anyone else think blizzard are gonna go all out next xp?

[tangers58]

after a really disappointing bfa it seems to me that to recoup lost subs they will have to go all in like how they did with legion. either way im looking forward to this years blizzcon a lot, the next 3 months gonna go slow lol

Unlikely, Activision has them in cutback mode. Just going to be reused assets and scraping by with the bare minimum

[Akka]

If you ignore that this game like every game lose people no matter how good it is due to age, then sure, it didn't gain any.

Both WoD and Legion had a spike of 10 millions subscribers at release. The argument that the loss of subscribers is inevitable due to age can't convince me when there is such an evidence that a lot of people are still interested in the game, but leave so quickly.

[Musta]

Team 2 needs to be shamed.

[Marrilaife]

This is the trap everyone runs into. Thinking they have to do something. You don't have to do anything.

Blaming the playerbase is a cop out though. It's like saying "my burger shop isn't doing so well because people have bad taste and don't wanna buy my awesome burgers". Won't help you increase the sales.

The same reason why they 180 degree turned on Classic. "You think you do, but you don't" is such a buffoon response. Best way to make profit is to give people what they're willing to pay for. And actually listen to their feedback. Doesn't mean you follow blindly on it, but you don't just discard it.

Some features, like archeology or AP should have stayed a novelty of 1 expansion instead of being dragged on forever.

[Musta]

Plus, i want class halls back.

[dcc626]

Blaming the playerbase is a cop out though. It's like saying "my burger shop isn't doing so well because people have bad taste and don't wanna buy my awesome burgers". Won't help you increase the sales.

The same reason why they 180 degree turned on Classic. "You think you do, but you don't" is such a buffoon response. Best way to make profit is to give people what they're willing to pay for. And actually listen to their feedback. Doesn't mean you follow blindly on it, but you don't just discard it.

Some features, like archeology or AP should have stayed a novelty of 1 expansion instead of being dragged on forever.

regardless, the playerbase is pretty shit.

if you think that listening to and doing everything the playerbase asks for is a good idea im not sure what to tell you. heres a hint: it would still be bad.

[Sinndra]

will they go all out? it will certainly feel that way, but not because they are scrambling to make up for disappointments.. but because there are 2 different Dev teams. we have the B team working BfA.. same team that gave us WoD and Cata.

the A team will deliver the next expac which will be the same team giving us Wrath, MoP and Legion. so yes, next xpac will seem pretty amazing when we get to hear the details, because thats what the A team has been doing for 12 yrs now, fixing the wrongs that the B team keeps giving us.

[Doffen]

Both WoD and Legion had a spike of 10 millions subscribers at release. The argument that the loss of subscribers is inevitable due to age can't convince me when there is such an evidence that a lot of people are still interested in the game, but leave so quickly.

That might be, but people also stay and let's not ignore what I wrote about blizz reporting that the MAU in Legion tells us that Legion actually kept people instead of people leaving in droves like in WoD. So more people stayed compared to WoD if we are to believe blizzard.

So, an improvement. Which was the thing we discussed anyway. Wether you don't think age got nothing to do with a game, or that I think it does got nothing to do with that argument. I could be wrong, sure. Was Legion an improvement over WoD? 8 of 10 would say yes, something tells me Blizzard do as well. And yes, 8 of 10 isn't purely based on fact, but a quick glance would give us this idea. But then we are going into another topic which would be based more on opinions I suppose.

[Azerate]

I enjoy BfA so if it's even better than BfA, that's great news to me personally.

will they go all out? it will certainly feel that way, but not because they are scrambling to make up for disappointments.. but because there are 2 different Dev teams. we have the B team working BfA.. same team that gave us WoD and Cata.

the A team will deliver the next expac which will be the same team giving us Wrath, MoP and Legion. so yes, next xpac will seem pretty amazing when we get to hear the details, because thats what the A team has been doing for 12 yrs now, fixing the wrongs that the B team keeps giving us.

It's worth noting that none of this is confirmed in any way and is just a conspiracy theory

[Doffen]

regardless, the playerbase is pretty shit.

if you think that listening to and doing everything the playerbase asks for is a good idea im not sure what to tell you. heres a hint: it would still be bad.

