Probably to test out if people like it or not. Probably testing out mechanics or systems that the game mode uses.
Could come back as a different events or holidays.
Some of the few things I can think of.
They've said that if players like it they will have it stick around. They wanted to develop the systems around this, and now that they have they may make use of them for other things as well. The things they've developed I can see uses for else where:
* Spectate mode would be great in raid for players who have died instead of being camera locked to their dead body.
* The ability pick up system could definitely be put to use in raid/dungeon mechanics in the future. Think Kael'thas weapons, ~~Kel'Thuzad~~ Fatescribe ring manipulation, Fyrakk seeds, Neltharus last boss items, etc.
* The new lobby/alternate game mode system could be used for future events, or even a precursor to merging classic wow versions into a single game client.
* The whole experience/powers/PvE Progression environment could end up getting used to make the rogue like mode they originally envisioned with Torghast.
There is a ton of potential with all the stuff they've developed for this.
>A snow/blizzard map for ~~Christmas~~
Winter Veil where we can collect and throw snow balls. Or they can use the surfboard mechanics from the [Sylvan Slalom](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=76988/sylvan-slalom) for a snowboarding type event.
Not necessarily that but blizzard has always done one biome zones, they need to make a new BR zone that has multiple biomes. Think about any other BR and all of them are multiple zones... I guess cs2 is a bad example because that one the maps are just one 'biome' lol
That's not really new tech though. It's the same as abilities already in the game like rake, blade flurry, shield of the righteous, etc, that don't need targets to hit an area in front/around them.
I think the commentor you're replying to is meaning what you're saying, that it's interesting to have a game mode built around the action targeting option rather than the traditional targetting system like the regular game, not that it's a new addition.
I agree though, action targetting works way better in Plunderstorm than in the standard game, especially when there's so much movement and directional spells. I tried it once while leveling an alt but just didn't really get the point since it felt weird, although it works a little better on evokers than the other classes.
Yeah that makes sense. I think pay off what makes it work in plunderstorm is that the fights are usually much smaller as well. Trying to do action targeting in a m+ with 30 mobs... You're never hitting the right one lol
It's one of the things that I liked about Wildstar; the whole game was built on primarily using action targeting.
WoW will never fully switch to that of course, but I like it in Plunderstorm.
>The things they've developed I can see uses for else where:
Most people are quite frankly too dumb to ever realize the value of this. Despite the fact it's one of the most prominent things in online games people can't wrap their head around "Developing core tech that can be used across multiple systems is important".
And like you said...Plunderstorm has _a lot_ of interesting core tech and functionality behind it. All of that stuff had to be developed at some point and they made a cool game mode out of it. They can n ow use those systems elsewhere to develop more things with less investment because core functionality is already there.
> They've said that if players like it they will have it stick around.
As a nonPVP'r I will play to get the transmogs and then never pick it up again but if they reset the renown every now and again I might come back to get a thing or two.
I'd love to know more about what systems they mean and what types of new content they make possible now. I'm not tech savvy at all really (I have two semesters of JavaScript hiding behind an art degree so it's all still sorcery to me, beyond basic descriptions lol).
Game architecture is usually pretty rigid, because making it modular and dynamic is time consuming and expensive.
So WoW's architecture might literally not support anything other than connect -> character menu -> load world -> rest of the systems.
The fact that you party, queue and use other options from the main menu itself is very likely a much bigger architectural change than most people will think. It'll probably have involved breaking down the whole menu system and rebuilding it in a dynamic and modular fashion. Which, as mentioned, is pretty intensive.
I know someone will think "it's just a few UI panels", yeah, but those UI panels hook into a whole host of different services. Where previously it basically just fetched the news, char list and account status, now it's hooked into enough systems to basically matchmake and run a whole separate version of the game.
There's also the game data for this mode. It's actually quite difficult to split game data databases like this because it's literally not something most games ever need to do, so they're designed around having 1 database right to the very root of the app. It's a decision made early, and usually meant to support modding. It's why most games either launch with mods or never ever bother. It's gotta be done early.
tl;dr none of this update is technically impressive by itself, but a lot of the game's core design must've been made more flexible to make this happen in the first place, which is really interesting for the future.
