FYI, FFXIV expansion is being released 5 months later than originally planned (was slated for July pre-covid). They have been in a similar Lul for a while now due to the same reasons. Just saying “they have a clear roadmap” doesn’t really say much when you are talking nearly half a year away.
Blizzard: We’re gonna keep blaming COVID for our lack of work.
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Blizzard is either lazy, doesn’t care, or are outsourcing their WoW development to countries that don’t speak English and are having a hard time communicating.
Monetise! Monetise! Monorail! Monorail!
This is what I came in for, thanks.
Blizz: We just. Need. Munneh!
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WoW used to be made a game first then analyzed via data.
Now data drives WoW design and this is why the game has broken down.
Game first, and data second BlizZard!
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It’s been six and a half months.
You don’t need a plan when you’re a well-oiled problem-solving machine.
If they had a plan 9.1 would have been out three months earlier.
They might have an idea of a roadmap but its probably not super set, and they definitely dont tell us jack
honestly, i wish theyd sell the game to another company who cares more about making the game than impressing investors.
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They have the reputation of a top heavy bureaucracy that is glacially slow to come out with critical changes in realtime. It doesn’t help that they’ve been getting away with cutting staff and moving up release dates with the plan to only fix issues that they already know will be driving away players after release.
The big deal, though, is not covid. It is all the upper management leaving we have heard of, which was likely accompanied by mid and lower level workers leaving as well. They no longer are capable of producing work. The company is in complete disarray. Covid just smacked them a little harder than other companies because of their internal issues. Arrogance prevents them from admitting that “mistakes were made”, and so we keep getting patch features like “do twice as many +15’s for the same reward”.
The plan for wow is to turn it from the largest game in its genre into a tiny hardcore game with a cult following.
Yes, they do have a plan.
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Blizzard has hired 2,000 developers across its various games
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Blizzard has several warcraft mobile games in development
Not everyone is going to like it the direction they take it. Rumor has it you all have phones.
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What kind of ridiculous statement is this
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Not nearly as ridiculous as the comments on this forum would be when plans changed and Blizzard didn’t follow through with exactly, and only exactly, what their “roadmap” said.
A roadmap is not a binding contract, its a plan.
They still need to have a roadmap, a direction for the game - they have one currently, but it feels less and less like a plan every day and more like a “fly by the seat of your pants” mentality as they scramble 9.1 together.
Where are the concise patch notes for 9.1 regarding class changes, for example? Where is the communications as to the plans for classes etc?
Longer terms plans like introduction of more dungeons in a further patch? Things to keep players looking forward?
These are questions we would like answered in their roadmap, instead of an impromptu conversation on YouTube with designers which answers very little.
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They definitely have a roadmap.
- Since cata they have been working to try to make the game more hardcore.
- Since wod they have been trying to make easy to adapt design-by-template systems like mission tables and the bonus objectives that morphed into world quests.
- Since wod they have been trying to remove quality of life features that players like. You are spoiled and it’s bad for your soul!
- They are streamlining the game in order to reduce long-term the cost of development of new expansions as the game moves into something more like a maintenance mode.
- They are fishing hard for whales who will produce 80% of income for them.
Not all of these apparent goals play together well. Every time they try to make the game more hardcore or remove quality of life features, they lose customers who like it the way it is.
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Blizzard needs to keep it simple in the next expansion. Focus on what they do best. That’s dungeons and raids. If they didn’t keep on fooling with covenants and Torghast. We could have had more dungeons at launch and maybe a mini raid in 9.0.5.
I think the current devs enjoy creating intricate systems and think they’re good at this.
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You keep saying that you’ve been around the forum for a long time but then you say stuff like this. Any time Blizzard has even hinted at something players here have had outrage when Blizzard doesn’t follow through with exactly what they said.