Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

[Fahrad Wagner]

That feeling when you clock in for work at 9am, work 4 hours and it's only 10:30.

Time is a tricky thing. It flies when you need it the most, and it lingers when need it to pass.

[Vakir]

A combination of variety, and experiences outside world content beyond endgame zones is my guess.

That combined with not needing to worry about accepting the quest or having room for it, tracking is instantaneous, and they're spread out in a way that feels authentically like something is happening and not that it's a rotation of the same quests with 1-2 differences between days (ignoring problems like Aw, Nuts! popping over and over early on).

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

The answer to that question is "yes."

It's like people who look for movie spoilers - it's not that anyone wants something ruined, it's usually a lack of patience because waiting when you're an enthusiast is difficult.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

Both. I'm the embodiment of contradiction.

[randomnamegenerator16]

That's misleading, though, because you're not looking at "people who played Vanilla", you're looking at "people who played Vanilla, and loved it SO MUCH that they went back to an illegal private server, jumped through all the hoops to get on there, and played it", which is a totally different selection of people. They're people who are willing to make much more of an effort, likely to be far more interested in communication, and so on.

It was the same when I played vanilla and then TBC back when they were current. I am throwing Nostalrius here only to show that this wasn't because of rose-tinted glasses and more communication was a thing back then (but game simply demanded it).

[RippedLife]

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

Real video Leak just to see them be mad at blizzard HQ

[Nathanyel]

To look for someone was a big part of the social life back then. It was a good filter on how to wash out the dumb cunts in general. Friends would stick back then.

This may be shocking, but not everyone had the exact same experience as you.

[TriHard]

Seeing as blood elf at this point are likely getting Nightborne and nelves get void elves, that proves that subraces are so drastic enough that humans might get Vrykul. Also, we know Blizzard often have to make sure to balance stuff, how would alliance players honestly feel if horde got the two races we helped the most in Legion and they didn't get shit? Would basically mean that the alliance wasted their entire time in the broken isles only to have the factions they helped, turn on them.

Sure, they might get the lightforged draenei but they honestly play next to no part in the story on Argus, they're just there while the entire focus is on Alleria, Turalyon, Illidan and Velen.

Leads me to believe that there's a big chance of Vrykul happening for humans, also considering the fact that they got animations for monk in Legion even though there's just a single Vrykul Monk in the entire expansion.

[Deleted]

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

A bit of both. We want a leak that will spark our imagination and hype and lead to fun discussions. But we want the small details to reamin hidden till BlizzCon.

Case in point. The latest expansion for FFXIV had the title (Stormblood) and the the new jobs (Samurai and Red Mage) leaked in advance. And we had pretty fun discussions about them. Plust the not so pleasant tank vs dps debate for samurai. Yet they managed to hide half of the expansion for two months after the reveal.

[Nyel]

I hope you're right.

If only to see the wall of "But we datamined High Elves!" on this very forum.

Pretty convinced that we'll see Jaina and Kul Tiras. I am very sceptic about anything "South Seas" / sub race related though.

[EbaumsTipster]

Seeing as blood elf at this point are likely getting Nightborne and nelves get void elves, that proves that subraces are so drastic enough that humans might get Vrykul.

I would agree, but all subraces mentioned so far share existing models and skeletons. Vrykul have their own and would most likely be treated as a new race.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Pretty convinced that we'll see Jaina and Kul Tiras. I am very sceptic about anything "South Seas" / sub race related though.

Jaina / Kul'Tiras are the only things I'm sure we'll see. Other than that, I try to lower my expectations not to be disappointed. I struggle though, because there is so much I hope for haha!

[xskarma]

Errr, I went to the Virtual Ticket video player to have another look at the video with the Lordaeron logo in it (and the other one I hadn;t watched yet) and...it's gone? I only seem to have the other video in there now, not the video with the logo.

Not saying they got rid of the evidence, but...suspicious turn of events.

[Vakir]

It was the same when I played vanilla and then TBC back when they were current. I am throwing Nostalrius here only to show that this wasn't because of rose-tinted glasses and more communication was a thing back then (but game simply demanded it).

And? It was the same for me as well. But the game itself is still changed in a way that's not going to give you the same experience even with newer systems that accommodate more difficulty. Cataclysm's release was proof of that. Most people just folded, communication was simply more toxic because players had already stopped adapting to it in the same way due to Wrath's difficulty curve.

The point is that Nostalrius is going to have people carrying out those behaviors...because they WANT to have them. And sometimes, just like with emergent gameplay overtaking "planned" gameplay, people are more likely to behave a certain way when it falls outside of the intentions of developers. Actually sanctioned (i.e. official Blizzard) legacy servers would probably fall apart as soon as people started to regularly clear Naxx if not before.

It's sort of like...Melee. (Bear with me here, it has a point) Nintendo releases what was intended to be a fun party game and a bunch of idiots turn it into a hypercompetitive no-fun game due to glitches and unintended controller delays. Nintendo releases Brawl, does not court that demographic despite shoving in a wishlist of features because of tripping and whatnot. Then they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to release 3DS/WiiU version with Gamecube controller support and Battlefield/Final Destination versions of all stages etc. etc. JUST so maybe, just maybe, they can get those people playing their new game.

