i wouldn't say they could do no wrong. That said they are very succesful . Not just because of there name. Star craft is pretty much lauded by most games who play it as a great game. Diablo 3 not so much. That said diablo 1 and 2 were considered great games. Wow was considered a great game till it became to common for teh cool crowd
If 11 million people play it it cant be any good they say. Its to cool to many play it it must suck. Wow is still king of the mmo. And the next mmo blizzard makes will probably end up the second biggest release in history.
I would say, Cataclysm, while it may have looked good on paper, was a mistake.
Giving love to the original two continents and the newby expirience, allowing flying mounts and all sounds like a great idea.
But
They spent endless man hours reconstructing the two original contenents and quests but then allowed such fast leveling that no one really spends that much time in the reconstructed zones, in fact with the dungeon finder most people level in dungeons and pvp.
As a result of spending so many man hours working on Azeroth and Kalimdor, there was no new contenent only a few more zones. Thus the end game, where most people end up after 3 weeks of leveling, was shallow.
So after six months or so players started to get bored. Even with Mists, I don't believe WoW has recovered from the Cataclysm that was... well... Cataclysm.
So while I like Blizzard, they do make mistakes now and then.
Not sure we really need a thread to tell us the numbers we all see a thousand times in almost every other forum. It's like I have come to memorize numbers to Blizzards games. It doesn't matter how much money a game makes or how many people play, Blizzard isn't doing things as well as you would think. Diablo 3 does not have 12 million active players and even though my friends and I purchased it we havent touched it since 3 months after release(which is a lot longer than most I hear). I enjoyed WoW for many years but to claim a company can't do wrong because they have a successful player base is a joke.
1. WoW being 8 yrs old and still has 9 million subs.
2. D3 12 million playters
3. StarCraft has over 23 MILLION views on its official youtube channel.
It is hard to argue against those kind of numbers.
Love blizz or hate them the proff is in the pudding.
The Pet Rock sold 1.5 million in a 6 month span in 1976.
Britney Spears has sold over 100 million albums
Cabbage Patch kids lasted a little over a year and made $600 million in 1985 (thats 1.26 billion in todays money)
Popularity and sales number are NOT indicative of quality or deservedness of respect.
Nor did the the person you quoted either say implicitely or explicity that the the numbers prove Blizzard is quality.
I believe the point was: you cannot deny they have a high number of consumers.
If we want to draw some speculative analysis from the numbers, what does 'popularity' show?
It shows an ability to develop games which speak to a large number of people.
Does that mean they are great games? No. Does that mean they are bad games? No.
Is successfully developing a product which is popular to a large number of people easy? No. Did they do it well? Yes.
__________________________
And just to be fair;
I enjoy a 7$ microbrew draft ale as much as the next guy. But I've also had some rockin' times with 25 cent pitchers of the Beast.
I've had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant in Paris, but I picked up mcdonalds on the way home today.
Some times the popular things can be enjoyed for what they are. Easy, accessible fun.
Sometimes it is Justin Bieber and you have to shoot your radio.
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
I think you should speak more on behalf of every gamer on why 'playing Blizzard games means you are dumb' /Sarcasm
Talk about 'my personal opinion is FACT' post. Jeez.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
Putting down an entire group of consumers because they happen to enjoy a product that you don't enjoy? WTF is wrong with you? If you don't like their products, don't buy them but is it really necessary to belittle and insult an entire group of people that happen to enjoy their products? What do you think that says about you as a person? Does it make you feel better about yourself that you can call people that enjoy D2 and WC3 "stupid" because, heaven forbid ,someone enjoy an ARPG or an RTS with the blizzard logo on it? You really need to grow up. The world is filled with varying opinions and if your only response to any worldview but your own is snide, unwarranted arrogance and personal attacks against millions of complete strangers that you have never met, you will never outgrow that adolescent attitude.
1. WoW being 8 yrs old and still has 9 million subs.
2. D3 12 million playters
3. StarCraft has over 23 MILLION views on its official youtube channel.
It is hard to argue against those kind of numbers.
Love blizz or hate them the proff is in the pudding.
The Pet Rock sold 1.5 million in a 6 month span in 1976.
Britney Spears has sold over 100 million albums
Cabbage Patch kids lasted a little over a year and made $600 million in 1985 (thats 1.26 billion in todays money)
Popularity and sales number are NOT indicative of quality or deservedness of respect.
Nor did the the person you quoted either say implicitely or explicity that the the numbers prove Blizzard is quality.
