Should Blizzard Skip 9.3?

[enigma77]

BFA kinda ended with 8.2.5, you could remove 8.3 and nothing would change going into Shadowlands. Can't see why they wouldn't do the same with SL.

True Nzoth was completely irrelevant, at least as far as the current story is concerned.

[Caerule]

They shouldn't skip 9.3, but there is no way that they won't.

This 9.1 patch was the equivalent of a x.2 patch. They've skipped the x.1 patch phase of this expansion. No way will it go beyond 9.2. That will definitely be the last content patch.

[Syegfryed]

Cool, you can be pessimistic, I choose not to be. There are plenty of things about Shadowlands I enjoy, and by no means is it a dead expansion to me. You also keep saying split into two patches, but there is literally infinite things you can add with the nature of the shadowlands/the broker it wouldn't be splitting it. Do you consider novels with multiple books a split singular book?

im not pessimist im realistic person, expansion si garbage anda failure in all forms, you cannot paint shit gold.

Again, yes, there is definetely an infinite of possibilities, but you are being naive in thinking they will explore 10% of it, be real, we are talking about Blizzard who is delivering this dogshit of story about Sylvanus that is being dragged since LEgion.

Also please, please, PLEASE show me where they said they weren't working on a 9.2/was not in development, because I have never seen it. This added with the fact they have directly said they are working on the next expansion during the current one and are constantly working on the next content to come along side the current content and I have a hard time believing you.

like i said, i heard of it, probably news from this site.

Also for the lore, I find the shadowlands intriguing,

the only thing intriguing is how the people who did the lore still have their jobs.

[Echocho]

They should skip 7.0-9.1
Roll the game back, hire a new game director (maybe a game designer) and redo the whole thing.

[Empower]

I don't really know... if they could force themselves to abandon their shitty game systems and just have everyone capped conduit,renowned,and everything else at the start of 9.3 I believe it could be good...

That said for modern blizzard I imagine they would take the concept as well as amputating their arm with their teeth.

[Nohara]

No. Rather have a 3 year expac than another expac that feels light on content.

[XDurionX]

For now skipping 9.3 is inevitable, because 9.2 isn't even in development.

You really don't understand anything about development, at all.

[Madox1971]

To be honest I don't think it matters if we skip or not. The games current state would suggest that no lessons from the previous expansions have been learnt, and all these sudden "we are listening" is not them listening its about trying to stop the decay of MAU's which is the ONLY thing BA cares about it. If they are however developing 10.0 alongside then the point is mute because it will have borrowed systems which will not work right and it will be a repeat. History so far has taught us that sadly.

[gd8]

I'm extremely tired of shadowlands they need to move on as soon as possible

[Alydael]

what if 9.2 was the final big raid of the expansion... and 9.3 just had story with a mega-dungeon on patch launch and a small raid in 9.3.5 - that would work, right?

It depends what the story behind the dungeon and mini raid were. I think the "story" of SL should end with the Jailers defeat in 9.2

The next patch, whether its a small one or a regular sized 9.3 should be focused on the next adventure.

I think it should be a "Return to Azeroth" theme that begins to set up the next X-Pac. It could be things like: After working together to defeat the jailer and crossing over into the very realms of death (then returning to tell about it): The Horde and Alliance sign a lasting peace and cross faction is enabled. While we were away, maybe some villain took advantage and we have to go take him out in a mini raid (you know people try to take over azeroth every 5 mins or so).

Maybe we have to deal with the sword. Some of our friends from the shadowlands could find a way to come with us and maybe we get a new allied race. I have no idea where Blizz plans to take the story next. Maybe we aren't going back to Azeroth right away and that wouldn't be appropriate.

I just don't think the SL story should continue past 9.2, it seems like that is a logical point for its conclusion and if Blizz added past that it would seem like artificially stretching it.

