Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

Gonna be a long 9-10 months.

I guess 10.0 reveal will be ~March, I think it was main reason of Blizzconline. Scandals, not lack of content are reasons for scraping it. And if 10.0 is planned for 2022, April is kinda deadline for Alpha. Forget about expac in 9-10 months, that would require Alpha by February.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I guess 10.0 reveal will be ~March, I think it was main reason of Blizzconline. Scandals, not lack of content are reasons for scraping it. And if 10.0 is planned for 2022, April is kinda deadline for Alpha. Forget about expac in 9-10 months, that would require Alpha by February.

I presumed myself it would be late 2022 at most or 2023 but thats just educated guess. I think if they presented actual things in the patch(Like in some of the interviews we got. Like there's legendary upgrade to 2 legendaries, and among other things. I think people assumed it would be a livestream with Ion in it like I did at least at first.

[TheFirstOnes]

--- snip ---

Considering we're getting something akin to FFXIV's gearing, and considering this place looks cool asf and has a pretty neat progression system (Albeit timegated?), where you can slowly decrypt the language of the First Ones and know more of the Cosmos as a result, I think that's a rather clear improvement over 9.0 and 9.1...concept wise, at least. I HOPE the implementation's good however.

[Nyel]

I guess 10.0 reveal will be ~March, I think it was main reason of Blizzconline. Scandals, not lack of content are reasons for scraping it. And if 10.0 is planned for 2022, April is kinda deadline for Alpha. Forget about expac in 9-10 months, that would require Alpha by February.

Why do you think they wouldn't announce it at the Game Awards next month? Because it's not ready to be revealed?

Imho it's the biggest platform they can get before E3 and if 10.0 is indeed HUGE this would be way better than an announcement that doesn't get the same platform as Gamescom / Blizzcon etc.

[Dracullus]

Why do you think they wouldn't announce it at the Game Awards next month? Because it's not ready to be revealed?

Imho it's the biggest platform they can get before E3 and if 10.0 is indeed HUGE this would be way better than an announcement that doesn't get the same platform as Gamescom / Blizzcon etc.

I don't think it's audience for stuff like this, but nothing really stop them now. Personally I would prefer special ~1 hour reveal and it would be awesome if they could get live audience for that (don't really count for it though).

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I mean they've been following Precedent and World of Warcraft: "Hi OG WoW fans we back to Azeroth now smile.jpg" at The Game Awards sounds logical in that sense.

Although theres only kink in that armor which is that they actually want to take the narrative seriously and revealing 10.0 prior to the events of the Raid does not make much sense considering how much they've spent time setting this up. It is more likely that the end Cinematic of the Raid 2nd Part unleashes the 10.0 cycle.

[Kiivar86]

I don't think it's audience for stuff like this, but nothing really stop them now. Personally I would prefer special ~1 hour reveal and it would be awesome if they could get live audience for that (don't really count for it though).

They did do that Uther animatic reveal at a different awards show I think? Or was it gamescom? Its all Keighly at this point, really.

I can see them doing it.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

They did do that Uther animatic reveal at a different awards show I think? Or was it gamescom? Its all Keighly at this point, really.

I can see them doing it.

That was at Gamescom Opening Live 2020 with Geoff Keighley. So yes, Keighley got contacts and they could go for it.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

He means the 1500 Activision employees that were layed off in 2019. 800 were from Blizzard & they claimed none were involved in the game but that's a very obvious lie. Blizzard didn't have 800 janitors & tech support employees.

We had the lay off papers for that one come
Out only 250 or so we’re from blizzard and there was a handful of QA (around 10 or so) but other wise no one who actually touches the game laid off.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

We had the lay off papers for that one come
Out there was a handful of QA (around 10 or so) but other wise no one who actually touches the game if I remember correct.

Yeah it shown as no actual developers. So no actual downsizing or anything big like that.

[AngerFork]

I general SL feels like expansion that had lot of good design, but is very cheap content wise (so completely opposite of BfA). Bare minimum of 4 questing zones, 8+1 dungeons, 3 raids, 2 endgame zones, Legion timewalking that had to be introduced but no brawler's guild or solo challenge in final patch, only 2 big patches, every season dragged.. And many of it is not result of Covid, expac was announced this way.

