Why do people want content slower?

[styil]

The general consensus for content like Throne of Thunder is that the next raid was released too soon, there wasn't enough time to complete the content, and that the next raid should have been released later.

But isn't that situation a good thing? Shorter raid tiers mean that fewer people will completely finish the content and always have something new and fresh to do. And people who finish the tier quicker will have the next tier's of content sooner. If I had to pick between 6 month raid tiers and 9 month raid tiers, I'd pick 6 month raid tiers every single time. And so would the many people who simply do not raid for every single week in the raid tier. So I think the solution here is to release content faster, not slower.

The notion that "raid tiers need to be spaced out better so we don't have content droughts" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you ask for longer raid tiers, the longer these expansion waits will be. And also if WoD has shown us anything, this thought process is completely irrelevant. No amount of spacing out would have made the lengths of the 2 raid tiers in WoD acceptable.

I think that instead of actively petitioning Blizzard to release content slower, we should be asking them to release content faster so that there's always something to do for everybody, and to not keep people waiting for months on end without new content. Not only will this benefit the playerbase, but it will also benefit Blizzard's bottom line as people will stay subscribed for longer.

[brunnor]

People's problem is the HUGE lull after the final tier. If it was 6 month, 6 months, 6 months, new expansion. People would be fine. But it's 6 months, 6 months, 13 months. Splitting that in to 8, 8, 9 would be a lot nicer for everyone.

I do agree that WoD was fucked from the start. 2 raid tiers doesn't work unless the expansion is literally a year long.

[callipygoustp]

Content patches should be spaced out better or more patches added. The ridiculously long lulls in content at the "end" of expansions is detrimental to the health of the game.

[styil]

Content patches should be spaced out better or more patches added. The ridiculously long lulls in content at the "end" of expansions is detrimental to the health of the game.

As mentioned in the OP, "spacing out" the raid tiers is not the solution. If we spaced out Tier 17 and Tier 18 in WoD as much as we possibly could, they both would still be 11 months long each. That is far too long. The solution is more content, not less content through "spacing out".

[Gramgaido]

No matter how efficient, large, and motivated your development staff is, there will be a limit to have much your team can produce in a given period. Let's say the average expansion is say, 24 months, and the average amount of raid tiers in the expansion is 3. As much as we'd prefer more content in this scenario, the development team can only truly produce 3 tiers of quality in that time. These numbers don't necessarily reflect Blizzard's own numbers, but they're easily divisible. In this scenario the average length of a tier is 8 months. So the choice is: Should content be spread out in a 8/8/8 pattern? A 6/6/12 pattern? A 6/9/9 pattern? The shorter one tier is, the longer another will be.

[callipygoustp]

As mentioned in the OP, "spacing out" the raid tiers is not the solution. If we spaced out Tier 17 and Tier 18 in WoD as much as we possibly could, they both would still be 11 months long. That is far too long. The solution is more content, not less content through "spacing out".

Spacing out raids IS a solution, maybe not for the 1%ers but for the average player it would make a huge difference.

Personally, for me, while I was playing the solution would be adding an extra raid tier. I think 4-6 months per raid tier is plenty. But, when I raided, I raided hardcore and generally had raids beat well before the next content patch.

[Neudgae]

what i want is a new expansion drops, no raids for X amount of time, raid comes out along with more dungeons/world content, wait 6months, repeat until game shuts down. instead what we get is, new expansion, no raids for x time, new raid, no content, new raid, drought, drought, game dies cause big ass company cant release content at a logical pace and would rather reinvent the wheel instead of replacing it with a new cause it's gotten flat

[styil]

Spacing out raids IS a solution, maybe not for the 1%ers but for the average player it would make a huge difference.

Personally, for me, while I was playing the solution would be adding an extra raid tier. I think 4-6 months per raid tier is plenty. But, when I raided, I raided hardcore and generally had raids beat well before the next content patch.

