World of Warcraft players are frustrated yet again over Blizzard's actions, the latest example in a string of frustrations for players of the world's most popular MMO. The subject of frustration for the moment is related to a "bug" that many World of Warcraft players was intentionally added. It has to do with World of Warcraft's Timewalking event, which encourages players to play classic dungeons. The "bug" has now been fixed by Blizzard, leaving many excited players feeling deflated.
The "bug" in question allowed World of Warcraft players to queue into the ongoing Timewalking event and gain impressive amounts of experience for their characters. Even a single dungeon run could lead to one or multiple level-ups. As such, World of Warcraft players were using it to level up their alts faster than would otherwise be allowed in the game. It should then be easy to understand why Blizzard fixing the issue would not be a popular decision.
A big part of the problem, however, was player confusion over whether the change was a bug or not in the first place. Obviously, players would be much more understanding if the issue was obviously an exploit. Instead, many thought it was a conscious decision by Blizzard to offer a rewarding way to level characters. The experience seemed akin to how it was rewarded during World of Warcraft's Battle for Azeroth expansion.
Regardless of the reasons, the World of Warcraft community is venting their frustration about the hotfix on social media. Most of the frustration is structured in a way where they criticize Blizzard for taking the time to fix the Timewalking bug, but leave other frustrating issues with the game untouched. For example, adding portals in Sanctum, leaving ads up in the Looking for Group menus, and other topics of frustration in recent memory.
A big source of frustration is the growing perception within the World of Warcraft community that Blizzard only acts on issues when there's money on the line. As in, since players were leveling using Timewalking, it was too easy to level and so Blizzard stopped it so that players would continue to purchase character boosts in the store. This is a sentiment also seen in the community's criticism of World of Warcraft's subscription monetization.
Blizzard obviously has bigger issues at hand than small controversies over Timewalking experience, of course. The company is facing allegations regarding a toxic workplace and gender discrimination, which includes a lawsuit by the state of California. Still, smaller issues building over time can be just as debilitating as larger issues.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.