How will 8.3 keep casuals occupied for 9+ months?

[Sosei]

As someone who was forced to go casual due to relocation (resulting in differences between working weeks and time zones), this question (in general) is something that I have to consider quite a bit given that any time spent playing the game detracts from wider responsibilities/desires.

I have to say BfA overall, for me, has been hit and miss. There have been pockets of elements that I consider truly engaging... and then other element s which simply have not appealed.

An example of the less appealing being the Mechagon and Nazjatar rep grinds, which no doubt I shall still be doing for some time to come.

As suggested previously, unless the next patch provides something truly gripping or enjoyably repeatable, is probably also use this time to enjoy classic.

[Dracullus]

this delusion is absolutely insane.

we only got a demo for a half baked zone in shadowlands, all of the dungeons are unfinished, the zone we got is unfinished, gameplay is unfinished etc

we won't be seeing the expansion until December next year at the earliest.

Thx Nostradamus. For sure they would set deadline for 31st December for themselves when they expect "December at the earliest".

What we saw was more or less Legion reveal, but Legion was condensed to one hour, so it felt more packed.

[IlikeDemonHunters]

An example of the less appealing being the Mechagon and Nazjatar rep grinds, which no doubt I shall still be doing for some time to come.
.

You can do mechagon in roughly a week (especially with the ani buff and when DMF is up) it is hardly a 'grind'

https://www.wow-rep.com/faction/batt...olt-resistance All adds up very quickly

[Sangfoudre]

this delusion is absolutely insane.

we only got a demo for a half baked zone in shadowlands, all of the dungeons are unfinished, the zone we got is unfinished, gameplay is unfinished etc

we won't be seeing the expansion until December next year at the earliest.

Except for the demo, this is purely speculation.

[Vitinariy]

I will be doing the usual, so 8 months of single player games on Steam.

[kaintk]

Heads up, female LF Drenai have ultra small 2h. It's pretty bad.

not a problem with 2 thunderfury in transmog

[Sorrowseer]

Horrific Visions?

They are a demerit for 8.3 for me, you spend time in a shitty zone to earn the right to spend more time in that shitty zone for gear that may have downside... not interested at all, I hate timed content.

[Dracullus]

Yeah keep trying to re-write history bud.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=248607/...n-announcement

What's your point exactly? We didn't have any working content, just few screens (some from Suramar, but city wasn't even textured on Alpha launch few months after), no major info on class changes, no details how artifacts will work. All major info - world quests, artifact/class hall progression, legendaries - came during Blizzcon '15.

Similar now - we have few screens from 4 zones and glimpse of Bastion, Covenants system (but no major details beside new bodyguard system), details on new leveling system (like details on new Honor stuff from Legion), some talk about returning skills for existing classes (similar to introducing some DH skills), introduction to expansion and few words about every zone.

Overall looks like some work on content is done, but system wise it's VERY early stage. Similar to Legion during reveal. Where I try to re-write history again?

[Zyky]

Like every final patch it won't. Casuals will unsub and that's expected.

[Dracullus]

Oh okay. So you didn't even look at the link? Where they listed in detail an absolute plethora of things.

Basically every interview for Shadowlands was "oh we can't answer that right now because we literally don't know".


Look at the Legion slides detailing the fucking story and key lore figures.

Shadowlands was all like... Oh Kael'thas.... Sylvanas.... Jailer.... Ummm souls and shit.... we don't really know about the story as we haven't written it yet.

"Yeah there's this new Tower thing coming but we don't know what it is or how it works. Just procedurally generated, that's all we know."

Lol. First I was: "how someone could be so nitpicky and unpleasant at the same time?" Then I realized who I'm talking to. Thanks for making my day.

Sure buddy. They totally explained how everything will work during Legion reveal, we had no further questions. No go your own way ;D

Well, well! If it isn't our old friend, Scarecrowz!

[Borgmore]

Casuals always find something to do...hardcore raiders burnout on..raiding..and go back to their ps4.

[Marrilaife]

Lol. First I was: "how someone could be so nitpicky and unpleasant at the same time?" Then I realized who I'm talking to. Thanks for making my day.

Sure buddy. They totally explained how everything will work during Legion reveal, we had no further questions. No go your own way ;D

Well, well! If it isn't our old friend, Scarecrowz!

Gotta love when they change name and avatar to pretend to be a different person...

Tbh I don't know why people hate on the idea new expansion is gonna be "more of the same just with new coat of paint", that's exactly what a new expansion should be in my opinion, a lot of the ideas to "innovate" either fell flat, stole spotlight from the staple expansion content, or were forced upon playerbase despite not being received well just because they wanted to trumpet that feature a success and had to have the numbers to show people participate in that content.

If there's one thing I hate, is the change for the sake of change and reinventing the wheel every expansion. Breaking stuff that worked because of some vocal minority that was "bored", meanwhile going further away from what loyal fans liked wow for.

Wow would have been better off if some of the "revolutionary" additions like vehicle combat, mission tables, ap grind, loaner abilities, etc. were never a "feature". Can't say I have any love for monks, inscription, archeology and few other "additions" that have to be maintained once implemented, but it's clear Blizzard has no idea how to do it well.

