers wrote that "Bethesda would be unable to recover in the event that Interplay enters bankruptcy." If this is true, then they should just purchase the entire Fallout IP directly from Interplay. (Interplay, of course, will be asking for a tremendous amount of "screw you" payback.) After all, Bethesda is not permitted to create any new Fallout game after their next standalone installment; the IP will automatically revert back to Interplay as per their original contract. I suspect that Bethesda is even more desperate now that RAGE (the possible Fallout replacement developed by id Software) wasn't received too well. What they should do is just make Fallout 5 a game with heavy next gen expansion characteristics, so that the universe can keep being expanded with new graphics engines and content in each expansion pack (or DLC). They just need to outlast Interplay. And, they should also buy the Wasteland IP from Inxile (for a much reduced price) and use that as their next gaming franchise line.


• Part 3 of that PC Gamer article came out. There was no more information on Titan, and no clarification of the first article which implied a possible Titan direction. Disappointing.

Yay! Blogspot Page comments are now visible again. (There are "Posts" like this one, and then there are special "Pages" like what you see along the top-right corner of the Blogspot menu page.)

From the looks of things it went down around the first week of October, and came back up within the past couple days. (Only reason I noticed was because someone posted a question on the FAQ page.) :)

You know, going over past comments (from well before Blizzcon 2011 mind you) was a very reassuring experience. It's too bad that Boubouille guy never actually researched any of that apparently. He was SO upset and angry about the leak, but unfortunately all of his arguments were predicated on assumptions and guesses. And, he only focused on ONE facet but conveniently left out the other imgur links, YouTube comments, paste sites, Blogspot comments, and all of the people who saw it before Blizzcon. He strikes me as someone who "does his research", so it was very disappointing that he was manipulating his people that way (he didn't tell them the full truth). I suppose followers will blindly follow their leader no matter what they say though.

Something still really bothers me though. Why was he so obsessed with this blog in the first place? He jumped in right away and acted very angry about the whole thing.. but there was no need for it. Real leaks and fake leaks happen all of the time, but why did he pick this leak specifically? There was something really weird about everything he was saying and it just doesn't add up. Why does the owner of one of the largest WOW blogs so interested in what comes out of this site? He's made it clear that he has been following the site for a long time too. What's all that about? I and many others know it was real, so why is he so insistent on trying to disprove it? I still feel like there's something else going on.

All of the Rockstar Studio websites (e.g. Leeds, San Diego, Toronto, etc) are now being redirected back to the main Rockstargames.com website.

Apparently, that test they did on August 25th was indeed a preparation for this big day (e.g. the GTA V announcement.)

I was very disappointed about the Diablo 3 Panels and Q&A since they didn't reveal any new information. They just went over the same stuff that has been announced previously. But, apparently there was a press gathering with Robert Bridenbecker after Blizzcon and there's some interesting new information.

Here's the video, but the audio is a little poor:



A summary of the most interesting information from that meeting:

• Blizzard's plan for the RMAH is that you have a credit card on your account. If your listing doesn't sell, your credit card is charged for the listing fee.
• The other option they are debating is arrears and they're thinking that for every failed Listing Fee, you start building up a negative balance which would need to get paid out after a certain time.
• They want to keep the flat rates as small as possible. He kept reiterating small tiny fees. Guess we'll see when the time comes. Based on Blizzard comments over the past few months and this recent reiteration, I'm thinking $0.05 or less, but if it's more than $0.25 that's way too much. The Blizzard team is apparently guessing that most items will sell for "sub $10". So a small 5 cent fixed fee should match this. He said they won't start messing around with the listing fees either to manipulate the market.
• It sounds like the plan is to have players work for 3-5 months to maybe earn up to $50, and then they use that money to buy new games, DLC, paid services, or subscriptions. It will be quite a shock if people actually make a lot of money from it, and the anticipation is that most player profits will go back into Blizzard.
• Here's something interesting. When talking about market manipulation and someone cornering the market (e.g. they keep buying out the same item and jacking up the price by 10-20%), he said that it won't be possible in Diablo 3 like it was in WOW. (This goes back to the deterministic nature of WOW versus indeterministic nature of Diablo 3.) Basically, he said that due to the indeterministic nature of Diablo 3, supply will always be greater than demand. Eeek! This also confirms what I have been talking about for some time.. it's going to drive down prices, but increase Listing Fees substantially (and more failed Listing Fees) meaning more revenue for Blizzard.
• He talked about security measures; they're working on a SMS service where automated messages can be sent directly to your mobile in the case of abnormal security behavior on your account. If you're being hacked, you're notified right away.. rather than finding out when you attempt to login later.

