[Speculation] 10.0 Announcement

[Miffinat0r]

Mate, you do understand that if someone didn't datamine these videos all these years, or if blizzard didn't even put them in the game before they're needed and couldn't be datamined, you wouldn't ever see them until YOU cleared that part of the game? There has been plenty of cinematics and other storyline videos attached with finishing a raid etc. You literally have no ground to stand on in this discussion, but good luck making shit up to try and continue with it.

And you realize that they made LFR so players could see that stuff because what players complaining about it being locked behind content they never did wasn't fair.

Now your idea is to go back to that and impose more inequality because that'll get new players to want to play the game.

Do you people function in a normal job environment? I'm just curious because the way ya'll describe human nature you really make it seem like a ton of people loved being a serf.

[Sarethion]

Objectively it wouldn't really matter, because they could easily have someone watch the race and publish the video the moment the last boss falls, so there wouldn't be any significant delay between the WF raiders and your average Joe seeing the trailer, but... that's completely irrelevant.

The problem is public perception - a considerable amount of casual players already think that the game is designed for the high end raiders and having the 10.0 trailer tied to RWF would only add fuel to that fire. The last thing Blizzard needs is to cause more controversy and division in the playerbase, especially over an expansion trailer. It wouldn't be good for Blizzard or the game or any type of player, including the high end raiders, who'd undoubtedly get a lot of hate because of this.

So while it would be fun to have the announcement tied to some in-game or community event, but this particular idea is pretty bad.

If they really, really wanted to do something like this then the best way would be to have a small, hidden questline that ends with the trailer and unlocks like a week or two after the final wing of LFR becomes available, so that everyone had a chance to experience the ending of Shadowlands. That way it would be a "reward" for all playes, not any particular group that Blizzard decided should have the honor of unlocking the trailer.

[Miffinat0r]

Objectively it wouldn't really matter, because they could easily have someone watch the race and publish the video the moment the last boss falls, so effectively there wouldn't be any significant delay between the WF raiders and your average Joe seeing the trailer, but... that's completely irrelevant.

The problem is public perception - a considerable amount of casual players already think that the game caters to the high end raiders and having the 10.0 trailer tied to RWF would only add fuel to the fire. The last thing Blizzard needs is to cause more controversy and division in the playerbase, especially over an expansion trailer. It wouldn't be good for Blizzard or the game or any type of player, including the high end raiders, who'd undoubtedly get a lot of shit because of this.

So while I can agree with you that it would be fun to have the announcement tied to some in-game or community event, but this particular idea is pretty bad.

If they really, really wanted to do something like this then the best way would be to have a small, hidden questline that ends with the trailer and unlocks like a week or two after the final wing of LFR becomes available, so that everyone had a chance to experience the ending of Shadowlands in game. That way it would be a "reward" for all folks, not any particular group that Blizzard decided should have the honor of unlocking the trailer for everybody else.

All correct. Needs to be repeated; there’s a lot of bad blood right now among casual players and a lot left for FF14. Doing this would just stir more flames for no gain at all.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

All correct. Needs to be repeated; there’s a lot of bad blood right now among casual players and a lot left for FF14. Doing this would just stir more flames for no gain at all.

I mean Blizz is ultimately in a situation where they're damned either way. Either they release the trailer early and risk taking attention off RWF, or release it after and risk enflaming more Casual VS Hardcore debates.

Ultimately the only way they get out of this fine is if the expansion is so knock-dead good that nobody cares about the timing.

[Dioporco]

Expansions having traditionally been announced at blizzcon, which won't be happening this year, how do you all think it will be announced this time around?

I think it would be a great opportunity by blizzard to spice up the announcement somehow.

I know i'm a dreamer, but imagine this:

World first mythic jailer kill unlocks some super encrypted not datamined cinematic which is also the trailer for the next expansion.

This would be so good honestly, rather than a simple "patch preview blue post".


I think my expectations for blizzard are unrealistically high, but a man can dream.

Set your expectations really low.

[LordVargK]

The problem is public perception - a considerable amount of casual players already think that the game is designed for the high end raiders and having the 10.0 trailer tied to RWF would only add fuel to that fire. The last thing Blizzard needs is to cause more controversy and division in the playerbase, especially over an expansion trailer. It wouldn't be good for Blizzard or the game or any type of player, including the high end raiders, who'd undoubtedly get a lot of hate because of this.

