BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[Directionalk9]

Faction War has definitely not been the main plot of the expansion, it was the marketed plot... this has been an Old God expansion from start to finish... half of the leveling zones are dedicated/culminate in Void-shenanigans. The first, third and fourth raid zones are Old God related. It’s either hubris or folly but Sylvanas has been drawn to N’Zoth, I suspect because he’s got clear undeading power, something Sylvanas wants. I totally see the player forces having to stop both in a Thunder Bluff/Stormwind raid, them both thinking they are using each other, but with us knowing, “nope, kill them both”.

Xal’atath is the long game, not N’Zoth, personal theory.

[Taeldorian]

As a diehard Azshara fan since 2010 I am so sad what a travesty she has been as of now in BfA. Such an awesome character ruined by horrible writing. Maybe she’ll be more intimidating next time, I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

By the way we have no clue if Azshara died and she resurrected her or if she just lost consciousness. Maybe Lorthemar had some smelly feet and she just passed out?

Huh? She’s pretty intimidating. Or at the very least her fight is pretty damn difficult so far. Can’t wait to see what she’s like on mythic it’s gonna be absolutely nuts. I guess this would be based off of what you consider intimidating though. If their boss fight is an absolute joke I probably won’t pay that character much mind once it’s done.

There’s only a few characters/things in WoW that have ever intimidated me and it’s usually the creepy shit like Thaddius, the goldshire kids, hanging bodies in Kara, humans being buried up to their heads by forsaken/ghouls, etc. Garrosh is a good example of an intimidating character that wasn’t scary, he was just insane and went pretty damn far with his views. His bossfight was also awesome.

[Sondrelk]

Faction War has definitely not been the main plot of the expansion, it was the marketed plot... this has been an Old God expansion from start to finish... half of the leveling zones are dedicated/culminate in Void-shenanigans. The first, third and fourth raid zones are Old God related. It’s either hubris or folly but Sylvanas has been drawn to N’Zoth, I suspect because he’s got clear undeading power, something Sylvanas wants. I totally see the player forces having to stop both in a Thunder Bluff/Stormwind raid, them both thinking they are using each other, but with us knowing, “nope, kill them both”.

Xal’atath is the long game, not N’Zoth, personal theory.

The opening cinematic was solely dedicated to faction war.
The pre-patch was solely dedicated to faction war.
The opening questline was solely dedicated the faction war.
The war campaign, the endgame storyline is almost solely dedicated to faction war.
In 8.2. The faction war storyline is literally put on hold so we can do some void shenanigans instead.


Saying BfA is not about faction war is like saying that Legion was about Night elves, because most of the zones had nigh elves in them (or nightborne). Or saying that WotLK was about the Dragon's connection to the Titans, since pretty much all of the zones had dragons and titans in them.

BfA is about faction war, and while Void is in them, i would expect the final boss to be Void just as much as i would expect the final boss of Legion to be against Azshara.

[Taeldorian]

It's unrealistic because it's a shit time to release an expansion (smack dab in summer?) especially for Blizzard. Also they've never released a WoW expansion in Summer, they would've most likely done so by now if that was their plan which also adds to it being unrealistic.

But the main reason is it's a shit time to release video games when most people are traveling between months of June-August.

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Plus they said they're done trying to release expansions quickly, so it'd be more expected for them to lengthen the time between expansions, not decrease it.

Wait what? They have most certainly released expansions during the summer. Legion and BfA both released in August which is quite literally the middle-end of summer. It’s when most people go back to college/school and all that. They’d definitely release it in October/July if they were okay releasing both the previous and current expansions in August.

Heck, July would probably be better than the last two releases we’ve had. For most people college starts back up in August unless you take summer classes. We’ve had two expansions release in August, I’d easily take a July release instead.

[Omedon]

5 months between last patch and prepatch of a new expansion? No way, too short. WoD had 13 months, Legion 9 if I remember correctly.

See usually I'd agree with this, but it’s felt a lot like we’ve been getting small little mini-lulls between BFA’s patches, potentially eroding away at the post-expansion tail to create a consistent pattern of 6 months between all X.Y patches, due to the seasonal structure. That would mean 6 months between 8.3 and 9.0, with an 8.3.5 in the middle! Extended expansion tails don’t really align with a seasonal branding of patch cadence, so it does make sense.

[Nebster]

Legion-BFA was 6 months from 7.3.5 to 8.0 prepatch.

My bad info than. Apologies.

[Sondrelk]

On the topic of wait between final patch before a new expansion. I would think that Blizz would be aware that downtime between the expansions is important for the health of the game. If we just went straight into the new expansion then you would not allow players to get bored and "stop" playing. Which is better for burnout.

A couple extra months bolted onto the final patch also means you can capitalize extra on the hype crowd. If you go straight into it then hype does not really have time ot build as everoyne is too busy going through the content of the final patch.


Might be projecting a bit here though. Personallyi always enjoyed the downtime between raids. Everything is a bit more chill, you don't have to stress about recruitment for guilds as you can mostly just pick up the stragglers and not have ot worry about gearing them up for the next raid.
And it allows me to convince more guildies to join me in playing Minecraft.

