What’s weird is 9.1 feels late AND rushed… the low amount of content doesn’t even make sense considering the long wait leading up to it.
I think the most hilarious thing from the past few months is just how quickly (about ~1 month) the devs “swooped to the rescue” to make a bunch of game-breaking PvP changes to TBCC… but meanwhile Wintergrasp was left a one-sided mess for a whopping 2 years despite constant complaints/feedback during those 2 years 
I think it honestly was meant to come out 6 months after release. With 9.2 not long after. Instead we are likely getting two 8 months stretches. Probably would feel fine.
Not an excuse however. I haven’t been happy with design since wod. Infinite grinds do not make content. Freaking find a way to pump out dungeons raids and PvP seasons on a tighter schedule.
Releasing timely new content costs money. So, instead they go for repeated content treadmills. They are trying to minimize production costs.
The thing is, that isn’t even necessary for the pvp crowd that just pvps for the sake of pvp. But, pvp “progression” is tied to pve progression now. So, it has to be punished to match up with the pve development cycle. It should be separate, ofc.
Quite likely.
And the ironic part is now they’re probably going to wind up making less revenue than they would if they’d just shell out a little extra budget funds to make a game people want to stay subbed to.
Agreed. They only seem to have short term plans, not long term plans. It really feels like they are sacrificing the future for current profits.
That’s the funny thing about WoW though…even when they’re perceived to be at their worst, they still seem to stay ahead of the pack without even trying. We can talk about lazy story writing, poor systems/gear design…but people always seem to come back. Why? Because even when other games have better ideas, nobody can touch Blizzard on polish.
I would agree. What I mean though is instead of spending dev money on these systems. Develop a way to pump out new dungeons and raids faster.
Kinda like the old wc3 map editor. Have abunch of tools to just easily populate spaces. Sacrifice a bit of detail for faster and more actual content. Like how many people sit their and look at the beauty of a dungeon when you’re trying to rush through a timer in m+ lol… I dunno, likely not easy as I make it out to be but still. That’s what they should work on lol
From Bandit:
“Shadowlands 9.0 was amazing and a very good launch patch for an expansion, regardless of the hype I had for it, a .1 patch took the longest any patch has ever taken, and it seems like there’s no resources going to the game which showed after I quit there is a culture problem at Blizzard, and a pretty messed up one.
I quit WoW for good and got rid of my account if you get what I mean, because after playing New World and seeing Ashes, WoW is just outdated. It came out in 2004, the engine is old and the game held its own for a long time more than any other game will ever, but it’s 2021, look at the technology games have now which is what I enjoy, and WoW literally can’t bring that stuff into the game because of its engine.”
I think that despite all the gloom and doom coming from players, they truly want WoW to be good and the fact that they keep playing even when it’s not, leads me to believe they still hope it will be again. But, everyone has their limit where they lose hope or just don’t care enough to keep playing. Blizzard can’t get by with crappy game design forever.
I saw this earlier in regard to the spit emote and I gotta say, it blew my mind. Is spitting on another player not make believe? Yeah, that rogue just pretend stabbed me to death and that’s cool, it’s pretend, but that rogue also pretend spit on me and that’s harassment? I guess I assumed in game harassment had some real world side effects, but maybe I’m not seeing it clearly. 
You are correct, the dev team isn’t capable. It may not necessarily be their fault. With less subs, shareholder influence and situations like recent news coming into play, being pressed for deadlines to release “something” can be difficult.
There’s a weak aura that automatically /spits on people in your vicinity that are riding a store mount. If enough people have this, it creates a community environment that greatly shuns those who spend money in the cash shop buying a store mount, discouraging people to buy store mounts.
So basically the /spit emote is hurting Bobby’s wallet. Also, it’s safe to forecast what is to come in the future for classic which is additional store mounts and more monetization.
It has nothing to do with harassment and everything to do with money.
Sorry but I don’t give them a free pass. They’ve came out and said activision doesn’t take part in any design or development and that the team does 100% of that on their own. The current dev team leadership came into power after legion was made. Then created a larger treadmill system with bfa and then doubled down on it throughout the entire expansion to then make an even larger treadmill system for shadowlands.
It’s absolutely baffling that someone made some of these quests/systems and said “yep, players will love doing this”
Is it still not a pretend spit? Nobody actually got spit on in the same way none of us are actually killed in a RPG, yes? If they would just admit it was because it was directed at their cash shop instead of trying to justify it as harassment at the same time they justify that we pretend to kill other players as make believe, it wouldn’t be so hypocritical, but that’s just my hot take.
It’s not giving them a free pass. It’s just how things are. It may not be “right” but it’s not always the source’s direct fault.
While Activision may not directly tell people what to do for design/development but they will decide the budgets and the company has to deal with that however they can. So when they say “We don’t tell them how to develop”, it’s smoke and mirrors.
I also don’t think someone actually thought players would “love” them but when you’re under pressure to deliver in a short time frame, you’ll give what you can.
I think the playerbase will be less forgiving going forward, more likely to unsub and not come back.
All the revelations coming out about the CEO/higher-ups receiving massive bonuses while employees allegedly make $12/hour, the latest scandal where they’re allegedly goofing off/drinking on the job rather than fixing the game, dev resources going into removing the completely harmless /spit emote, etc etc.
I get the sense that the community’s patience is running out, you can feel it in the air especially with all the hype surrounding these “competitor” games like FF14 and New World.
Delays and poor quality due to legitimate reasons (say… office disruption/covid) are one thing, but drinking on the job and cheaping out on the game’s budget/man-hours are another 
It wasn’t activision saying it. It was blizzard’s dev team in one of the interviews.
8-9 months isn’t a short time frame unless you spend half the day cube crawling.
It’s still smoke/mirrors. People lower on the totem pole are always briefed on how to respond to certain things. Some are even under contract of what they cannot say. Nobody is going to throw anyone above them under the bus in an interview, especially if they expect to keep their job. Yes, it’s frustrating and shady but that’s just how business works.
If you’re referring to 9.1 for example, sometimes, deadlines just cannot be reached no matter what. There can be all kinds of variables we are not aware or nor will likely be aware of. Companies do keep a lot to themselves to prevent social media from blowing it up into something it’s not, misrepresenting it or causing “panic.”
Eh when the budget was good coming off a successful legion expansion they still made very very bad design decisions in Bfa when the leash would’ve been at it’s longest reach. I think it’s time to actually blame blizzard instead of activision.
Oh for sure, we can blame Blizzard… but blame the ones really responsible for the outcomes.
Everyone wants to blame the devs. I don’t know 100% because I do not work there but research, design and development happen in my company, which is very large and most all companies like this have some of the same drawbacks. 
rolls down hill.
which is blizzard…
why are you schilling today?