Blizzard Takes a Legion Victory Lap & Hints at Blizzcon Announcement - World of Warcraft Videos - MM

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Blizzard Takes a Legion Victory Lap & Hints at Blizzcon Announcement - World of Warcraft Videos - MMORPG.com

In a new video, World of Warcraft's Ion Hazzikostas takes a "Legion victory lap" by speaking about the year that has passed since Legion launched. He touches on major content updates, regular updates, micro-holidays and so on. At the very end, he hints at what is coming for WoW fans at this year's Blizzcon.

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Geddon95405

Ion is horrible at PR

BillMurphy

I really, really hope the next expansion surprises and is out early next year. I want a reason to come back sooner than November 2018.

borghive49

I really wonder how many players are actually left? They really alienated a lot of their core fans the last several years with all the changes. 

SBFord

I honestly don't think I can stomach another year of Legion, that's for sure. 

BillMurphy

borghive49 said:

I really wonder how many players are actually left? They really alienated a lot of their core fans the last several years with all the changes. 

They actually saw a huge upswing with Legion. Question is how many stayed. Probably still enough to make it the number one MMORPG in the world.

cheyane

Yes I wish to everything the old content was not they way it is currently in WoW, the levelling process is so dreadfully horrible now.

Coolit

Hopefully when all is said and done with the next xpac there's nothing even remotely similar to the free non-legendary legendaries and they have taken a step back concerning the increased rng with titanforging, two systems I wouldn't miss.

jgDuffay

cheyane said:

Yes I wish to everything the old content was not they way it is currently in WoW, the levelling process is so dreadfully horrible now.

Seams like it is supposed to be so boring that your forced to buy a level boost, atleast in the state it is in right now. But there was some talk about making it all level scale?

SBFord

Coolit said:

Hopefully when all is said and done with the next xpac there's nothing even remotely similar to the free non-legendary legendaries and they have taken a step back concerning the increased rng with titanforging, two systems I wouldn't miss.

Sadly they've pretty much said that the things you mention are things they like and would like to see continue in the future.

Alverant

Just make WoW 2 and be done with it.

Tsiya

Seams like it is supposed to be so boring that your forced to buy a level boost, atleast in the state it is in right now. But there was some talk about making it all level scale?

This would be awesome.

Loke666

BillMurphy said:

They actually saw a huge upswing with Legion. Question is how many stayed. Probably still enough to make it the number one MMORPG in the world.

Every Wow expansion have seen a huge upswing at launch so it doesn't really tell us anything one way or another.

It is surely the top MMO in the western world still. Counting China and South Korea it is a bit harder to tell, all the companies count rather oddly and the question is if you mean yearly income, active players, active subs or something else as the factor that makes it the largest in the world.

Alverant said:

Just make WoW 2 and be done with it.

Better to wait a while still. Wow is still making money and if they start on it now they have no clue where the genre is going, for instance could all new RPGs be mainly VR 5 years from now or none of them depending on how popular and good the hardware get. 2025 would be a safer bet and probablt get more people nostalgic into it as well.

cheyane

The most terrible thing I cannot accept is the way they butchered the three spec tree. It was so much better before allowing every player to play how they wanted. It did not matter if it was not optimal it allowed choice. Of all the things they changed two things upset me this and the inability to accept quests that are higher level than I should be trying.

CrazKanuk

BillMurphy said:

I really, really hope the next expansion surprises and is out early next year. I want a reason to come back sooner than November 2018.

Totally agree. I leave after every expac, but inevitably return at some point. I just feel like their cadence isn't fully optimized. I think that a year and a half is PLENTY long enough. That being said, I don't mind the downtime either. Let's me catch up on other games. 

kabitoshin

SBFord said:

I honestly don't think I can stomach another year of Legion, that's for sure. 

I couldn't stomach the last two expansions, it has derailed too far from the game that made me love it.

Forgrimm

Looks like they're working on an MMO-RTS:

"Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced Unity mobile client engineer to work on an unannounced MMO RTS project. The ideal applicant has an unwavering passion for mobile development and solving engineering problems unique to mobile app environments. If you thrive in an environment that values creativity, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, then drop us a line!

Requirements

5+ years of Game Development experience
iOS and/or Android development experience
Experience with Unity
Fluent in C#
Capable of working very closely with artists, designers, and engineers to understand and meet their client needs
Strong understanding of game assets and handling asset version changes
Excellent verbal and written communications skills
Experience with optimizations for mobile platforms
Pluses

Experience with code optimization
Fluency with C++
Avid mobile application user
Strong understanding of 3D graphics and shaders
CS or related degree
Strong data structures, logic, and algorithm skills
Strong debugging skills"

BruceYee

WoW is a lot of people's gateway dru..MMORPG. They start with WoW and when they get done with it move on to other games. I guess WoW does the gaming world a great service by bringing customers in with the "socially acceptable" alternative in a still fairly taboo hobby.

FrodoFragins

BruceYee said:

WoW is a lot of people's gateway dru..MMORPG. They start with WoW and when they get done with it move on to other games. I guess WoW does the gaming world a great service by bringing customers in with the "socially acceptable" alternative in a still fairly taboo hobby.

WOW was the first MMO that didn't have systems that annoyed me (like EQ/UO) or half baked designs like SWG which had no space combat at launch or ways to guarantee you were a jedi.