It is not the solution. If WoD was spaced out, it'd still be 11 months a raid tier. Even if MoP was spaced out, it'd still be almost 9 months a raid tier. Those lengths are just far too long and spacing the raids out would have accomplished nothing. Releasing more content is the only solution. Asking for longer raid tiers and more "spaced out" raid tiers isn't.

[Eats Compost]

The problem with WoW (and MMOs with similar progression structures in general) is that new content typically invalidates old content. There's a few reasons for that, but one of the big ones is catchup mechanics - a design that keeps old content relevant and makes players go through it is directly at odds with a design that lets players quickly reach the newest content. That's not to say that catchup mechanics are a bad thing, of course. It just means that treating content patches like seasons is important - it's not a straight-up case of "faster patch is better patch".

Releasing a content patch too soon (and the progression incentives that brings) can be a problem, just like releasing something too late. Sometimes, content can cannibalize other content in a bad way. I'm sure that a lot of people remember what Trial of the Crusader did to Ulduar. Of course, that was more to do with the design and rewards of TotC than timing.

[DarthMonk79]

Tiers don't need to be quicker.. content does. Why not a tier patch and then a quest/lore/dungeon patch, then tier patch, etc. stick with the 6-8 month tiers and just have a content patch in the middle of each tier. The one that kills me in the last tier and the yearly wait after... I have no problem with the 6+ months in between tiers. Its the last tier and then absolutely nothing for over a year. Plus there's no reason for it to be quick, quick, quick. It makes it seem like you have to rush through to be ready for the next tier w/o actually enjoying what they've put out.

[Usagi Senshi]

They definitely need to space out content and go back to a modified version of content delivery like they were doing in MoP. Stop going balls to the wall 7-10 boss raids and do 5-7 instead and if you have to do a huge raid, space out wings like FFXIV (these guys have content spacing down to a science and its been working for 3 years now, pisses off the hardcore but makes the majority happy which is what really matters) does.

We'll see how Blizzard handles Legion but I'm confident that they probably won't do anymore 8-12 months end of expansion lulls anymore.

[Sinndra]

As mentioned in the OP, "spacing out" the raid tiers is not the solution. If we spaced out Tier 17 and Tier 18 in WoD as much as we possibly could, they both would still be 11 months long each. That is far too long. The solution is more content, not less content through "spacing out".

spacing out tiers better absolutely IS a plausible solution. tier longevity has been all over the place from blizzard with the exception of the end of the expac which has been damn near ±12 months every time.

if they learned how to pace tiers better and give each tier its due worth while shortening the end tiers by 5-6 months would actually be a huge improvement.

that is totally dependent on each tier having an acceptable number of bosses. if a tier only has 6-8 bosses, then 6+ months is too long for the tier, if it has 10-12 bosses 6-8 months IS appropriate.

having 13 bosses and only 4 months before a new tier comes out, followed by 6 months before work on the next expac begins = 13-15 months of stagnation is the least preferred tier/expac development cycle.

[callipygoustp]

It is not the solution. If WoD was spaced out, it'd still be 11 months a raid tier. Even if MoP was spaced out, it'd still be almost 9 months a raid tier. Those lengths are just far too long and spacing the raids out would have accomplished nothing. Releasing more content is the only solution. Asking for longer raid tiers and more "spaced out" raid tiers isn't.

And I'll say it again : spacing out the tiers more evenly IS a solution. (This Bugs Bunny(me) vs Elmer Fudd thing is fun!)
Maybe not the best solution, but it would definitely be better than what there is now.

Also, your math is off. There were three raid tiers in WoD, not two; there were on two sets of teired raid gear. With the Legion coming in August will be 21 months of WoD. Each of the raid tiers could have gone 7 months rather than a 4-4-13 month breakdown. A 7 month spread is more tolerable than the long expansion ending break Bliz has been going with expansion after expansion.

[Zenko]

Or, we could, you know, NOT make previous raid/dungeon content irrelevant with every new patch.