Out of all the players I interact with (in a guild that still has not cleared hc nontheless!) not a single one ever said: "Blizzard only cares about the top 1%". And I've had a lot of talks by now. But none of them watch asmongold, preach or whomever (since most of them don't speak english), so maybe there lies the problem.
The only ones hating high end raiders are the elitists that think they can play the game but really are just average. If you overvalue yourself then anyone that is truely better is a problem for you. That's not just true for WoW.

[Sarethion]

Out of all the players I interact with (in a guild that still has not cleared hc nontheless!) not a single one ever said: "Blizzard only cares about the top 1%". And I've had a lot of talks by now.

So it your anecdotal evidence against mine, because I've seen this kind of opinions everywhere - forums, social media, discords, in game, etc. and I don't think my sample size was smaller than yours. So I guess it's best we call it a fair draw.

Anyway... Don't get me wrong, personally I couldn't care less how they announce it. What I care about is Blizzard breeding more hate in the playerbase. WoW really doesn't need yet another reason for people to bash on each other. And having any group of players - not just raiders - be selected to unlock the 10.0 trailer for everyone else would only add to that.

That's why I don't like OP's suggestion. I think something as big as an expansion announcement should be universal and if they want to have it as an in-game event then it should become available to everyone at the exact same time and in the exact same form.

P.S. Also, another point - streamers. If Blizzard took this suggestion then the cinematic would most likely be first played on streams, either Echo's or Limit's. All of them have people who don't like them and then there's the whole NA vs EU thing - that would only add to the drama, because people would get salty that their preferred streamer didn't get it first or their region didn't unlock it. Do we really need that?

[Rtrain]

WoW wasn't popular for raids. Back then WoW was popular because of you didn't need to group up to level, and all the dungeons/raids were instanced vs open world. This is the issue right here. I get you feel slighted as a raider for the systems that take away from raiding. But this question is honest: Do you think Raididng is the reason people play MMORPGs? Raiding is literally a concept designed by Brad McQuaid as a mini game inside of the larger game. I'm not sure where or how people thought raiding is the soul of the game/genre.

I do not think raiding is why people play mmorpgs. I think it’s a niche thing that wow got correct. For the most part I think mmorpgs in general are never going to be super popular in the west again, especially one based on raiding, because people want instant satisfaction.

You can still level alone and raids/dungeons are still instanced. All the systems they added to the game over the years only end up watering down the game we had. I’d much rather wow go back to a simpler format, with more complexity in their class designs instead of their new system each expansion/patch.

I don’t think this will happen though, I believe they believe new systems are actually a good way to market and promote their new expansion

[LordVargK]

So it your anecdotal evidence against mine, because I've seen this kind of opinions everywhere - forums, social media, discords, in game, etc. and I don't think my sample size was smaller than yours. So I guess it's best we call it a fair draw.

Anyway... Don't get me wrong, personally I couldn't care less how they announce it. What I care about is Blizzard breeding more hate in the playerbase. WoW really doesn't need yet another reason for people to bash on each other. And having any group of players - not just raiders - be selected to unlock the 10.0 trailer for everyone else would only add to that.

That's why I don't like OP's suggestion. I think something as big as an expansion announcement should be universal and if they want to have it as an in-game event then it should become available to everyone at the exact same time and in the exact same form.

P.S. Also, another point - streamers. If Blizzard took this suggestion then the cinematic would most likely be first played on streams, either Echo's or Limit's. All of them have people who don't like them and then there's the whole NA vs EU thing - that would only add to the drama, because people would get salty that their preferred streamer didn't get it first or their region didn't unlock it. Do we really need that?

I find it very concerning, that this is an issue that exists at all. There really is no logical reason why this "we are the 99%" movement should exist. Those players are projecting their unhappiness upon those who seem to enjoy the game by being successful. There are undoubtly problems in WoW, but catering to the "elite" is not one of them at all. I know, blaming "the elite" is a general trend nowadays. Many people never learned to seek the problems within themselves and try to blame others for them.

Same with you other example of EU vs NA: When did friendly rivalry, which is inherent and healthy in every competition, has become hate? Why do we have to care about assholes that get salty because their team or streamer did not win?

Honestly, Blizzard first and foremost should not cater to haters.