They do that too much already. Not about bugs and stuff so things actually works, but there is quite a lot of things that just go sideways when blizzard are listening to the vocals. Too hard grind in Legion? Let's nerf it to hell because ihateblizz and grind4shills on the forums says that they can't stand doing something to progress their character. Just an example.

[Doffen]

I love it how if shows the game is healthy then rumours about sub numbers are okay and get the green light.

But if it's the rumour that BfA was below 2million subs then it's a filthy rumour. Unconfirmed. You can't believe anything unless it's official numbers released in an official statement.

Just that the MAU I am talking about from Legion was not a rumour, but from blizzards official reports, big difference. Now in BfA, this year in Q1 they didn't write anything about it because it's clearly down, and I have actually mentioned that back when that was released.

About the 1.7 million from the WA dude, you really think half of the players even have that addon? :P Because that's what it would mean. The amount of players that got WA is closer to 5% than 50. So the "report" is kind of bogus. That blizzard doesn't say anything about WoWs performance, now that is telling us something. Same story, more believeable.

[Kuntantee]

They probably want to, but I do not think they have the capacity.

[Vlaid]

If they don't, most people who left won't come back and they'll lose more.

But even with BFA being a relatively bad expansion, they still have the most popular MMORPG on the market.

[Doffen]

What would you call grinding for a feature advertised on the box in BfA?

Returning players go: "Hell yeah I want to play one of those!". They load the game up and find that they need to level all the way to 120, which is a garbage experience. Then they need to complete the whole BfA levelling process. Then spend 2-4 weeks grinding horrible WQ content.... Only then to start a new character in the race they originally wanted.... Or fork over another $25 for a race change.



In regards to Legion - there's a difference between grinding towards a tangible reward that you can see and know you are getting. As opposed to grinding towards another RNG pull of the slot machine that might not even give you what you wanted or needed.

Indeed it is a difference, and what Legion did better, and what I am actually talking about with that example is that the Artifact system lasted through patches, you were not suddenly stuck with nothing to do 3months before next patch like you did in 8.1 to 8.2. It was over way too fast, while in Legion that progression lasted longer, thus kept it relevant longer.

Why did they put some rng into it you wonder? Because that's the solution to the change where the cut the character progression in half. But people complained about the progression didn't stop in Legion(well it did, for us who actually play the game, first to 52 points in weapon in guild, topping the meters), so blizzards reaction to it is to just dumb it down, leaving us with BfA's Azerite system

[Doffen]

The WA "leak" wasn't from people who installed the add-on. It was from Blizzard accidentally opening up some API that gave him access to numbers.

Unconfirmed or not. The negativity surrounding this expansion is widespread across all forms of social media. It's everywhere.

Anecdotally my guild and many others completely fell apart.

I know, it's more the notion that somehow half of the players got the WA addon, I would make a strong guess that most haven't really heard of it. I might be wrong of course!

Completely agree.

It's the Blizzard way. Go completely too far in one direction. Then completely pull it back way too far in the other direction.

Zero middle ground.

Yeah, they did screw that up. Tried the essence system? Tad better don't you think?

[Th3Scourge]

Absolutely I think they will. I definitely feel that BfA is heading in the right direction, even if 8.0 and most of 8.1 was a clusterfuck. I really do like that the essence acquisition is spread out over various types of content, I haven't seen this many people in BGs since Wrath

[Flurryfang]

I think that Blizzard thinks they went all out for BFA xD I don't think they are holding back or anything, so next expansion is completly random when it comes to what we can expect of its quality xD

The idea of them actually building up to a "better" expansion seems very odd for me and i just don't think that is how their process work. They have afterall been working for 9.0 for a long time, long before they really got a clear sight of what the reception of BFA was.

[Doffen]

Absolutely I think they will. I definitely feel that BfA is heading in the right direction, even if 8.0 and most of 8.1 was a clusterfuck. I really do like that the essence acquisition is spread out over various types of content, I haven't seen this many people in BGs since Wrath

Yeah we have had 10 minutes que-time lately on our group, what the actual fuck. It should be 2!

[tromage2]

Wonder what blizzard is going to do this blizzcon.
Can go two roads either they go full on Overwatch 2, Diablo 4 and WoW and try to get their fans back.

Or if they are going full on micro transactions and mobile titles and say f it time to get new fans.

[Shmazard]

They will only make retail WoW more casual, youre crazy to think otherwise.