Blizzard's core "done when it's done" philosophy under threat?

[Blade and Soul]

The more and more I hear about reports from beta testers, the more I fear what we will see/have come launch. If the expansion was launched today, it would be a hard kick to the face for everyone playing. With raid testing just now starting, they are a long way from release. However, they aren't giving themselves much time.

We haven't heard anything about the pre-expansion event other than some small tidbits regarding changes to the Blasted Lands. They have eluded to a longer period of time than what we saw with Cataclysm and Mists, in terms of how long the pre-expansion activities will last. As with anything, unless they get tested or stressed we will have chaos when it's released.

I was really thinking the release date would coincide with the 10th anniversary, but now it's looking closer to that December "promise". If they break that promise...we will have heads roll. At this point I just hope we get the expansion at 75-80% completion.

[Osmeric]

Maybe if they made a plan and stuck to it instead of constantly changing everything they could focus and get things done?

On the other hand, sticking to a bad plan can be even worse. WoW has been as successful as it has been because they've been willing to iterate and refine. That means changing plans based on the evidence of experience, not just sticking to a plan because it's The Plan.

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So Wod is a single player game?

Or, they intend the multiplayer part to be somewhere other than our "homes".

[Sandrox]

On the other hand, sticking to a bad plan can be even worse. WoW has been as successful as it has been because they've been willing to iterate and refine. That means changing plans based on the evidence of experience, not just sticking to a plan because it's The Plan.

That is true, but it just seems to me with this expansion they've been flip flopping way too much, and wasting time and money. Now they are cutting as much as they can to get it out the door.

[Aucald]

Once a person has established an internal bias, whether relatively pro or con, almost nothing save extreme emotional trauma will shake them from their entrenched perspective. I liken it to a softer version of the "conspiracy theorist" mindset, all evidence is viewed either as an attempt at a cover-up or failing that as an unintentional misdirection by someone "not in the know" of the conspiracy at hand. The entrenched person then misconstrues or adapts facts to cover their position where they can't collect actual data that supports it. At that point you're arguing for a position and not participating in a dialogue of any kind - you're not going to accept the validity of another person's point of view, you're too busy solidifying and promoting your own.

I'd say the best thing is to actively attempt not to let yourself slide into an established bias. Analyze data as it comes, make judgments that are plastic and open to new evidence or re-evaluation as the situation permits. Of course like most things this is easier said than done, we are creatures of precedent and habit and prefer our worldviews static and unchanging as a rule.

[Aleksej89]

WoD is definitely feeling rushed in terms of side features that are irrelevant to a lot of players, like which hub is our "capital" in WoD or the entire concept of Garrisons/player housing.

However the really important changes to how class/game mechanics work, stat/gear changes, improvements to the raiding and pvp systems, streamlining optimization of gear (etc...) is right on track and so far looks absolutely great.

If the crucial core gameplay features are properly working for the release, i really do not give a damn about any garrisons or any capital hub.

[Biggles Worth]

It is a design choice based on knowing what their player base does vs time they have.

We do what we do because of the game they created. Which is based on Blizzards design choice.

[Kryos]

Apparently 7 million people only play WoW because of the following reasons:

My friends play WoW - when I try make them play Wildstar, SW:TOR, Tera or other games 1-2 try it with me, but most stay in WoW - so we come back to WoW since friendship is worth more than outdated graphics

[Frozenbeef]

Hey, at least they finally stopped feeding you bullshit and told you, "we don't have time to give you a capitol that isn't a shithole."

Yeah, those excuses were getting more annoying than the bad news ever could have been >.<

[Gimlix]

I assume alot more is already ready but nothing is on beta yet,
But ye overall i feel same way, feels like they lack alot of things.
(Like i am very impressed with WoD don't get me wrong but look at dungeons/draenor content/raiding these 3 are all barely on beta yet, i hope for blizzard it's done in 1 of their builds or else we gonna get a very late release )

Can someone just tweet if they are behind with WoD or on schedule, i guess we get best answer there.

[Xentronium]

It's weird that WoD does have the impression it is rushed since Blizzard have things planned two expansions ahead.

http://www.gamefront.com/the-next-2-...ready-planned/

Something seemed to have broken in a big way after the last Blizzcon that threw WoD off course.

[Osmeric]

Something seemed to have broken in a big way after the last Blizzcon that threw WoD off course.