But WOW does so many different things that it's impossible for clones to reproduce.  So you either settle for less than WOW in games like LOTRO or SWTOR or find a truly different game like EVE.

GeorgeNoX

I just want Legion to end already so we can (hopefully) move on to better pastures, im so burned out on endles AP grind it's not even funny anymore

MrMelGibson

Forgrimm said:

Looks like they're working on an MMO-RTS:

"Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced Unity mobile client engineer to work on an unannounced MMO RTS project. The ideal applicant has an unwavering passion for mobile development and solving engineering problems unique to mobile app environments. If you thrive in an environment that values creativity, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, then drop us a line!

Requirements

5+ years of Game Development experience
iOS and/or Android development experience
Experience with Unity
Fluent in C#
Capable of working very closely with artists, designers, and engineers to understand and meet their client needs
Strong understanding of game assets and handling asset version changes
Excellent verbal and written communications skills
Experience with optimizations for mobile platforms
Pluses

Experience with code optimization
Fluency with C++
Avid mobile application user
Strong understanding of 3D graphics and shaders
CS or related degree
Strong data structures, logic, and algorithm skills
Strong debugging skills"

I suppose it was inevitable that Blizzard would create a mobile game.  There are quite a few really good mobile titles available.  So I'm confident it will most likely a fun game.

simsalabim77

I don't understand the hatred for Legion. It's the best expansion they've done since WoTLK in my eyes. Yes, it's grindy, but I actually have a reason to log in on nights other than raid nights now. Leveling 100-110 was great, the raid content has been challenging, and M+ makes 5 mans meaningful.

I do still have gripes though. Playing an ALT is straight up painful. I feel *so* far behind. There's just so much to do to get caught up. The RNG upgrades on gear is infuriating. "Oh, here have a free +15 ilvls." I absolutely despise legendaries this expansion, and I personally hope legendaries completely disappear from the game in the next x-pac. PVP is, as expected, an unmitigated shitstorm. There are specs that are horribly underrepresented in all aspects of the game, and Blizzard has done absolutely nothing to address it -- reminds me of beta when BM Monks were telling Blizz how bad of shape they were in, and Blizz wrote a guide on how to play BM... for the BM theorycrafters. 

Despite my bitching though, I haven't had this much fun with WoW since Wrath. 

Albatroes

SBFord said:

Coolit said:

Hopefully when all is said and done with the next xpac there's nothing even remotely similar to the free non-legendary legendaries and they have taken a step back concerning the increased rng with titanforging, two systems I wouldn't miss.

Sadly they've pretty much said that the things you mention are things they like and would like to see continue in the future.

Yup even more modes. The mythic+ system is guaranteed and more than likely they'll add mythic+ raids while also doing more time walking raids. Its honestly just cheaper to produce and faster. As long as they have a work around with the titanforge (i.e. using valor points to upgrade the ilvl incase you dont get max titanforge) its bareable. But honestly, bareable shouldn't be something that's tolerated. Games should be something you look forward to log in to, not like a chore that you feel you need to do because you can do it and it just requires your will to do it. The main issue with Legion was that it was so desperate at trying to psychologically manipulate people into staying at least subbed because they'd feel like they were left behind if they didn't. It wasn't about how much you actually did because with the RNG legendaries everyone pretty much had the same amount of chance at getting one regardless of what they did or however much they did of it. Then you had the retardly long time gates coupled with AK levels which honestly meant that hardly anyone could truly pass anyone for long. So it honestly was a super super casual friendly expansion because all you had to do was stay subbed and play maybe 10 hours out of the week to stay within 20-30 ilvls of hardcore players which honestly isn't a huge gap.

acidblood

Loke666 said:

Alverant said:

Just make WoW 2 and be done with it.

Better to wait a while still. Wow is still making money and if they start on it now they have no clue where the genre is going, for instance could all new RPGs be mainly VR 5 years from now or none of them depending on how popular and good the hardware get. 2025 would be a safer bet and probablt get more people nostalgic into it as well.

I'd say it's more likely to be the style of MMO... i.e. at the moment the biggest MMOs (in the west) tend to theme-parks (WoW, FFXIV, GW2), however the sandbox and sand-park styles offer more promise (and less demand on the Devs to constantly produce content), it's just that no one has really cracked it for the mainstream, at least not yet...

With a number of differently styled MMOs (hopefully) launching in next few years it will be interesting to see which ones prove popular (if any), what they do right, and what mistakes they make. At that point Blizzard can look at the market, (hopefully) learn from the mistakes, and (hopefully) launch something that truly moves the MMO market forward (as opposed to just another theme-park with shinier graphics). Well, that's the dream at least.

corrosivechains

BillMurphy said:

borghive49 said:

I really wonder how many players are actually left? They really alienated a lot of their core fans the last several years with all the changes. 

They actually saw a huge upswing with Legion. Question is how many stayed. Probably still enough to make it the number one MMORPG in the world.

no, they saw the same spike that happens at the beginning of every expansion. Subs dropped so low this expansion that they even stopped measuring success based on sub numbers, but on total hours played by those still playing. That right there is a sign that subs dropped even lower than they were in WoD

JeffSpicoli

Legion for me was a awesome expierance but it also held my interest for the shortest amount of time which is odd. For example, dreanor which o dispised I stuck around for maybe 6 months where as I burned out on legion in 4 months but loved the expierance for 3 of 4....Honestly I haven't subbed to wow for 7 or more consecutive months since wrath.