House of ZAN Forum

[Erik Dodd]

So I was thinking about this tonight when I saw on a few different websites that all gave different release dates for the new WoW expansion; here goes. How long is it normally from the time a game compnay tells the community that they're releasing an expansion till the time the expansion actually gets released? Now most of my experience is from EQ but for EQ it's usually only a few months from informing the people to when it actually gets release. The few websites I found said anywhere from July 1st 2006 - December 31st 2006. To me that just seems a little odd. They're not really creating another game just adding more content than a normal patch would hold, and just giving themselves another excuse to make more money. I thought about putting up some kind of poll but it's close to 1am and I just can't think of any poll answers right now so I'll leave it up to you. Let me know what you guys think cause for some reason I'm just really stoked about the WoW expansion and I just cant read enough about it right now.
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[Ravage]

With Blizzard, you can be sure they want to make sure that everything is done right. They are adding ALOT in this expansion, though. New zones require lots of time when you add the depth of detail to them that WoW has.

I'm sure that the Blood Elves are being balanced against the other races, too, which takes some time. You also have to take all the items in the game, and reskin them to fit the BE's, and the new Alliance race.

I know you all would like to see this come out in July, but personally, I hope they wait until September, so I can join with you all (I'll probably be overseas all summer.)

If I were to guess, I'd say if they don't have it released for summer of '06, they'll shoot for November, the pre-Christmas rush.

[Deathscythe343]

the only problem w/ shooting for a later release is that theres nothing holding the average gamer to the game. most ppl arent going to want to wait 1 yr. for an expansion to be released. ppl can do pvp but im sure that gets boring after a while. it would b in their best interest to push the expansion's release date as early as possible. kinda like keeping a crack head addicted to crack, you dont wanna go too long w/o a fix, but you want to leave them always wanting more.
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Why run? You'll only die tired.

[Ravage]

Honestly, Dodd...I think the majority of people will stick around that long BECAUSE of PvP. After seeing people PvP in many games, I can say that they are usually the most hardcore gamers of them all, and right now, WoW's PvP system offers the best rewards because of the ladder system.

So to answer your question, no, I don't think most people are going to get bored and leave. Some will, I'm sure, but PvP is truly the only endgame that any MMO can hope for to last a great amount of time, and WoW's pvp is great.

[Erik Dodd]

There's no doubt in my mind that Bliz wants to wait until the expansion is really set before they release it but it's November and from what they've already shown us I'd geuess that at least 25% of it is done so I just thought it odd that the expansion might not get released until fall or later. Just seems a lot of time to work on an addon for a game. Like I said in my first post, I know that when SOE announces an expansion for EQ it's out within a few months so I was just curious to how long other games announce an expansion and then how long till it actually comes out.
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[d00g]

I can say from experience that the EQ expansions were far from perfect when they came out. That said, WoW wasnt perfect either when it was released but it was far better than any other mmo when it came out. Knowing the track record of Blizzard I can say with confidence that they will not release a product they cannot stand behind. No matter how long it takes.

[Ravage]

I only have SWG to go off of here...I know they announced work on Jump to Lightspeed expansion...and had it out probably within a year, though perhaps not much within a year. Completely different companies, tho.

[Dana]

SOE's SWG team doesn't even belong on the comparison list when talking about developers like Blizzard or PlayNC. They are so far down the list, they might as well have fallen off!

The SWG devs are divided into several teams, and each team is responsible for fixing different parts of the game, so each group has its own copy of the game's code. So let's say Team A fixes a bug with Combat Medic in August. In the September patch, Team B resolves an issue with Medic xp, but uploads THEIR game code which doesn't include the fix Team A made to CM the month before. So CM is broken again when the September patch goes live, and it takes several days for a hotfix to be released. This went on every month for TWO YEARS, and its still going on. Add all that to the fact that their customer service ranks WORST in online gaming developers and you have a formula for self-destruction.

Stupid crap like that which results from committee-based management is why SWG never lived up to its potential.

EQ, on the other hand, has thrived. I honestly believe the main reason EQ has done so well is because the game was originally written by someone else and then bought & marketed by SOE. Since its code is much simpler and more familiar, it's easier to maintain and create expansions for. I'm sure it has its share of flaws and bugs, but nothing as game-breaking as SWG became. Otherwise it wouldn't still be around.

I'm no MMO expert, but there are a lot of people out there who are, and they all seem to believe that whether you like WOW or not, you can't deny the fact that Blizzard released the most complete game on day 1 that they'd seen in the MMO "universe." Their track record remains great too, because they've added lots of new content in just the first year of the game, and have already announced a pretty big expansion that not only adds new zones & quests, but 2 new races with their own storylines as well!

PlayNC has good games that are relatively bug-free, but they don't have near the content that WoW (or even SWG) has. But COH/COV are really fun to play, and Lineage2 has its own devoted following.

Yep, Blizzard is king. Hail to the king, baby.
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