And finally, here are the most interesting parts:

• "When you buy Diablo 3, you're buying Diablo 3." You can play it anywhere in the world, it's not region locked. Only the RMAH is region based.
• It's "just Diablo 3 now", no EN/EU/GB/etc versions. You choose the server, pick the language, and you can play anywhere in the world. No barriers, no RMAH restrictions, no currency restrictions, no region locking, etc. (Except that there is a different RMAH in each region and you are locked into your own currency, so the conversions are made for you when you cash out.)
• I guess this means Australian players can buy D3 from the US Website for $50 and start playing right away?
• Blizzard is the middleman for all RMAH transactions, you can utilize any currency you want, and if players want to they can even engage in speculative markets and currency trading. Robert said it would be perfectly acceptable.
• I guess this means that gold farmers will be migrating from server to server looking for the best market and currency conversion. (Latency permitting of course.) :)

This all sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait!

* UPDATE:

• Some people are saying that (from this video), you will have a different B.Net credit account in each region, and any money you earn can only be used in that region's B.Net store. Which is very strange that you can't use it for another B.Net store, considering there is only one "Battle.net". You can cash out to your main PayPal account though, and that's when the conversion takes place. But, I think they picked that up from the "Brazilian dollars" conversation that started at the 13 minute mark. He's just talking about conversion though, it's still Battle.net credit (but in "Brazilian dollars") and I think he's still saying it can be used for transactions everywhere else. For example, you make a ton of money in the European RMAH, but you can use that money (after conversion) to buy stuff off the US Battle.net Store.
• The audio is very crappy, and there are some parts that I don't understand. If you jump to the 11:03 mark, he says everyone can participate in the Gold Auction House anywhere in the world, but the RMAH is specific to the region. He must mean that certain regions won't have the RMAH (like what has already been announced).. although it first sounded like he's saying the Gold Auction House is "universal", but there are separate RMAH's on each server.
• UPDATE: Basically the way it works is when you first sign up to the game, you're "locked" into a specific region's RMAH. You can still play the game in any region, and you can use the Gold Auction House of any region. But, you're "locked" into a single RMAH (the one you first selected, which will typically be your own region that you're physically located.) You can "unlock" your RMAH region, though, by providing proof of relocation (like a scanned photo ID).

.. is going to blow your mind. Does this clickbait title work?

So, you want to hear something really messed up? I'm willing to bet that no one knows this (except Blizzard).

During the Blizzcon 2010 opening ceremonies, Michael Morhaime said that there were "more than 100,000 virtual attendees" watching across over 100 countries live via DIRECTV. (This was also when Blizzard DOTA was first announced, and he said it would be free to "all Battle.net players in the coming months.")

Next, during the Q3 2010 Earnings Call following Blizzcon 2010, Michael Morhaime said "More than 25,000 people attended the show with another 95,000 paid viewers following along via DIRECTV or the live Internet stream." (27,000 attendees were later reported.)

But wait.. don't you remember all of those RAYV problems? Oh right.. Blizzard also partnered with RAYV to provide live streaming through the Blizzard site.

In 2009 and 2010, Blizzcon was available live via Blizzard (RAYV) and DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event.