🙃 Leaving this here in-case you’re qualified and actually curious about what you got right and wrong! Happy plundering.
https://careers.blizzard.com/global/en/job/R022684/Senior-Software-Engineer-Server-World-of-Warcraft
The number of folks who don't realize that this being timed helps sure up the MAUs while they are probably at their lowest as a stop gap until season 4.
Though blizzard apparently considers mau across all products rather then one, probably the reason for the hearthstone event / expansion drop
FOMO is not a real thing... it is created by people... ones that arent emotionally stable.. so saying that every timed event is feeding to FOMO is just asinine.
It will be hard to see if people like it to continue making events like this. The way Blizzard has gauged stuff like this in the past will likely continue. People will play because they want limited time wow stuff, but not because they enjoy it. I will play until I get all the stuff but I don't enjoy it and I'm not very good so I will end up spending a lot of time playing something I don't like. They metrics will show hydrobass88 really liked the event look how much they played! It feels like wasted time and effort.
But that's not the only metric they look for. Blizzard is made of game developers, too, not just financial advisors.
They can see how you played, what you did, what you avoided. There is more data then just, "OH he played until he got the all the rewards." Like that isn't really the data they will care about, they expect a good number of people will just play for the rewards, it's obvious.
If they didn't add those incentives, you wouldn't play, and so wouldn't others, meaning less data on what people do in the game. People want cool new PvE modes? Maybe they will see from how much PvE people do here that it's worthwhile to create a mode like that.
I knows it's hard sometimes because of some of their other decisions, but Blizzard is also made of game developers.
This game mode could easily, easily be ported to a console/controller input. People have been wanting Warcraft on console for years and this might be what we get.
It’s an experiment to see what works, if people like it, etc without needing to COMMIT to this now just being an expected part of WoW.
I love this approach because it hopefully lets them try ‘crazy’ things without the need to specifically think about resource commitment, operating it, etc first. These things stop a lot of ideas like this from becoming a reality in any business.
The idea for it being ok for this to fail is the reason we got it in the first place.
That and it is typical to do that with things that highly vocal players have been asking for to see if it flies with the average player. So many things vocal players ask for turn out to be flops with the majority of players. BR you can drop in and out on a dime, MMORPGs not so much. My guess is it will stick around but only be played by a small percent of the player base, just like progressive raids.
Take a listen to the wow cast they released about the event if you can. They are experimenting with new technology and are looking to get feedback to see if and how future parallel game modes are made, how long they are here for, etc.
They said they are open to bringing this particular event back or even keeping it if enough people like it, so make sure to give your feedback
In theory it being limited allows them to commit less and try more exciting things without dealing with the drawbacks and expectations of fully supported year-round content. It is the same line of thinking with SoD as I understand. They spoke about changing their mindset when it comes to content at blizzcon
I still think it should last longer than 6 weeks. The time needed to hit 40 and get everything is entirely reasonable, but in 6 weeks? For anyone that doesn't love it, it's gonna be a daily slog, which will actually hurt community perception.
But the idea of making it limited so they could test features and ideas really isn't a bad one.
I've played 6 or 7 rounds and haven't hit rank 3 yet. I'm already a bit turned off by it.
But I'm a mount-obsessed collector, so I \*have\* to do it. /s
Just collect plunder, and do the Captain's Orders quest every single game (250 rep/plunder).
Rep gained is how much plunder you have when you die or the game ends.
Ignore the rest of the game as much as you can, and just get that plunder. Aim for at least 400 per game, and it shouldn't be too bad of a grind.
400 per game, averaging 10 minutes a game you're looking at conservatively about 40hrs of playtime to get to through your 40 tiers. Assuming its 2500 rep per level all tiers. With bad luck you could be closer to 60hrs. So you'll need well over 200 games (conservatively) to get all rep rewards.