I believe the point was: you cannot deny they have a high number of consumers.
If we want to draw some speculative analysis from the numbers, what does 'popularity' show?
It shows an ability to develop games which speak to a large number of people.
Does that mean they are great games? No. Does that mean they are bad games? No.
Is successfully developing a product which is popular to a large number of people easy? No. Did they do it well? Yes.
__________________________
And just to be fair;
I enjoy a 7$ microbrew draft ale as much as the next guy. But I've also had some rockin' times with 25 cent pitchers of the Beast.
I've had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant in Paris, but I picked up mcdonalds on the way home today.
Some times the popular things can be enjoyed for what they are. Easy, accessible fun.
Sometimes it is Justin Bieber and you have to shoot your radio.
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
As you see, the implication in what I wrote, is I must have specifically looked for an implied meaning. I did not find a direct 'quality' implication. I saw a list of numbers attached to a title saying 'blizzard can do no wrong'. The correct implication of title + content is that what Blizzard does results in high numbers, i.e. they know how to make a popular product.
This is a perfectly reasonable implication of the information provided. It is also understandable to draw the conclusion the OP implied quality.
I for one said, wait, hold on, if you look at what he actually says, there is another way to interpret the data.
But, thank you for resorting to insulting my ability to apply critical reasoning.
I can't believe my 3rd section didn't at least make you chuckle. Low blow man.....
And just remember, some of us simply don't have the time for more complexity than WoW or Rift or LoTRO. We have busy lives and need a quick accessible fix of a fantasy land, and those game were designed to provide that. There are more people with a schedule conducive to WoW than to say, EQ. They reached a large audience well, as you said.
But dumb.....
glass houses.
You could successfully play a cleric in EQ for years by this rotation:
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
I think you should speak more on behalf of every gamer on why 'playing Blizzard games means you are dumb' /Sarcasm
Talk about 'my personal opinion is FACT' post. Jeez.
Hey, i played WOW for several years, bought D3, etc. I'm not saying im exempt from it myself. But its generally the truth. Blizzard uses human psychology specifically against us for the sole purpose of making money hand over fist. The days of Blizzard making good games because they want to make fun, exciting games are LONG OVER. Now, every decision is prefaced by the question of "how will this affect our profits". Its a sad state of affairs.
*snip*
As you see, the implication in what I wrote, would be I specifically looked for an implied meaning. I did not. I saw a list of numbers attached to a title saying 'blizzard can do no wrong'. The correct implication of title + content is that what Blizzard does results in high numbers, i.e. they know how to make a popular product.
This is a perfectly reasonable implication of the information provided. It is also understandable to draw the conclusion the OP implied quality.
I for one said, wait, hold on, if you look at what he actually says, there is another way to interpret the data.
But, thank you for resorting to insulting my ability to apply critical reasoning.
I can't believe my 3rd section didn't at least make you chuckle. Low blow man.....
Woah brother, calm down. Keep in mind this is written text, its difficult to convey malice or lack of malice in text. I wasnt making these posts to insult your critical thinking skills or anything like that. I just responded to the post that for me that was the implied meaning. I don't think you're an idiot or anything like that. I do think that people who still play WOW and D3 after everything that has happened are dumb. I swear its like the gaming equivalent of stockholm syndrome. Or a battered wife type of thing.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
Nothing against Blizzard as the Warcraft series was phenominal to me! WC3 was the best RTS ever with WoW being the 2nd best MMO for me (FFXI is #1 for me).
As others stated Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Twilight Movies, and other stuff out there has millions of followers doesn't make it the best! Again I played WoW for years but It's time in my eyes ar over just like FFXI.
Below is where we can disscuss and come up with new ideas for Sandparks!
Woah brother, calm down. Keep in mind this is written text, its difficult to convey malice or lack of malice in text. I wasnt making these posts to insult your critical thinking skills or anything like that. I just responded to the post that for me that was the implied meaning. I don't think you're an idiot or anything like that. I do think that people who still play WOW and D3 after everything that has happened are dumb. I swear its like the gaming equivalent of stockholm syndrome. Or a battered wife type of thing.
Ok ) point taken.
I got giddy with snarkiness in my edit, don't take it personal.
But man, when I have 30 min between chores, dog walking, pregnant wife, working late hours......D3 can be extraordinarily helpful.
I got giddy with snarkiness in my edit, don't take it personal.
