Blizzard's way of releasing content it obsolete and outdated

[Deleted]

Let's see this for a second. You have a raid patch every 4-6 months for 3-4 patches then a 10-14 months waiting period for the next expansion. This is horrible in my view. Sure, it might have worked when people had what to do because they couldn't one-shot the raid content in LFR(don't start on "but there's heroic too", many people don't care about heroic), but nowadays it simply does not work anymore.

Now, what would be a good proposal to make everyone happy?
Release the expansion content in parts. Like a Telltale game, episode one, two etc. But here you do it with zones. Let me explain.

Every 4-6 months a new patch would come with a new zone. Each zone would be tied to an expansion so to say.

So, let's say we just entered the Siege of Orgrimmar patch.
1. The next patch would come about 5 months later with the opening mini-area in Tanaan Jungle and the entire Shadowmoon Valley and Frostfire Ridge and the Ashran PvP area and two dungeon.
2. Another 5 months pass, you get Talador and Gorgorond and and two raids and a two dungeon and a battleground.
3. Another 5 months pass (we're now in december this year), you get Nagrand and Spires of Arak and another raid and a dungeon and the garrison feature
4. Another 5 months pass, you get ogre-landia zone, Farahlon, half of the character models and another raid and a dungeon.
5. Another 5 months pass, you get Tanaan zone, 2 raids and a dungeon and the last half of the character models.
Expansion end. Please note that I gave everything here as examples, Blizzard could offer more or less in patches.

"But what about expansion cost? In the end, a part of the revenues of Blizzard comes from the box cost, so why would they do this?"
Well, here comes the cool part. You can buy all the patches as one, or in parts. So, let's say the first patch of WoD has launched today. I could buy it on it's own for 12$ or buy the full expansion for 50$. If I buy it for 12$, when the next patch appears in 5 months, I'll need to buy it too for another 12$. However, if I bought the full package for 50$, I would get it for free. So, this benefits people who don't want to pay a full 50$ at once but can afford 12$ each 5 months, but also benefits Blizzard, as the people paying 12$ would end up paying for 5 patches, so 60$ in the end, more than the people who bought the full expansion set at once.

"But what about leveling?"
Yes, this might be an issue, but here's how to fix it. When you either buy first patch or the entire expansion, the level cap is raised to 5 levels higher. So, if you bought the first patch alone or the entire expansion and first patch launched, you can now level up to level 95. This would be the final cap to Warlords of Draenor, so when the next patch comes, the level cap is still 95 and will be as such until the first patch of next expansion. The experience needed to level would not be as high as today, so you could reach about level 93 from first patch just by questing and doing the dungeon once or twice. From then on you can do dailies or do the dungeons more or do archeology or level professons if you want to reach 95 from first patch or wait for second patch and do it then while you do PvP or stuff.
This way people who hate leveling would be almost to the cap from finishing first zone, while people who love it would be able to ignore the level cap as they'd be close to it anyway, and the content in future patches would be challenging to them too.

"What about PvP? I wouldn't want to meet someone full decked in best PvP gear at level 93 while they are 95 because I didn't buy a patch!"
As I said, you can level to 95 just by buying first patch. You can still level in battlegrounds and stuff.

"Could I buy the first patch then the 3rd patch then the first patch of the next expansion, skipping those I dislike?"
No. Just like you need to buy Wrath of the Lich King to get Cataclysm, so you would need to buy patches 1 and 2 to get number 3. Or you can buy them all at once and not have to worry about that.

Now, how would you benefit from this?
-faster content (this time for real, not just talks like you get now)
-no more 10-14 months break of content
-you get stuff to do now and stuff to look forward to in the future.

How does Blizzard benefit from this?
-they get more time to work on stuff that's not done yet (with the model I presented, all the content you'll get in November now would actually go all the way to 5 months after, so they would get more time to do stuff and make everyone happy).
-they get more money, for people don't unsubscribe during content droughts, for there's always something to do.
-they would get more money also from people who buy the patches one at a time, as many will.

So, what do you think, would you like if something similar to this was real?

[Deleted]

So, what do you think, would you like if something similar to this was real?

No.
Also, I think it's easier to convince people that they have to pay for an expansion every two years on top of their monthly subscription.
If they had to pay $12 every few months as you suggest most would start questioning why they have to pay extra for tiny content patches.

[Rosstafa]

Don't think this is practical for an MMO, at least not WoW. I prefer the current way they do things, they just need to stop with the content droughts and it will be fine.

[Dundebuns]

GW2 released a small amount of new content every 2 weeks at its peak. People complained they didn't have enough time to consume it before the next stuff came out. I think what blizz do, apart from the terribly long waits before the new expansion, is fine.

[Deleted]

Yeah no. Expansion one time cost and sub fee works well enough for now.

[rda]

OP, the main obstacle is that it is hard to do development this way. The benefits are obvious, it's just difficult.

[jbombard]

No.
Also, I think it's easier to convince people that they have to pay for an expansion every two years on top of their monthly subscription.
If they had to pay $12 every few months as you suggest most would start questioning why they have to pay extra for tiny content patches.

People have been paying $15 a month for absolutely not a damn thing in return for how long now? Not that I agree with the OPs idea, but I think the people still playing the game at this point are mostly addicts and will fork over what ever you ask them for just to get a fix.