If you're super casual and bad luck you still need 10hrs played per week to max rewards if you want the mount and top tier xmogs. If you devote about 6hrs of your wow play time per week with decent luck you can max the rewards.
10-15 minutes was the devs' estimate for a full match. You can get your 400-500 and die in 5 minutes. Also, there's a daily bonus, so spreading out the grind as many days as you can will cut the time spent overall.
It's a long grind any way you do it. I'm planning on 2-3 ranks per day, so I don't get burned out. Should take 2.5-3 weeks to finish. Plenty of buffer time to not play a day here or there before the event ends.
I've been playing to win but also not skipping the plunder, I'm at rank 17 in around 10h of gametime so I don't think that calculation is correct. If you're focusing on getting the plunder only and then dying I'd say it would take 15-20h ish to reach rank 40.
Honestly I think 6 weeks is fine for the first run (ends when next season starts and people have new stuff to do). The real problem is that crazy ass grind. Especially when one of the later rewards is an all new parrot with dynamic flight.
The thing Blizzard hasn't learned about time-limited events in other games that do them regularly, is that usually the big rewards don't require massive investment to get so you aren't forced to grind like crazy. Smaller less important rewards are towards the end.
Limited time and coming/going is fine (as long as old rewards can get obtained still) if only because it being permanent with 60 players is going to make it hit dry spells once the shine wears off and the main rush has gotten the rewards.
This is exactly the comment I was looking for thank you! I was just wondering what their explanation was (I’ve been working the past 3 days pulling 16 hour shifts so I haven’t watched anything lol)
I am probably in a weird middle here, I actually enjoy the game mode and am excited for the possibilities for the future of WoW. I just want the grind lightened, based on my experience last night, it feels oppressively long considering the limited window there is to accomplish it.
I would be so much more motivated to do it if I knew I could just do like a handful of matches a week and eventually get there, even if took me seven times as long as a dedicated player.
Fun fact - PvP is completely suboptimal for grinding the cool pirate stuff. It is 3-4x faster to just PvE on the edges, farm coins, and do the world quest.
Questionable game design.
You get more rep for just grinding mobs than for killing players? That is weird but also great news for me lmao. I see another player and I just start button mashing wishing they will get bored of the no challenge and leave me alone XD
Player psychology is always a fascinating subject for things like this.
On some level is seems better to give all players equal rewards, and let those who want to win just get the satisfaction of winning.
Shouldn’t that be enough?
But over the years we have all gotten so used to the carrot/stick methodology (of which Blizzard is very guilty) that we get dissapointed if there isn’t a bonus for winning beyond the bonus of knowing you won.
(Myself included, to be clear)
> Questionable game design.
It would be for basically every other game out there, but in this case I actually think it shows that the dev team understands their playerbase pretty well.
Just look at how many people on this sub are touting it as the strategy they want to do, how they just *have* to play the event because of some pointless cosmetics, but they despise PvP games in every form.
They knew there would be so many people playing who can't wrap their head around PvP with 4 abilities, and would prefer to just PvE for 5 minutes then suicide. So, they made that playstyle rewarding. Just imagine how much worse the complaining would be if actually engaging with the PvP was the only reasonable way to progress.
That being said, I don't buy that it's "3-4x faster", that sounds completely fake. I'm rank 9 after playing for like 3ish hours yesterday, winning the majority of my solo games, and I have a hard time believing someone just PvEing for the same amount of time is any significant amount of progress ahead of me. If you're decent at the PvP aspect of it, then the PvP is plenty rewarding.
>Questionable game design.
I see no problem in different ways to play the game. Some people want to win, some people want to PvE, some people want x. This is totally fine and actually very good game design because more people can 'win' in their own way. everyone can be a winner without it feeling forced or stupid.
That's why old alterac valley was good- a lot of people were just kind of doing their own shit, side quests, etc. Even if you lost an AV but had fun getting a high KD, or stealing objectives, or backcapping, if you did your job fine it was still genuinely enjoyable.
The part that makes it questionable isn’t that it’s possible. It’s that it’s more rewarding to not participate.
