anyone else think blizzard are gonna go all out next xp?

[Resheph]

after a really disappointing bfa it seems to me that to recoup lost subs they will have to go all in like how they did with legion. either way im looking forward to this years blizzcon a lot, the next 3 months gonna go slow lol

Lost subs? The cirtclejerk notwithstanding WOW is doing fine, check the earnings report. I am sure Blizzard can live with 500 people on a known-for-ex-players-whining-all-the-time board like MMO champ being unhappy.
Is it so hard to get through your skull that just because you don't enjoy a game and hang around other people that don't that this does not mean the whole playerbase stopped playing/liking the game. You know what those people are doing? They are just playing instead of going to a forum to whine. And if they stop liking the game, the move the f on and go play a different game.

[Hitei]

Last all out expansion was wotlk. So no

I wouldn't call an expansion where an entire raid tier was copy pasted, going "all out"

[avx81]

BFA is trash. They used design from Legion but stripped us of the artifacts and legendary system. They replaced it with passive and garbage traits. The current dev team is to braindead to fix the issues of BFA in the next expansion. Replace all of them and maybe the game will survive. It cant survive another trash expansion.

Mistweaver monks need a tuning pass. Arcane mages are still trash. Frost mages need a tuning pass. Rogues kit and damage is almost still to good even after the nerf. It took almost the entire expansion to buff resto shamans and I still think it was not enough. Tank balance is completely whack right now. Prot warriors that can pull an entire room on a +17 and barely have their health move while doing more damage than dps. Somehow they don't get touched when they are pretty much the only tanks in the MDI and the only tank people want in high keys. Brewmasters are still busted in raids. Blood DK's were over nerfed and excel in no content now. Even casual guilds are requesting anything but Blood DK's. You can parse legendary on self healing and still require more external healing than someone who plays a prot warrior or paladin like garbage.

Replace the ignorant and incompetent developers that created these horrible class design decisions and maybe the game can go uphill. Otherwise they cant suffer another expansion of shit class design which ruined it for almost all my friends.

[Soikona]

BfA is better than Legion and WoD combined.

But I already know what will happen in 9.0:

Anyone miss BfA?
This expansion sucks I want BfA back!
BfA was actually good, now we are the lowest point in WoW history
This expansion is total mess, BfA at least had good story
[Insert new system] is shit! Neck was good, not that crap we got now!

Or, crazy idea and hear me out before you stop reading this.... those are not the same people? I said Legion was great minus legendaries and guess what? I still say the same!

[LorDC]

It's the last chance they have. If it's shit as well, retail WoW is finished and they'll put all focus on classic.

Seriously? Even if current WoW has as low as 1 mil subs it still has plenty of room for failure until it is "finished".

[Javanface]

So much doom and gloom in this thread and all other threads on the same theme.

Let me tell you what I enjoy.
I raid HC, we're 6/8 at the moment and have been doing curve each raid this xpac but very little mythic because we lack players and probably aren't good enough to do more than a few mythic bosses anyway. Still we're finding a reasonable challenge in the hc raid and I'm enjoying it.
I do M+, currently around 1050 rio score which I guess is a little better than average but roughly in line with our raiding progress.
I enjoy the essence system, in terms of being able to play around with different setups and give my character some capabilities like on demand aoe or single target burst that it didn't previously have.
I enjoy the customization given by the azerite traits. Especially now that a new gear piece is unlocked right away. However I do think they will have to make the essences and traits into something more permanent in the next xpac. Perhaps an extension to the talent system.
I really enjoyed mechagon and nazjatar. Two beautiful zones with alot of different activities in them. Granted there are issues but the effort was there for sure.

my 2c anyway.

[D3athsting]

They better fix class rotations that as of today are dumb and boring especially thanks to gcd change

[Shadochi]

I wouldn't call an expansion where an entire raid tier was copy pasted, going "all out"

And with one of the more controversial (aka hated) raids.

[Kauko]

Vanilla great, BC good, LK great, Cata good, MoP great, Draenor bad, Legion great, BFA ok. So... yea... next expansion probably gonna be great.

Its normal that its like that because it is IMPOSSIBLE to make such a huge game with so much content in 2years. That is why their main team is probably deep in the next expansion development when the current expansion gets in alpha.

People should already accept that development cycle, especially after 15y of WoW... But no, they act like if Blizzard is some lazy, cash grabbing, they don't listen to the community... company. Games take time to develop, especially good games, ESPECIALLY 15years old MMORPGS!

[Dystemper]

Plus, i want class halls back.

They could have used class halls this expansion with the war. Some classes would be working to end it peacefully as both horde and alliance , some classes working both sides for profit like Rogues. There was a lot Blizzard could have done, but it would have required them to be creative.

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will they go all out? it will certainly feel that way, but not because they are scrambling to make up for disappointments.. but because there are 2 different Dev teams. we have the B team working BfA.. same team that gave us WoD and Cata.

the A team will deliver the next expac which will be the same team giving us Wrath, MoP and Legion. so yes, next xpac will seem pretty amazing when we get to hear the details, because thats what the A team has been doing for 12 yrs now, fixing the wrongs that the B team keeps giving us.

