At this point, I don’t believe the WoW development team is “accidentally” instating broken systems. I think they’re trying to be actually a lot more formulaic than that, following a set schedule to maintain monthly subscriptions numbers and improving sentiment before the new expac.
I think this is their attempt at improving how people feel towards the game before they try to ask for more cash.
Let me explain:
- New system comes out which we deal with for the first two months, people are generally upset with the new systems (the WoW development team has been down this road for the past three expansions, these decisions are being made deliberately)
- this ensures that sub month 3 is spent getting items from the new system (tier set).
- Sub month 4 and 5 of the new patch are then spent enjoying the game with the new tier sets and even spinning up alts
- Month 6, fatigue starts to set in
- Month 7 (this would bring us to end of summer/ August time frame), season 4 is released with new catchup mechanics, alt-friendly gearing and cross faction. Player sentiment is high
- Month 8,9,10 are spent enjoying the new season; just before fatigue of the new season kicks in which brings us to November - what I believe would most likely be release of the new expansion.
If it doesn’t happen in November, I wonder what their plan is to retain audiences until launch of the new expac.