[huth]

It's unrealistic because it's a shit time to release an expansion (smack dab in summer?) especially for Blizzard. Also they've never released a WoW expansion in Summer, they would've most likely done so by now if that was their plan which also adds to it being unrealistic.

You mean aside from the last two?

[FlubberPuddy]

You mean aside from the last two?

Were the last two expansions released in July? That's the month we were talking about being unrealistic. Please show me where the last two expansions they released were in July.

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Wait what? They have most certainly released expansions during the summer. Legion and BfA both released in August which is quite literally the middle-end of summer. It’s when most people go back to college/school and all that. They’d definitely release it in October/July if they were okay releasing both the previous and current expansions in August.

Heck, July would probably be better than the last two releases we’ve had. For most people college starts back up in August unless you take summer classes. We’ve had two expansions release in August, I’d easily take a July release instead.

It's not "Summer" that is unrealistic it's the "JULY" portion that the person mentioned that is unrealistic and shit release time.

July would be worse because while more people are free from school they are most certainly not staying home and playing video games. A majority of people take the months of June-August to travel/be outside not sit inside their homes and play video games regardless of if that's what many here on MMO-C or other WoW related forums may do.

Releasing when school is about to start or starts back up again ensures Blizzard that people are at home most of the time and thus more inclined to play their game.

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I am very surprised how little some people know here of the common release windows for video games and the business side of things.

[Taeldorian]

Were the last two expansions released in July? That's the month we were talking about being unrealistic. Please show me where the last two expansions they released were in July.

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It's not "Summer" that is unrealistic it's the "JULY" portion that the person mentioned that is unrealistic and shit release time.

July would be worse because while more people are free from school they are most certainly not staying home and playing video games. A majority of people take the months of June-August to travel/be outside not sit inside their homes and play video games regardless of if that's what many here on MMO-C or other WoW related forums may do.

Releasing when school is about to start or starts back up again ensures Blizzard that people are at home most of the time and thus more inclined to play their game.

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I am very surprised how little some people know here of the common release windows for video games and the business side of things.

You literally just said they never released an expansion during summer when the last two expansions were released during summer though.If they’re fine with releasing expansions during August, they’re not going to care about releasing them in July. I’m not sure how knowledgeable about release windows you are but they’ve already released two expansions during summer and even during the vacation/start of college month of August. Really I don’t think they’d care about releasing an expansion in July.

[huth]

<nonsense>

Guy, what are you talking about? First, 2 weeks later isn't going to make much of a difference. Second, most players haven't been to school in years. If anything, they don't have time because their kids aren't in school, not because they themselves are not. There's also that half of the world where july/august is the middle of winter, and the 19/20ths that aren't the USA.

Blizzard has released several games in summer, including in July. Not just expansions, actual games. It's amazing how little you know about the very topic you're talking about. They're the ones that proved that the common release windows are bullcrap and people game all year round.

[FlubberPuddy]

You literally just said they never released an expansion during summer when the last two expansions were released during summer. If they’re fine with releasing expansions during August, they’re not going to care about releasing them in July.

It doesn't matter that I interchanged July with Summer, the original post was talking about July and that's what I referenced as well. Btw Summer in regards to college time which you brought up is also basically the time between when classes are not in session, which July falls under.

Again, if you wanna be snarky, the original post by huth was "July isn't unrealistic". When yes, it very much is as Blizzard has never released an expansion in July.

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Guy, what are you talking about? First, 2 weeks later isn't going to make much of a difference. Second, most players haven't been to school in years. If anything, they don't have time because their kids aren't in school, not because they themselves are not. There's also that half of the world where july/august is the middle of winter, and the 19/20ths that aren't the USA.

Blizzard has released several games in summer, including in July. Not just expansions, actual games. It's amazing how little you know about the very topic you're talking about. They're the ones that proved that the common release windows are bullcrap and people game all year round.

I'm talking about this:

Go look at expansion lengths. Most are below 2 years. July isn't so unrealistic.

The bold, part of what you stated. July is unrealistic because it is a shit time. Still waiting for your proof that they released expansions in July.

[Taeldorian]

It doesn't matter that I interchanged July with Summer, the original post was talking about July and that's what I referenced as well. Btw Summer in regards to college time which you brought up is also basically the time between when classes are not in session, which July falls under.

Again, if you wanna be snarky, the original post by huth was "July isn't unrealistic". When yes, it very much is as Blizzard has never released an expansion in July.

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I'm talking about this:


The bold, part of what you stated. July is unrealistic because it is a shit time. Still waiting for your proof that they released expansions in July.

You said summer. August is summer. July isn’t the only month that summer refers to. I understand you’re saying july is a shit time but you specifically said “they’ve never released expansions during summer”. Summer applies to more months than just July, there’s no snarkiness about anything. You want me to prove to you that Summer applies to August as well or something? You replied to someone who said July but then you said summer yourself.

