Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

Uldir (from Horde POV) and Nighthold are best builded up raids in this game. I'm also fan of Legion patch schedule, I'm not even sure they dropped if on purpose or it was forced by both 8.1 and 9.1 delays.

But split works on many levels:

1) We can have longer campaign that ends with raid, weekly campaign is great tool for telling patch story, but not if it ends on whimper like 9.1 or 9.0. 7.1 did it, 7.2 wasted that potential, 7.3/8.1 had something in between, cause it end with raid but campaign was too short.
2) Every patch bring something substantial
3) That would be something not present in Legion, but new dungeon could be introduced as M0 in big patch, people would get familiar with it, then it would start as M+ on new season 3 months later
4) Catch up gear from new zone makes more sense mid-season than handing everything right away (although 9.1 is doing perfect job using Renown for that).

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I feel like the problem would be alleviated if they had the narrative team be able to continue making stories during droughts. But, obviously that's hard. I feel like there's so much material they could use and add to the game while the next content patch is being developed. But, I suppose not. (Stories on Azeroth/Expansion area)

Although in this environment its' a hard ask to even get anything at all. So ehh?

[Sondrelk]

I feel like the problem would be alleviated if they had the narrative team be able to continue making stories during droughts. But, obviously that's hard. I feel like there's so much material they could use and add to the game while the next content patch is being developed. But, I suppose not. (Stories on Azeroth/Expansion area)

The problem in many ways is that the game is too obsessed about never reusing assets to make cheaper but more plentiful stories.
It's great and all to have large questlines with voiced lines set in new areas we have not really seen before, but what we don't really get much of is "filler" questlines to really sell an ongoing story.
There is for instance nothing really wrong with adding several questlines that have you kill X and collect Y if the quest is filler to begin with.
This might just be a problem with SL where we are "stuck" in the Shadowlands, but its especially egregious in stuff like BfA or Legion when there are dozens upon dozens of zones that could be filled with random Alliance/Horde, Demons or the like for a quest.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The problem in many ways is that the game is too obsessed about never reusing assets to make cheaper but more plentiful stories.
It's great and all to have large questlines with voiced lines set in new areas we have not really seen before, but what we don't really get much of is "filler" questlines to really sell an ongoing story.
There is for instance nothing really wrong with adding several questlines that have you kill X and collect Y if the quest is filler to begin with.
This might just be a problem with SL where we are "stuck" in the Shadowlands, but its especially egregious in stuff like BfA or Legion when there are dozens upon dozens of zones that could be filled with random Alliance/Horde, Demons or the like for a quest.

Because as the recent God of War sequel shows. There's a sect of people who whine about reusing assets or animations rather. "LAZY111111111111111111111111111"

Its worse in the WoW community, they yell and scream "THEY ARE OUT OF IDEAS1111111111"

I'm being dramatic but I'm also not lying about the reaction.

[Nyel]

By the way, the launch date for the Sylvanas novel is February 22, I guess that's roughly the earliest date for a 9.2 release then.

[Vasoka]

By the way, the launch date for the Sylvanas novel is February 22, I guess that's roughly the earliest date for a 9.2 release then.

Really doubt these two things are related.

[Nyel]

Really doubt these two things are related.

The Sylvanas novel is about Sylvanas' working with the Jailer and her "fealty", the end of 9.1 is Sylvanas breaking free from the Jailer. So for sure these two things are related as 9.2 (and/or the novel) will continue the story between Sylvanas and the Jailer. If they wouldn't be related there was no need to postpone the launch of the novel until next year, suspiciously exactly around the time we would expect 9.2 to go live.

[Raetary]

Really doubt these two things are related.

Of course it is, her story and current events are pretty much intertwined.
There is no way the book won't contain some spoiler about 9.2.

[Varodoc]

Sylvanas' Novel: February 2022
Patch 9.2: March 2022 (lore nerds will have read the novel by then and will be ready to understand whatever Sylvanas does in 9.2)
Pre-patch of 10.0: Late Summer 2022
Expansion 10.0: Late Fall 2022 (precisely 2 years after Shadowlands)

Do this Blizzard and everyone will be happy.

Make Shadowlands last 3 years and only shills will be happy honestly, but that is not profitable. It is clear by now to anyone with eyes that expansion releases are the biggest source of revenue for Blizzard.

