World of Warcraft | All We Hear Are Crickets, Blizzard! What's Up with Legion? | MMORPG

SBFord

World of Warcraft | All We Hear Are Crickets, Blizzard! What's Up with Legion? | MMORPG

It’s been awhile since we wrote about World of Warcraft, not because we wouldn’t like to, but because there is honestly next to nothing new to write about. Don’t misunderstand: There’s nearly always something that can be said about WoW. Right now, however, what people want to know is the one thing that we have heard next to nothing about since Gamescom at the beginning of August: Legion.

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waynejr2

zymurgeist said:

Blizzard's going back their uncommunicative roots. Why tell people anything when they just whine about everything?

People need to relax, take a walk and try  something other than gaming for a long while.

Yaevindusk

They don't want to be in another situation where most of the features they announce don't make it in game.

That said, they currently have the worst content updates in the industry (and their last expansion is pretty much considered to be filler by most, despite their one sentence response saying it wasn't.  Actions, not words).  It's ridiculous to give paying customers on crappy patch with old dungeons, a zone that was supposed to be released in 6.0 and a raid after a 20 month drought of actual patched content (unless you call their self-admitted hotfix 6.1 patch with toys a content patch; expansions that are paid separately are not subscription based patch updates). 

They fix that, then I'll start speaking of it in a positive light again.  Three-four month, meaty patches that are five times what 6.2 was.  Which is pretty much standard with other MMOs at the moment.

NukeGamer

Why do people feel the need to know every single detail of a video game a year before it releases?  And if they don't get all the info they feel they are entitled to they complain never mind once the info is released they complain...

JDis25

NukeGamer said:

Why do people feel the need to know every single detail of a video game a year before it releases?  And if they don't get all the info they feel they are entitled to they complain never mind once the info is released they complain...

It's more like Blizzard isn't even really that excited about it. That's what the silence makes it SEEM like. Who knows what is actually happening over there. And going by gamescom the blizz team looked almost annoyed to be there, like they didn't stand by what they were saying at all.. I don't want to be all "doom and gloom" I want this game to be awesome.

Albatroes

People complain about wow so much because its the only stable game, yet its repeatative as F, thus all the "advice" when blizzard will only pay attention to numbers, not complaints. Heck, people who complained about wow for years helped make the 13M subs blizz had last year.

NukeGamer

JDis25 said:

NukeGamer said:

Why do people feel the need to know every single detail of a video game a year before it releases?  And if they don't get all the info they feel they are entitled to they complain never mind once the info is released they complain...

It's more like Blizzard isn't even really that excited about it. That's what the silence makes it SEEM like. Who knows what is actually happening over there. And going by gamescom the blizz team looked almost annoyed to be there, like they didn't stand by what they were saying at all.. I don't want to be all "doom and gloom" I want this game to be awesome.

Again they are a year out settle down.  In about a month (blizzcon) im sure you will get some more info.  As for gamescon the only reason they said anything was because the entitled snobs kept crying about it.  Yeah if I had to hear entitled snobs who think they need to know every detail about a video game I'm developing I'd look annoyed also. 

mnemic666

Again they are a year out settle down.  In about a month (blizzcon) im sure you will get some more info.  As for gamescon the only reason they said anything was because the entitled snobs kept crying about it.  Yeah if I had to hear entitled snobs who think they need to know every detail about a video game I'm developing I'd look annoyed also. 

So they're a year out? What is the BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT TEAM EVER doing, then? Why did they speak at Gamescom? Because 6.2 was the first and ONLY content patch of WoD, so they had to say something to quell the fears of another year+ without any new content and try to maintain excitement. Entitled snobs? Sorry, but I think WoW fans, especially those paying $15 a month to play, are entitled to know what Blizzard is working on and know that Blizzard is making significant headway on an expansion while they all but abandon the live client. I think they're entitled to know that their money is being spent on something other than Blizzard's other projects.

NukeGamer

mnemic666 said:

Again they are a year out settle down.  In about a month (blizzcon) im sure you will get some more info.  As for gamescon the only reason they said anything was because the entitled snobs kept crying about it.  Yeah if I had to hear entitled snobs who think they need to know every detail about a video game I'm developing I'd look annoyed also. 