[CheeseSandwich]

TBH, I honestly think they are restructuring themselves and the game to be able to pump out smaller expacs more frequently. 1 or 2 raid tiers so, 8-12 months, 4-6 months then the next expac (1 year to 18 months before next expac).

I know it an easily pointed to cliche to laugh at blizz and faster expacs, but it's just a feeling in my waters that WoD is prepping us, with good and bad features/ideas, for a faster cycle.

[hotbull911]

its a game. They are not obligated to roll out content. It's a business decison. They take too long people unsub. What's the big deal?

[CheeseSandwich]

its a game. They are not obligated to roll out content. It's a business decison. They take too long people unsub. What's the big deal?

The subscription puts Blizz in a very unique position in the market. They should be doing everything they can to retain and grow subs, which includes the regular roll out of new content.

Blizz shouldn't want people to unsub, or feel comfortable in taking a sub loss hit in the down time between new content just because they still have x million other subs left.

[Mathayus]

You say Blizzard's way of releasing content is obsolete and outdated, but provide no real evidence of whether what you are suggesting has ever worked.

I am anti-Blizzard as they come (see any of my other posts), but you conveniently skip over ONE salient point in your argument in order to validate your 'opinion'....one shotting LFR content does not mean you have completed the game.

So according to you, for the first 5 months all I would get is 1 and a half zone and 2 dungeons?? for very close to half a year? are you serious?

What you are suggesting will bring WoW to it's knees. Whilst the current rate of content is great, there is only one real content drought and that is towards the end of the expansion cycle, and the subs invariable take a hit. What you are suggesting will introduce numerous mini-content drought throughout the year causing more people to unsub due to the higher frequency of having to wait for content.

As many people above said, and to Blizz's credit (and hate giving them credit) they have acknowledge that they messed up with the how quickly the released the earlier raid tier, causing SoO to run for so long. The ToT patch could easily have done on another 3-4 months (maybe).

Having said all that....I'm still underwhelmed by WoD, another Orc expansion is just not appealing. One of the raids (can't remember the name), looks like a continuation of wings 3 and 4 from SoO. Garrisons look shit. No capital cities. No races/classes.

[MoanaLisa]

The subscription puts Blizz in a very unique position in the market. They should be doing everything they can to retain and grow subs, which includes the regular roll out of new content.

Trion rolled out regular content at a great pace the first 18 months of Rift. Little good it did them. It's not the panacea that everyone thinks.

[Kujako]

Well if they were to use a "modern" release method we would get charged $1.99 for each quest.

[Deleted]

Don't think this is practical for an MMO, at least not WoW. I prefer the current way they do things, they just need to stop with the content droughts and it will be fine.

The game has been around for 10 years, and in that 10 years there has always been content drought... why do u think that will change?

[deadman1]

so you want me to play one zone for 5 months?

[Rosstafa]

The game has been around for 10 years, and in that 10 years there has always been content drought... why do u think that will change?

Because they hired 80 new people? They have to learn at some point, and the drops in subs are sending a message to them. The fact they hired so many people says they're trying to do something about it.

[CheeseSandwich]

Trion rolled out regular content at a great pace the first 18 months of Rift. Little good it did them. It's not the panacea that everyone thinks.

While I acknowledge it may not be the solution, surely it's better than nothing and letting people just unsub and wait for the next shiney?

Although, I'm yet to actually run a billion dollar company, so there is a high possibility I am wrong. Check back here in 5 years, where I'll still not be running a billion dollar company, but my grammar will of improved>

[Faroth]

I think they need to figure out whatever Square Enix is doing and emulate it.

Content patch every 4 months or so seems to be going along well and 2.4 will be introducing a new class. Their storylines culminate in a big event to wrap up and then kick off the expansion. To be fair, though, we haven't seen their expansion yet. Their 2.X patch before expansion could be longer as well, who knows. I think the fact that 1.0 was a resounding failure has pushed the team to stay on the ball and up their game. They still, despite ARR's success, have the "something to prove" drive.

Then again, WoW's playerbase would have aneurisms with FFXIV's content revisiting dungeons for hard modes and having multiple versions of raids released in patches with new difficulty levels, so I suppose the expectations wouldn't allow for that approach either.

[DarkstarG]

I disagree as well. What needs to change is the pace that content is rolled out, as said previously some content could have lasted a bit longer and prevented the time between SoO and the new expansion. It is a really difficult decision to gauge when to release something and because things are always changing.....even though it might have seemed like the best time, it might still be the wrong time. What can you do? I can always find something fun to do, plus this is a social game and I find that my guild mates always give me a reason to stay.

[Deleted]

Because they hired 80 new people? They have to learn at some point, and the drops in subs are sending a message to them. The fact they hired so many people says they're trying to do something about it.

They sacked a load of people during Cata, and they gained 20 or 30 devs (going from memory) when Titan was shelved last year. So i guess the amount of staff they do or dont have doesnt effect the content.

Every year they have announced that they are going to push out content more frequently, in fact im sure u can find statements from the main guys from TBC to now. I remember them making a very clear promise during Cata that theere would never again be any content droughts. Do u really trust them this time?