Blogatelle signs off
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 1st 2009 at 9:00PM
One more major WoW-related blog has closed its doors. Too Many Annas, among others, notes that Blogatelle has called it quits, saying that Sean and Jess over there both feel they've come to the point where they've run out of things to say. While the blog itself is definitely a nice achievement -- it was an excellent blog centered on roleplaying (we've mentioned it before here on the site as an excellent resource for RPers) -- they will unfortunately leave a number of series behind, including the Katafray project, which followed a roleplaying Paladin up through the levels in Azeroth. As Anna says, they definitely deserve a hat tip, both for giving the RP community a solid and steady blogging voice, and for being accessible enough to bring in new RPers.This closing follows the shuttering of a few other WoW blogs lately, most famously those of BRK and Resto4Life. You might say three is a trend, sure, but on the other hand, we've seen a lot of blogs and podcasts grow as well lately. Four years in, there are going to be all kinds of people in the community, in all kinds of places regarding their interest to the game. Anyone who sees a few bloggers step away to do other things and cites it as a sign that the game is on its last legs needs to keep looking. We're sorry to lose some popular bloggers, but it sure looks from here like the community is stronger than ever.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bubsa Jul 1st 2009 10:03PM
In my eyes, this is by far the biggest loss out of the three.
It was truly a wonderful blog, addressing what is sometimes an embarrasing, ridiculed aspect of WoW and showing how brilliantly immersive roleplaying can be, both for the new player and veteran alike.
Good luck to Sean and Jess and a thousand 'thank you's for the brilliant and pioneering work on the blog.
atree496 Jul 1st 2009 10:18PM
I am sorry but if you look at WoW as a whole it is getting on it's last legs. Many people are quitting now. The number of people who are playing is slowing down, and those number only show the number of accounts, when many people duel-box. The overall feeling of the game I am seeing in myself and others is lowing from what we used to know. When I start to see level 20s on mounts, it really shows that it is falling apart. Back when the game only needed it original content of storylines which people read and awesome quests which people enjoyed. Not saying there were lots of good quests in Northrend but the game has become to easy. There is nothing much to work for (Excluding hard modes). I really liked having to work for heroics back in TBC and I loved running instances because the fights actually needed strategy. This expansion has so many tank and spanks in dungeons that it is boring for a tank. Mechanar are amazing for tanking because there was always changing during fights (except final boss, curse you suneater). It is still good, just not as good.
P.S Deathknights ruined the game for me.
Travis from Blogatelle Jul 1st 2009 10:32PM
Thank you WOW.com for commenting on the loss of Blogatelle -- it was a wonderful project. Sean and Jess did an incredible job, and I've honored to have been a (if not somewhat lazy) contributor to the process. More honored still to call them both among the dearest of my friends. The Katafray Project was a lot of fun and had so many interesting places to go, but people are busy and life has a way of getting in the way. I know for a fact that's why I didn't post as often I would have liked.
(That being said, I suddenly and with great irony find myself with plenty of free time now, so if anyone is interested in a long-winded writer with many opinions about role-play and anime, feel free to look me up! Shameless as ever, I am. midnightage@gmail.com -- yes. Absolutely shameless.)
In the Warcraft circles, I'll continue to be 'Travis of Blogatelle' until Blizzard turns off the lights. Or until I find another blog to write for.
kozom Jul 1st 2009 10:56PM
I'll miss you too :( after your ban, that is.
Oh wait...no I won't.
Best of luck to Sean and Jess!
Java Jul 1st 2009 11:24PM
I would have to say I would agree with atree496, as much as I love the game I do see a good many people moving on or losing interest so its not terribly suprising to see a fall off in bloggers. I still play but only a fraction of my time during my hardcore raiding / vanilla wow days.
Although people move on to other things. I think there is certainly merit in keeping track of bloggers that come and go. The blogging community are after all some of the most passionate players out there. Enough so that they make the time investments to do that creative writing. Seeing a fall off may be indicative of the overall interest for both readers and writers. If that's the case, it might be the small leak in the damn that could be a bit of foreshadowing.
Agreeing with atree496, I think WoW easy mode may come back to haunt Blizzard. I mean when is the last time someone used CC in a 5 man? Definitely took the EPIC out of EPIC type game I felt when I was playing vanilla WoW or even to some extent in TBC. Maybe I'm just another player who's coming near the end of a 3.5 year run.
jbodar Jul 2nd 2009 7:36AM
The loss of CC was, IMO, a necessary evil because CC became so needed that any DPS without CC or with "limited CC" was pretty useless in Heroics. Maybe they should've just given CC to all classes, but it was ri-goddamn-diculous. The model was broken.
Frank Jul 2nd 2009 12:04AM
sorry, Java and atree496, but i disagree: the broader picture is that you are probably the original wave of players that are just moving on, and there will be another wave of players coming after you that will carry on the love of the game. the game won't end just because you and many other (let's call them first generation) players move on. it will end when blizzard decides it ends, and they show no sign of letting it go anytime soon.
Myria Jul 2nd 2009 1:23AM
While I don't necessarily disagree, I imagine that much the same words were spoken of EQ once upon a time.
I do think it fairly clear that the game is losing a lot of it's more "hardcore" element, and that is going to have ramifications many in the casual vs hardcore debate have long ignored -- it is the hardcore, after all, that write most of the mods, strategies, blogs, and much of the rest of the peripheral-but-very-important content WoW is so richly blessed with. Without them, where will these things come from? Pretty much by definition, not from the casual element.
