A Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update has been released on the game's official forums and it's doesn't seem to be doing very much to placate upset fans.
The developer update was released last evening and it addresses several points of concern that were raised by the community. However, it also fails to acknowledge some issues that people were concerned about — something that's pointed out ruthlessly and frequently in the more than one thousand comments replying to the thread.
"We’ve been following the discussions the past couple days and want to thank you for your feedback as well as your support," the update begins. "First off, we want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted, and we’d like to share our plans for what’s coming next."
The first major point addressed by the Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update is the game's visuals. According to Blizzard, the different visuals for Classic Mode are due to a bug affecting colors and shading. They say that they're testing a fix that should resolve this issue along with portrait animations, audio bugs, UI fixes, and more.
The next issue is leaderboards and clans. The features didn't make it into the initial release of the game, but Blizzard says that they're coming after the dev team finishes up working on a new MMR system. The devs also say that they saw "very low usage" of tournaments and the Reign of Chaos ruleset, and so both of these features were removed back in Version 1.30 in mid-2019 to make it easier on the game's support staff.
One thing that will not be coming, however, is the newer-style cutscenes we first saw at the Blizzcon reveal.
"[...] as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game," the Developer Update continued. "We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art)."
The Response to the Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update
I'm sure that some of you may be reading the developer update and shaking your head at Blizzard not addressing a particular issue you might care about or stating that they won't fix it at all. Well, you're not the only one.
"Ah[,] so it did not cross your mind that the low usage of tournaments it because of how bugged they can be sometimes and how hard to find someone who can host given that the AT hosting bug was not addressed? You joking?!" read one comment by a user named Wrath.
"Why did you still advertise the reforged cinematics on your store page then if you had no intention of doing them all that way!?" began a comment by NarsilSword responding to the Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update. "You don’t think you could have at least updated that and informed those who had pre-ordered? You guys said almost nothing for a whole year and now we are supposed to [believe] that you will keep us updated on future patches? Players aren’t upset that they didn’t get the “experience they wanted” they’re upset that you took away all the features of the classic client when no one asked you to and cut features you advertised as being in the game."
"Please, tell me why," stated a comment by Lourderk. "Why it’s so difficult to remaster Warcraft 3, when you have all the cards in your hand. Why did you mess up so hard[?] Why it’s so difficult to listen the community[?] I can’t believe, when the game was 'over', someone said 'oh the game is perfect. This will really please fans'. No way."
The majority of comments in the Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update are along the same lines. It's pretty clear that many fans aren't happy with the state of the game on release or the direction it's headed. Hopefully, Blizzard will seriously evaluate these complaints and consider how best to fix them. You can read the full Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update at Blizzard's forums.
What do you think of the Warcraft 3: Reforged Developer Update? Does it give you any hope that they'll get the game in better shape? Let us know in the comments below!
