Blizzard's core "done when it's done" philosophy under threat?

[Deleted]

I saw this and was quite surprised to be honest: https://twitter.com/Bashiok/status/490187297519042560

I dont know exactly what those faction outposts will look like (maybe theyll be better than how they sound?) but in every expansion Blizz have made time to create a decent faction hub. The fact that many people see WoD as having far fewer features than previous xpacs and that a lot of people will be spending much of their online time there doesnt sound too good....

If theyre diverting resources by creating lite versions of faction hubs, what are they spending their resources on? Do you think some other game's internal development is hogging those resources or maybe updating the character models is taking up all the art team's time?

Considering where the expansion is in development right now and after playing beta, this is the first time an xpac feels "rushed" to me :S

[Naxere]

I saw this and was quite surprised to be honest: https://twitter.com/Bashiok/status/490187297519042560

I dont know exactly what those faction outposts will look like (maybe theyll be better than how they sound?) but in every expansion Blizz have made time to create a decent faction hub. The fact that many people see WoD as having far fewer features than previous xpacs and that a lot of people will be spending much of their online time there doesnt sound too good....

If theyre diverting resources by creating lite versions of faction hubs, what are they spending their resources on? Do you think some other game's internal development is hogging those resources or maybe updating the character models is taking up all the art team's time?

Considering where the expansion is in development right now and after playing beta, this is the first time an xpac feels "rushed" to me :S

Which is quite a feat, considering it's been in development for how long now?

Personally, I think if they didn't revamp the classes/talents/stats every expansion, they'd have more time to focus on other stuff.

[Santti]

Which is quite a feat, considering it's been in development for how long now?

Personally, I think if they didn't revamp the classes/talents/stats every expansion, they'd have more time to focus on other stuff.

Don't know if it works that way. Blizzard has different teams dedicated to different parts of the game, meaning the team responsible on the UI won't participate on balancing the game, for example.

[owbu]

I think we are just more involved in the process thanks to twitter and co.

Feature Lockdown (Everything thats not in gets the shaft) is a pretty normal thing to happen in development, even at Blizzard.

I personally feel like cutting the memorable hubs out of panda and WoD is a bad decision (Cool hubs and epic raids are one of the easiest ways to create immersion/nostalgia), but I dont think that they changed the way they operate. They just communicate more.

Seems to be the Artwork Teams work that is being cut the most this time (Garrisons, Capitals), so hopefully that means they are using them for more dungeons/raids instead.

[Wildtree]

To some degree I share the sentiment...
The beta feels very incomplete to me. I can't help it, but I have the impression that the game development is behind schedule somehow.

Hard to explain really...
Closest would be, how things were meant to be different, but for one reason or another a drastic change had to be made, that resulted in some kind of a start over from almost scratch. And now the focus is on getting the product ends tied together in a somewhat timely manner that it can get released before the end of the year.

But like I said, that's a feeling... Incredibly subjective therefore.

[Deleted]

I personally feel like cutting the memorable hubs out of panda and WoD is a bad decision (Cool hubs and epic raids are one of the easiest ways to create immersion/nostalgia), but I dont think that they changed the way they operate. They just communicate more.

Yes I would agree. How amazing is Dalaran (not just the look but also the layout of it)? I have set my hearthstone to Dalaran for every expansion since wrath as soon as I get to max level and will continue to do that until its not feasible/a better capital city gets made. If you go to shattrath youll notice its empty, but if you go to Dalaran theres always quite a few people there (and not just mages...). Thats how important a well designed capital city can be.

To some degree I share the sentiment...
The beta feels very incomplete to me. I can't help it, but I have the impression that the game development is behind schedule somehow.

I think because its an mmo its sort of ok. So if for example WoD is only 80% complete compared to other xpacs when its released its not that important as they can patch in the extra 20% quality content shortly after release, as long as its decently playable until then. I think whats making everything worse is that not only does WoD look extremely feature poor but its been soooooo long since MoP and siege came out as well.....

