9.0 General Discussion

[Nokster10]

The statement Azerite armor is garbage from thousands of people that did not have beta access didn’t help though. And I say this as someone who genuinely despised BfA and thinks it’s the worst expansion with the worst systems ever.

Why should Blizzard care about the opinion of those thousands that just regurgitate stuff they’ve seen or heart yet neither experienced nor tested themselves? That’s the exact problem that I’m talking about. Let alone the heavy story spoilers that shouldn’t be a thing at all until the expansion/patch is released.

I didn’t want to start an argument about datamining though, I just said I like that encrypted stuff and hope it’s here to stay. If others don’t like it, well, I think that’s fine.

Why should blizzard care about the opinion of thousands of players? Maybe because they are part of the playerbase? and the want a better game? Hello? YOu think your opinion is better or what? You think the opinion of people playing beta under NDA is more valuable? Get outta here you selfish prick.
The datamining and testing shoulda started long ago actually if they want a good expansion with tons of feedback. But you don't care about that, you just do your casual daily quests and RP in goldshire i guess.

[Nyel]

Why should blizzard care about the opinion of thousands of players? Maybe because they are part of the playerbase? and the want a better game? Hello? YOu think your opinion is better or what? You think the opinion of people playing beta under NDA is more valuable? Get outta here you selfish prick.
The datamining and testing shoulda started long ago actually if they want a good expansion with tons of feedback. But you don't care about that, you just do your casual daily quests and RP in goldshire i guess.

Excuse me? Who is selfish here, someone who thinks he can judge stuff he has no clue about, hasn’t experienced or played it or has any insights - or someone like me who just wants people with direct access to judge that stuff? Wow, just wow Mr. Armchair developer.

I didn’t even want to defend Blizzard but your statement is ridiculous.

[Varx]

I get why the saurfang cinematics, AR dks, RP talk with bolvar, etc were all encrypted. To keep huge spoilers from us.

Alpha though, just why and for so long now. It just makes no sense, especially since all LFR wings are out.

That said, perhaps a new class isnt so farfetched. Imagine having a new bit of content under their sleeves that was not shown in blizzcon due to it not being ready or a last minute agreed upon addition.

So who knows maybe we can expect dark rangers or necromancers once datamining is available.

[Palapop]

They gonna release it tomorrow. And we won't be 100% sure if it's April's fool, or real alpha build.

[Nokster10]

Excuse me? Who is selfish here, someone who thinks he can judge stuff he has no clue about, hasn’t experienced or played it or has any insights - or someone like me who just wants people with direct access to judge that stuff? Wow, just wow Mr. Armchair developer.

I didn’t even want to defend Blizzard but your statement is ridiculous.

Yes, people can actually see broken things without playing. Not every1 is clueless about the game like you probably are.

[Edward Wu]

Uhm... has nothing to do with self control.

You admitted you hate being spoiled before it's actually out.
You're in the 9.0 spoiler thread and have actively participated in it despite that.

Conclusion: You have no self control and you're motivated to take your stance because you recognize (but won't admit openly) that you can't effectively ignore WoW leaks and spoilers yourself, so you'd prefer Blizzard do it for you.

[Sondrelk]

The statement Azerite armor is garbage from thousands of people that did not have beta access didn’t help though. And I say this as someone who genuinely despised BfA and thinks it’s the worst expansion with the worst systems ever.

Why should Blizzard care about the opinion of those thousands that just regurgitate stuff they’ve seen or heart yet neither experienced nor tested themselves? That’s the exact problem that I’m talking about. Let alone the heavy story spoilers that shouldn’t be a thing at all until the expansion/patch is released.

I didn’t want to start an argument about datamining though, I just said I like that encrypted stuff and hope it’s here to stay. If others don’t like it, well, I think that’s fine.

Players who test stuff do however need to discuss what they find with other people who have also found similar things, and possibly even those who have not experienced it for themselves.

