It’s not a normal epic exclusive, like Hades, for example. Epic didn’t just paid them to keep the game out of Steam (for a time), they financed the while game. Developers of “normal” exclusives get money to release their game, already under development, on EGS first. Alan Wake 2 is different, it wouldn’t exists without Epic games.

Look, I like my steam library as the next guy, and would be happy to have all my games there, but in this case there is literally nothing wrong with the game being only available on EGS. Would I prefer to have it on Steam? Yeah, of course. But I also very much happy to just be able to play it, and if I have to do it on Epic, well, that’s really not a big deal.

I think the last time realm first achievements were a thing (for anything other than raids) was in Lich king, but I might be mistaken.

Since I wrote my previous comment, I thought about it, and there are advantages for starting earlier. Reaching max level gives you access to world quests, which can be a source of gear and reputation. It also leaves you more time to complete the weekly objectives before the next reset. If I recall correctly, last time (the launch of Dragonflight) you got an item you can use to increase the power of a piece of crafted gear.

For the average player it doesn’t really matter, but for the world first racers, it might.

If they do things like they have for the last few expansions, neither raids, neither ranked pvp, neither mythic+ will be available in the first 2 weeks or more.

Realistically you will have more than enough time to level a character to max, maybe even two.

It still doesn’t make it right, or acceptable, but it’s more than enough to bash Blizzard for being greedy.

I watch a large, large amount of content on YouTube. For me, it’s easily worth it, but I also have to mention that I used a VPN to subscribe in a country where the prices are cheaper, and most likely would not pay the “real” price.

This also means that I have no real idea about the current ad situation.

Still, I know how expensive hosting gets, and there are no real alternatives to Google. Amazon and Microsoft can do it, but even if they launch a service, they need creators on it, and, more importantly, they need users. YouTube had more than a decade to establish itself. Any new platform needs a few years to get users, and it will lose money every second of that time.

You have your smaller platforms, but they need to survive as well, and not everyone is willing to pay a monthly price to access it. Nebula lives as long as there are users willing to pay for it. Floatplane requires a subscription as well. Both platforms only host a limited number of creators.

In the video hosting business, unfortunately, there are no bad guys. I can understand why no one wants to watch the same 30 second long ads, 3-4 at a time, 2 times a video. I also understand the platforms that want to survive, and make a profit. Unfortunately, adblocks, as much as necessary, are the cause of the problem as well.