But man, when I have 30 min between chores, dog walking, pregnant wife, working late hours......D3 can be extraordinarily helpful.
Its all good brother ;-).
PS2 has been providing my "i have 30 min between shit to do and need to game" fix. CS:source was my goto for a while ;-).
The bad part is stopping after 30 minutes. Usually it turns into 4 hours and then the laundry has that funky smell after sitting in the washer damp for 4 hours lol.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
1. WoW being 8 yrs old and still has 9 million subs.
after 8 years they only have 9 million subs? if the game were so great they would have more than 20 million subs. However with each new expansionthey lost subs. then they gain some, but they have never gained more subs than they already had since TBC.
2. D3 12 million subs
This is a joke right? D3 isnt a sub based game, its a B2P game and more than 60% of the buyers demanded refunds or quit completely.. need I remind everyone of the whole "error 37" fiasco?
There's like ...an epic amount of dumb in this post.
Hey, i played WOW for several years, bought D3, etc. I'm not saying im exempt from it myself. But its generally the truth. Blizzard uses human psychology specifically against us for the sole purpose of making money hand over fist. The days of Blizzard making good games because they want to make fun, exciting games are LONG OVER. Now, every decision is prefaced by the question of "how will this affect our profits". Its a sad state of affairs.
What the heck is this logic? Yes, cause Blizzard has invented 'Mind Control over the interwebz!' o_O
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Blizzard is full of shit, arrogance and chutzpah, and i'm sorry but their game is garbage, it's all about marketting an buying their way all over the place.
Seem like you are a Big Blizzard fan so now i feel bad about telling you,you are DEAD WRONG.
If the numbers mean anything we should think that the best food you can get in the world is
the MC.Donald's food... because they are selling the most!
In reality their food is one of the worst you can actually get... true for Blizzard and their games too.
A super heavy user at McDonalds is classified as 3-4 times a week. that means they eat something else 18+ times a week. They sell a lot of food but can you really say they outsell ..a salad or some other health food that doesn't have a counter outside their store ?
Subway is probably growing at twice the rate Mcchugandpukes is. So to compair them to Blizzard isn't very accurate.
Seem like you are a Big Blizzard fan so now i feel bad about telling you,you are DEAD WRONG.
If the numbers mean anything we should think that the best food you can get in the world is
the MC.Donald's food... because they are selling the most!
In reality their food is one of the worst you can actually get... true for Blizzard and their games too.
A super heavy user at McDonalds is classified as 3-4 times a week. that means they eat something else 18+ times a week. They sell a lot of food but can you really say they outsell ..a salad or some other health food that doesn't have a counter outside their store ?
Subway is probably growing at twice the rate Mcchugandpukes is. So to compair them to Blizzard isn't very accurate.
At least McDonalds is somewhere around average as far as fast food goes. Subway is the absolute rock bottom of chain sub shops.
1. WoW being 8 yrs old and still has 9 million subs.
2. D3 12 million playters
3. StarCraft has over 23 MILLION views on its official youtube channel.
It is hard to argue against those kind of numbers.
Love blizz or hate them the proff is in the pudding.
The Pet Rock sold 1.5 million in a 6 month span in 1976.
Britney Spears has sold over 100 million albums
Cabbage Patch kids lasted a little over a year and made $600 million in 1985 (thats 1.26 billion in todays money)
Popularity and sales number are NOT indicative of quality or deservedness of respect.
Nor did the the person you quoted either say implicitely or explicity that the the numbers prove Blizzard is quality.
I believe the point was: you cannot deny they have a high number of consumers.
If we want to draw some speculative analysis from the numbers, what does 'popularity' show?
It shows an ability to develop games which speak to a large number of people.
Does that mean they are great games? No. Does that mean they are bad games? No.
Is successfully developing a product which is popular to a large number of people easy? No. Did they do it well? Yes.
__________________________
And just to be fair;
I enjoy a 7$ microbrew draft ale as much as the next guy. But I've also had some rockin' times with 25 cent pitchers of the Beast.
I've had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant in Paris, but I picked up mcdonalds on the way home today.
Some times the popular things can be enjoyed for what they are. Easy, accessible fun.
Sometimes it is Justin Bieber and you have to shoot your radio.
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
Seem like you are a Big Blizzard fan so now i feel bad about telling you,you are DEAD WRONG.
If the numbers mean anything we should think that the best food you can get in the world is
the MC.Donald's food... because they are selling the most!
