do you have sauce for that? Especially since, you know, they don't even have all of the updated specs in the game and are still doing pretty significant changes based on early testing.
Now I am getting worried after reading this article...
I don't think worry is the right word. We know for a fact that many things were cut out of Warlords and, while I actually believe that Legion will make its target date, I wonder how many features will be cut to make it.
Like what? What was a promised feature that is currently not in the Alpha and you feel could be cut?
Oh, all of the promised features are currently in the Alpha?
Bad article based on nothing. Yeah, probably a slow news day and I guess they figure they can get people commenting or something if they do a negative WoW article.
We may never know since they got burned badly in Warlords by promising what they didn't deliver. Rather than being "out there", they are taking a different, and very silent, approach by not speaking of anything.
Cut from Warlords:
Garrisons in different locations throughout Draenor Customizable garrisons Alliance and Horde capital cities that were exchanged for Ashran bases "Relics" like scabbards, quivers, etc. that have obviously morphed into artifacts kind of Ogre continent, Faralon (sp?)
This is to name a few. Go back and watch the presentations from Blizzcon 2013 if you're interested.
I love WoW and am a subscriber and an alpha tester. I want Legion to succeed and this is in no way a negative article, but one that asks for realistic thinking. There is a lot of potential here but so many huge changes that affect every single game system that need copious amounts of testing and it all seems a daunting task to complete in the allotted time frame.
It's like you said - it isn't a matter of if they'll make it. It's coming out September at the latest, no matter how incomplete/buggy it is. It's just how much they've overpromised and underdelivered on that's the question.
And that's sad, because the Blizzard that produced amazing games that blew my mind would never release something until it was ready. This new Blizzard makes sure a box hits in time for Christmas without fail, even if it's something that the Blizzard of Old wouldn't even release into Beta testing.
I don't even care anymore. they've milked the franchise for three expansions (Deathwing, Pandas, and an alternate universe) and now the expansion I wanted after WOTLK is no longer of interest. After WOTLK, the biggest unfinished plot thread unfinished from WC3 was the Burning Legion. Luckily for us, the Burning Legion ignored us when we were most vulnerable.
They basically made us pay for revamping/updating the two continents with Cataclysm as the bandaid reason. How much time was spent updating old content rather than moving the story forward? Pandaria didn't deserve to be the focus of an expansion, it would be like making an expansion built around the Worgen.
I already pre-ordered Legion, since I think it looks pretty cool. This coming from a guy who skipped all of WoD. I'm not gonna get overhyped, because I've seen the kind of mistakes they are capable of (Garrison, Ugh.). But whatever, I like the feature list of Legion and I wanna be there when it launches.
Blizzard and WoW can fail. WoW has lost more than half of it's player base already. So it is definitely a valid question. Saying that I don't think they will, but I also don' t think the new expansion will be any better than the last few. As long as 5 mill or so players buy the expansion anyway I doubt they will put much more effort in.
I'm pretty sure it won't matter what is cut and what is not.
Also - consider the streamers have been playing legion for quite some time, not the full xpac but still enough that at this point its just like " hey legion is launching" meh who cares already watched enough stream and played enough wow - feel like I played legion already and I'm already tire of it.
Well.... I wouldn't be so sure about those huge amount of resubs. Blizzard raped all hopes with the WoD... thing. They totally lost my attention (I've played 10 years, day by day, I never had longer break than 1-2 weeks for my vacations - I stopped in the middle of WoD). The same claim my friends who have found their new games already. I'm afraid it's too late, at least for us. But HF for you, fellow brothers.
I've had probably 10 guildies return to the game over the past month, and they're all having fun. Pretty optimistic here.
Lose some subs but a ton will sign up for Legion. WoW has other probs like bots/cheaters plaguing the pvp system to its core. The ladders are a joke because of it.
I guess the 7 people that actually care about pvp in WoW are up in arms? :P
@Suzie Ford, I generally like and appreciate your articles. This one strikes me as a slow news week? It's Blizzard...they have more cash and resources than the Saudi Arabians. That is an over-exaggeration obviously however, my point is; If Blizz want's it to happen, it will.
I agree. Must be a slow week
I actually think this expansion will be the one that really illustrates the decline in interest. The last brought in many players who rapidly dropped out again. I was one of them. This time, I doubt I'll purchase the expansion at all. I've moved on.
WOW had a wonderful moment in the sun; much longer than most. It became part of popular culture and made computer gaming accessible to the masses but it is in its twilight.
