Backlash opening new doors?

[Reinaerd]

I I just want to be able to dye my gear in whatever colors i want, so i can finally fulfill my dream of being Reynaerd plated pink pretty princess with a beard.

[Nyel]

They’re incapable of doing that on the get go. Hell they even struggled to give us a halfway decent content patch and needed 7 months for the underwhelming mess that 9.1 is. I for sure don’t want them to develop some half-assed races like Nightborn or whatever just to try to redeem themselves. Their only chance is 10.0 and that’s only working if a) 10.0 is massive and similar to the scope of Legion and b) if it comes in time aka end of 2022 the latest.

If 10.0 is just another Shadowlands or BfA they can keep it or throw it in the trash already. 10.0 needs a new class or new specs, it needs one single progress system akin to artifact weapons and it needs a lot of content from the start, a clearly laid out story path and a schedule like Legion had, aka 77 days between patches.

On top of that, 10.0 has to launch later next year. A delay until 2023 at the moment is unthinkable. Even if we might get a Legion-type of expansion then, it will be way too late to redeem anything. Time is working against Blizzard and people already dislike 9.1 which is only a month old. Go figure how many players are left in 2023 waiting for the new expansion.

[Voidwielder]

Yeah no, SL is dead and whatever comes next will make 9.1 look like 5.2.

[Ivarr]

Depends where the dust settles.

Activision is going to have to make a call on WoW's future, especially if this ends up reaching "burn it all down" levels of bad. Do they invest back in the game, potentially big money, training up new team heads and revamping big sections of the game to their vision and to purge the issues of yore? Or do they say "the game is no longer salvagable just put someone in there to bring the plane in for a landing and then reassign them to Warzone?"

Sadly, I expect the latter. If this is bad enough they have to burn it all down, WoW I think is dead.

I think this depends on the competition. As long as there's a successful MMO somewhere, the executives will keep chasing that spot. But if there's no major MMO any longer they'll be able to cut their losses and say that there's no market demand for it (despites the possibility that people gladly want to play an MMO the way they used to.)

[SunspotAnims]

On top of that, 10.0 has to launch later next year. A delay until 2023 at the moment is unthinkable. Even if we might get a Legion-type of expansion then, it will be way too late to redeem anything. Time is working against Blizzard and people already dislike 9.1 which is only a month old. Go figure how many players are left in 2023 waiting for the new expansion.

On the contrary, I'm of the impression that the release date of 10.0 is irrelevant so long as it promises to be big. Let's say, hypothetically, that 10.0 will be the largest expansion to date but won't release until mid 2023. In terms active players, it's true that WoW might as well be dead a few months after whatever the last Shadowlands patch will be.

...but all it takes is a big marketing push for "the largest expansion to date," and plenty of people will show up by the time it comes out. At least that's what the precedent suggests. I'm not saying it's ideal for 10.0 to come out so late, but I'd rather it release good than fast, and I think most people would agree in the long run.

[Zantera]

The shard system is kinda lame but that doesn't really take away from the raid being great, the dungeon being fun, the new m+ affix being solid or Korthia being pretty decent for what it is. There's been way worse patches in the past whether we talk about the Trial of the Crusader/Argent Tournament patch or the whole Dragon Soul tier. And those were in "prime WoW days".

[Berri]

Lol maybe they can just listen to player feedback and make the game good rather than just stubbornly continuing to implement systems that are shit to play until they inevitably get changed in the .3 patch but idk man

[Beuargh]

how dare you think about possible benefits for the game? don't you have a soul??? think about this poor woman, a white male looked at her legs when she came to work in a skirt, dude!! she's traumatized for life and she bought 3 burkas and a chastity belt for security!!! .... this white male trash should be separated from his balls, like RIGHT NOW

you're "part of the problem" bro, don't forget this.

seriously, what happen when you're interested in a game and when you come to see what's coming next, all you see is that kind of shit? and they want to handle it by involving players in the issue?? it drives me away from the game and lose interest. I'm unsub because SL sucks but with all this drama I'm probably done for good. it's not, never was and never will be the reason I'm interrested in WoW. before this the first thing coming to my mind with "blizzard" was "WoW". now when I think blizzard I think about this shit... in the end, blizzard killed wow for me.

