Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

why is the opposing argument silly, but you dont consider your argument silly?

you have no idea about the zones either! lmao

I mean there's 4 zones, that's the point. I can actually argue from my standpoint because it is a numerical fact that Dragonflight consists of 4 zones. The argument against those 4 zones is that they are Megazones at a maximized scale of Northrend and "might" be utilized well due to its scale. Again the zones themselves is unknown since we have no idea on the zones and what they will contain etc.

Even if those 4 zones are equal to the 10 zones of Northrend? It also ignores how 5 zones more often the the normal with Northrend being an outlier. So your fear of a decade long precedent is over 1 less zone then the normal. Again you are using math instead of simply talking about quality.

Quality zones will always be better then more zones of less quality. Just as quality zones will always be better then less zones of lesser quality. The number of zones is irrelevant to your concerns yet you keep making it all about the number of zones.

In a game in which we are fighting for scraps in most cases and can barely get 3 Major content patches. I would be very alarmed at this idea of trust in Quality being a signifier.

I would rather believe in the hard math of which we know there are 4 zones and the precedent that hard math can set for the future of how many zones each expansion will consist of going forward.

Less is not always more and in this circumstance more is preferential than to the precedent it sets in which the audience receives less zones to zoom through the skies and also less zones for future expansions potentially.

[boyzma]

I mean my argument basis is that WoW is a precedent based game. Design that lingers for a decade exists based on stupid shit like this argument. 4 Zones being showcased as enough for the base product could lead to 4 zones being the new normal for the base product going forward which is troubling.

Normalizing 4 Zones as the maximum in the base product is the problem at play here.

The problem is we're seeing the argument for this worry basically being destroyed by the argument that the zones are bigger in which I think its' rather silly cause we have no idea on the content of the zones or what is in the zone. Whether they will be anything more than just WQ node blitzing at max level and whether the utilization of the zones during levelling will be good or not.

Your argument makes no sense what so ever. Pull your fingers out of your ears and listen. Doesn't matter how many zones the chop it into...4,5, 20....30....so what. Still going to have the same terrain, same creatures, same everything no matter how many pieces the put it out as. Just stop.

[Nightshade711]

I don't understand people getting mad at the 4 zones... especially when together they're supposed to be bigger than Northrend...

There's no difference in having 4 megazones and having 8+ zones that are just the previous 4 zones but split by biome using an imaginary line.


I am anticipating that the Dracthyr zone will make a return in future content/patches though.

[Alexjimithing]

I mean there's 4 zones, that's the point. I can actually argue from my standpoint because it is a numerical fact that Dragonflight consists of 4 zones. The argument against those 4 zones is that they are Megazones at a maximized scale of Northrend and "might" be utilized well due to its scale.

You can't argue from your standpoint anymore than anyone else making assumptions.

There being 4 zones instead of 5 lends no additional validity to the complete assumption that the zones will be lacking in content.

[therumblings]

The time to get mad at there only being 4 leveling zones was 7 years ago.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The time to get mad at there only being 4 leveling zones was 7 years ago.

Yeah and it was all about precedent back then too.

[Hyrja]

BFA had 3 leveling zones per faction and SL had 4 too. Whats the matter?

[rhorle]

I would rather believe in the hard math of which we know there are 4 zones and the precedent that hard math can set for the future of how many zones each expansion will consist of going forward.

More is not always better quality. Why did you question my focus on math when you are using math as the sole argument? That 4 is automatically less quality and 5 is automatically more quality because it is greater then 4.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I don't mind Northrend size continents as a standard so /shrug same with 5 zones but I digress.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I don't know people are being too obtuse when arguing about numericals when those numbers still are higher than the 4 Zones in Dragonflight.

Again, fundamentally I think the Zone Number is way too low for a base product and even if the zones are massive and completely amazing. That doesn't mean it is not worrying that the precedent it sets is 4 Megazones each expansion + 2 Megazones for Content Islands.

Blizzard always has and will always be a company with ulterior motives. Again I just found the 4 Zones strikingly weird and a big red flag because it stands in contrast to their focus on content building with the new Content Team. It just doesn't add up.

Again, its fine to disagree. I have no problems with that. I just think this odd circumstance of quality winning over quantity is frankly absurd in the context of a video game in which we can quantify the work put into it by what is available to the consumer.

[Valysar]

And DF zones are much bigger than the other zones, so...

[Revamp Man]

Honestly, they've been on a steady reduction of content and shipping less and less product to the consumer. Soo, I don't really believe much in the 4 Zones identity nor that the sizes will outshine the concept of more zones than a zone with several biomes and paletes in 4 megazones.



Correct, but there's such a lack of knowledge on how they are going to fill the game with content now that they are free from the shackles of Borrowed Power and Build Around Systems and thats' what will be the most curious about these zones with what they will be filled with and whether that is significant enough to be good enough for endgame.

In many ways it depends on a lot of factors. Obviously I think more Zones is better than less zones solely because I think Megazones aren't going to be populated with anything interesting.

