Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nymrohd]

We know nothing.
Not when, not how.

Which means they'll either release that info this week, or we are getting a pre-recorded preview later in the day. (Which would be a hella depressing way to reveal an expansion)

I would hope they will do multiple things.

ESO does their tiny expacs split in four releases over the year which are the equivalent of maybe two wow zones plus a small raid (and four new dungeons, don't ask me why). They do an hour long livestream to reveal theme and features for the main release (one large zone and their small raid) with an additional hour long livestream with community managers that has live Q&A on twitch while they just play around in the new areas to show them off. And then for the additional parts of the annual release cycle they will follow the same marketing schedule. So about 8 hours of livestreaming with devs and CMs and live Q&As per year (and they also do these fun lore quizes on twitch for the final 20-30 minutes before the stream goes live). And that in addition to any interviews and tons of blog posts for game and community features (from features on new patch content to housing showcases to community competitions)

Meanwhile in WoW we get 10-15 minutes of prerecorded crap a year, no Q&A outside blizzcon (and even then it is fairly controlled) which will no longer happen, blog posts for the features and the only prominent "community" features are their poorly attended esports.

[Nyel]

But do we even know how blizz is announcing this? Is there a livestream or something?? Haven’t seen any info regarding the announcement. I hope it’s not just like a 10 min vid like how they announced 9.2, that would be destructive

I hope it won't be as terrible as the 9.2 announcement, god that was awful.

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I would hope they will do multiple things.

ESO does their tiny expacs split in four releases over the year which are the equivalent of maybe two wow zones plus a small raid (and four new dungeons, don't ask me why). They do an hour long livestream to reveal theme and features for the main release (one large zone and their small raid) with an additional hour long livestream with community managers that has live Q&A on twitch while they just play around in the new areas to show them off. And then for the additional parts of the annual release cycle they will follow the same marketing schedule. So about 8 hours of livestreaming with devs and CMs and live Q&As per year (and they also do these fun lore quizes on twitch for the final 20-30 minutes before the stream goes live). And that in addition to any interviews and tons of blog posts for game and community features (from features on new patch content to housing showcases to community competitions)

Meanwhile in WoW we get 10-15 minutes of prerecorded crap a year, no Q&A outside blizzcon (and even then it is fairly controlled) which will no longer happen, blog posts for the features and the only prominent "community" features are their poorly attended esports.

While ESO's announcements are super scripted and very very very PR and marketing, it's still a good showcase of what to expect and what's coming. Even with the decreasing quality of their releases for ESO, Zenimax is quite good when it's about marketing.

[Lady Atia]

I just hope the announcement doesn't end up with much of the playerbase wondering "That's it?" which was a common reaction after the feature list of Shadowlands.

They just need to do a big info video similiar to the "whats next panels" during blizzcon. Announcement with cinematic trailer and features trailer (and it would help if the cinematic trailer would show the setting this time instead of a lore video that shows us NOTHING of said expansion like with Shadowlands) and after that a deep dive into everything from lore to systems. End it with pre-orders are live and alpha starts tomorrow, datamining today.

[Luck4]

Catastrophy420 noticeably less active than usual during the week building up to the announcement - coincidence? I think not.

He probably noticed that he wasn't been so convincing.

[Nymrohd]

While ESO's announcements are super scripted and very very very PR and marketing, it's still a good showcase of what to expect and what's coming. Even with the decreasing quality of their releases for ESO, Zenimax is quite good when it's about marketing.

Every year since Elsweyr has been worse. I am not praising ESO as a game and was very disappointed in the last two years (and will probably only play again when I inevitably unsub from SL for a few months while waiting for Dragonflight in 2023 or whenever it goes live). But at least they do marketing properly, they managed to have a community that is very supporting and is almost never truly toxic with the devs.

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They just need to do a big info video similiar to the "whats next panels" during blizzcon. Announcement with cinematic trailer and features trailer (and it would help if the cinematic trailer would show the setting this time instead of a lore video that shows us NOTHING of said expansion like with Shadowlands) and after that a deep dive into everything from lore to systems. End it with pre-orders are live and alpha starts tomorrow, datamining today.

Yeah, we would be getting a large announcement slot, a what's next panel and usually at least one more panel at Blizzcon. Anything less would just not be up to par. And probably two weeks of interviews after. I would love alpha that early but I doubt we will even see alpha before the summer.

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He probably noticed that he wasn't been so convincing.

Just seemed like a positive person trying to hype people. The last dozen or so pages were really off the rails so why would he post?

[Luck4]

Just seemed like a positive person trying to hype people. The last dozen or so pages were really off the rails so why would he post?

We may never know, but yeah, that guy is always optimistic.

