Yeesh, already throwing in the towel on BFA. Hopefully this is just another WoD to Legion scenario.
Yeesh, already throwing in the towel on BFA. Hopefully this is just another WoD to Legion scenario.
The fact that somehow you took away my comments as, "There are live service games that don't have droughts" just shows you weren't interested in an actual factual discussion to begin with. So I'm going to just stop.
Again let's just never question a drought because they've happened before. You are the perfect consumer in their eyes.
I mean I get what you're trying to go for, but comparing an entire missing content patch to a minor patch that wouldn't add much to the game probably is a bit disingenuous
Now if they had cut 8.3 this conversation would be different.
- - - Updated - - -
I mean, you're the one complaining about them when they're just a fact of life when it comes to live service and you act like it's entirely Blizzards fault.
Hell they cut them down from 14 months to 8-9 and that's pretty damn good. And it's not even really 8-9, you're spending about 2 months dealing with the last patch of the expansion so that cuts it to 6-9 and then about a month of prepatch so 5-7, which in the scheme of things isn't bad considering wow isn't the only game out there.
As @Onikaroshi said, they knew they'd fucked up but sometimes it's not as easy as flipping a lever and fixing it overnight. The bigger overarching issue is that Azerite gear was not a very good system. But they had already committed to it just as they had committed to Legiondaries before. They put bandaids all over the system throughout BfA but I don't think they've ever been able to say that they're really happy with the way it panned out. Hence, this system isn't getting carried over into SL. They made a mistake. They tried to make the system better but never really achieved what I'm sure they had envisioned in the first place. They're not going to make the same mistake again and have gone out of their way to let players know that SL will be different in that regard. Does it suck that we had to deal with a shitty system for an entire expansion? Yep. Does it suck that they never really figured out a way to make it tolerable? Yup. Are some of their decisions so mind-boggling that you can't imagine what they were actually thinking when they made them? Yep. I'm not disagreeing here.
I just don't think that it's particularly effective to take all that into consideration then come to the conclusion that it all happened because they're stupid. Or they're intentionally fucking over the playerbase. Or that their intent was malicious. I'll give you a personal anecdote: For awhile in Legion, I was very upset with the developers (and Ion in particular) because of the approach they had with the endless AP grind and Legiondary acquisition. It felt cathartic to write long essays about how idiotic they were being for not considering my perspective. But then I realized that the game had simply changed demographics and I simply wasn't in that demographic any longer. I didn't want to admit that at first but over time I came to terms with it. I now play the game far more casually than I did back then but I still find enjoyment, just in different things. Ultimately, being angry with Blizzard failed to achieve what I wanted. (They really didn't change AP and by the time the changes in Legion started to happen I had already quit.) But looking back, I realize being angry didn't really help the situation. There were reasons Blizzard made the changes they did and as much as it upset me that I had essentially been opted out of my favorite hobby, raging online only provided a very temporary relief. And a neat side effect of keeping a level head and discussing things rationally is that it's far more conducive for legitimate actionable feedback.
As I said, I still think there's a lot to be desired with Blizzard's communication channels with its playerbase. But it's a lot easier to ask Blizzard to interact with the community when we're willing to speak civilly instead of just flat-out calling them retards for 20+ pages each time they try something different.
Honestly wish they'd just stop with this expansion exclusive systems, we didn't need them before to sell expansions, we shouldn't need them now, and it's just a bunch of dev work to be *poofed* away when it's all over.
Uhm... you should consider the context of the question.
The interviewer asked whether his plans to visit Greece in the summer would stand in the way of playing Shadowlands. Now, which one is more likely - a gaming website asking Ion about travel recommendations or a gaming website being clever and trying to get a hint about Shadowlands release date? It's rather obvious.
So yes, this question wasn't about Greece or summer holidays - it was pretty much a "will Shadowlands release in the summer?" question. I think we can all agree that Ion is at the very least decently intelligent, so chances are he understood what the interviewer was really asking about.
In that context, Ion encouraging the interviewer to visit Greece might imply that Shadowlands will not release in the summer.
---
Even without this interview, a fall release seemed likely, so... yeah, my money's on Shadowlands testing beginning early March, so that people have some time to play 8.3 in the meantime and the game coming out late October to mid November.