[callipygoustp]

They definitely need to space out content and go back to a modified version of content delivery like they were doing in MoP. Stop going balls to the wall 7-10 boss raids and do 5-7 instead and if you have to do a huge raid, space out wings like FFXIV (these guys have content spacing down to a science and its been working for 3 years now, pisses off the hardcore but makes the majority happy which is what really matters) does.

Just one of many broken promises that started being made at the tail end of Wrath : more regularly released content. Never happened.

We'll see how Blizzard handles Legion but I'm confident that they probably won't do anymore 8-12 months end of expansion lulls anymore.

For the sake of the few friends I know of that continue to play, I hope that is the case.

[Usagi Senshi]

Just one of many broken promises that started being made at the tail end of Wrath : more regularly released content. Never happened.

I know, but one of these days they may actually come through and get it right. :/

[callipygoustp]

I know, but one of these days they may actually come through and get it right. :/

For the sake of the game, and my friends that still play, I hope so. It's definitely one of the factors that caused me to unsub.

[styil]

No matter how efficient, large, and motivated your development staff is, there will be a limit to have much your team can produce in a given period. Let's say the average expansion is say, 24 months, and the average amount of raid tiers in the expansion is 3. As much as we'd prefer more content in this scenario, the development team can only truly produce 3 tiers of quality in that time. These numbers don't necessarily reflect Blizzard's own numbers, but they're easily divisible. In this scenario the average length of a tier is 8 months. So the choice is: Should content be spread out in a 8/8/8 pattern? A 6/6/12 pattern? A 6/9/9 pattern? The shorter one tier is, the longer another will be.

That's exactly the problem. We are actively asking for raid tiers to be longer to compensate for Blizzard's shortcomings. They have led us to believe that 8/8/8, 6/6/12 are the only scenarios. We should be asking for 6/6/6 or at least 7/7/7, not for longer raid tiers.

And I'll say it again : spacing out the tiers more evenly IS a solution. (This Bugs Bunny(me) vs Elmer Fudd thing is fun!)
Maybe not the best solution, but it would definitely be better than what there is now.

Also, your math is off. There were three raid tiers in WoD, not two; there were on two sets of teired raid gear. With the Legion coming in August will be 21 months of WoD. Each of the raid tiers could have gone 7 months rather than a 4-4-13 month breakdown. A 7 month spread is more tolerable than the long expansion ending break Bliz has been going with expansion after expansion.

21.5 months if we are being exact. Tier 17 had 2 raids, but 1 raid tier. How would having 10.75 months of Tier 17 and 10.75 months of Tier 18 solved the problem? The tiers are still 10.75 months long each. In fact I probably would've unsubscribed earlier with that spacing.

[DesMephisto]

The general consensus for content like Throne of Thunder is that the next raid was released too soon, there wasn't enough time to complete the content, and that the next raid should have been released later.

But isn't that situation a good thing? Shorter raid tiers mean that fewer people will completely finish the content and always have something new and fresh to do. And people who finish the tier quicker will have the next tier's of content sooner. If I had to pick between 6 month raid tiers and 9 month raid tiers, I'd pick 6 month raid tiers every single time. And so would the many people who simply do not raid for every single week in the raid tier. So I think the solution here is to release content faster, not slower.

The notion that "raid tiers need to be spaced out better so we don't have content droughts" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you ask for longer raid tiers, the longer these expansion waits will be. And also if WoD has shown us anything, this thought process is completely irrelevant. No amount of spacing out would have made the lengths of the 2 raid tiers in WoD acceptable.

I think that instead of actively petitioning Blizzard to release content slower, we should be asking them to release content faster so that there's always something to do for everybody, and to not keep people waiting for months on end without new content. Not only will this benefit the playerbase, but it will also benefit Blizzard's bottom line as people will stay subscribed for longer.

Because not everyone wants to play the game 24/7 to keep up?

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Blizzard really need to put out content after the last raid, we have all this nice gear but no way to actually use it.