Seems right on time to me.
God, I hate this community sometimes. Just wait and see before you jump to conclusions.
Player concerns on whether Dragonflight is coming too early stem from two things in my personal view.1. As has been noted and clearly set out in this article - the available timeframe for Alpha/Beta Testing. 2. And this for me is my personal biggest concern and I doubt I'm alone - is the Communications surrounding Dragonflight. The announcement "event" as it were and the following interviews/posts etc. all spoke to a game that at that time...could really only really be described as a "skeleton" of a game. Very little in-depth detail was given about the new systems, quests, story, gameplay etc. It all felt like what we were being shown really was the "bare bones" of the game.My initial reaction to the announcement with so little detail on offer was "Well this is AGES away yet." But now we're told that it will be released by the end of the year. It could be as has been noted in this article that the quests/story etc. are all under encryption and won't be tested or shown (which in my personal view is the best decision blizz could ever make provided they actually have their Devs test it themselves for obvious progression blocking bugs), and as such the expansion is much further along in development than they have let on so far.But when you look at the talent tree system and see that effectively all Blizz have done is converted all our class spell books into Talent trees with no real re-working/re-designs of abilities (that we know of yet) and no new abilities (granted some classes already have too many but others really could do with 1 or 2 new abilities) - it all adds to the worry that Blizz is rushing this expansion.I personally feel Blizzard need to come clean and tell us just how long they've been working on this. HAVE they been working on this since and during the long long patch of 9.1? Because if they have...then maybe...just maybe Blizzard have played a blinder and have got an expansion that's already very polished. But...it's hard to shake Blizz's track record on these things isn't it? Hence my and other player's doubts of just how far along this Expansion really is. We'll find out when Alpha and Beta goes live!
1. They wanted to do 'smaller' expeansions with shorter patch cycles since the Lich King/Cataclysm era, if I recall correctly.Dragonflight might very well be another attempt at that. Everything we have seen of this expansion so far qualifies for a 'baaaaare minimum of what one can get away with' approach, from the number of new zones, systems, new race/class/specs, missing new features etc.. Just the price tag seems to sharply contrast that.2. None of the announced features are actually new.They are enhancements to or fusions of existing systems with a thin layer of fresh paint on top to cover the cracks. The UI revamp might be the most groundbreaking feature of this expansion, yet the conceptual 'prototypes' have been in use and therefore live testing by millions of players for many years.3. It's not just the length of testing that makes or breaks a successful beta, but also how many people are working fixing stuff during this time.For example, Fiasco III had a beta that felt like it ran forever and quickly identified many glaring flaws and mistakes in the game's design – none of which were fixed before launch because Blizzard decided to focus on the implementation of the ill-fated auction house instead.
You can't get enough of people. If not too long, then too short... Blizzard should do their own thing and not listen to the community.
Are we forgetting that Shadowlands also has only two major content patches instead of three? You can only compare it to Cataclysm and WoD. Blizzard insists they did not cut any content so judge them on what they say.
To me the most worrying aspect about this expac is the lack of info regarding endgame content.It's releasing in 6 months and no alpha no beta, only 2 talent trees have been shared with the community so far.Talent trees that have been raising a lots of concerns...8 dungeons but only 4 in m+ (completely crazy decision already illustrating the lack of content in the future patchs) and 1 raid.4 zonesthe lizard class (yeah no...)thats itVery scary :D
I don’t even care, if it released tommorow then good, just get me out of Shadowlands 🤣
Also are the same people who are moaning that they haven’t seen enough to justify it being ready the same people asking Blizzard to show us less before released?
It's not releasing too early no matter when it releases it'll be broken buggy glitchy and have plenty of things wrong with it so it's better to push it out fast so we have new stuff to do new quest new zones new activities a new class new talent system the profession changes and they've proven no matter how much time they have they still release unfinished stuff lol
NO, IT'S NOT! WoW, needs faster content releases! The dev teams are way too slow, they can put unfinished content in patches later!I will not name the other huger sub MMO, but they do not need betas or PTRs they just release content on the 4-month circle and massive content packs! They make massive new zones, quests, raids, dungeons, and class changes without the need of any PTRs!It's good to see Blizzard finally understanding we need that content on LIVE before sites and YouTubers spoil everything and create cookie-cutter builds taking all the good things away!
For any other studio I would say no. But Shadowlands was disastrous and Blizzard has proven for the past 2 expansions now that they can't do things right and consistently ignore player feedback. It feels like they're pushing dragonflight out because SL is the absolute bottom for player retention and engagement, but let's be honest, Blizzard isn't exactly full of skilled, passionate developers.The talent trees we currently have access to look fantastic to me but only 4 zones again? This %^&*!@ed sounding dragon flying? This embarrassing looking dragon race? I'm really not sure what the %^&* to expect or think.