I thought that 2 dev team myth was debunked back in WOD

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This game still makes an insane amount of money and this sentiment that it is shutting down is completely delusional.

You dont know how big corporations really work do you? ATVI doesnt care if its still making money...they care if its going to increase the stock price. And in the Corporate world, products that are still profitable are gotten rid off all the time because they are not profitable enough . As the game ages it becomes more cost ineffective to produce , this is why you are seeing such a massive increase in cash shop items. IF ATVI wants Blizzard to solely focus on Brand NEw IPs and producing more Mobile phone games, that arguably make much much more money then WOW with out the overhead then that is what they will do. For the Shareholder

[Xalvia]

BfA is better than Legion and WoD combined.

But I already know what will happen in 9.0:

Anyone miss BfA?
This expansion sucks I want BfA back!
BfA was actually good, now we are the lowest point in WoW history
This expansion is total mess, BfA at least had good story
[Insert new system] is shit! Neck was good, not that crap we got now!

yea dude and Donald trump is an alien trying to destroy the planet

[Devilyaki]

Guess trying to put the war back in Warcraft didn’t work out to well lol. I remember that was their big saying on the blizcon they showed off bfa..

[Vasoka]

Guess trying to put the war back in Warcraft didn’t work out to well lol. I remember that was their big saying on the blizcon they showed off bfa..

Because people want to play cuddlecraft, not warcraft. The moment Sylvanas for once did something relevant with Teldrassil, every meme lord and clown went on a full out rampage "NOT MY WARCHIEF AGHHH".

[Hashtronaut]

Having classic out means they can kind of do some crazy shit with retail. So I imagine they would try to new creative things, they don’t gain much from making retail similar to classic.

Having classic available to people that enjoy that play style makes it so they can take big design risks on retail.

[bmjclark]

The game seems to be in a cycle of good expansion -> total fucking disaster ever since wrath. Honestly, look at most peoples lists of best to worst expansion. You'll normally see Cataclysm, WoD and BfA at the bottom with wrath, mop and legion more towards the top. I swear they make a good expansion, then try to fix the things the players complain about in the following expansion (IE, legendaries, the artifact being frontloaded in legion) and accidentally end up removing all the fun from the game and repeat.

[Javanface]

The game seems to be in a cycle of good expansion -> total fucking disaster ever since wrath. Honestly, look at most peoples lists of best to worst expansion. You'll normally see Cataclysm, WoD and BfA at the bottom with wrath, mop and legion more towards the top. I swear they make a good expansion, then try to fix the things the players complain about in the following expansion (IE, legendaries, the artifact being frontloaded in legion) and accidentally end up removing all the fun from the game and repeat.

I feel like they are already iterating on the next version of an expansion specific system with each xpac.

Mists legendary cloak -> WoD legendary ring
WoD Garrisson/mission table -> Legion Class Halls
Legion Artifact -> BFA Azerite

So what will be the "new" feature from BFA that they rebuild and try and improve on for next xpac. Island Expeditions? Warfronts?

Edit: I suppose you could argue something like this as well
Mists legendary cloak -> WoD legendary ring -> Legion Artifact -> BFA Azerite
WoD Garrisson/mission table -> Legion Class Halls -> BFA mission table + random abilities like faster mount speed after a flight path etc.

[Dystemper]

If the rumors are true about the Factions going away , then I expect Blizzard to implement some type of battle royal system ...you know a couple years to late for that trend

[Osmeric]

Lost subs? The cirtclejerk notwithstanding WOW is doing fine, check the earnings report.

They don't break out WoW revenue anymore in the earnings reports.

It is very clear from WCR and wowprogress stats that engagement has dropped off dramatically from the start of the expansion, as badly or worse than any previous expansion. They said MAU were up from May, but May was very far down from the start of the expansion.

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Seriously? Even if current WoW has as low as 1 mil subs it still has plenty of room for failure until it is "finished".

Not really. At some point the revenue stream is so low that it can't support development of the game in a good way, and that will then rapidly drive the game to zero (probably with a F2P transition along the way). How close are we to that feedback collapse scenario?

[Blackmist]

lol, no.

They'll *say* they're going all out. It'll be the same formula over and over until they close.

[Dystemper]

They don't break out WoW revenue anymore in the earnings reports.

It is very clear from WCR and wowprogress stats that engagement has dropped off dramatically from the start of the expansion, as badly or worse than any previous expansion. They said MAU were up from May, but May was very far down from the start of the expansion.

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Not really. At some point the revenue stream is so low that it can't support development of the game in a good way, and that will then rapidly drive the game to zero (probably with a F2P transition along the way). How close are we to that feedback collapse scenario?

Only reason MAU were up slightly is 8.2 was promised to be the make it or break it patch and flying. I came back after quitting in Dec , butmy reason was for Classic. I am still waiting to see if there is any fall out from Bobby Kotick being linked to Epstein . If the info comes out he was a good friend, frequent visitor ...does the Board force Him to resign or boot him and how will that affect ATVI over all