...something something, shuffle off this mortal coil...something...<dead> fin.
Oh Blizzard...why do you do this to us?
Pre-Purchase: Game is expected to release on or before 12/20/2014
Time for a long rant. I haven't had one in a while.
Disappoint. SMH. For real, serious, Blizz, WHISKEY! TANGO! FOXTROT!
Now, I'm not going to be the guy that goes all "red shirt guy" and links clips of videos from Blizzcon. Unless I get real bored with this post and just save it and then come back and edit the ever loving hell out of it just to pass my time.
I remember Blizz peoples saying, often, that they were further along in the WoD dev cycle while the players were playing through MoP than they were for the MoP dev cycle in the same equivalent time frame as the player base was playing through Cata waiting for MoP. It's a fact. Anyone can look this up in no time at all.
Here.
March fucking tenth!
So at best, if their pre-purchase page is believable, then we have somewhere from twelve to fifteen months of Siege of Orgrimmar to live through. That is a long fucking time. Well, let's compare some shit:
WoW started Nov 23, 2004.
(11 month gap)
BC gets announced at Blizzcon on Oct 28, 2005.
(12 month gap)
BC beta starts Oct 13, 2006
(3 month gap)
BC release Jan 16, 2007
(7 month gap)
Wrath of the Lich King announced at Blizzcon on Aug 3, 2007
(11 month gap)
Wrath beta starts July 17, 2008
(4 month gap)
Wrath release Nov 13, 2008
(9 month gap)
Cata announced at Blizzcon Aug 21, 2009
(10 month gap)
Cata beta starts Jun 30, 2010
(6 month gap)
Cata release Dec 7, 2010
(10 month gap)
MoP announced at Blizzcon Oct 21, 2011
(5 month gap)
MoP beta starts Mar 21, 2012
(6 month gap)
MoP release Sep 25, 2012
(14 month gap)
WoD announced at Blizzcon Nov 8, 2013
(10 to 13 month gap)
Proposed release date of no later than Dec 20, 2014
Well, that's a lot of crap up there.
BC, from announcement to release, 15 months.
Wrath, from announcement to release, 15 months.
Cata, from announcement to release, 16 months.
MoP, from announcement to release, 11 months.
WoD, from announcement to release, 10-13 months.
Assuming, assuming, that their statement on their website of "Fall 2014" actually means the very fucking beginning of Fall, then break out the champagne, they'll beat their MoP cycle by one month. But, something more important, time between raid tiers...
Starting from BC:
Kara/SSC/etc, 1/2007 - 5/2007, 4 months.
Black Temple, 5/2007 - 3/2008, 9 months.
Sunwell, 3/2008 - 11/2008, 8 months.
Naxx/OS/Eye/etc, 11/2008 - 4/2009, 5 months
Ulduar, 4/2009 - 8/2009, 4 months
ToC, 8/2009 - 12/2009, 4 months
Icecrown, 12/2009 - 12/2010, 12 months
BoT/etc, 12/2010 - 6/2011, 6 months
Firelands, 6/2011 - 11/2011, 5 months
DS, 11/2011 - 9/2012, 10 months
MSV/etc, 9/2012 - 3/2013, 6 months
ToT, 3/2013 - 9/2013, 6 months
SoO, 9/2013 - assumed release "Fall 2014", 12-15 months.
SoO will potentially have the longest time spent in that tier than other. Me personally, I had a gap in time away from WoW from Kara to Ulduar, where I picked up a little time raiding in ToC/Icecrown briefly, then another gap from there to BoT, finally getting into WoW raiding again in Firelands, and getting into heroic progression from then on out.
Personally, I absolutely hate being in SoO for this long. I'm already kind of bored with it, but the move to 25-man is keeping things a bit more interesting. I'm ready for the next expansion already. Blizzard spends a very long time in the final raid tier of each expansion, and for obvious reasons, they are creating a crap ton of new worlds and leveling content and dungeons and revamps and all sorts of stuff.
I guess my real beef with Blizz is them saying at Blizzcon that they feel like they are much further in their dev cycle for WoD, time frame wise, than they were along with MoP.
They started the MoP beta when they were only four months into DS, or another way to look at it is at five months from when MoP was accounced. If their statement from Blizzcon was really true, then we should have been in WoD beta sometime around December last year to January this year. We're at six months out from when SoO started, and no beta. We're at only four months from when they announced WoD though. If you look at that, you'd be inclined to think that they may be ahead of schedule. But really, you have to look at time between raid tiers. Time from announcement really doesn't mean a whole lot, because what company is actually working on matters. In this case, SoO was already out for two months before we even heard about the next expansion. So Blizz has had two entire months to pound away at development for WoD.
What does all this feel like? Like way too long being spent in SoO without a beta for WoD. Half a year has gone by and nothing so far.
Sunwell was out in 3/2008, Wrath beta started in 7/2008, a four month gap.
Icecrown was out in 12/2009, Cata beta started in 6/2010, six month gap
DS was out in 11/2011, MoP beta started in 3/2012, four month gap.
We're already tied with Icecrown to Cata gap in time, and there isn't even the tiniest hint of a beta starting. Not a glimmer. Not a tweet. Not some random patch on the PTR that leeks out by mistake. Nothing.
We're going to be in SoO a long time, longer than any other, unless Blizz has been holding onto WoD being uber fucking polished out the ass and we have the shortest beta cycle ever and suddenly WoD just fucking drops on us.
Is that going to happen? I have a better chance of giving birth.
I really hate sounding and being pessimistic of Blizzard. I really do. I love their games. D3, with the revamp to paragon levels and loot and game play scaling, etc, they really know how to make something really good. But I'll be damned if you tease us with what you had at Blizzcon last year, and then don't even give us a ray of anything other than a couple updates showing models for player races and buildings for the Garrisons. You've spent less time creating entire worlds, classes, races, professions. Why are you taking so long now? Why is WoD looking like it's going to take the longest in Blizz history of expansions to create?
Beta durations:
Wrath, 4 months.
Cata, 6 months.
MoP, 6 months.
Even if Blizz starts now, TODAY, if they somehow manage to keep the WoD beta no longer than any of the others, that puts WoD coming out October this year, which means 13 months of SoO. If by some insane miracle they have a Wrath type beta, they can actually keep SoO to just 11 months, with an August release.
Youguys and gals better have something real fuck-all epic coming out, to justify taking so long, or get the lead out and actually produce something real. If PAX comes and goes and there isn't beta happening, I'm gonna feel like anything else, even something as newb friendly as Wildstar might be where I spend my time. Keep me as a customer Blizz, I've been liking it so far, but damn if you aren't making it real difficult to stay.
Beta real soon, or else you are falling further behind than you ever have before, and that is a real bad sign. Blizzard, you are not further along in development for WoD than you were for MoP, or else you are keeping all your cards real close to your chest. And if that's the case, what for? Are you afraid that a WoD beta will eat into D3 profits? Come the fuck on. You start this shit where you think your own franchises compete for customers, and come up with retarded staggering releases for expansions, betas, and all that kind of shit, and I'll start looking elsewhere to spend my money and free time real quick.
You've had more than enough time for a WoD beta to already start. Time to put something out there.
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