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  1. #1

    Is a 2year development time per expansion holding Blizzard back?

    Let me just start by saying that is absolutely incredible what Blizzard can do in only 2 years of development time.
    Battle for Azeroth has 2430 quests.
    Detailed continents, tmogs, dungeons, raids, cutscenes...and somehow they find time to put smart references and hidden tricks.
    Its absolutely incredible.

    But, do you think a 2 year development is holding Blizzard back?

    Let me give you some perspective:
    Every new expansion Blizzard has to do the STANDARD first. Entire continents, quests, tmogs, dungeons, raids etc
    Then, with little time they have, they create *new* stuff like Island Expeditions, Warfronts, Warmode, mob AI.

    From an interview:
    "We can do anything we want, it's just a matter of how long it takes," he said. "The compounding factor is how difficult that is in terms of time. Everything's a trade-off. We want to do this new feature, or refactor this old system, but is there a way we can find to get both out of this by doing something more efficient or making different choices? Really, it's a big collaboration between engineering, art and design to figure out what's the right thing for our players"
    "There are things that are harder to do in our system, and things that are easier. The technical difficulty gauge weighs in on the design choice as well. If something is going to take five years to develop and we don't want to wait five years for players to get something in their hands, we may make a different decision.
    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-limitation
    Last edited by Roanda; 2019-06-19 at 12:07 PM.

  2. #2
    wow, so many quests? I just started playing and I had no idea there were so many quests

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by try2ki55 View Post
    wow, so many quests? I just started playing and I had no idea there were so many quests
    I checked here

    https://www.wowhead.com/battle-for-azeroth-quests#0+11

    I hope its correct information

  4. #4
    Big problem is, players keep claiming they want Blizzard to take the time they need and do it right instead of fast and at the same time a big bounch of those people bitch any time a patch takes long to come out, already seen alot of post pointing out that by this time in legion the patch was already out, it took x week in Legion and already taken x week in BfA.

    So sure alot of players would probably claim that they are totaly fine with giving Blizzard more then 2 years for a expansion and at the same time they would go crazy and want to burn Blizzard down if it took more then 2 years.

  5. #5
    world quests don't count try again .

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Brewhan View Post
    world quests don't count try again .
    It adds to development time, ofcourse.
    Last edited by Roanda; 2019-06-15 at 09:46 AM.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Nymrohd View Post
    To be fair, most world quests exist as normal quests as well.
    Ah ok, i wasnt understanding his point of view. Thanks for pointing it out.

  8. #8
    Actually they spend around 4-5 years working on each expac. We currently are playing BFA, they already know what the next expac is and have been working on it since Legion launched, when BFA launched they started development on the expac that will come after the expac that comes after BFA. They talked about it in an interview once. They said that at any given time there's 3 expacs in development. 1 that's in the brainstorm phase where they are discussing what it will be storywise and so forth, 1 that is due next and is in active development and the current expac that is live on retail.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowfyre27 View Post
    Actually they spend around 4-5 years working on each expac. We currently are playing BFA, they already know what the next expac is and have been working on it since Legion launched, when BFA launched they started development on the expac that will come after the expac that comes after BFA. They talked about it in an interview once. They said that at any given time there's 3 expacs in development. 1 that's in the brainstorm phase where they are discussing what it will be storywise and so forth, 1 that is due next and is in active development and the current expac that is live on retail.
    Have a source on that information?

    From the same interview i quoted they say is 2 years:

    "From the technical end, we usually start preparing for an expansion over two years in advance," Dawson said. "So right now we'd be starting to work on whatever the next thing is as we usher this one out the gate. We do that because it's a lot of work to support the live operation of a game like World of Warcraft. You have designers and artists who have been putting all this content in for two years, and they get one day where it goes on display for the entire world to see. From an operations standpoint and an engineering standpoint, we do everything in our power to support that moment."
    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-limitation

  10. #10
    Pandaren Monk Redroniksre's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Togabito View Post
    Have a source on that information?

    From the same interview i quoted they say is 2 years:



    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-limitation
    He is right and he is not at the same time. Planning and basic stuff begins early. No teams will really be shifted around until after the expansion launches, then you will have some go to patches and others start with the basic stuff for the next expansion. So probably more like 3 years dev time, 4 max.

  11. #11
    maybe blizzard should go the route of adding more smaller content patches. Develope it, test it release it, don't collect stuff and release it as a free "dlc". Keep expansions for adding level increases, massive game altering changes and new continents. But like now, in 8.2 We are getting 2 new zones. Instead of finishing both zones and release them at the same time. They could have finished one zone, then released it and start working on the next zone. So in this case, Mechagon should have come out first to put some distance between BoD and eternal palace. This would give players a more steady stream of content to do rather then play for 1 month. Take a break for next content patch.

    Keep expansions for large new content and gameplay altering changes

  12. #12
    I suppose what makes arguing over dev times for expansion as a whole is that WoW is developed sort of according to the conveyor belt method.
    There are no large teams working on an entire expansion for 2 year srtetches, there are a bunch of different teams working on different aspects of the game in such a way that by the time they are done with their part, they can send it off and start working on the next part of their job.

    Take Zuldazar as a levelling zone, for instance.
    You have 1 team working on the rough world model, modelling the mountains, giving the correct color ambience and water effects and so on. Then you have a team that works on models, and makes sure that the trees are added, the grass effects are added, and so on.
    Then you have a team of quest designers that create a bunch of quests and quest NPCs/Markers.
    After that you have a bunch of people fine-tuning the NPC models, maybe making new crocodiles if the old model is outdated and you kill a bunch of crocodiles.
    Finally you have music and ambience, and of course voice lines.

