BFA: the longest lasting xpac in the history of WoW

[styil]

At 26 months by the time Shadowlands is out. Given how long this expansion has dragged on for, does it give you hope for Shadowlands? They have had by far the most time to work on an expansion, and given it has now been a few years since the dev team has increased dramatically, should we expect an impeccable expansion for Shadowlands?

[Stormspellz]

all hope for shadowlands went up in smoke with its release date, class revamp is a joke, still world of systems quecraft with borrowed powers on top of borrowed powers. Shadowlands will be another round of Beta for Azeroth its needs months of work and testing.

[hulkgor]

They have had by far the most time to work on an expansion, and given it has now been a few years since the dev team has increased dramatically, should we expect an impeccable expansion for Shadowlands?

Yea, let's just forget about the impact covid-19 had on the world, and the huge delays (and complete stops) that were a direct consequence of the pandemic.

I wouldn't just expect a more polished\complete expansion because of a few (2?) extra months in comparison to usual expansion duration, when we had way longer than that as complete lockout and production halt (they eventually started to work from home, but not immediately, and not nearly at the same productivity level). So i just feel it's a naive conclusion the op is making.

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with borrowed powers on top of borrowed powers.

So, in all honesty, the same as every other expansion? this is just silly criticism.

[Stormykitten]

I think it will be an improvement over BfA, despite the covid impact on workflow etc. They basically seemed to sacrifice the BfA patch cycle to an extent as well presumably to work harder on Shadowlands - my guess as to why all effort was put on 8.2 for time efficiency and the 8.1 and 8.3 patches were very light on new assets etc, with the x.5 patches reusing locales for story progression. I think they realized pretty early that BfA would not turn around fully and partly wrote it off to move on. Again, my guess.

Anyway, in theory they should have had a long development time for this, and I think in some respects they have done way more than they have done lately in terms of classes etc. But as for the launch product it's hard to say. In my opinion so much work was put into covenant powers that classes desperately need even beyond the attention they got during beta.

[Stormspellz]

So, in all honesty, the same as every other expansion? this is just silly criticism.

This level of borrowed powers started legoin; it was a problem in legion, still a problem in BFA, and will be a problem in SL.

[msdos]

People will dip their toes into Shadowlands and then immediately bounce the moment it feels bad. It won't be like BFA where people were "so conflicted and heart broken over the game they love", any sentiments have been long forgotten. It's nut up or shut up time for Blizzard and everyone can kind of sense it.

For example, lets say I get in and I'm trying out Frost DK. If I don't feel good and see numbers and damage and I'm not having fun, that's it, I'm done. I'm not gonna try and do the raid and stick anything out other than casual gameplay, there won't be a point. It's on to the next class or game, whichever makes more sense.

[vulfrika]

Shadowlands looks amazing, but they wasted and will continiue to waste massive amouns of developer time with covenant abilities, signature abilities, legendaries and conduits.

Example: shadowpriest just got revamped. That means many of the conduits and legendaries does not work at all with new shadow, as they were designed to work with old shadow.

Each time Blizz wants to change an ability in Shadowlands, they will have to also change conduits and legendaries and possibly signature ability. They have created a balancing nightmare for themselves, that will take a shit ton of time - time that could be used to add good stuff in big patches.

[MrLachyG]

really? it's the longest? definitely doesn't feel like the longest. guess the drought wasn't as long as WoD's and MoP's so that has helped. I am excited for Shadowlands as I am of any new expansion, I hope I am not let down

[rhorle]

all hope for shadowlands went up in smoke with its release date, class revamp is a joke, still world of systems quecraft with borrowed powers on top of borrowed powers. Shadowlands will be another round of Beta for Azeroth its needs months of work and testing.

Sounds like you need to find another game. Most of the time we have borrowed power in one form or another. It isn't in that bad of shape and months of testing won't change much at all.

[Tyrannosaur]

I logged in ready to debunk the OP saying BfA is the longest expansion to date, but they're actually correct. The only other time the game went 26 months until the new expansion was vanilla to BC. everything in between has been anywhere from 22-25 months

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Expansion

[korijenkins]

Yea, let's just forget about the impact covid-19 had on the world, and the huge delays (and complete stops) that were a direct consequence of the pandemic.