[NikolaiShade]

...and will be ready to understand whatever Sylvanas does in 9.2...

Good luck with that...

[Dracullus]

Sylvanas' Novel: February 2022
Patch 9.2: March 2022 (lore nerds will have read the novel by then and will be ready to understand whatever Sylvanas does in 9.2)
Pre-patch of 10.0: Late Summer 2022
Expansion 10.0: Late Fall 2022 (precisely 2 years after Shadowlands)

Do this Blizzard and everyone will be happy.

Make Shadowlands last 3 years and only shills will be happy honestly, but that is not profitable. It is clear by now to anyone with eyes that expansion releases are the biggest source of revenue for Blizzard.

EDIT: Misread late summer for summer.

Also, shill = person who want get his/her money worth from buying SL. What a times we live in, during WoD it was other way around.

[ohwell]

I totally agree here and I think it made a lot of sense. Progressing in 7.0 and 7.1 towards Nighthold until it finally opened up in 7.1.5 just felt... good? The same in 7.2 and 7.2.5. It felt like you actively progressed towards the raid opening. I think it was clever to spread out content that way and as we know it worked pretty flawlessly in Legion. I have no idea why they didn't follow this in BfA.

It didn't match the raid. The only way they could have done that was to flip the raid order MAYBE.

[Varodoc]

EDIT: Misread late summer for summer.

Also, shill = person who want get his/her money worth from buying SL. What a times we live in, during WoD it was other way around.

Okay so let's make Shdowlands last until 2024 because Mr. Dracullus on MMO-Champion doesn't feel like they made a good investment.

Do tell us when you feel like you're finally satisfied so that we can move on to the next expansion, no rush, please take your time

[Dracullus]

Okay so let's make Shdowlands last until 2024 because Mr. Dracullus on MMO-Champion doesn't feel like they made a good investment.

Do tell us when you feel like you're finally satisfied so that we can move on to the next expansion, no rush, please take your time

Yes, single patch will extend 10.0 two years.
Yes, SL is done dusted everyone hates it, no one will care about 9.2, it's impossible that 9.2&9.3 could be good, let's follow usual mid-expansion temper tantrum OK I'M BORED BLIZZARD WHERE IS MY PREORDER FOR NEXT ONE.
Yes, everyone who disagree with you is a shill.

Let's move to speculations.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Sylvanas' Novel: February 2022
Patch 9.2: March 2022 (lore nerds will have read the novel by then and will be ready to understand whatever Sylvanas does in 9.2)
Pre-patch of 10.0: Late Summer 2022
Expansion 10.0: Late Fall 2022 (precisely 2 years after Shadowlands)

Do this Blizzard and everyone will be happy.

Make Shadowlands last 3 years and only shills will be happy honestly, but that is not profitable. It is clear by now to anyone with eyes that expansion releases are the biggest source of revenue for Blizzard.

I mean I have to question how people think after Blizz has failed spectacularly to get 9.1 and 9.2 out "on schedule" that they'll somehow magically have an entire expansion (that most everyone thinks will include a full game revamp) done "on schedule."

Different team or not, the same WFH and Lawsuit problems exist for them too. And they normally take 2 years to get an expansion done.

More likely your 9.2 is right, 9.3 is next fall, and 10.0 is early 2023.

[Sondrelk]

I mean I have to question how people think after Blizz has failed spectacularly to get 9.1 and 9.2 out "on schedule" that they'll somehow magically have an entire expansion (that most everyone thinks will include a full game revamp) done "on schedule."

Different team or not, the same WFH and Lawsuit problems exist for them too. And they normally take 2 years to get an expansion done.

More likely your 9.2 is right, 9.3 is next fall, and 10.0 is early 2023.

People assume Blizzard will get their shit together because they eventually have to. Unless WoW is going to be perpetually delayed then at some point we will go back to a more sensible release cadence. The question is simply when that will happen, could be the next patch onwards, could be this time in 2 years. We just decide to be optimistic.

[Varodoc]

Yes, single patch will extend 10.0 two years.
Yes, SL is done dusted everyone hates it, no one will care about 9.2, it's impossible that 9.2&9.3 could be good, let's follow usual mid-expansion temper tantrum OK I'M BORED BLIZZARD WHERE IS MY PREORDER FOR NEXT ONE.
Yes, everyone who disagree with you is a shill.

Let's move to speculations.