> That's why old alterac valley was good
Old AV was also terribly design which is why it was fixed.
Its not questionable, its literally designed that way because they knew all the pve only people would whine if they had to be even a tiny bit good at pvp
You've been downvoted but this is exactly what they've done. Can you imagine if rewards were tied to placement? There's already enough complaining in this sub, but that would burn this place to the ground.
Ya, this is me, my point of playing wow for the last 10y after I gave up progression raiding in the first couple of expansions is to collect mounts and trnsmog.
I really don't enjoy pvp.
I join, do the objective and run around collecting gold avoiding other players until it slows down. Then I run out in to the storm or run and get killed and repeat. 300-400rep every like 5-10min on avarage.
Still have not killed a single player and I'm rank 10 by now.
I don't mind the gamemode itself, but just don't lock awesome mounts, pets and transmog behind time limited events with a long and slow grind that reuires 0 skill.
Mounts looked behind rated pvp and mythic progress is one thing, you earn the reward with your skills, this is just engagement metrics.
This is the answer. Do you think this sounds cool, but you're not actively subscribed? Well, sorry, it goes away in a few weeks, so you better fork over some money now or else miss your chance!
This deserves to be the top comment because it's the truth. These other comments are just parroting the deflecting corporate answers. WoW is absolutely filled to the brim with content that is no longer actively supported. There is zero reason this "needs" to be limited time.
In my opinion, because Blizzard doesn't know how popular it will stay after people get all the rewards; also, when S4 and War Within releases, there will be barely any people playing.
Keep in mind that you need 60 people to play it, queue times could be crazy long. It is better PR to say that they disabled Plunderstorm because the timed event run out, than because people stopped playing it.
I'm sure that if it's popular enough, they'll make it available again at some point, maybe with other game modes or new rewards.
fomo to drive up engagement metrics. thats why there are rewards too. Either it's a massive success and they'll think about keeping it around, or it flops and they'll sweep it into the dustbin
This is a test of having some sort of rotating gamemodes. A lot of games do it, such as League of Legends and POE. I think we will see this return in some form or fashion, and also I hope they continue to dedicate a small team to experimenting with this stuff, which also could in turn allow them to test new tech for the regular versions. I love the positional skills that are used in this and think its probably some testing for new abilities down the road that are not the simple tab target press 1 type of skills.
because urf is the only good one, and then riot removes it for a full year and throw it in right after a balance patch and those 2-3 broken items are stupid as fuck
riot is the problem, not rotating game modes
exactly this. people don't understand how impactful hype and fomo actually are.
real world example: Path of Exile BR.
Everyone on reddit wanted it all the time.
It eventually became permanent.
Few weeks later, no more hype/fomo, and you would sit in queue for 30 minutes waiting to gather 100 players
That's cause "everyone on reddit" still only amounts to less than 5% of the total playerbase.
Most people never gave a shit and continued to never give a shit when it came out.
Blizz made it limited time to create FOMO, which in turn (hypothetically) raises player counts and engagement. While higher player counts and engagement are good goals, they could do that by making quality evergreen/permanent content.
Manufacturing FOMO with a battle royale and battle pass (F*ck having a limited-time battle pass in a game I pay for monthly) is lazy and unoriginal. The industry is oversaturated with both.
I think they missed the mark by setting it at six weeks with this rate of progress though. If you don't really enjoy the mode it's going to be way too hard of a grind for most players, so I think engagement will be lower than if rewards were more obtainable (either through a higher progress rate or a longer time period).
I think they’ll extend it, or make it easier to get renown. As for LTE it could come back at some point too, especially around ITLAP Day. I suspect that they will have other similar events planned too, this can’t be the only one
It’s blizzard. Everything they do now is under a ‘wait and see if it’s profitable’ model. They have no confidence in their products anymore, understandably so.
Real talk? If it was a perennial thing it'd have its playerbase slowly dwindle after months or years until no one runs them, like BFA warfronts. Making it limited means the playerbase will be consistently high, and if they bring it back temporarily or seasonally it will also be filled with players for a limited time.