To clarify, there were TWO streams available for purchase: DIRECTV and BLIZZARD DIRECT

During the opening ceremonies, all of the official announcements, and shareholders meetings, Michael Morhaime only revealed the DIRECTV numbers. He was very careful about his wording, and he did not share their internal "Blizzard Direct" figures. How interesting.

However, RAYV sure did share this information in one of their official case studies.

Blizzcon 2010 served over 550,000 unique viewers watching over 100,000,000 minutes of online streaming in a single weekend, The [sic] premium package subscription cost $40 and included HD streaming of the entire event plus a special “pet code” [sic]

This was no typo. 550,000 paid viewers are mentioned multiple times in various RAYV releases. (Update: Even though they "served" customers and mention the premium package in the same statement, it's possible that there could be a percentage of free stream viewers in that 550k figure.)

So, there were 95,000 to 100,000 paid DIRECTV customers and over 550,000 paid BLIZZARD customers. HOLY CRAP.

Blizzard only revealed the 95,000 number though. It was a preplanned, calculated, and strategically worded delivery of speech. :)

It makes so much sense too.. with more than 25,000 (to 27,000) attendees and tickets selling out in minutes, why would virtual attendees only be 3x that number? 650,000+ viewers makes much more sense, but Blizzard does NOT want you to know this information.

It's exactly like what Michael Morhaime said, "margins are higher when we sell direct." SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER when sold direct, in fact. (I mentioned that citation yesterday too.)

In their partnership with DIRECTV, they are probably taking a larger cut away from Blizzard. But, by using RAYV technology (back in 2009 and 2010) using their own website and resources, they made a TON more revenue from virtual ticket sales.

But 2011 is even more interesting.

During the Blizzcon 2011 Opening Ceremonies, Michael Morhaime gave a "shout out" specifically to the DIRECTV members only. He said there were "more than 60,000 from 130 countries who bought a virtual ticket." So sneaky. :)

He didn't mention the number of virtual attendees who watched through the direct Blizzard live feed though. And last year, it was over 5 times the number of DIRECTV customers.

SO, IS YOUR MIND BLOWN NOW? (Hopefully not just by the number of actual viewers, but also the other revelation.)

If there were 100,000 DIRECTV customers last year, but only 60,000 this year, it's very likely that even more customers are using the Blizzard live stream this year. (By the way, there were "over 26,000" attendees announced at Blizzcon 2011 vs "over 25,000" at Blizzcon 2010.)

How much do you want to bet that the Blizzard live stream numbers will NOT be shared at this upcoming shareholders meeting? They'll only announce the outsourced DIRECTV figures, and very carefully word it. :)

Blizzard is okay with sharing numbers on behalf of partners or citing research publications (who don't have access to their internal digital numbers), but they're highly secretive when it comes to internal figures and revenues.

* UPDATE (10/26/2011)

RAYV has just updated their blog with statistics from the Blizzcon 2011 live stream.

For the third year in a row, RayV partnered with Blizzard and Direct TV to broadcast Blizzcon to virtual ticket holders. The virtual ticket increases in popularity every year. Virtual ticket holders can tune in on their computers and watch all performances, panels, and matches live. The virtual ticket also guarantees VOD access for up to two weeks after the event is over.

For the first time, RayV also streamed regional Blizzard Tournaments. RayV streamed the GomTV tournament, based in Korea, and the SiTV tournament, based in China. Both streams added to the global reach of the Blizzard and RayV community.

The Blizzcon stream attracted countless online viewers. Over the weekend, RayV delivered over 2.26 Million hours of streamed content. There were over 740,000 viewers worldwide and at some points there were approximately 200,000 concurrent viewers.

So, Michael Morhaime announced that there were "more than 60,000" DIRECTV users who purchased the 2011 virtual ticket. But, there were another 740,000 viewers who used the Blizzard live stream instead of DIRECTV (this figure might also include those who watched the Opening Ceremony and SC2/WOW matches).

