Why Azeroth Choppers?

[Kaleredar]

No, I'm blunt. And I will bluntly tell you, no.

First. they implied that WoD was further along than MoP

Second. They have said for a long time, things would be faster

Third. They threw around "Wanting" a summer release

It's underhanded, and it isn't good business. If I pulled that shit on a company I was supplying? I would no longer be supplying for that company

The difference here is that Blizzard's development staff aren't people you can just hire off the street to flip hamburgers who can be replaced on a whim. Nor are they individually responsible for stand-alone, critical chunks of the project. You have entire teams building those "chunks," and replacing an entire team with completely new people isn't going to get things done faster, especially in a skill-intensive industry that requires comporting to an artistic style AND working cohesively as a team.

[Facerockker]

It reaches out to a new audience. More people exposed to Warcraft, more people playing Warcraft, more money, more resources.

If you play video games, you know about WoW. And either you're not interested, or you play/have played the game.

Why make the series?
Why not?
It's for fun.

[Deleted]

People keep asking for "feedback." What the hell does that even mean? Their daily production schedule?

Regardless of their interaction with the community, it'll be done when it's done. No amount of people asking "are you there yet?" is going to make it move faster.

Its not about that. Its about enlightening your customers. If you ordered something(wich some people have with WoD now) you want to know about stuff like a production schedule and setbacks and stuff. You want to be able to get that info at the very LEAST when you ask for it. So the blanket silence treatement is causing a stir. This whole deal has nothing to do with chris metzen or blizzard as a company. Its a small branch of them, the PR team, thats doing a horrible horrible job.

Argue all you want that blizzard promised nothing and that they can do whatever they want. Its true. But it doesnt take away peoples right to express themselves when they are dissapointed or angry, wich sadly is the case with a lot of blizzard releases.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Its not about that. Its about enlightening your customers. If you ordered something(wich some people have with WoD now) you want to know about stuff like a production schedule and setbacks and stuff. You want to be able to get that info at the very LEAST when you ask for it. So the blanket silence treatement is causing a stir. This whole deal has nothing to do with chris metzen or blizzard as a company. Its a small branch of them, the PR team, thats doing a horrible horrible job.

Argue all you want that blizzard promised nothing and that they can do whatever they want. Its true. But it doesnt take away peoples right to express themselves when they are dissapointed or angry, wich sadly is the case with a lot of blizzard releases.

If people can't communicate maturely or constructively and most of the time it isn't the former, they can't complain.

[Count Zero]

If you play video games, you know about WoW. And either you're not interested, or you play/have played the game.

Why make the series?
Why not?
It's for fun.

WoW was out for a couple years before I heard about it.

But either way I'm not disputing the "it's for fun" factor; I'm just saying exposing it to a new audience is part of the calculus. They could have had a webseries about an internal art competition to come up with a new chopper model and made it a parody of the show rather than actually using the actual show (or at least people from it). And there they wouldn't have had to pay anyone, and the result for the fans is the same - having a fun little contest, and getting a free mount.

[Kaleredar]

WoW was out for a couple years before I heard about it.

But either way I'm not disputing the "it's for fun" factor; I'm just saying exposing it to a new audience is part of the calculus. They could have had a webseries about an internal art competition to come up with a new chopper model and made it a parody of the show rather than actually using the actual show (or at least people from it). And there they wouldn't have had to pay anyone, and the result for the fans is the same - having a fun little contest, and getting a free mount.

Blizzard has no dearth of money they need to worry about. And they could have done any number of things.

[Taoforums]

y u so mad?

Infracted

[yetgdhfgh]

It really is just a huge commercial for Blizzard and that guy who makes bikes and nothing more

The reason they have thrown in the whole you are gonna get a mount at the end is the bait to make us watch and give a shit

They will make revenue from this from ads and it is also advertising for them too for WoD reason why there is a shit ton of WoD posters on the wall.

It really is a win win for blizzard and that bike guy.

Though to me this whole thing seems so fucking lame and cheesy like watching a 50 year old hippie trying to be kewl to the kids.

[Scufflegrit]

Poster claimed I was wrong but I proved it was an actual quote from Blizzard.

No, you didn't.

First, they have never once said anything has ever came at the cost of a raid tier.

If we were to work on those for an expansion patch it would quite literally come at the cost of a raid tier.

These two sentences do not say the same thing.

[Sarthan]

If people can't communicate maturely or constructively and most of the time it isn't the former, they can't complain.

Actually yeah I can, there are laws that protect my right to complain.

[Kaleredar]

Actually yeah I can, there are laws that protect my right to complain.

And we can, under those same laws, tell you your grievances are poorly thought out or even non-existent.

[Claymore]

To be fair, Blizzard has indeed deflected many suggested with "Well, it would just come at the cost of more Raid content", and done so many, many times.

Thing is, it's important to remember that finances are not the resource they're referring to. Blizzard may be a pretty massive developer, but it's not as though they're constantly bringing in new talent -- in fact, I'd be surprised if the team is substantially larger than it was during TBC. So really, a miniseries like this is more something they have to throw money at, which they clearly have a lot of, and the potential for payoff (introducing the game to more people) is definitely there. Add to the fact that I'm sure the Blizzard staff -- specifically Samwise and Metzen -- are stoked about the idea of Warcraft-themed bikes, anyways, so it winds up being a cool little side-project for them -- their involvement probably isn't much more elaborate than what we actually will see in the series itself -- all it's really costing them is a little bit of time, for something they probably enjoy anyways and could have a big payoff.

