Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Why anyone would enjoy the chaos of something. Seems kinda messed up.

I wouldn't strictly call it "messed up". I would call it "edgy".

[Makabreska]

That's a fair point—I'm not strictly complaining, I need to emphasize. What concerns me is that it's simply a very odd change of pace for Blizzard to abruptly expunge their previously-consistent trend of providing a gameplay trailer for any given expansion. It seems like it also was a generally-ineffectual way of communicating this information. I'm not going to say I didn't absorb all the information I needed from the subsequent interviews, nor that it was strictly a bad way of doing things, but you simply expect a proper gameplay trailer for any given game release.

It's not strictly a bad change, and I'm not complaining, but it something which I don't quite understand, especially since I think the pressure wasn't really there that would've prevented them from doing a gameplay trailer, especially since the interviews have always been part of the reveal. They certainly weren't redundant with a gameplay trailer and they seem to not be strictly replacing it because they've always had interviews regarding the gameplay of the coming expansion following each reveal.

My general concern is that it simply doesn't feel like a sufficient reveal for me. It's simply lacking some things which seem necessary—the Shadowlands reveal was awkward, but this is simply strange. It's incongruous with the trend we've seen established for over a decade, and I don't know why this has happened.

It is really quite simple. It's not a cinematic that shows parts of the story, it is a feature trailer that suddenly works less effective when you do not present it in front of the massive crowd and which you can later explain during multiple long panels. They had like 1h total for DF and WotLK Classic, so they went for immediate explanation. It is really an odd complaint to have. They could give us trailer, they did not. We lost nothing.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

It is really quite simple. It's not a cinematic that shows parts of the story, it is a feature trailer that suddenly works less effective when you do not present it in front of the massive crowd and which you can later explain during multiple long panels. They had like 1h total for DF and WotLK Classic, so they went for immediate explanation. It is really an odd complaint to have. They could give us trailer, they did not. We lost nothing.

Wasn't there a crowd in attendance, though? Sure, it wasn't physical, but it would nevertheless concisely deliver all relevant features of the expansion far more effectively than a sequence of interviews.

[Makabreska]

Wasn't there a crowd in attendance, though? Sure, it wasn't physical, but it would nevertheless concisely deliver all relevant features of the expansion far more effectively than a sequence of interviews.

Would it really? How much did you learn about Island Expeditions, Warfronts or Torghast solely from the feature trailers? EVERYONES BfA reaction I saw was "oh ok, Warftons is the new PvP thing".

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Would it really? How much did you learn about Island Expeditions, Warfronts or Torghast solely from the feature trailers? EVERYONES BfA reaction I saw was "oh ok, Warftons is the new PvP thing".

That's fair, but that doesn't mitigate anything I said. I don't know why this is a point of debate—it is simply odd to me and a few others that they didn't commit to a features trailer when they had the resources for it. It simply strikes me as an odd decision. I'm not accusing Blizzard of anything and you don't need to be this defensive about it.

[Marlamin]

New 10.0 build up on wowdev, the second one we've seen so far. If those are regular now, internal (but on Battle.net) alpha is definitely happening.

[Makabreska]

New 10.0 build up on wowdev, the second one we've seen so far. If those are regular now, internal (but on Battle.net) alpha is definitely happening.

Poggers!!!

[Valysar]

Time to restart the hype train then !

[Nyel]

Season 4 could happen in Q3 for resubs plus they are still holding Dragonflight preorders so that is a possibility they are holding it to help boost Q3 profits.

I mean, Q3 starts next month, so that's quite likely to happen.

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I honestly don't know anymore. The whole fact that the Marketing and PR Team okayed what was a suicidal attempt at revealing a product in a manner in which their primary selling points was "Scalies, 4 zones, Talent/Profession revamp" and then leaving more info to be found only 3 days later in interview while for 9.2 Reveal they had the embargoes lifted immediately or a few hours after the 9.2 Presentation that was universally disliked. Again, they should've opened preorders on Day 1.

This whole situation is absurd from a company whos' main purpose at this point is to extract money while providing as little value to the consumer anyways. So what exactly is happening internally for someone in management to have put a firm stance on shifting policy on the reveal + preorder? Surprising, that is what it is.

Again, they are trying to find their footing again. I think the emptiness of the base product is fine as long as they got the post launch content on lock on at least a 6 month per major patch cycle.

The whole Ion comments on the progress of Dragonflight development and the contradictory state of lack of preorder and Feature Trailer alongside the lack of Unencrypted Alpha it is very odd.

Diablo IV is the product they can redeem themselves with. Dragonflight won't be it anyway. And after the Diablo Immortal fiasco and their even more tarnished reputation, that's where all the hope lies. And maybe Overwatch 2, but that sounds to become a cash grab as well.