So they're a year out? What is the BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT TEAM EVER doing, then? Why did they speak at Gamescom? Because 6.2 was the first and ONLY content patch of WoD, so they had to say something to quell the fears of another year+ without any new content and try to maintain excitement. Entitled snobs? Sorry, but I think WoW fans, especially those paying $15 a month to play, are entitled to know what Blizzard is working on and know that Blizzard is making significant headway on an expansion while they all but abandon the live client. I think they're entitled to know that their money is being spent on something other than Blizzard's other projects.  


And this class is why they looked annoyed at Gamescon.  Thanks for sharing with the class who I was talking about there mnemic.  

SBFord

I never insinuated that I wanted to know everything. What I said, and what the gist of the article was, is that Blizzard has lost momentum and, frankly, the interest of many people. As @mnemic666 said, for $15/month, it would be nice to see snippets of information, a willingness to talk to the community or even a screenshot or two. That's not asking much.

mnemic666

And this class is why they looked annoyed at Gamescon.  Thanks for sharing with the class who I was talking about there mnemic.  

I guess I'm some entitled gamer (who doesn't even play WoW right now due to how much I dislike how Blizzard has basically shat on the game/community over the years) for wanting people who are spending their money on WoW to get valuable/meaningful information about an expansion, especially one that has a lot riding on it after a number of lackluster expansions. Especially one that will be Blizzards 4th attempt to "get expansions out faster" than their usual 10+ months. Especially one that they've said they had the biggest development team ever working on. Especially after an expansion that featured less post-launch content and most previous expansions. Screw me for advocating for folks who are spending money on the game and have largely funded Blizzard for the past decade. I must be strange for wanting Blizzard to actually deliver some meaningful content/information in a timely manner for the people who are paying them.

NukeGamer

http://www.wowhead.com/legion

  Id love to see another game that has an xpac coming out that gives you more info this early on. 

SBFord

NukeGamer said:

http://www.wowhead.com/legion

  Id love to see another game that has an xpac coming out that gives you more info this early on. 

All, or most, of that information @NukeGamer, is what was handed out at and during Gamescom. There have no meaningful updates to it since.

NukeGamer

Just for an example Swtor Kotfe comes out in a month here is all the info we have on that:

http://dulfy.net/2015/06/15/swtor-knights-of-fallen-empire-official-expansion-info/

Now compare that to the link above about Legion.  

I play both of these games the info Blizzard puts out about legion far exceeds any other mmos xpac info.  

unfilteredJW

Why would you expect info before Blizzcon?

NukeGamer

SBFord said:

NukeGamer said:

http://www.wowhead.com/legion

  Id love to see another game that has an xpac coming out that gives you more info this early on. 

All, or most, of that information @NukeGamer, is what was handed out at and during Gamescom. There have no meaningful updates to it since.

@SBFord  That was less than two months ago?  What info do you expect them to release before Blizzcon?  Hey if Blizzcon was 6 months away I could understand the arguement but it's not it's just over a month away. Sorry I think those asking for a ton of info a month before Blizzcon a year before release are not being reasonable and just jumping on the bash Blizzard bandwagon.  Hey just my opinion though...

SBFord

Clearly, @NukeGamer, you are missing the point of the article: I don't want to know game systems or heavy information about Legion. What I find mysterious is why Blizzard has chosen to lose the momentum they gained during Gamescom -- keeping people interested and engaged in the excitement of a new expansion. Are concept art shots or historical information about the Demon Hunters or more artifact weapon reveals too much? I think not.

NukeGamer

justinsalesart said:

Why would you expect info before Blizzcon?

That's what I'm trying to figure out also...

Kothoses

Or They plan on announcing pre-orders at Blizzcon and want to drop a tonne of info when it will actually have an impact on their bottom line.

Also that whole talk of the "BIGGEST TEAM EVAR" wont show any results for atleast a year or two, thats how development works.

Basically if I was the marketing team there I would say "Ok, so september and early october have a lot of things going off and if we wait until november, there wont be anyone else with big news to distract people, so lets go all in then".

