World of Warcraft Sixth Expansion Already in Development!!

[Deleted]

They where already developing WotLK before TBC was released..

and mop in a way, was going to be pandas instead of draenai in the early days

[Imnick]

Expansions aren't patches in that we have to pay for the first and not the second (excluding the sub fee of course), and I think it's a reasonable concern that an accelerated release rate would bring diminishing returns in regards to quality. Hell, WoD while looking quite decent does seem a little feature light to me. But I don't think the OP has anything to worry about; it's Blizzard we are talking about who probably celebrate Xmas late every year.

You know people right now are complaining, despite the fact that we have no release date, that we are going to be in SoO too long right?
This is a situation they can't win.

[Deleted]

Mike makes it fairly clear in the article that this is unlike previous expansions, where they'd strictly work on one at the time.

Writing the lore and planning future expansions has always been something done way in advance, but actually CREATING it (coding, art, design, etc.) is a first. He specifically says that this is because they are now pouring more resources into WoW than ever, in order to make an ageing game stay relevant.

Makes me very excited.

[ParanoiD84]

Yes and they probaly worked on Warlords when mist was announced.

[Imnick]

Yes and they probaly worked on Warlords when mist was announced.

We've never done that in the past. We've been doing one expansion at a time, sort of a very linear content creation model, and we've looked at ways that we can parallelize that.

I'm always amused but also exasperated when people don't even bother to read the first post of a topic before replying, let alone the rest of it.
Keys me in on who I can safely ignore in the future I suppose.

[ParanoiD84]

Yeah missed that.

[Deleted]

It's very rare to find a fanbase that is pleased with anything, there's always someone who complains about something.

even now I am complaining about someone complaining. grumble grumble

Because any time there's more than 1 person in a group there'll be more than 1 opinion.

[Deleted]

If this is true then people need to stop claiming that the reason we're getting less content with WoD is because they're spending more time balancing and tweaking the game, we all know full well they're not.

[Skippy88]

I wouldn't get too excited over that announcement. They have one or two things going on but it's not fully in development with all the different teams working on it. Once they are done with WOD then they can go full throttle on #6 which I personally hope is "Rise Of The Murlocs". What? Murlocs are so cute when they gurgle.

[Obelisk Kai]

I'd argue that the sweet spot for an expansion is about eighteen-20 months after first release, averaging three tiers of content with a life of six-seven months each.

Once you cross a certain threshold, the content feels old and is no longer entertaining. SoO will cross this threshold in early March. I'm hoping WoD beta will be well underway at this point.

[Deleted]

I'd argue that the sweet spot for an expansion is about eighteen-20 months after first release, averaging three tiers of content with a life of six-seven months each.

Once you cross a certain threshold, the content feels old and is no longer entertaining. SoO will cross this threshold in early March. I'm hoping WoD beta will be well underway at this point.

That's way too long, as history shows.

I'd say 4 months for larger raid patches and 2 months for small filler patches. SoO is still relevant and quite a bit of fun, but we'll soon approach a point where it's just a treadmill and not very exciting. In the past it took people longer to complete new raids, but with features like LFR, this is done much faster nowadays.

[Kelimbror]

Are you seriously complaining that they are going to release content too fast? There's no pleasing this fanbase :P

When they could include that content in a subscription cost instead of monetizing it on a rapid pace expansion cycle, yes, I would be complaining about it.

[Durandro]

They've done this for a while now. Basically they have a smaller team laying groundwork for the next expansion in advance, concept art, story ideas, etc. The 'meat' of the expansion isn't worked on until some time later when they bring in devs to start making quests, landscapes, character models and the like.

And many features seem to come 'on the fly' without any real prior planning, mostly due to player demand and feedback. They did the Farm in MoP to test out the groundwork and tech for Garrisons, which likely will lead to Guild Fortresses one day in the future.

Anyway, nothing new really! I'm just glad more is being planned, I'd be rather sad if they finished planning expansions because it means the game it coming to an end!

[ShadowFlame1]

Hopefully it will speed up the content.

[Concequence]

Are you seriously complaining that they are going to release content too fast? There's no pleasing this fanbase :P

Yes... Ive been complaining for a while. No one seems to hear me over the voices of the rabid ADHD masses.

[Deleted]

so that's why we're getting next to no new content

awesome...

[Concequence]

What I want is the time to play this game, enjoy it. Complete content. And maybe go for a hike or take a Saturday not do try to keep up with the cracked out insane pace of this game. 5 farms daily, Flex, 4x 3 hour raid nights, and I'm still behind. Not to mention all the content I've been trying to find time to complete from prior patches, expansions, etc.

You people get bored at the drop of a hat. None of you complete anything. Its like "I think Ill go for a hike" turns the door knob, "what was I doing, oh yea I need a sandwich." You cannot focus on anything, and so none of us can. The game is designed to please people who move onto something new faster than they can even say "Something New" ... It's really destroying any enjoyment. Some of us like to take our time and really enjoy things.

[Ronduwil]

I think it's meant to excite us, but I can't help but feel afraid this comes at a cost of content for Warlords of Draenor.

After all, they did say creating new content for Mists of Pandaria would only slow down progress on Warlords of Draenor. So wouldn't work on expansion 6 slow down progress on expansion 5 as well? I mean, with their logic it should.

They didn't say they were generating content for expansion 6 yet. They only said that they were "working on" it. It doesn't make sense to have their idea men twiddling their thumbs for the next year while waiting for the developers to realize their ideas for WoD. I'm sure that the developers are still focused on WoD, but the guys who have already completed the bulk of their contributions to WoD can proceed to the expansion beyond it.

[Deleted]

Good. Maybe we can get back to Azshara sooner than later.

Nah, I predict more a Legion x-pack. Like they said WoD will lead up directly to the next one and the Legion feels more obvious to me.

[Vulcanasm]

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/...in-development
I REALLY hope this not turning in the Everquest II model with every year one new Xpack that got little to no content after Warlords of Draenor

I'm of the opposite opinion. I'd rather have annual expansions with little new content. I find that preferable to another 8 months in a shit raid like ToT.