Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

We'll see what happens in January.

February 4-7th is the Quarterly Earnings Report territory. Expecting something to boost investor confidence into Q2.

[Teriz]

We'll see what happens in January.

February 4-7th is the Quarterly Earnings Report territory. Expecting something to boost investor confidence into Q2.

As an investor in Activision Blizzard, an expansion announcement would be very nice indeed.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

As an investor in Activision Blizzard, an expansion announcement would be very nice indeed.

I have no idea, there's a lot on the table for Warcraft with Global Battle Net, Warcraft Mobile Games, 9.2 Release Date.

I don't think an Expansion reveal is happening unless they are going for the "Zovaal is destroyed + No Consequences Ending". I definitely still feel confident that we won't see anything Expansion wise until after Zovaal Cinematic. But, it all depends on what happens in that Cinematic.

[EbaumsTipster]

I have no idea, there's a lot on the table for Warcraft with Global Battle Net, Warcraft Mobile Games, 9.2 Release Date.

I don't think an Expansion reveal is happening unless they are going for the "Zovaal is destroyed + No Consequences Ending". I definitely still feel confident that we won't see anything Expansion wise until after Zovaal Cinematic. But, it all depends on what happens in that Cinematic.

We know that Part A of that is confirmed, we don't know about No Consequences but I would bet good money that the consequences are much more minor than some people expect. If anything we will see Azeroth wake up somewhat (as we are defending her from Zovaal during the fight and she might smack him around) but I don't think we're going to get a huge expansion-to-expansion plot hook like Galakrond. Remember they are "closing a book" and we are basically reaching the end of all the Legion plotlines.

If Zovaal shat out Galakrond at the end, I doubt everyone would have the free time to go attend Sylvanas's trial at the end.

I can see 10.0's cinematic being very similar to Vanilla in that it highlights different parts of Azeroth and some antagonists more than a story based cinematic like we have seen in the past few years... or it's straight up Turalyon putting on a crown of light, bringing in the Lightbound, etc. I would say it's a 50/50 shot as its looking like the only loose end in Shadowlands (that isn't Vol'jin) is the Nathrezim (and specifically Lothraxion).

[Makabreska]

With all that talk about "the end of first chapter" some kind of soft reboot/time skip or w/e are to be expected. Unless of course they talked out of their asses and that "ending" means little. But I think they will go for something bigger, seeing how grand, to the point of exhaustion, stakes, plots and settings became. They are not unaware of these issues and it makes creating future stories more difficult.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I mean I hope we get a "Back to Basic" and simple premise with Azeroth as the main selling point with content being the focus of the expansion rather than the game systems. I do not think the audience would enjoy Back to Azeroth but with a Cosmic Twist or being stuck on a Island Continent for 2 years on Azeroth. Yrel and her Armada is also heavily confusing for everyone beyond those in the know and Turalyon going Genocidal when we return is going to put 10.0 in a tailspin for the entire audience and especially if Yrel is introduced afterwards.

It will be so easy to market 10.0 if it is this Azeroth based expansion with new characters introduced and built upon by Danuser and his team. But, we'll see.

I don't know, I have genuinely zero idea what their plan is at this point in time after they shoved the "Zovaal is Destroyed" onto PTR.

I know they have a lot of good news with Global Battle Net for WoW and Mobile Games but what the main announcement for the Livestream will be is beyond me at this point in time. I am hoping for simplicity with a focus of content with a patch schedule that keeps engagement high.

There's also that whole Light in the Sky and how when it went dark it would be a "bad time" for us. But, I doubt thats' in play.

[Zers Editor]

I wonder if Zovaal attacking Azeroth/us healing it will do something that will lead to 10.0. And after the fight is done, he proclaims that he "succeeded", somehow.

[Cosmic Janitor]

With all that talk about "the end of first chapter" some kind of soft reboot/time skip or w/e are to be expected. Unless of course they talked out of their asses and that "ending" means little. But I think they will go for something bigger, seeing how grand, to the point of exhaustion, stakes, plots and settings became. They are not unaware of these issues and it makes creating future stories more difficult.

Is that honestly even in doubt? I mean let's be real here, that wohle part was the biggest piece of wank Blizzard formulated in a while. The last time they reached those "heights" was when they went on about morally grey before they went on to let the horde commiting blatant genocide as unprovoked agressors.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

With all that talk about "the end of first chapter" some kind of soft reboot/time skip or w/e are to be expected. Unless of course they talked out of their asses and that "ending" means little. But I think they will go for something bigger, seeing how grand, to the point of exhaustion, stakes, plots and settings became. They are not unaware of these issues and it makes creating future stories more difficult.

