Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Harbour]

It will take 1.5 years before Microsoft can affect ANYTHING on WoW. And even that is subject to mercy of US and EU anti-trust scrutiny.

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"Technical difficulties" is the easy non-answer lazy excuse to anything players wan't but Blizz is unwilling to do.

About Microsoft influence. Even though they cant influence Blizzard games directly, they do it indirectly.
Activision Blizzard and WoW specifically have an absolutely bad reputation, mostly created by devs and managers.
Game has some extreme toxic systems and concepts,
main idea is to aim at maximum profit in expense of quality gameplay,
people dont want to work there
etc.

Now, all these people, these managers and devs find out they soon to be the part of super rich company, with clean af reputation and standarts of qaulity, top level hiring, and yes, there is obvious possibility for the game to be included into Gamepass.

That means few things to Blizzard RIGHT NOW: when Uncle Phil come to check the game in 1.5 years and see all these toxic systems and concepts, he will 100% fire them all and replace with better people.

At the same time the focus of managers had to be shifted from abusive systems that works on metrics for shareholders to systems that will make people actually ENJOY the game so they were motivated to buy Gamepass.
At the same time, the nature of Gamepass with its vast library of games for all audience will also help to remove the burden of engagement by using abusing systems.
Most people will buy the Gamepass without the need to play WoW, and it would be the dev priority to make these people interested and engaged in the game.
It would be unacceptable to do so with toxic stuff, because the dirt on WoW throws the dirt at the whole Gamepass, and Uncle Phil wouldnt allow it. Managers would be fired, devs would be fired. And replaced.

So yeah, even though Microsoft cant come and make WoW more attractive and players friendly NOW, they will certainly do it LATER, so WoW devs and managers WILL start (and started, as we seen yesterday) to make the game better preemptively, because their asses are in serious danger.

[Radioactive]

To be fair they must have been working on this for a long time, since they hoped it would be ready for 9.2 but has to be delayed to 9.2.5, I don't think Microsoft has anything to do with that choice.

On another note, there was a leak saying that 10.0 will bring CFP through a max-level questline/campaign. So now we know this one is false, and we also know that its author is a nasty liar.

Yesterday was a blast news-wise : CFP and bannable boosters. I really have hope for the future.

"[...] from Warcraft 3 onwards, I think the ideals of Warcraft have been adventure, exploration, but also the fact that we actually fundamentally have more in common than what separates us. That Alliance and Horde are both defending their homes, searching for homes, fighting for family, for honor, for justice."

Ion is really on point. Develop your game with community-play in mind, loosen chores, respect your players' needs, get back to the simple things.

[Makabreska]

So yeah, even though Microsoft cant come and make WoW more attractive and players friendly NOW, they will certainly do it LATER, so WoW devs and managers WILL start (and started, as we seen yesterday) to make the game better preemptively, because their asses are in serious danger.

And let's not forget where current Blizz president came from. He knows whats up and defo gave the team guidelines to prepare for takeover.

[Fahrad Wagner]

To be fair they must have been working on this for a long time, since they hoped it would be ready for 9.2 but has to be delayed to 9.2.5, I don't think Microsoft has anything to do with that choice.

On another note, there was a leak saying that 10.0 will bring CFP through a max-level questline/campaign. So now we know this one is false, and we also know that its author is a nasty liar.

Ooooh yes, you're absolutely right I forgot about that! It rules that Final Titan leak OUT for good! Leakbusters assemble!

[Fiercelord]

Are we expecting some "major" news today or the yesterday cross-faction news would be the promised news?

[Catastrophy349]

Are we expecting some "major" news today or the yesterday cross-faction news would be the promised news?

I honestly don't know. While the Boosting info apparently was circulating on some discords over the weekend, I did not know about it. So, both the Boosting/Cross Faction news yesterday were a surprise to me. I would "hope" for more news this week (especially since yesterday's news was on a Monday and we still have 4 days to go including today).

On a side-note, they could spread the news out over a few weeks in Feb (the original month for Blizzconline) and give a little bit of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo news each week instead of dedicating a single IP to a single week. All in all, everything is speculation and only Blizzard knows.

[T-34]

Yesterday was a blast news-wise : CFP and bannable boosters. I really have hope for the future.

Boosting is in no way banned now. Furthermore you can still advertise boosts.
The only change is that boosting now has to be advertised, and probably executed, by guilds/individual players, not all-game encompassing organizations.

[micwini]

Are we expecting some "major" news today or the yesterday cross-faction news would be the promised news?

I expect 9.2 release date and announcement for 10.0 reveal still to be on the menu for "news in the coming weeks". Wouldnt be surprised if this was it for this week and we get 9.2 release date somewhere next week.

[Marlamin]

For the people going "must be Microsoft influence", keep in mind that Microsoft has 0 influence until the deal actually closes sometime next year. Until then, anything that Blizzard does is on their own, or Activision's, accord.

[Lady Atia]

For the people going "must be Microsoft influence", keep in mind that Microsoft has 0 influence until the deal actually closes sometime next year. Until then, anything that Blizzard does is on their own, or Activision's, accord.

