Would you be okay with a longer expansion?

[DarkAmbient]

I would if expansions simply progressed the story and added new zones/dungeons/raids/BGs etc while core features/character powers etc were improved over time instead of altered and abandoned every 2 years.

[Jakfrosty]

I'm fine with longer expansion as long as content continues to drop, long droughts that would kill it for me

[sam86]

depends but generally yes
in fact i feel exps are shorter than they should, the good is bfa/wod didn't stay long, the bad is a lot of other exps didn't stay long either
I could used a little longer Legion, or Wrath

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Would it be fine if it had a 4th content patch with the whole package (raid, zone, 5 man, world content) instead of only 3? Sure. Would I be happy with 3 and the 3rd lasted 18 months? Not really.

Truth is WoW financially rides on expansion spikes so it won't happen. It depends on an expansion launch that sells like 9 million copies of the game. Then 9 million or so subs that last a month or two, maybe 3. Then it rides the whales/dedicated quarter/half of the population of 3 to 5 million for the rest of the life cycle with little spikes on patches. They are obviously adding in Classic releases offset to current releases to have 2 spikes per launch cycle because of this form of plan. Probably spread between quarters to goat in investors. In no way would they want to add a 4th tier, for example, for a small spike when they could just bake that into the next expansion and get a mega spike with copies sold as well. The only reason they don't do it every 2 tier, or hell every tier, is because they face massive backlash and near abandonment of the game in WoD when they teased it. So now they do the classic releases that do the same thing but don't push copies but at least boost subs few a few months and add in baby spikes on phase releases there too that stink the valley lows in the chasing the spikes financial system.

[Thundering]

The problem with modern wow is too little content and content with to little impact(Gear with no to little value as an example). It does not matter how they deliver it anymore it is just too little with no depth.

The content drought are way too long already.

[TheFirstOnes]

God, I fuckin hate this "expac sales" argument. Let me play a good game, please. Thanks.

Yes, I'd prefer a longer Expac IF it's developed well. BFA was so fuckin rushed, it hurt.

- - - Updated - - -

The problem with modern wow is too little content and content with to little impact(Gear with no to little value as an example). It does not matter how they deliver it anymore it is just too little with no depth.

The content drought are way too long already.

Ahahahaha wtf is this?

BFA and Legion had zero content drought. The problem was that the content fuckin sucked.

[BrintoSFJ]

What is stopping them from not releasing any proper content and extend the expansion cycle by 6 months and then give some shitty excuse? It is not about how long they keep an expansion going, it is about how much content they release within an expansion cycle.

[Nyel]

Now in this scenario, they were behind do to covid and had to stretch things a bit, but decided to keep all content plans intact and change 10.0 release date instead of cutting content. 10.0 is an ambitious expansion and is the next world revamp.

I don't think this will happen at all. Longer expansions are worse for Blizzard because they don't get any benefit out of them as expansion sales are what drives their financial results as we see every quarter they release a new expansion. All the other quarters (besides the one following the expansion launch quarter) are way lower in revenue.

If they're having issues due to COVID, they're not extending the duration of the expansion, they're cutting its content, resulting in just two content patches instead of the usual three - eventually moving workforce towards the development of the next expansion.

In no way they'll extend the lifetime of an expansion and waste resources on something that barely contributes to their revenue.

So if they're struggling with their development and timelines (which is speculation), we will have only 9.1 and 9.2 and no 9.3. The chances for an extended expansion with more content than usual are 0%.

[slender]

I don't think this will happen at all. Longer expansions are worse for Blizzard because they don't get any benefit out of them as expansion sales are what drives their financial results as we see every quarter they release a new expansion.

I agree with this and believe it to be true, but we also pay a monthly access fee for the game.

It would be nice to see longer expansions, with more content released. Paying full retail for an expansion, on top of your sub feels bad...

[Stormwolf64]

Depends on the theme and how well built the expansion world is. A long shadowlands? nooope.

