And yet, despite that pressure, no one was willing to step up and say, “No, it will be very bad for the future of the game if we release it as it will be a month earlier.”
Someone said, “Okay, let’s release it earlier than planned.”
If you look back to the level of engagement with the alpha and beta forums, that would suggest that already at the beginning of the beta most of the staff that ought to have been fixing things had already been reassigned to some other project, and a mere skeleton crew was holding together BfA for later fixes after the release.
Not sure what posts you’ve been reading, but the bulk of them basically talk to how Blizzard is tanking WoW just so it can drive traffic, expand user logins and sub times, profit from Micro transactions, etc. etc., and how the game is second fiddle to all these concerns.
My single biggest criticism is how over time, the game seemingly has become more and more formulaic in the feature set, and how we experience it. This started in MoP, was added to in WoD, reached peak in Legion, and is now going backward as it’s being refined in BfA.
Yea, we get some new features (IXs, Warfront), but the rest is quite derivative. In the end, though, it makes me very interested in what the next expansion will look like as I expect some of these things will be curtailed and more “revolutionary” new things may be tried.
…that’s just criticism of how the game is being managed. Not “Blizzard is intentionally sabotaging the game”. Huge difference between incompetence and malicious intent.
The bulk of posts say this? No, they don’t. You need to be more discriminating in what you read, because trying to squeeze current subscribers for more time played or more money doesn’t remotely translate as “they are killing the game on purpose”.
I want to love Blizzard because they used to represent a polished product for well over the 20 years I’ve been playing their games. I’m frustrated that the company which used to have “soon” trademarked tossed that business model away.
I dont believe for one moment that that “WoW is being purposefully driven into the ground”.
(Note: yes to some you can roll your eyes all you like…)
What i do think is in the transition to BFA, far more was lost than given, that the beta feedback wasnt listened to enough, that it was released too soon…and to be bluntly honest, recent decisions havent helped.
The backlash and growing unrest over the longer delay to flight.
Classes there were not ready.
Feedback after launch hasnt been followed (the appalling droprates in IE for example…why arent all the pets and mounts on a vendor?)
and
World content is lacking and nowhere near the quality of Legion. Ythisens, they removed fishing quests?? REALLY? I have said this before, but take a look at any map on a daily basis, three quarters of the map is empty…why is there so little world content ?>
WHY are we back to raid or die? Youy maty not like Azchats, but he makes a valid poiint when he saysd
“If you dont raid or do pvp or m plus there is nothing for you”
There was zero wrong with the Legion outer world content and its reward structure…so why was it wiped?
No, I’m just pointing out that you’re wrong. You’re taking people’s basic criticism of the game and somehow bending over backwards to make it mean that people are saying verbatim “Blizzard is intentionally sabotaging the game and want it to fail.” That’s not what people are saying when they criticize Blizzard or the game, they’re pointing out how incompetent they are. Not accusing them of some mass conspiracy (which makes no sense) that Blizzard is intentionally trying to make the most profitable game of all time fail.
I don’t have much of an opinion on BfA as it is right now simply because I can’t play. Would be very nice to get exclusive fullscreen back as an option along with the original UI layout so I could once again accomodate my disabilities and play. Haven’t been able to play since the 8.0 prepatch and all my remaining game time has gone down the drain.
8.1 won’t address all of the concerns, but it will address some of them. Is it enough? No of course not. There’s still a lot to do.
8.1 is a good start, but I will add a caveat: Ion said that he and the team had learned from Legion…and what do we see?
Flight is gated for MONTHS longer than Legion. WHY?’
Why cant we fly were we are now and do a Pathfinder when the new zones come out and we can earn flight there? Why cant those who have Pathfinder 1 fly NOW and we can do Part 2 for the new zones?
What is GAINED by chaining us to the ground for almost a year?
You sold a flight mount as a rep reward Horde side…and it cant fly in the content it was earned in. Theres no consistency, Ythisens.
I mean here I am, the Speaker for the Horde, I am exalted with the Zandalari Empire…everything and everyone in Zuldezar can fly.
It’s like Ythisens just comes in to post nonsense replies on the forum, just to leave immediately and not continue to help with discussion over such topics.
We need COMMUNITY Managers who are actually willing to engage with the community, not just pop up here and there as a joke.
Thank you for this piece of honesty Ythisens. I have avoided posting on the forums for years before recently. I really don’t want to have to deal with the troll pit of uninformed responses, and know-nothing players. I’m certain you feel the same. It’s out of love for WoW that I have started posting again. And my desire to save the sinking ship.
I feel Acti-Blizzard is rudderless from within, and the only feedback they get here is from BFA newbs who have no conception of what a real MMORPG is. How could they when they’ve never been offered one to play? Don’t take my word for it. Just the other day I got this reply.
You see how rotted out from the inside the game has become. You should expect replies like that when you appeal to and coddle the most casual players. But you should also have the good sensibility from the developers at Blizzard to recognize this right away, disregard it and keep the integrity of the game in tact.
By removing all MMORPG elements, progression, and commitment WoW has become an action-arcade game. By pruning and watering-down class design, removing baseline abilities and offering them back as talents, and introducing a thousand QoL features WoW has become a shell of its former self.
Next summer Classic will be a great experience for younger players that have never been offered a real MMORPG to see what it’s all about. And it will be a teachable moment for Acti-Blizzard to watch it succeed and perhaps learn something to apply to future xpacs.
Because that success translates in almost zero profitablity now. Just look at how much Hearthstone rakes in alone, along side Overwatch and HotS lootboxes. There is a reason why StarCraft and Warcraft have been incredibly neglected, there is more money to be found elsewhere. And WoW dipping below 1.7m as of a few months ago it isn’t surprising Activision wants to put efforts elsewhere.
And I’m mainly unhappy because as a Holy Paladin I haven’t had the luxury of a CM making a post about our spec in legit years, because frankly, they don’t care.