"Usual mid-expansion temper tantrum": This is why the term "shill" exists. Very clearly the situation was different back in Legion and BfA and if you don't see it, well, there's nothing and no one who will ever convince you of anything.

It was this bad back in WoD or even worse, and if you think that's a good measuring stick, it speaks a lot about ShitLands.

I mean I have to question how people think after Blizz has failed spectacularly to get 9.1 and 9.2 out "on schedule" that they'll somehow magically have an entire expansion (that most everyone thinks will include a full game revamp) done "on schedule."

Different team or not, the same WFH and Lawsuit problems exist for them too. And they normally take 2 years to get an expansion done.

More likely your 9.2 is right, 9.3 is next fall, and 10.0 is early 2023.

Different teams. They take 2 years to get an expansion done? Good, so for the expansion to come out 1 year from now, they had to have started working on it when Shadowlands released, which is reasonable.

"Everyone" thinking it will include a full game revamp is "everyone" being optimistic, that's not an argument lol.

Hell there's way more evidence of 10.0 being about the Light and Void, including, but not limited to, Blizzard literally saying they would like a Light and Void expansion right after they announced Shadowlands.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

People assume Blizzard will get their shit together because they eventually have to. Unless WoW is going to be perpetually delayed then at some point we will go back to a more sensible release cadence. The question is simply when that will happen, could be the next patch onwards, could be this time in 2 years. We just decide to be optimistic.

I mean there are 2 options:

The most likeliest expectation is they will use 9.3 being a thing as a way to mask to get everything back on schedule. They will indulge the fans epic fantasy of Zovaal getting to Azeroth and having the epic finale of the expansion on Azeroth. (They could combine this into 9.2, but wow that's a mess)

Or they "Cut & Run" but they overindulge the community with their wishlists of features and basically multiply content in the expansion while basically doing everything to be in our good graces as they announce the next expansion (which will probably be coming out in Q4 2022 or 2023/2024)

The hidden option is basically the obviously surprise one and completely nonsensical one that this whole situation is extremely pre-planned to make all our expectations seem ridiculous and they are setting up for February to be the reset point for World of Warcraft being in the dumps with basically finishing off the month with an expansion announcement to clean the slate after what is going to be the most epic trainwreck of a patch with 9.2 and the next expansions Alpha starts in April 2022 with an obvious scenario that we will have another System failure that won't be addressed before it releases in Late Q3-Q4.

Again we'll see maybe? Honestly, I prefer the long run on this one. Everything else just seems to go down one path and that is repeating the cycle.

[Dracullus]

Or they "Cut & Run" but they overindulge the community with their wishlists of features and basically multiply content in the expansion while basically doing everything to be in our good graces as they announce a 2024 release date at Blizzcon Online.

10.0 needs good ideas from devs, not crossing things out from forums/youtubers wishlist. They did it in SL and results are mixed.

Also housing.

And it doesn't really matter what we prefer, it all depends if bottleneck of early production of 10.0 is delayed as well or not. Doubt it could go as dire as 2024, imo window is something between November '22 and August '23, with more chances for 9.3 closer it will be to August.

[Nyel]

People assume Blizzard will get their shit together because they eventually have to. Unless WoW is going to be perpetually delayed then at some point we will go back to a more sensible release cadence. The question is simply when that will happen, could be the next patch onwards, could be this time in 2 years. We just decide to be optimistic.

I don't think it's optimism. I think it's realism and let me say it loud and clear: capitalism. It's basically a money vs. no money situation. And Blizzard for sure will choose the option that earns them money. So it's pretty easy to see what's going to happen. As you said, they need to catch up sooner or later and be sure they catch up rather sooner than later when it's about a nine-digit sum.

- - - Updated - - -

Or they "Cut & Run" but they overindulge the community with their wishlists of features and basically multiply content in the expansion while basically doing everything to be in our good graces as they announce the next expansion (which will probably be coming out in Q4 2022 or 2023/2024)

There are several things they could give fans to make them go "OOOOOH" or "WOOOOW". Make it another expansion where we get new (allied) races and a class. Make it an expansion where we not only get one but two new classes. Let artifact weapons (or as I said earlier, tier sets) make a glorious return. There are several things that would get players back on track.

I really don't think it's primarily about tons of content. I think it's about features player want and that are so big (at least on paper) that they foster goodwill.