[Lady Atia]

Every year since Elsweyr has been worse. I am not praising ESO as a game and was very disappointed in the last two years (and will probably only play again when I inevitably unsub from SL for a few months while waiting for Dragonflight in 2023 or whenever it goes live). But at least they do marketing properly, they managed to have a community that is very supporting and is almost never truly toxic with the devs.

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Yeah, we would be getting a large announcement slot, a what's next panel and usually at least one more panel at Blizzcon. Anything less would just not be up to par. And probably two weeks of interviews after. I would love alpha that early but I doubt we will even see alpha before the summer.

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Just seemed like a positive person trying to hype people. The last dozen or so pages were really off the rails so why would he post?

Well, the only reason for an announcement this late would be because they would wait for an early alpha release imo. I remember the 8.3 announcement that also ended with the "ptr live today" bomb and it was super cool. Also first alpha builds usually only have one zone so they can be quite small tbf.

[ercarp]

Hi everyone, congrats on page 2000! Did I miss anything new?

Apparently, the mystery of the Seneca text was solved, but I don't think that's gonna tell us anything about 10.0. Other than that it's mostly just been a lot of back and forth for the past several dozen pages as far as I can tell.

EDIT: I don't know how I managed to reply to a day-old post about a post that was posted after that post. I blame it on a lack of coffee.

[Nymrohd]

Apparently, the mystery of the Seneca text was solved, but I don't think that's gonna tell us anything about 10.0. Other than that it's mostly just been a lot of back and forth for the past several dozen pages as far as I can tell.

Let's stop trying to DOX the leaker? I was surprised to wake up and see people back at it (not surprised to see the other discussion still going . . .)

[ercarp]

What are the chances for one last big ptr build with potential teasers today? Or do you guys think they will keep the ptr small 'till next week?

The chance is always there I suppose, but I wouldn't count on it. I feel like we've already gotten so much more information anyway that I'm pretty much good to just wait for the announcement at this point without the need for any datamining clues.

[Nyel]

Every year since Elsweyr has been worse. I am not praising ESO as a game and was very disappointed in the last two years (and will probably only play again when I inevitably unsub from SL for a few months while waiting for Dragonflight in 2023 or whenever it goes live). But at least they do marketing properly, they managed to have a community that is very supporting and is almost never truly toxic with the devs.

Yeah, I've been very unimpressed by their Chapters since Elsweyr (Elsweyr is my favorite), but yet I am always very excited for their annual Chapter release streams, because they're always fun to watch. And that's usually the time I'm playing ESO again (I wouldn't buy any Chapter for $40 though anymore, I always wait until Fall when they are sold for $15).

[ercarp]

Let's stop trying to DOX the leaker? I was surprised to wake up and see people back at it (not surprised to see the other discussion still going . . .)

I mean, I agree. I asked people to stop it a few hundred pages back as well. The leaker's identity isn't going to tell us anything about 10.0 so it's kind of pointless.

That said, I don't think something like this is enough to give away their identity or location. And personally, I think it came directly from Blizzard anyway.

[Nymrohd]

Yeah, I've been very unimpressed by their Chapters since Elsweyr (Elsweyr is my favorite), but yet I am always very excited for their annual Chapter release streams, because they're always fun to watch. And that's usually the time I'm playing ESO again (I wouldn't buy any Chapter for $40 though anymore, I always wait until Fall when they are sold for $15).

Elsweyr was perfect. A cool new class, stellar world building, a really exciting storyline, the start of the new story system and the best example of it.

For anyone interested on how they do things, they release a small questline tied to the first two dungeons which are all meant to introduce the characters and concepts of the next xpac. Then they release a fairly large zone (quite larger than a WoW zone, close to two of those) which has its own self contained storyline which is completed solo, a small raid which is a side story (the main story is always available outside raiding). Then two more dungeons, then a second zone which has two storylines; one is local to the zone and usually continues on the premise of the previous zone (yet can be done indepedently and has its own new characters) and a second questline that unlocks once you have completed both that wraps up both in a usually epic way. And ofc nothing is timegated.

[SniperCT]

Add sunwalker and other paladins as well so we don't just have human light paladins. We can have more diverse druid forms and skills, with worgens going more for a drust thematic with wolf mutated forms to show their lycantrhopy.

Wardens for night elves, blue fire/arcane spells for mages.

Honestly, there is so much stuff to work and explore here, you can make "racial class skins" and general class skin, like changing the frost from death knights for fire like bolvar. hellfire style.

I'd love to see more race/class combos come with class skins. Nelf Paladin that's basically a plate wearing priestess of the moon (like they were in the war of the ancients), etc.

I would hope they will do multiple things.

