Death Knight Tier 17, Character Animations, Blue Posts, Connected Realms, Faction Hub

[Grimskull22]

why T_T /10

[Bahska]

wow, what nonsense from Bashiok

My thoughts as well.

I honestly wish they would just push the expansion back to do everything that they planned and mentioned in their Blizzcon panel. Looks like corporate is not going to let that happen.

I actually agree with him on this one. People will QQ that they dont get faction hubs they expected for a little while people will QQ a lot harder and longer if the game comes out in June/July instead of this year. Plus the loss of subs is probably already high do to the lack of content. SoO will likely have been out for 13 months before WoD which is already a stretch. Imagine 20 months of SoO or longer....

[roahn the warlock]

I actually agree with him on this one. People will QQ that they dont get faction hubs they expected for a little while people will QQ a lot harder and longer if the game comes out in June/July instead of this year. Plus the loss of subs is probably already high do to the lack of content. SoO will likely have been out for 13 months before WoD which is already a stretch. Imagine 20 months of SoO or longer....

Yeah but their reasoning is bullshit. Throwing down NPCs and portals doesnt look good?

Here have a generic town where we've thrown down NPCs and portals

[Nythiz]

Normally I'm siding with the devs when it comes to these things.
And I fully understand Bashiok's point on these issues.

HOWEVER, faction hubs are a CORE part of the game. A place where the average WoW player spends a large % of his playtime.
It HAS to be FINISHED. Not some half assed *generic town #3* shit, because that would really ruin the immersion of many players.

You can avoid a lot of outposts if they look ugly, but the main capital hub is something you'll always have to return to.
I hope when WoD comes out this is in tiptop shape, as Blizzard is renown for doing, because anything less just seems like a total sellout for fast cash (EA / Activision style).
And that "We're on a deadline"-BS is utter crap as well, there is no official release date yet, they can easily postpone it. Blizzard used to be known for "it's done when it's done".

[stgeorge78]

So that nonsense about it being for lore reasons only was... NONSENSE?

[arcaneshot]

And that "We're on a deadline"-BS is utter crap as well, there is no official release date yet, they can easily postpone it. Blizzard used to be known for "it's done when it's done".

You realize they gave a release of no further than December 20?

I don't like how they're scrapping things just to get it out on time.

Hate to break it to you, but this has happened for every Blizzard release, no matter how much they try to avoid it. Some of the better known ones:

Starcraft 1: two unpolished Terran campaign missions (one of which fixes a plot hole in the Protoss campaign)
Starcraft 2: Protoss and Zerg campaigns
WoW the original: Aszhara and Silithus were blatantly unfinished on release, and Aszhara never got finished
WotLK: Azjol Nerub zone and raid completely scrapped

[Korialstrazs]

You realize they gave a release of no further than December 20?



Hate to break it to you, but this has happened for every Blizzard release, no matter how much they try to avoid it. Some of the better known ones:

Starcraft 1: two unpolished Terran campaign missions (one of which fixes a plot hole in the Protoss campaign)
Starcraft 2: Protoss and Zerg campaigns
WoW the original: Aszhara and Silithus were blatantly unfinished on release, and Aszhara never got finished
WotLK: Azjol Nerub zone and raid completely scrapped

Cata: Underwater raid with Azshara as raidboss was scrapped (She has the worst luck).

[Treno]

One thing I would point out is that the selection of tweets on the front page does not include the original tweet by Bashiok, which could (and it seems was) interpreted as rather inflammatory towards players. I don't think the discussion should have gone down as it did, but given the volatile nature of discussing Ashran publicly, a tweet like that wasn't likely to garner constructive discussion in the first place..

[WillFeral]

Look, we're trying to make an exceptional game that everyone will enjoy, and part of that is actually releasing something. - Bashiok

aka The stockholders are pressuring us to get this xpac out there and get our profit margin up even if it means releasing half assed content (see Cataclysm).

[Deleted]

It was a tweet from Lore about a month ago. He said that no work was ever put in to making Bladespire and Karabor functional cities.

I said link where they said that they've NEVER intended to have them (black temple etc) as the capitals. They didn't say that. Because at Blizzcon they announced that as their plan.

[Bahska]

Look, we're trying to make an exceptional game that everyone will enjoy, and part of that is actually releasing something. - Bashiok

aka The stockholders are pressuring us to get this xpac out there and get our profit margin up even if it means releasing half assed content (see Cataclysm).

Players are also pressuring them 13 months of lack of new content means canceled subscriptions. 20 months could mean RIP. Every game ever released has had features snubbed or postponed. You can never make a perfect game if you try your game will never be released.

[Super Kami Dende]

I think I might end up moving to the WoWhead forums soon.
Mmo-Champ has become full of self-entitled fuckwits and has become by far the most toxic forum community for WoW on the Internet.
Hell, even the 4chan vg/WoWg is nowhere as bad as most of the retards that come to Mmochamp to whine and complain about the most menial things.
People need to grow the fuck up and realise WoW isn't made specifically for them and also need to take a step back, take a good look at their life and realise that if you are becoming THIS angry about changes within a game still in development you are either 12 years old or a fucking loser.

[Blur4stuff]

it's childish how some folks are acting about these faction cities

it's not nearly that big of a deal

[Sensa]

Stupid, stupid, fucking stupid. The whining about these damn faction cities in WoD is getting downright ridiculous. All the devs should just tweet "NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT KARABOR/BLADESPIRE WILL BE ANSWERED BY ANY BLIZZARD DEV." (Perhaps an exaggeration, I know) Think critically for a second. These two iconic locations, huge parts of Warcraft lore, left open for use in future expansions, where we might actually be able to do some really cool shit there. Raids, dungeons, scenarios, possibly world events! Instead of a place where people go afk before their raid starts, or spam trade looking for 2s carries and YOLO RBGs, or troll with anal [random achievement/ability] idiocy. If these fucking pinheads can look past their own damn noses and get over their childish "but you PROMISED!!!" attitudes, maybe they will see that there is a chance for something greater to be added to the game.