In reality their food is one of the worst you can actually get... true for Blizzard and their games too.
They are everywhere,they advertise a lot,they got the hype but all these things won't make a good game.
I'm not saying their games are not decent onces... i played wow d3 and starcraft ( warcraft FT etc... )
But for me all their games was just another game and nothing truely special,noting outstanding.
TY for the reply. Im not a huge Blizz fan acualy i was impressed by the number of views on the official youtube page for StarCraft. Main reason why i wrote this thread it seems with 23 million views alone that is a gigantic intreast in a Blizzard game. It seems to me with that in mind how can they do wrong?
Ah, "I was just stirring up drama for fun". Possibly not something you want to admit to the mods.
Incidentally, you may want to delete some of your screen shots...
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Comments
i wouldn't say they could do no wrong. That said they are very succesful . Not just because of there name. Star craft is pretty much lauded by most games who play it as a great game. Diablo 3 not so much. That said diablo 1 and 2 were considered great games. Wow was considered a great game till it became to common for teh cool crowd
If 11 million people play it it cant be any good they say. Its to cool to many play it it must suck. Wow is still king of the mmo. And the next mmo blizzard makes will probably end up the second biggest release in history.
Nor did the the person you quoted either say implicitely or explicity that the the numbers prove Blizzard is quality.
I believe the point was: you cannot deny they have a high number of consumers.
If we want to draw some speculative analysis from the numbers, what does 'popularity' show?
It shows an ability to develop games which speak to a large number of people.
Does that mean they are great games? No. Does that mean they are bad games? No.
Is successfully developing a product which is popular to a large number of people easy? No. Did they do it well? Yes.
__________________________
And just to be fair;
I enjoy a 7$ microbrew draft ale as much as the next guy. But I've also had some rockin' times with 25 cent pitchers of the Beast.
I've had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant in Paris, but I picked up mcdonalds on the way home today.
Some times the popular things can be enjoyed for what they are. Easy, accessible fun.
Sometimes it is Justin Bieber and you have to shoot your radio.
I would say, Cataclysm, while it may have looked good on paper, was a mistake.
Giving love to the original two continents and the newby expirience, allowing flying mounts and all sounds like a great idea.
But
They spent endless man hours reconstructing the two original contenents and quests but then allowed such fast leveling that no one really spends that much time in the reconstructed zones, in fact with the dungeon finder most people level in dungeons and pvp.
As a result of spending so many man hours working on Azeroth and Kalimdor, there was no new contenent only a few more zones. Thus the end game, where most people end up after 3 weeks of leveling, was shallow.
So after six months or so players started to get bored. Even with Mists, I don't believe WoW has recovered from the Cataclysm that was... well... Cataclysm.
So while I like Blizzard, they do make mistakes now and then.
Not sure we really need a thread to tell us the numbers we all see a thousand times in almost every other forum. It's like I have come to memorize numbers to Blizzards games. It doesn't matter how much money a game makes or how many people play, Blizzard isn't doing things as well as you would think. Diablo 3 does not have 12 million active players and even though my friends and I purchased it we havent touched it since 3 months after release(which is a lot longer than most I hear). I enjoyed WoW for many years but to claim a company can't do wrong because they have a successful player base is a joke.
There is this thing called implied meaning. Anyone with any sense can see he was trying to imply that Blizzard makes a quality product. If he had titled this thread something along the lines of "Blizzard as a business" or something like that. Then i would be 100% with him. Credit given where credit is due. They are a fantastic company at seperating dumb people from their money.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
I think you should speak more on behalf of every gamer on why 'playing Blizzard games means you are dumb' /Sarcasm
Talk about 'my personal opinion is FACT' post. Jeez.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Putting down an entire group of consumers because they happen to enjoy a product that you don't enjoy? WTF is wrong with you? If you don't like their products, don't buy them but is it really necessary to belittle and insult an entire group of people that happen to enjoy their products? What do you think that says about you as a person? Does it make you feel better about yourself that you can call people that enjoy D2 and WC3 "stupid" because, heaven forbid ,someone enjoy an ARPG or an RTS with the blizzard logo on it? You really need to grow up. The world is filled with varying opinions and if your only response to any worldview but your own is snide, unwarranted arrogance and personal attacks against millions of complete strangers that you have never met, you will never outgrow that adolescent attitude.
As you see, the implication in what I wrote, is I must have specifically looked for an implied meaning. I did not find a direct 'quality' implication. I saw a list of numbers attached to a title saying 'blizzard can do no wrong'. The correct implication of title + content is that what Blizzard does results in high numbers, i.e. they know how to make a popular product.
