Venturebeat Interview with Ion Hazzikostas on WoW's Future

[Nebron]

I don't think 9.3 was ever off the table except for doomsayers.
which admittedly consists of 30% of the forum....

Well, you don't need to be a so-called "doomsayer" to notice that game launched 1 year ago, and we haven't heard a single bit about 9.2 yet, and also likely won't get PTR before Christmas. Remember that it a normal expansion cadence, we would have 10.0 by late 2022. If they manage to push 9.2 before spring, 9.3 will likely launch at the time, when new expansion should happen. So either they skip 9.3 or they delay expansion by quite a bit.

So yeah, it's just people making educated guess rather than being "doomsayers".
And also, just because Blizzard plans to go with "much more" content after 9.2, it doesn't necessarily mean that 9.3 is coming to be honest. And I can hardly see it fit any schedule. Also, they prepare their content long before we even think about it, so it could be scrapped simply to redirect these resources for 10.0 as well

[Biglog]

I get the lure of cross-faction raiding for ease of forming groups. But it's not a coincidence that when wow started it's descent was when Blizzard started trashing faction identity. Unfortunately most of the folks (both designers and players) that understand that are long gone. It's just a difference in strategy. Ion has leaned more towards making things easier, vs. the glory days of Metzen and For the Horde when faction choice was interesting and relevant. It started with being able to roll toons of different factions on the same server, again out of easy accessibility, it just came at the cost of destroying wpvp. Flying in Azeroth to make things easier finished wpvp off. Doing away with different questlines for each faction since it's easier to just make them the same. They might as well go all the way and go cross-faction raid since faction choice has been sadly crushed into irrelevance for quite some time. The fun days of massive pre-raid wpvp battles outside raid summoning stones are long gone.

If there's something to be fixed with a reboot, it's making factions relevant again, not going the other direction. But Blizzard's direction is like a big ship that's once it's going in a direction is not easy to turn.

[WowIsDead64]

Unfortunately no answer for major question - if Blizzard understand all problems, then why current content isn't improved?

[hulkgor]

And also, just because Blizzard plans to go with "much more" content after 9.2, it doesn't necessarily mean that 9.3 is coming to be honest. And I can hardly see it fit any schedule. Also, they prepare their content long before we even think about it, so it could be scrapped simply to redirect these resources for 10.0 as well

Or the expansion can simply last 30 months instead of the usual 24~ to fit a 9.3. Depends on how far along it is. Would be perfectly understandable considering covid, lockdowns, and their own internal issues.

No one knows.

- - - Updated - - -

if Blizzard understand all problems, then why current content isn't improved?

What exactly is wrong with current content? Or how would -you- improve it?

[Wekko]

Or the expansion can simply last 30 months instead of the usual 24~ to fit a 9.3. Depends on how far along it is. Would be perfectly understandable considering covid, lockdowns, and their own internal issues.

No one knows.

Are they wanting to do what is understandable or are they wanting to do what is best for their pockets? Either way, I don't think the community is going to give Blizzard a good grade for how this expansion ends. Rightfully or wrongfully so.

[gHouLwiNg]

Doesn't sound that bad, given the present.

[hulkgor]

Either way, I don't think the community is going to give Blizzard a good grade for how this expansion ends. Rightfully or wrongfully so.

It will all depend on how 9.2 (or an eventual 9.3) work out. It's not how it starts, it's how it ends. Again, who knows.

[bullseyed]

And "Diversity makes a game better"?

Diversity makes the game better, which is why we're removing any part that doesn't conform to one minority world view.

[Verdugo]

Another "sorry, we should have listened sooner" from Ion the liar. He is seriously reminding of Walter White and his "everything I do is for my family" bullshit.

[bullseyed]

Sure, but they shot the idea down with a quickness just a year ago. I'm sure they have all sorts of things planned, but only deploy it when needed, like Illidan and Legion in general post-WoD.

Citation needed, given Ion promoted it at the last blizzcon...

