Agreed. The only reason I'm on Firefox still is the extensions (it used it be the features like tabbed and crash recovery but most others have that now). To be brutally honest it's only StumbleUpon that is keeping me on Firefox.
Blizzard is more than the WoW MMOG crack market that is their most recent creation... Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft etc...
No company ever thinks to improve their bottom line by steadily generating quality product anymore. The money that goes into solid development is always the dregs of money first given to analysts and marketers.
I'm normally not a foaming-at-the-mouth anti-establishment labor-theory humanist, but things like this (especially with the oft-cited 'global economy') really and truly make me sick.
Blizzard... but they are the major exception to the rule (the Pixar of games?)
Other than that I agree completely about the 'global economy' bs. Not every job is 'cog' job despite management's wet dream fantasies to make it so....
I play video games to be entertained.
Short little video clips as a reward for finishing levels fall into that category. Have games from other companies abused it in the past, yes.
Does Blizzard get the play/watch ratio right? Hell yes.
I'm just the opposite. Cutscenes rendered in the game engine always look like crap to me (Dawn of War comes to mind). Here they had a great intro scene but all the storytelling is done in low poly blocks staring at each other like bad 80's cartoons.
Glad to see there are other people who realize that simply taking content is ultimately defeating and are willing to pay for it.
Unfortunately now we are now supporting thieves like the grandparent post in addition to *AA scum.
"Money is the root of all money." -- the moving finger