OOOO gives us something!
With how long its taking for alpha to come out had to make sure it wasn't april 1st still. This is good news that we will see an alpha soon and start getting some idea of shadowlands features in more depth than a power point presentation we got at blizzcon.
Can't wait to see how the Alpha and Beta develop until launch, hoping this time they give us plenty to test early on as not to repeat the mistake with azerite armor.
The best part of an xpac is coming soon !
I want to see Alpha start, but dont rush it Blizzard, most people will understand it being delayed with the current state of the world.
Carrot on a stick. Soon (tm)
Why bother? When have they listened to your feedback during Alpha or Beta? In Legion, with Legiondaries or the attrocious AP grind? In Bfa, with Azerite?
idk if you know, but alpha and beta arnt about compeltly redoing the entire expacs main system, but its about making sure all the content works and isnt broken/bugged...
by the time we get alpha/beta it is always too late for them to completly redo the expansions main system. best they can do is make minor changes, or add fixes early, liek they did with azerite in 8.1 the extra row, the azerite vendor, and the nerfing of azerite levels.
This comment shed a tear in my eye. I wish I was this hopeful again!
I miss those days when MMO-C really leaked out stuff and not Blizz decided to let us know. You know some "hidden insider" feeling...
I miss those days when Blizzard carefully listened to player feedback.
Now they just encrypt it, so players cannot get upset about shit like Azerite. In Legion and BfA we wanted to let them know it's bad. They still went with it, and it IS bad.
How do they act? Do they humbly try to make it right? Nope, they go the Chinese way: we couldn't even say anything about it because they encrypt it
By the time alpha/beta hits the servers, most systems will be in place with no hope of replacing them.
This is a win-win:
this arrogance can bite their asses HARD, Shadowlands flop, and finally they get rid of their absolutely disgusting management / developers / whoever the responsible for BfA's shit show.
However, if they REALLY manage to make a decent expansion by being secretive? Slim chance, abysmally slim, but I REALLY want this to happen.
It may be hyperbole to say they don't listen to ANY feedback, but there was a massive sounding of the alarm from beta testers during the BFA beta about issues with azerite, islands, and battlefronts.
And guess what, it released with azerite gear being a mess, islands being damn near DoA, and battlefronts being damn near DoA.
There is a reason we're pretty jaded about them listening to feedback.
Torghast sounds really interesting on paper, just like islands and battlefronts did. If they actually listen to us this time, maybe we can make it being good a reality.
You can't "fix" a bad expansion from the outside, especially if the producer is a company that doesn't seem to hold player feedback in high regard.
Like, a bad expansion is the fault of developers making the wrong decisions on a constant basis, the production being a total mess and so forth, that doesn't go away because people from the outside might deliver good or valueable feedback.
If Blizzard truly wanted to have the players participate in the production process, they would have talked about it in a big way months ago, talked about their ideas, presented things that clearly communicate their intent behind certain things.
Once those things go live (in Alpha or Beta) the development is locked in a lot of places already because the production line of this stuff is rather long.
Is dance studio finally coming?