Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[TheFirstOnes]

Hey guys, I made the most amazing and detailed piece of Artwork on how the First Ones created the Cosmic Framework!

[Hyrja]

That's why WoD is better than Shadowlands in my opinion. It released in November 2014 and received its last content patch, 6.2, 8 months later in june 2015. And in august 2015 2 months after 6.2 released, they announced Legion at gamescom. The expansion wasnt great but there was always something new and exciting to look forward to. Now with Shadowlands we had 1 content patch in 11 months and there are no signs of a .2 patch and let alone the next expansion. Rough times man

[TheFirstOnes]

How I think the First Ones decided to make a framework to begin with.

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Black is Death, btw...

It's hard to see.

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That's why WoD is better than Shadowlands in my opinion. It released in November 2014 and received its last content patch, 6.2, 8 months later in june 2015. And in august 2015 2 months after 6.2 released, they announced Legion at gamescom. The expansion wasnt great but there was always something new and exciting to look forward to. Now with Shadowlands we had 1 content patch in 11 months and there are no signs of a .2 patch and let alone the next expansion. Rough times man

I think SL slams WoD, the fuck? Content drought doesn't matter to me, knowing it's WoW lol.

[Varodoc]

That's why WoD is better than Shadowlands in my opinion. It released in November 2014 and received its last content patch, 6.2, 8 months later in june 2015. And in august 2015 2 months after 6.2 released, they announced Legion at gamescom. The expansion wasnt great but there was always something new and exciting to look forward to. Now with Shadowlands we had 1 content patch in 11 months and there are no signs of a .2 patch and let alone the next expansion. Rough times man

For all its flaws WoD was easily the most hyped expansion. The setting with the greens... errr, sorry, I meant "orcs" (please don't cancel me ) was super popular because 1) orcs are popular 2) TBC nostalgia, and the cinematic was absolutely iconic and beloved. Unlike the Shadowlands cinematic which generated a lot of drama and fiasco due to Sylvanas humiliating Bolvar. And then Blizzard clearly hyped WoD more than they did with every other expansion, since they literally placed a replica of Gorehowl in front of Times New Square. Blizzard went all out with the hype for WoD, and we see that it worked in the massive surge of subs it had at launch (WoW's subs went from like 6 millions to 10 millions thanks to WoD). WoD was absolutely massive back when it was released.

But it's not a surprise that TBC nostalgia was much more attracting than random vampires and furries who never had a single mention before.

Shadowlands pales in comparison, both in hype and in the amount of advertisement it got. It's not a surprise that when people look back at the WoD cinematic, they always say stuff like "the best cinematic for the worst expansion". WoD was absolutely the most hyped expansion ever, even more than Legion honestly.

It pains me to realize that we live in this timeline... But no other expansion will ever generate the same amount of hype and traffic around the franchise WoD did.

And the evidence is under our eyes for all to bask at:

[TheFirstOnes]

Y'all do realize WoD sucked dick, right? Idc how good the leveling was, it was literally just raiding + the Garrisons.

[therumblings]

Lol, since when did WoD generate that much hype? I remember everyone dreading having to deal with more Orcs after months of SoO

[Hitei]

Whiteknight all you want

This isn't a matter of white knighting, but an explanation of the objective reality of game development. It is an unfortunate reality, but a reality still, and no amount of buzzword-y ad hominem is going to change that.

delivering one content patch in a year is inexcusable for a MMO.

Not sure why I'm bothering to respond to a strawman, but: rather than inexcusable it seems like about the standard. I don't play Guild Wars or FFXIV, but glancing through their version updates, it seems like they are in the exact same situation. I don't follow Warframe all that much anymore, but it has also only released a single large update since summer of last year. Genshin Impact, a game with a fairly aggressive update schedule, has released about one and a half major content updates over the past year.

Wow expansions typically get both there X.1 and X.2 patches in about one year, but also historically the X.1 patch is usually just a raid, or a raid and some dailies added to some existing place, with X.2 being the new area. 9.1 is a bit of both. That seems pretty reasonable for a year as wonky as 2020 to me, but also I'm not looking to be overly outraged by the release schedule of a game I can just stop paying and wait for new content for.

It pains me to realize that we live in this timeline... But no other expansion will ever generate the same amount of hype and traffic around the franchise WoD did.

And the evidence is under our eyes for all to bask at

Every expansion since has also spiked like that, as you can observe from the similar (and higher) initial box sales.

[Varodoc]

Lol, since when did WoD generate that much hype? I remember everyone dreading having to deal with more Orcs after months of SoO

Yeah if you've never left MMO-Champion.

WoD cinematic sits at 33M views on Youtube, the most viewed expansion cinematic by far. Even more than Classic-TBC-WotLK-Cataclysm.

They literally put a replica of Gorehowl in the main square of the largest city in the US and a global capital.

[Sondrelk]

I feel confident Legion had a more pronounced spike in numbers than WoD did. There might have been some nice TBC nostalgia, but Legion had that, and also Demon hunters and the Ashbringer.


Also, I still cannot wrap my head around how some people legitimately think WoD was better than this. Subjective enjoyment of classes aside that expansion had absolutely nothing compared to even the most anemic of endgames like Cata.
6.1 was literally an in-game selfie cam and Twitter integration. How anyone can look at that compared to 9.1 and think that patch is better completely escapes me.

Shadowlands might suck, but I would take an expansion that least lets me look forward to grinding meaningless cosmetics and mounts over an expansion where the main activity I did was run circles around a faction hub made of copied assets.

[therumblings]

Yeah if you've never left MMO-Champion.

