Should Blizzard Skip 9.3?

[Chickat]

Would you rather Blizzard delay 10.0 until 2023, or have 9.2 as the last patch in the beg of 2022 with a 10-11 month content draught leading to 10.0. Or you could have 9.2 in Jan, 9.3 in August, and 10.0 in May/June 2023.

I would rather they just give us a decent last patch with no bullshit systems. Let us play that for nearly a year, and have the team full speed ahead making 10.0 good. Get 9.2 out and start Alpha asap, pref in the Spring of 2022, that way we have plenty of time for feedback to be "hopefully" listened to.

[Thestrawman]

Implying that 10.0 won't be 2023 either way.

[Kathranis]

No. IMO they should take their time to make the rest of Shadowlands strong and memorable, even if it means the next expansion will take longer.

[Odintdk]

Whether they should or shouldn't do a 9.3 is irrelevant. There simply wont be a 9.3, because every hint and sign under the sun says so.

[tomten]

Implying that 10.0 won't be 2023 either way.

Pretty much this.
And they also work on expansions side by side, by now, they are far into both 9.3 and 10.0 development and with all the delays going around?
That "10-11 month" content draught will be double, if not more, easily...
So no, i'd rather they continue the usual path and delay each a little bit so we're back to "only" a 10-11 months content draught with 10.0 coming christmas 2023.

[Melancholly]

Yeah, definitely. Expansion launch is always my favourite time in the game. Expansions are free with gold anyways so it won't cost me anything. I'll take a new expansion over another crazy long final tier patch any day.

[sensei]

This post reminds me of a few that were posted around the time 8.2 came out and people foaming at the mouth about it and demanding they skip 8.3 and go directly to SL because "Anything is better than more more BFA!". And yet here we are.. LOL

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

No, of course not. What a ridiculas question.

[Kokolums]

It probably doesnt matter. I have to think ion wants to leave badly and once that happens the raid scene will die.

[Villager720]

I think it’s doubtful there will be a 9.3 at this point. Whether that was always the plan or not is probably never going to be shared, but it certainly felt like 9.1 got made into a larger deal story-wise than I initially expected.

The fact the Jailor just yeets out of the “inescapable” Maw in one patch with the Arbiter never once being an interactive entity felt reeeaaaally abrupt to me. Oh and there’s some sigil maguffins no one ever mentioned prior that are the key to everything.
Almost like they needed to introduce something to jump the story forward.

All that said, I would have preferred we got the full 3 patch treatment for Shadowlands. A brand new plane of existence we knew nearly nothing about deserves more than what it appears to be getting. And, specifically, some of these newer characters really could have used more fleshing out over a longer period of time.
Alas, instead Zovaal is just …bad.

[Chickat]

This post reminds me of a few that were posted around the time 8.2 came out and people foaming at the mouth about it and demanding they skip 8.3 and go directly to SL because "Anything is better than more more BFA!". And yet here we are.. LOL

I think people are a lot more unhappy now, than in 8.2. 8.2 was generally well-received anyways. 8.3 was so trash, they would have been better off skipping it and launching Shadowlands a few months sooner.

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No, of course not. What a ridiculas question.

They have done it once. Its no longer a ridiculous question now that there is precedent.

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I think it’s doubtful there will be a 9.3 at this point. Whether that was always the plan or not is probably never going to be shared, but it certainly felt like 9.1 got made into a larger deal story-wise than I initially expected.

The fact the Jailor just yeets out of the “inescapable” Maw in one patch with the Arbiter never once being an interactive entity felt reeeaaaally abrupt to me. Oh and there’s some sigil maguffins no one ever mentioned prior that are the key to everything.
Almost like they needed to introduce something to jump the story forward.

Yeah, 9.1 was as large as most .2 patches. A small .2 patch, but bigger than any .1 patches.

I think I would prefer they make 9.2 really big, and then just leave players with a good patch for as long as they need. Make it Argus sized and just let us sit in it for a while. Also anyone saying 20-24 month final patch are delusional, even during covid. Drought will be 10-15 months as usual.

[Uko]

I personally doubt they can hold onto people if endwalker is good and the next expansion isn't till 2023. There is a lot of negative press because of the lawsuit and a ton of big streamers just dipping out and they need a win which I doubt a 9.3 would be.

[Kalocy Jim]

Nope.