---
As for the W3 Reforged being delayed argument - I wouldn't really read too much into this, because Reforged and WoW are vastly different projects primarily in terms of financial importance for Blizzard. That said, Reforged being delayed PROVES one thing - that the people who said that there's some law that forces the companies to release games within the windows they give upon opening prepurchases were wrong, which in turn means that if Blizzard wants to delay Shadowlands there's nothing that legally stops them from doing so.
Last edited by Sarethion; 2020-01-14 at 04:53 AM.
Nothing wrong with a 7-8 month break. Legion break was way too short, not enough testing happened and systems launched poor in BFA. Love it or hate it long breaks are NEEDED. Blizzard expects us to take a break to get ready for the next expansion. Those that don't take breaks go back and collect mounts, work on alts, and if they get in play the SL Alpha and Beta
http://twitch.tv/towelliee TowelRapaport #WoWsheet
And you need to take with what he is saying.
Last question — the heat always reminds me of Teldrassil, so I’d like to book a Greek cruise for mid-July. However, as the last two expansions have arrived at the end of summer, I’m questioning that call. What’s your advice?
Ion - I mean, I’ve heard Greece is lovely in the summer! Growing up we’d go visit family there often, I recommend it highly.
Certainly, with regard to releasing Shadowlands, we’ll have a lot more information there later in the year, as we get into Beta — but I really can’t recommend Greece highly enough!
"I want to take a greek cruise, but will the expansion get in the way?"
"Greece is an amazing place during the sumer, my family would go often so i highly reccomend it, but for shadowlands we will have morei nfo later. But i cant reccomend greece enough!"
No if he was saying its coming in summer he would say "no take the trip, we wont be releaisng it in summer"
He literally said
"Greece is amazing in the summer, but we will have news on shadowlands release date later"
He is not sudetly hinting "hey its not releasing in the summer"
- - - Updated - - -
except he is right... 7-8 months would be the shortest patch drought in history.
From the forums, for you people who are crying a 7-8 month drought would be INSANE
As Captain Jack Sparrow would say:
“…If I may lend a machete to your intellectual thicket…”
Allow me to bring some clarity to the people who seem to have the attention span of a goldfish in this game.
Burning Crusade
Last patch was 2.4 Fury of the Sunwell on March 2008. Zombie Invasion didn’t happen till October that year. Wrath released November 2008.
Total time of drought: 8 Months
Wrath of the Lich King
Last patch was 3.3.5 (Ruby Sanctum). An abysmal single boss raid that didn’t provide any new content aside from what was already 6 months of running ICC. Cataclysm launched December of that year. That was another 6 months of wait for the new expansion.
Total time of drought: 12 months TO THE DAY. (ICC 12/8 Cata 12/7 following year)
Cataclysm
Last patch was 4.3.0 Hour of Twilight (Dragon Soul Raid). We did NOT have additional content until the scenario pre-event for Mists 9 MONTHS later, which again, didn’t offer any meaningful content until the release of Mist a month later.
Total time of drought: 10 months
Mist of Pandaria
Last Patch was 5.4 Siege of Ogrimmar, September 2013. 5 months after we saw the pre-patch events for WoD, on February 2014. Again, nothing else was provided but to farm SoO until NOVEMBER that year.
Total time of drought: 13 months
I’ll skip WoD because we all know what happened there (14 almost 15 months)
Legion to BfA
Last Major Patch was 7.3 Shadows of Argus. Now 7.3.2 actually had Antorus, the last raid fully opened (mythic and LFR) in Mid-Jan 2018. After that there wasn’t any new content. BfA released August 2018.
Total time of drought: 7 Months (WHICH ALL OF YOU COMPLAINERS BACK THEN RIOTED IT WASN’T LONG ENOUGH BTW)
We are currently looking at a potential 9-10 month wait. Realistically, 3-4 of those months will have new content as people clear the raid and complete their cloaks before we even think of getting tired of the patch.
This is all completely normal and up to Blizzards history. Matter of fact, sooner than before. People need to calm down and stop demanding new content without even completing current one.
Account wide essences are not what we need, easier essences is what we need.
Account wide essences only fixes alts, and just makes it lame.
easier ones make it easier for new players, returning players, and alts.
and those can easily come in later minor "not .5" patches.