Two things I learnt in the Army, illustrated by catchphrases:
“Hurry up and wait” - No matter how well you plan, things outside your control will delay you. Find ways to occupy yourself or adapt your plans.
“Leaders can identify when a situations changes. Good leaders adapt.” - Even if you know what went wrong (or is going wrong) if plans don’t change then all the analysis in the world doesn’t help.
So the Wrath Beta is in a less complete state than expeccted at this time. Four weeks ago, Blizzard announced that “in the next few weeks” they’d be at most 8 weeks from the release of Wrath Classic. And then that slipped. And possibly slipped again. And suddenly, we’re a month later and no closer to “8 weeks to Wrath Classic”.
It’s ok. As much as I’m chomping at the bit for Wrath as anyone else, if it’s not working, it’ll be a worse experience than waiting a bit longer. The original thought for Wrath was going to be sometime in mid 2023 anyway, on the 2 year timescale, so technically any time this year is ‘early’.
But that said, people got excited for a new bonus “in the next few weeks”. Plans were made, other plans were put on hold. Blizzard isn’t the only one having to adapt their plans as the situation changes. Personally, it’s not a bother to me. I have 5 level 70s and won’t be levelling another character till they’re all 80, but many friends of mine, and the community as a whole, are chafing at the delay of the XP buff. And now, it’s a slap in the face that Retail WoW is getting the 50% XP bonus announced for Classic, and Classic isn’t.
So now we’re still not in the 8 weeks to launch window. And that’s ok.
But the plans need to adapt. Pull the trigger, launch the XP buff now, with a clear message that this doesn’t indicate 8 weeks to Wrath, and let people get on with the plans they put on hold when you announced the XP buff. I’ll even write the post for you.
Originally we said ‘we expect it to last for at least 6-8 weeks’ with the ending being timed with the release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. However, due to delays in the development process, the release of the next Classic expansion is going to take a bit longer to polish to a level we’re satisfied that you’ll enjoy.
Despite that, we know you’re all eager to start levelling new characters in Burning Crusade Classic, and preparing them for the release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, and so we’re going to enable the Joyous Journeys XP buff during a server maintenance later this week.
This won’t be an indication that the next Classic expansion is ccoming 8 weeks later, but we’ll have more news on that in the next few weeks as the Closed Beta progresses.
Sorry for the delays, and we look forward to seeing you all in Wrath of the Lich King Classic as soon as it’s ready.