Preach Gaming quits World of Warcraft amid Blizzard workplace scandal

Long-time World of Warcraft content creator Preach has released a video detailing his exit from covering WoW, explaining the recently Blizzard scandal “broke the camel’s back”.

Amidst the disastrous response by Blizzard to the lawsuit alleging sexual harassment in the workplace, many content creators are sharing their opinions on the situation and even stepping back from promoting Blizzard titles.

Twitch star Asmongold called Blizzard “shameful” while reading about the lawsuit on stream, and hasn’t streamed WoW since the lawsuit surfaced.

Now, another huge name in the WoW community is calling it quits. Preach Gaming has released a long video  announcing his departure from the game.

“So, first reason (for quitting) is obviously the recent allegations,” he began. “That was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. It is the tipping point. To find out after all that we’ve been through with World of Warcraft since probably the beginning of BfA, on top of that, this environment that’s existed within Blizzard, to the point now that they’re staging a walkout.. due to Blizzard’s awful, reprehensible response… At that point I no longer feel comfortable promoting and advertising the game.”

“Reason number two is, at this point, I honestly have very little positive to say about World of Warcraft. It does feel like the last few years, Blizzard has really pushed to have players like myself leave. It does feel that way. We’ve talked about it a number of times. A great deal of the changes and directions that Blizzard have gone in I’ve been very outspoken about.”

He goes on to talk about more specific issues with the development of the game, saying “A further example of just how nearly every feature of the game has come in since BfA has been either half-developed, undercooked, a missed opportunity, is how I’d describe it most accurately. Certainly, when it comes to Shadowlands, Torghast is a missed opportunity. The Covenants are a missed opportunity. There is so much that could’ve been done with each of those features that just hasn’t been done. They’ve let us down far too often.”

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Much of the rest of the video is spent lambasting the systems Blizzard has put into place that never worked in WoW. Preach said he didn’t enjoy spending much of the Battle for Azeroth expansion complaining about the choices Blizzard made for the game. Regarding Blizzard’s changes to WoW that could come over time with enough pushback from him and the community, Preach says, “If you don’t care, why the f**k should I care?”

Losing a huge content creator and influencer for the game could be the tip of the iceberg for other WoW streamers and YouTubers who have considered leaving the game, and time will tell if this becomes a trickle-down effect.