Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Revamp Man]

Honestly all they need to do is just have that be for cosmetics and story and it's fixed. It's the soulbinds, covenant abilities, etc that really fucked that system up.

But muh meaningful choice

[therumblings]

I'm thinking this is either a coordinated intentional leak by them or a coordinated intentional bamboozle. I'd bet on it being real because I don't think they would go this far with it.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

It would be pretty awesome if this is a bamboozle and it would be pretty awesome if it's real, in my opinion. This is just pure fun leak seasoning.

I'd be rather surprised if Blizzard is clever enough to hide anything in the background code of their website like this as a joke or red herring.

[Triceron]

Feel free to investigate

World of Warcraft : DRAGONFIJOINT, Confirmed!

[therumblings]

Does anyone have the very first original source on that image?

[Vakir]

I'm thinking this is either a coordinated intentional leak by them or a coordinated intentional bamboozle. I'd bet on it being real because I don't think they would go this far with it.

I'm going to be "that guy" and say that this is a red herring. It's just a bit too suspicious for me. Some thoughts:

Gonna reiterate from the other thread:

The whole "fake leak planted" shit is posited every 2 years.

expansion_02 doodads for Northrend? No way, too soon to fight the Lich King, Blizzard is kidding!
Worgen and Goblin masks? Too convenient to show up with the leaks! Blizzard is trolling and Cata is fake!
People did it with Mists. Joke trademark!
WoD? Could not possibly involve time travel, the people at SoL were just getting trolled/misinformed!
BFA? Those Zandalar and Kul Tiran sets and achievements were planted to throw us off!

Ya'll are getting Dragonflight (the name, not necessarily the OP). Sorry.

It happens every 2 years. Nope!

[therumblings]

I have to agree with that, seems ridiculously unlikely it would be a troll, but it would still be funny.

[ExiHext]

I already dread the next two and a half weeks of sprouting new "Dragonflight" leaks now that we know the name.
Also a big yikes to all you nerds already bickering about the new logo which we didn't see in full scale yet.

[Super Dickmann]

I've come to not trust on any conceivable level that cutting down work in one area actually improves output in another. If it wasn't for SL being what it was, I'd still have a gut feeling that each expac is made by two different alternating teams even if I know it to absolutely false.

Expansions that have had objectively less have delivered on what they did had with a poorer quality. So I don't really look at it in those terms. But fair enough.

Also, people, the datamined armor means the Alex picture is pretty likely to be legit. There's no fake images to trace back.

Pumping out races is piss easy at this stage. BFA put out like 6 of those things and it did nothing to make azerite armor less of a pox to play with. The core of meaningful complaints about the game center on the seeming complexity of systems and the unnecessary grinds glued on and the main fear hinges on backtracking from progress made of basically functional versions of the game like 7.3 and to a lesser extent 9.2 which are on a base level capable of sustaining enjoyment in the day to day play. The game already has enough classes and races, which much like customization options, don't have meaningful gameplay utility and much like mounts have already hit the point of oversaturation. The most essential things to include are a frontloaded shiny object, say, class skins, the aforementioned basically functional gameplay and managing a release schedule. The shiny sheen of everything wears off and when it ends you want to have more to throw at the person so they don't get bored rather than leaving them in an insane asylum gathering relativistic amounts of gold from facebook minigames because the rest of the game might as well not exist when you're not raiding (like WoD) or various degrees of unsatisfying grinds for negligible bonuses (the x.0 of the last three expansions).

[Hitei]

???

I've never mentioned housing, though?

Typically with expansions there's a tendency to make an association of the key art with a core feature. Blood Elves and Draenei. The Lich King being the ur-Death Knight. Chen as a monk. Even Cataclysm's revamp was directly associated with Deathwing wrecking the world. This trend more or less broke with Bolvar unless you count him being backdropped by Torghast. Even WoD was defined by the idea that we were invading an unfamiliar world of savage warlords with the whole Garrison concept.

This trend never existed outside of your head. Every expansion since BC has just been an important figure. Arthas isn't on the box because DKs are a feature, he's there because he's the primary villain. Deathwing isn't on Cata's box because the world was being revamped, he's the primary villain. Chen isn't on the box because monks are a feature, he's there because he's was the sole notable pandaren. Ditto Grommash/the warlords and garrisons (what even are these mental gymnastics?).

Vanilla and BC are the only two who have ever had anything to do with players. It's always just an important lore figure.

[guro-tchai]

i don't think it's a bamboozle because blizzard just doesn't have the energy for this kind of stuff. 10 years ago they would prepare elaborate april fools jokes, now it's only patchnotes. most of what they do is predictable and formulaic.
if it's a prank, it could give me hope - and i don't want this.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Honestly all they need to do is just have that be for cosmetics and story and it's fixed. It's the soulbinds, covenant abilities, etc that really fucked that system up.