    Once all this is done you have a zone.
    But the important thing ot remember is that by the time the team dedicated to quest design was knocking out the quests needed for Zanchul or whatever, the enviroment designers were already fast at work figuring out how Nazjatar would work.


    Not so much a complaint about it taking longer or anything, but i think it is important that people have the same understanding of how WoW game design works.

  13. #13
    Herald of the Titans Alex86el's Avatar
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    They are a billion dollar company. Of course it is not holding them back.
    The question is, how many people will they hire, or just short contract, or swap around.

  14. #14
    Making the game for shareholders and not gamers is holding Blizzard back.

  15. #15
    Herald of the Titans
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    Quote Originally Posted by glowpipe View Post
    maybe blizzard should go the route of adding more smaller content patches. Develope it, test it release it, don't collect stuff and release it as a free "dlc". Keep expansions for adding level increases, massive game altering changes and new continents. But like now, in 8.2 We are getting 2 new zones. Instead of finishing both zones and release them at the same time. They could have finished one zone, then released it and start working on the next zone. So in this case, Mechagon should have come out first to put some distance between BoD and eternal palace. This would give players a more steady stream of content to do rather then play for 1 month. Take a break for next content patch.

    Keep expansions for large new content and gameplay altering changes
    They should have done a per patch cycle leveling up system for this expac based in how they release their content and try to iterize things.

    They should've gone with 1-3 or4 level during 8.0 5-7 levels on Siege of Zuldazar, 6-8 on Rise of Azshara and the rest would be on the last patche release.

    No wasted exp to gold reward amd character progression doesn't get abruptly interrupted. It works well on how they implement catch up mechanism on every new patch release cycle.

    Here' a more detailed explanation:

    Normal dungeons level 110 to 113
    Mythic dungeons level 112 to 115

    Uldir raid block level 115 to 116
    Siege of Zuldazar level 116 to 117
    Eternal Palace 117 to 118
    Next raid will be 120.

    They should release level cap by increments in conjuction to a new release of upcoming patch content.
    The story is still progressing and the characters are still amassing exp..
    Last edited by vertigo12; 2019-06-15 at 12:10 PM.

  16. #16
    I wouldn’t mind if they moved away from box expansions or the release of content they’ve always done. Just release things when ever. One patch could just be a new class, another Ogres and vrykul, third is a new raid, a new outdoor zone. They also wouldn’t have to build up a specific story and theme to last 2 years, instead just spend time on “the next four months is Wrathion’s Journey”

  17. #17
    Honestly, there are no rules saying they have to do these expansions as you say. It's their own choice.

    If they had longer to work on expansions, the live game would go on content drought that much longer. Are you sure that is a good idea?

    What they put on that expansion though, is up to them. No one said they need to make a new continent every time. They could scale all areas of the game, or revamp existing continents. What they need to do though is focus on end game. AKA not the debacle knows as Cataclysm again.
    Last edited by Swnem; 2019-06-15 at 12:17 PM.

  18. #18
    Stood in the Fire BB8's Avatar
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    I think if the window was longer and they could give us more improvements like 8.2 (8.5 / 8.6 ?), 3 years would be fine for me.
    On the other hand, something new like another continent or a rework of the old zones would also be nice. Lets say half of the old Kalimdor zones for level 120-130.

    They can never satisfy everybody, so the best is that they stick to what they have in mind.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Togabito View Post
    Let me just start by saying that is absolutely incredible what Blizzard can do in only 2 years of development time.
    Battle for Azeroth has 2430 quests while Vanilla only had 300.
    Detailed continents, tmogs, dungeons, raids, cutscenes...and somehow they find time to put smart references and hidden tricks.
    Its absolutely incredible.

    But, do you think a 2 year development is holding Blizzard back?

    Let me give you some perspective:
    Every new expansion Blizzard has to do the STANDARD first. Entire continents, quests, tmogs, dungeons, raids etc
    Then, with little time they have, they create *new* stuff like Island Expeditions, Warfronts, Warmode, mob AI.

    From an interview:


    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-limitation
    they do not only develop expacs in 2 years, they use a pipeline format, Super Simplified example: Team 1 is working on Cataclysm, Team 2 is working on Mop, Team 3 is jumping between the 2. 2 years go by of Wotlk being out, Cataclysm launches, Team 1 starts working on WoD, team 2 continues on MoP, Team 3 continue bouncing between the 2 where they are needed.

    also Vanilla has more than 300 quests ontop of that the comparison is irrelevant, the quest system was overhauled witch spawned a huge increase in quests.

    TL;DR: You are big poopy head, much dumb dumb, and yes it is still impressive how much content they are able to produce, that the content is pointless, uninteresting, and bad is a different discussion, the amount is still impressive, not just quests, but continents, lore, characters, pets, mounts, items, raids, while keeping it all relatively balanced is an impressive feat.

  20. #20
    Also want to point out that the quest number is massively inflated not just due to world quests being the same leveling quests reused, you also have hundreds of quests that are simply:

    Go to X and talk to Y, quest complete.
    Go to X and interact with Y, quest complete.

    These can happen very often in amongst normal quest chains, what should really be a single quest gets broken up into like 4 separate quests of talk to X and go to Y, the battle for undercity chain or the stormwind mission, introduction to zandalar or the zandalar zones, the majority of the war campaign etc all follow this.
    Last edited by Yes but actually no; 2019-06-15 at 12:31 PM.

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