How far ahead do you think Blizzard actually is, and is it enough?

[Lamb Mine]

The echo throughout WoD is the complaint about the lack of content, and I see a lot of people saying "The sooner WoD is over and we're on to the next expansion, the better," but how is this a solution? Presumably Blizzard was already working on WoD when Mists was released in Sept of 2012. This means their WoW team was working on WoD for what, two years? Not to mention the strict content drought of SoO in which they were working on the expansion for 14 months straight without working on any filler content like in the past.

So, what perplexes me is this: If they had 2 years and still couldn't complete the warlords expansion on time, how are they ever going to catch up? There was a post by some blue that said most of the stuff they work on doesn't hit a PTR for at least six+ months, which seems to indicate that they are only working ahead by six months during an expansion, but likely in conjunction with working on the next expansion as well?

I mean, Blizzard delivering timely content has never, ever happened. If there's one thing they've been remarkably consistent with, it's slow content releases. But now they're in quite a hole with WoD because so much was unable to be completed--so much so that a ton of stuff presumably got cut from the expansion.

It just seems like they are constantly playing catchup and constantly having to slash content to meet production deadlines. How far ahead are they working, and is it enough? How do they dig themselves out of this content hole?

Edit: Additional thought: Another interesting question would be: why are smaller studios able to dwarf Blizzards content output? Shouldn't Blizzard's resources give them a stranglehold over content production rates?

[smokii]

cataclysm seemingly set them back a long long way

they seem to have caught up with themselves and are likely an expansion + 1 patch ahead. but yet still in creative negotiations surrounding other future content.

hard to say tbh. only blizz really know, we've never had a good grasp of how far ahead they are, we can only really tell when they're a bit behind.

[Nayami]

I'd like to think that the lack of content and the tons of copy pasted recoloured mounts are just because the developers are working so hard on the next expansion. But, I thought the same for WoD since SoO tier lasted for over a year. I guess we will see in the next expansion, I'm sure this will be the last chance given to WoW by a lot of players, let's hope they don't mess it up.

[CPTGOTH]

Id like to think bliz is ahead by about an expack. But I am in general a low maintenence player happy with how things are now

[Lamb Mine]

Id like to think bliz is ahead by about an expack. But I am in general a low maintenence player happy with how things are now

Hmm... if they were this far ahead wouldn't we see stuff on the PTR sooner?

[Deleted]

I think they have Blizzard Store things ready for the next 10 years...

[Lamb Mine]

Two tings:
I think they trying to solve this by hiring ore Developers which happened two times during WoD development. While at the moment they only used this as an excuse for delayed content "we had extra work of getting the new development team members on the same page" maybe it will bear fruit in the future.


#2 One interesting bit of information I caught from the "Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Reveal" Interview with Lead Systems Designer back in September 2014 is that they had already been working on the next Expansion after WoD, and that they pruned Abilities with the future new Spells in mind so they can tie in seamlessly.
Blizzard has always been working on future projects ahead of time, as today'S reveal of the first Warcraft Screeenshots dating from 1999 shows, they seem to have a clearer vision now for what is next after what is next ^^

See, that's what puzzles me... if the bolded portion is the case, that means they were working on WoD for well over 2 years. If that's the case, that makes the lack of content in WoD even worse. What were they spending all that time on?

[Deleted]

Two tings:
I think they trying to solve this by hiring ore Developers which happened two times during WoD development. While at the moment they only used this as an excuse for delayed content "we had extra work of getting the new development team members on the same page" maybe it will bear fruit in the future.


#2 One interesting bit of information I caught from the "Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Reveal" Interview with Lead Systems Designer back in September 2014 is that they had already been working on the next Expansion after WoD, and that they pruned Abilities with the future new Spells in mind so they can tie in seamlessly.
Blizzard has always been working on future projects ahead of time, as today'S reveal of the first Warcraft Screeenshots dating from 1999 shows, they seem to have a clearer vision now for what is next after what is next ^^

True, I think WoD was a complicated situation that was really hard for them to do anything about it....

Just strange u know.

[eskilfm]

As they have stated in several interviews, they start working on new expansions even before the current one is released. They also said that when WoD released, they were so much further into development of the next xpac than they´ve ever been before.
I take that as a good sign, and I think it will go a lot faster going forward now since all the new devs are "up to par" with the others.

Hopefully the next expansion will be a lot more complete, so they don´t have to cut out tons of content because of deadlines.
But you never really know with blizz..

[Lamb Mine]

As they have stated in several interviews, they start working on new expansions even before the current one is released. They also said that when WoD released, they were so much further into development of the next xpac than they´ve ever been before.
I take that as a good sign, and I think it will go a lot faster going forward now since all the new devs are "up to par" with the others.

Hopefully the next expansion will be a lot more complete, so they don´t have to cut out tons of content because of deadlines.
But you never really know with blizz..

