Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Miffinat0r]

I saw this on the WoW forums--it's a good joke.

If you gave Joel Schumaker the world's greatest script of all time, you'd still wind up with a Joel Schumaker film. Why should you expect anything less from Ion?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Well, there's that thing called Hope. Which exists in our hearts, I guess.

I don't know, I am waiting till the presentation. I am definitely anti-Every Idea that has been put forward except World Revamp. But, I am willing to at least hear them out. If not it's just another 2 year waiting period before potentially an exciting new expansion is revealed instead. Not a big deal, there's so many games and experiences to experience and Classic will still exist for those who still engage with that.

[Nyel]

Blizzard's ability to wait to counter another upcoming game is long gone. They need to release no matter what other games release and when. At this point even the staff of hermes trismegistus would struggle to keep the game alive. It needs new content asap rocky

Oh, I don't deny that. 9.2 should be released as soon as it's good to go. But February and March are just sooooo packed with games, it will be tough.

- - - Updated - - -

and Lost Ark, and for me a new Path of Exile league. too many hecking games.

Ah Lost Ark, I totally forgot that although it might be the biggest MMO release this year, lol. And there's Pokemon: Legends Arceus at the end of January (although many belittle that game). Too much within just a few weeks.

[uzira]

LiFeLaNdS with the main zone being Gardens of Life.
A Maw like zone but all nature-y. In 10.0 we can't stay in there so long because completing quests and objectives increases the threat from Eye of the Jailer the Garden Keeper and he sends increasing threats on us.
We enter the Lifelands through a portal found in the ashes of Teldrasil when Tyrande takes Sylvanas there to weep over what she has done. This brings life back to Sylvanas and makes her the main protagonist of the expansion (expansion to include at least 3 more CGI cinematics with Sylvanas and at least 7 new models for her, hands optional).
In there we enter the uncorrupted portions of the Emerald Dream, since it is basically an image of Azeroth before civilization and the recent things happening in Blizz, as well as the world event going on for the past 2 years they didn't have much time to spend on the leveling zones and decided that what would fit is just bringing in Eastern Kingodm and Kalimdor files from Vanilla and removing all the man made buildings and architecture. Then out of the 2 continents they make Northern and Southern Easter Kingdom, and Northern and Southern Kalimdor as leveling zones, reusing assets from Valsharah, Ardenweald and Drustvar to create 3 of the zones being forests, and using Voldun assets to create a desert zones. For some reason there are trolls in all the zones since that is where Bwomsamdi took them to hide them from the Jailer. There is also an Ethereal/Broker like race that seems important but ends up being not so much.

In a later patch we go to Zereth Vitas, which looks like Zereth Mortis but is inverted (the sand and grass parts) and instead of water we can walk on we get water we can walk under. Here we battle against Elune who is Zovaal's sister and is trying to use Azeroth to reshape the universe so that only elves exist. Zovaal knew of this all along and was trying to stop her, Sylvanas is the one that tells us this as she is the main protagonist. We defeat her in 1 patch but the moon of azeroth gets destroyed causing the next cataclysm and a world revamp in 11.0. Tyrande is the Anduin equivalent boss of this raid.

I might have gotten a bit carried away.

- - - Updated - - -

Lmaoo plsss

[Nyel]

They could artificially delay it till March, but they would have to move into Alpha in April. So I don't know, we'll see what transpires.

I mean end of February / March is still the "natural" release time when we consider how long past end-of-expansion patches have been on the PTR.

[Nyel]

Blizzard wrote the "launch-week player concurrency climbed to its highest point since the 2010 launch of the Cataclysm expansion." Back in 2010, World of Warcraft reached 12 million subscribers, but went downhill since then, however Blizzard doesn't disclose this kind of information anymore. It is just a rough estimate considering that Shadowlands sold better on day one than any other expac before, even TBC, even WotLK. And if blizzard says it is the highest point since 2010, it is not very likely below that point, as the numbers went down those days. I give them another million copies after launch as a bonus.

Better lets ask the question why blizzard does not publish them anymore.

What do the devs have to lose?

Arguments for their agenda?

Player concurrency. 12 million subscribers does not mean 12 million concurrent players. Huuuuuuge difference.

[Ersula]

Better lets ask the question why blizzard does not publish them anymore.

What do the devs have to lose?

Arguments for their agenda?

Because the last time they reported, Legion at one point had 22 million subs. So if they've gone from 22 million subs to 12 million, that's not something you want to advertise.

[LordKharon]

Blizz needs to release 9.2 as soon as possible. Forget all other game releases. They need content for the ppl still subscribed (their biggest fans) NOW. If 9.2 is good others will come back after they played EldenRing or whatever some weeks after 9.2 release.

But 10.0 announcement should be in a week where nothing else "big" is released so they get as much media coverage as possible...

[Shadochi]

Lmaoo plsss

This is what happens when I my mind goes wild while stuck in a random work daily meeting and my next D&D sessions are already prepared. I just tried to put myself in the shoes of Danuser

- - - Updated - - -

Blizz needs to release 9.2 as soon as possible. Forget all other game releases. They need content for the ppl still subscribed (their biggest fans) NOW. If 9.2 is good others will come back after they played EldenRing or whatever some weeks after 9.2 release.

But 10.0 announcement should be in a week where nothing else "big" is released so they get as much media coverage as possible...