I wouldn't just expect a more polished\complete expansion because of a few (2?) extra months in comparison to usual expansion duration, when we had way longer than that as complete lockout and production halt (they eventually started to work from home, but not immediately, and not nearly at the same productivity level). So i just feel it's a naive conclusion the op is making.

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So, in all honesty, the same as every other expansion? this is just silly criticism.

Those are excuses ultimately. Game development is something EASILY done from home. Stop pretending it's 2002.

[Ielenia]

Title: "BFA: the longest lasting xpac in the history of WoW"

Wrong. Mists of Pandaria lasted 26 months, as well.

However, MoP's last patch (5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar) lasted fourteen months: from September 14, 2013 to November 13, 2014. Whereas BfA's last patch (8.3: Visions of N'Zoth) will last only ten months. And on top of that, MoP's last patch only gave us Proving Grounds and Timeless Isle as "repeatable content" and even then those didn't have much to do. Visions of N'Zoth gave us two "new" quest zones that changed every week, and Horrific Visions. On top of that, BfA has the benefit of Mythic+ dungeons.

All of that put together makes BfA not feel anywhere near as "long" as MoP did, really.

Don't you remember how bad the "MoP content drought" was, back then, while we waited for the next expansion?

[munkeyinorbit]

Those are excuses ultimately. Game development is something EASILY done from home. Stop pretending it's 2002.

More armchair developers not knowing what they are talking about.

The transition from office work to WFH is not a smooth one. It takes time to set up a home office. It takes time to get remote VPNs working properly. There are more distractions at home. Loved ones do their best not to disturb you but it can take a while for them to get used to you being there.
Source? I am an actual software developer that now WFH in a large organisation and I actually played Vanilla.

[schwarzkopf]

OP is a trifle misleading:

Vanilla : 26 months
Burning Crusade : 22 months
Wrath of the Lich King : 25 months
Cataclysm : 22 months
Mists of Pandaria : 26 months
Warlords of Draenor : 26 months
Legion : 24 months
BfA : 26 months

[rhorle]

Warlords of Draenor : 26 months
Legion : 24 months

You list isn't accurate. WoD launched on 11-13-2014 and Legion launched on 8-30-2016. That isn't 26 months.

[schwarzkopf]

You list isn't accurate.

Was from WOWpedia (didn't go into detail) ... point is multiple expansions have had about the same content time as BfA (+/1 a week or two).

Also - BfA has had one of the shortest post content droughts of any expansion as well.

[Fritters154]

Warlords of Draenor : 26 months

WoD was only 22 months. HFC just happened to be the current raid tier for just as long as SoO in MoP (14 months), despite the expansion itself being 4 months shorter...

Realistically the length of the final raid tier is the more concerning thing, and Ny'alotha will only be current for 10 months when we move on. That's a huge improvement from MoP and WoD.

[schwarzkopf]

Realistically the length of the final raid tier is the more concerning thing, and Ny'alotha will only be current for 10 months when we move on. That's a huge improvement from MoP and WoD.

Indeed... BfA was on par with 3 other expansions for total length, but way shorter on the gap at the end.

[rhorle]

Also - BfA has had one of the shortest post content droughts of any expansion as well.

Not true. The launch of TBC and Wotlk both happened in a shorter amount of time. 8.3 to launch is around 9 months. TBC and Wotlk launches came after a 7 to 7.5 month drought.

[schwarzkopf]

Not true.

What I said was absolutely true... assuming you read what I wrote, which these days is a long shot anyway.

Here is the data:

Patch 1.11 – The Burning Crusade: 7 months (2006-06-20 — 2007-01-16)
Patch 2.4 – Wrath of the Lich King: 7.5 months (2008-03-25 — 2008-11-13)
Patch 3.3 – Cataclysm: 12 months (2009-12-08 — 2010-12-07)
Patch 4.3 – Mists of Pandaria: 10 months (2011-11-29 — 2012-09-25)
Patch 5.4 – Warlords of Draenor: 14 months (2013-09-10 — 2014-11-13)
Patch 6.2 - Legion: 14 months (2015-06-23 — 2016-08-30)
Patch 7.3 - Battle for Azeroth: 11 months (2017-08-29 — 2018-08-14)
Patch 8.3 - Shadowlands: 9 months (2020-01-14 — 2020-10-27)