[Capultro]

NO of course.because if the expansion is very bad,and longer...pfff x2 pain.i prefer shorter expansions,but interesting,with new hero classes,after 15 years blizzard only gave us death knights and demon hunters.this is unaceptable.where is our money?where are the others hero classes?i want shorter expansions,i want that shadowlands finish now,for see if will there be new hero classes in the next..i hope that yes,if not,i dont buy it.

people,please,dont buy fill expansions.wod,bfa,and now shadowlands,all very very bad...the worst shadowlands what a pain god...and pvp 0 quality.some classes op other shit...paladins always top dps...seriosly,this is ridicoulus.im waiting for the next one,i ask myself if they will screw it up again

[Nyel]

I agree with this and believe it to be true, but we also pay a monthly access fee for the game.

It would be nice to see longer expansions, with more content released. Paying full retail for an expansion, on top of your sub feels bad...

Nice for the players? Absolutely. But it doesn't benefit Blizzard. Selling 4-5 million copies of an expansion every 2 years it what's important to them, extending the lifetime of an expansion is not, especially not towards the end of an expansion when players become exhausted, bored and even the best content patch wouldn't bring them back the way a brand new expansion would.

It's a massive financial difference if you just add 6 months worth of $12 each or if you just release an expansion for $50 6 months or heck even 2-3 months earlier. That's why extending the lifetime of Shadowlands with aditional contentdue to COVID makes no sense at all. It would be easier and better to just cut content and keep the duration or still extend it (aka WoD) and move on to the next expansion as that is what drives revenue.

[Pheraz]

4 tiers, 3 large and 2-3 minor patches. 26+ months. Slightly longer patch durations but less of a wait for the final patch.

9.0- November 23.
9.0.5- March 16th. Little over halfway through the tier to fix problems.
9.1- June 22. 7 months since 9.0, but this patch looks to be larger than any .1 patch before it. It honestly looks as big as 7.2 in Legion.
9.1.5- September 28. Small patch. Brawlers guild, timewalking Legion. 10. months into SL
9.2- January 18. Large new zone, 10-14 boss raid. New dungeon, new feature, more story etc. 14 months into SL
9.2.5- April 26. Small patch. Covenant finale, new world quests etc. 17 months into SL
9.3- August 9. 20.5 months into SL. Medium/larege zone. 10-15 boss raid. The game is not perfected. Lot of cosmetics to grind until the next xpac.
10.0 prepatch- March 28. Only around 8/8.5 month final tier. Shortest since TBC to wrath.
Next xpac- April 24th. Spring Launch instead of fall or summer. Total expansion length 28 months instead of the normal 21-25.

Now in this scenario, they were behind do to covid and had to stretch things a bit, but decided to keep all content plans intact and change 10.0 release date instead of cutting content. 10.0 is an ambitious expansion and is the next world revamp.

I would love if SL would end really soon. It was nice to quest there one time and run all dungeons 50 times but I'm already sick of this whole theme (as I actually thought the moment they announced this xpac). I'm interested in how the story turns out and would love if this stuff would end right after and we are back on Azeroth as soon as possible

[bagina]

I would like them to move away from the expansion format and actually add things to the world instead of removing them or making them irrelevant

Ha. Came here to post the same thing, more or less

[Wilfire]

Ha. Came here to post the same thing, more or less

Good luck. Blizzard is allergic to features lasting longer than a single expansion.

[Nyel]

I would love if SL would end really soon. It was nice to quest there one time and run all dungeons 50 times but I'm already sick of this whole theme (as I actually thought the moment they announced this xpac). I'm interested in how the story turns out and would love if this stuff would end right after and we are back on Azeroth as soon as possible

I'm asking the same questions. To be honest, 9.1 could just end Shadowlands. More stuff in The Maw? Check. Maw raid with Sylvanas as a boss? Check. Anduin becoming Lich King 2.0 and Jailer making his move? Check.

9.1 for me already feels very end-of-expansion-like and I really don't know where we can go from there. To have Thros etc. makes barely any sense as a .2 patch, why would we go there? Why would it even matter for the Shadowlands storyline? So there's basically another patch left where we deal with the Jailer, kill / defeat him and rescue Anduin. But I fail to see how they would add another layer of the story, it already feels worn out.