A couple things that stood out for me the last expansion was the grinding necessary to move forward and how short the new content lasted.
The other big standout for me was the tone of some of the developers and how they spoke to the community. Previously, there was always a friendly dialog with the player base. The tone has changed particularly when responding to players' concerns over class changes and balancing.
On the one hand, we all like to bitch every time we perceive a potential "nerf." On the other hand, we are paying customers so it isn't unreasonable to expect to have a dialog with those who are creating the content we are paying for. The comments from some were "get over it. It is your turn to be the bottom of the dps charts.." (sic)
Well thanks, I'll just move on....Sorry to be a bother.. I'll play something else
@Suzie Ford, I generally like and appreciate your articles. This one strikes me as a slow news week? It's Blizzard...they have more cash and resources than the Saudi Arabians. That is an over-exaggeration obviously however, my point is; If Blizz want's it to happen, it will.
True. And the game is in Alpha , complaining about unfinished sections seems like just an excuse to fill in gaps for an article. With their huge team of people I wouldn't be surprised if they go into beta with most things finished in 3-4 months.
@SBFord I don't disagree with the premise of your article, but the question of "will Blizzard make it?" is a little (more than) out of place; I think even you know that, though. Of course Blizzard will make it, that's not even a reasonable question to ask.
Regardless of what is cut from the game, it will still sell tons of copies and prop back up the population (as WoW expansions always do). It's an interesting question, though, "what will be cut?"
I just think that point is kind of lost with the title.
Is the game even worth coming back to? I left after the release of the Thunder King in Mysts of Pandaria and haven't looked back since due to Final Fantasy XIV feeling like it's getting more love than WoW with content. Even that game I ended up leaving because of some aggravating issues with housing and inventory management problems.
Perhaps I have misread it, but doesn't "Will Blizzard Make it" simply refer to the time frame and proposed release date, not will they finish the project. Unless I am mistaken (which would be par for the course) I don't understand these comments.
Perhaps I have misread it, but doesn't "Will Blizzard Make it" simply refer to the time frame and proposed release date, not will they finish the project. Unless I am mistaken (which would be par for the course) I don't understand these comments.
Probably because the majority of the people commenting didn't actually read the article and are just knee-jerk reacting to the title. The question she is presenting really is about the timetable for the expanstion release, and not at all "whether or not WoW will survive".
The new build your playing now in the alpha probabely is servel months old. They are never releasing what they have just worked on. What they do need to worry about is if they release at september.... They will lose even more of their player base. But hey Metzen said early summer.
This article makes me wonder if Blizzard is aiming for more detail and smaller zones? I dont care about how the world looks.. no matter what Blizzard does itll still be a cartoonish game. So no big changes are expected.
The catalog quests are nothing new. I just hope they put a massive stopper on daily quests and focus more on the story line and dungeons... WoD was so disappointing I quit for a year before coming back in late December and the only reason I came back was my friends begged me to tank for them. (guess things are not changing much in wow)
@Suzie Ford, I generally like and appreciate your articles. This one strikes me as a slow news week? It's Blizzard...they have more cash and resources than the Saudi Arabians. That is an over-exaggeration obviously however, my point is; If Blizz want's it to happen, it will.
True. And the game is in Alpha , complaining about unfinished sections seems like just an excuse to fill in gaps for an article. With their huge team of people I wouldn't be surprised if they go into beta with most things finished in 3-4 months.
Would agree, but the same exact words were used in WoD beta, "it will be fine, were still in beta, early day still", then it launched and all the complaints made about bad mechanics, classes and so on in beta where still in the game, on top of this content missing. Then the complete down hill spiral of bliz not even trying to resolve the issues is most likly the final piece planting the worries and doubts, so think its fair to be worried. Alot people like WoW and wish to go back an enjoy it, but feel WoD has made so many hesitant even people who have supported from day 1
You must be very delusional if you expect Legion to be on the BC/WOTLK quality level.
CATA and MOP were barely mediocre, while WoD was just bad.
If you think Blizzard can pick up their game, think again. The newer MMOs are way better, and people know that. Hard to justify paying a Sub for an MMO, which is so terribly managed by a greedy company. And the millions that are leaving the game are making a huge impact on Blizzard's Revenue, the game quality can only go downhill. Though one must ask themself, how much lower can they even go anymore?
Blizzard will do their usual thing, and they will release it when its ready,
This used to be how Blizzard operated; release a finished, bug free game/expansion - past tense. The last expansion had a drop dead date - announced to investors months previous - and it made the date with announced features cut and bugs.