This is a perfectly reasonable implication of the information provided. It is also understandable to draw the conclusion the OP implied quality.
I for one said, wait, hold on, if you look at what he actually says, there is another way to interpret the data.
But, thank you for resorting to insulting my ability to apply critical reasoning.
I can't believe my 3rd section didn't at least make you chuckle. Low blow man.....
And just remember, some of us simply don't have the time for more complexity than WoW or Rift or LoTRO. We have busy lives and need a quick accessible fix of a fantasy land, and those game were designed to provide that. There are more people with a schedule conducive to WoW than to say, EQ. They reached a large audience well, as you said.
But dumb.....
glass houses.
You could successfully play a cleric in EQ for years by this rotation:
/cast complete heal
/sit
To be a successful raiding cleric add:
know when it is your turn.
To be a GREAT raiding cleric:
have some mana left over for a stun or two
And you could easily do it running a second toon.
just sayin.....
Hey, i played WOW for several years, bought D3, etc. I'm not saying im exempt from it myself. But its generally the truth. Blizzard uses human psychology specifically against us for the sole purpose of making money hand over fist. The days of Blizzard making good games because they want to make fun, exciting games are LONG OVER. Now, every decision is prefaced by the question of "how will this affect our profits". Its a sad state of affairs.
Woah brother, calm down. Keep in mind this is written text, its difficult to convey malice or lack of malice in text. I wasnt making these posts to insult your critical thinking skills or anything like that. I just responded to the post that for me that was the implied meaning. I don't think you're an idiot or anything like that. I do think that people who still play WOW and D3 after everything that has happened are dumb. I swear its like the gaming equivalent of stockholm syndrome. Or a battered wife type of thing.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Nothing against Blizzard as the Warcraft series was phenominal to me! WC3 was the best RTS ever with WoW being the 2nd best MMO for me (FFXI is #1 for me).
As others stated Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Twilight Movies, and other stuff out there has millions of followers doesn't make it the best! Again I played WoW for years but It's time in my eyes ar over just like FFXI.
Below is where we can disscuss and come up with new ideas for Sandparks!
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5164689#5164689
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
I
you.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Ok ) point taken.
I got giddy with snarkiness in my edit, don't take it personal.
But man, when I have 30 min between chores, dog walking, pregnant wife, working late hours......D3 can be extraordinarily helpful.
Its all good brother ;-).
PS2 has been providing my "i have 30 min between shit to do and need to game" fix. CS:source was my goto for a while ;-).
The bad part is stopping after 30 minutes. Usually it turns into 4 hours and then the laundry has that funky smell after sitting in the washer damp for 4 hours lol.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
There's like ...an epic amount of dumb in this post.
What the heck is this logic? Yes, cause Blizzard has invented 'Mind Control over the interwebz!' o_O
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Dear OP.
Seem like you are a Big Blizzard fan so now i feel bad about telling you,you are DEAD WRONG.
If the numbers mean anything we should think that the best food you can get in the world is
the MC.Donald's food... because they are selling the most!
In reality their food is one of the worst you can actually get... true for Blizzard and their games too.
They are everywhere,they advertise a lot,they got the hype but all these things won't make a good game.
I'm not saying their games are not decent onces... i played wow d3 and starcraft ( warcraft FT etc... )
But for me all their games was just another game and nothing truely special,noting outstanding.
Didn't they send out an incomplete game only letting you play one campaign and then have to buy the other 2 races as separate xpacs?
A super heavy user at McDonalds is classified as 3-4 times a week. that means they eat something else 18+ times a week. They sell a lot of food but can you really say they outsell ..a salad or some other health food that doesn't have a counter outside their store ?
Subway is probably growing at twice the rate Mcchugandpukes is. So to compair them to Blizzard isn't very accurate.
At least McDonalds is somewhere around average as far as fast food goes. Subway is the absolute rock bottom of chain sub shops.
LOL
TY for the reply. Im not a huge Blizz fan acualy i was impressed by the number of views on the official youtube page for StarCraft. Main reason why i wrote this thread it seems with 23 million views alone that is a gigantic intreast in a Blizzard game. It seems to me with that in mind how can they do wrong?
Ah, "I was just stirring up drama for fun". Possibly not something you want to admit to the mods.
Incidentally, you may want to delete some of your screen shots...
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.