Why on earth would you try and judge whether someone else had "messed up" on your subjective criteria though? Wouldn't one tend to judge people's success on a guess at their criteria? Not in any way disputing your subjective views or your right to those subjective views, but your phrase of "messed up" suggests that they've made mistakes that they'd regret rather than simply decisions that you regret.
And while they're obviously ludicrously profitable they've not really cranked it out with endless microtransactions or charges for limited new content as far as I was aware, not to mention delaying diablo 3 and starcraft 2 while they put in what (I'd imagine) is going to be an awe inspiring level of polish.
Personally, on my subjective criteria obviously, I don't really care if they are focused on money so long as they've come to the opinion that the best route to money is making incredibly well polished and endlessly replayable games.
I should point out that I only ever liked starcraft and the original warcrafts and have never played WOW or enjoyed diablo, so the bulk of their efforts (particularly of late) have been invested in avenues I have no interest in.
Why on earth would anyone expect me to judge something based on citeria that are impossible for me to know.
First of all, Blizzard consists of A LOT of people, and I bet they each have their own individual goals with their participation in making any given game.
It would be completely useless, because it would be nothing but a guess.
So, to me it EXCLUSIVELY makes sense to judge something based on YOUR OWN personal criteria for quality or success.
That is exactly the way in which they messed up completely, because they had an absolutely fantastic baseline with WoW upon release, and from my point of view they destroyed it utterly by ignoring the magnificant open world structure, and a zillion other things I won't get into here.
Furthermore, the state of pure greed they're in, what with charging obscene amounts of money for work requiring perhaps a few hours of work from a single artist - is just further evidence that they've lost all of their previous style. At least as I remember it.
When I think of the current Blizzard, I'm picturing big fat romans eating grapes, and letting the audience have scraps.
Success? From my point of view, we're talking anything but.
But it's nothing but my own personal opinion, and everyone is completely free to ignore it.
I see a great company slowly going down the tubes in terms of creative power, and all around I'm seeing ignorant greed-supporting gamers clapping their hands and cheering them on.
Oh well, old story.
* I think calling it a BIGTIME mess up is a bit far-fetched. And, as I have said again and again, but no one believes me - since I'm a Norwegian I know these things.