And yes, the mass majority of feedback is useless to Blizzard, a streamer saying "Azerite is garbo, lel" and all his viewers parroting it on the forums helps noone.

Let us have a thought experiment. I am playing the BfA Beta and so are you, we are both at the point where we are finding Azerite armor and testing it.
Now i, being interested in fun abilities might complain that Azerite armor should have more impactful abilities, regardless of whether they are balanced.
On the other hand you are a Cutting edge raider, and you additionally like having a streamlined rotation, with very few abilities that impact it. You might complain that Azerite armor has too many variables.
If both of us had an NDA we would just report back contradicting viewpoints on the abilities Azerite armor gives, whereas if we discussed the findings in a forum thread we might come to a better compromise in what Azerite abilities should look like, which end up benefiting us both, instead of only one, or neither.

You could apply this to other things as well.
One person might complain that questing is too linear, and report back that Blizzard should make all questing completely freeform.
Another person might be annoyed that there is no structure to questing, and that you rarely feel an escalating threat, therefor making a report that Blizzard should make Questing extremely on rails with loads of setpieces.
Now a tiny amount of discussion would lead most people to the conclusion that these two viewpoints are not mutually exclusive, and that you can have both a setpiece heavy escalating story, and still allow for diversions along the way, or even entirely questing free approaches like looking for chests or picking herbs.

- - - Updated - - -

I get why the saurfang cinematics, AR dks, RP talk with bolvar, etc were all encrypted. To keep huge spoilers from us.

Alpha though, just why and for so long now. It just makes no sense, especially since all LFR wings are out.

That said, perhaps a new class isnt so farfetched. Imagine having a new bit of content under their sleeves that was not shown in blizzcon due to it not being ready or a last minute agreed upon addition.

So who knows maybe we can expect dark rangers or necromancers once datamining is available.

If the Alpha is encrypted despite being playable, then it is more likely because Blizzard wants to have a more polished product being released, instead of diluting the initial hype with loads of tiny updates where you can only explore half a zone, or look at an unfinished expansion hub.

[Nyel]

You admitted you hate being spoiled before it's actually out.
You're in the 9.0 spoiler thread and have actively participated in it despite that.

Conclusion: You have no self control and you're motivated to take your stance because you recognize (but won't admit openly) that you can't effectively ignore WoW leaks and spoilers yourself, so you'd prefer Blizzard do it for you.

My god, I don’t give a damn about spoilers for retail. I am genuinely indifferent about the future of the story of retail WoW that I am just here because I am bored and like to be up to date. Doesn’t mean I care about the outcome. Datamining could spoiler the entire Shadowlands story for me and I couldn’t care less about it, that’s how much I am interested in it. N-o-t a-t a-l-l. Systems? Mechanics? Class changes? Yes. Story? Absolutely zero interest.

My point is that I think it’s better for the game if datamining is reduced by a large amount. This has absolutely nothing to do with me being unable to avoid spoilers. This is not the hottest Netflix show right now, it’s just WoW. At the same time I still have the highest respect for Marlamin and all the work he (and others) does in that regard. I just wish Blizzard would step up their game and it seems like they can if they want to. And that’s what I‘m hoping for.

@Sondrelk I agree with you on the discussion part. But imho that’s what closed alpha/beta forums are for and not fan forums like this. But that’s another kind of story what’s available for testers and what’s not.

[Makorus]

You can see that a public datamined Alpha/Beta is kind of required by the fact that no one gives a shit about Shadowlands or isnt even remotely excited?

[George Costanza]

You can see that a public datamined Alpha/Beta is kind of required by the fact that no one gives a shit about Shadowlands or isnt even remotely excited?

myeah sort of. People are "hyped" up by the potential of stuff blizzard can do but not what they will do.

[Makorus]

myeah sort of. People are "hyped" up by the potential of stuff blizzard can do but not what they will do.

It doesn't really matter.