[Kaganfindel]

Hey, at least they finally stopped feeding you bullshit and told you, "we don't have time to give you a capitol that isn't a shithole."

[Naxere]

I wonder if Alex Afrasiabi is having flashbacks to his EQ: Gates of Discord days.

[Ratyrel]

Imo players will be spending a lot of time in their Garrisons as well; the lack of a unique faction hub may not be as problematical, especially since we've never had two distinct hubs built solely for an expansion (Shattrath, Dalaran, Stormwind-Org revamp, cloned shrines).

[Raven]

So did you play Tbc, wotlk, cata and Mop beta ? sure it have some disconnects and bugs but it feel a hell lot better and polished than what the others did this short amout of time after it gone to beta from alpha.

[Hoddie]

"We have to release this expac some time" and "it's done when it's done" are almost two sides of the same coin. It seems there's been a shift in policy at Blizzard. Whereas they'd have taken as long as needed to get things right, even if it means re-doing an entire zone like they did with Jade Forest in MoP, now it's a case of "yeah it's not perfect but it'll have to do, we need to get this expac out."

[Queen of Hamsters]

I don't understand why they must spend tons of time each expansion to basically rewrite our classes...where is the value in having to "relearn" classes each and every bloody expansion?

Maybe they'd have loads more time on their hands if they didn't do this and simply allowed us to play the class we play the way that we have been for the past expansion.

[lunchbox2042]

It feels like they've given up on putting out quality and have decided to just put out what's done.

[Santti]

I don't understand why they must spend tons of time each expansion to basically rewrite our classes...where is the value in having to "relearn" classes each and every bloody expansion?

Maybe they'd have loads more time on their hands if they didn't do this and simply allowed us to play the class we play the way that we have been for the past expansion.

I see what you mean. But then again, it does bring that freshness to your favorite class. Design goals change all the time. See the introduction of all those crowd control abilities that are now being removed for example. Or the ever increasing amount of levels that bring new talents. Or changes to the stats. All of these and more require certain amount of changes to your class.

It's easy to see why you don't remain the same for years and years.

[mrinvisable2]

on beta we arent seeing latest beta builds

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

Sounds like bad project-management to me...

[Deleted]

Does anyone think they might be diverting resources from wow to some secret massive project they might be working on (Titan or otherwise?) or are fixed teams really fixed?

Also, the delay/featurelessness of this expansion happening close to the departure of ghostcrawler and rob pardo - anyone think something is up at blizzard or just coincidence?

I have to say though, despite it seeming like WoD doesnt have many features, mechanics wise the game feels a lot better than MoP - many people on beta (myself included) are really enjoying the changes.

[WanderingBreezes]

It feels like it hasn't been long in development at all. It feels as if they went to the drawing board many times and restarted the entire project only a few months ago.

There's a fairly good chance of that not being far from the truth considering the unspoken delay from the beginning of this year. Repeating myself, I know, but people keep forgetting about this.

While the Iron Horde gears up for war on Draenor, back here on earth we’re making preparations for the expansion’s upcoming closed beta test.

Warlords of Draenor™—Scouting Report [January 16th]

[Rivellana]

Maybe his response stems from the fact that they're damned if they do, damned if they don't.
They get bitched at constantly, no matter what they do.

They delay getting the expansion out so that they can fix the capitol cities up to people's liking? They get bitched at for not getting it done fast enough. They delay the capitol cities so that they can get some new content out and wait on showing the cities until they're ready? They get bitched at for not having the cities done (also "not getting it done fast enough"). They give us both the new content and the capitol cities before they're done and ready? They get bitched at for everything looking like crap.

The cities being delayed seems like the least offensive scenario to me, as I'm sure it did to them as well, which is why they're doing this.

[MrHappy]

there exists a scale...one end is take forever and release everything the other one is release things quickly but in very small amounts. No matter where Blizzard picks to be on that scale...people would be upset and want to start a riot. You can't please everyone.