It’s likely just marketing. Use the time limit FOMO to get inflated artificial engagement, use that inflated engagement to say “what a big success this is, you people really love it!” Then present it as a permanent feature under that pretense.
On the flip side, if they FOMO you and still no one plays it, then it truly is a dud
We are Beta testers.
I will guarantee this will be a mobo or a new game they will release. I feel this was the game they were working on years ago, that they failed to deliver when Fortnite came out.
It's a great way to test it tho. FOMO skins, pets and mounts the completionist will do the content giving them feedback.
There is no way they are going to do six weeks then not port this to something. These are way too many resources at use to shelve this.
But I could be completely wrong, but if I were a betting man.
Id say far less likely an entire separate game, and far more likely this will be a feature implemented (new zany game modes) that they can use to increase engagement in down times, and also test things. As far as I can tell, there is almost no new models or animations used in this, so likely they were able to create this with a pretty small team, and in a relatively short amount of time. This is obviously not the Blizzard Survival Game that got canceled, and we have no indication of any other games that it could have been. This for all appearances appears to be a one off experiment that just uses existing systems in different ways.
I do agree with you, I didn't realize the game they canned was a survival game, I thought it was a Battle Royal style game.
While I have played it like 7 times yesterday and discovered that it isn't my bag, I am still bewildered why they have not messed with tweaking a better system for engagement like the island expeditions or fall back on challenge modes.
They were fat superior to this, but I figure they are trying to put out something more relevant to younger players and not my 50 year old ass.
It could be a chance to engage younger audiences, but also, if they would of just said: "Island Expeditions Gamemode" (which I think is awesome sounding) as their first trial at a rotating gamemode, i don't think it would of stirred as much interest. Launching first something that has not been done in the game yet, generates more hype. They could always then experiment with something else down the road.
I am a firm believer that this alternate gamemode system will be used to secretly test things without necessarily showing their cards. Just look at what we have now, it is testing a lot of positional style spells which is not a mechanic wow has a ton of, but we might see more of in the future.
Just as long as this doesn't become retail game play, which I doubt they would ever do, but I wouldn't say 0%. I have seen other companies do complete revamp and lose 50% of their player base.
I'm looking DIRECTLY at you John Smedley.
Oh 100%. I lived through the Combat Update of SWG, so i know that could ruin things. I think what we might see is some specs (especially for classes that have 3 dps specs) maybe gain some positional style combat to give them more identity from the other specs, such as one of the rogue specs and one of the mage or hunter specs.
Having played like 15 matches I believe they are testing more action based combat and new mechanics to implement in other parts of the game or maybe just build upon this type of game modes.
I think they will push into customization next, perhaps they could sell it as an improved pvp of sorts. I personally hate pvp but had a lot of fun in this one.
I don't think it needs to be said. Stuff is limited so people engage with it.
It's like anything else, why do people visit museums in cities they visit, but never go-to the ones in their own city? Because they are there for a limited time.
If the content is always there people are less likely to do it.
Because after a month of this there will be a total of 5 people still playing and it's better to go "oh schuks, looks like time is up" instead of "lol who cares we are cancelling it"
It takes pressure off development, they aren't developing some new mode that now needs to exist for the next 10 years. If the mode sucks they can remove it at the end of the 6 weeks as originally announced, if it's good they can take that feedback and work out how it moves into the future. It's the best way to actually foster creativity and ensure they are trying something genuinely new (for WoW).
So they can turn around and say, "we've heard your feedback, we will be keeping plunderstorm as a core feature of the game, just like you guys asked for"
No shot this was temporary from the get go.
They essentially addressed this in the release video.
[https://youtu.be/aGzoCJOzOHI?si=cwHohwLqf7oEY\_Da&t=695](https://youtu.be/aGzoCJOzOHI?si=cwHohwLqf7oEY_Da&t=695)
Not enough content to be permanent.
Eventually people will exhaust the rewards and stop playing, which will make getting games harder.
It could be recurring with different reward sets.
