Zack · @Asmongold
15th Oct 2018 from TwitLonger
"If you don't like the game, just quit" --My Response
Amidst the sea of compliments in regards to my newest video (thank you!) there were a few comments and concerns I'd like to address.
If you've known me for long enough, you'd know that I don't shy away from criticism, in fact I welcome it. It helps me sharpen my own arguments much better than if I only listened to what I wanted to hear.
Before I get into any of this, I want to make abundantly clear that I have no ill will towards anyone who's been critical of me. Many of them I've talked to before privately, met personally, and am even friends with. I can disagree with someone's ideas while still liking them as a person. I'd appreciate if everyone who reads this can find that common ground as well.
The first point is a concern that I capitalize on negativity and outrage. I think to a certain extent this is true in the same way that anyone who's passionate about something might overreact when they feel that it's in danger. I try to be level-headed and even-handed but everyone loses their bearings occasionally. This is true especially in my stream when I use hyperbole to make things more entertaining and vibrant. Honestly, this was one of the biggest reasons I made the video in the first place. Speaking about things extemporaneously on a livestream often results in miscommunication. Having the chance to sit down and make a video solves that problem.
The idea that I focus on negativity and outrage for profit is completely unfounded and when taken to it's logical conclusion is also counterproductive. If all you do is say negative things, people will slowly start to disregard your opinion because of a "boy who cried wolf" situation. With constant negativity it's impossible for viewers to distinguish between what's legitimate criticism and what's negativity for the sake of negativity. The same thing goes for people who are always positive too.
Anyone who's always positive or always negative is fake.
I've tried to vary my feedback for BFA in a way that emphasizes positives as well as negatives but the fact is that, in my eyes, there are more negatives than positives.
If my main game that I stream is WoW and I only say bad things about it for viewership then eventually people will either get tired of hearing the same things over and over and stop watching my stream or quit the game because they agree. The chances are that if someone doesn't play WoW or quits the game, the chance of them stopping watching my stream is undoubtedly increased. By that logic, being overly negative about BFA would indirectly lead to me losing viewership while hurting my own channel and credibility. I always act in self-interest.
Cultivating overwhelming negativity is maybe a short-term success route but certainly a long-term road to failure and irrelevance.
The second and main point I want to address is the question of "if you don't like the game, why don't you unsub?" I've gotten this a lot today and I'd like to give my perspective on why I don't feel that this is a solution. I consider it an intellectually lazy and dismissive response used to invalidate someone's concerns by creating a faux "gotcha" moment.
First off, there is a huge grey area between liking every element of the game and quitting. I'm in that grey area. I'm not happy with a lot of the decisions that Blizzard has made with BFA but that doesn't mean that I want to quit the game. You can work within a system to make that system better without being expected to withdraw from it first. You can even simultaneously use a system to your advantage while still thinking that system is bad. A WoW example would be the Legion legendaries. It was awesome to get my BiS legendaries in Emerald Nightmare but just because I benefited from the system doesn't mean that I wanted it to continue. A real world example would be tax loopholes, I don't think there's any hypocrisy in using a tax loophole to your advantage while simultaneously thinking that it shouldn't exist. In fact, anyone who doesn't do so I think is a fool. Again, I always act in self-interest.
Secondly, I don't think it would work. Quitting isn't going to change the direction of the game. As much as I like to over-inflate my own importance, I'm not delusional enough to think that quitting the game would have any effect on it's direction. From a pragmatic perspective, I don't think it would accomplish my goals.
Lastly, I still love this game. I'm the one who grew up sitting with my mom as a child playing Warcraft 2 hoping that she'd let me stay up until 11 PM. I'm the one who spent my lunch time in school reading the Warcraft novels. I'm the one who had one of the best years of my life the year I started playing WoW. I'm the one who's played this game for over a decade later. I'm the one who has over a thousand days /played. I have a vested interest in this game.
I'm the exception.
Of course I'm not going to quit, of course I'm going to care, and of course I'm going to speak out. I'm not going to let the game I love turn into the hollow shell of its former self that it's becoming without doing whatever I can to turn the tides towards the better.
The sad thing is for every one of me, there's thousands out there that took the advice and quit the game.
Also, even if you disagree with me, maybe you can agree with Ghostcrawler, a former lead dev of WoW on the exact same subject: https://askghostcrawler.tumblr.com/post/157080214673/unsubbing-is-often-seen-as-the-only-real-way-by
I'm not going to stop making videos like the one today. In fact, it's going to be the first of many.