Call me selfish, but I hope the announcement has nothing to do with consoles, but only because I'd rather get Warcraft news than anything else.
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Blizzard hosting Gamescom press conference on August 5th
- Thread starter Nirolak
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Call me selfish, but I hope the announcement has nothing to do with consoles, but only because I'd rather get Warcraft news than anything else.
The Lamonster
Member
I'd also be fine with a Warcraft IV announcement
(like I said, I'm ignoring real life with these dreams)
Everyone said that about Pandaria, too. And before that, Cata.
Personally, I enjoyed Cata more than the other two. Implementing Old World flying was so damn awesome.
Not that I'ms saying I think it's a D3 expansion, but the PTR doesnt affect such an announcement in any way, considering they have done that exact thing in the past.
Well there is Hearthstone and Overwatch to consoles... And I will be happy only whit Heartstone.
Yeah and unfortunately 6.2 is the last tier of the expansion. They need to reveal that expansion as soon as possible if they don't want to bleed subs and actually get the thing out at a reasonable point (6-8 months after 6.2).
I'd also be fine with a Warcraft IV announcement
(like I said, I'm ignoring real life with these dreams)
Everyone said that about Pandaria, too. And before that, Cata.
Personally, I enjoyed Cata more than the other two. Implementing Old World flying was so damn awesome.
In loose order of preference...
Warcraft IV
WoW expansion
Overwatch Open Beta
Warcraft (I-)III remastered
Diablo III expansion (RoS has been very good)
Everything else
And yeah, everyone might have said it about MoP and Cata, but the proof is in the subs - WoW has NEVER leaked subs like it has during Warlords, and for good reason. The game, right now, is nowhere near the heights of 06-09.
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Not really though, no. At least, not at the current levels. Sure, people bitched and moaned about "kung fu pandas" and not caring about the setting, but actually having good content throughout launch and the patch cycle caused it to end up being quite a well-liked expansion despite Pandarens/Pandaria itself not being huge hits.
Yes, people really did complain about it that much. People always are convinced the most recent expansion has ruined WoW and suddenly remember the one before kindly. I've been watching that same pattern repeat for 10 years.
Would love a new expansion announcement. Gotten really bored with WoD, feeling almost as disinterested as I was in Cata.
Nah, MoP was definitely better than WoD at this stage. A lot of the bitching about MoP was people who didn't play it or played it for a a few weeks at launch and quit because of "Pandaland". It grew into a top notch expansion.
The Lamonster
Member
True. The Pandaria setting was beautiful, but ultimately bland. The pacing and gameplay was ace, though.
Netherscourge
Banned
I'm curious if they're sticking to this $49.99 for Expansions pricing model they introduced with WoD.
...considering WoD was dreadfully bad for $10 extra,
...considering WoD was dreadfully bad for $10 extra,
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Agree to disagree, I guess. I've been watching the pattern for the past 10 years too and it definitely seems worse now than it's ever been. People paid more than ever for an expansion that dissapointed in a number of ways and is ending noticeably content light. It adds a bit of an edge to the standard disgruntled WoW player chorus.
Except now you can just look at the facts and claim, almost totally objectively*, that Warlords is the worst expansion there's been.
Subs have never dropped so drastically before, which means nothing other than unhappy players.
PvP balance has NEVER been worse, with more than 95% of 2.2k+ rated players being on the Alliance faction, with Alliance winning more than 60% of random BGs.
The expansion launched with just one one, with only two more added during its life cycle. TBC, at this point after release, had Kara Maggy Gruuls TK SSC MH and BT, with ZA and SWP still to come.
Just 8 dungeons, with only 4 leveling dungeons. Again, can't even compare this to the likes of TBC & Wrath. I wouldn't mind but Grimrail Depot aside, none of the dungeons are impressive mechanically.
Garrison's removing the MMO from the MMORPG is a bit of a sickener, too... I guess that's a bit more of a subjective opinion, though.
PvP balance has NEVER been worse, with more than 95% of 2.2k+ rated players being on the Alliance faction, with Alliance winning more than 60% of random BGs.
The expansion launched with just one one, with only two more added during its life cycle. TBC, at this point after release, had Kara Maggy Gruuls TK SSC MH and BT, with ZA and SWP still to come.
Just 8 dungeons, with only 4 leveling dungeons. Again, can't even compare this to the likes of TBC & Wrath. I wouldn't mind but Grimrail Depot aside, none of the dungeons are impressive mechanically.
Garrison's removing the MMO from the MMORPG is a bit of a sickener, too... I guess that's a bit more of a subjective opinion, though.
This expansion needs to die, ASAP.
*Oops.
Yea, I agree with this. They can update WoW's graphics engine every expansion, but it's the game mechanics that are feeling dated to me.
After playing Wildstar (also disappointing in many ways), it was difficult to go back to WoW for WoD and not have some of the newer mechanics Wildstar introduced.
Freyjadour
Member
Except that it's true here.
Netherscourge
Banned
I expect much more homogenization with WoW 7.0, so far as Factions are concerned.