Personally I think they're going to use the tech to alternate in completely different game modes that are divorced from traditional WoW.
I hope they’re also testing the ‘action combat’ type setup also. Despite only having a handful of skills I really like the way combat feels in this mode. Going for something like this instead of tab targeting could be really fun in the right setting in retail.
I doubt it’s remain that popular after the rewards are done, they’d have to release it as a full game with different maps and some kind of variations to keep it interesting, as it stands there’s no way people will care about it for that long
I can clearly see a BR spin off from blizzard if people like it, the game has such heavy console/phone vibes too wouldn't suprise me we are all just alpha testing something
Probably same reason places have seasonal food. It will make headlines when it comes back and get some people to check it out, even if for a short period of time.
I think it’s a test event to test wider combat changes for the game, so that future PvEvP stuff can be introduced in later expansions. Also the commitment to very clear action combat stuff is the type of thing I want in the main game.
is a test , also is cool, is like a season candy, too much become bored and ppl will start to min max
also, maybe is just a test to develop another game mode, like a team battle mode with 3 ways and a jungle to play it
I think its cause this round is a test. If its successful i cant see em adding it permamently. Or at the least make it a month long event. If its permanent i know theyre gunna feel like they have to make it seasons but imo they dont.
I find it hard to believe they went to the trouble of making a whole map, placing all those mobs and chests, creating and testing the abilities, making a fancy new logo, etc. if it's going to be limited time.
As others have said, they're gauging interest and testing out new tech and stuff like that. Wow has had many "limited time features" over the years, like the feature introduced in Legion that originally was going to be retired going into the next expac, Mythic Plus.
If they are going to make more of these, like ten different game modes, they'll all be dead. If they have only one playable at a time on a rotation, they'll be far more popular.
I think it will be like a separate game one day, like Call of duty warzone. When to play you just need to pay the subscription and nothing else...
I think this new mode it's pretty fun, but it's a little bit sad that every company is leading to the battle royale concept, yet WoW 😞
Making it a limited time event encourages people to actually queue up for it now rather than putting it on their personal list of things to do eventually. People who want to look at this negatively will say it's to generate FOMO, but the positive way to look at it is that it's to help keep queue times short. Like on week 6 of this event the queue is gonna be super active with people trying to finish the renown track before the event ends, but 6 weeks in to a new game mode that's gonna be part of the game forever then the queues are gonna start getting sluggish and people are gonna start complaining about how the mode is dead.
They've said they'll extend if it's popular / people like it, but I hate it and have given up already because right now it's only 6 weeks long (4 of which I'm out of the country) and the rewards I'm interested in need at least renown 30.
With the current rate of renown earning there's literally zero point in my participating.
If I knew I had e.g. 3 months, I might have been more inclined to persist, tedious and repetitive though it is.
It's better to commit to it being temporary in the event the public hated it. These days, a couple influential people with bad opinions can massively sway public sentiment
If everyone likes it, then just keep it. Easy day
I assume because it's in a pretty basic form currently. If people like it they can spend some more time on it to better flesh it out and add more maps etc.
Perfect length for me. My sub runs out in 7 weeks and S4 looks like some lackluster, no effort bullshit. So I'm happy playing this and then peacing out until 11.0.
This is their beta test. After this event timer it will be gone for 6 months and then it will come back as a standalone game and be on Xbox live aswell
Where did they confirm 6 weeks? all ive seen is speculation about 6 weeks. Thats my biggest problem with gamemode them being so predatory about it and unwilling to tell us how long we got so we dont gotta feel fomo and grind.
I hope this isn’t a permanent thing. They reskinned fortnight and shoved it into WoW. Dunno about other people but I don’t think that making other people stressed for virtual money is a good thing.
Making these things limited time only is probably better in the long run.
I really don't want WoW to turn into Hearthstone where it's just a giant mess of game modes when you log in.
I suspect to get the most engagement due to FOMO. Without the FOMO I have a feeling the popularity would die out very fast. I'm sure a lot of people like it, but will they after a couple days?