[mojusk]

i certainly hope that wow and blizz survives all this shit.
and if they do im hopefull that theyll come back better than before.
by better i dont mean pointless virtue signaling, but a better game.
acceptance of race gender and sexual orientation etc is great, but theres no reason to parade about it.
hire the best and most passionate developers and focus on making great games, like they used to

[erifwodahs]

i certainly hope that wow and blizz survives all this shit.
and if they do im hopefull that theyll come back better than before.
by better i dont mean pointless virtue signaling, but a better game.
acceptance of race gender and sexual orientation etc is great, but theres no reason to parade about it.
hire the best and most passionate developers and focus on making great games, like they used to

It's not about having best/most passionate devs. where financial department is dictating production. Read the article about Reforged, it sheds a lot of light about how they promised one game during Blizzcon and how we got different game.They literally cut out pieces of content just to meet their budget quota, so instead of making a great game with humble profit they just make up that profit form pre-orders by cutting out promised content so they spend less on development.

[Lahis]

If they used this as an opportunity to totally strip things back and rething the direction of the game, I would be happy with that. Obviously there are bigger things happening for the staff involved, im purely saying from a gameplay perspective.

Sadly WoW dev team is incapable of seeing problems with their designs, despite players figuring every single problem 5 minutes after they hit PTR every single time.

Stopping the Cosby Suite Groping Parties will not bring any quick salvation to WoW's development direction.

[Osmeric]

Sadly, I expect the latter. If this is bad enough they have to burn it all down, WoW I think is dead.

It won't be dead-dead; it'll be sold to Tencent or Gamigo dead. That might even be considered alive! In some sense. If the game is going to be getting an entirely new set of developers, it might as well be in a lower labor cost country.

[Lahis]

acceptance of race gender and sexual orientation etc is great, but theres no reason to parade about it.

The reason for those vocal parades is always to act as a smokescreen to hide the heinous shit that is actually happening.

[mojusk]

@erifwodahs
true, its not just the developers but also their leaders who has to make decisions thats best for the games and not their wallets.
i also wanna add that no matter how talented a dev is, if the person is a douche/creep who drags down the performance of the rest of the team, do not hessitate to give them the boot.

- - - Updated - - -

The reason for those vocal parades is always to act as a smokescreen to hide the heinous shit that is actually happening.

yep a wolf in sheep clothing kinda thing.

[vsb]

They have WotLK ahead. It'll be huge. Remember 12 millions subs? WotLK will save them for another 1-2 years. Plenty of those WotLK subs will try retail and some of them might like it.

So expect retail to bend for WotLK players. Undead/Old gods/Northrend theme.

After WotLK WoW is dead.

[Lahis]

They have WotLK ahead. It'll be huge. Remember 12 millions subs? WotLK will save them for another 1-2 years. Plenty of those WotLK subs will try retail and some of them might like it.

So expect retail to bend for WotLK players. Undead/Old gods/Northrend theme.

After WotLK WoW is dead.

I wouldn't be shocked if the next AKA last SL patch happens on Northrend (like 8.3 did use only old zones). Saves them art resources for 10.0

[vsb]

It won't be dead-dead; it'll be sold to Tencent or Gamigo dead. That might even be considered alive! In some sense. If the game is going to be getting an entirely new set of developers, it might as well be in a lower labor cost country.

Selling WoW to China would be the best thing that could happen to the game. Chinese WoW is already miles ahead of official one and that's with limited power they have over its regional distribution.

Though I don't think that would happen. Muricans are too prideful to admit it.

[Wangming]

losing profits is as good as dead to investors. that will probably be the key factor.

Hell the investors are now suing them for losing said profit.

[Thelxi]

Absolutely. The first thing that got punctured is their arrogance. Now, how they deal with the fallout is up in the air. I talked a bit with a prosecutor friend about this and he thinks Blizzard will try to settle this in mediation, allowing them to save some face and sell us a story. A jury trial would just humiliate them further and they definitely don't want that.

What we don't know yet is whether or how much this will affect the money. There is a small chance that they will keep doing what they've been doing for the past few years and just squeeze their workers and customers harder and harder to get the numbers to look good. So, this might not work out all that great for us. It might also be a wakeup call for them though, and it might be a chance for the Blizzard people to prove the sheep right and stand up to evil corporate Activision. Who knows. It could go both ways.

[Wangming]

Selling WoW to China would be the best thing that could happen to the game. Chinese WoW is already miles ahead of official one and that's with limited power they have over its regional distribution.

Though I don't think that would happen. Muricans are too prideful to admit it.

Care to ellaborate?