There is one thing that Blizzard fears more than a hostile fan base. It's something we all fear and dread... lawyers.

In these days were people sue over anything, Blizzard is just protecting their butts.

The problem, at least to me, was that information was leaked and not official.

Check WoWWiki for "unannounced changes" in patches. Blizz changes things and never tell anyone. We never know what the next patch will do till it's there.

But why?
Sometimes I wonder if its blizzards fault the way that hostile fanbase became so hostile.
Don't take this as an insult or an opinion, its just the thought of a maybe that would explain why things are the way they are.

When people told me LOTRO players were largely more polite and mature than WoW players I assumed it was elitist garbage. It's true. It's all true.

@mtsadowski: That's pretty much it. I was having an arguement on the official forums the other day about a similar issue. It's easy for Blizz to ignore the irrational cries of their customerbase, but we live in a day and age where the customer wants everything go their way, have someone to blame if things go wrong, and feel entitled to compensation if it doesn't.

Mind you, Blizz probably has enough money to hire lawyers that would blow any lawsuits out of the water. It also doesn't mean that Blizz is always in the right. But the threat it always there; think of the customer from McDonalds who sued a restaurant (and won) because they burnt their lip on a cup of coffee.

She suffered third degree burns to her thigh. It was revealed in the lawsuit that McDonalds sold coffee that was so hot as to be "unfit for human consumption", and that they were aware of it before this incident.

The woman didn't win the lawsuit because she spilled coffee in her lap, she won the lawsuit because a drink she had been sold was warm enough to seriously damage her when it touched her skin. What do you think would've happened if she had drunk the coffee properly?

I agree that Blizzard has pretty much made their own bed in the way they manage their fan base. As a developer of standalone games I think Blizzard's philosophy works very well, however as an MMO developer, I think it leaves a lot to be desired. I think the biggest thing they have to overcome is the 'hey, it's our game, so we're going to do what we want'. This is entirely true... however... if you're talking about a standalone game you look at some reviews and gameplay videos, maybe find a demo and fiddle with it, and then decide if you like it. You're getting one thing and you can decide if what the designer did is something you like. An MMO is constantly changing, you don't just buy it, you have a relationship with the developer, and if they start making updates that you don't like, they risk alienating the customers they brought in.

If you design and market a standalone game and someone doesn't like it you shrug it off, compile some user surveys and figure out how to make your next title... but you don't wake up one day and say 'tokens instead of gear drops!' and all of a sudden you change the game for everyone who bought it... however this is exactly what happens with an MMO. Any time the devs release any update they can change any aspect of the game, so you don't really buy a game, what you buy is much more like an 'entertainment contract'.

This is why Blizz's policy of 'it's our game, suck it' doesn't seem to fit WoW to me. It isn't their game, they're developing new content for us, it isn't set, it isn't in some signed, sealed, shrink-wrapped package that isn't going to change. They are constantly changing it to deliver new content to us to keep us buying it. We aren't buying WoW, we're buying their development of WoW (i.e. the subscription).

Incidentally, that's also why I'm firing Blizz. I don't think they're developing WoW correctly, they don't care, so I'm not paying them any more. As far as I'm concerned, now it's their game, they can do whatever they want with it because I'm no longer paying them to develop it.