Expacs are not 20-25% smaller for no reason. Yeah, I think I'm completely on 'Azeroth revamp' side now.

I'm somewhat there, but I still keep finding myself stuck on one simple question: if they are already revamping the old world anyway & changing a ton of the old world content, why would they have such a push to eliminate the so much of the off color humor/content in 9.1.5 & 9.2? I could see it for the areas that might not be touched the same, like Outland or perhaps Kara, but why would they do any removals/adjustments outside of names in EK or Kalimdor if it's just changing in 10.0?

[infinitemeridian]

So when can we expect a 10.0 announcement? I would think it would need to be by the end of February, but I could see it not being announced until the Summer and we get the expac early 2023.

[Dracullus]

I'm somewhat there, but I still keep finding myself stuck on one simple question: if they are already revamping the old world anyway & changing a ton of the old world content, why would they have such a push to eliminate the so much of the off color humor/content in 9.1.5 & 9.2? I could see it for the areas that might not be touched the same, like Outland or perhaps Kara, but why would they do any removals/adjustments outside of names in EK or Kalimdor if it's just changing in 10.0?

They don't have to delete old world like during Cata. All could just remain as optional leveling path in Chromie time, including Cata EK/Kalimdor, which would just exist behind portal in Caverns of Time.

They did do that Uther animatic reveal at a different awards show I think? Or was it gamescom? Its all Keighly at this point, really.

I can see them doing it.

.. and audience didn't give a single f*ck. That was even before scandal, I remind you. WoW expac deserve something better.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

.. and audience didn't give a single f*ck. That was even before scandal, I remind you. WoW expac deserve something better.

If it was game footage I'm sure they'd care. Not angry, just a much better way to communicate whats coming up.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

So when can we expect a 10.0 announcement? I would think it would need to be by the end of February, but I could see it not being announced until the Summer and we get the expac early 2023.

A) It's at TGA 2021
B) The Press Release and Marketing start immediately after the events of Sepulcher of Knowledge Jailor Cinematic
C) Fortnite Chapter 2 Event happens and the Game shuts down after the events of Sepulcher of Knowledge Jailor Cinematic spamming mass PR Marketing to every public channel with a countdown that reveals 10.0 afterwards (Probably not very likely because that would mean they have literally already worked on 10.0 for years and lmao)

If we consider the fact that the release of the patch is around February-March and Alpha usually starts in April. It is very clear the only event they could announce it at would be TGA 2021.

Otherwise they have to create their own marketing event for it.

[Sondrelk]

With confirmation that Renown is going to be capped at 80 eveb into 9.2 I have to wonder whether it will be carried over into 10.0 in any way.
I know that anything relating to covenants is awful going by internet discourse, but I really did enjoy how Renown managed to bridge the timegating elements from hard timegating and reputation gating into one package that incentivizes actually playing each week without leaving players behind.

Might also be a bit more of a long shot. But I really hope the zone buffs and at least some of the unique cosmetics afforded by covenants will show up in a similar form for reputations.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

With confirmation that Renown is going to be capped at 80 eveb into 9.2 I have to wonder whether it will be carried over into 10.0 in any way.
I know that anything relating to covenants is awful going by internet discourse, but I really did enjoy how Renown managed to bridge the timegating elements from hard timegating and reputation gating into one package that incentivizes actually playing each week without leaving players behind.

Might also be a bit more of a long shot. But I really hope the zone buffs and at least some of the unique cosmetics afforded by covenants will show up in a similar form for reputations.

Could be they are making it a Battle Pass System. Renown always felt like a prototype for the inevitable Battle Pass. Blizzard loves iterative design, so it would make sense and higher ups know that is a system that all other games have and players won't be too upset about it. More monetization is always good in their eyes.

[Cherry123]

three pages of discussion, that's all the hype from 9.2

[micwini]

three pages of discussion, that's all the hype from 9.2

My hype faded the moment I saw the duration of the video. Not even a cool trailer ffs.

- - - Updated - - -

What are the odds of PTR going live today?

[Ersula]

three pages of discussion, that's all the hype from 9.2

Hype was what we were chatting about when the preview was announced. After the trailer has just been sorrow.

No new features. Just Korthia 2.0