Dev Interview - Hellfire Citadel is the Final Planned Raid of Warlords of Draenor

[Deleted]

Sad is an understament.

[vinmmo]

Meh, 6.1 contained some balancing and a few features. I'd have preferred to see something comparable to Tanaan come out or if they'd introduced Mythics, etc. at that time, but it likely wasn't ready. People seem upset and shocked that they're saying HFC is supposed to be the final raid, as if we didn't have over a year to come to grips with this. What did people expect, that Tom Chilton was just kidding a year ago when he said they wanted to cut it to two raids and two, maybe three major revisions?

The upside of this is they'll hopefully limit the downtime until next xpac. I'd be content with an Expansion Announcement at PAX Prime or Blizzcon followed by a brief closed beta and a release in Q1 or Q2 of next year. Just depends on where they are with development and iteration, I suppose.

[DrMcNinja]

Had a few orgasms listening to this

[Aerisot]

Well they just had to release patches and raids instead of nothing...

in Wrath they never released a proper Nerubian raid, they never released the troll raid. They forgot about the Neptulon raid in Cata.

There is so much content in every expansion that they could have released. Guess selling an expansion box is just their main goal.

They didn't forget about Neptulon, they cut him out, cataclysm was suppose to be about both Deathwing AND Azshara, his entire sigment made no sense in the first place after they took Azshara out, FFs he gets captured twice! At the entrence after a huge event he gets captured and there is nothing you can do, you go after him and he is...fine? then gets captured again at the end of that instance.

They are saving him for when they do the Azshara expansion, which is probably the next one.

[Nibu]

Worst part for me is, while listening to the interview, Cory Stockton mentions they're just monitoring how patch 6.2 is gonna play out, before the decide if they need to make another content patch or not.

This either means they're working on the expansion or they have no fucking clue what they're doing and no major plan, which is truly troubling.

[Lihborg]

Hold the phone, what did 6.1 add? I swear no one uses twitter integration anyways?!? We essentially had a launch (6.0,6.0.2,6.0.3) where we had Highmaul and garrisons and garrison campaigns and BRF was ready at launch too, but added just before 6.1 was released. In 6.1 we had an awful addition of garrison traders that to this day people don't understand how they work. Aside from that they added a selfie cam and twitter integration. Am i missing anything, I don't think so.

6.2 we got Tanaan which was supposed to drop at launch, and while its a nice change of pace compared to how bleak WoD has been so far I wouldn't call it amazing compared to other mid expansion patches. 4.3 was by comparison much better and it just improved one zone instead of adding a whole new one. Yes its nice with more reps, more rares and faster gearing for alts, timewalking was fun too, but why make it for 3 days? I know many people play more during the weekend, but dropping a whole new patch and then adding timewalking that same weekend was a poor choice as loads of people most likely missed out. If this is the end of the expansion a lot of people will simply unsub. We've been delivered a poor expansion even by MoP standards and making it so short, with only 8 dungeons (NO scenarios), 3 raids, dreadful artwork on gear (i mean come on compared to the T1-3 and so many of the tbc wotlk sets the stuff they gave us is pure garbage), not to mention the lore going to hell. Whats up with Grom being accepted as a chill dude after he committed genocide for half the expansion?

And then he talks about some of the positives of garrisons... I called it in beta no one is gonna enjoy garrisons in the long run its just a enlarged version of the mop garden and people only did that for rewards. Look at Ashran, we complained and complained and complained and complained, but we still got the same zergstorm that was so visable in beta and aside from the odd casual enjoying a 100man laggfest most agreed it wasnt fun pvp - not even gonna mention the 2hour queues. PvP has gone down the pooper too, I knew so many people including myself that spent time in pvp since tbc-->mop but WoD was just the worst for arenas and RBGs. No new arenas or even a bloody BG has left PvP looking like my great aunt mary after two pina coladas - drunk and reliving the glory days.

What can we expect? Well probably Farahlon with a small hub that introduces more reskins of boars, wolves and maybe a talbuk if we're lucky, and ofcourse a brand new sexy $20 store mount with a unique skin and awesome animations. Yah micro transactions are nice and they're needed, but it should be fluff to an already polished game not fluff to a game that was throughout its entirety of the expansion has lacked basic understanding of what players want.

If you've read this much then thanks, i know it sounds like a lot of hating, and it is. Im sick and tired, ive played since vanilla, lost comrades in tbc, more in wotlk, a lot in cata, the bulk in mop and i'm nearly the last man standing in WoD. At the rate its gone i'll probs unsub the day i kill Archi on mythic, which won't be so far off considering we're allready halfway through heroic. At least with my massive gold stash i'll be able to spend gold on tokens instead of real money.

Signing off, a sad and disgruntled player, who will most likely unsub

[Deleted]

This is really really bad:

"Some expansions had four big patches, some had three, Warlords had two big patches with Patch 6.1 and 6.2. As the team gets closer to hitting the goal of a small gap between expansions there will be less large patches in each expansion.
The team isn't happy with players having to wait a year for new content."

So.. we need smaller gaps between expansions? Do we? That's a terrible idea and we are all victims of the cash grab models. This means, they can charge for more expansion and have to do less patching. It's just using the DLC model (which I and many find disgusting) and wrapping it up in a package that fools you into thinking you have epic content for a long time. Be careful Blizzard, the big games with DLC do not command a monthly fee.

I, and many fans of the once great video game World of Warcraft (RIP) are happy to pay the monthly fee as the quality of the expansions and patches used to be very high. Neither of which are true now.

Now the last point I highlighted:

"The team isn't happy with players having to wait a year for new content."

Wait.. WHAT? Do we have direct quotes on that? That is very disturbing. That means, they milk on monthly, spend all their money developing the movie and the F2P cash store models and they are not happy we have to wait a year for more shoddy content?

