simply put, every time blizzard says they’re gonna add a feature, i get really excited to try something new. but then when the next expansion comes around, that feature stops getting content and is forgotten.
it’s disheartening to see so many neat ideas tried once, and then ignored and forgotten.
remember your WoD garrison? would’nt it be cool if we got things for it from later expansions? like, a a demon-skull we hang-up somewhere, or a suit of armor from the maw?
how about our class halls? would’nt it have been cool if we’d send our recruits to zandalar/kul’tiras to learn from the folks there? or heck, have them become divided, and arguing about the war? or talk about the covenants?
or island expeditions. would’nt it have been neat to see djaradin or druids of the flame show up, and we’d have to fight them off?
the last one we got that still gets content every expansion is pet battles, and that came out in mists of pandaria. which was released almost 12 years ago.
oh wait i forgot about mythic+… that one was back in 2016. still, holy crap that was a long time ago.
to put it bluntly: can we expect to still be getting new delves 5 years after war within? or will it be forgotten, just like torghast, island expeditions, warfronts, the garrison, the order halls, the pandaria farm, etc?
i dunno, i just… i’m sick of getting a new feature, that won’t get more content the following expansions.
don’t expect much of an arguement from me btw if you wanna ‘clap-back’ (or whatever the term is) to my points, i’m just getting my feelings out-there.
There have been a lot of systems implemented over the years. If you’re only talking about systems that have had continual additions over the years then I think achievements should be added to that list.
How do systems with passively increased scaling work towards the assessment? Would flexible raid sizes and difficulties, dragonriding, transmog, and arenas count?
Dragonriding is clearly here to stay. Transmog passively gets new stuff added to it with the only changes being removal of restrictions. Flexible raid sizes may just need tuning for new bosses each raid tier. Arenas get new maps every now and then.
Shadowlands and BFA gave us… memories. Oh, but Legion gave us good memories.
I’m optimistic they’ll keep Delves going beyond TWW as they’ve alluded to strengthening world / solo content as another end game pillar beyond PVP, raiding and M+.
Good ol’ Torghast forever gone. How is it we have FF14 over here with some pretty decent expansion-scaling content and Blizz just chops half an expansion.
The best way to keep your department’s budget intact and your team employed is to convince the financial people that everything must get completely overhauled or replaced every expansion.
The thing about this is that… this isn’t the case. I mean sure, the thing that they name dropped as that’s expansion specific thing is left there. But they do that so they can focus on the activity, not the feature. Let me explain using some of the things you mention:
These two alongside the covenant halls making the final number three, are the same. What the garrisons explored was what happens when we have a feature that allows us to build our own base, to serve as player housing, and to build upon a centralized design. Us as players rather explicitly showcased that we absolutely hated the lonely feeling, but the garrisons themselves were awesome.
So… Class Order Halls, whilst they were in development during WoD already, became communal spaces which was then developed upon in Shadowlands. Whilst the expansion was a failure for failing game design in oh so many different ways, they did nail the covenants … and then balls’d them up again because of misplaced criticism from Legion and BFA thus’ concluding with Covenants having abilities tied to them.
(Do note that Blizzard work roughly with three expansions at the same time roughly in the order of: live service /w. live content updates; development and asset creation for the next expansion; and planning for the third. This is why the criticisms in Legion were touched upon in BFA but only truly ‘fixed’ in SL, and BFA’s were only truly ‘fixed’ in DF, and so on.)
Do you remember scenarios, and how absolutely no one really liked them unless they were story specific? Yah’, that’s where this went - alongside with a slight detour of Apexis Crystals during WoD. In Legion it became the Mage Tower and the MULTITUDES of profession questlines that were the most fleshed out random questlines has ever been in WoW. Absolutely ever. But it also became the Suramar training mission.
Because this is the type of activity meant as your main “side”-activity. The thing you do once or a few times a week and you are done with it. Island Expeditions also became the basis for the Corruption system and the covenant specific activities in SL.
Here’s the point, a sort of TL;DR if you will:
Blizzard “abandons” expansion specific features because people aren’t interested in them beyond an expansion. They are neat activities here and there sure, but the stuff that they can do with them at that point in time is expended. Making them perpetual and evergreen means that we would be going back to… I dunno, Baradin Hold or the overworld version of Wintergrasp and fight for it. We would do Argent Dawn Tournament dailies and cracking open rotten eggs, fly with the Shattered Sun bombing ships, farm timeless coins, and have a neverendingly large questlog of old quests that we need to get done.
Expansion features will come and go, but the underlying activity and design to them will continue. Because no one wants to go back to Stranglethorn every week to go fishing.
Sure. And feelings are important, but discussing them when they have tangible aspects to them can also be important. So, I’m gonna leave what I said here for folks to read and if folks care then folks respond or they don’t.
We don’t know yet how many of these “evergreen” systems will actually be carried forward or whether the next incarnations will feel like an improvement or will lose their luster.
Anywho, they have been now wanting to do more ‘‘ever green’’ content and stuff in 11.0 is sticking around.
A side from that Delves is the only real ‘‘feature’’ that I can bite into per se and doesn’t really excite me. The transmog warbands stuff is more ‘‘quality of life’’ more than content type, expansion feature.
11.0 only is offering, one thing… in that regard… and is a big meh from me.
Super interesting take, I didn’t see it that way but it makes complete sense.
I always wondered why they keep re-inventing the wheel, but it’s the simple business principle, do or die. I thought they were doing enough each xpac and patch without reinventing classes but I guess without reworks or updates, there could be a case for firing some class devs.
Features only become evergreen if they’re worth keeping around.
All of those systems you listed had either a very lackluster reception, or they just weren’t sustainable in the long term.
A good example is M+ and Mega Dungeons. People like those, so we keep getting those. A lot of people argue that it’s just inflated participation due to rewards, but that didn’t save Island Expeditions or Garrisons, because while a lot of people used them, the feedback was almost entirely negative to them.
I agree that those who have played for more than an expac, we could have a garden or garrison that we could have, at least at current status; garrisons: current fish in our pond, current ore in our mine, current herbs in our garden, etc the war table could be linked to world quests, and Im not sure about the shipyard - but still with the amount of posts here in general discussion for a “home” (i have a crap ton of candlestiicks in a hut on another game) Provide current, and add maybe a bonus bank? Just trying to submit a solution - I have no idea what this would cause for programmers, or non one time cost of storage , runcode, and maintenance. But so many posts want a room full of candlesticks. I personally don’t care, however there is an available thought for the blizardsofmanagement who should consider all the requests vs the cost of delivering something more than adequate that might be easily cost benefit
Im depressed that the one feature I wish wouldve been left behind in Dragonflight is going to get moved on to other expansions. Lookin at you abomination of a crafting system
Im actually really excited about the new xpac, heck, im excited for Tuesday. Follower dungeons where i can go at my own pace and not feeling like im in a mythic+…yes please. Finally getting the nerve to try out a new role without being trash talked…heck yeah! And as a person who has one max of every class, dont even get me started on Warbands and account wide…almost everything in the War Within. Its like most games, throw a bunch of crap at the wall and see what sticks. Wow has been in the dumps for a while but i think they’re finally starting to get back on track.