'Why did you schedule days off to play a video game? LOL'

[Frandaero]

Because gaming is my #1 hobby and is an actual big part of my life. That's all you need to say.

Whoever wastes his time bringing people down from their passions are just sad people with nothing going on in their lives so they try to tilt others to their level of misery lel

[vincink]

It does matter, it's the professional thing to do, give your customers a heads up in a decent time frame, not three weeks before the launch date.

I think it makes sense for Blizzard to give a generous time frame; I'd say a 3-month time span. Just say, "We're looking at the October to end of December time frame." On the other hand, I encourage players to reciprocate the professionalism: understand that one can plan upfront and come up with a release date but as time goes on and new information becomes available, that date has to change. Or, in order to meet that date, features have to be cut. It's a reality of project management of any kind.

[Krimzin]

Because gaming is my #1 hobby and is an actual big part of my life. That's all you need to say.

Whoever wastes his time bringing people down from their passions are sad people with nothing going on in their lives. Having a passion is attractive.

Thats funny man. I say the same thing. I have 2 hobbies.. WoW and Cars/Jeeps (3 i guess lol).

And WoW is the least expensive one.

[Frandaero]

I held on announcing my time off at work because I was wondering if they'd delay the expansion or not (no release date for pre-patch set this doubt in my mind). Luckily I was right, I'll take my 2 weeks off on next SL release date.

[Krimzin]

I held on announcing my time off at work because I was wondering if they'd delay the expansion or not (no release date for pre-patch set this doubt in my mind). Luckily I was right, I'll take my 2 weeks off on next SL release date.

Im in Real Estate so Im somewhat self employed. I told my broker, who plays console games, that I would be out for a couple weeks when SL releases. He laughed and said, only a couple weeks. Love my Job.

[Sagenod]

Unpopular opinion time: I believe a large amount of the people complaining made their own bed by setting time off to play a game that isn't even out yet. I also believe they don't have their priorities straight. Video games come after your responsibilities and I find it absolutely childish that grown men and women choose to specifically coordinate their time off, however precious it may be, in order to play video games. I say grow up to those people.

EDIT: All I mean is that I think it's childish to get upset over a video game, especially when you choose on your own to set aside time before the game is even out. The rest of what I said was inflammatory and I don't mean it in that manner, since I agree that people may spend their time however they wish. So my apologies but my opinion is that getting upset in this context is childish, that's all.

[Exodeus]

If i could with out a major financial impact I would take time off for launch. But this delay might actually be a boon for me as I work one month on and one month off and I have december off this year so might just line up nicely.

[Onikaroshi]

Unpopular opinion time: I believe a large amount of the people complaining made their own bed by setting time off to play a game that isn't even out yet. I also believe they don't have their priorities straight. Video games come after your responsibilities and I find it absolutely childish that grown men and women choose to specifically coordinate their time off, however precious it may be, in order to play video games. I say grow up to those people.

That's not unpopular, it's just wrong.

It's their vacation time, if they want to use it to go fishing, or skiing, or do underwater basket weaving, or sit around the house drinking beer in nothing but socks, or play video games, that's their right to. Vacation is most of the time used for one thing, your hobby, whatever that may be.

There's zero difference between taking time off for a game launch and taking time off to go watch the indy 500.

[gd8]

My coworker takes days off to go to watch football matches, don't see how me doing that for my hobby is looked down upon 0o

watching football and playing WoW/video games are not hobbies both are mindlessly consuming media

[Very rare pepe]

It's not looked down upon it's just that you have nothing to complain about when it doesn't go your way because you should know by now how releases work with video games.

Yikes, these people have already been shafted, why do you feel the need to let them know how much you think it's their fault they got shafted?

[Exodeus]

Unpopular opinion time: I believe a large amount of the people complaining made their own bed by setting time off to play a game that isn't even out yet. I also believe they don't have their priorities straight. Video games come after your responsibilities and I find it absolutely childish that grown men and women choose to specifically coordinate their time off, however precious it may be, in order to play video games. I say grow up to those people.

What are these "responsibilities" you are talking about?
Do you think these people are just ignoring their kids, spouses and pets and putting themselves in financial peril?
I think you need to grow up if you think taking a few days for yourself is childish.

[Onikaroshi]

watching football and playing WoW/video games are not hobbies both are mindlessly consuming media

hobby noun (2)
plural hobbies
Definition of hobby (Entry 2 of 2)
: a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation

Both of those sound like a hobby to me.

[Giruy]

Gaming is my prime hobby with WoW being the main game that i play, i dont specifically plan my holidays around games but I've always taken a week off for the release launches going back to WotLK.

