How long can Blizzard reasonably delay TBC ?

Judia · 10/18/06, 8:52 AM

This is somewhat of an extention of a dicussion on our forums.
With the looming shadow of TBC some of our core are calling for the dropping of AQ (which is more or less on farm) so we can see as much of Naxx as is possible before the expansion. Others want their hard farmed epix, and others think Im crazy to change anything because the expansion wont be out until March.

At the same time alot of guilds on our server have tunnel vision, there are many struggling guilds who are hanging on because "The expansion will be here in X weeks, so we can just pvp for a month". Equally the amount of guild movement by players is tiny; noone wants to buy into a new DKP system at the moment with the knowledge that the expansion may well hit before they can even spend any of their DKP, and that they will be liable to be the first cuts of guild downsizing.

Then there are the people on a break, or who arent interested in raiding "because Ill replace all my gear in 3 weeks anyway".

Personally I am of the opinion that if the expansion does not hit before christmas alot of guids will collapse and many people will be turned off WoW. I also believe that to hit an early december dedline, Blizzard my release TBC missing some of the level 70 instances which will be patched in later.

How are other people feeling on the matter ?

Viator · 10/18/06, 9:09 AM

Dunno. It's sort of weird for me. On the one hand repair bills don't even phase me since part of me just wants to see what I can. On the other I'm starting to get this subconcious twinge of burnout on the current raiding game which I've not had since I started a year and a half ago. Two completely opposing viewpoints, to be sure. I think the burnout is creeping in a little more each day, though, despite myself.

I think they'll get it out by around Thanksgiving. The only thing I find odd is no confirmed release date from their end; usually you get one a month or so prior to release. That makes me iffy.

Shadout · 10/18/06, 9:13 AM

If you assume Tigole is right and lvl 70 will be patched into beta in 3 weeks, that surely doesnt leave much time for testing if the goal is a december release. Think its also fair to assume raid content wont be added in the same patch as lvl 70.
Maybe Vivendi make BLizz release the game in december, even with unfinished end-game, which can then be pached while people lvl. Or maybe they wont. Imo, there wont be time for any delays in beta if they want to get it out this year at least.
Gogo Videndi, force that game out please ^^

About the people who dont want to raid because "their gear will be replaced in 3 weeks anyway", guess they are showing their true color. Such people should be the first to be skipped for 25 man raids imo, if you are in a guild that needs to downsize. Why bother with those people if they only raid for the gear.

You are probably right though, think many risk getting bored of WoW if BC isnt out before christmas. Its just been hyped too much now, and it will be a major letdown for many people if they cant get to play it soon.
And Im sure Blizzard is aware of that too.

hiro · 10/18/06, 9:18 AM

3 guesses and a conclusion.

1 - The loot from everything pre C-thun/naxx will quickly be eclipsed.

2 - The Naxx items will not be eclipsed till 70 mostly, a process my guesses place at about a month of 4 hour a night playtime.

3 - I also guess this is the last chance for quite some time you will get to experience this kind of massive organized "army" feel to encounters, as raid sizes and gear caps are drastically changing.

My opinion? Don't bother farming for gear or DKP, but get as much of this content as you want, while you still can.

Mendoza · 10/18/06, 9:20 AM

Well it's not as if I'd expect that much of the raid content to be available on release anyway. Blizz presumably want a progression through the different raids rather than just having people be able to dive into Black Temple as their first 25 man. They could easily get away with just Karazhan, Magtheridon and the 25 man Coilfang raid on release, and have another 2-3 months before the 25 man Tempest Keep raid needed to be ready, let alone Black Temple.

Ghostz · 10/18/06, 9:24 AM

Blizzard are probably pressing really hard for a 2006 release, there's a lot of competition coming out soon and they want people hooked on their expansion before anyone gets a chance to try the other games. As it is with most Blizzard games though, release dates are never solid. They'd rather get something good out when its done than release something for the sake of meeting a deadline.

As for the month until, I highly doubt they'll get it out by mid-late November. There's still a lot of testing to be done. We probably won't see a solid release date until they're at the stage of testing the late 70 content (raids) which is when all those guilds with 25 invites will get their e-mails for the final stage of testing.

To answer your question more concretely, I do think they'll get it out before the end of the year and yeah, all the beta talk has made people even more tired of the limited content available to them now. Though even if people do stop playing now, they'll all come back whenever Blizzard do release the expansion (whether it be March or June next year). Its the same case as people quitting a year ago wanting to renew their accounts for TBC.

james · 10/18/06, 9:29 AM

Deja vu ^^ World of Warcraft was initially one of the most delayed games - I can remember massive hype for it around 2003... I think it won the Gamespy Vapourware of the Year award then. Plus Blizzard have already been burned by the 'CThun incident' and BWL launch so I don't think it would be a good idea for them to rush to retail.

I'm getting kinda fed up of people saying things like "why bother going to Naxx when we'll just get better blues after a week or so in the expansion" too. (By people, I mean rogues, and by rogues, I mean our rogues who are currently proclaiming doom and gloom because they don't think they'll get a shot at tier 3 before the expansion because of warrior gearing). I've been passing on tier 2.5 for quite a while now so a 2 month warning would certainly be nice.

There are guilds on my server that have stopped raiding in anticipation of this... plus it'd be nice to get a bit of a warning for when I should start going for some tier 2.5... inc. a fairly new one that was made great process in BWL and was up to Sartura or Huhuran in AQ30.

◊ Kaubel · 10/18/06, 9:31 AM

Didn't this thread get shit heaped yesterday?

◊ Praetorian · 10/18/06, 9:36 AM

This one has been beaten to death. Unless someone just got off the phone with Rob Pardo and can tell us a firm release date, these threads are never going to go anywhere and only encourage endless speculation.