It gets people talking, news outlets will post about it, memes get created, speculation, theorycrafting, all that. Shadowlands will be on peoples mind.

Its been almost half a year since Blizzcon and we've heard nothing about Shadowlands. Its embarrassing really.

[Yarathir]

My god, I don’t give a damn about spoilers for retail. I am genuinely indifferent about the future of the story of retail WoW that I am just here because I am bored and like to be up to date. Doesn’t mean I care about the outcome. Datamining could spoiler the entire Shadowlands story for me and I couldn’t care less about it, that’s how much I am interested in it. N-o-t a-t a-l-l. Systems? Mechanics? Class changes? Yes. Story? Absolutely zero interest.

My point is that I think it’s better for the game if datamining is reduced by a large amount. This has absolutely nothing to do with me being unable to avoid spoilers. This is not the hottest Netflix show right now, it’s just WoW. At the same time I still have the highest respect for Marlamin and all the work he (and others) does in that regard. I just wish Blizzard would step up their game and it seems like they can if they want to. And that’s what I‘m hoping for.

@Sondrelk I agree with you on the discussion part. But imho that’s what closed alpha/beta forums are for and not fan forums like this. But that’s another kind of story what’s available for testers and what’s not.

Well, thankfully you don't work at Blizzard.

[George Costanza]

It doesnt really matter.

It gets people talking, news outlets will post about it, memes get created, speculation, theorycrafting, all that. Shadowlands will be on peoples mind.

Its been almost half a hear since Blizzcon and weve heard nothing about Shadowlands. Its embarassing really.

The cycle is quite sad when you realize it tbh.

[Revamp Man]

He wasn't at Blizzcon. 100% sure.

So they are doing alpha testing with an NDA

[Sondrelk]

@Sondrelk I agree with you on the discussion part. But imho that’s what closed alpha/beta forums are for and not fan forums like this. But that’s another kind of story what’s available for testers and what’s not.

An exclusive Thread would be nice and all, even if it might end up not being as exciting to discuss things in considering the tiny subset of players getting into the test realm being made even more tiny by the small amount of players even discussing things on forums anyways.

Even beyond that though, hands on experience being something to discuss with other players who also have hands on experience is necessary, but you also cannot underestimate the large amount of players with thoughtful commentary and critique available even if thye only get secondhand experience. Not to mention that you need the viewpoint of those who have not played it to give their own idea of what the content should be like, untarnished by the actual experiences.

Islands are one of thsoe things that could easily be tarnished by actually aplying it, and not having the untainted viewpoint of what it is like in your mind, as pointless as that sometimes is.
One player might have problems with tuning, another might have problems with the gearing, and a third might think the variety is lacking. But only someone who never actually played it would likely be able to give ideas on ways of improving what we already had, seeing as it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking something is completely unsavageable after you have played it.

[johnny download]

How I see it is that right now is that if Blizzard puts out an initial standard barebones alpha build that doesn't do much to impress, it immediately creates a negative narrative surrounding Shadowlands way before it's even released that they definitely do not want.

But that'd probably happen regardless of what they do re: alpha and I'm still expecting a normal-sized alpha build and normal testing process. :')

[Hyrja]

Just got a bnet update, maybe some backend changes to support Alpha

[Archmage Alodi]

I'm pretty sure we're gonna get one of those dev update videos before alpha/beta goes live.

[TarzoEzio]

Hey they is great news! I think we can actually see decryption this week!

[Ersula]

I'm pretty sure we're gonna get one of those dev update videos before alpha/beta goes live.

Maybe before the Beta, but I can't imagine why they would skip opening the game up to a controlled sampling of the community. Or why they would make an update video for something they can't play, just read about on one of the 3 general wow websites.

But I am imagining why the Alpha is still encrypted: Most of the people who'd be getting alpha keys to cover the game, WoW Youtubers, have been openly shitting on BFA. Personally, I'd want to give them something new to talk about but maybe they're afraid they'll shit on the alpha too.