Can you provide proof that July is so much worse than August for releasing a wow expansion? They’re both shitty months, both of them have a lot of vacation time along with going back to school. If they release expansions in August, they’d be fine with releasing them in July as well I’m sure. It’ll depend on their content timetable and if they can get everything done in time though as well.

[huth]

The bold, part of what you stated. July is unrealistic because it is a shit time. Still waiting for your proof that they released expansions in July.

That's just an unsubstantiated claim you make. Blizzard managed to successfully release both Starcraft 2 in July and Diablo 2 on the last two days of June. It's not a shit time at all.

Your argument for it being bad also falls flat because it mostly rests on school being out when that isn't relevant to the majority of the playerbase.

[FlubberPuddy]

You said summer. August is summer. July isn’t the only month that summer refers to. I understand you’re saying july is a shit time but you specifically said “they’ve never released expansions during summer”. Summer applies to more months than just July, there’s no snarkiness about anything. You want me to prove to you that Summer applies to August as well or something? You replied to someone who said July but then you said summer yourself.

Can you provide proof that July is so much worse than August for releasing a wow expansion? They’re both shitty months, both of them have a lot of vacation time along with going back to school. If they release expansions in August, they’d be fine with releasing them in July as well I’m sure. It’ll depend on their content timetable and if they can get everything done in time though as well.

As I stated, just because I interchanged July with Summer doesn't mean the context of the original post and my reply wasn't about July specifically. But regardless, I already explained this in the post you quoted and you're still holding to it.

Let's make it clear: July is unrealistic because it is a shit time to release games. And no I won't provide proof because it's pretty common knowledge, you even admit it yourself there in the bold.

Heck I'll even go further on a limb and say we'll never see a World of Warcraft Expansion* release in July.

* = Expansions related to Current WoW (aka BFA onwards), don't care for or include what happens with WoW Classic nor potential TBC/Wrath/etc re-releases.

[huth]

Let's make it clear: July is unrealistic because it is a shit time to release games. And no I won't provide proof because it's pretty common knowledge, you even admit it yourself there in the bold.

"It's common knowledge" just means "nobody ever bothered to actually check, so we don't know for real".

[FlubberPuddy]

That's just an unsubstantiated claim you make. Blizzard managed to successfully release both Starcraft 2 in July and Diablo 2 on the last two days of June. It's not a shit time at all.

Your argument for it being bad also falls flat because it mostly rests on school being out when that isn't relevant to the majority of the playerbase.

You also make an unsubstantiated claim with "July isn't unrealistic". Your supposed proof are games that are not World of Warcraft which makes them moot as proof.

Not just school being out, but more people vacationing/traveling around those times related to Blizzard's World of Warcraft games. You understand that they base most of their releases on US time schedules because they're based in the US, right? Thus they follow US culture times the majority of times.

[huth]

You also make an unsubstantiated claim with "July isn't unrealistic". Your supposed proof are games that are not World of Warcraft which makes them moot as proof.

Not just school being out, but more people vacationing/traveling around those times related to Blizzard's World of Warcraft games. You understand that they base most of their releases on US time schedules because they're based in the US, right? Thus they follow US culture times the majority of times.

Except when they don't. People argued against August releases with the same claims as you did, and see how that worked out.

Also, releasing a full game is a bigger risk than releasing an expansion. Your argument for dismissing SC2 and D2 doesn't work.

[Taeldorian]

As I stated, just because I interchanged July with Summer doesn't mean the context of the original post and my reply wasn't about July specifically. But regardless, I already explained this in the post you quoted and you're still holding to it.

Let's make it clear: July is unrealistic because it is a shit time to release games. And no I won't provide proof because it's pretty common knowledge, you even admit it yourself there in the bold.

Heck I'll even go further on a limb and say we'll never see a World of Warcraft Expansion* release in July.

* = Expansions related to Current WoW (aka BFA onwards), don't care for or include what happens with WoW Classic nor potential TBC/Wrath/etc re-releases.

I don’t care too much about release dates so I won’t argue much past this, whatever happens, happens.

However, in the bold you quoted I did say july was a shitty time to release an expansion but I also stated August is as well. If you can’t provide proof that somehow July is worse than August for releasing expansions than there’s no reason to continue. They’re both shit, if they’re okay with releasing them during August there’s no reason to assume they wouldn’t release an expansion in July. Both of the reasons you gave for July being a shit month for expansion releases also applies to August as well which is why I don’t think you’re correct here.

[FlubberPuddy]

"It's common knowledge" just means "nobody ever bothered to actually check, so we don't know for real".

If someone crashes a vehicle without an airbag going over 120mph into a thick cement building they will most likely be severely injured or dead. I'm sure that's common knowledge to most people these days that doesn't have to be verified - most people will believe it without checking.

Except when they don't. People argued against August releases with the same claims as you did, and see how that worked out.

Also, releasing a full game is a bigger risk than releasing an expansion. Your argument for dismissing SC2 and D2 doesn't work.

Well then, until Blizzard releases an expansion following BFA and beyond in July, I'm correct with my expectations and statements.

I dismiss SC2 and D2 because they're not related to what's being discussed in this line of conversation: Release time of WoW expansion after BFA.