Face it, for all the talk of "communities" in games, the sad truth is gamers are transitory locusts for the most part these days, hopping to which ever tree has the nicest looking fruit, maybe Blizz just want to wait until they dont have to compete with a half a dozen other games expansions/conversions for players time and attention.


Also, question, who was the bright light that decided a HTML Based comment system was better than a WYSIWYG one?

Purutzil

NukeGamer said:

Just for an example Swtor Kotfe comes out in a month here is all the info we have on that:

http://dulfy.net/2015/06/15/swtor-knights-of-fallen-empire-official-expansion-info/

Now compare that to the link above about Legion.  

I play both of these games the info Blizzard puts out about legion far exceeds any other mmos xpac info.  

You know... when someone is paying for something and lacks content they have a right to know stuff. SWTOR =/= Every other MMo in terms of giving details of an expansion. Plenty of games teased a lot more about expansions. Legion info is far from enough to state much about the game outside the bare minimum in an effort to build hype without giving much as far as substance goes. When your game is dropping nearly half of its subscribers in under 6 monthes time, people expect info, and all legion did is tease very little being very vague and attempting to push hype out.

NukeGamer

SBFord said:

Clearly, @NukeGamer, you are missing the point of the article: I don't want to know game systems or heavy information about Legion. What I find mysterious is why Blizzard has chosen to lose the momentum they gained during Gamescom -- keeping people interested and engaged in the excitement of a new expansion. Are concept art shots or historical information about the Demon Hunters or more artifact weapon reveals too much? I think not.

@SBFord ;

i guess we can agree to disagree.  As I said early I believe the only reason they released any info at gamescon was to cater to those who are now asking for even more info before Blizzcon.  I'll continue to play Swtor get ready for Kotfe and worry about the Legion info when they release it at Blizzcon .

cerulean2012

I think they announced it to slow/stop the exiting players. Now I believe they are reworking it to remove things that the fans hated (garrisons/shipyard, etc.) and maybe put some things back in that people liked. If not then 6 months after legion we could see pops down to 1 million or less.

Loke666

zymurgeist said:

Blizzard's going back their uncommunicative roots. Why tell people anything when they just whine about everything?

I think the problem is more that they need to get the ideas actually working before telling us about them. If they do talk about features and then scratch them before the expansion launches we would never hear the end of it.

But it seems to me that Blizzard panicked due to the last years rather steep decrease in subs and started to talk about the expansion way too early. It might have been a mistake, but then again, maybe it did slow things down, hard to say.

SBFord

Honestly, they have to be more feature-complete for Legion than they are saying. I know they've said, "it's in development" or "we're not sure" and I truly hope that's not the case. If Warlords goes on another, say, 10 months until the movie releases, it will be something from which the game will never recover.

But once again: I haven't cared much about finding out about the features and systems since Gamescom. I just want to know they're there and hearing the pleading of a community that is discouraged. Little things would go a long, long way.

I'm betting on January - March for beta and release in late March, early April. Later than that would be a huge mistake.

jesteralways

As i wrote on one of the previous articles, if they release later than end of this year, they will again back down from an announcement, they said with warlord of draenor we would see yearly expansion release, they will back away from that statement. They released info on Legion just to stop bleeding sub but then they went almost silent, they did mention a few more changes regarding druids different animal from graphical upgrade but they did not reveal anything more that would keep the sub stable. If i have to guess, i would say they are going for soft reset of WoW, they are trying to go back to the root, they are going to make WoW a little bit more niche by allowing the sub to drop more at which point only the die hard fans of the warcraft series remain. With them they can do anything, they can change the game however they want to suit their vision for the game. Well we will see, current content surely won't keep the sub number stable and majority is not going to stay subbed until may 2016.

mnemic666

Also that whole talk of the "BIGGEST TEAM EVAR" wont show any results for atleast a year or two, thats how development works.

They were brought on almost 2 years ago, getting them trained was one of the excuses for why WoD took so long to put out. So by now they should all be up to speed and chugging along, the whole, "They need to get integrated and familiar!" excuse was already used years ago, it doesn't fly anymore.

As i wrote on one of the previous articles, if they release later than end of this year, they will again back down from an announcement, they said with warlord of draenor we would see yearly expansion release, they will back away from that statement.

They already confirmed it won't release this year, we'll only see beta this year.