Soo.. What about those Maw changes that were supposed to happen?

[Gurahk]

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/shadowlands-development-update-october/666214

The Maw is intended to be the desolate and brutal domain of the Jailer, and not a place any soul in the Warcraft cosmos ever hopes to visit. But this is, after all, a video game, and telling that story can’t come at the expense of creating a fun environment for adventurers. We’ve heard feedback that this content is currently falling short of that mark, and we agree.

We’re working to increase visual distinction and combat gameplay variety across the different areas of the Maw, as well as exploring adding new localized events and world interactions. We also want to give players who journey to the Maw a bit more direction, while still preserving the “sandbox” roots of Maw gameplay. Players will venture into the Maw weekly to rescue souls to aid in restoring their Covenants, and the mysterious broker Ve’nari offers a range of cosmetic, convenience, and power rewards in exchange for Stygia. Those goals need to be more immediately apparent early on. We’ll share more info about specific updates when these changes are ready for Beta testing and feedback.

So around 3 weeks ago, Blizzard posted a bluepost about the development of Shadowlands, and in one of the paragraphs they explained how they were going to improve the Maw through both gameplay and its rewards.

However, all we've ever gotten so far are just new rewards, we haven't gotten an update or whatever on the gameplay-side, which is really worrying considering how nearly everyone that has tested the Maw has had only negative things to say about it.
There's only 4 weeks left until the expansion launches, do you guys think they'll save these changes for a future patch or somehow fit it in a build in the coming weeks?

[Fayenoor]

[URL="https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/shadowlands-development-update-october/666214"]
There's only 4 weeks left until the expansion launches, do you guys think they'll save these changes for a future patch or somehow fit it in a build in the coming weeks?

Maw is tedious in its current iteration. I suspect they will release as is and then build on it in future patches. Way too late to do any drastic changes beyond bug fixes and class tuning.

[Inevitable Doom]

They never put any effort into the Maw as a zone to begin with, since it was always intended to not be a zone with an actual story and quests, so I never expected them to actually do anything with it. All the people saying "oh they are like old Blizzard again, because they delayed the expansion" will soon realize that they never actually intended to make sure the expansion releases in a finished state. Just slightly less broken.

[Sunslayer]

The Maw is shaping up to be the worst piece of content ever released. People are going to flood the forums when SL releases. The Maw is just that boring and awful to enter.

[hulkgor]

Since we first told you about our decision to delay, we’ve used the time to further polish the expansion and shore up the endgame, including overhauling the combat and rewards in the Maw

From the release date post.

Guess you missed it.

[GreenJesus]

The Maw is shaping up to be the worst piece of content ever released. People are going to flood the forums when SL releases. The Maw is just that boring and awful to enter.

I heard that you can't even use a ground mount in there. Lol it's going to fail so hard.

[ceall]

Blizz early october: we're gonna rework the maw with the additional time we have thanks to the delay, so your endgame experience is better.

Blizz 1 week later: here's new stuff you can buy with stygia. We havent changed the gameplay however.

Blizz today: SL releases november 23/24. Btw, what we told you 3 weeks ago about the maw rework, yeah forget that.

Blizz also today: castle nathria releases december 8th. Non-raid Endgame still sucks but the world first race will be over before christmas, so our employees can go on vacation for 2 weeks.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Sadly seems to me like someone told them "gotta launch the raid in 2020" and Blizz had to push the Maw Rework to 9.1.

[Sunslayer]

I heard that you can't even use a ground mount in there. Lol it's going to fail so hard.

Its not just the absence of ground mounts, The Maw is just boring and devoid of interesting stuff. Its literally awful.

[rrayy]

I'm not one to comment usually on employees leaving... But I do find it kind of interesting that we got two big employees leaving, Metzen starting a new game company and saying he's "much happier" there, followed shortly thereafter by Shadowlands release date with big changes still missing.

Is it related? Probably not - Any Blizzard employee with morals probably left ages ago. But hey, wouldn't be MMO-Champion without throwing that out there.