[exochaft]

It could honestly go either way at this point, as there are signs within the story that indicate Blizz is pushing their timetable for the story itself much faster than they probably want to. Granted one of my largest gripes when it comes to the story is that it's completely rushed in the game, but they're still rushing right now. When it comes to certain character interactions and events that occurred in 9.1, there are some that seem like they should've occurred much later (i.e. 9.2 or later). I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a 9.3.

Ultimately, to my dismay, the decision to have a 9.3 or move to 10.0 will likely not be based upon what's fun and engaging for the player. Even with all the 9.1.5 additions, they're mostly all expected and fall within a standard X.1.5 release, and I feel the additions that weren't expected are mostly last-minute jingling keys to keep players from leaving... because if you've left the game in Shadowlands, the underlying reason(s) you left are probably not getting addressed at all. You may have left because the Covenant system was too rigid and not fun, but the real reason people probably left is because Blizz did not listen for over a year concerning issues that were in the game prior to launch. The game's design is tied way too heavily to a strict timetable, which is only hurting the game at this point. The old Blizz mantra was that their content will be done when it's done so it could be polished up to Blizzard standards... but that's clearly not the case at all anymore. What made Blizz great is no longer found in their company.

[Cosmic Janitor]

BFA kinda ended with 8.2.5, you could remove 8.3 and nothing would change going into Shadowlands. Can't see why they wouldn't do the same with SL.

Because the Old God stuff was already set up and - all in all - big enough to make at least a final patch out of it. SL doesn't really have much in that regard yet. Unsolved plot lines curently are:
A) a bunch of limp prick Nathrezim,
B) a bunch of mindless devourers that are classified as pests in the SL,
C) something something Elune is utterly useless something something,
D) *scratching bedrock* uhhh.. brokers again?

You can go and try to cobble together a patch out of these, but even in sum they aren't final patch material, certainly not after dealing with "turbo satan". It would be one of the most boring final patches in the history of the game.

If anything it would make more sense to put that F tier rubbish before the final confrontation with the janitor, but then you run into the issue that already barely anyone cares and even fewer people would care about another 5-8 months of filler patch.

- - - Updated - - -

True Nzoth was completely irrelevant, at least as far as the current story is concerned.

He was still established and frankly hyped for years in the background. The last old god is something you can (even if utterly butchered) put in a final patch.

[AcidX]

nope.

Shadowlands might even go on to 9.4. its a good expansion so far, and it looks like its only getting better.

Why would you want to pay $60-$120 for another box expansion anyway? Just get more free content during this expansion

- - - updated - - -



also, this 100% ^

topkekw :d

[GreenJesus]

It's been quite apparent for the past 7 years that Blizzard is no longer capable of writing decent expansion storylines. At all. "Demons transcend all timelines! They can only be killed in the Twisting Nether! Archimonde and Mannoroth never died! Grom's and the Night Elves' sacrifice at the end of WC3 meant nothing!" and "Draenor is free! (said by a guy who committed a Draenei holocaust)", the bending over backwards to go "ackshually, Illidan was this super cool guy who was fighting against the true threat all along!" (the very same Illidan who had sex slaves in the Black Temple and was a tyrant. Yeah TBC was bad but two wrongs don't make a right). Or the demonization of the Light. Or Sadfang having a whole sob story about how sad he is for all the genociding he comitted... while still committing genocide. Or the Horde being let off the hook for the genocide they committed because Suevanas ran away. Or Suevanas' motivations being retconned 3 times within 2 years. Or the bending over backwards to let Arthas and Suevanas off the hook and make their detractors, Uther, Tyrande, and Genn look unreasonable for not liking the fan favorites. Or the Jailer's master plan. And so on.

Allowing 9.3 to play out isn't going to make the story better. By this point everyone who used to care about the story doesn't care anymore. Just finish Shadowlands ASAP so we can get to the new game changing features of 10.0 because at this point that's all that matters.

Hey now.. im sure those sex slaves were consensual!