This. Also Ion even said that it's "part of a larger reexamining of World of Warcraft's fundamentals — a process Blizzard began back in patch 9.1.5." and that patch (aswell as 9.2 and 9.2.5) was developed way before anyone knew about the Microsoft deal as far as we know.

[Cherry123]

it's funny how everyone forgot about the dragons and remembered the old news about the cross faction

[Hitei]

?
The only things wrong are that it is not 10.0 (the leaker says his informations are old) and that they forgot people from your f-list...which is easy to miss. The rest about cross faction seems completely on spot to me.

"cross faction is in. group through group finder only. "
"Players will be able to directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship, or if you are members of a cross-faction WoW Community."

That's not missed. He specifically said "only".

[Sondrelk]

This. Also Ion even said that it's "part of a larger reexamining of World of Warcraft's fundamentals — a process Blizzard began back in patch 9.1.5." and that patch (aswell as 9.2 and 9.2.5) was developed way before anyone knew about the Microsoft deal as far as we know.

You could stretch a bit and say that Blizzard decided to reassess how the game was doing once the Microsoft deal became a possibility.
Lower level employees would almost definitely not know, but employees like Ion might have known that a Microsoft deal was on the table for a while.

[Marlamin]

You could stretch a bit and say that Blizzard decided to reassess how the game was doing once the Microsoft deal became a possibility.
Lower level employees would almost definitely not know, but employees like Ion might have known that a Microsoft deal was on the table for a while.

This isn't as likely as you think, these things are kept to a bare minimum as large mergers like these are extremely regulated/confidential (for good reason) and this definitely isn't something Ion needed to be involved for his job (or anyone at the Blizzard studio for that matter).

[Sondrelk]

This isn't as likely as you think, these things are kept to a bare minimum as large mergers like these are extremely regulated/confidential (for good reason) and this definitely isn't something Ion needed to be involved for his job (or anyone at the Blizzard studio for that matter).

Ion was just an example of a high level employee, couldn't actually remember what his title is. Kotick might have been a better example.

[ExiHext]

"cross faction is in. group through group finder only. "
"Players will be able to directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship, or if you are members of a cross-faction WoW Community."

That's not missed. He specifically said "only".

Yeah...no. That's just nitpicking. The leaker got it quite right. Especially that there are no crossfaction guilds and that you need to go through the groupfinder i.e. you cannot invite random people from the other faction in the open world. Who knows how it was when they gained the information? IF we assume that the leak is real..which it won't be. It's just relatively spot on for a mere speculation. That's what makes me wonder.

[Sondrelk]

Only because they know killing the communities is enough to kill full on boosting in general. At least for most people, it's gonna become a lot more or a niche thing. With boosters not having as many people to sell to theyre gonna start dwindling. It'll cannibalize itself now. Basically Blizzard banned all boosting but without the shithead boosters throwing as much of a fit as they would if they just outright did it.

Banning boosting outright is probably impossible since it would very much be throwing the baby out with the bathwater considering how integral cooperative play is to an MMO.

[T-34]

Only because they know killing the communities is enough to kill full on boosting in general. At least for most people, it's gonna become a lot more or a niche thing. With boosters not having as many people to sell to theyre gonna start dwindling. It'll cannibalize itself now. Basically Blizzard banned all boosting but without the shithead boosters throwing as much of a fit as they would if they just outright did it.

I can't imagine that the people that want to be boosted will stop wanting to be boosted.
The demand will still be there. And with demand there will always be a supply.
What will change is that the market will become less competitive and less transparent and that will probably mean higher price for the customer and higher risk of being scammed. The boosting communities were/are very strict with providing the customer what he paid for.

There has always been plenty of boosting in WoW.
People just for some strange reason think that just because some bots spam adds 24/7 then there is also more boosting.
Advertising in WoW is more or less free, so there is no reason not to advertise as much as you want.

What also makes me wonder is why people have such a big hate for the boosters, who at least are competent players,
and not the pathetic scrubs that buy boosts. Those scrubs should be the ones we should despise - or at least despise more.

[Makabreska]

What also makes me wonder is why people have such a big hate for the boosters, who at least are competent players,
and not the pathetic scrubs that buy boosts. Those scrubs should be the ones we should despise - or at least despise more.

Ye, let's hate them, because they happen to be less skilled at the game. These players are not the ones that turned /trade and LFG tool into a literal spamfest by hiring randoms that spam it all day every day. That is the main issue here. People don't give a flying fuck if someone wants to take a shortcut and get boosted by a guild, this is what always happened and will happen. But this entire industry with it adverts is what pisses people off.

[raindance]

Yeah...no. That's just nitpicking. The leaker got it quite right. Especially that there are no crossfaction guilds and that you need to go through the groupfinder i.e. you cannot invite random people from the other faction in the open world. Who knows how it was when they gained the information? IF we assume that the leak is real..which it won't be. It's just relatively spot on for a mere speculation. That's what makes me wonder.

I mean you can’t talk to random ppl of the opposite faction in the open world. How else are you going to invite the opposite faction into your party?

The “leaker” just made a (very obvious) assumption of how cross faction grouping will work. That’s all.

I’d say the fact he mentioned it as an expansion feature instantly exposes his BS