It is becoming increasingly annoying, particularly for those who like to (or need to) plan things in advance. People may want to take time off work. Guilds want to plan transition timing, etc.
Not sure what the play is here or why they are keeping this so close to the chest. Either we think being coy is buying something or we are running into unexpected issues. In either case, some discussion would be nice.
Cheers.
Yeah we’re all feeling some sort of way. I need to request my vacation time a week in advance, so at least SOME sort of date would be appreciated. I feel like they’re gonna try and stretch out Phase 6 til people get really mad, then give us prepatch and stretch that out til september.
I think it goes back to why they’re releasing the new races with the prepatch; they’re worried about overcrowding
I wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped the prepatch without telling anyone to stagger the new characters and then announced the official release the next day
I don’t mind so much it taking a while to release the expansion date, I just want to start on my belf 
There going to announce a date before launching by a few weeks at least. Saw someone say they gotta ask for vacation a week in advance you should be fine. Personally dont mind it cause ima bit new and wanna max my hunter and got 10 lvls to go lol.
We should’ve had prepatch a few weeks ago. Even if they do stretch out prepatch for over a month, at least give us some new content to mess around with.
Side note: I highly doubt they’re going to give us actual dates. I think they’re just gonna drop it on us unannounced.
Que the comments from people saying what losers people are for taking vacation time for what they want. : )
some people have to put in for time off five weeks in advance, so that’s not enough.
This loser right here is. If adult girls (and guys) walking around a children-targeted Disney park with mouse ears on counts for an accepted social norm for vacation, I don’t really think people can say anything ;p
My man.
Couldn’t agree more.
They haven’t announced any dates yet because they don’t know. Anyone expecting TBC before August/Sept is in for a disappointment.
I think everyone is now convinced that may 18th is prepatch. Way too many things pointing to that date. No way in hell they give us 2.5-4 months of a prepatch so Aug/Sept is terribly wrong.
A date for actual TBC release would be nice tho.
I guess blizzard is going to be okay with the massive sub count drop.
I really want them to stretch out prepatch. But the entire concept of the prepatch being more fun than TBC will likely cause Blizzard to cut it short and go immediately to release probably 3 weeks after prepatch is out.
Yea we don’t care when TBC releases. We just want prepatch like yesterday
Since the pre-patch is the entire CORE of TBC, I don’t want the pre-patch till it is 100% ready.
In your vivid imagination, you are imagining that Blizzard knows the exact dates and is refusing to tell us. And you ask why. Why do you have this fantasy? I don’t know.
Blizzard does NOT have a 100% settled, cast-in-concrete, will-not-change date that players can make their plans around. The can give you an estimate, but that estimate WILL CHANGE. You don’t want that, do you?
As an experienced software developer, I know that software completion dates are very UN-predictable. It’s simply a fact. Any predicted date is likely to change. Look what happened to the SL release!
As an experienced WoW player I know that players tend to ignore reality and demand (and expect) things they want, whether or not they are possible. Blizzard is stuck in the middle – they CANNOT make reality match our expectations.
100% agree I think we are look at a mid year launch slightly after. Everyone thinks May pre patch but it’s not looking hopeful.
The fact we’ve had no news even on pre patch/launch day makes me think this.
Good comment! As someone also experienced in software development, the one thing you never do is give a hard release date too early in the development process and any date is a projected target (soft date) because you never know how many bugs will be found, and bugs are like that loose thread in a rug, when you pull on it the entire thing could easily start unraveling.
But just like any project, the sales and marketing guys are going to promise a date and it’s going to get released whether its ready or not. To paraphrase them: “hey, that’s what patches are for. We’re all geared up to start selling the Illidan plushies and we need to get this out the door. Tell the devs to cancel their vacations and weekends. Bobby K wants his money.”