I get 35 paid holidays a year (+3 fixed days for xmas and new year), and my work is pretty flexible as to when i take take them, this goes for cancelling them as well which i've already done.

When the new date comes out, i'll take the week then instead.

[Krimzin]

Unpopular opinion time: I believe a large amount of the people complaining made their own bed by setting time off to play a game that isn't even out yet. I also believe they don't have their priorities straight. Video games come after your responsibilities and I find it absolutely childish that grown men and women choose to specifically coordinate their time off, however precious it may be, in order to play video games. I say grow up to those people.

Who are you to say they don't have their priorities straight? My wife is a prime example, she gets 5 weeks a year she has to take or lose. With all the nonsense going on we talked about different places to go on vacation but most aren't worth the headache. She is just goin to take a week starting today to do nothing, just to veg. WoW is a important Hobby for a lot of people and choosing to spend THEIR PTO playing WoW, is not wrong or childish. Trying to tell someone how to live their life is wrong. If they are taking care of their families and paying their bills who gives 2 shits how they spend their time. Quit worrying about what others are doing with their free time and worry about yourself. If Id have had to actually schedule time off and it got screwed up, I'd be pissed too.

[Nite92]

Yes, but the last time something as significant as COVID crossed the world - people weren't developing computer software.

So they are pretty much guessing at how long things take now - and also the collaboration to stop mistakes in their tracks is somewhat limited.

Yes, but they had 5 months of corona to gauge their productivity, and then decided on a release date two months later. That sounds a safer guess than 8 months under normal conditions

[Miseration]

I didn't and I haven't but, driving last night I had this thought. Damn what about those folks that took time off for launch and now there's no date...

[Lightning-]

Another question is why people feel the need to share their holiday plans to strangers. Kinda like how vegans always tell you they're vegan. Nobody cares.

You are so damn right

[fwc577]

I haven't seen this at all, not that those people don't exist (definitely had my experiences at work) but I'm surprised you're seeing it on gaming forums.

Really though why do you care that people exist who think this? Especially to the degree that you feel the need to make a post explaining yourself?

Not gonna lie, my co-workers made fun of one of our former developers who took a week off for BFA. Also, BFA sucked balls.

Part of the problem, imo, is there just isn't a ton to do in the game that early in the expansion unless you're just gold making. The leveling is 8-10 hours then you need to wait for other people to also level up before you can start doing dungeons and progressing a character. In some cases, you need to wait for crafters to catch up, in the case of stuff like trinkets.

I don't understand the joy of being a world first level 60 the day of release then doing what? Dailies for the next 3 days while the rest of the WoW team catches up?

[exochaft]

That's not unpopular, it's just wrong.

It's their vacation time, if they want to use it to go fishing, or skiing, or do underwater basket weaving, or sit around the house drinking beer in nothing but socks, or play video games, that's their right to. Vacation is most of the time used for one thing, your hobby, whatever that may be.

There's zero difference between taking time off for a game launch and taking time off to go watch the indy 500.

I agree with this sentiment, as it's akin to telling people how to spend their disposable income. If you're spending beyond your means, I could see the argument that prioritizing time off for a game launch is probably not the wisest course of action, but I'll safely assume most people aren't in this category.

Broadly addressing some of the other sentiments in this thread thus far, I feel that being irate or venting at Blizz for delaying the game and screwing up your time off is going a bit too far. If we take the mentality that taking time off to play a video game is similar to going to watch the Indy 500, go on a trip, etc., it's really not uncommon for things to go wrong and screw that up. Could be inclement weather, travel issue, equipment failure, power outages, loss of a loved one, the list is infinite. The common thread is that quite frequently if you take time off with a specific goal in mind, external factors can change your plans. In the grand scheme of things that have ruined my leave periods, the delay of a video game launch would be welcome sometimes!

Furthermore, this delay is a good thing in the long run. I haven't made it a secret that I've felt the beta builds have been weeks behind (in terms of how 'finished' it feels) compared to previous beta phases compared to their projected launch dates, as I've been involved in countless alpha/beta phases for WoW expansions in the past. If anything, I'm rather happy Blizz made this announcement a month ahead of time rather than waiting until the last minute, as 4 weeks is a good amount of time to allow people to make changes to their leave/vacation/etc. if necessary.

[Logen Ninefingers]

Why do people feel the need to tell other people what they should do with their free time ... It's totally mind-blowing.
It is a similar type of "anger" as telling people how they should dress or who they should sleep with...