Should Blizzard Skip 9.3?

[Lolites]

at least 6 months til 9.2, going off how long everything takes this expansion you can figure another 8 months til 9.3 and roughly about 10/12 months til the next expansion. So its plausible to land in the Q2/3 2023 Window with their current pace.

and if you claim 9.1 took a year and 9.2/9.3 will take longer you can prolong it even more!
but since 9.1 took 7 months and we have no clue if 9.2/9.3 will take longer than usual 5-6months and how long will the "drought" on end of expansion take, its about as acurate prediction as throwing a dart at a target blindly and saying next patch will be in THAT much months...

[czarek]

9.1.5 is usually what Blizzard does at the end of an expansion, to bump it this far forward means 9.2 will be generic on all levels so they can get the hell out of SL's.

Hm sounds legit. They just dump all the farm systems in 9.1.5. Launch 9.2 after few months for next 8~ months than just go with 10.0.

[Toxuvox]

I think that if Blizz have a 9.3 in development in a workable sense, then they should proceed with it, if for no other reason than to properly complete the expansion story arch, and leave us on a solid footing for 10.0.

On the subject of 10.0, I'd say pushing toward 9.3 would probably mean a delay in 10.0, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. It'd obviously be heavily dependant on 9.3 (or a potential 9.3.5) having sufficient content to see us most of the way through any content drought. With the "rip-chord" being pulled for 9.1.5, there's no reason to think that a similar feature heavy arrangement couldn't be pushed out as filler post final raid completion/pre 10.0.

[Unholyground]

Why, if there are still people that enjoy the game? Because you don't?

That's not an absurd notion at all. /s

They can still enjoy it but that doesn't mean the game is good, just addictive.

[Empower]

Hm sounds legit. They just dump all the farm systems in 9.1.5. Launch 9.2 after few months for next 8~ months than just go with 10.0.

I mean legions most popular patch was the " yo fuck artifact power" prepatch.

[bledgor]

They can still enjoy it but that doesn't mean the game is good, just addictive.

? That is COMPLETELY subjective, personally I find path of exile to be a steaming pile of shit game, but many people love it and praise it as the best ARPG/dungeon crawler. I find Shadowlands to be quite refreshing coming from Legion/BFA with the infinite grind AP/titanforging. I can play the game as much or as little as I want, and as long as i get my weekly raids/M+ done I don't feel like I'm falling behind.

I don't know, maybe I am weird in that I am glad WoW has evolved from being a game that required all your free time to something I can put in 10 hours a week and not be massively behind. Fact is there is a crazy amount of entertainment put out yearly now a days and like many I don't want to be tied to one game only (MOBA players are a crazy breed of people), so the fact I can comfortably play wow and other games on the side is a big plus to me.

I still stand that 9.1.5 October, February/March 9.2, 9.3 late August/early September, and 10.0 in May/early June. It will make for a 30 month expansion yes, but you blame it a little on covid and more so on them wanting to ensure 10.0 gets its big release. As long as they pull out something big for 10.0 players will easily forgot the delay and come back, besides I know people have a hard on for the end of expansion drought but I notice a lot of my friends are still around, instead of raiding/farming whatever current content they use it to farm all the old mogs/mounts/toys/etc.

[Biglog]

It's a good example of how our human nature tends to make us apply binary choices in situations that don't really apply. In this case there isn't really a binary choice between skipping 9.3 or getting 10.0 sooner. The simple reason being they are different teams. As fans we think of Blizzard as a handful of devs and that forgoing a feature in one area can speed things in another, but it doesn't work that way in development. It isn't linear that adding more people speeds dev time (ex. Star Citizen). There is a team for 9.x patches and a different team for 10.0. So skipping 9.3 doesn't really get 10.0 here any faster.

Also a year of no content at a time when Blizzard and wow are reeling also would be a terrible business move. That would be a good way to stick a fork in the last of the hardcore wow fans that are still hanging on. If they are going to take a year off, just finish off the story closing the book on wow and move all the devs to wow 2.0 or wow next or w/e.

[Xires]

No. IMO they should take their time to make the rest of Shadowlands strong and memorable, even if it means the next expansion will take longer.

"Strong and memorable" Impossible to make it strong. It's a terrible xpac. Memorable? With all of the rape and burning of the evidence while trying to push wokeism to cover their slime....it is definitely memorable.

[darklogrus]

and if you claim 9.1 took a year and 9.2/9.3 will take longer you can prolong it even more!
but since 9.1 took 7 months and we have no clue if 9.2/9.3 will take longer than usual 5-6months and how long will the "drought" on end of expansion take, its about as acurate prediction as throwing a dart at a target blindly and saying next patch will be in THAT much months...

The numbers favor Blizzard so cheer up. First off, its the fanbois who always tell me the typical PTR cycle is 2-3 months, so you can get an estimate for when its due to hit live. If 9.2 hits PTR right after, then the numbers continue to line up. Average case scenario, 9.1.5 hits 1st week of Nov, Dec we see 9.2 on the PTR 2/3 months before live puts us in the Mid Feb/March window. I leaned more towards March because they halted work on the next content patch, and other work place issues.

From there it depends on what 9.2 will be and if there is a 9.3. As it stands right now it comes across as if there is absolutely zero interest in SL's from the player-base, is it in Blizzards financial interests to put 5-8 months into a 9.3 or to bring 10.0 5-8 months sooner?