The next patch is introducing PvP Merc mode which allows you to play for the opposite faction, when the queue times are insane, to counter population imbalances.
Horde vs. Alliance will seem more and more irrelevant and the "War" in Warcraft will no longer be a War between factions.
It'll be Ally + Horde VS. ____(insert latest threat to Azeroth here)____
The next patch is introducing PvP Merc mode which allows you to play for the opposite faction, when the queue times are insane, to counter population imbalances.
Horde vs. Alliance will seem more and more irrelevant and the "War" in Warcraft will no longer be a War between factions.
It'll be Ally + Horde VS. ____(insert latest threat to Azeroth here)____
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Yeah I mean, it is one thing to just be bored of the current content because it has been around too long (end of WOTLK, for example). It's another to want new content because the existing content is kind of sparse or just, well, not very good.
Eh, it's kind of always been that way though. Efforts to "put the war back in warcraft" are always half-hearted since WoW is always going to be a mainly PvE game with PvP as an optional, separate activity.
Merc mode is pretty much their shitty way of admitting they completely fucked up PvP for WoD but are unwilling to actually make balance changes until 7.0. So that's nice.
Eh, it's kind of always been that way though. Efforts to "put the war back in warcraft" are always half-hearted since WoW is always going to be a mainly PvE game with PvP as an optional, separate activity.
Merc mode is pretty much their shitty way of admitting they completely fucked up PvP for WoD but are unwilling to actually make balance changes until 7.0. So that's nice.
Less likely than Half Life 3 launching tomorrow.
WoW expansion at Gamescom, D3 expansion at Blizzcon.
That's the way it's been going since WC3 anyway. WoW's tried to reinvigorate the factional conflict a few times over the years, but the writing always, always snaps back to "get along or die" before the expansion is out.
That's the way it's been going since WC3 anyway. WoW's tried to reinvigorate the factional conflict a few times over the years, but the writing always, always snaps back to "get along or die" before the expansion is out.
Netherscourge
Banned
They can't help the PvP imbalances though.
They've had imbalanced PvP since the day PvP Battlegrounds launched way back when.
(Talking about Population imbalances, not class imbalances BTW)
It's impossible to get everyone to balance populations when people will play whatever they like or whatever their friends are doing. There is no assertive effort by the community to balance populations so we don't have long queues to do PvP or even LFR/LFD.
I have three predictions for the population balance stuff in WoW's near future:
1. Horde and Alliance will function as a single entity. No more open war. Just "war games" to hone their skills against one another. It's basically happening now with Merc Mode.
2. Same with PvE - we'll be seeing a mixture of Horde and Alliance in LFR/LFD matchmaking, to lower queue times. Merc PvE.
3. Tank Bots/Heal Bots (active AI NPCs.) The #1 cause of long LFD/LFR queues is the lack of Tanks and Healers. I predict Blizzard will start making raids and dungeons that allow for 100% DPS groups, if necessary. Everything will be a DPS race with some maneuvering and debuff removal, like many other MMOs that don't require dedicated healers or dedicated tanks. There will still be options for real Tanks and Healers, but forthe most part, those two class roles will be greatly diminished to promote a more general DPS/Support role for everyone, just to get rid of queue times.
Higher price than any previous expansion, less content than any previous expansion, fewer major updates than any previous expansion, more imbalanced PvP than any previous expansion.
I'd also be fine with a Warcraft IV announcement
(like I said, I'm ignoring real life with these dreams)
Everyone said that about Pandaria, too. And before that, Cata.
Personally, I enjoyed Cata more than the other two. Implementing Old World flying was so damn awesome.
Of course there will be people to who say that the current xpack is the worst ever, that's always the case.
However, I really don't think you can argue that WoD hasn't been a failure. This whole xpack just had 2 patches, tons of planned content got cut and the biggest thing they introduced was Garrisons which is something no one enjoys.
The faster they ditch this xpack the better.
[edit]
In terms of patches, MoP had the first tier, Landfall, second tier, Escalation and then the final tier.
WoD had the first tier, Twitter/selfie cam and the final tier.
WoD started with a pathetically amount of content, almost no content was added in patches and the xpack is now over.
AND IT COST TEN DOLLARS MORE THAN THE OTHER XPACKS
witchedwiz
Member
I don't agree..
normally i'd say sure, but given the pacing of this expansion and their EXPLICIT statement that 6.2 will be the last patch AND they don't want to stagnate content..
if they wait for the blizzcon it's VERY unlikely that they can ship a new expansion by november.. and that would break their tradition of november/december release ultimately..
so either the cat is out of the pocket by this gamescon, or the next expansion will most likely hit at november 2016 with a HUGE discomfort from user, since it would mean a 1 year and 3 months of hellfire citadel...