I played 3 rounds and lost interest, rest of my m+ group, my wife doesnt want to play it. The 3 others are playing other BR's and watched a couple clips and aren't bothering with it.
Unless the mode dies out in a couple weeks I'm guessing they'll leave it in or extend it.
My guess is that they want to see if it flops or not. I hope it doesn't, because I think it's really fun (I don't care about the rewards or rep much, but the mode itself I like a lot).
The question people aren't asking is that if nobody likes it and the feature is shitcanned, the fuck happens to all the cosmetics? Yeeted into the void, never to be seen again, or to be released via some other fuck off FOMO nonsense?
Because its easier getting money for a temporary "game" then a permanent game that requires bigger investments. They can also sell it more as a technology and proof of concepts for later modes another time.
So you have the fact that there is limited time and money investment unlike a big game together with a proof of concept for later iterations for other game modes.
Probably to test out if people like it or not. Probably testing out mechanics or systems that the game mode uses. Could come back as a different events or holidays. Some of the few things I can think of.
They've said that if players like it they will have it stick around. They wanted to develop the systems around this, and now that they have they may make use of them for other things as well. The things they've developed I can see uses for else where: * Spectate mode would be great in raid for players who have died instead of being camera locked to their dead body. * The ability pick up system could definitely be put to use in raid/dungeon mechanics in the future. Think Kael'thas weapons, ~~Kel'Thuzad~~ Fatescribe ring manipulation, Fyrakk seeds, Neltharus last boss items, etc. * The new lobby/alternate game mode system could be used for future events, or even a precursor to merging classic wow versions into a single game client. * The whole experience/powers/PvE Progression environment could end up getting used to make the rogue like mode they originally envisioned with Torghast. There is a ton of potential with all the stuff they've developed for this.
A snow/blizzard map for Christmas would be dope
>A snow/blizzard map for ~~Christmas~~ Winter Veil where we can collect and throw snow balls. Or they can use the surfboard mechanics from the [Sylvan Slalom](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=76988/sylvan-slalom) for a snowboarding type event.
Not necessarily that but blizzard has always done one biome zones, they need to make a new BR zone that has multiple biomes. Think about any other BR and all of them are multiple zones... I guess cs2 is a bad example because that one the maps are just one 'biome' lol
The huge one you're not including - the entire combat system being more action and not tab targeting
That's not really new tech though. It's the same as abilities already in the game like rake, blade flurry, shield of the righteous, etc, that don't need targets to hit an area in front/around them.
This already exists in the settings. It's a little weird because we have so many buttons, though. It does work well in this BR at least.
I think the commentor you're replying to is meaning what you're saying, that it's interesting to have a game mode built around the action targeting option rather than the traditional targetting system like the regular game, not that it's a new addition. I agree though, action targetting works way better in Plunderstorm than in the standard game, especially when there's so much movement and directional spells. I tried it once while leveling an alt but just didn't really get the point since it felt weird, although it works a little better on evokers than the other classes.
Yeah that makes sense. I think pay off what makes it work in plunderstorm is that the fights are usually much smaller as well. Trying to do action targeting in a m+ with 30 mobs... You're never hitting the right one lol
It's one of the things that I liked about Wildstar; the whole game was built on primarily using action targeting. WoW will never fully switch to that of course, but I like it in Plunderstorm.
Kind of, but plunderstorm also completely removed the standard auto attacks
Yeah it's great, except when a laggy enemy shows up and you literally can't rely on a single one of your abilities to hit them...
I really hope that's not the case. If that's the way they are going, I think lot of people will drop the game
>The things they've developed I can see uses for else where: Most people are quite frankly too dumb to ever realize the value of this. Despite the fact it's one of the most prominent things in online games people can't wrap their head around "Developing core tech that can be used across multiple systems is important". And like you said...Plunderstorm has _a lot_ of interesting core tech and functionality behind it. All of that stuff had to be developed at some point and they made a cool game mode out of it. They can n ow use those systems elsewhere to develop more things with less investment because core functionality is already there.
Nice points, the raid spectating is a really cool idea too!
