General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Dawnseven]

Its obvious after so many years that new expansions come out the last 3 months of the year. The problem is that this tier feels like its there forever, loads of ppl taking breaks because they cba farming the same thing for 10months,including myself.

And that is because they released content earlier in this expansion. Second tier came rather fast, it should have been 2 months later compared to some many bosses and 3 different raid zones. So many ppl didn't get to clear them all. The same happened for the second, it could have lasted at least another month. From that alone they could have bought themselves 3 months of time, meaning we would now be in this situation in mid august and have to wait only a few months.

^ This. Let's hope they learn a lesson from it. I'm fine with the 2 year expansion cycle on the whole, but speaking strictly for myself, I missed hitting 5.1 when I should have because I was still leveling alts, and I missed hitting 5.3 with everyone else because I was eyeball deep in 5.2. An extra month or two here or there would had me feeling far less rushed and would have smoothed things out nicely. Even for people that aren't altoholics, killing a few weeks here and there shouldn't have been hard.

I acknowledge that there's some armchair quarterbacking here too. I think, based on comments at Blizzcon, that Blizz thought they could get the expansion out faster too and it didn't turn out that way. I don't think there's any ignorance or malice on their part, but I hope next time they don't push too hard timewise. It's better to have a patch finished and not released yet to buy yourself a little time later, than to gogogogogo and get hit with some unforeseen debacle that leaves people twiddling their thumbs for so long.

[enchanted]

safe to assume that choppers day = no news?

Usually, yes.

[Tryvia]

https://twitter.com/CM_Zarhym/status/466864699141677057

[Tetley]

https://twitter.com/CM_Zarhym/status/466864699141677057

I am sick & tired of these soons...say a date or nothing at all.

[FallMonkey]

https://twitter.com/CM_Zarhym/status/466864699141677057

Wow their first official response to this Alpha mystery!

[Deleted]

I am sick & tired of these soons...say a date or nothing at all.

This! Can't hear it anymore...
It's always soon ...

[Tiberria]

https://twitter.com/CM_Zarhym/status/466864699141677057

So, they aren't ready to start external invites yet, because the first few zones aren't even completed. They are planning to get a new build up "soon", but no soon TM, etc. In the past "soon" has meant several weeks to 1+ month.

I don't think we can argue that delaying this testing may not impact the release cycle/release date any further. The testing is delayed, because the expansion isn't even in an Alpha worthy state yet. The last 3 expansions have taken 6-7 months to release once they reach that state and they are probably weeks not days from reaching the point where the expansion was 6-7 months out in past cycles. Even a reduction to a 5 month cycle would mean late November/early December.

On top of that, the fact they are pushing through the VP upgrades and another minor patch further reinforces that this is going nowhere any time soon. At this point, I think it's safe to say that they are in dire risk of missing even the December 20 date.

[TyrianFC]

So, they aren't ready to start external invites yet, because the first few zones aren't even completed. They are planning to get a new build up "soon", but no soon TM, etc. In the past "soon" has meant several weeks to 1+ month.

I don't think we can argue that delaying this testing may not impact the release cycle/release date any further. The testing is delayed, because the expansion isn't even in an Alpha worthy state yet. The last 3 expansions have taken 6-7 months to release once they reach that state and they are probably weeks not days from reaching the point where the expansion was 6-7 months out in past cycles. Even a reduction to a 5 month cycle would mean late November/early December.

On top of that, the fact they are pushing through the VP upgrades and another minor patch further reinforces that this is going nowhere any time soon. At this point, I think it's safe to say that they are in dire risk of missing even the December 20 date.

Tweet translation = "There is no point releasing the alpha now, when we could instead co-incide the release of it with Wildstar instead, and use the extra time to polish the internal builds until said date'"

[Edoran]

Tweet translation = "There is no point releasing the alpha now, when we could instead co-incide the release of it with Wildstar instead, and use the extra time to polish the internal builds until said date'"

Yep. While I highly doubt this was their original intent, they probably got pushed back so far that it makes sense to just wait a couple weeks and do just this.

[RippedLife]

bullshit, another soon, they can shove it up their arses

[Xjev]

Tweet translation = "There is no point releasing the alpha now, when we could instead co-incide the release of it with Wildstar instead, and use the extra time to polish the internal builds until said date'"

Pushing back beta, where only a few will get in; Risking the release to be pushed back by weeks for no obvious gain. Are you serious? NO way that risk is worth it.

[Lahis]

Only 119 days untill SoO will have beaten ICC in lenght!

WE CAN DO IT!

[Aeluron Lightsong]

bullshit, another soon, they can shove it up their arses

I'm sure they appreciate your response.

[blackblade]

Pushing back beta, where only a few will get in; Risking the release to be pushed back by weeks for no obvious gain. Are you serious? NO way that risk is worth it.

As if opening beta today or tommorrow has a significant impact on release date. I agree that the anticipation is ball-breaking, but given that the game is in "Test Phase" one way or another, they're not going to miss the release window unless they get significant negative feedback about a zone once it does go into beta. (Like Jade Forest)

[Paula Deen]

So, you seem angry that they are putting time into a mount and not working on WoD?

It's people like this that annoy me. You act like any little thing Blizzard does takes away from WoD development time. They have staff that doesn't even touch WoD and probably work on other projects. I'm sure Blizzard knows how to manage their people and make them do what they were hired to do. You act like it's a few people and if one person gets side tracked it's all over.

Sorry it took so long to respond, sleeping then work. I understand they have staff that don't work on WoD, I get that completely. I honestly don't care if they develop mounts for the store what I do care about is them running around saying they can't put out more Warlords Info or do anything related to Warlords but they can shove a new Cash Shop mount on the store, the least they could do, AND I HOPE THEY DO, is wait for the 6.0 PTR to atleast be up before doing ANOTHER store mount. We have had 2 mounts already. They can chill for a bit out of respect for the customers. It is like a slap in the face to say sorry no WoD till September-December but here have this cash shop mount!

[Shampro]

I honestly agree with that. I don't give a fuck if they put mounts in the store, never have. But man, comeon 5.4 isn't even about Warlords. It just seems kinda wrong to me from that point. Again I have never given a crap if they add pets or mounts or w/e the hell, but next expansion themed mounts, while we're here waiting to PLAY that theme, is just a bit annoying.

[enchanted]

I am sick & tired of these soons...say a date or nothing at all.

WoD confirmed for Jan 2015.

[Krazzorx]

That tweet screams "its ready to go but 2 weeks isn't going to make a difference, might as well release at Wildstar."

Blizzard early betas have never been "well polished". Why care now? Generally heavily buggy and lots of crashes.

[RippedLife]

I'm sure they appreciate your response.

im sure they would love a tweet from you going like "im so proud of you guys for being so considerate and not hurrying up, im sure people enjoy the downtime "

[Yarathir]

I'm sure they appreciate your response.

Eh, at least he's being honest about it, I guess.