Joyous Journeys - "No plan survives contact with the enemy"

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.

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I think most of the ire is less around no XP buff, and more around no comms and retail getting a buff?

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Its going to be Thursday, July 21. Relax, that’s in 2 days.

Because we needed another thread.

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Pretty much. Noone really “expected it” this week, but what we did expect is that it wouldn’t be released for a different version of the game first with no communication.

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Basically. retail…doesn’t really need this.

Unless one truly hates dungeons and never steps 1 foot in them…you can have a life…and level to 60 fast.

retail is lopsided. the 60 is easy…its the damn gear up at 60 lol. that has you go ugh…

but its nice they got it. players happy…cool.

then we get this. would the world end if we got extra weeks of xp buff? I think not. Might get some retailers not thrilled about season 4 to swing on by.

I know some are going yay, more tourists. Tourists are MAU"s…and money lol.

I tried to level a retail toon to experience the Wrath content a while ago. I got to level 50 and thus spat out of Northrend, before I finished Dragonblight (after BT and HF), with no dungeons. They don’t need it.

“We have met the enemy and he is us” -Blizz

I already adapted my plans by canceling my WoW sub.

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I made the same argument for releasing fresh servers now.

My son is trying wow on the f2p to 20 bit. Told him if he gets to 20 and wants to see more I could give the upgrade and 1 month paid.

then work out terms for more sub time. I am sure I can find more chores for him lol.

he was cruising not even serious play. I may have to honor that deal today.

then he can cruise through bfa (fresh start is cart on rails here sadly). Probably will have to arm chair general him on first freeholds. that dungeon is crap for low levels post squish. I know what I am doing…and hate the place.

even got a 50 or 3 to tandem with him if desired when there.

Dude. A Novel for this?

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In cse I didn’t make it clear, my original plan was to take advantage of the XP buff and level alts but I had to adjust my plans by canceling my sub when blizz announced an XP buff for retail but not TBC classic as promised. Is that the sort of plan adjustment you were hoping for OP?

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Slap in the Face!

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Still awaiting a response from Eloreal. Did my canceling my subscription meet your expectacions of “adjusting” my player activity?

Thinking this is a novel shows the sad state of modern reading and attention spans. :rofl:

I’m not hoping players change anything. Never said I was. They’re going to change their plans as required. I’m wanting Blizzard to change its plans.

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Not as sad as people’s ability to detect sarcasm these days.

Because we needed another thread.

tell that to the LFD crowd.

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Didn’t even need to do an XP boost. Crusade/wrath already nerf everything AND they’ll be selling 2 instant level boosts. How much faster does the game really need to be? This is the road that took retail down the toilet in the first place.

Simple communication is the main thing. I think the community would be totally cool with something like “We ran into unforeseen issues that continuously piled up. We’re working on getting the issue resolved. We cannot promise it will be ready in two weeks, but that is our goal at the moment. We will keep you updated.”

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