Have to say that I really miss those days. You would be unsure of when a patch/expansion would come but you KNEW that when it did, it would be full of interesting content and ideas.
It seems like now even if they want to develop ideas and content, they are behind the 8ball in regards to the deadlines and shrinking budget.
I know it’s common to want certain heads to roll, and while they do hold some blame, the only way things will truly change for the better is for those at the top to get the message.
IMHO, the next head that is going to roll should consider being vocal and shine the spotlight on the problem. There’s no honor among thieves, whoever it is going to be that sees the axe.
Is there any chance that Blizzard will go to the sweat lodge and reconnect with their old spirit?
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Doesnt seem like it after what they did with W3 Reforged
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The WoW team =/= the WC3 team (if there even is one. Isn’t it all outsourced?)
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It’s not a company problem… it’s a player problem.
In today’s gaming reality, there is not many people that are willing to wait 13 months of no content.
The patchs or expansions release date must be predictable and close to current date, else people go elsewhere do something else. Companies can’t take their time anymore…
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That sure didnt backfired in them…
There’s a saying, Nine woman can’t make a baby one month. The lesson from that isn’t supposed to be that some things just take time, the lesson is if you need nine babies in one month you need to plan, staff, and manage appropriately to deliver that.
This idea that it’s the players fault…
Holy… I hope your a shill and don’t actually believe that.
At the end of the day management has put excessive profit above the well being of their employees and their customers.
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Kinda depends. It’s hard enough to make a franchise work after 15 years.
You’re under the burden of expectations of each new player that joined in that period while trying to keep the game attractive to new people too.
Shadowlands is coming and it’ll be my second expansion - not gonna lie, I’m scared
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Well they managed to make a worse expansion than WoD so i can see them doing something worse than BFA
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Oh you are from BFA ? interesting, well, know that usually after what the community considers a “bad” expac, there’s a good expac, so Shadowlands has a lot of potential!
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This was never a thing for any expansion
They were all released ~2 years a part like clockwork.
Which is sad.
Unlikely because the old spirit is gone. I don’t think a lot of the original development team are actually still there at Blizzard. Everyone is expecting the before and recoiling from the now.
And there were definitely some questionable befores, too. The idea that a game is held back until its finished seemed to clash with the fact that the servers and patches of the past were almost far more unstable than the now. We look at N’Zoth needing to be tuned and reset a few times and forget C’thun was statistically impossible for 80 days or so (longer than N’Zoth, in any case) but we tend to forget that.
We also tend to forget patch days likely lasted 24 hours or longer at the beginning, to the point Tuesday’s were considered forfeit days for WoW. MoP was one of the buggiest launch experiences, especially for Alliance when they got stuck on that gyrocopter.
I don’t know, WoW especially has had constant problems, no matter how long they have to test and fix things between expansions or even patches. Part of the failings very well could be subverted player base expectations, a memory of what was before even though before had plenty of bugs in its own right.
All I can say is following the forums for 12 years has been one wild ride.
Edit: good lord my phone decided to possess itself and change a bunch of words here.
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It’s a catch 22. Some of their stuff took FOREVER to release, and were met with delays upon delays. I don’t think people are as accepting of this nowadays.
But many of their old philosophies no longer seem to apply, and they don’t even mention them during interviews anymore (ie, “is it fun?”). You can tell things have changed. I was actually reading the WCR review on Destructoid, and they mentioned multiple times that “the old Blizzard would not have allowed this”.
Too much success could be the culprit. When they no longer have to struggle or prove anything, they become complacent and pompous. See it happen with music artists all the time.
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You’re shifting the blame, it’s absolutely a company problem.
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Games companies also have a budget to follow like any other companies.
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Ah, right. Activision Blizzard couldn’t possibly afford to make World of Warcraft profitable, silly me.
Shill.
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2006:
August 22 - Patch 1.12.0(last vanilla patch)
December 5 - Patch 2.0.1(BC Prepatch)
January 9 - Patch 2.0.3(Portal opening)
January 16 - BC released
4 1/2 months from the last patch to the release of the next expansion. This when they were smaller and hungrier. BC is often considered the best expansion.
2008:
March 25 - Patch 2.4.0 (last patch for BC)
October 14 - Patch 3.0.2 (Wrath Prepatch)
November 13 - Wrath released
8 months from the last patch of BC to the release of yet another that is considered the best expansion.
2010:
June 22 - Patch 3.3.5(Final Wrath patch)
October 12 - Patch 4.0.1(Cata prepatch)
December 7 - Cata released
5 1/2 months from the end of Wrath to Cata. There was a lot of revamping that went on. A LOT of revamps. They still pulled it out.
2012:
November 29 - Patch 4.3.0(Final Cata patch)
August 28 - Patch 5.0.4(MoP prepatch)
September 25 - MoP released
10 months from the final patch of Cata to MoP release. MoP is also considered a good expansion. Not as popular as the others but better received than Cata.
We all know what happened afterwards. The players didn’t change. THEY did.
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A good example of this are allied races. Back in the good old days, expansions were expansions. Not stripped down DLC. Similarly new races were given to you as part of the new content to begin with. Not metered out to pad time played metrics. And no, the ‘lore’ reason is pure fabrication to obfuscate what they’re actually doing.
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Also the gating of flying and rep. In their prime, you could throw on a tabard and grind rep like you wanted. Ya could really put your head down and go for it. Now? Ya must wait until you get the thumbs up from the game.
The claim that players are the problem because they won’t wait 13 months is ludicrous. They never had to wait that long during the good years. And if it takes them 13 months now, that STILL points to the problem being in the company.
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Not as long as they are dependent on shareholders as that is where the pressure is coming from.
Blizzard really just needs to stop trying to push the envelop and just stick with what works. MMOs are so simple.
Give us a bad guy from the start that we have reasons to dislike, give us the means to acquire gear while chipping away at his power structure and enjoying a relevant story that expands on the games characters instead of killing / corrupting / ruining them, and then let us beat the turds out of big villain for a few months.
Also bring back PVP vendors.
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