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WoW Burning Crusade Delayed until January 2007
Wowzer writes "Blizzard today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion for World of Warcraft, is delayed until January 2007. From the article: 'By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.' While disappointing now, what will this mean for the yearly WoW expansions long term? As Blizzard COO Paul Sams revealed plans in August that 'Starting with The Burning Crusade, every year thereafter we plan on bringing out a new expansion set.' 2008, 2009, ad infinitum?"
I knew it, Blizzard has no plans whatsoever to make games anymore. As long as WoW is played, Blizzard are not developers, they are simply maintainers. Don't take this the wrong way though, would you or I honestly continue to make new games if we're constantly making billions on one game?
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
Sure, as long as the players will pay for it. ;-)
From an economic point of view, Blizzard would be crazy not to milk WOW for as much money as possible. And economic points of view are important to corporations
Of course (and half off topic), it would be smart to use some of that money and invest in something new, because at some point people will get tired of WOW.
C - the footgun of programming languages
You must be new to the MMO business model. That's standard practice in the MMO business.
Your claim is sort of like saying that just because you paid for WindowsXP you should have free access to every new piece of software Microsoft releases, because by god, you already PAID for Windows.
If you don't want to pay for the expansion, you can keep playing WoW all you like without the expansion pack. If the subscription fee is an issue for you, you can always play an offline RPG. There's nothing untoward about a company charging for the thousands of hours of dev time and expense to offer (what sounds like) a significant expansion, though.
Rock is dead. Long live scissors and paper!
WoW players should feel lucky that the expansion pack was only pushed back until 2007 and not indefinitely like every starcraft project...
I don't understand how this is so 'new' to everyone. EverQuest has something like 11 expansions now for it; previous MMO games also had expansions. But apparently, when Blizzard does it, it's novel or something.
All of the EQ expansions cost 30 USD or so when they first came out; there have been roll-up packs for those who were behind the curve.
I quit after the 6th (when Gates of Discord came out; my machine couldn't handle it and I was tiring of the game.) I haven't looked back. I've since switched to Ubuntu, and it helps me resist the rare urge to go back.
On one hand they are foolhardy for doing this, on the other it is a brave decision to improve the game. Almost every shop around here is full of WoW stuff leading up to christmas - the 15 day trial packs are literally flying off shelves which shows they will have more than enough new players getting the game for christmas and joining in. However there would have been a huge upsell market for the Burning Crusade pack if it was released in time for Christmas, granted most people who play Warcraft will eventually pick it up but Christmas would have been a perfect time for Blizzard to cash in on both new gamers and existing players.
However, by choosing to delay it they have put the playability of the game over the profit they could make by throwing it out there and just continually patching it up to standard (cough, Gothic 3, EA, cough). I'm quite happy to see a game studio finally taking the time to make a game good before cashing in on it, instead of throwing out whatever they have done to make the sales that will occur anyway. I just have to wonder whether this will be the last delay we will see for Burning Crusade, or whether more lay in wait in development hell.
Business Voyeur
They have to make it easier and easier over time, or nobody will come and start anew, knowing that they will never ever catch up and reach that supersezzy new content. They'd rather turn to some other MMORPG (it's not like there's only one medieval-styled MMORPG on the market...).
I know how much this sucks, and it drove me away from other MMORPGs in the past. Personally I'd be very happy with a more or less "stable" universe, with the occasional new content to keep people entertained. Hell, with good PvP you can even reach that goal by redesigning the PvP areas every now and then, without the need to actually generate a ton of new content!
What really ticks me off in "modern" MMORPGs is the carebear attitude towards the players. Why don't they just hand out everything to everyone?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I played WOW obsessively for a year and change. No matter how far I got, there was always some new goal I was chasing (level 60, full tier 1 set, pvp rank, etc). At some point I realized that my time investment in the game was becoming greater and greater. This was just about the time my guild got big and started doing the 40-man raids, and getting in on that would've required me to nearly double my playing time. There was just no way, unless I was willing to just give up on my real life and dedicate myself completely to the game. I wasn't willing to do that. It was right about that time that I realized I had a girlfriend waiting for me in bed, and that with all the late nights I'd been spending on WOW, she'd actually started feeling lonely, abandoned, and betrayed. For once I snapped out of it and actually understood how she felt, and could sympathize with her. So I shut off the game, canceled my account, and went to bed. Things got a lot better between us after that. I hope I never again make the mistake of letting a stupid video game hurt a real-life relationship, especially one as important my relationship with her.
What really ticks me off in "modern" MMORPGs is the carebear attitude towards the players. Why don't they just hand out everything to everyone?
I think this carebear attitude is why Blizzard got the millions of subscribers and billions of cash. It's the wide appeal of the game and the "no real penalties for losing" gameplay that attracts most people to the game. Compare this to the number of EVE players, where you can literally lose your ship and money (and hence "lose" time played). EVE is more interesting for "hardcore" players, but not as "newbie-friendly", which inherently limits the player base.
How can something without an announced release date be delayed?
Isn't "player-controlled NPCs" an oxymoron?
Well, aside from new uber loot (which there's an endless hunger for, btw), it's a fact that even the best, most elite, organized hard-core guilds in the game find the highest high-level content very challenging. For the rest of us with an average amount of free time to invest, even the moderately high-level stuff is damn near impossible to experience.
When the level cap raises, stuff like Molten Core and BWL drops in relative difficulty, so average players can finally get a shot at the stuff they could only dream about before. It's a win-win. The jaded hard-core get new challenges, and the rest of us get access to parts of the game that were unthinkable before.
M-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
So, in order for an MMO to be for proper, manly, basement dwelling men with flowing neckbeards like yours, it should charge crazy-stupid penalties for death and require pathfinding exploits and more math than the Apollo project to figure out how min-max that last .1 DPS out of your level 193 Fighter/Mage/MarySue, so you can repeat some Pacman pattern style attack on the Mother of All Rats, until you get the shiny trinket that drops 0.1% of the time?
I, for one, applaud Blizzard for shunning you and your dragon shirt wearing ilk like the barely functional pariahs you are.