The Redundant Ancient Gaming Noob: April Fools

Showing posts with label April Fools. Show all posts

Thursday, April 1, 2021

April Fools at Blizzard 2021 is a Very Quiet Affair

It is once again the first of April, that day of fools, beloved by few, hated by some, and ignored by most. Its arrival means it is time for yet another peek over at Blizzard to see what they are up to.

So I got online and checked their various web sites and whatever they have up for news in the launcher, and there wasn’t much there to spot.

In fact, the only thing I saw was in the World of Warcraft forums.

Over on the Azeroth front there is the usual joke patch notes are up in the forums, an April Fools staple, featuring a proposed new raid, class changes, new professions, and more, all wrapped up in some pop culture references.

The most consistent Blizzard April Fools feature

Otherwise there was nothing else I could spot. Blizzard has followed their usual plan of avoiding posting any news lest it be construed as an April Fools prank. Even the start of the next Diablo III season is set for tomorrow. I can’t even find the old April Fools archive page on their site now, though they did reorganize the whole thing, so it might still be in there somewhere.

Of course, it is early in the day still, so I’ll check back to see if anything else gets posted. And, if I have missed anything, you can drop a note in the comments.

Addendum:

It appears that the googly eyes from last year are back in Overwatch.

But it seems that if you want to revel in some April Fools humor from Blizzard, with elaborate new features or whole new games, you will have to go back to previous years.

Past April Fools

Meanwhile, over in the world of EVE Online, they have an April Fools post up that rather twists the knife for a long requested feature; a gate from low sec to the Stain region. Bittersweet that one is.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

April Fools at Blizzard 2020 is Centered on Overwatch

This year it seems it was the Overwatch teams turn to embrace the day, or at least be the theme of the day.

Googly eyes at the hero select screen

It has become something of an annual tradition here to cover what Blizzard has been up to every April Fools. There have been years where the company has put a lot of effort into various items for the day and there have been years where April Fools has barely been a thing at Blizzard.

This year seems like an outlier, with a different feel altogether. In the past the level of effort has often correlated to highs and lows with the company itself. Last year, for example, was not a great year for the company, so it wasn’t surprising that people had little time for this sort of thing.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world, I was curious to see if there would be any mirth on the first at all. Blizzard has been giving players benefits in light of the crisis, like an xp boost in WoW and unlocking all the heroes in Heroes of the Storm and co-op commanders in Star Craft II. It would be completely understandable to give the whole April fools thing a pass. But a little bit of humor in the right dose wouldn’t go amiss either.

And some of these ideas take a while to put together. I am going to guess that the giant cat that Bhagpuss wrote about over in Guild Wars II wasn’t rolled up over the weekend but planned well in advance.

Which brings us to Overwatch and its googly eyes on heroes at the select screen, and in the play of the game clip at match end, which I mentioned above. (This came as a tip from Blueline Basher. The screen shot is one from many in the forum.)

Following on that, over in the Heroes of the Storm forums there were April 1st PTR patch notes posted that included the addition of a new hero, Mercy. I got that Mercy was an Overwatch hero, but I know so little about HotS that I couldn’t really tell if the patch notes were a joke or if somebody on the team unironically posted an update on April 1st. And then I watched the video linked in the patch notes, which doesn’t really reveal itself until the very end.

The other Blizzard games, Diablo III, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft have all been quiet so far as April Fools is concerned. No news items or fresh blue posts with an April 1 date. It is still early in the day on the west coast, so maybe something else will pop up, in which case I will add it here, but for now that is all I have seen.

If you are jonsing for a Blizzard April Fools joke your best bet is to look at past efforts. You can look at the posts I have done over the last decade.

If you want to go back further than that, there is the official Blizzard April Fool’s archive, though that stops at 2015, which is probably meaningful in some way.

In a way I am kind of happy they did something this year, if only to keep the long tradition alive. They haven’t missed a year since 1999, even if some years have been rather sparse.

For other games you can check out the post over at Massively OP where they are trying to round up the MMO front.

Monday, April 1, 2019

April Fools at Blizzard 2019 is Pretty Much No Fools

There have been points in the past where April Fools was a pretty big deal at Blizzard and each game would have a special joke, a silly new game or outrageous feature, on their respective sites.

Blizzard Outcasts from 2014

Things are no longer that funny around Blizzard these days I gather.

