No content for a Year?

[Nayami]

I'm just gonna grind gold for the next expansion, also hoping for a beta invite to kill some time.

[Deleted]

April 18th - Blizzard told me in a dream I had.

Also the pre-patch can last for a few months and those are always fun and exciting.

[Dimmune]

With the amount of people they have running this game now, beta shouldn't last no longer than 2 months. The game looks almost complete as it is. Seeing them say that their look for something before Spring gives me hope because their usually so hush hush about those things. They feel confident about it, even scrapping 5.5 to make sure they are putting everything into it. I'm optimistic about it. April/May release, maybe even earlier would be awesome!

[Hctaz]

As many other have said already, the beta will most likely be VERY short. They seem to be very far along in the main meat of the expansion. Zones and quests, dungeons, and raids are most likely the most time consuming things to implement. Class changes are most likely not that big. I feel like by the time they're done with the world of Draenor they will have already figured and implemented all the class changes they want to make. There are no new classes and only three new talents to pick between (instead of a completely overhaul and adding 18 talents that all have to fulfill the goal of being a competitive choice) for each already existing class. Also there are no new race starting zones or NPCs to throw in the preexisting zones that are important. They literally have to do nothing aside from change the warchief in Azeroth and can focus entirely on Draenor.
Testing will most likely consist of working out the glitches in what I already established as the "main meat" of this expansion and then working on class/talent balance to make sure everything is working in a fun and fair way.

[dope_danny]

i think hearthstone open beta and release -and by that point heroes beta are intended to be some form of tide over for players.

[Deleted]

D3 AH shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014 which most likely is also the release date of the D3 Addon. So I don't see them releasing WoD within only a couple of weeks.

Late June/early July is what I'm expecting.

[Xavator]

No content? Fine, just grind gold, mats and level alts.

[Raelys]

Expecting beta to start first of the year when the devs are back from vacation, followed by a shorter beta process. No new race to test their zone, no new class to have to balance, no new talent system to have to overhaul. Just testing class mechanic changes/balance and the new world shouldn't take the 6 months that we saw in previous expansions. Especially considering the team is much larger this time around with people pulled from Titan.

Couldn't agree more.

[The Worverine]

Sign ups for The Burning Crusade Beta started late September 2006 (Expansion released January 16, 2007) - (roughly) 118 days
Sign ups for the Wrath of the Lich King Beta started July 3rd, 2008 (Expansion released November 13, 2008) - 133 days
Cataclysm beta started June 30, 2010 (Expansion released December 7, 2010) - 160 days
Mists of Pandaria Beta started March 20, 2012 (Expansion released September 25, 2012) -189 days



Considering they're pretty far along I'd say Beta could be around the corner, so if we assume the beta for the next expansion started could start by December 14th 2013 and lasts an average amount of days, you'd be looking at release by May 13th, 2014

All those Xpacs had more content that WoD does not have, New classes that had to be balanced and new races/starting zones ect, we do not know how long the beta for this will last, but with this xpac having far less then mop and cata, I feel like it can get a release date of Early Feb to late march.

[Deleted]

if that mean faster release of WoD, fuck yeah I don't mind.
It won't be very long since no annual pass this time.

[Nobleshield]

I would imagine they are going to shoot for a release around when the two upcoming "WoW Killers", ESO and Wildstar, come out. They'd be pretty foolish not to plan something around that as there would be a good chance people will leave and become enamored with one or both of those and then decide to skip WoD. They might not intentionally shoot for that, but they have to be keeping it in mind.

[Deleted]

I'm gone.

I love the game when there ar emeaningful things to do but there will be no new content for at least 6 months and all there is to do now is raid the same raid over and over in different formats or pet battle.

Wod looks amazing and I can't wait to play it. However soon (tm) means I will have to wait to play it. Steam can have my sub money instead.

[Hoddie]

Every year they promise to release content quicker than ever before. Every year this turns out to be crap. Every year just enough people are taken in by it and keep their sub active in the hope that new content arrives sooner, just enough to make it worth Blizzard's while to keep promising it. I doubt even Blizzard expects the expansion to be out before next autumn at the earliest.

[Deleted]

What makes you doubt they can't get it out somewhere between April-June?

Beta testing, previous experience. I don't think it's going to be quite a year but I'm guessing September again. I very much doubt they will release it in the summer.

[Deleted]

Every year they promise to release content quicker than ever before. Every year this turns out to be crap. Every year just enough people are taken in by it and keep their sub active in the hope that new content arrives sooner, just enough to make it worth Blizzard's while to keep promising it. I doubt even Blizzard expects the expansion to be out before next autumn at the earliest.

To be fair this time around they have released content a lot faster. In this case it'll mean instead of 12 months of the last tier, there will be 6 or 7 months.

It's still waaaaaay too long.

[Discokurt]

They've already stated that the expansion will arrive sooner than we think. Maybe not sooner than we hope, but that's another thing.
They're working their butts off with this xpac it seems, and by the looks of what was presented at Blizzcon + the testing players at the convention got to do, they've already done alot of work on it.

All I'm trying to say is that we can't just assume that there will be a year without content before we get a release date or a beta. The longer it takes for the release date/beta, the more mispleased we can get. Assuming that it's a year till release after it's just been presented just seems kinda silly.

To the people who think it'll be too long even though we don't know when it's released. Wait patiently, maybe play something else for a bit.
And to the people who say that subs will drop if the wait is too long, you're probably right. But the subs will come back again at the launch, count on that.

[Hoddie]

To be fair this time around they have released content a lot faster. In this case it'll mean instead of 12 months of the last tier, there will be 6 or 7 months.

It's still waaaaaay too long.

I'm not sure they have released content any quicker to be honest. I suppose it depends on your definition. More regular - but smaller - patches does mean you're seeing content quicker, but we still wait the same amount of time to see the same volume of content as we always did.

[Sprinky]

The only way to teach Blizzard that a long wait is unacceptable is to unsub and wait till the expansion releases. Ill continue logging on for raids for as long as it takes for me to get bored of SoO, then if its still going to be a long wait for the expansion Ill unsub for a bit and come back when it releases. Our tears arent going to make this expansion come any faster but maybe if there is a significant fall in subs they will try harder to make sure it doesnt happen for the next expansion.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure they have released content any quicker to be honest. I suppose it depends on your definition. More regular - but smaller - patches does mean you're seeing content quicker, but we still wait the same amount of time to see the same volume of content as we always did.

I suppose it does depend on the definition. If by "they have released content faster" you mean "they have released content faster" then yes, they have released content faster. if by "release content faster" you meant "larger patches and more content overal" then no, they haven't.

I'll stick to the plain meaning of words though if it's all the same and yes, they released content faster. Allowing random and new version of simple words I'm not in favour of, talking to people becomes like nailing fog to a wall and fuck that shit.

[Hoddie]

I suppose it does depend on the definition. If by "they have released content faster" you mean "they have released content faster" then yes, they have released content faster. if by "release content faster" you meant "larger patches and more content overal" then no, they haven't.

I'll stick to the plain meaning of words though if it's all the same and yes, they released content faster. Allowing random and new version of simple words I'm not in favour of, talking to people becomes like nailing fog to a wall and fuck that shit.

lol that actually made me laugh out loud, thanks... but my point is valid I think. They release content faster which is good, but it's the same amount of content. The statement "we're hoping to release content much faster" leads people to believe, every year, that we'll see more content more quickly, not just the same amount of content released in smaller amounts, thus meeting the dictionary definition or their statement without intending to meet everyone's expectations or faster content and more of it.