[Nymrohd]

I mean, Q3 starts next month, so that's quite likely to happen.

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Diablo IV is the product they can redeem themselves with. Dragonflight won't be it anyway. And after the Diablo Immortal fiasco and their even more tarnished reputation, that's where all the hope lies. And maybe Overwatch 2, but that sounds to become a cash grab as well.

Honestly thought the part of OW2 people were most excited about was the PvE and we've heard nothing about that in a while, have we? Otherwise it's just lootboxes with a couple more heroes or maps.

[rhorle]

Diablo IV is the product they can redeem themselves with. Dragonflight won't be it anyway. And after the Diablo Immortal fiasco and their even more tarnished reputation, that's where all the hope lies. And maybe Overwatch 2, but that sounds to become a cash grab as well.

So setting them up for failure before it even happens? Blizzard doesn't need to redeem themselves and Diablo Immortal isn't a fiasco. It is and always was a mobile game so typical mobile game monetization should have been expected.

[Nyel]

Honestly thought the part of OW2 people were most excited about was the PvE and we've heard nothing about that in a while, have we? Otherwise it's just lootboxes with a couple more heroes or maps.

I mean it makes sense to start the competitive part (PvP) as early access and deliver on the PvE part somewhere later... but then it's just a glorified Overwatch (1) anyway.

[rhorle]

Honestly thought the part of OW2 people were most excited about was the PvE and we've heard nothing about that in a while, have we? Otherwise it's just lootboxes with a couple more heroes or maps.

They said the PvE portion was what has been holding up development so they "seperated" the product to get PvP out faster. Though we should learn more on thursday when they have the Overwatch reveal event.

[Makabreska]

I mean it makes sense to start the competitive part (PvP) as early access and deliver on the PvE part somewhere later... but then it's just a glorified Overwatch (1) anyway.

Which is for free. So, problem?

Diablo IV is the product they can redeem themselves with. Dragonflight won't be it anyway. And after the Diablo Immortal fiasco and their even more tarnished reputation, that's where all the hope lies. And maybe Overwatch 2, but that sounds to become a cash grab as well.

Thanks for the usual, pre-alpha "this expansion will fail".

[rhorle]

I mean it makes sense to start the competitive part (PvP) as early access and deliver on the PvE part somewhere later... but then it's just a glorified Overwatch (1) anyway.

It always was just OW1 with a PvE expansion. At the time they did say they didn't have a good way to market it so just called it 2 even though it was just basically OW1 with PvE. Everything was always designed to transfer over and for PvP to be free for OW1 owners.

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We are due for a 6-month subscription mount soon so I wonder if they are going to do an Annual pass instead. Lock in a year of WoW and get a free copy of D4. The Wen Lo bundle was announced January 25th so we will should know about the next one later this month.

[Nymrohd]

Thanks for the usual, pre-alpha "this expansion will fail".

I am fairly optimistic about Dragonflight but I also don't think it will be as content heavy as Legion. Expansion after that will be where we might see significant additional resources.

[Nyel]

Thanks for the usual, pre-alpha "this expansion will fail".

Huh? It's already clear that Dragonflight won't be the Legion-type of renaissance that WoW is in dire need of, has nothing to do with "this expansion will fail". People left and right here and everywhere else were expecting a Legion-kind of expansion for Dragonflight with bombast, content and packed with features. We get nothing of the sort. It's a simple obversation.

[Valysar]

As long as there is no borrowed powers, conduits, billions of anima to farm, legendaries, that'll be a great xpac

[SunspotAnims]

Honestly thought the part of OW2 people were most excited about was the PvE and we've heard nothing about that in a while, have we? Otherwise it's just lootboxes with a couple more heroes or maps.

PVE will release later, presumably sometime in 2023. It hasn't yet been confirmed if it'll cost anything.

The PVP part of OW2 is more of a F2P reboot of OW, so it could more aptly be called Overwatch 2.0. I can confirm as a longtime player that it changes the PVP experience on a more fundamental level than is apparent on the surface but it isn't easy to notice if you haven't been following the game closely over the past few years.

[boyzma]

Huh? It's already clear that Dragonflight won't be the Legion-type of renaissance that WoW is in dire need of, has nothing to do with "this expansion will fail". People left and right here and everywhere else were expecting a Legion-kind of expansion for Dragonflight with bombast, content and packed with features. We get nothing of the sort. It's a simple obversation.

Wow....think you can give me some winning lottery numbers here? You seem to know an awful lot about an expansion that NO ONE....except the internal alpha testers and you of course....has seen. Pretty ballsey to be making such comments.