"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"

- Alexis de Tocqueville

The specific truth of this quote is questionable, but it does support the point of this week's column rather well.

In the past, Blizzard has made overtures about esports and how they want to make WoW a staple feature thereof. But one can’t help but feel that this has been mostly lip service.

I’m not usually one for bashing Blizzard – it’s so very lazy. But this season it seems as if everyone and his uncle is complaining about arenas. That in itself is nothing new, but there’s no smoke without fire, and WoW forums are so full of smoke that it’s hard to breathe.

One of the main complaints from fans of competitive WoW is the lack of a tournament realm. To my mind, this should be close to number one priority for a company that supposedly supports esports.

I’ve always been a fan of drawing a line between competitive and casual play. To give the best players a chance to practice against each other seems like a no-brainer but Blizzard clearly has other priorities. With the Extreme Masters finals just a month away, this lack of support is especially problematic. Indeed, it seems like ESL is more interested in WoW as an esport than Blizzard itself.

But the lack of a tournament realm isn’t the only qualm. Eight months ago I wrote this column lamenting the lack of a spectator tool for WoW. Well, eight months and five or so tournaments on, do we have WoWTV? I don’t think I need to bang on about spectator tools any more than I already have in the past. I’ll just say look at what HLTV did for CS and leave it at that.

In the company’s defense, they have listened to players in the past. Not long ago they almost copied a blog from SK’s own Serennia. But after the poorly implemented new rating system, people have lost a lot of faith in Blizzard’s ability to update its own game.

As I said earlier, whining in WoW never really goes away, but this season has seen unprecedented levels. For once, I actually feel it is warranted. I don’t even think the new system is that bad, unlike a lot of people. I think the way they approached its release and the lack of testing (was there any at all?) is very un-Blizzard-like.

Heck, if they’d just told everyone it was happening in the first place, even the bugs would have been bearable. To me, as a follower of esports, the bugs were far from being the issue. Making the game more inviting to noobs? Great! That’s more people to read my columns!

But the way they did it without even bothering to tell the players was deceitful and smacks of arrogance almost. It really says to me that they couldn’t care less about arenas. I’m sure that’s not true, but when the majority of players in a pay-to-play game want PvE content, the priority is obviously not on the side of the esports cohort.

Is this season a temporary lack of judgment or a permanent shift of focus for Blizzard? Do they care about us? I'll let you guys decide.

The world's first and only weekly column, The Zechs Files, returns next Tuesday.