9.1 is a very great patch

[shise]

No, it is not.

It is really, really hard to unsee how bad wow has gone since classic.
With classic we got the chance to re experience vanilla and BC.... I thought that I would not feel anything, as I did it all years ago, but it did trigger a feeling. I did realize how unacceptable the current state of WoW is.

9.1 is the same as the previous, they simply added a few more things on the same sense, and even another mechanic that will die after 9.2 comes out...

This is not World of Warcraft.

[exochaft]

1. working at company thats mostly (90%) working on software and software solutions, pandemic delayed as MASSIVELY, and thats despite most people already having home office set up before it
2. there was no pandemic in wod and bfa, true, and there was also no time delay... nobody use pandemic as excuse for QUALITY of content (which is average, "not great not horrible", same as in bfa) but for TIME DELAY, which is fair point that anyone who ever done any planning for work projects including more people than himself would know

There's a limit to how much one can blame COVID. Yes, it had an effect, but if you look across the industry it seemed to hit Blizz harder than most... but why? The simple answer is the development pipeline prior to COVID was likely already having major issues, and COVID just exacerbated already existing problems. This is how you can get software/tech companies that were barely impacted by COVID, and others that had major setbacks (or even closed their doors).

Also, I don't think you can separate quality from a delay, as they both require man-hours to do. If you've been part of the alpha/beta/PTRs, you can tell based upon the state of the game and the feedback/response time of Blizz on the alpha/beta/PTR is noticeably decreased. The "good ol' Blizz polish" is barely applied anymore when it comes to the game, and in the case of Shadowlands and 9.1 there was a rush to get things released. If your company has built up good faith with the community who loves your games, taking more time to make sure everything is great and polished is easily permissible... but that's not what happened. Yes, that was the stated reasons for the delayed release of Shadowlands itself, but anyone actually testing up through the beta could've told you the game was NOT ready. Many of the bugs and balancing issues that went live were known and reported for months on the beta phases, and some still remain on live servers. The standard response is a blue post making the Pikachu face when an issue is "suddenly found!"... but that's usually BS, as it was known long beforehand.

It's one of my issues with the game: Blizz is way more beholden to a release time table than they should be, willing to let the quality slide to make a release date. They aren't the only company, as it's the standard corporate release tactic of games where they release crap and patch it over time. While some may not realize it, such tactics ruin the experience for many (especially if you're not paying to be a game tester). While some may enjoy 9.1, and that's great, I find the patch itself extremely telling of larger issues at Blizz that are ruining the game for others.

[Asrialol]

The patch is fine. Let the addicts complain whilst they still play the game they hate so much.

- - - Updated - - -

No, it is not.

It is really, really hard to unsee how bad wow has gone since classic.
With classic we got the chance to re experience vanilla and BC.... I thought that I would not feel anything, as I did it all years ago, but it did trigger a feeling. I did realize how unacceptable the current state of WoW is.

9.1 is the same as the previous, they simply added a few more things on the same sense, and even another mechanic that will die after 9.2 comes out...

This is not World of Warcraft.

What does classic offer you that retail doesnt? Judging from your post, there's a comprehensive list of well reasoned arguments here.

[Zka]

Well. I can't install people's equipment from home? That is part of my job at an IT department? I cannot collect equipment from home either, nor repair it from home due to not having the right facilities for it?

Not sure what would prevent a hardware team working in the office. They will have an otherwise empty office for themselves, with 95% of people working remotely - that's pretty safe. People can hop into the office or use a courier when they need hardware replacements. In an IT company most people will go years without having to meet the hardware guys, because they can plug these things together alone and they can fix software issues alone or with remote support. This can't explain a huge delay in software dev.

[Batoa]

It s a nice Patch. A little one bute a good.

[Sondrelk]

It is a great patch. But the 7+ months between SL launch and the first content patch are too big of a gap to fill.

Everyone involved was able to predict that 9.1 won't be able to make up for the content drought, despite it being the biggest first major patch. People don't judge its merits on their own, it's tainted by the downtime.

That is something the Blizzard management could predict and control, apparently they consider it acceptable as their quarterly stats were boosted by the TBC launch last quarter and this one they are getting a pump from 9.1. it's obvious they had a small team working on this and it's normal they would take that long also considering the home office situations.