Do we really want Shadowlands have some centerpiece where 80% of the development efforts are gonna be sank like garrisons or islands/warfronts? Because I sure don't. As that was the reason the respective expansions felt lazy and lacking.

[Pony Soldier]

Well thanks to the 15th anniversary I was able to level up several characters to 120 so that gives me plenty of time to gear them up and do mog runs for the gear I've been wanting. So I should be good.

[brbshower]

Is there a particular reason we should really care about the casual player and their attention span? Sorry to sound selfish but if blizzard is keeping me entertained and engaged, I'm not exactly losing sleep over what everyone else thinks.

[Osmeric]

Is there a particular reason we should really care about the casual player and their attention span?

Without them, you would not have a game.

[Marrilaife]

Really though. My comparison is fair. Directly compare the Legion reveal and the Shadowlands one. They're wildly different, Legion is far more fleshed out and they were able to succinctly explain most of the expansion, in detail.

Shadowlands though? A whole lot of "we don't know". Yet you still think they can turn it around in 6 months? That sure worked for BfA didn't it.

BFA Blizzcon reveal was islands, islands and more fucken islands with some warfronts on top. That's the prime reason I don't wanna see another stupid "feature" plastered all around the expansion, goddamned islands and warfronts is where dev focus went and that's why BFA is shit.

Tbh exactly the same reason with WOD, way too much focus went into Garrisons instead of anything else.

Legion had what, artifacts and class halls? Shadowlands is trying to copy that with covenants. The biggest worry here is that copy is usually underwhelming when compared to the original. Also if they're doing levelling revamp, that might detract them from the new content because they have to bug fix the scaling tech, however majority of it is already in the game, so hopefully it won't be another Cata or WOD where zone revamp or model revamp took away from development of the rest of the game.

Best news for me is that their deadline is December instead of September, which means hopefully 3 more months put into development in comparison to BFA. And content droughts were never really a headache of mine, I either find stuff to do in wow or outside of wow, but I don't go and despair about it. Whoever feels they "have nothing to do" in wow just unsub?

[Hyrja]

It won't. I will suspend my subscription after I cleared HC Nyalotha and then take a break till pre-patch.

[kamuimac]

BFA Blizzcon reveal was islands, islands and more fucken islands with some warfronts on top. That's the prime reason I don't wanna see another stupid "feature" plastered all around the expansion, goddamned islands and warfronts is where dev focus went and that's why BFA is shit.

Tbh exactly the same reason with WOD, way too much focus went into Garrisons instead of anything else.

Legion had what, artifacts and class halls? Shadowlands is trying to copy that with covenants. The biggest worry here is that copy is usually underwhelming when compared to the original. Also if they're doing levelling revamp, that might detract them from the new content because they have to bug fix the scaling tech, however majority of it is already in the game, so hopefully it won't be another Cata or WOD where zone revamp or model revamp took away from development of the rest of the game.

Best news for me is that their deadline is December instead of September, which means hopefully 3 more months put into development in comparison to BFA. And content droughts were never really a headache of mine, I either find stuff to do in wow or outside of wow, but I don't go and despair about it. Whoever feels they "have nothing to do" in wow just unsub?

arguably warfronts are one of the most used features of this expansion. if i dont hhave nay problem to from up a group with 430 itlv req filled in 3/4 by 440+ people in 5 minutes and repeat this 12-13 times each time they are up this means people use them a lot.

islands fail for 1 reason - they dont offer gear rewards.

yes it is that simple.

if blizzard stopped with stupid experiements and put back in VP - let people upgrade gear with VP like in MoP islands would be used a lot too.

problem is not with features - problems is that nowadays if content X doesnt offer gear rewards people just ignore it and go do content Y,Z,A which do drop gear.

[Bigbazz]

EDIT: sorry, this was meant for the general discussion forum.

With 7.3 lasting 9 months, it is safe to assume that 8.3 will also be around for at least just as long, especially with such a big raid. So the real question becomes, what is going to motivate the casual playerbase to stick around for 9+ months?

No new outdoor zones, no new dungeons. Just the same WQ's and assaults formula from the last 5 patches. What is Blizzard expecting casuals to do after 9 days, let alone 9 months?

And the worst part is, it doesn't even seem like those cut development resources have made their way into Shadowlands either, which is spreading content just as thinly.

Define casuals, because I was a casual and I raided. I stopped playing because I could no longer realistically raid log and not fall behind. Casual based on your post wording seems to be someone who is anti-social and who doesn't take part in group content, but plays regularly doing solo world content? Casual to me is someone who has limited time to play the game, so can't play regularly or for long sessions.

In WOD for example I raided 2 nights a week (about 6h a week), which during farm actually meant maybe only 2-3 hours a week. I was a casual player but I wasn't punished for it because our guild was still in the top 200 to kill Mythic Archimonde. From Legion onwards that kinda playing was no longer possible due to M+ and AP, so the game became less "casual" friendly.

BFA has more content than I have time to even complete, as a casual... Though I don't actually play BFA because I can't raid.

[Lurker1]

Without them, you would not have a game.

Yep without me zero game