An Honestly, I think I was reasonably fair in my time tables given Shadowlands track record and the internal issues at Blizzard.

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Hm sounds legit. They just dump all the farm systems in 9.1.5. Launch 9.2 after few months for next 8~ months than just go with 10.0.

With launch and then 9.1 going as bad as they did along with the internal issues. I just can't see it being in their best interests to tell the player base who come across as overwhelmingly negative towards SL that they are going to be stuck there for 2 more yrs..

[loras]

Before we start thinking about how Blizzard should fix numbers, but should analize if numbers need fixing at all. All I see are pointless comparison S2 with launch. Anyone serious should compare numbers with BfA 8.1.5 or Legion 7.2. Personally I play no High/Very High (Full only on launch) server and don't see big differences between now and no-hype periods in other expacs, ton of people are running around in Korthia (yes, from my server).

9.1.5 changes could be hint for lower than usual numbers, but it can be done for two more reasons:

1) really damaged Blizzard image and popularity, new president is showing Blizzard is "doing something" - please SJWs with art/names changing, please rest with lifting launch restrictions and Legion nostalgia

2) 9.2 obviously won't come when it should (November), so this hole need to be filled - and 9.1.5 must do better job than 9.0.5.

New expac will never "fix numbers". It's just 1-2 months quick cash boost, after that WoW will "lose 50%" again. And it's not like it's free boost, production must cost ton compared to patches.

I'm really not basing myself on sub numbers, which players, i have found, really cannot accurately assess despite some being adamant about it.

It's more their reputation and the influx of new blood that matters anyway, adficts gonna addict.

[TidalConflux]

I dont get the concept of people being against Blizzard rushing development then also saying Blizzard should immediately shut down SL to bring out 10.0 in the next breath.

[huth]

I dont get the concept of people being against Blizzard rushing development then also saying Blizzard should immediately shut down SL to bring out 10.0 in the next breath.

They still act as if devs were just production units you could move around and have full capacity immediately, like in a game. That such a reshuffling not only wouldn't speed things up because they probably can't do anything productive, but actually takes time and resources to facilitate seems completely lost on them.

[Eosia]

Would you rather Blizzard delay 10.0 until 2023, or have 9.2 as the last patch in the beg of 2022 with a 10-11 month content draught leading to 10.0. Or you could have 9.2 in Jan, 9.3 in August, and 10.0 in May/June 2023.

I would rather they just give us a decent last patch with no bullshit systems. Let us play that for nearly a year, and have the team full speed ahead making 10.0 good. Get 9.2 out and start Alpha asap, pref in the Spring of 2022, that way we have plenty of time for feedback to be "hopefully" listened to.

I guess you never played WoD where they DID do that. It failed. Miserably.

[Kyphael]

people still belive that nonsense about 9.2 existing ?

9.1.5 is likely the last patch of expasnion

if it wasnt they would have to make SL a 3 year exapansion and this simply wont happen .

that is much more likely is they will release 9.1.5 in november and then rush 10.0 to july/august release.

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ofc they can . zoval escaped ,sylvanas is defeated but got her soul back - elune shown elves that they are her playthings and somewhere on horizon is yrel with crusad of light ready to invide azeroth . and we are sitting there bored in SL

prepatch would make much more sense then additional tier.

All right, screw it. Bring on Yrel, she's much more interesting than Sylvanas.

[Nyel]

I guess you never played WoD where they DID do that. It failed. Miserably.

They came back with Legion, which was the most successful expansion since WotLK. So even if it failed with WoD, they redeemed themselves due to Legion. If they're capable of doing the same with the next expansion, it will be the best for the game.

[Djaye]

the people that left SL arent coming back, no matter what they do in the expansion.

they would be better off scrapping the turd and doubling down on actually trying to make a good expansion, which they have a hard enough time of doing.

[Dorfadin]

my guild had 35 raiders start of expansion, down to 11 now, everyone quit, only way people return is new expansion, this one is rubbish.

[Rucati]

Yeah, they need to just accept that Shadowlands was a failure on all accounts and focus development on the next expansion.

I really struggle to find even one positive thing Shadowlands has going for it, and I don't think it matters how many patches they release, they won't be able to fix it. However if 10.0 has a lot of really awesome features and fun content that could turn things around for the game as a whole, so I'd love for them to just focus entirely on that and move on from SL as soon as humanly possible.

[Lahis]

However if 10.0 has a lot of really awesome features and fun content that could turn things around for the game as a whole, so I'd love for them to just focus entirely on that and move on from SL as soon as humanly possible.

Sadly 10.0 won't be able to save the game. Blizzard simply lacks the talent to do so.

Sure, the art team will again blow it out of the water with amazing looking zones, but that won't help when the gameplay and systems on top of it are still complete crap.

Even a polished turd is still just a turd.

[Syce]

Sadly 10.0 won't be able to save the game. Blizzard simply lacks the talent to do so.

Sure, the art team will again blow it out of the water with amazing looking zones, but that won't help when the gameplay and systems on top of it are still complete crap.

Even a polished turd is still just a turd.

how do you know this that they do not have the talent? maybe with this whole cleaning house thing going on right now, they may bring in much more talented people and it COULD potentially become something players enjoy again.

Like 9.1.5 for example. i know majority of it is just trying to save face at the moment. but it could also mean that from now on, they may actually listen to the player base and make correct decisions instead of thinking they know whats good for the game. (i know players ideas are not always good, but having them listen to the ideas could help shape things into better ideas)