But that doesn't make any sense... were they so busy working on the expansion after WoD that they didn't finish WoD? I'm just trying to figure out why they aren't able to pump out quality content at a reasonable pace like studious 10x smaller than they are.

[Berethos08]

As they have stated in several interviews, they start working on new expansions even before the current one is released. They also said that when WoD released, they were so much further into development of the next xpac than they´ve ever been before.
I take that as a good sign, and I think it will go a lot faster going forward now since all the new devs are "up to par" with the others.

Hopefully the next expansion will be a lot more complete, so they don´t have to cut out tons of content because of deadlines.
But you never really know with blizz..

I will believe it when I see it.

The last few years have seen multiple instances of content being cut in the few months leading up to a release across at least two of their titles (WoW and Diablo, especially the latter at its initial launch), so I have no reason to believe the next expansion will be any more complete.

Unless they can prove it.

Blizzard also seems keen on playing it safe these days along with an apparent development process that doesn't lend well to quick or sudden changes, so I'd expect at least a couple features intended for the next expansion to either be cut or significantly trimmed down, either because they "couldn't design/balance it the way they wanted for the game - a la Path of Titans - or because they decided it would take too much time to do as originally shown and they want to start work on the next expansion as soon as possible.

That might even be a real part of the issue - they are so keen to get the next expansion out that the current expansion doesn't get the time it deserves.

[Gimlix]

I'd like to think that the lack of content and the tons of copy pasted recoloured mounts are just because the developers are working so hard on the next expansion. But, I thought the same for WoD since SoO tier lasted for over a year. I guess we will see in the next expansion, I'm sure this will be the last chance given to WoW by a lot of players, let's hope they don't mess it up.

They said that since cata and people still gave it a chance.

[eskilfm]

But that doesn't make any sense... were they so busy working on the expansion after WoD that they didn't finish WoD? I'm just trying to figure out why they aren't able to pump out quality content at a reasonable pace like studious 10x smaller than they are.

Blizz will be blizz.. We just have to wait and see what excuse they come up with this time around.

[quras]

Just recently we heard blizzard was 6 month to 1 year ahead in content. That should be enough.

Thats so far ahead when I hear them say they do not know. I don't really believe them.

[Acelius]

Although I despise Blizzards work when it comes to WoD, I still hope all their resources went into the next xpack and it becomes amazing.

[huth]

Hmm... if they were this far ahead wouldn't we see stuff on the PTR sooner?

Not really. Lots of stuff would still be in flux, and much of the long-term work is design, concepts and art. The actual programming goes fairly quick in comparison.

[xStevooo]

Although I despise Blizzards work when it comes to WoD, I still hope all their resources went into the next xpack and it becomes amazing.

Seriously doubt that because if you had any standards at all (Blizzard im referring to) you wouldn't have been releasing (or not releasing in this case) utter shit content. Not only is Blizzard a lightyear behind other companies which are putting out content MUCH more efficiently, but the quality of that content dwarf's Blizzard. Really, there is no comparison right now. WOD is an absolute mess and they seem content with that, which says everything really.

They have dropped there standards so much, it shows clearly. I wouldn't even think about the future or working ahead if I was them, i'd take a little look at the present.

[quras]

Although I despise Blizzards work when it comes to WoD, I still hope all their resources went into the next xpack and it becomes amazing.

My hindrance on believing that is we said the same thing at the end of MoP. 14 months of nothing to wow and look at the disappointments WoD brought. A plethora of wrong turns in design and development while gamers said, "maybe they are putting in all their time to the next expansion."

I have no reason to think they will do better in the next expansion, that may or may not be nothing more than some sketches and darts on an idea board or worse, Ideas they are going to present at blizzcon and hype the shit out of them. Then sell pre-order off those ideas, to then 3 months later tell you, most of those ideas and scraped and how gamers will just have to suck it up because thats the way blizzard rolls.

[Acelius]

My hindrance on believing that is we said the same thing at the end of MoP. 14 months of nothing to wow and look at the disappointments WoD brought. A plethora of wrong turns in design and development while gamers said, "maybe they are putting in all their time to the next expansion."

I have no reason to think they will do better in the next expansion, that may or may not be nothing more than some sketches and darts on an idea board or worse, Ideas they are going to present at blizzcon and hype the shit out of them. Then sell pre-order off those ideas, to then 3 months later tell you, most of those ideas and scraped and how gamers will just have to suck it up because thats the way blizzard rolls.

My hopes aren't high at all. And I for sure won't pre-order an expansion ever again.

[l33t]

Edit: Additional thought: Another interesting question would be: why are smaller studios able to dwarf Blizzards content output? Shouldn't Blizzard's resources give them a stranglehold over content production rates?

We can only guess. Although it is safe to assure Blizzard are not giving enough money into WoW's development anymore, since, well, since Cata I guess? MoP was fine expansion, full of content though, but both Cata and WoD are obvious filler contents with lots of content cut away.