There's not going to be normal reputation grinds like we had in TBC in which the zone had reputation hubs. We're going to have Renown Reputations which are even more streamlined than the World Quest Reputations which will again be in-game as the World Quest system could fester on the zone creating a single purpose for its creation to serve the World Quests. Basically, the use case of larger zones is limited with the current design of the game after the Diablo 3 Team scurried off to the Legion Team and ruined everything about the World.

But yeah, again I just don't see it. This whole thing is the dumbest marketing point I've ever seen TBH. What are they filling the zones with and the only answer is "World Quest Nodes with the focus on places being to do those WQs as you zip around the map".

Anything immersion or interesting? Nope, not a chance. This is also something I expect to see with the Verticality aspect. Cool stuff in the Vertical space? Nope, just more WQ Nodes to do.

I mean we know nothing about the content
It could be that the medium pizza has the same amount of pepperoni as the small or it could have double

Also unless I missed something the renown reputation is just added on to the normal rep grind like if you added the covenants renown rewards on top of the zone rep rewards

[Raetary]

Cata added 4 zones and a Mega-zone.
Mop had 4 big zones plus vale, until they decided to split Townlong and Valley, artificially increasing the number to 7.
Draenor had 7 zones + Ashran.
Legion had 5 + Shore.
BfA had 6.
Sl had 5.

DF has 4 big zones + Forbidden Reach.
So really, we are just back to mop again.

[Kagdar]

I don't know people are being too obtuse when arguing about numericals when those numbers still are higher than the 4 Zones in Dragonflight.

Again, fundamentally I think the Zone Number is way too low for a base product and even if the zones are massive and completely amazing. That doesn't mean it is not worrying that the precedent it sets is 4 Megazones each expansion + 2 Megazones for Content Islands.
.

It's like the pizza place near me, they only cut the pizza into 4 slices!! I'd prefer them to cut it into 8 slices, i'd have more pizza!

/s

Number of zones means nothing, how big the world is and what is in it is what mather.

Take Assassin's Creed Odyssey for example. They prouded themself that their map was the biggest in the industry. Yes 50% of it was open water for your boat... Wow so much content.

[rhorle]

I don't know people are being too obtuse when arguing about numericals when those numbers still are higher than the 4 Zones in Dragonflight.

Because the number of zones has nothing to do with your actual argument. More zone does not mean better quality zones or end product. Less zones does not mean lower quality zones or end product. The number of zones has nothing to do with anything. It is also hilarious that you think quantity over quality is the better thing for a game.

Why not produce 100 zones that are just copies of each other? That is a superior product, right? Because it is quantity over quality, right?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Because the number of zones has nothing to do with your actual argument. More zone does not mean better quality zones or end product. Less zones does not mean lower quality zones or end product. The number of zones has nothing to do with anything. It is also hilarious that you think quantity over quality is the better thing for a game.

Why not produce 100 zones that are just copies of each other? That is a superior product, right? Because it is quantity over quality, right?

Considering I advocate for copying due to the resource issue on the company side. Yes, I would like more product even if it is copying just like they did with TBC when they used the same tileset for several dungeon wings.

Anyways, this is getting silly. Having to argue about Quantity being better than Quality in a video game product is just dumb. You can quantify the quantity of the games content, you can't quantify its quality. This is the main crux of my argument. You're safer with quantity over quality because with quality you have to trust the developers and that is not possible at this point in time until the 3 Major Patches precedent is returned as a core principle of the game.

No one has any idea if a games product quality can be ascertained as they are just observers of the people who put the effort in to make its quality higher and also again it is a personal view if they thought the actual content was high quality or not. The absence of content means you can't observe and make an ascertation that it is of high quality in the first place.

[huth]

More Zones at least means quantifiable

No, it doesn't, because zones are arbitrary. Number of zones tells us absolutely nothing about the expansion. They could just have done away with zones entirely and just have Dragon Isles as the single new zone, while making no change to the actual content whatsoever.

They changed the number of Zones in MoP during beta and it had no effect on content whatsoever. It was purely an administrative act.

[Ersula]

Do you have a link to that biome? Because I'm not seeing it in a brief glimpse (5 second fast forwards) of the reveal video or their press kit.

This thing. It's significantly different from the architecture of the previewed zones, nor is it part of Tyrhold.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

This thing. It's significantly different from the architecture of the previewed zones, nor is it part of Tyrhold.

I mean Dungeon/Raid entrance sounds likely. Especially with the whole Murozond theory.

[Mferna]

Cata added 4 zones and a Mega-zone.
Mop had 4 big zones plus vale, until they decided to split Townlong and Valley, artificially increasing the number to 7.
Draenor had 7 zones + Ashran.
Legion had 5 + Shore.
BfA had 6.
Sl had 5.

DF has 4 big zones + Forbidden Reach.
So really, we are just back to mop again.

This is an extremely narrow mindset. The amount of zones means nothing. Bfa gets sh*t on a lot but kul’tiras and zandalari where bigger than all of pandaria plus they later added mechagon and nazjatar. Try searching the actual pixel size of each of the new continents they add, as many ppl have a warped view on size. And once doing that, realize that blizz said the dragon isles will be comparable to northrend. These zones will be massive and I’m here for it