[Raisei]

It's possible they will go right into 10.0 after 9.2. Not because they are afraid of FF and the 15 players that moved there because Asmongold told them to, but because the story is ended.

For now skipping 9.3 is inevitable, because 9.2 isn't even in development.

Good to know. I assume your Source for this is the same tired quote from 3 months ago where one dev said there was no work done on WoW?

Yeah, thought so.

Just. Stop. Spreading. Fakenews.

YOU wanting this this to be true, does not constitute facts. If you hate the game so much, because "it's not casual" (with your definition being that friggin world mobs need to be nerfed because you refuse to learn your class) then just go play FF and leave this forum.

[cuafpr]

as bad as SL is they need to finish the story they have in mind for it versus trying to edit it down a patch.

[agentsi]

Stop trying to plan relesae dates around set times for expansions. I don't care if an expansion is 1 year apart, or 4 years apart. As long as there is good storytelling and plenty of content between those times.

Maybe one expansion is short, and only requires X.0, X.5, and X.1. Then they move on to the next, which maybe has X.0 thru X.5. I'd be 100% fine with both, again, assuming they had plenty of things to tell us story-wise and plenty of content for us to do in the game. Too many folks are locusts these days, and just want to skip ahead. This isn't a TV series released on Netflix or Hulu that you can binge-watch in a day. So stop treating it as such.

Let them do their job, and stop asking for things you clearly have no idea about.

[MrLachyG]

It depends what the story behind the dungeon and mini raid were. I think the "story" of SL should end with the Jailers defeat in 9.2

The next patch, whether its a small one or a regular sized 9.3 should be focused on the next adventure.

I think it should be a "Return to Azeroth" theme that begins to set up the next X-Pac. It could be things like: After working together to defeat the jailer and crossing over into the very realms of death (then returning to tell about it): The Horde and Alliance sign a lasting peace and cross faction is enabled. While we were away, maybe some villain took advantage and we have to go take him out in a mini raid (you know people try to take over azeroth every 5 mins or so).

Maybe we have to deal with the sword. Some of our friends from the shadowlands could find a way to come with us and maybe we get a new allied race. I have no idea where Blizz plans to take the story next. Maybe we aren't going back to Azeroth right away and that wouldn't be appropriate.

I just don't think the SL story should continue past 9.2, it seems like that is a logical point for its conclusion and if Blizz added past that it would seem like artificially stretching it.

I agree, I can’t see the story going past 9.2. It would certainly be a unique thing to do, hasn’t been done before in an expansion but something different could well work

[Gorsameth]

It's possible they will go right into 10.0 after 9.2. Not because they are afraid of FF and the 15 players that moved there because Asmongold told them to, but because the story is ended.



Good to know. I assume your Source for this is the same tired quote from 3 months ago where one dev said there was no work done on WoW?

Yeah, thought so.

Just. Stop. Spreading. Fakenews.

YOU wanting this this to be true, does not constitute facts. If you hate the game so much, because "it's not casual" (with your definition being that friggin world mobs need to be nerfed because you refuse to learn your class) then just go play FF and leave this forum.

I know right. The WoW team took a little break, the same way someone might do if someone very close to them unexpectedly died and BOOM, no work is ever being done on WoW every again!1!!!!1111!!

I guess that's what modern society has come down to, something doesn't exist if people don't mention it on Twitter or Tiktok.

[Raisei]

I know right. The WoW team took a little break, the same way someone might do if someone very close to them unexpectedly died and BOOM, no work is ever being done on WoW every again!1!!!!1111!!

I guess that's what modern society has come down to, something doesn't exist if people don't mention it on Twitter or Tiktok.

Yup and the idea to think logically is replaced by watching the next click-bait Bellular video.

The idea that there is no work done on WoW for 3 month is unbelievably stupid. Lawsuit or no, all Devs would have been fired and replaced if they were refusing to work for that time. People just need to think for 2 minutes and they will see how foolish that is.