WoW Dragonflight: Release at the end of 2022 too early? Blizzard is taking a big risk
After the announcement of WoW Dragonflight and the gameplay snippets shown there, all players actually agreed that we will spend quite a while in the shadow lands. But then Blizzard came around the corner with the announcement that the waiting time would be much shorter. WoW Dragonflight will be released no later than December 31, 2022, which is later this year. At least as long as no relevant shift follows. But instead of being happy that the unpopular Shadowlands will soon be over and that we will get new content, skepticism prevails in the community. Can it work to get Dragonflight out that fast? Is Blizzard in danger of screwing it up? Because for many, Dragonflight is a make-or-break expansion.
Extremely short alpha and beta phase
A release later this year means Dragonflight will have its shortest alpha/beta period in a long time. Even if the test servers were to start up today and Dragonflight would not be released until New Year’s Eve, the test phase would be shorter than with previous expansions. For comparison, this is how long the test phase lasted for the previous expansions: MoP: 188 days, WoD: 224 days, Legion: 281 days, BfA: 188 days, Shadowlands: 228 days.
If the test server starts today, Sunday June 26th, and Dragonflight appears on December 31st, that would also be 188 days. Doesn’t sound that unrealistic in theory. However, there is still nothing on the horizon from alpha servers and Blizzard has only recently started the WotLK beta. They will probably throw the next one after them not a few days later. And one can assume that the extension will probably not be launched at the end of December.
Because a release right before Christmas might be nice for the players, but certainly not for the developers. If you then consider the World First Race, we’re more likely to be talking about a release at the end of November. There are also three important points about Dragonflight in which the expansion differs from its predecessors and why a test phase that lasts longer than usual should actually be necessary.
Dragonflight needs extensive testing!
Point 1: the talent trees! With Dragonflight, the developers introduce completely new talent trees. These are much more extensive in development than a new row in the old talent matrix. That means they have to be tested extensively. It is not only important that they are set up and structured sensibly, the balancing must also be at least halfway right for the release. Incidentally, the same applies to the new class. If you don’t schedule enough test time here, it can only go haywire.
Point 2: Feedback from the players! The developers have announced that they will listen to player feedback much more than they used to. This has already started in Shadowlands and is working quite well so far. It’s far from perfect, of course, but communication and reactions to the community have improved noticeably. If the developers now bring new features like the caller and the talent trees, then a lot of feedback will follow. If you really want to go into this, it will of course take a lot of time. If the developers don’t have this, then they can’t respond to it at all and there will be spats with the players again.
Point 3: Decisive expansion! The third point is that Dragonflight actually has to be perfect. After BfA, Shadowlands and the full-bodied promises that everything will be better now, it has to be a bang. Perhaps it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of WoW (buy now ) depends on the success of Dragonflight, but it’s definitely trending in that direction. Achieving this goal is difficult enough as it is. But to achieve it now under self-imposed time pressure is a completely different matter.
The exciting thing is that the developers put themselves under this time pressure completely voluntarily. Because, as the reactions of the community show, almost every player would understand if Dragonflight lasted a bit longer. All players want only one thing: a cracker expansion!
Continue on page 2 with the reasons for an early release!
Reference-www.buffed.de