The biggest hold-up on raid content is most likely, I would wager, the Encounter-designers and environmental artists. This miniseries has nothing to do with those guys.

The first episode seemed cheesy, for sure, but I always enjoy seeing more of the devs (and let's face it; Metzen, Samwise, and Dave Kosak are a lot of fun to watch talking about Warcraft), and you never know; the bikes might wind up looking decent. If nothing else, using treads instead of tires is a great way to distinguish them from the current choppers.

[THoyt]

Oh wait they did say that. Your ignorance is shining through. You have zero idea what you are talking about. It makes you look silly.

Now please leave my thread

No, they didn't. Blizzard has never developed any current in-game content, or anything else for that matter, that cost a raid tier. They said "if we were to do this and that, it would cost a raid tier".

Azeroth Choppers has no impact whatsoever on the development of anything game related.

Your ignorance is shining through.

Now please leave your thread

[Banzhe]

It reaches out to a new audience. More people exposed to Warcraft, more people playing Warcraft, more money, more resources.

No offence, but the game have been bleeding since mid WotlK, that fabled "new" audience is getting extremely old in every single regard it's being used.

[Mahcake]

Addicted alert.

Sorry you don't have anything to do without a new raid tier and just complain about this crap.

Go play outside or something. Seems you didn't see it for a long time.

[Bullettime]

To be fair, Blizzard has indeed deflected many suggested with "Well, it would just come at the cost of more Raid content", and done so many, many times.

Thing is, it's important to remember that finances are not the resource they're referring to. Blizzard may be a pretty massive developer, but it's not as though they're constantly bringing in new talent -- in fact, I'd be surprised if the team is substantially larger than it was during TBC. So really, a miniseries like this is more something they have to throw money at, which they clearly have a lot of, and the potential for payoff (introducing the game to more people) is definitely there. Add to the fact that I'm sure the Blizzard staff -- specifically Samwise and Metzen -- are stoked about the idea of Warcraft-themed bikes, anyways, so it winds up being a cool little side-project for them -- their involvement probably isn't much more elaborate than what we actually will see in the series itself -- all it's really costing them is a little bit of time, for something they probably enjoy anyways and could have a big payoff.

The biggest hold-up on raid content is most likely, I would wager, the Encounter-designers and environmental artists. This miniseries has nothing to do with those guys.

The first episode seemed cheesy, for sure, but I always enjoy seeing more of the devs (and let's face it; Metzen, Samwise, and Dave Kosak are a lot of fun to watch talking about Warcraft), and you never know; the bikes might wind up looking decent. If nothing else, using treads instead of tires is a great way to distinguish them from the current choppers.

Yeah...the holdup for WoD and the main bottleneck is the art team and how much work is on their plate. New environments, new enemies, new instances, garrisons, and the new player models all fall on the art team.

Blizzard is actively hiring people, especially for said art team, but it's a matter of finding the right applicants. They can't just mass fire the first 50 people who apply and the content be delivered faster. There's only so many people you can put on a given team and have to make sure they have matching styles to the project and can work as a team.

Art is the single biggest bottleneck in game development with Warlords having more thrown on their lap at once than any expansion prior.

[Kaleredar]

To be fair, Blizzard has indeed deflected many suggested with "Well, it would just come at the cost of more Raid content", and done so many, many times.

I think Blizzard said it once and referred back to it when the same point was raised about that subject again (I think it was about Garrison buildings for different races, and suffice to say those probably WOULD come at the expense of a new raid tier and a hell of a lot of other stuff, seeing as Blizzard would literally have to make more than 800 additional building models to supply every race with every single building type and upgrade.) But people are saying that Blizz is "saying it for everything," which some people apparently have started to believe.

Thing is, it's important to remember that finances are not the resource they're referring to. Blizzard may be a pretty massive developer, but it's not as though they're constantly bringing in new talent -- in fact, I'd be surprised if the team is substantially larger than it was during TBC. So really, a miniseries like this is more something they have to throw money at, which they clearly have a lot of, and the potential for payoff (introducing the game to more people) is definitely there. Add to the fact that I'm sure the Blizzard staff -- specifically Samwise and Metzen -- are stoked about the idea of Warcraft-themed bikes, anyways, so it winds up being a cool little side-project for them -- their involvement probably isn't much more elaborate than what we actually will see in the series itself -- all it's really costing them is a little bit of time,

Unfortunately, people think that that "time" is coming right out of every single person that works at Blizzard for some reason. It's a poorly thought out argument with no grounds, but people keep spouting it because... well, I think some people just like feeling angry at something. Like Sarthran.

[MrKnubbles]

If anything, this is aiding Warlords of Draenor development because the winning bike will be a new mount in Warlords so...

[Agoonga]

I'm disappointed that they're doing choppers since we already have those, but I'm happy for the new tricycle that the Horde will undoubtably be getting. For the Horde!

[Claymore]

I'm disappointed that they're doing choppers since we already have those, but I'm happy for the new tricycle that the Horde will undoubtably be getting. For the Horde!

I would bet real, actual money that the competition will be rigged *in favor* of the Alliance, precisely because given the theme of this expansion, I think they're probably worried about alienating a lot of Alliance players, who typically gravitate towards medieval aesthetics. Plus, after a full year of an Orcish raid, and likely one or two more, I'll wager they'll look to throw Alliance players a bone any opportunity they can.

At best, "both will win" or something. But yeah, I don't think the Horde's bike even *can* win, even if it winds up the better bike.