...aaaaand people are still just playing Melee with their deliberately broken controllers and utilizing glitches that were not intended using the same 4 fucking characters on the same 4 stages.

The moral is that progression is sometimes regression when people have absurdly fixed interests, no matter how much companies try to do otherwise. But that doesn't mean that people will suddenly be REALLY interested in that game if it were to have a freaking HD remake with the same controls instead of just another completely new SSB. Only the people who are already devotees will give a shit. The same goes for nostalgic servers.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Do you guys really want a leak, or do you secretly just want to get surprised with whatever cinematic they'll show at Blizzcon?

I hope for a leak so I can get my inevitable "What!? They're doing X!? WoW is a dead game for sure now!" out of the way before Blizzcon.

[bryroo]

Pretty convinced that we'll see Jaina and Kul Tiras. I am very sceptic about anything "South Seas" / sub race related though.

After the art staff showcased all the light forged Draenei stuff and the character files in the latest build I feel confident well get subraces

[Eurhetemec]

That's certainly arguable... but think about the fact that this game has been around for -over- a decade.

People who started playing this when they were 14 and devoted entire weekends to the game are now grown adults with a spouse and 2.5 kids. (On average. They don't have 2 kids and a bloody stump that's half the size of a normal kid). People who started in their 20s are in their 30s. Kids who were 6 when this game launched are driving cars.

Lives change. In the past decade I've moved from Florida to Georgia, spent a month in Thailand, flew to Colorado, moved to Wisconsin, moved to Arizona, and moved back to Wisconsin. I've gone through some serious changes and I'm -definitely- not the same person I was 10 years ago. If I could have kids I'd probably never play WoW' cause I'd have a kid to take care of when I'm not working rather than playing half a dozen 110s.

The "Best tank on the server" when my mother was raiding in Wrath of the Lich King quit the game when his second child was born and the guild she'd been playing with since Vanilla fragmented when he did. Some people quit, others went to different servers, and some just bailed to other guilds. My brother stopped playing halfway through Cata because the court battle over his son got heavy, my sister stopped playing after Mists of Pandaria 'cause her husband bogarts all her free time that isn't devoted to her daughters (Though she keeps her account and logs in once in a while to play around with Mom, isn't she sweet?).

Lives change. People change. And the community changes with it. People blame groupfinder, but it was just a way to try and fix things by Blizzard. By the time it launched people had already been cycling in and out of the game, burning out and coming back 3 months later or never, since before Burning Crusade.

It's the same problem with people who want things to go back to Vanilla: It won't bring those friends back. Not the ones who burnt out and left, nor the ones who died of age or accident. The community you knew is gone, replaced by a new community. And you can either be a part of it or not, but no amount of revamping the game will fix the real problem you've got.

Well said.

And the only way forward is through. I mean, that community will never come back, but future communities can be created, and I think Blizzard know this. What they need to do, is find a way to move away from being locked to servers and so on, and forwards to new ways of building communities. That, I think has to be their focus. The recent updates to the Bnet social tool seem to be a small step in that direction.

I was 20-21 when I got into EverQuest in 1999. I'm 39 now. Even when WoW launched, in 2004, I was only 26 or so. Sure I was a cutting edge raider in Vanilla, in TBC, in WotLK, but Cata was the last time I had a schedule that fit that (working nights, raiding with Americans) and I can't imagine I will again unless the beneficent robots take over and decide we will never have to work again (probably in exchange for involuntarily neutering all of us!) or something. Most people I still know from back then have long-since quit MMOs, or just vist them briefly, occasionally.

One thing I will say, not really relevant to WoW, but a lot them would pay for a fun, easy, atmospheric medieval fantasy MMO that wasn't a full-on theme-park experience, that was more in-between theme-park and sandbox, and that wasn't aimed a l337 dudes and cock-size measuring and so on, but like, being fun and engaging, and that really doesn't exist right now, nor is it on the horizon. I feel like it's quite a gap in the market for a well-off bunch of customers, though. I don't think AAA (or even indie) game design/marketing has yet reached the point where it can reliably target niches like that though.

[Scourge12309]

Errr, I went to the Virtual Ticket video player to have another look at the video with the Lordaeron logo in it (and the other one I hadn;t watched yet) and...it's gone? I only seem to have the other video in there now, not the video with the logo.

Not saying they got rid of the evidence, but...suspicious turn of events.

damn you are right, old links alo not working anymore
https://blizzcon.com/en-us/watch?v=516b9cd-00d3c9bdf55
https://blizzcon.com/en-us/watch?v=516b9cd-00d3c8186f2
https://blizzcon.com/en-us/watch?v=516b9cd-00d3c94e566

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Errr, I went to the Virtual Ticket video player to have another look at the video with the Lordaeron logo in it (and the other one I hadn;t watched yet) and...it's gone? I only seem to have the other video in there now, not the video with the logo.

Not saying they got rid of the evidence, but...suspicious turn of events.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM......

[Fahrad Wagner]

Errr, I went to the Virtual Ticket video player to have another look at the video with the Lordaeron logo in it (and the other one I hadn;t watched yet) and...it's gone? I only seem to have the other video in there now, not the video with the logo.

Not saying they got rid of the evidence, but...suspicious turn of events.

You're right, I can also see one of the videos that were previously available. Hmm...