Employees leave all the time. THey want new challenges.

[whoisqnx]

I don't think new employees are always bad for the game, new and fresh ideas can work and bring something new to the game. This is only one side to the coin but i'd assume people get the point, this isn't something new that people leave and join companies.

[rrayy]

I didn't say he left, but he was in the news recently along with two employees.

Or maybe it was just Kosak? I was trying to find the second, but I'm having trouble now - Could have sworn a second left...

My point with Metzen is purely that he was stressed constantly at Blizzard, and now he's "much happier" working elsewhere. Could be that he's doing tabletop which might just be less stress in general, or maybe suggests pressure from the top, again like I said it's probably not even related. But he came out of retirement to work elsewhere and is "much happier." That's all.

But I wasn't suggesting Metzen just left. Everyone knows he left awhile ago.

In terms of Shadowlands, it isn't. Metzen was gone before Shadowlands started development.

Kosak was the only one at Blizzard who left. YOu may be confused with Mike Morhaime who started a new game development company. He also was gone before Shadowlands was being developed

[Sunslayer]

Employees leave all the time. THey want new challenges.

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

[Jester Joe]

I heard that you can't even use a ground mount in there. Lol it's going to fail so hard.

There's mobs that when you kill them, it dismounts them and you can take control of their mount for a minute. I've always managed to find them patrolling the paths so I doubt they'll be hard to find.

[schwarzkopf]

The Maw is shaping up to be the worst piece of content ever released.

Fun fact - Opinions would be more believable if they weren't objectively incorrect.

The Maw is meant to get more interesting the longer we are there and the longer you spend there - that's by design.

[Sunslayer]

Fun fact - Opinions would be more believable if they weren't objectively incorrect.

The Maw is meant to get more interesting the longer we are there and the longer you spend there - that's by design.

And your defense is that it should start out being boring as hell and not even remotely fun? Why shut down my opinion while countering with your opinion? That seems absurd.

[Kumorii]

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

Actually yeah... after gaining so much experience and probably saving up a lot of money and with that kind of resume. Them leaving and taking a chance on something of their own is very little of a risk. It's not like they will have trouble finding work if it doesn't work out with their own projects or whatever project they joined after leaving. Plenty of people tend to go their own way after a certain age unless you are climbing within said company.

[Doffen]

They have changed it it so every stay is more sustainable than what it was. They added rewards to help with that. So thats the changes.

Not much though, agree 100%. But I suppose they will add more later. It wasn't meant to be a place we use much time in anyway, but maybe they intend it to be built on later. Maybe even a patch that focus on it. I will guess: Last patch.

- - - Updated - - -

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

Yes. Thats what people with ambitions do. Yes, its a new kind of blizzard where old people leaves and new comes in. Happens in every company. People act like it doesn't happen. I don't know anyone who has worked their whole life in one place except one. Many even starts school in their 40s to achieve new goals.

Its just how life works. Yes you are also correct, Blizzard ain't the same people anymore so stuff changes. But we knew it would happen because life. As a career professional, you should know this.

[rhorle]

Sadly seems to me like someone told them "gotta launch the raid in 2020" and Blizz had to push the Maw Rework to 9.1.

Nope. They were not told to do it. They did it because it made the most sense. People need to tone down the conspiracy theories of Blizzard being told things when it pretty much has always been them making the choice.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=318838/...1-release-date

[ohwell]

In terms of Shadowlands, it isn't. Metzen was gone before Shadowlands started development.

Kosak was the only one at Blizzard who left. YOu may be confused with Mike Morhaime who started a new game development company. He also was gone before Shadowlands was being developed

Metzen should not be in charge of any game with expansive lore. He single handedly did a lot of damage to the game's lore with the things he'd spout at BlizzCon that were completely fabricated from his mind on the spot. The internet however would take those things as law. I mean hell he claimed the deaths of Yogg and Cthun caused the Cataclysm when it was just Deathwing recovering and breaking the world pillar which is all explained in the questing.