Has it always been this long...

[Nayelie]

...between expansions? I started playing WoW two weeks before Cata came out, so I do not know how long the wait was between the release of ICC and the release of Cata. I'm not sure what Blizz could do in the future to shorten the time between a patch and a release, but I feel like I can only achievement grind for so long.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The average length is 2 years between x.0 and x++.0.

So if we see MoP this year, it'll be on time. We'll likely see it early, in fact, around 1.75 years.

[Yuni]

You actually had to wait longer between ICC and Cata.

[leaks]

Icc came out on Dec. 8 2009
Cata came out Dec. 7 2010

[Nayelie]

Wow I didn't realize it was that long between ICC and Cata.

What do you think Blizz could do in the future to make the time pass quicker?

[Deleted]

The last content patch is allways the longest, there is a reason people takes breaks this time around

---------- Post added 2012-06-27 at 05:18 PM ----------

Wow I didn't realize it was that long between ICC and Cata.

What do you think Blizz could do in the future to make the time pass quicker?

Nothing, let them work on the expansion, filler up patches just slows the release down

[looorg]

What do you think Blizz could do in the future to make the time pass quicker?

Sprinkle more Trollraids/instances over the world? More single fluffydragonfights, clearly Onyxia can't be dead, undead zombie onyxia will return ... Death is never a setback.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Wow I didn't realize it was that long between ICC and Cata.

What do you think Blizz could do in the future to make the time pass quicker?

More patches. Right now we get 3 major patches an expansion, and without a change it'll drop to 2 in MoP. We need to go back to the vanilla system and inflate the patch totals. Got a new BG? It gets its own major patch? Heroics? THeir own patch. Raids keep their own patch. I say set the bar at 6 patches in MoP. All about 3 months apart. Then it'll be at most 6 months between Siege of Orgrimmar and 6.0.

[Nayelie]

Hmm... I think more patches per expansion would be great. I like new content. And if bgs and such had their own patches, it might make more people want to at least give PvP a try.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

More patches. Right now we get 3 major patches an expansion, and without a change it'll drop to 2 in MoP. We need to go back to the vanilla system and inflate the patch totals. Got a new BG? It gets its own major patch? Heroics? THeir own patch. Raids keep their own patch. I say set the bar at 6 patches in MoP. All about 3 months apart. Then it'll be at most 6 months between Siege of Orgrimmar and 6.0.

ONE MOOOORRRRRE THING!

I also say we need to go back to 4 tiers in an expansion, because let's face it, 3 tiers feels too short.

[Trassk]

At the very least, next time blizzard should do something ingame to help players pass the time, a single filler raid and a dungeon would help break it up, and perhaps a faction for some fun loots.

[Hoddie]

I don't agree that an upcoming expansion should be an excuse to slack off providing new content on live. Hell, a 5-man or new games at the DMF would be something at least. They could have done a small update to Ahune for the summer holiday. I'm almost certainly going to take a break next time around rather than suffer a third consecutive months-long gap between new content, and I won't get suckered in to any sort of Annual Pass shite next time either!

[Mouse Crouse]

I understand most people didn't really raid Ruby Sanctum much, but why do we completely ignore it?

3.3.5 Ruby Sanctum was released June 20th (US), and Cataclysm was Released December 7th (US) ~ Less then 6 months between content (not even counting elemental invasion).

4.3.0 Dragon Soul and Hour of Twilight released November 29th (US), and today's date is June 27th ~ 7 Months already with nothing of a release date set.

You shouldn't ignore Ruby Sanctum because it WAS content added. And many would be happy for a raid of that size to be released for anything new to do. They are on track to be 9 months at least between content, and that is too long in my opinion. I'll happily play Mists when it is released and I'm not saying anything drastic, but it is taking too long.

[ryotte]

OP, have you heard of the one-boss raid, Ruby Sanctum, which came between ICC and Cata release? Honestly, no one really wants another one of those...a filler raid to waste our time (and undoubtledly waste some Blizzard resources) to keep people entertained with new content in between. People did that place a couple times for achievements and then went back to whining they'd been in ICC so long, because that "filler raid" really didn't fill the gap left after ICC. Way anticlimactic.

As for what they could do to make the time shorter...idk, I'm not really as worried about that as I was the reduction in content in Cata overall. Let them take a little time to make an expansion/patch GOOD rather than foist it on us half-ass, because that gets old faster than well-done content. For an end boss, they WANT everyone to see it. This is what you've been gearing for and working toward this entire expansion! They want to give everyone time to feel like conquerors, and give all the people who unsubbed in the past 2 years a chance to come back and still feel like part of the expansion, because this tier is supposed to be the for reals end of end game for this expansion.

Cata went in like a lion and out like a lamb, and that's what I'd like NOT to see with MoP (regardless of whether we spend 9 months on the last raid of the expansion or not). Cata dropped with three raids, with a total of, what, 13 (normal) encounters? Then we got 2 troll dungeons. Next raid patch is FL with only 7 bosses. Then DS with 8 bosses, and the difficulty knob had obviously been slid waaaaayyyy down from FL - it's still harder to pug reg Rag than reg DW. I don't want to see this trend continue.

[Hoddie]

The whole "more content and faster" mantra really has turned out to be absolute bollox. I cannot believe they keep saying it, and I cannot believe that plenty of people accept them at their word.

[Thelxi]

The whole "more content and faster" mantra really has turned out to be absolute bollox. I cannot believe they keep saying it, and I cannot believe that plenty of people accept them at their word.

And to add to that the 4.1 patch was the cheapest excuse for a patch I have ever been disappointed by.

[greatestlockever]

The last content patch is allways the longest, there is a reason people takes breaks this time around

---------- Post added 2012-06-27 at 05:18 PM ----------



Nothing, let them work on the expansion, filler up patches just slows the release down

save your pessimism for RL,

they just need to hire more employees to work on expansions/ new games... they make like 1000000 trillion dollars per year in profit.

[Nayelie]

See, the whole payment of $15 a month is for new, quality content. I am regretting the annual pass sign-up atm, because I log on only maybe once a week to go for an achievement or two. While I do agree that I do not want them to rush content that isn't up to par, I can't help but feel disappointed in the lack of new things to do. I wasn't around for Ruby Sanctum, as I came to WoW two weeks before the Cata release. But it sounds like it wasn't done in the right direction.

[Rivin]

Unfortunately that $15 doesn't guarantee you anything except access to Blizzard's servers. The long wait for content between expansions sucks, but it's entirely normal and expected at this point. Blizzard just isn't very fast at getting new content out.

[huth]

Hmm... I think more patches per expansion would be great. I like new content. And if bgs and such had their own patches, it might make more people want to at least give PvP a try.

It wouldn't be more content, though, it'd be less. Blizzard would have to deal with a lot more overhead due to the faster production cycle. I'd rather have fewer patches but overall more content.