WoD cinematic sits at 33M views on Youtube, the most viewed expansion cinematic by far. Even more than Classic-TBC-WotLK-Cataclysm.

They literally put a replica of Gorehowl in the main square of the largest city in the US and a global capital.

Warlords was possibly one of the most unappealing expansions to me during the pre-expansion hype period, but maybe youtube normies think differently. I'd expect Legion to have had more hype behind it honestly.

[Varodoc]

Warlords was possibly one of the most unappealing expansions to me upon announcement, but maybe youtube normies think differently. I'd expect Legion to have had more hype behind it honestly.

After 6 years the Legion cinematic only has 1/3 of the views the WoD cinematic had.

WoD cinematic: 33M
Legion cinematic: 12M

Evidently the long-awaited Ashbringer and Demon Hunters didn't generate the same amount of clicks Orc Thanos did

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I am not saying WoD was good or bad [Subjective].

I am saying WoD was the most hyped expansion ever [Objective and Canonical truth].

[Raetary]

They did market wod quite well and a lot.

I remember seeing wod ads basically everywhere.

[Sondrelk]

After 6 years the Legion cinematic only has 1/3 of the views the WoD cinematic had.

WoD cinematic: 33M
Legion cinematic: 12M

Evidently the long-awaited Ashbringer and Demon Hunters didn't generate the same amount of clicks Orc Thanos did

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I am not saying WoD was good or bad [Subjective].

I am saying WoD was the most hyped expansion ever [Objective and Canonical truth].

WoD also has a prodigiously good trailer though, probably second best behind WotLK.
The numbers could be inflated by players revisiting it on its own merits, whereas the Legion trailer was pretty boring all things considered, so it's unlikely players go back to it.

And even beyond that, the WoD trailer is older, so why wouldn't it have more views?

[Varodoc]

WoD also has a prodigiously good trailer though, probably second best behind WotLK.
The numbers could be inflated by players revisiting it on its own merits, whereas the Legion trailer was pretty boring all things considered, so it's unlikely players go back to it.

And even beyond that, the WoD trailer is older, so why wouldn't it have more views?

So you're saying that the Legion cinematic (only 1 year older than WoD) will get 21M views in one year?

Cope.

WoD has way more views than the cinematics of all the expansions that came before it, so that's a non-argument. You're just coping because you can't believe WoD was so big when it released.

[Sondrelk]

Also I am not sure I am willing to blindly accept WoD is the most hyped expansion ever. It's certainly up there, but I feel I need to see some hard proof on something like that when you consider all the other expansions with massive advertisement campaigns.

[TheFirstOnes]

https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/w...ntial_Entities

I think I know what inspired Blizzard to create the First Ones.

[Sondrelk]

So you're saying that the Legion cinematic (only 1 year older than WoD) will get 21M views in one year?

Cope.

WoD has way more views than the cinematics of all the expansions that came before it, so that's a non-argument. You're just coping because you can't believe WoD was so big when it released.

I am arguing that WoD has such a large number of viewings since it is a really good trailer compared to Legion which is kinda boring.
If you go on a nostalgia binge and decide to watch some WoW stuff, would you watch something that is good on its own, or something that was just connected to something good?

I am not saying that WoD didn't have a huge marketing push, but saying that WoD had the biggest player spike simply based on views on a trailer seems very reductive.

[Varodoc]

I am arguing that WoD has such a large number of viewings since it is a really good trailer compared to Legion which is kinda boring.
If you go on a nostalgia binge and decide to watch some WoW stuff, would you watch something that is good on its own, or something that was just connected to something good?

I am not saying that WoD didn't have a huge marketing push, but saying that WoD had the biggest player spike simply based on views on a trailer seems very reductive.

It did. Blizzard didn't go to such lengths to advertise other expansions, Blizzard went all out for World of Orcs:




Which is why it's bizarre that Blizzard would then throw WoD into the bin, since they spent so much money advertising it. But as we see now in Shadowlands, Blizzard hasn't had their priorities straight for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time

[Sondrelk]

It did. Blizzard didn't go to such lengths to advertise other expansions, Blizzard went all out for World of Orcs:

[IMG]


Which is why it's bizarre that Blizzard would then throw WoD into the bin, since they spent so much money advertising it. But as we see now in Shadowlands, Blizzard hasn't had their priorities straight for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time

Its the law of inverse quality to marketing.
The bigger a marketing push something has, that being movies, games or new restaurant, the bigger the odds that someone up top knows the product is godawful and won't be able to stand on its own merits, therefore banking on early sales to prop up the absence of sales later on.

WoD was probably given a big marketing push because the developers thought that this was their best chance to get back into the market. MoP might have been good, but definitely wasn't a hype machine, whereas hundreds of orcs building giant machines was probably more up everyone's alley.

WoD is quintessentially Warcraft. Legion is good and all, but demons and sword and magic is very basic fantasy. Giant Mongolian or s wielding axes is something you don't really see much of outside World of Warcraft.

[Dracullus]

Are we late into the PTR though? Mage Tower hasn't been tested at all yet, and that is one of the key features of this patch.

Yeah it's week 7, some of us hoped patch will launch next week, but in general PTRs last ~10-11 weeks. Major things left to test are MT and solo Islands. I don't think MT needs same amount of testing as M+, back in 7.2 it wasn't even tested on PTR at all; for islands it's just implementing new interface.

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Lol, we really need to explain why SL didn't have huge city commercials and still got better launch numbers that WoD/Legion/BfA? Hmmm, what could be different 2020 factor that changed marketing strategy...