Investors were given a date for this expansion almost before it was underway. I actually have a suspicion that having to introduce flying, clearly not intended, diverted resources away from the expansion.
So not the usual thing again. Something will release but how much and how well tested is a different question.
I have a healthy sceptism for numbers produced by the likes of Superdata but if their "estimates" for 2015 are "right-ish" then, because results for the first 9 months have been published, WoW had a bad Q4. The drop we all expected in Q3 happened but the Q3 numbers simply didn't show it - inertia in people cancelling subs (3 and 6 month packages etc. - subs now c. 3M, L1 quarterly revenue > WoW). When they announced they would no longer be releasing sub numbers management would have the numbers.
Do things like sub numbers matter at all?
WoW is no different from other games - the now cancelled Warhammer for example. The developers waxed lyrical about the many great ideas they had but couldn't talk about until after they had presented them to senior management; since nothing happened we must assume the ideas didn't get the go-ahead. WoW will be no different. Earnings and earnings potential will factor into decisions. And one of the biggest costs is how many people you have working on it.
To tell the truth,i will play Legion,i allready purchased it .I know ill play it for few months and then ill stop,and come back for few months after few months ..... .Anyway i feel that im not geting enough content for my money !We need to put blizzard to the wall,and make them release new wow(wow2,some kind of interesting game in the wold of wow).Dont have problem with the sub,actualy i do prefer to play sub games coz its way cheeper than the f2p stuff.
I'm sure Legion will come out, be it delayed or not, and I am sure many will come back to play it (myself included). Then after a month or three, people will again leave...cycle of WoW/life
Now I am getting worried after reading this article...
I don't think worry is the right word. We know for a fact that many things were cut out of Warlords and, while I actually believe that Legion will make its target date, I wonder how many features will be cut to make it.
I think if you would have written more on that exact topic it would have been a better received article. My comments were in no way designed to be a 'shot' at you, I just feel that the topic was a moot point. But the highlighted sentence above, now there is some meat.
As you pointed out, they (Blizz) already did it in one expansion, how bad will the cuts be on this one? Or will they throw the appropriate resources at it to make it work? Or will they do the right thing and delay it until they get all features in and correct?
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Blizzard is known for one thing in spades... promising one thing and delivering another. They will release the game when they said they will... what you won't get is about half of what they said that they would do. This is how they meet their deadlines.
And as for all you alpha and beta testers... you will already have played the preponderance of the game well before it has released, so in essence, whether the game is finished or not on X day for the rest of us is moot. You've already spoiled your experience and will be halfway to the boredom caucus by the time the game is released.
You could all sing in unison that artifacts are stupid and that you don't want anything to do with them and you would still see artifacts in the final release because they are determined to make it happen. They will then go on and do a post-mortem on how artifacts didn't work out like they thought it would and apologize to everyone and then say they've learned their lesson. How many expansions have we seen this repeated? Legion will be more of the same. Poorly implemented ideas and some downright bad ideas all in the name of making it appear as though they had an idea for an expansion when it really could have been put out in a patch.
One has to really question where that $65 dollars is going... because for that price, you should be getting all of vanilla WoW, not some patch content. This is why WoW is killing itself.
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do you have sauce for that? Especially since, you know, they don't even have all of the updated specs in the game and are still doing pretty significant changes based on early testing.
It's like you said - it isn't a matter of if they'll make it. It's coming out September at the latest, no matter how incomplete/buggy it is. It's just how much they've overpromised and underdelivered on that's the question.
And that's sad, because the Blizzard that produced amazing games that blew my mind would never release something until it was ready. This new Blizzard makes sure a box hits in time for Christmas without fail, even if it's something that the Blizzard of Old wouldn't even release into Beta testing.
They basically made us pay for revamping/updating the two continents with Cataclysm as the bandaid reason. How much time was spent updating old content rather than moving the story forward? Pandaria didn't deserve to be the focus of an expansion, it would be like making an expansion built around the Worgen.
The less said about WoD the better.
Also - consider the streamers have been playing legion for quite some time, not the full xpac but still enough that at this point its just like " hey legion is launching" meh who cares already watched enough stream and played enough wow - feel like I played legion already and I'm already tire of it.
I've had probably 10 guildies return to the game over the past month, and they're all having fun. Pretty optimistic here.
I guess the 7 people that actually care about pvp in WoW are up in arms? :P
I agree. Must be a slow week
I actually think this expansion will be the one that really illustrates the decline in interest. The last brought in many players who rapidly dropped out again. I was one of them. This time, I doubt I'll purchase the expansion at all. I've moved on.