So much about the "release cadence players have come to expect", I'm afraid 6+ months might be the new norm, with vanilla carrots thrown in between. I don't see 9.2 arriving this year.

Alright then, let's go through a likely scenario:

Blizzard is ambitious, planning and designing a 9.1 patch significantly larger than previous ones, including a zone, several tiers of rewards, reworks to core expansion mechanics and a megadungeon in addition to the usual raid and questline.

Pandemic is in full swing, and coming off a contentious presidency with at times inconsistent handling of the pandemic you have workers who at time work from home, but also might be vaccinating in whether they are about to go back to their office or whether they will stay at home.

Then you compound on top general crises that have happened in USA the last year, among them the BLM and police brutality protests and riots. Crazy insurrectionists attempting a coup and even true acts of God like the devastating California wildfires we are in a position where the workers might have troubles focusing on work if they can work at all.

The California housing market is also beyond strained. Several reports of programmers who have to live in crammed apartments with several roommates just to prevent extremely long commutes, so working from home is not necessarily always easy when you have to share a home with 3 others who all need space, time and quiet to work.
This of course not at all made easier in a tropical climate like California.


So you are a developer for Blizzard. Your workers are possibly struggling with working from home effectively, possibly struggling in general, and you have an ambitious patch planned for an expansion that has already been delayed.

You are then faced with 2 general options:
A. Push the patch out early. It will be extremely bare bones, but at least it might actually have the raid and some quests at least.
B. Focus on making the patch as good as possible within a timeframe that is longer than it should be, but also not completely unreasonable for a patch this size.

And remember that no matter what you do not you get yelled at on the internet. However only one of these options has the slim chance of quality, and also allows you to more effectively pull the plug on Shadowlands if the timeframe before the next expansion needs to be met.

[Lochton]

Not sure what would prevent a hardware team working in the office. They will have an otherwise empty office for themselves, with 95% of people working remotely - that's pretty safe. People can hop into the office or use a courier when they need hardware replacements. In an IT company most people will go years without having to meet the hardware guys, because they can plug these things together alone and they can fix software issues alone or with remote support. This can't explain a huge delay in software dev.

Yeah.. That is a no-go when you work with business and government offices. We're before lockdown, and after, are out at least 20-25 times a week. I'm just pointing out that the whole IT branch cannot work from home.

[Zka]

Yeah.. That is a no-go when you work with business and government offices. We're before lockdown, and after, are out at least 20-25 times a week. I'm just pointing out that the whole IT branch cannot work from home.

And I'm just pointing out that Blizzard is not government nor business, therefore they should not have been affected very much. I work in IT, most of my friends also work in IT and none of our companies struggled to shift to remote work. Not even huge multinationals with 100K+ staff worldwide. Saying Blizz was late or the expansion is shit because of covid seems like a pretty bad excuse to me.

[Rageonit]

I don't get it, I honestly don't.
So it took more time to release this patch. What's the problem though? You bought the expansion, tried out everything it has to offer. You're done with it? Unsub. Surely you people have different things to do in life, or so I hope. You think new patch is not good enough? Play for a month, unsub. It's theirs problem if you don't stay subbed. But why act entitled to anything at all? It's a different company now, handles a lot more games. If they decide WoW is not as important as it once was, so be it. Check out how much content is being poured out in mmos younger than WoW, like Rift, Wildstar or whatever. Be happy WoW is not one of them. Or don't! And just move forward if you don't enjoy the current formula. You make it seem like the most obvious things in life are some kind of arcane knowledge. It's not your game, you're not entitled to anything. Accept it and embrace it, and all your problems are instantly gone.

[cparle87]

Sub and expansion prices sure haven't decreased though.

They've also never gone up with inflation. You're paying less for WoW now than you did in 2004. Which is 6.8c a day for the expansion box over its life and 50c a day for the most expensive sub model.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Yeah m+ seem to be fixed and more easier to play now. Can't wait to see Kyrian Assault. Venthyr one was fun as hell.