Blizzard is engaged in a fight with a patent troll over MMO technology; I wonder if they had to redesign something to reduce the risk of the game being shut down if they lost.

[Tharkkun]

This right here is why I jump on certain posters here because the misinformation they spread (often purposely) results in misunderstandings like these. Blizzard never once said the change in capital cities had ANYTHING to do with not having time to do them right so no what you said is NOT the same thing as what I said.

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That might carry some weight if you hadn't insulted him right back not to mention the fact you are completely ignorant to how software development and project management even works. According to your criteria no developer would ever be able to keep their job.

Bashiok ‏@Bashiok Jul 18
@Draekin01 Wasn't really restarting. We saw how much time it would take, said that's not reasonable, and went for a reasonable solution.

Not having the time to do it correctly is the same damn thing. Rather than half ass it they chose not to build out the capital cities. In order to meet the release deadlines those cities would have been unfinished of half-assed.

[Gimlix]

Bashiok ‏@Bashiok Jul 18
@Draekin01 Wasn't really restarting. We saw how much time it would take, said that's not reasonable, and went for a reasonable solution.

Not having the time to do it correctly is the same damn thing. Rather than half ass it they chose not to build out the capital cities. In order to meet the release deadlines those cities would have been unfinished of half-assed.

Which is a smart move.

[Tharkkun]

Which is a smart move.

I don't agree with the change but once the expansion is released no one (including me) will care anymore. I think maybe a unified city would have been better but it would contradict the theme of the expansion. Two cities would have been a waste of resources just so people can have a new place to jump in circles for hours.

[wych]

I don't agree with the change but once the expansion is released no one (including me) will care anymore. I think maybe a unified city would have been better but it would contradict the theme of the expansion. Two cities would have been a waste of resources just so people can have a new place to jump in circles for hours.

Equally, the capital city is probably the area where most players will spend the largest period of time over the course of the expansion, so resources should be dedicated to it.

Maybe the devs on the latest cash store mount could have spent time texturing Karabor instead?

[Binko]

Don't know if it works that way. Blizzard has different teams dedicated to different parts of the game, meaning the team responsible on the UI won't participate on balancing the game, for example.

The corporate world doesn't work like that. Resources are constantly shifted between different groups depending on need. Core members may stay put but large numbers of support people can rapidly move between different units.

All this blather about how hard it is to hire new people or how hard it is to expand teams or how hard it is move people between teams is just a lot of official propaganda and rationalization for failure.

[Lightwysh]

Equally, the capital city is probably the area where most players will spend the largest period of time over the course of the expansion, so resources should be dedicated to it.

Maybe the devs on the latest cash store mount could have spent time texturing Karabor instead?

Maybe they don't want spending so much time in the Capitol cities and actually out in the world doing stuff.

[clevin]

Maybe they don't want spending so much time in the Capitol cities and actually out in the world doing stuff.

Then give me a reason to leave the city that isn't "Fuck this place sucks...."

AS for not having time to do it - that's crap planning. They talked about this at BLIZZCON. 9 months ago. And then, last month, they just realized they'd not have time?

Meh. At this rate, I'm waiting until well after release. I don't see any compelling reason to jump in day 1 like I have with every other expac. I might, depending on when it's released and how bored I am, but it's pretty barebones.

[Hipnos14]

Blizzard doesn't follow the "done when it's done" rule at least since Wrath of the Lich King

Wotlk -> No Azjol-Nerub zone, No Flying combat (and this was in the actual box), No Dance Studio (at this point I think it will never happen).

Cata -> No Abyssal Maw raid, War of the Ancients raid was transformed into the 5man. (I don't include Path of the Titans because the concept was really weird and confusing)

MoP -> I think "nothing" was scraped? I don't remember.

WoD -> No capital cities, No movable garrisons, No renamig follower, let's hope nothing more gets scraped.

The thing is, they will never follow that rule, now a days they are more a greedy company than a "user-friendly" company, I suppose they owe a lot of money to the investors? who knows.

PS: The lists are not completed, but you get the point.

[Fang7986]

I don't understand why they must spend tons of time each expansion to basically rewrite our classes...where is the value in having to "relearn" classes each and every bloody expansion?

Maybe they'd have loads more time on their hands if they didn't do this and simply allowed us to play the class we play the way that we have been for the past expansion.

Because if they didn't people would bitch that everything was left status que and nothing was changed some people always complain about how classes play or this class isn't op and this class is