Do you want yearly expansions?

[Echo of Soul]

I think this might be the cause of us getting less content less often :P

[unbound]

I don't really need yearly expansions, though it would be nice and all.
What I don't want is the 1 year content drought period we're currently seeing.
It happens every time, and it's just bad planning.

WoD could easily lasted until April 2016 if they had spaced out the content patches slightly more.

Er, how do you space out a single content patch? 6.1 was not a content patch.

[Thrif]

Deinitely a nope. One year expac would mean it'd be quite stressful for me to level all my toons while farming all the xmog and doing all the pet battles etc. Would also stress one out over getting the expac-specific rewards, such as Archimonde mount, Warlord title, CM weapons, etc...

As of right now I'm very done with WoD however, so it could definitely use a bit more content.

[clevin]

I want 18 month expansions following this schedule:

• Release: X.0 expansion. Has 1 raid tier plus all the typical stuff (zones, etc).
  
• Release + 4 months: X.1 patch. New 5 mans, quest zones/chains (for example Lion's Landing/Dom Offensive was a new chain but not really a new area so much)
• Release + 8 months: X.2 patch. New raid tier, quest zones/chains.
• Release + 12 months: X.3 patch. New 5 mans, Final raid tier, perhaps some new outdoor content tied to the raid tier showing world changes that result from the story
• Release + 17 months: Prepatch.
• Release + 18 months: New Expansion.

That gives us a good bit of content over the first 12 months then a nice break for people who want to catch up on achievements, leveling, etc without that being TOO long (5 months from the last tier to the pre-patch.). If it goes a couple months long you're still at 8 months... not 12+

[Pua]

That gives us a good bit of content over the first 12 months then a nice break for people who want to catch up on achievements, leveling, etc without that being TOO long (5 months from the last tier to the pre-patch.). If it goes a couple months long you're still at 8 months... not 12+

What you've said here seems to be the answer as far as most people are concerned.

[Putin-Chan]

That's my only words to say on yearly expansions.

[Boogums]

Yes, if the price is adjust to account for yearly cycles and as long as each expansion offers as much content as an expansion should in that year.

[Berndorf]

Yearly expansions would be watered down garbage that Bliz would still be charging people $40-50 for. They would prob come with 2 raids total and about 4 new dungeons. Plus 2-3 new zones to level in and hardly anything else since there wouldn't be time to fully implement and test it for the yearly cycle.

[Pua]

Yearly expansions would be watered down garbage that Bliz would still be charging people $40-50 for. They would prob come with 2 raids total and about 4 new dungeons. Plus 2-3 new zones to level in and hardly anything else since there wouldn't be time to fully implement and test it for the yearly cycle.

Some believe Warlords was their first attempt at a yearly cycle, and that was why it ended up being so light. Sadly... Well, we all know how it turned out.

[Varitok]

Well seeing as we paid 10 dollars more and got a fraction of the content in WoD, I would vote no for yearly expansions. Its gonna cost you more in the long run anyways.

[Kokolums]

Well if WoW had 10 million subs, they could release xpacs every 2 years and make a lot of money. But when subs drop to 5 million, it makes more sense to release yearly xpacs to keep the revenue stream going. In fact, Blizzard could release a basic xpac at $60, then a collectors edition at $75 with a pet and mount, and then a supreme edition for $90 with the pet, mount, THREE free level 100s, and early access to new features.

[Zantera]

Definitely NO. Spending ~60 euros every year on a new glorified DLC is not something I want, and I'd prefer the expansions to stay at around 2 - 2 ½ years, BUT with content. It really is a joke that WoD might turn out the longest expansion so far, with the least content in it. I mean... 3 raids? In the whole expansion. Jesus.

[Echo of Soul]

It really is a joke that WoD might turn out the longest expansion so far, with the least content in it. I mean... 3 raids? In the whole expansion. Jesus.

And those weren't even 3 different tiers. But worse of all was what the non raiding pve community got, which was pretty much nothing at all. A "mythic" difficulty of the same dungeons we've been running since launch, yay.

[Pua]

And those weren't even 3 different tiers. But worse of all was what the non raiding pve community got, which was pretty much nothing at all. A "mythic" difficulty of the same dungeons we've been running since launch, yay.

And which was scrapped in the very next patch (now, we know, as 7.0) because it was a design quandary that you couldn't get out of.

Mythic dungeons were just another in a long line of cynical "ideas" designed to obfuscate the fact that Warlords of Draenor was extremely light on content. Another difficulty slider isn't new content, something that the blue commentary on the 'fishul site has changed its tune about.