While the systems got fucked the most, the story suffered alot from it as well. 2/3 of the playerbase have at best a vague recollection about Pelagos and his journey. It just makes the already awful story even worse, because people simply lack context without having played 4 or different characters. It was already a terrible descision in BfA and lead to the first raid making practically no sense for the alliance (and that was only with 2 factions). Making it 5 now would make the already paper thin story probably non-existent in some places, as I see no reason why they would suddenly get it right after failing very consistently twice before without even a hint of improvement.

[uikolertekopoku]

i don't think it's a bamboozle because blizzard just doesn't have the energy for this kind of stuff. 10 years ago they would prepare elaborate april fools jokes, now it's only patchnotes. most of what they do is predictable and formulaic.
if it's a prank, it could give me hope - and i don't want this.

I would say back in the days where the devs loved the community the old team (tbc,wotlk..)would do that thing.

But todays Team? It’s ridiculous to assume its intended to prank us.

[Vakir]

Vanilla and BC are the only two who have ever had anything to do with players. It's always just an important lore figure.

WELL ACKSHUALLY, BFA also involved a Horde and Alliance soldier as a stand-in for players.

But kidding aside, yeah, fair enough. I just don't want things to suck and I feel pretty burned. Going through the hype emotion rollercoaster. At the end of the day, we all just want the game to be the best it can be.

...most of us, anyway.

Pumping out races is piss easy at this stage. BFA put out like 6 of those things and it did nothing to make azerite armor less of a pox to play with. The core of meaningful complaints about the game center on the seeming complexity of systems and the unnecessary grinds glued on and the main fear hinges on backtracking from progress made of basically functional versions of the game like 7.3 and to a lesser extent 9.2 which are on a base level capable of sustaining enjoyment in the day to day play. The game already has enough classes and races, which much like customization options, don't have meaningful gameplay utility and much like mounts have already hit the point of oversaturation. The most essential things to include are a frontloaded shiny object, say, class skins, the aforementioned basically functional gameplay and managing a release schedule. The shiny sheen of everything wears off and when it ends you want to have more to throw at the person so they don't get bored rather than leaving them in an insane asylum gathering relativistic amounts of gold from facebook minigames because the rest of the game might as well not exist when you're not raiding (like WoD) or various degrees of unsatisfying grinds for negligible bonuses (the x.0 of the last three expansions).

The new shiny feel is meaningless compared to how bogged and awkward the systems are, yes. I suppose my fear is less that it has anything to do with how long-term stable the game is and more that it's a worry that, with how similar Legion, BFA, and SL have been to one another at times, this is the intended blueprint to follow and no matter what, the decisions are already made surrounding it. So pretty much all the other bullshit they could pack in is disconnected from their strategy.

So going the possibility that not only do you get the same x.0 problems (and possibly into future patches) but they're also putting far less energy into core features because the idea is that base level cosmetics with slow-drip power increases is "enough" to get the numbers they want.

I trust less that any of it influences their ability to manage the game because I consider them functionally unrelated. The problems in SL that have been fixed were absolutely deliberate choices. You can see it in the face of the people defending these bad decisions in interviews with little to no rhetoric to support them. It is purely a calculated "engagement" based decision.

I guess if I had to sum it up a certain way, I'd say that if they're going to fuck me, at least give me something nice to distract me while they do. Preferably, though, yes, don't do it at all.

[Black Rider]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

[guro-tchai]

I would say back in the days where the devs loved the community the old team (tbc,wotlk..)would do that thing.

But todays Team? It’s ridiculous to assume its intended to prank us.

well, you could make an argument that they're well aware that the community likes leaks - it's been acknowledged in the last april fools bluepost with Tinker Leaker or something. the question is, would they go further with the joke or not? laudable if yes, expected if no.

[Vakir]

well, you could make an argument that they're well aware that the community likes leaks - it's been acknowledged in the last april fools bluepost with Tinker Leaker or something. the question is, would they go further with the joke or not? laudable if yes, expected if no.

You have to pre-suppose that they made fake concept art and a fake logo to go with web code that someone would just happen upon but also two weeks earlier uploaded textures for an encrypted transmog set that resembles the exact same thing worn in the "fake" concept art.

That is...a lot.

[FossilFree]

Although the name is probably the real deal, I'm still on the fence about the image.

Now I'm not someone who does these kind of things for a living, but why do the pictures look like someone is printing them out on their home computer? The white borders are all uneven from picture to picture, and they are manually laminating one at the bottom. They are even manually cutting them out with scissors. Is that something a person making promotional items would do in a professional setting? It seems more like a homemade craft project.

[Sondrelk]

Seems like a lot has happened while I was sleeping.

I guess Dragonflight could be the name, though I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was a partial name, or otherwise just called that in the code, though that might be a stretch.

I hear rumours of a bit of Alex art that might be close to believable though. Anyone happen to have that? Don't really feel like scouring the 25+ pages I missed.

[Aradur]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

Way to big scope and change of direction for one AddOn. Name is surely just a coincidence