HarryDemeanor
Member
If they don't announce a new WoW expansion at Gamescom then they really fucked it up. Waiting until BlizzCon to announce it would be such a huge mistake and I hope they know that. WoD was a complete mess and the $10 increase on the price tag makes it look even worse.
witchedwiz
Member
lol? many mmo????
guild wars 2 is the only one that comes to mind, and i beg to differ, but the pve of guild wars 2 is the biggest mess in needs of an apologetic approach by the dev i've seen ever...
guild wars 2 was a fine game, until you realized that:
world pvp --> zerg train... shit, unless you want to just blow some steam..
events --> fan zerg train for pve rewards..
dungeon --> "zomg why the fuck is that mob targeting me? i stopped dps, i, i" bleeds to death while mauled by an enemy he was not attacking anymore..
seriously, a game that has THIS description of aggo mechanics cannot by any mean define itself as pve-oriented or even pve-friendly:
Slackerish
Member
I don't agree..
normally i'd say sure, but given the pacing of this expansion and their EXPLICIT statement that 6.2 will be the last patch AND they don't want to stagnate content..
if they wait for the blizzcon it's VERY unlikely that they can ship a new expansion by november.. and that would break their tradition of november/december release ultimately..
so either the cat is out of the pocket by this gamescon, or the next expansion will most likely hit at november 2016 with a HUGE discomfort from user, since it would mean a 1 year and 3 months of hellfire citadel...
Didn't they say 6.2 was the last raid patch? MoP came out on 9/25.
If they want the new expansion to come out this year, they need to start beta PTR like today. This is an older post, but most expansion beta's have been 4+ months long.
The Warcraft movie comes out next June. Could see them announcing next expansion at BlizzCon, start beta and release it near the movie.
This
I've just recently played through Diablo 3 on PS4 multiplayer locally and having a blast. I would love a new expansion with a new Act and Class.
I want to believe
WoW's biggest issue is the massive swings they take the developers take now.
"Mists has too many dailies, let's launch the next expansion with NONE!"
Mists was whatever, but it gave reasons to actually keep playing the damn thing. The new zones content wise were neat, and the raids were good. WoD doesn't have any of this going for it. There was 1 content patch, and from most accounts the zone added was shit.
Garrisons may be part of the problem, but people are putting way too much on it being the problem. The same expansion that removed daily quests also removed valor points, so there's no reason to do daily dungeons either. You don't give people anything to do, people stop logging in. People stop logging in, their friends get lonely/bored and do the same, repeat til they're losing people in droves(which is what's happened here).
I mean, you don't suddenly get that many people again, and lose that large of a % of them without something being very very wrong. Warlords being only one content patch reeks of a massive panic button being pressed somewhere.
King Gilga
Member
It's never been even remotely close to this unbalanced before though, they've completely fucked it over with the new racials. It's gone from like 55/45 in hordes favor to like 30/70 for alliance in bgs, and all the arena community is ally.
Sure, but as an example, the end game of the base game had a lot of issues, but the experience of playing the game itself was just very favorable to a lot of the competition out there that mistakes were a lot easier to excuse.
These days they have to run a very high quality service both with the initial launch and the update structure or they get quick and massive subscriber loss.
Splitting the team into multiple separate teams working on expansion in tandem also seems to have content starved said expansions.
BossDarkseid
Member
I swear they promised WoD would herald more consistent patches than ever before....
I want LoV release (unless I've missed it) ....
D3 xpac....but at the same time while I'll never completely fall out of love with d3 I don't know if another act and 10 more levels and insane scaling. If Metzen gets his way and does some soul realm stuff with Leah then a dreamweaver y sort of class could be awesome.
I want LoV release (unless I've missed it) ....
D3 xpac....but at the same time while I'll never completely fall out of love with d3 I don't know if another act and 10 more levels and insane scaling. If Metzen gets his way and does some soul realm stuff with Leah then a dreamweaver y sort of class could be awesome.
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
I actually lol'd.
I think overall the biggest story of the expansion is how many changes they made to the formula, and how far the game has fallen because of it.
Completely revamp/destruction of tradeskills.
Complete removal of any reason to run dungeons/raid on a day to day basis.
Complete removal of dailies, and therefore the idea of reputations to raise.
You basically look at that, and realize they removed repeatable content in every single facet of the game. That's a massive no-no when it comes to MMO development, and I can't imagine who thought it was a good idea. It almost seemed to me that this whole expansion's point was to see how far they could push things before it breaks.
At this point that expansion better be announced soon and beta out by Blizzcon, or they're in actual trouble with the game.
Diablo 3 I still wonder what they can do with it, as they're just shoving new things on a bad system(skill system).
On a more positive note, really hoping we get more concrete stuff about Overwatch in terms of dates. The vids they've released of it look great so far.
Matrix XII
Member
I don't see a WoW expansion revealed until Blizzcon.
I'm hoping that we will see some good information and news regarding Overwatch. Starting to get pretty excited for it.
I'm hoping that we will see some good information and news regarding Overwatch. Starting to get pretty excited for it.
99% sure it was playable.
It was playable at Blizzcon, yes.
Dreathlock
Member
I wonder how high the chances are for a ps4 overwatch release. And are there any numbers for diablo3 pc vs console activity?