I suppose we now know why.

[Echo of Soul]

Another difficulty slider isn't new content

The sooner Blizzard realizes this the better. We've been running the same raids at multiple difficulties for almost 8 years now with less and less content outside of those multiple difficulties. It's just not satisfying, at least not to me.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Ha! I want Blizz to check in with me ever so often to ask how I'm coming with the current one, and plan accordingly.
Barring that, I'll settle for playing when I have time and there's something fun to do, then do other fun stuff when I need a break for a while.

[Pua]

The sooner Blizzard realizes this the better. We've been running the same raids at multiple difficulties for almost 8 years now with less and less content outside of those multiple difficulties. It's just not satisfying, at least not to me.

Meh, they're aware. They're simply choosing to not do anything about it. I recall back when tier 9 was released and heroic mode raids debuted, I read a blog that predicted the development of ever less content as a result of it. Essentially, by using the difficulty slider, Blizzard had made the conscious decision that a single raid would provide the entire raiding community with its appropriate content, rather than having multiple raids do it.

It was laughed off at the time but, looking at where we are, it ended up being prophetic. It's exactly what happened. Only the most obtuse people will argue that Activision haven't had a hand in all of this, especially given that we know production budgets for World of Warcraft have been going down for several years.

Honestly, I'd love it if one of those working at Irvine got drunk one night, and could be drawn into being honest on Twitter or Facebook.

[Jessicka]

Meh, they're aware. They're simply choosing to not do anything about it. I recall back when tier 9 was released and heroic mode raids debuted, I read a blog that predicted the development of ever less content as a result of it. Essentially, by using the difficulty slider, Blizzard had made the conscious decision that a single raid would provide the entire raiding community with its appropriate content, rather than having multiple raids do it.

It was laughed off at the time but, looking at where we are, it ended up being prophetic. It's exactly what happened. Only the most obtuse people will argue that Activision haven't had a hand in all of this, especially given that we know production budgets for World of Warcraft have been going down for several years.

Honestly, I'd love it if one of those working at Irvine got drunk one night, and could be drawn into being honest on Twitter or Facebook.

It was accepted because it's what had to happen. The alternative is you wait for "Heroic" mode in x.1 and "Mythic" in x.2, meanwhile everyone bitches about how the x.0 raid was too easy until x.1 comes along - which for half the raiding population is too much of a step up. This is what happened in Ulduar and is why things changed.

You have the demographics of 60% of players who can 'do' normal, but, half of those can't do 'Heroic' in x.1 and get fed up. By the time x.2 'Mythic' comes along, 90% of players at that point can't do it. That's what happens in a contracting game population that all start in x.0 on the same day.

[Pua]

It was accepted because it's what had to happen. The alternative is you wait for "Heroic" mode in x.1 and "Mythic" in x.2, meanwhile everyone bitches about how the x.0 raid was too easy until x.1 comes along - which for half the raiding population is too much of a step up. This is what happened in Ulduar and is why things changed.

You have the demographics of 60% of players who can 'do' normal, but, half of those can't do 'Heroic' in x.1 and get fed up. By the time x.2 'Mythic' comes along, 90% of players at that point can't do it. That's what happens in a contracting game population that all start in x.0 on the same day.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm describing tiers seven and eight, and how they provided content for players without the need for a heroic switch. Tier seven is actually one of the best examples of what a raiding tier should look like because it had an introductory raid in either Naxxramas or Sartharion, an intermediary raid in late Naxxramas and Malygos, and a challenging raid in the form of Sartharion with drakes. What's important to note here is that the proportion of players that got the correctly tuned encounter was far more proportional than it is now.

Out of the raiding community, most players are "beginners", a smaller percentage are "intermediate" and the smallest percentage are "excellent". More tier seven bosses than ever since were appropriately tuned because there were more "easy" bosses than there were "a bit harder". In turn, there were more "a bit harder" bosses than there were "challenging". The real magic of tier seven was that players could complete the tier without necessarily being hardcore, and there's a lot to be said for that design.

Ulduar went about it differently via hard modes, but you get the point.

[Deleted]

It was accepted because it's what had to happen. The alternative is you wait for "Heroic" mode in x.1 and "Mythic" in x.2, meanwhile everyone bitches about how the x.0 raid was too easy until x.1 comes along - which for half the raiding population is too much of a step up.

No it doesn't "have to" happen. Players are paying for more than 3 AAA worth to Blizzard every year to play WoW. One of those AAA games could be casual raiding, one progression raiding, and one solo/group content. Blizzard is simply deciding to screw the players and keep the money, without providing the content.