Some Of WoW's Biggest Content Creators Are Quitting The Game

Two of World of Warcraft's biggest content creators, Preach Gaming and MadSeasonShow, are quitting Blizzard's long-running MMO for greener pastures, though they each have different reasons for moving on.

In a new video titled "End of an Era - Why We're No Longer Covering WoW," Preach explained the channel's decision to stop daily WoW coverage, citing both the recent California lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over the company's alleged "frat boy" culture rife with sexual harassment and the state of WoW's latest Shadowlands expansion. He says given recent allegations, and the response of Activision Blizzard leadership, he no longer feels comfortable promoting Blizzard's game.

"That is essentially what happens, that is the relationship I hold with Blizzard with having a large audience," Preach says. "We produce content, we check out content that is development. We get to see things a little bit earlier in order to get that out to you guys as a promotional tool. That's how Blizzard sees it, and in return, we get to make fun content about a game we absolutely adore. I no longer feel comfortable doing that, at all."

But for Preach, whose YouTube channel started in 2010 and covered almost exclusively WoW, the decision to quit was two-fold.

"Reason number two is, at this point, I really have very little positive to say about World of Warcraft," Preach says. "It does feel like these past few years, Blizzard has really pushed to have players like myself leave."

He goes on to cite the game's balance issues, disappointing recent expansions, and new systems, like the game's most recent Shards of Domination mechanic, as making the game largely unenjoyable. Though Preach's YouTube channel will go on, he says he will no longer be playing WoW, although he is leaving the door open to revisit the game sometime in the future.

For MadSeasonShow, whose YouTube channel started in 2014, the reasons are a little different. His video announcing his pivot away from WoW, titled "No King Rules Forever(Quitting WoW)," has quickly amassed more than 800,000 views. The announcement came just as news of the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard began to spread across the web, though the two weren't exactly related.

MadSeason had already made the decision to quit and created the video prior to the lawsuit allegations, and while he says he gives his support to those affected by sexual harassment and discrimination, it wasn't the reason why he's leaving the game behind. MadSeason's channel will continue in the future, only without content about WoW.

Instead, MadSeason cites the ongoing monetization of both the current version of WoW and WoW Classic as his primary reason for moving on. In his opinion, the introduction of the WoW Token (a way for players to pay real money for in-game gold), as well as numerous paid services like level boosts and shop-exclusive paid items, like mounts, have tainted the game.

His channel pivoted largely to WoW Classic coverage in recent years, in part because it didn't include an in-game cash shop. But that changed this year with the release of Burning Crusade Classic, which saw Blizzard add a paid level boost as well as a brand-new mount to the game, two things that never existed in the original version of WoW's first landmark expansion.

"The only reason I stuck with Classic is because it was promised to be a re-release of the game in a state before it was bastardized beyond redemption," MadSeason says. "And they flat out lied about it, as proven with the character boost. I feel like this was such a betrayal of the Classic community."

Preach and MadSeason's move away from the game comes just as other WoW content creators are finding themselves experimenting with new content outside Blizzard's MMO. Popular WoW streamer Towelliee says they will no longer be streaming WoW for the foreseeable future until Activision Blizzard releases a plan of action on how to improve its current workplace environment. WoW's biggest content creator, Asmongold, is still playing and talking about WoW, but is now more likely to be seen playing Amazon's New World closed beta or Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV, the latter of which saw new concurrent player records in part because of Asmongold's influence.