There are a variety of reasons likely for that, but they all add up to declining fortunes. World of Warcraft, still huge, isn’t as huge as it once was. Overwatch has seen a decline over the last year and reports are that Hearthstone is suffering from franchise fatigue.

As such, this year’s entries are pretty much non-existent, somehow managing to be a step down from even last year’s low turn out. I have logged below what I found on the US sites, which I will update if new items show up.

World of Warcraft

The annual April 1st patch notes are up, titled Patch 8.6.7 Build 5309, a nod to a bit of 80s pop culture. Some traditions never die. Still, it is a somewhat tepid listing this year, featuring entries such as:

Feral Druids can now be crowd-controlled by throwing a slice of cheese on their head.
Groups of 5 Feral Druids can come together to form one super-bot.
Due to noise complaints, Stonebark has been fitted with a shock collar.

But that is it. The WoW site has no new entries for April 1.

Overwatch

Nothing

Hearthstone

Nothing

StarCraft

Nothing

Diablo III

Nothing

Diablo: Immortal

Already confirmed as not an April Fools joke at BlizzCon.

Heroes of the Storm

It is still there… but no April Fools joke.

Past Years

If this year’s lack of effort leaves you longing for bigger or better gags, you can always look back at past years:

I think it might be telling that the official Blizzard April Fool’s archive stops at 2015.

We may be at a point where we can declare April Fools no longer really a thing for Blizzard.

But if you’re dying for something on April Fools, I guess you can go play Minecraft 3D. The over-the-top April Fools spirit has hit Mojang… though I am not sure that their impression of a 1994 version of Minecraft is all that different from what they have today.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

April Fools at Blizzard 2018 is Mostly Just World of Warcraft

This year Blizzard April Fools appears to have fallen even further out of favor down in Irvine. I was wondering if it showing up on Easter would change this or not. I checked the main sites as well as the forums for each of the current Blizzard games and below is all I found.

I’ll check back again later and add anything else that might pop up during the day. If I missed anything, leave a comment to let me know.

World of Warcraft

The micro event when all the micro events are active

This year saw the announcement of a whole series of new “micro holidays” including:

We’re All Elves Now!
Future Timewalking Event
Looking for Queue

In addition there is the traditional patch notes. This year they are listed as Preview World of Warcraft 8.0.41 Patch Notes and includes such gems as:

The drop rates of mounts from raids and dungeons have been adjusted to ensure that that one mount you’ve been farming for the past 3 years will drop immediately for the newest member of your guild.

And that was about it.

Overwatch

Nothing

Hearthstone

What appears to be a real post about a month-long event.

Heroes of the Storm

Nothing

StarCraft II

Nothing

StarCraft Remastered

Too busy celebrating its 20th Anniversary yesterday. You can get SC themed items in other Blizz games this weekend.

Diablo III

Nothing

Past Years

If this effort leaves you jonesing for more, you can always look back at past years:

And so it goes.

Friday, April 1, 2016

April Fools at Blizzard – 2016

The day has come again. April Fools is a thing down in Anaheim.

Past years fun, for those who want to catch up:

However, this year all the humor at Blizzard seems to be focused on the World of Warcraft side of things. Heroes of the Storm is in the midst of a tournament, Hearthstone announced a new ranked play season, StarCraft II is pushing mission packs, Diablo III only mentions that Season 5 is ending soon, and Overwatch is focused on its upcoming launch.

I am sure some conspiracy theory can be thrown together that this indicates that somehow Blizzard may not be serious about WoW any more, at least relative to its other titles. Or maybe the other jokes just haven’t been published as yet. Anyway, we go with what we have to hand:

World of Warcraft

In Azeroth, there was the introduction of the Frostdoge Clan.

Such Faction! Very Expansion!

There was concern from flight masters around Azeroth as a new service called Flyt arrived.

Because we couldn’t figure out anything with Uber

Then there was Azeroth TV, featuring shows like Void Storage Wars and Keeping Up with the Barovs.

As with real life, nobody can explain why we watch, we just do…

This was on the WoW page, but is focused on the collectible card game front; the announcement of Hearthstone: The MMO in a video.

And no April Fools day would be complete without some release note fun, so here are the latest updates for the WoW Legion Alpha.

And that is all I have seen so far, though I am sure I missed something. The forums are often a source as well. I will update this post if I find anything new.

Meanwhile, what other games have something good for April Fools?