Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Nymrohd]

a major patch every 5-6 months fits perfectly in their new 18 months expansion cycle

I see this repeated. Where was it said?

[Reive]

I see this repeated. Where was it said?

idk if they have confirmed it, but 18 months is probably the sweet spot.

a 24 months cycle is what we have now

a 12 months expansion cycle is too short

[Nymrohd]

idk if they have confirmed it, but 18 months is probably the sweet spot.

a 24 months cycle is what we have now

a 12 months expansion cycle is too short

For something to be confirmed it would need to be rumored first. This is just speculation at most.
I am not trying to be pedantic but let's not allow baseless speculation to become misinformation. You probably saw this somewhere else and assumed it real. We have a lot of posters in this forum and even this thread who insist on their speculation as if it was god given fact

[Sondrelk]

idk if they have confirmed it, but 18 months is probably the sweet spot.

a 24 months cycle is what we have now

a 12 months expansion cycle is too short

A 12 months cycle is too short to have 3 raids and 4 seasons. But should be enough for 2 raids and 3 seasons, depending on complexity.

18 months is definitely the sweet spot when it comes to length for SL and DF sized expansions, but would create issues when it comes to consistent expansions launches, which might be an issue Blizzard doesnt want to risk.

[Reive]

For something to be confirmed it would need to be rumored first. This is just speculation at most.
I am not trying to be pedantic but let's not allow baseless speculation to become misinformation. You probably saw this somewhere else and assumed it real. We have a lot of posters in this forum and even this thread who insist on their speculation as if it was god given fact

from an interview:

World of Warcraft players are always hungry for more content, but even if Blizzard could hit its long-desired annualization goal, would that be appealing? Do players want an expansion every year? Or is the sweet spot somewhere in the middle — perhaps an 18-month break?

Hight and Longdale won’t tip Blizzard’s hand, but they say they’re using the company’s wealth of data about player behavior to try to pinpoint exactly what people want from content updates for the ongoing game.

“We don’t want to rush people to the next expansion,” Hight said. “But we also don’t want to drag things out longer than necessary

the 18 months thing is a guess

[allegrian]

Legion prepatch was huge and you could level alts very easily. Dont remember SL prepatch event at all.

[Lahis]

Dont remember SL prepatch event at all.

Farming "rares" in Icecrown.

[Sondrelk]

Legion prepatch was huge and you could level alts very easily. Dont remember SL prepatch event at all.

It was mostly killing dungeon and raid bosses that spawned on set timers in Northrend. Not all that interesting.

The Legion prepatch was great, but it's clear in hindsight that it was the exception, and not the new norm sadly.

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Farming "rares" in Icecrown.

Also, only one of the rares actually gave anything worth farming. That being the 34-slot bag from Bronjahm. Other than that there wasnt much reason to farm beyond getting the recoloured transmog and the haunted memento throwback.

[Nymrohd]

Legion prepatch was huge and you could level alts very easily. Dont remember SL prepatch event at all.

I still don't get why they removed it. It would have made so much sense to keep (and even expand) the prepatch content during Legion so that you actually felt the world was under attack

[Sondrelk]

I still don't get why they removed it. It would have made so much sense to keep (and even expand) the prepatch content during Legion so that you actually felt the world was under attack

I imagine it would be tiring to go back to old zones for the events when you were already busy in the Broken Isles with the new World Quests.
Also, you had plenty of quests that took you back to old zones to give the impression of the entire world being under attack, so I don't think you really lost the feeling of the Legion being everywhere.

[Nymrohd]

I imagine it would be tiring to go back to old zones for the events when you were already busy in the Broken Isles with the new World Quests.
Also, you had plenty of quests that took you back to old zones to give the impression of the entire world being under attack, so I don't think you really lost the feeling of the Legion being everywhere.

Eh outside of some very specific quests, I did feel like that. And it didn't have to be rewarding content; it could have stayed around as a great way to level up alts during the expansion with the most alt content ever.

[Woggmer]

It was mostly killing dungeon and raid bosses that spawned on set timers in Northrend. Not all that interesting.

The Legion prepatch was great, but it's clear in hindsight that it was the exception, and not the new norm sadly.

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Also, only one of the rares actually gave anything worth farming. That being the 34-slot bag from Bronjahm. Other than that there wasnt much reason to farm beyond getting the recoloured transmog and the haunted memento throwback.

And one of them dropped the blue proto-drake mount.... not to mention there was also the Nathanos boss fight, and we got to see Tyrande kill him.

[allegrian]

And one of them dropped the blue proto-drake mount.... not to mention there was also the Nathanos boss fight, and we got to see Tyrande kill him.

Ah yes, the tyrande thing was cool although it was a bit random.

[Nymrohd]

That point in Plunderstorm when there is just three people left and you just look at each other cause whoever attacks first pretty much means the person not attacked wins the match . . .

[Woggmer]

Ah yes, the tyrande thing was cool although it was a bit random.

Eh, kinda but it was justified given everything that happened...

[infinitemeridian]

I miss the Ion livestreams. When was the last time we had one? Early SL? Hope they bring them back for TWW.

[Ersula]

I'd prefer they just stick to a 2 year expansion cycle if the 4 seasons that comprise them were heftier. I don't know why everyone's acting like "smaller expansions, but they're also shorter" is an improvement. It's not. At blizzcon they basically announced Dragonflight was done, and at that point the expansion hadn't even been out a year. Plunderstorm is nice but it really is basically a different game.

I think they need to working on how to make a good conclusion to their expansion storyline & my big fear is that this Saga model is just going to do what Dragonflight did: Every expansion is just going to feel like the prologue to the next expansion.

[Xilurm]

I think it entirely depends on how elaborate the pre-patch even will be. The Legion event was very elaborate & lasted 6 weeks. The BFA event was pretty simple & lasted 2 weeks. And then the Shadowlands & Dragonflight events were in-between that specturm.

So why would the TWW pre-patch event last 16 weeks then?

[Thomir]

I miss the Ion livestreams. When was the last time we had one? Early SL? Hope they bring them back for TWW.

Remember back in Legion? I think Ion and Lore did a Q&A once a month but people just complained.

[Makorus]

I'd prefer they just stick to a 2 year expansion cycle if the 4 seasons that comprise them were heftier. I don't know why everyone's acting like "smaller expansions, but they're also shorter" is an improvement. It's not. At blizzcon they basically announced Dragonflight was done, and at that point the expansion hadn't even been out a year. Plunderstorm is nice but it really is basically a different game.

I think they need to working on how to make a good conclusion to their expansion storyline & my big fear is that this Saga model is just going to do what Dragonflight did: Every expansion is just going to feel like the prologue to the next expansion.

Because conceptually, a shorter expansions means a more concentrated story and experience, rather than them trying to shove 1000 plotpoints into one expansion because one storythread can only carry an expansion for so long before it gets boring. You don't need an expansion to be 2 years long for it to tell a focused story.

Would BfA have 3-4 different main stories if it was a shorter expansion? Probably not. Would it have focused more on the Island/Faction War theme if it was shorter? Probably.

You don't realize how fickle the community is.