You know you're a fanboy when…

There isn't one example in game where they have gone back to something they abandoned and then used it in a future expansion. There were walled off portals / raids in Vanilla they never implemented…the underwater raid in Cata was never developed…etc etc…

the closet examples of what you are talking about are rehashes like Naxx (which required all new assets etc meaning if they did miraculously use these assets again they would be different assets) and Archeology (Path of Titans reduced to the worst, most boring "profession" in the game and that's coming from a guy who had max fishing on 3 toons at the end of Cata).

but, the reality is that each expansion takes them basically in a new direction and what was previously left on the chopping block never sees the light of day again.

[MaximusPM]

I don't understand all this rant about the faction hubs. It doesn't really matter, does it? For what I've gathered, we are gonna spend most of our time in our own garrisons most likely.

I do understand Bladespire is an awesome place, it really looks stunning, but I don't think Durotan would feel comfortable hosting a shit ton of people using the most ridiculous looking transmogs for 2 years, turning their comfy home into a hell of a mess (see what the alliance and horde did for the pandaren shrines). Even though it would be great to walk around the halls of Karabor with that dejavu feeling, I think that all the alliance shit they would have to add to the place would take its unique feeling away. So why not have those Ashran hubs? Most people are gonna spend their times around the island anyway.

If you REALLY want Bladespire or Karabor as your home base, I'm pretty sure there will be an Inn Keeper at each location and some sort of lvl 100 quick transportation beetween these locations and the hub and the garrison.

[CasCrow]

I made an MM hunter and I like the sniper training. its a new style. actually it reminds me of pre-cata hunters.

[Toiran]

I think I might end up moving to the WoWhead forums soon.
Mmo-Champ has become full of self-entitled fuckwits and has become by far the most toxic forum community for WoW on the Internet.
Hell, even the 4chan vg/WoWg is nowhere as bad as most of the retards that come to Mmochamp to whine and complain about the most menial things.
People need to grow the fuck up and realise WoW isn't made specifically for them and also need to take a step back, take a good look at their life and realise that if you are becoming THIS angry about changes within a game still in development you are either 12 years old or a fucking loser.

Ok, bye.

Enjoy paying that sub for no content for over a year. Hell why not make it two years of no content? Might as well, you idiots still pay for it.

[Muneraven]

Look, we're trying to make an exceptional game that everyone will enjoy, and part of that is actually releasing something. - Bashiok

aka The stockholders are pressuring us to get this xpac out there and get our profit margin up even if it means releasing half assed content (see Cataclysm).

The real question is why can't Blizzard seem to manage things so that they are releasing decent and finished xpacs in a reasonable amount of time? My wife works in software and so I know it is complicated and that herding geeks is a tough job because the very things that make them great at their jobs often also make them very hard to manage. But clearly Blizzard has some real problems at the management level and above because their dysfunction is simply obvious to anyone who isn't just an apologist for the company.

When Average Joe and Jane can see that a company is busted, somebody really needs to do something. Ideally you want to prune a company with pruning shears, but sometimes you have to haul out the chainsaw and lop off the diseased parts to save the whole tree, you know?

- - - Updated - - -

My guess here is that the Garrisons ended up taking a lot more art time than they originally anticipated. Perhaps original concepts were designed, even in-game, and scrapped. This seems very possible, given the fact that we were originally going to be able to pick where our Garrison would be. It's definitely possible that they had gone fairly far down that road artistically before they decided that option didn't make sense for the game (or maybe THAT would take too much art time). It's unfortunate, but I don't think we're being snowballed on this specific issue.

That being said, we have plenty of reason to be frustrated. The lack of content is driving us all a bit batty.

I haven't gotten to spend as much time with the alpha/beta as I'd like, but I do like what I've seen so far. That much is reassuring to me.

Dear gods . . .are you playing the beta? Because if the garrisons actually took up a lot of art time then something is terribly, terribly wrong. They are extremely bland and uninspiring.

I suspect that too much time was spent on some relatively minor features that are quite nice but . . .still minor. In other words: Bad project management. This is a common problem in any kind of tech development when people who have been with the company awhile are promoted into management when they are not at all gifted at that kind of work. Being a great programmer, or a great artist, or being great at any other detail-work that goes into game-making does not mean you are going to be good at managing a team of human beings and making big decisions about where the team's effort should be directed.

Managing a big project takes certain skills that a lot of people do not have. Promoting people who are good at sweating the small stuff into management because they have worked at a place for eight years is a bad way to run a company.

[Theronus]

You realize they gave a release of no further than December 20?



Hate to break it to you, but this has happened for every Blizzard release, no matter how much they try to avoid it. Some of the better known ones:

Starcraft 1: two unpolished Terran campaign missions (one of which fixes a plot hole in the Protoss campaign)
Starcraft 2: Protoss and Zerg campaigns
WoW the original: Aszhara and Silithus were blatantly unfinished on release, and Aszhara never got finished
WotLK: Azjol Nerub zone and raid completely scrapped

Diablo 3: PvP got scrapped and another difficulty was made to fill the gap. Not to mention the launch day fiasco with error 37.
Cataclysm: Abyssal Maw Dungeon, originally planned to be released alongside Firelands, got scrapped.

[ben-]

I think they moved the capital cities for one reason, To increase participation in the PvP area Ashran. They could of just added a portal there like Dalaran had (to the pvp zone) but w/e.

p.s. wheres starcraft 2 part 3 ! its been way over a year now (and almost 4(years) since part 1 came out!)