Those viewer counts are crazy, no wonder Blizzard doesn't like to share them. The "revealed" DIRECTV paid customers is just a fraction of the "unrevealed" paid customers who go through Blizzard directly. A good example of why digital sales are never revealed either.. if they're not there yet, retail sales will eventually just be a fraction of digital sales.

* -------------------

It's all about wording too, like what this blog has discussed so many.. many times. Remember when they said Blizzcon was a financial loss for the company.. but it was spoken in past tense? Or when Tom Chilton claimed that Mists of Pandaria was just a crazy rumor and speculation?

If you guys were interested in tallying up sales, Blizzcon tickets cost $175 (they were $100 for several years, then $125 in 2009, and then $150 in 2010). Virtual tickets cost $40 this year and last. (In 2010, they made approximately $30 million in revenue with $3-4 million in expenses.)

Because they're delivering streaming services themselves this year, their profit is probably even higher.

Activision Blizzard Objectives

All of these deceptive choice of words and "special features" are showing very clear objectives for the company and just how important it is to keep it secret. When Michael Morhaime said that he's a crazy CEO who gets to make crazy decisions, and "what if we just made Diablo 3 available for free to World of Warcraft subscribers".. that wasn't just a crazy "idea". It was with purpose and it was all part of a strategic plan for the company.

Their objective is to push digital sales of games, expansion packs and DLC as much as possible. Digital sales (and providing sales and services themselves) is more important to them than even Paid Services. DIGITAL SALES IS HUGE FOR THEM. And they're realizing it even more every day since a few years ago.

And, I don't think Blizzard wants their competitors to know just how much money they're making from digital sales. Profit margins are massive if you can cut out the middlemen. They're doing it with games, services, music, and even video streams now.

If other competitors aren't already doing this, they will be hurting badly and simply cannot compete with Activision Blizzard. There are just so many businesses out there that haven't realized the importance of digital delivery and just providing these services in house. They should be outsourcing labor, but OWNING the digital delivery systems and finding clever ways to get their customers to buy from their digital stores. This is how Activision Blizzard is destroying the competition.. if competitors can't keep up, they'll be just like Blockbuster still trying to rent out VHS tapes.

Future Plans

With their heavy emphasis on digital delivery, you can bet that both Activision and Blizzard will be finding new ways (and special promotions like "$10 off if you buy online" or "get it free by buying this") to push digital sales. One method is degrading the quality of retail boxes and promoting environmentalism or "green incentives" to move into digital.

Having an easy delivery system and purchase platform is key. The RMAH "B.NET BUCKS" system is a brilliant method to push even more digital sales.

And you can bet that Titan will be HUGE into the digital delivery system. Special coupons or incentives to buy Titan online, purchase DLC digitally, purchase expansion packs online, seamless client upgrade systems, etc.

To continue pushing the digital delivery method (to eventually replace most of their retail sales), Titan will also be incorporating a heavy payment system internal to Battle.net (e.g. more "B.NET BUCKS") If users can make money using Titan, they'll use their Battle.net credits to purchase more games or Titan expansion packs. Titan expansion packs will probably be smaller and delivered more quickly too, since they weren't able to do it in time for WOW but they can still do it for Titan. And with their digital sales objective, it makes much more sense.

More people (and in particular video game competition) need to be aware of where real game sales profit lies.

Right on the front page.

Teaser trailer will be posted there on November 2, 2011.

Apparently, all those resume searches and voice acting job finds really did indicate GTA 5 even though everyone (including Rockstar) was saying otherwise. :)

Good timing for the "Gaming Leaks; a How To" posts too. Now you know how people found out about GTA 5 earlier this year.

The WOW Annual Pass was quite an interesting new announcement at Blizzcon.. it's actually quite brilliant and I have to commend the marketing team.

Here is more information on the Annual Pass which I will be referencing.