Shadowlands might even go on to 9.4. Its a good expansion so far, and it looks like its only getting better.

Why would you want to pay $60-$120 for another box expansion anyway? Just get more free content during this expansion

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No, of course not. What a ridiculas question.

Also, this 100% ^

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

I do not expect there to have ever been a plan for 4 seasons.
Remember, many expansions have only had 3 (or 3 major tiers).
Most, really. The line got blurred a few times as for example Legion had 3 raids all designed as one tier, but that took place over a very long period of time.
If you count Nighthold as separate from Emerald Nightmare, then it had 4, but when otherwise Legion, WoD(actually had 2 only), MoP, Cata, and TBC all had 3 tiers (or less.)


To me, the plot appears to be taking us to the end in 9.2, and the design does too.
I imagine many of these changes they are now making for 9.1.5 were in store for 9.2.5.

Seems like a lot to get done in such a short period if they weren't already planning on it, no?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Blizzard doesn't have a choice. They HAVE to skip because at the glacial rate it takes for them to push out content, if they do a 9.3 then FFXIV will release their 7.0 expansion before WoW 10.0 even comes out. Furthermore, FFXIV releases a patch once every 3.5 months, whereas WoW struggles to put out a content light patch once every 7 months (and it's riddled with bugs), and has a 9+ month delay between the last patch of an expansion and the launch of the next expansion. So while WoW is in its doldrums, FFXIV will just keep running laps around Blizzard, drawing more attention and attracting more players from WoW.

[Luck4]

Yes, Shadowlands sucks in every regard, from lore to gameplay.

Let's get rid of it ASAP, please!

[DechCJC]

I sincerely hope that they take as long as they need to get 10.0 right and don’t feel the need to rush it out, though I doubt that’ll be the case.

[sensei]

Blizzard doesn't have a choice. They HAVE to skip because at the glacial rate it takes for them to push out content, if they do a 9.3 then FFXIV will release their 7.0 expansion before WoW 10.0 even comes out. Furthermore, FFXIV releases a patch once every 3.5 months, whereas WoW struggles to put out a content light patch once every 7 months (and it's riddled with bugs), and has a 9+ month delay between the last patch of an expansion and the launch of the next expansion. So while WoW is in its doldrums, FFXIV will just keep running laps around Blizzard, drawing more attention and attracting more players from WoW.

There not being a 9.3 would be more work, not less.

Beginning with having to rewrite the code to make up for the fact the changes that would be implemented in 9.3 would have to be totally reworked (i.e. removal of SL systems/borrowed powers/currencies, etc).

Having to retune 10.0 to make up for the missing loot in 9.3.

Having to totally rewrite the story to make a shred of sense. You think the story is bad now? How about a rushed, even more half-assed story that has to gloss over a lot of events to somehow connect to the next expansion.

And most importantly all the money invested in creating content that won't be used if 9.3 doesn't happen. Activision isn't exactly generous about throwing money away, unless that money is going to the CEO.

Not to mention that we'd be giving Blizzard the message that we're cool with getting a lot less content per expansion, which I'm sure they'd love, players not so much.

Also I think you misread the OP's post, they don't call for a faster next expansion, they simply think 9.3 should be skipped and the game should have a nearly one year content drought.

[Luck4]

I sincerely hope that they take as long as they need to get 10.0 right and don’t feel the need to rush it out, though I doubt that’ll be the case.

I think that 9.3 happening or not wouldn't have any impact on this, they're already late. The best-case scenario, in my opinion, is 9.2 being only one raid to wrap the Shadowlands lore, and then they focus all their resources on 10.0 for 12-14 months straight.

[Garretdejiko]

Would you rather Blizzard delay 10.0 until 2023, or have 9.2 as the last patch in the beg of 2022 with a 10-11 month content draught leading to 10.0. Or you could have 9.2 in Jan, 9.3 in August, and 10.0 in May/June 2023.

I would rather they just give us a decent last patch with no bullshit systems. Let us play that for nearly a year, and have the team full speed ahead making 10.0 good. Get 9.2 out and start Alpha asap, pref in the Spring of 2022, that way we have plenty of time for feedback to be "hopefully" listened to.

I think they already did.

I sincerely hope that they take as long as they need to get 10.0 right and don’t feel the need to rush it out, though I doubt that’ll be the case.

Didn't SL got delayed and came out rushed anyway?