Dev Interviews, Stormwind / Orgrimmar Transmog Sets, Blue Tweets, War of the Ancients

[Deleted]

Actually, Farahlon was going to be patch content in WoD. But now they scrapped it completely for this expansion. It's getting clearer that they try to make two expansions out of WoD, with all the talk about only two raid tiers, etc.

I can't believe how someone who's sane in his head would be okay with a treatment like this.

[Yoshimitsu84]

i am speechless, I wonder how much can they still go in by cutting and gutting the content.

After pardo leaving its clear they all went to shit even further. I dont mean Pardo was the key factor, but something happened there.
what a load of crap of an """""expansion"""".

Players may not go to Draenor during this expansion, it depends on if the content is relevant to the expansion.

Pretty much this

[Deleted]

I really hope they manage to start putting out yearly expansions from now on. I like the idea of going back in time and seeing Draenor in all it's splendor, and seeing how it might have been without the meddling of the Burning Legion, and fighting all these bad ass warchiefs but it is an alternate reality and it is not grand enough to spend 2 years on this storyline. Ok so the threat is real but it's the past! Can we actually deal with events from Azeroth's future instead of bringing back the past. It's feels a lot like more filler story to delay our attack on the burning legion's "base".

You wanted to go back in time? Try the war of the ancients time.

[edit]

This talk of possibly having 2 xpacs being set in Draenor is making me nauseous. I really hope this is only mindless speculation.

[Deleted]

Why is the stormwind guard shoulders completely wrong?

[Kathranis]

Why is the stormwind guard shoulders completely wrong?

Maybe because your picture is of a Lordaeron knight from WC3, not a Stormwind guard from WoW.

[caervek]

They're not proper imperial plate shoulders... /grr

[arthar77]

Why is the stormwind guard shoulders completely wrong?

reason to be is because he isn't a stormwind soldier but a member of the silver hand ... distinct pattern

[Deleted]

I might be wrong but didn't one of the Klaxxi mention they already had a replacement queen all hatched and ready but she was far too young to go challenging the crazy one? That being why we got roped into the whole thing.

[Deleted]

I can't believe how thick some people are, too. Defending every bit of cut content with "They never said..." bullshit. That's equally stupid and blind. Gobbling up every word Blizzard says as if it were ambrosia. Smells more like cow dung to me.

If this means faster expansions then thumbs up to them... I'm sure all if us are enjoying the same expansion for 26 months......

[Arvandor]

another karabor excuse.. another excuse for cutting content.. why i hear no excuse for the new xpac prize?

please fix the machima link..

and watch out what holinka scribe.. this guy damaged more this game as everyone else!

[Kryos]

They really had a crisis during developement that took them 6 months longer than expected. This sounds like "we really need to finish up this thing and get it out of the door, no time for more details".
I hope some of the cut details will come back in content patches.

[Lynneiah]

big purple island on the top of the world map shown at blizzcon, just cause it doesn't have a name on it doesn't mean we don't know what it is.

Kul Tiras is on lots of maps. We've yet to go there, too.

[Thelonicus]

I can't believe how thick some people are, too. Defending every bit of cut content with "They never said..." bullshit. That's equally stupid and blind. Gobbling up every word Blizzard says as if it were ambrosia. Smells more like cow dung to me.

So when a developer explains their reasons for leaving a zone closed until it fits with their theme and storyline, were gonna call BS on that and expect it to arrive when their statement obviously says otherwise? Movies are made in post production, this game has hit the same sorta state. its the last line before release, if it dosent fit, it dosent. It dosent imply its scrapped or developers lying. Its their game, if they see it dosent fit, no conspiricy or coverup is lined up to defend it.

[Shudder]

Good God, get over yourself... This is still the most ambitious expansion to date and the fact that they are having to cut some things is fine. Focus on the stuff we have, and perhaps try venturing out from under your bridge from time to time.

I think you need to learn what ambition means. After Blizzcon last year most people were disappointed with how lackluster the announcement was. No new races, no new classes, time travel lorejoke, only new feature was an upgraded farm. Since then they've scrapped an amazing amount of stuff. I'm not sure why I'm even explaining this to you, you're part of the Blizzard Defense Task Force so they can do no wrong in your delusional eyes.

[ItachiZaku]

I RP #TrueHorde #IronHorde on several toons, not a single one has cleared past Nazgrim. I don't let them. I'm rather shocked it is still so easy for one person to derail a whole raid.

I've maintained in guild that I won't be killing more orc legends and I mean it. Might be a grind mats and gold expansion for me.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

30 people for raids? Yeah that is going to turn out great, its not like it is already lagging badly in 25man, especially with bloodlust active. Its even noticeable in 10man for fuck sake.

And i seriously doubt they are going to reduce particles to a manageable levels so it is possible to see anything, even on lowest levels

[Solidusbr]

So... No more selling Sentinel/Warden armor pieces at 1k each in the AH? Crap.

[F-Minus]

I still think it's amazing that in 2014 people who want to call themselves journalists or want to interview a person can't get proper equipment for it. There's 80EUR (possibly even cheaper) microphones on the market that use a specific pattern which cancels most of the background noise out of interviews and gives you clear sound of the interviewer and interviewee, or you know, bring two microphones and hand one out to the guy you're interviewing. Of course it's never going to be perfect doing interviews on a loud show floor, but it would be much much much better as this garbage we have right now.

[Taojnhy]

I don't know why people are surprised about Blizz cutting stuff from WoD. How else do you think they can start getting inline with yearly expacs?

Here's a hint: think about DLC for other games; particularly how "Day 1" DLC operates.

Consider the following:

1) WoW sub numbers spike significantly at the beginning of each expansion. This spike represents box sales (which going forward are more expensive) and a minimum of one month sub fee. Numbers typically fall throughout the expac after this spike. Obviously it benefits Blizz to increase the frequency of spikes, leading to their goal of more frequent expansions.

2) New expansions do take a lot of time and resources to develop though. Lengthy development cycles per expansion hurts Blizz on two fronts: decreasing sub numbers and increased development costs.

3) Expacs have historically run for approximate two year periods before the next expac, with much of the two year cycle being used by Blizz to work on content for the next expac by separate dev teams.

So. What seems like an ideal way for Blizz to proceed? By "ideal", I'm talking about Blizzard, Activision and of course its shareholders. Customers only figure into "ideal" insofar as the feasibility of extracting maximum profit with minimum fuss.

Here's how I would do it:

1) Still spend two years in development cycles per expansion. Only stop thinking of them as an "expansion" and start thinking of them as "expansions" with a connecting theme and multiple spikes per theme (spike being new expansion box sales). You're still building the major foundations of the expansions, with content patch cycles (much like now, except you won't get all the content patches in one expansion). If there is a means of slowing content consumption down, use if feasible (read: doesn't impact sub numbers and box sales to an unacceptable degree). Once this is done, have a team working on the next set of thematically connected expansions while the rest of development fine-tunes and polishes content patches as well as the second expansion for this theme.

2) Sell Expansion #1. During the course of this expansion, there will be 1-2 content patches, with details about the next expansion typically emerging somewhat halfway between.

3) Approximately one year later: sell Expansion #2. Again, 1-2 content patches with details about the next "expansion theme" emerging halfway between.

4) Rinse and repeat.

I realize this sounds a bit tinfoil-hat, but think like a company for a moment and not as a customer. How else would you make it happen when your goal is to maximize profits with minimum fuss?

[Schizoide]

Really, guys...is there any promise you're keeping except "$40, plis!"?

Yes, they promised not to let us fly at 100.