From what I understand, this was a last minute change. It was probably an idea developed (or just implemented from an earlier idea) within the past 3 months or so after they decided not to make the surprise Christmas announcement.

It's being marketed just like a mobile contract. If you sign up with us, you get this fancy new phone for free.. and you only have to pay month to month! Cancel anytime you want! (Many view this contract scheme as a scam, but it's pleasantly ignored when it comes to a video game.)

Just like mobile contracts, users on jumping on board without considering the consequences. And, it's a common human trait not to fully understand long term consequences (which is being exploited by clever marketers) after all.

Here are some things to consider:

• You CANNOT cancel the monthly payments, so you better make sure you don't run out of funds and save up in advance (in case of monetary emergencies.)
• In order to be eligible, you need to pay for a recurring subscription already. Meaning that it will cost you an additional month (13 months) to get the offer: "Prior to accepting the offer you must have a recurring World of Warcraft subscription active on the associated account."
• You are stuck with the 12+1 month subscription, and it's deducted on a month to month basis.
• You are buying the standard digital copy only. You do not get a retail box.
• If you fail to make a payment: you lose the items, your account is disabled, you are charged the full amount for Diablo 3, and Blizzard is within their right to sue you: "If your World of Warcraft subscription lapses during the Twelve Month Commitment, or if you fail to make any required payments or timely payments, Blizzard reserves the right to terminate your participation in this offer in addition to any and all other remedies that may be available to Blizzard at law."
• Because of the guaranteed beta access, other WOW players are penalized access for this. It further encourages them to participate in the offer.
• You're locked into playing WOW even when D3 comes out next year. It's a limited time offer too, so you need to act fast!
• You are stuck with an entire year's subscription during a time when new games will be coming out: Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, Tera Online, SWTOR, Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, The Secret World, etc.
• When you're stuck with a subscription, you feel obligated to play the game to avoid a wasted expenditure.
• It's a great way to keep Blizzard players away from new MMOs and more importantly, their competitors.
• It gets Diablo 3 players to play WOW, and gets WOW users playing Diablo 3.
• Having so many players locked into a 1 year contract increases their subscriber counts (vanity figures for impressing shareholders) even if the accounts aren't being played. It's "Subscriber" counts, not actual players.
• Michael Morhaime stated that "their margins are higher when we sell direct." It's in Blizzards best interest to get you to use their digital downloads.. they are saving a ton of money by you not buying retail (they also lose a major cut from the retail sale too.)
• This is also why the new D3 RMAH and PayPal relationship is so important.. by building up B.NET bucks, their profit margins are going to skyrocket compared to retail loss. This is the future of all of their games. Keep your money within Blizzard, buy digital. Degrading the quality of retail boxes is a great way to encourage digital purchases too. (Remember the quality of materials that retail boxes used to carry?)

A very clever move, just like the Pokemon style combat pets.

(Blizzard will be selling even more pets in the Blizzard Pet Store now, with special pets having new abilities. Since it's not "game impacting" and only for "vanity pets", then it's perfectly acceptable to start selling weapons and armor.. but just on pets. (I don't literally mean real weapons and armor.. I'm talking special skills and pet stats.) It's also opening up WOW to a younger crowd, whereas Diablo 3 is targetting a more older/serious crowd. They'll have a couple games now to hold over the various demographic groups until Titan comes out for a more larger demographic.)

I wouldn't recommend the WOW Annual Pass for anyone.. unless either you're rich or you live in Australia. $100 for Diablo 3 is a pain in the ass, I'm so sorry for you guys. This deal is much more beneficial to you guys than everywhere else.

For everyone else though, please consider the repercussions.

The big problem I have is that you're FORCED to start paying for the WOW Subscription right away, during the time when Diablo 3 and other MMOs come out. It would be much more fair to players if you could buy the WOW Annual Pass now, but start using it at any time you want. But, their plan is to get users paying monthly fees for a year, knowing fully well that they'll never actually be playing WOW. Brilliant marketing strategy.