Blizzard FFS:

The model is: we pay you a fortune every month and you make a great game. That is all there is to it. That is currently and since a long time, no longer the case.

We pay to:

- not hear your pathetic excuses and you being super defensive all the time, mostly about directions you have taken the game in that clearly is not what the general public want
- not hear about why you think adhering to social media has ANYTHING to do with an MMORPG game. It's complete and utter bullshit and a waste of your time and our money
- be entertained? It's not happening, why are you not coming out and saying the game is bad and you messed up? Why?
- Not spend all your time on the movie. We would like to see the Wow film, but it's 90 mins of action, we played the game for 300 days /played and more, a movie is nothing but a fun couple of hours
- Feel that our characters (from whenever we all signed up) are maturing and progressing
- that the world is not this one we live in in RL.
- that the world is some place we want to escape to after work/school rather than a button we push on desktop then open a window and have a list of things to do before we go to bed?
- that you are able to entertain us. This has gone. When it comes back, we pay.

[bmjclark]

"Farahlon was a cool idea, but it didn't really fit into the story being told."

I dont even know what to say to this......

You know what else didn't fit into the story? Warlords of draenor...

[Deleted]

No, it's absolutely not fine.

Why should we settle for LESS content for MORE money than what we had 3-4 years ago?

Not only that but people are still levelling alts, or just gearing them again and they have to do it in 6 months time again? Nah, I don't think so. There's a reason expansions should last roughly 2 years - but that does not mean there should be no new content the last 12-14 months of it.

Don't let Blizzard fool you like this.

If I need to pay for an expansion so I don't get 14 months of a raid I am 100% fine with it.

If it means there are no content luls I am fine with it.

I am NOT fine with it if there is a 14 month lul in content.

[dokilar]

hats off to them really. they seem fairly confident they can charge people an expansion box price twice in a normal expansion cycle all the while producing less content. and to be honest i wouldnt doubt that people will still throw money at them. i doubt there will be a year gap between this raid and the next expansion but if anyone cant see the problem with charging more money per expansion, releasing them in shorter time frames and offering less content in them than ever before then i dont think ive seen a more blind community.

im predicting the next expansion will release a month or two before the movie. if they released it two months before the movie that would make this raid tier last roughly 10 months right? thats probably acceptable in blizzards minds.

[Tott1337]

And the vicious circle continues....

People: This expansion / Patch is crappy, IM SO Un-subbing.
WoW: (Let's give them a eye candy Patch / Expansion).
People: OMG IM SO COMING BACK...
WoW: /Grin.

After a while...

People: This expansion / Patch is crappy, IM SO Un-subbing......You see where i'm going.

Yeah, been like that since end of BC...But true fans are true fans, too soon to make a call, let's wait and see....

[Rawrajishxc]

"Long waits aren't something they ever want to do, but the team was working on the new expansion and they weren't going to release it until it is at the right quality level. That isn't an excuse for the long wait, but it is better to wait two more months to have a great expansion rather than releasing it earlier and ending up with many issues."

lmao "great expansion" my ass. What a joke of a company and game, no wonder the game is dying off.

[bmjclark]

Can't wait to see the S**tstorm that's going to erupt on the official forums.


In other news, I wonder what MMOC's main focus will be after WoW dips down further and further in sub count?

It already started. It's funny cause i posted a few weeks back right before my sub ran out about how 6.2 was probably the last patch and everyone said i was wrong over there =s. The denial was pretty strong but it's hard to deny it when it comes out of blizzard's mouth.

[huehuehue]

fully expected at this point - just get us the hell out of this rose-tinted plot hole ridden failure.

[Monteverdi]

Such bullshit. When will they learn their lesson? 6.1 wasn't a big content patch, it was hardly able to called a content patch at all. This expansion had such potential, and it looks like it might be squandered due simply to lack of content.

I know one thing - as much as I'm enjoying Tanaan, Mythic 5-mans, and HFC, I can only see myself playing this patch for 3, maybe 4 months, before I start wanting new content. I'm not going to pay 15 bucks a month to hang out in my garrison waiting for something to do.

WoW is a great game. It could stay relevant for years to come. But content is the lifeblood of any MMO, and Blizz is failing spectacularly in that all-important category.

[Honeyprime]

"Farahlon was a cool idea, but it didn't really fit into the story being told."

I don't even know what to say to this......

I don't either. I'm.......wow.

So they are not happy with the mage tower's power when it comes to completing missions. Sounds like a nerf incoming.
Yeah, I agree the garrisons idea was fresh and new. But in the end let's blame the players how it all turned out.
I'm glad the team is happy with garrisons, to bad a lot of your player base isn't. (how out of touch can they be?)

I'm glad they said some of the things they said and it gives me a little faith back. But it still sounds like they are trying to go towards a raid or die mentality and that will totally leave me out. If they do that going forward it will be without me.

Meh, I'm still salty about something they said in their blog about putting flying back in. They devs had decided on no more flying but then THEY (the devs) started thinking about never being able to use certain mounts again and changed their minds. That's cool, but the only thing I could think of was "Players have been trying to tell you numbskulls this FOREVER NOW". So....out.....of.....touch.

I'm kind of surprised on how jaded I've become. meh

[Austilias]

Farahlon was a cool idea, but it didn't really fit into the story being told.

Wait...there was a story?

[Zaydin]

I don't think Blizzard realizes the s@%t storm they just started here.

[MatadorMedia]

LMAO This whole interview was trying to save face. Nice try, anyway. If they want to release a new expansion every year then they need to stop charging for expansions alltogether; just charge the monthly rate and be done with it, they're just content patches at this point.

[Deleted]

i guess adding a single item is a big patch
wait..guess patches from previous expansions were galaxy-sized patchs