Yeah, I see people mentioning all the releases coming in the next two months but for wow's sake it is in the best interest to release it as soon as possible and not wiggle it based on other industry releases.
Also with the nature of WoW it doesn't really matter too much for MOST player, since you might have a couple hours of content to do as a casual (not min maxing or trying to do everything asap) and then can switch to other games. I really don't think other parts of the industry having releases matters that much especially if it isn't a same style of game. Otherwise why would all the publishers still release their major title in a month that is already crowded

[Edward Wu]

I think Ion could do with sharing a co-Game Director position with someone more in tune with the causal elements of game design, say, Muffinus. I do however think Danuser needs to go. That guy almost feels like he joined Blizzard just to sabotage it from within. I miss Metzen.

[epigramx]

What if it's not about dragons, but something kills all the dragons, and we try to go after whoever killed all the dragons?

[Dracullus]

Jesus, I thought I hate fake leaks, but they are top content compared to numbers and arguments pulled straight out of the ass. Lifelands, lightlands, shitlands, flying islands - I welcome you all.

Player concurrency. 12 million subscribers does not mean 12 million concurrent players. Huuuuuuge difference.

Well obviously, who the hell thinks all subbed people play at same time?

As for expansion sales, I wouldn't be surprised if TBC and especially Wrath sold much less than people think. Remember that 1) huge part of subs in early days were new people and many tried WoW only because it was popular and bounced pretty fast (WoW had 100M registered accounts between 2004-2013, but never more than 12M subs at same time), 2) before battlechest you had to buy vanilla -> buy sub -> put LOT of hours into leveling vanilla -> buy TBC -> level there -> buy Wrath. Now path is way shorter.

[epigramx]

I think Ion could do with sharing a co-Game Director position with someone more in tune with the causal elements

It's obvious that's what they did since Legion, because there is no way a hard core theorycrafter would add such a massive spam of world-grinding that affects borrowed power for raids and not make it so that it's mainly derived from in-raid. Those world quests and borrowed powers overengineered systems are definitely not coming from him but I doubt they'll ever admit whoever is the original creator as a person.

[Miffinat0r]

Reading all about how many people blame Bobby is confusing to me. Bobby in my view honestly doesn't care what Blizzard does so long as the MAU's are high and the in-game store sales are tied to the MAUs.

The faults really stem from the direct leadership over the game and that falls on Ion.

[Dracullus]

My 6th sense just triggered. 9.2 Release announcement this week?

9.1 date reveal was just like 12 days before launch. I think patch will launch 22nd February, so 10th February for blue post would be my guess.

Reading all about how many people blame Bobby is confusing to me. Bobby in my view honestly doesn't care what Blizzard does so long as the MAU's are high and the in-game store sales are tied to the MAUs.

The faults really stem from the direct leadership over the game and that falls on Ion.

Unlike many expansions, design is not significant issue in SL. At worst some systems feel unnecessary/pointless, but in no shape or form invasive. Biggest problems are patch schedule and scandals in Acti-Blizzard, where Kotick clearly is part of problem.

[Sondrelk]

Oof. February has Horizon and Elden Ring, it will be very hard for 9.2 in February, if that's the supposed release month.

I somehow doubt there is much direct competition between those games and WoW.
There are probably loads of players that want to play both, I know I am going to play the new Horizon game, but the MMO genre doesn't really compete with games like Horizon or the Soulslikes for player space.

[Miffinat0r]

9.1 date reveal was just like 12 days before launch. I think patch will launch 22nd February, so 10th February for blue post would be my guess.



Unlike many expansions, design is not significant issue in SL. At worst some systems feel unnecessary/pointless, but in no shape or form invasive. Biggest problems are patch schedule and scandals in Acti-Blizzard, where Kotick clearly is part of problem.

I don't argue that the scandals and patch release did not hurt, they absolutely did.. But I urge you to look into the topics prior to WoW's scandal hit. The systems are 100% what a ton of casual players hate. I've been monitoring the forums since the start of January and I can say that from this forum, WoW's forum, Reddit, and YT the comments that appear the most consistent are complaints from casual players.

And that's 100% on Ion, and that dude can't even bring himself to talk about casual players in interviews, because when he does he starts stammering and looking uncomfortable.

[Sondrelk]

Reading all about how many people blame Bobby is confusing to me. Bobby in my view honestly doesn't care what Blizzard does so long as the MAU's are high and the in-game store sales are tied to the MAUs.

The faults really stem from the direct leadership over the game and that falls on Ion.

Bobby at this point is more a negative influence on Blizzard morale than design. There are several devs who have left over the scandal, and probably several who are lower ranked who are contemplating leaving, if not having left already.

Bonny leaving at this point would be a fairly sizeable morale boost, and would allow Blizzard lots of positive forwards momentum in regards to publicity.

[Miffinat0r]

Bobby at this point is more a negative influence on Blizzard morale than design. There are several devs who have left over the scandal, and probably several who are lower ranked who are contemplating leaving, if not having left already.

Bonny leaving at this point would be a fairly sizeable morale boost, and would allow Blizzard lots of positive forwards momentum in regards to publicity.

Bobby would have a positive on the Activision side with King/CoD. It would impact Blizzard but Ybarra, Ion, and Dansuer leaving would have an even bigger morale boost.

[kraystase]

Hello

I say patch 9.2 day for 15 US / 16 EU february keep the day