We shall see, I suppose, but I suspect it will be some time before true ramifications of population shift become apparent.
rhorle Jul 2nd 2009 2:51AM
The thing is though wow hasn't been losing much of its hardcore nature. What has been doing is gaining a casual nature while retaining the hardcore nature. Many of the things people attribute as "losing hardcore" is infact removing stupidty and poor design.
Easier and better does not equal loss of hardcore. But the original commenter is right, this isn't a sign of anything but a person moving on. It gets more attention just because they are a high profile person but hundreds if not thousands of people come and go every day. I've just 4-5 people come back to wow in my guild that quit from burnout.
It happens. New bloggers will fill the gaps where gaps need to be filled and it will continue. There is nothing to attribute this to the death of wow. Nothing indicates such other then burn out. When the new people stop coming or quit, then people can start clamoring the sky is falling.
but burn out of long time community members isn't surprising. 4+ years is a long time to invest in something, and a long time for priorities, interests, hobbies, and just life to change.
Valensword Jul 2nd 2009 1:17AM
Totally agree Frank, I was talking to a friend a few months back and the conversation turned to heroic 5 mans in WotLK. I mentioned how they are dead now as all of the gear is of too low a standard. This suprised her immensely and perhaps even verged on the offensive because as it turns out her guild was actually plowing through these runs to gear up for 10 man Naxx. It kind of hit me at that point that just because in a large and well orginised guild the game can appear to be a pushover at times, it doesn't mean it's like that for everyone. I love going down to Goldshire and other starting areas and trying to asses for myself who is a "Newbie" and not just tearing an alt through the low content. I like to talk to the people who are new to the game and help them out a little with my "amazing" spells, and you start to think about when you first started out, how you had no idea at all about this "end game", and how for the first 50 or so levels (for me anyhow) I thought the point of the game WAS the levelling part!
And perhaps it is? For some anyhow. The point is that we all riding a different wave in the game and although for some, DK's killed the feeling, and lack of CC in 5 mans killed the challenge, to others there is an immense world of fun and wonder that is yet to be explored! Remember, to many players, playing or interacting with DK's isnt even a possibility yet! And those players will have a lot of CC'ing to do on their long way to 80..
That said: Dear Blizz plz bring bak CC'ing in 5 mans, as a mage it used to make me feel SO important in the BC heroics! :)
gt Jul 2nd 2009 3:37AM
Mike,
You forgot Out of Mana. Probably one of the best pvp blogs ever and highly loved.
Trend it is.
Stilte Jul 2nd 2009 3:38AM
What?! Nooooooooooooooo!
Sean Riley Jul 2nd 2009 4:30AM
For those who will miss us: Thank you. We've had fun doing our best to bring out fun stuff. And I still say the Do It Different articles never got enough attention; Jess did some heroic work on those and her trope-tastic mindset produced good stuff. (I also wrote lesser, not nearly so awesome stuff.)
For those who say this is signaling a drop-off in interest in WoW, I note that both BRK and R4L left because of family concerns. I can't cite the same thing, but regular readers will note my ongoing frustrations with a new bus schedule hurt the 'blog. (Seriously, it did.) I don't intend to stop playing WoW. Jess also remains a passionate player. So don't use Blogatelle's closing as evidence – It ain't.
Typhron Jul 2nd 2009 4:55AM
Everyone's seems to be taking a break from the game. Big bummer of the summer.
Slayton over at Retpaladin.com is doing the same.
Brian Jul 2nd 2009 8:08AM
I can only share my own recent experience as one example of how WoW is changing - but not dying by any means. After two years on Farstriders my guild imploded after a few months of drama and chaos. I was burned out on the game, burned out on my guildies, burned out on the drama. So I decided to try something new and transferred to a PvP server. It was fun, but the turning point was running into a group of lvlers who had all just started playing this year. That little group has turned into a 100 account 130 toon guild with exactly TWO players (including myself) that played prior to WotLK. I latched onto the core group and had to train myself to not let my cynicism interfere with their sense of wonder and discovery. We have a pretty steady influx of newly minted players, and half of my fun is helping them lvl and listening to them on vent when they run DM or Gnomer for the very first time!
I do think many aspects of the game have changed from my own preferences, and I recognize also that my own proficiency and experience make things easy to me that are hard to newer players. WoW will be with us for a long time to come!
Kylenne Jul 2nd 2009 10:37AM
I'll freely admit that I didn't particularly care for that blog, as I took issue with a lot of their various interpretations of things (most notably anything to do with Blood Elves), but it's always sad to see a WoW blog fold, especially an RP-related one. Best wishes to them for the future.
Sean Riley Jul 2nd 2009 3:27PM
We will never have an accord on the Blood Elves, I fear. :)
But as I'm heading out, may I ask: What do you see as the appeal of the Blood Elves from a character standpoint? Without the darkness and addiction that I saw as central to them, I confess, I never understood the attraction. I tried, honest.
Chris Jul 2nd 2009 1:59PM
It's funny how we get a little news then a little personal commentary from the idiot bloggers on the site. If the community was 'stronger than ever', we wouldn't have just lost Blogatelle. In fact, it just got weaker from it.
Perhaps you Wowinsider bloggers should stop always trying to shine sunlight on anything, you're such a pathetic mess of fanbois here that you can't even see straight anymore.
Birdfall Jul 3rd 2009 9:36PM
Sad day. I liked Blogatelle.