I will bet it all that there's no such things as "chapters" in WoW and they just threw that out to try and parrot the messaging of their primary competition.

[AngerFork]

You mean like they've been doing about every expansion for the last 15 years or so?

More than that. What we've had is slight adjustments to the engine to go along with minor graphics/effects updates here or there. What I'm saying with a retooled version of the engine is something where the underlying architecture has been updated to allow them a wider range of shaders/particles/graphics/etc to better run graphical updates.

I will bet it all that there's no such things as "chapters" in WoW and they just threw that out to try and parrot the messaging of their primary competition.

I feel it's a bit of both. Like they somewhat look at it as an extra chapter in the Arthas/WC3 saga that they are closing out, but really opted to push the message when FFXIV pushed the Endwalker "end of story" expansion as they did.

[Makabreska]

Is that honestly even in doubt? I mean let's be real here, that wohle part was the biggest piece of wank Blizzard formulated in a while. The last time they reached those "heights" was when they went on about morally grey before they went on to let the horde commiting blatant genocide as unprovoked agressors.

Weak comparison. A word from the interview with game director (famous for mishaps like that) when WoW was doing good with Legion VS a carefully scripted text from patch reveal when game is struggling and future is uncertain.

I will bet it all that there's no such things as "chapters" in WoW and they just threw that out to try and parrot the messaging of their primary competition.

Maybe enough of this FFXIV paranoia? We just got a guy shitting on Blizz, because in 9.2 they apparently "stole" a symbol from that game. You don't need to look at other titles to see WoW needs some story closure and sort-of-a-fresh start.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I feel it's a bit of both. Like they somewhat look at it as an extra chapter in the Arthas/WC3 saga that they are closing out, but really opted to push the message when FFXIV pushed the Endwalker "end of story" expansion as they did.

To be fair, there is also the angle that this is now the work of an entirely different team, as I think the only original Warcraft contributor left is Samwise Diddier, and we haven't heard from him at all in years.

- - - Updated - - -

Weak comparison. A word from the interview with game director (famous for mishaps like that) when WoW was doing good with Legion VS a carefully scripted text from patch reveal when game is struggling and future is uncertain.

As far as blatant bullshit goes, no, that is a pretty apt comparison.

[Makabreska]

As far as blatant bullshit goes, no, that is a pretty apt comparison.

Only if it's shown true. But we don't know it yet.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I feel like they pulled out weird stuff in that 9.2 Announcement Video. They pulled out the Art Team since everyone loves them and then gave them an awkward script and then tied everyone over with Danuser's presentation of the fact that this was Endwalker for WoW.

Again, I hope that we get better PR for 10.0 and not more of whatever 9.2 was.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Weak comparison. A word from the interview with game director (famous for mishaps like that) when WoW was doing good with Legion VS a carefully scripted text from patch reveal when game is struggling and future is uncertain.

That interview gets taken out of context a lot. The original statement is the events of Azeroth are morally grey. Not sylvanas is morally grey. Really annoying but unsurprising with this community.

[Cosmic Janitor]

That interview gets taken out of context a lot. The original statement is the events of Azeroth are morally grey. Not sylvanas is morally grey. Really annoying but unsurprising with this community.

Good thing I wasn't even mentioning Sylvanas, but the Horde here. Still complete and utter bullshit, since most of the stuff the wow team has done is anything but morally grey. Typical white knight response though, GG.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I mean Sylvanas will face her day in court and she will recieve a home arrest sentence with electronic monitoring to make sure she stays in Windrunner Spire with her sisters and that hopefully will be it for her outside of cute comfy stories about the Three Sisters or something.

I'm pretty bored of Sylvanas at this point in time. She didn't even explain herself about what cycle we're breaking or anything in 9.2 and instead we have to wait till Zovaal Cinematic to finally know the truth.

[Luck4]

She didn't even explain herself about what cycle we're breaking or anything in 9.2 and instead we have to wait till Zovaal Cinematic to finally know the truth.

Hopefully...

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Hopefully...

Well, the Beam™ could swoop in and save the day and we just forget about all of the little details about this expansion. Prophecy? Fatescribes? Zovaal 8D Chess Plan?

Nah, we going back to Azeroth for a fun Azeroth expan- and o-oopsie its all Cosmos now!

[Dracullus]

I hope people will be more loud about Mage Tower/M+ after this week. I feel like little more pressure and Blizzard could rearrange schedules even during current patch.