WOW had a wonderful moment in the sun; much longer than most. It became part of popular culture and made computer gaming accessible to the masses but it is in its twilight.
A couple things that stood out for me the last expansion was the grinding necessary to move forward and how short the new content lasted.
The other big standout for me was the tone of some of the developers and how they spoke to the community. Previously, there was always a friendly dialog with the player base. The tone has changed particularly when responding to players' concerns over class changes and balancing.
On the one hand, we all like to bitch every time we perceive a potential "nerf." On the other hand, we are paying customers so it isn't unreasonable to expect to have a dialog with those who are creating the content we are paying for. The comments from some were "get over it. It is your turn to be the bottom of the dps charts.." (sic)
Well thanks, I'll just move on....Sorry to be a bother.. I'll play something else
Former Warlock...
Seaspite
Playing ESO on my X-Box
True. And the game is in Alpha , complaining about unfinished sections seems like just an excuse to fill in gaps for an article. With their huge team of people I wouldn't be surprised if they go into beta with most things finished in 3-4 months.
Regardless of what is cut from the game, it will still sell tons of copies and prop back up the population (as WoW expansions always do). It's an interesting question, though, "what will be cut?"
I just think that point is kind of lost with the title.
Probably because the majority of the people commenting didn't actually read the article and are just knee-jerk reacting to the title. The question she is presenting really is about the timetable for the expanstion release, and not at all "whether or not WoW will survive".
People are dumb - welcome to the internet.
The catalog quests are nothing new. I just hope they put a massive stopper on daily quests and focus more on the story line and dungeons... WoD was so disappointing I quit for a year before coming back in late December and the only reason I came back was my friends begged me to tank for them. (guess things are not changing much in wow)
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
CATA and MOP were barely mediocre, while WoD was just bad.
If you think Blizzard can pick up their game, think again. The newer MMOs are way better, and people know that. Hard to justify paying a Sub for an MMO, which is so terribly managed by a greedy company. And the millions that are leaving the game are making a huge impact on Blizzard's Revenue, the game quality can only go downhill. Though one must ask themself, how much lower can they even go anymore?
This used to be how Blizzard operated; release a finished, bug free game/expansion - past tense. The last expansion had a drop dead date - announced to investors months previous - and it made the date with announced features cut and bugs.
Investors were given a date for this expansion almost before it was underway. I actually have a suspicion that having to introduce flying, clearly not intended, diverted resources away from the expansion.
So not the usual thing again. Something will release but how much and how well tested is a different question.
I have a healthy sceptism for numbers produced by the likes of Superdata but if their "estimates" for 2015 are "right-ish" then, because results for the first 9 months have been published, WoW had a bad Q4. The drop we all expected in Q3 happened but the Q3 numbers simply didn't show it - inertia in people cancelling subs (3 and 6 month packages etc. - subs now c. 3M, L1 quarterly revenue > WoW). When they announced they would no longer be releasing sub numbers management would have the numbers.
Do things like sub numbers matter at all?
WoW is no different from other games - the now cancelled Warhammer for example. The developers waxed lyrical about the many great ideas they had but couldn't talk about until after they had presented them to senior management; since nothing happened we must assume the ideas didn't get the go-ahead. WoW will be no different. Earnings and earnings potential will factor into decisions. And one of the biggest costs is how many people you have working on it.
As you pointed out, they (Blizz) already did it in one expansion, how bad will the cuts be on this one? Or will they throw the appropriate resources at it to make it work? Or will they do the right thing and delay it until they get all features in and correct?
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
And as for all you alpha and beta testers... you will already have played the preponderance of the game well before it has released, so in essence, whether the game is finished or not on X day for the rest of us is moot. You've already spoiled your experience and will be halfway to the boredom caucus by the time the game is released.
You could all sing in unison that artifacts are stupid and that you don't want anything to do with them and you would still see artifacts in the final release because they are determined to make it happen. They will then go on and do a post-mortem on how artifacts didn't work out like they thought it would and apologize to everyone and then say they've learned their lesson. How many expansions have we seen this repeated? Legion will be more of the same. Poorly implemented ideas and some downright bad ideas all in the name of making it appear as though they had an idea for an expansion when it really could have been put out in a patch.
One has to really question where that $65 dollars is going... because for that price, you should be getting all of vanilla WoW, not some patch content. This is why WoW is killing itself.