Patch 7.2 Launches for WoW; Fails Miserably

[Wrex Brogan]

...aren't all the things you're complaining about being time-gated... time-gated anyway from the very start of the expansion?

Also, they're fixing the buildings, already removed the mob-ilevel scaling and are working on the bugs (because hey, when you jam code into a 13-year old game something's gonna break, and it's not like they test older raids on the PTR), so... cool? I guess? Sad to see you go over such minor things?

Christ, this always gets so dramatic.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well, it's usually not wrong. Cataclysm, Panderia, and WoD each lost millions of subscribers.

Every expansion sees a surge of subs, followed by a subsequent drop off. Every MMO (and likely every online game) experiences this same phenomenon. That WoW *didn't* through the first two expansions is testament to the outrageous success of the game, and shouldn't be viewed as evidence that this is how things normally go.

The game likely fell to a floor of as few as 3-4 million subs by the end of WoD, which...for a dying game...is THREE TO FOUR MILLION PEOPLE paying a MONTHLY FEE to play a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD VIDEO GAME. There are AAA titles today that consider 3-4 million sales to be a resounding success. WoW's primacy and dominance over its market space is practically unheard of.

The game has never even been remotely close to "dying" by any rational standard. It's diminishing via entropy, but far slower than logic indicates it should.

 

[Raddra]

Something heard every. single. expansion.

And this is coming from someone who was done with the game at Pandaria.

To be fair when blizzard published their figures they were seeing a steady numerical decline after the resurgence after each expansion.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/5225-WoW-Down-to-5-5-Million-Subscribers-Warcraft-Movie-Trailer-at-Blizzcon

 

[Pyrian]

Well, it's usually not wrong. Cataclysm, Panderia, and WoD each lost millions of subscribers.

Every expansion sees a surge of subs, followed by a subsequent drop off.

I mean net, of course. The trough is lower each time, as is the average. The peaks are impressive, though, even in a relative sense.

...a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD VIDEO GAME.

That's not really fair. WoW has been in constant development this entire time. Many game mechanics have been updated. It's expansions are each larger than most games. Its total hand-made content is effectively untouchable at this point.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Well, I think Blizzard finally did it; they may finally have broken me of WoW. And I think others may finally follow.

As of yesterday, Blizzard launched Patch 7.2 for World of Warcraft, launching the Broken Shore zone, a new dungeon and at a later date a new raid for the game. But all has not gone as planned:

Literally every single item of the expansion past the initial hour-long quest and dungeon is time gated; meaning you cannot physically access or do the content no matter what you do. This includes the new Class Order quest lines, the new PvP brawls, the Legion Invasions, Artifact Power upgrades AND the content you need to do to unlock flying on the Broken Shore.

The patch broke multiple boss fights in several dungeons and raids, making them impossible to complete (Trillax for example, insta-kills the raid with his laser beam regardless of position, and Elisande's orbs are not visible to all players in a raid, wiping the raid due to players not being able to do the mechanic).

Mob tagging has been broken as well in the new zone, as only 5 people, even in the same faction, can get rewards from an enemy - even if that enemy is supposed to be taken on by more than 5 players (IE: A Boss).

The base-building aspect of the patch is also broken, as even after a full day of the patch being available in some regions, most regions/servers are only 6% of the way to having ONE building done - and each building is built independently of the others. And even when a building is completed, it only lasts for 3 days before being destroyed again.

The worst part is perhaps the unannounced change; Blizzard has made all world enemies scale with your character's iLvl, meaning that a brand-new 110 in green gear actually has an easier time completing World Content than a Mythic Nighthold raider (dungeons and raids, thankfully, are untouched). This is something Blizzard explicitly stated TWICE that they would never do...and they did it.

Literally the only good things are that the new Dungeon is good, Mythic Karazhan is good and a couple of the QoL features actually work and are nice.

Why is it that when Blizzard mess something up EVERYONE even non Blizzard sites talk about it?

While the only good thing they ever say is when Blizzard's subscribers gets a huge increase?

 

[Pyrian]

Why is it that when Blizzard mess something up EVERYONE even non Blizzard sites talk about it?

Seriously? A bridge collapsing is national news; a bridge being built is local news; a bridge remaining up isn't news at all.