[Nebron]

Or the expansion can simply last 30 months instead of the usual 24~ to fit a 9.3. Depends on how far along it is. Would be perfectly understandable considering covid, lockdowns, and their own internal issues.

Yeah, that's why I wrote:

So either they skip 9.3 or they delay expansion by quite a bit

. Nevertheless, they are a company that provides a product, and as it appears to be, the product has not been received well. I'd guess it's even highly unsatisfactory. At this point of disappointment, instead of fixing it here and there and a few strokes of brush with a new paint, it'd simply go with a brand new product. But that's my look at this. Shadowlands exhausted me enough to dream about something new, promising and refreshing

[Kokolums]

Ion talking out of both sides of his mouth, saying WoW is an escape from the real world AND how they need to address cultural issues in the game. Yikes. I don't trust him at ALL.

[bullseyed]

Well, you don't need to be a so-called "doomsayer" to notice that game launched 1 year ago, and we haven't heard a single bit about 9.2 yet, and also likely won't get PTR before Christmas. Remember that it a normal expansion cadence, we would have 10.0 by late 2022. If they manage to push 9.2 before spring, 9.3 will likely launch at the time, when new expansion should happen. So either they skip 9.3 or they delay expansion by quite a bit.

So yeah, it's just people making educated guess rather than being "doomsayers".
And also, just because Blizzard plans to go with "much more" content after 9.2, it doesn't necessarily mean that 9.3 is coming to be honest. And I can hardly see it fit any schedule. Also, they prepare their content long before we even think about it, so it could be scrapped simply to redirect these resources for 10.0 as well

Expansions last 2 years with 4 segments. 6 months per segment is standard.

[Kralljin]

In the end, the team wants WoW to be a positive place to escape the trials and tribulations of the world.

God, i always love those reasonings, especially because political discussions are now more present in the discourse of WoW than ever.

[Selah]

Ion talking out of both sides of his mouth, saying WoW is an escape from the real world AND how they need to address cultural issues in the game. Yikes. I don't trust him at ALL.

I can't help but wonder how much is Blizz PR breathing down his neck? He's never talked like this before and it's his first interview since everything broke.

SUS

[hzjf]

How about just more females. Females are not a niche. What's wrong with creating a game that is welcoming to everyone? As a male I have no idea how this is done. Everything is safe for me.

The Point is. The Game has never excluded anybody

[Irefusetodie]

Diversity makes a better game. They don't want WoW to be for a niche audience.

Diversity of ideas makes a better game. What the fuck does skin color, genitalia, religion, etc. have to do with making a goddamn video game?

[Lolites]

Whether you like it or not: FF14 has very similar systems to WoW but all of them are implemented better.

then go play it? like thats not really such a hard concept to grasp, if everything is better in different game why bother playing the worse game, or change it towards your liking (and screw over everybody who disagree on the way), when there already is a game that you like?!

i tried it and was TERRIBLY dissapointed after all the praise it got, so for me, no thanks, we shouldnt get closer to ff14 in pretty much anything...

[Xorzor]

TLDR: I'm (Ion) am not going anywhere so you losers (the payers) can go suck it.

Silence for so long and now this? I call bull crap. It's PR, nothing more.

Diversity of ideas makes a better game. What the fuck does skin color, genitalia, religion, etc. have to do with making a goddamn video game?

Not a damn thing. Ion and Chinavision-Jizzard have forgotten this, or no longer care.

[Aleksej89]

This line tells you all you need to know about who is running Blizzard these days:
"9.1.5 was born out of the team being allowed to pitch ideas and try out things that they think will make the game more fun."

Team was ALLOWED to pitch ideas and try out things that will make the game more fun?????
As opposed to what regular norm??????
Being forbidden from making the game more fun??
Is WoW dev/design team so under the ultra control of the finance/management/pr/hr that they are normally NOT ALLOWED to pitch ideas and try to make the GAME more FUN?!