ESO does their tiny expacs split in four releases over the year which are the equivalent of maybe two wow zones plus a small raid (and four new dungeons, don't ask me why). They do an hour long livestream to reveal theme and features for the main release (one large zone and their small raid) with an additional hour long livestream with community managers that has live Q&A on twitch while they just play around in the new areas to show them off. And then for the additional parts of the annual release cycle they will follow the same marketing schedule. So about 8 hours of livestreaming with devs and CMs and live Q&As per year (and they also do these fun lore quizes on twitch for the final 20-30 minutes before the stream goes live). And that in addition to any interviews and tons of blog posts for game and community features (from features on new patch content to housing showcases to community competitions)

Meanwhile in WoW we get 10-15 minutes of prerecorded crap a year, no Q&A outside blizzcon (and even then it is fairly controlled) which will no longer happen, blog posts for the features and the only prominent "community" features are their poorly attended esports.

I do like the way ESO handles reveals. I also am really into the frequent live letters from square for FF14. Endwalker had several phases. First they announced it, then they gave us the full reveal during the fanfest along with a ton of info. Then they do live letters for every major patch that details what's coming in that patch. (raids, dungeons, new features etc).

The current patch had a live letter a little over a week ago and they revealed a bunch of new features and stuff and spent hours talking about them. And they do this every patch. It's amazing.

[Scaleface]

Bois, its happening. PR agencies have some stuff from Activision updated yesterday brand new leaks inc ;p

[ercarp]

Bois, its happening. PR agencies have some stuff from Activision updated yesterday brand new leaks inc ;p

What's the source for this?

[Nymrohd]

The chance is always there I suppose, but I wouldn't count on it. I feel like we've already gotten so much more information anyway that I'm pretty much good to just wait for the announcement at this point without the need for any datamining clues.

We don't really have that much. We know the name. We know that there is a dragon promotional mount. And we know there is encrypted activity in Tirisfal. We also have the Quel'thalas quest tag. Nothing here conclusively even tells us on what land mass the xpac will take place. The Tirisfal things could just be encrypted because it is a story point they want to control the release of or is linked to something tangential to the new xpac like an Allied Race that would not really betray much about what happens next (did the Legion Allied Races really matter that much for the plot of BfA?). As for Quel'thalas tag, they are not really that tidy when it comes to quest grouping; there are numerous quest tags that were just used for a single event; the questline had to do with Quel'thalas and had quests completing on both zones so someone just made a new tag for it.
We have had far bigger leaks both through misplaced promotional material and through datamining before.

[TomatoBisque]

for him and for most of the playerbase mind you.

people who spend all their time on forums by definition are going to be people who aren't playing the video game

Wow forums in particular are overrun with people who haven't played the game in years but are still obsessed with it. Hell, that's most of the fanbase of most of WoW's big streamers (Asmongold)

The game is in a fine spot right now. Alt catchup is the best it's been in years. The raid is great and almost every boss in it is a banger--one of the best they've ever done. The M+ affix is great, although M+ continues to suffer from "it's the same 10 dungeons we've been running all expansions" as something that does need to be improved (hopefully season 4 is a sign of that). This patch alone has added more mounts than some entire expansions have. The balance in this expansion is either the best or near the best it's ever been in the game.

There are two main weak points: Covid obviously fucked up their development. I simply don't believe them when they say there was always planned to be only three patches. In turn, the story which was already going to be a stretch for people is hurt most by this, although I still think it had some strong points (however, I am always going to be a fan of Justice vs. Vengeance and Want vs. Need plots so that might be my bias)

[Wangming]

Which means they'll either release that info this week, or we are getting a pre-recorded preview later in the day. (Which would be a hella depressing way to reveal an expansion)

Imagine if we get a prerecorded preview of the reveal event a few days before and they leave expansion logos in the background, like with WoD.

Now imagine if the logo is not the leaked one.

Now imagine if the TITLE is not the leaked one.

(This would work well with the meme template of that guys having an orgasm or something)

[Nymrohd]

I do like the way ESO handles reveals. I also am really into the frequent live letters from square for FF14. Endwalker had several phases. First they announced it, then they gave us the full reveal during the fanfest along with a ton of info. Then they do live letters for every major patch that details what's coming in that patch. (raids, dungeons, new features etc).

The current patch had a live letter a little over a week ago and they revealed a bunch of new features and stuff and spent hours talking about them. And they do this every patch. It's amazing.

I also love the insane patch notes ESO does. In WoW most changes remain undocumented. If I report some minor bug in ESO, I could look through the patch notes and find out it got fixed. The same is just never true for WoW (though tbh there are terrain clipping and viewpoint bugs I've reported a decade ago that are still in game so I don't expect much).