[Zantera]

I don't get people talking about a 7 month wait. Does that mean Shadowlands had no content at all and you started waiting for 9.1 from the start? Absurd.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah m+ seem to be fixed and more easier to play now. Can't wait to see Kyrian Assault. Venthyr one was fun as hell.

The assaults felt like a nice surprise in general. The in-game cutscene towards the end of the assault was a nice touch. If nothing else it does make me really curious to see the last two assaults.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't get people talking about a 7 month wait. Does that mean Shadowlands had no content at all and you started waiting for 9.1 from the start? Absurd.

All content droughts are counted from the release of the last major patch. It's hardly fair, but trying to argue when the content has officially outstayed it's welcome is impossible anyways.

[Rageonit]

People have a lot of time, love and energy invested into this game after 15+ years. Of course they care about its direction and their continued ability to play and enjoy it.

If the current leadership or dev team at Blizzard are bad at their job, the players have the right to voice their opinions.

It still doesn't make you entitled to anything.
Very few goods things in life last. Be grateful for the experience they gave you in the past, and just bugger off if you don't enjoy the experience of the present. The dev team is different, the game is different. If you don't see it, you're clinging to the past. There's no going back, that's obvious, and you energy is wasted here if you hope the game of the past will ever be back. Try to be reasonable and you will arrive at the same conclusion.

[Sondrelk]

9.1 would have been great content if it was included in the launch experience or arrived within 3 months tops.

As the first piece of content released after 8 months, and with nothing else on the horizon, 9.1 is mediocre at best.

There are only two ways the Shadowlands experience could be somewhat saved in my view.

Scenario 1 - Blizzard comes out swinging within a month and announces 9.2, which needs to be a glorious patch set somewhere far away from Torghast and the Maw and featuring stuff like tier sets, allied races, heritage armour, etc.

Scenario 2 - 9.2 is more of the same, but at least Blizzard teases the future and 10 takes us back to a revamped Azeroth.

If none of the above are true, and 9.2 is just some continued Shadowlands nonsense set in an equally depressing zone and released in 2022, then the game is dead to me. Especially if the next expansion ends up being about some Cosmic war or whatever. Also, no more Sylvanas please.

Why should Blizzard need to be in such a rush to announce the new patch anyways. The standard wait between major patches is about 5-6 months anyways, and that is not counting minor patches like a potential 9.1.5.

This patch has quest content for each week that will last at least 6 weeks starting next reset, which is likely around the time we might start to see a potential 9.1.5 patch rear its head on the PTR.

[FelPlague]

Bullcrap, IT jobs are fully doable remotely, covid impact on efficiency should be minimal. If it isn't, your company is junk.

"IT jobs"
didn't know video game development was IT.

[FelPlague]

Same type of deal. Scrums, meetings, brainstorms, etc. It's all doable remotely.

no.. no it aint...
i bet you think being a bartender and a waiter are the same thing, because they both take orders and serve drinks. but they are completely different jobs...

[Zka]

"IT jobs"
didn't know video game development was IT.

You're right, it's health or hospitality maybe.

[Aliven]

no.. no it aint...
i bet you think being a bartender and a waiter are the same thing, because they both take orders and serve drinks. but they are completely different jobs...

As someone who worked as both they are pretty interchangeable. To the point that one hour you are taking orders in a restaurant, next serve drinks as bartender of rooftop bar and then going as a room service.

Done it all in a single night.

Now if you said being a cook/chef and being a bartender are the same because they make thing ordered by guests then i would agree.

[Rageonit]

That's the dumbest thing I've read all day.

So if Amazon or some company acquires the Tolkien estate and begins turning LotR into an anime, should old Tolkien fans just sit idly by?

The fans "own" the property as much as the legal owners do. Without them, the IP isn't worth anything.

Tolkien's books will remain Tolkien's books no matter what. Your best bet is not to support things you don't enjoy. As a rule of thumb, things that are not supported will die off naturally. However, there's always the problem of different people enjoying different things, right? How dare they enjoy this new Star Wars crap when clearly it's not even a meager shadow of the Star Wars of the past! Well here's the thing: if they do enjoy it, you're doomed.

Count all the years WoW is a different game and ask yourself if it's not about time to accept a few things. Or don't and continue your meaningless fight. /shrug