I may be a bit late to the party and/or beating a dead horse with this one, but, I’ve been thinking about early access situation with War Within, and I wanted to put my thoughts out there, and hope that someone from the team sees it. I saw Ion’s statement about disabling everything competitive for those three days, which is all well and good, but, it ignores the social aspect of the game. There’s a certain magic about the first week or two of an expansion, and it really comes from everyone being there doing the same things at the same time. It’s always the highest density of people you’ll see outside of a capitol city for the entire expansion; your guild is all in discord talking about this Easter egg they found, that cool new bit quest tech, or the lore significance of these characters, places and events. It’s a fantastic time. But, splitting when people have access to the game, especially based on who is willing to pay extra for the deluxe edition of the xpack is going to really detract from the fun for everyone, because there are very few guilds or groups of friends that are all going to spring for that expensive version. I love the new direction the team is taking of asking “does this make people feel good about WoW” and, I don’t want to weaponize that philosophy, but it is a useful lense to look at this from the following perspectives perspectives.
You buy the early access. Most likely, at least half of your guild didn’t, so, instead of having everyone happily playing all together, half of the guild is either still flying laps around Valdrakken or, more likely, just doing something else. Does this make you feel good about this expansion launch?
You don’t buy the early access, but, side of your friends do. They’re off having fun and talking about all the cool new things they’re doing, and you’re left out of the fun. Doesn’t make you feel good about the game, right?
you don’t buy early access, and neither go any of your friends. Still, all of the YouTube and twitch content related to the game is covering the new expansion, talking about all of the cool new stuff that you can’t partake in for three more days. You’re still left out of all of the launch day fun. Not a great feeling.
No one wins with this early access. Fortunately, launch is a long time away, there is still time to walk this back. Blizz will have to find something else to give the people that have already purchased the deluxe edition, but, it would still be a win to not have the early access period.
They’re not going to walk it back because they have already sold the product and it would cause more legal trouble to change it than its worth unless they offered refunds…which is always a horrible idea
I am more annoyed that this is now standard in video games in general. When did this start, I recall Starfield doing it but I’m pretty sure there must have been 1 or 2 other games who did it.
The three days is brilliant marketing. They get people paying to be gamma testers under the caveat that if the whole thing is unstable and buggy, well too bad.
It also hits those who feel they have to be in the first wave to something, like maybe lock up the auction house? Fine, it just makes for folks I can undercut when I finally get in there. If I had a guild I think a good guild would use this to get ahead as a guild, rather than being a competitive situation. The only good reason for the three day advance, sadly to say, is for those who can figure out this week’s “exploit early and exploit often” situation.
If I buy that edition I can mentally deduct $15 for the free month which means a small amount of money for a lot of goodies. Normally, I wait about a week when new expansions drop just to avoid the worst of the bugs, patching downtime and the overcrowded start zones with all the needed quest resources nearly impossible to find do to them lasting .003 seconds after respawning.
I do not see why this is an issue unless one is part of the 1% bleeding edge and well, that’s a burden you’ve placed upon yourself. Enjoy.
I see it like this: it’s not worth the extra 20 dollars. The different things you’re paying for, such as Beta Access and Early Access, will only last you for so long; if you’re going to pay for the top tier, then obviously, you’d want something more from it to last you a good amount of time.
3 days is long enough for us to run into and get stuck in all the major bugs and problems for you guys to not be effected by them in the global release.
The first 3 days of an expansion are hardly ever playable…
Exactly, so is it really worth spending the extra money? Most of the people spending the extra money are mainly wanting to play the game, not actually sit there and report bugs.
Yeah, if you bought Epic then you get early access and beta. Personally, for me, I don’t care for such as it seems a waste for something so temporary. I don’t care if people buy it, if they do they do, not my money.
I haven’t seen this in ages. Prelaunch event? Sure. But not launch day. Because launch day is usually a bit of maintenance, bugs, exploits and people trying to get to everything first.
There’s also no reason why you can’t get together with your friends, pick a day and time and do this together.
It’s not getting walked back. Do what I’m doing: create two events in your guild, one for early access peeps and one for those who can’t even get online until the weekend after launch, because they have life stuff. Make a spoilers channel. Problem solved.
They should shut down the servers during the day so my friends who took off can’t play without me, ruining the experience for the entire World of Warcraft by not playing together
There is no situation. If you want in early and the other perks you buy the most expensive version. If you don’t want to spend the cash then you have patience and wait three days and you get to play as well.
People just love to create problems that aren’t a problem. Not a big deal.
Not without offering everyone who already purchased it an option for a full refund. I am sure the early access was the only reason some bought the epic version.
No, there is no putting this genie back in the bottle. I think it was a mistake, and I’m confident there will be several hundred threads started over the next year with everyone’s new ‘fresh take’ on the topic, but it’s not being walked back.