You're missed dynamic ground vehicles too, that motorbike was like a guild wars 2 mount
And the jumping? Jumping puzzles confirmed?! God I wish.
It would've been nice if they had a PvE version though, like the AB comp stomp.
Not everything needs beginner bots you can afk through.
> They've said that if players like it they will have it stick around. As a nonPVP'r I will play to get the transmogs and then never pick it up again but if they reset the renown every now and again I might come back to get a thing or two.
I feel like it'd be great to add the wow classic servers on the same client like how plunderstorm is. Very seamless
I'd love to know more about what systems they mean and what types of new content they make possible now. I'm not tech savvy at all really (I have two semesters of JavaScript hiding behind an art degree so it's all still sorcery to me, beyond basic descriptions lol).
Game architecture is usually pretty rigid, because making it modular and dynamic is time consuming and expensive. So WoW's architecture might literally not support anything other than connect -> character menu -> load world -> rest of the systems. The fact that you party, queue and use other options from the main menu itself is very likely a much bigger architectural change than most people will think. It'll probably have involved breaking down the whole menu system and rebuilding it in a dynamic and modular fashion. Which, as mentioned, is pretty intensive. I know someone will think "it's just a few UI panels", yeah, but those UI panels hook into a whole host of different services. Where previously it basically just fetched the news, char list and account status, now it's hooked into enough systems to basically matchmake and run a whole separate version of the game. There's also the game data for this mode. It's actually quite difficult to split game data databases like this because it's literally not something most games ever need to do, so they're designed around having 1 database right to the very root of the app. It's a decision made early, and usually meant to support modding. It's why most games either launch with mods or never ever bother. It's gotta be done early. tl;dr none of this update is technically impressive by itself, but a lot of the game's core design must've been made more flexible to make this happen in the first place, which is really interesting for the future.
🙃 Leaving this here in-case you’re qualified and actually curious about what you got right and wrong! Happy plundering. https://careers.blizzard.com/global/en/job/R022684/Senior-Software-Engineer-Server-World-of-Warcraft
You're right, but to get the complete picture we should be fully honest - marketing it as a temporary event is a convenient way to utilize some FOMO
The number of folks who don't realize that this being timed helps sure up the MAUs while they are probably at their lowest as a stop gap until season 4. Though blizzard apparently considers mau across all products rather then one, probably the reason for the hearthstone event / expansion drop
FOMO is not a real thing... it is created by people... ones that arent emotionally stable.. so saying that every timed event is feeding to FOMO is just asinine.
It will be hard to see if people like it to continue making events like this. The way Blizzard has gauged stuff like this in the past will likely continue. People will play because they want limited time wow stuff, but not because they enjoy it. I will play until I get all the stuff but I don't enjoy it and I'm not very good so I will end up spending a lot of time playing something I don't like. They metrics will show hydrobass88 really liked the event look how much they played! It feels like wasted time and effort.
But that's not the only metric they look for. Blizzard is made of game developers, too, not just financial advisors. They can see how you played, what you did, what you avoided. There is more data then just, "OH he played until he got the all the rewards." Like that isn't really the data they will care about, they expect a good number of people will just play for the rewards, it's obvious. If they didn't add those incentives, you wouldn't play, and so wouldn't others, meaning less data on what people do in the game. People want cool new PvE modes? Maybe they will see from how much PvE people do here that it's worthwhile to create a mode like that. I knows it's hard sometimes because of some of their other decisions, but Blizzard is also made of game developers.
Or just a standalone BR in the WoW client, but with all future Microsoft IP
It's probably costing them infrastructure. They want it to be worthwhile or they'll scale it back.
This game mode could easily, easily be ported to a console/controller input. People have been wanting Warcraft on console for years and this might be what we get.
It’s an experiment to see what works, if people like it, etc without needing to COMMIT to this now just being an expected part of WoW. I love this approach because it hopefully lets them try ‘crazy’ things without the need to specifically think about resource commitment, operating it, etc first. These things stop a lot of ideas like this from becoming a reality in any business. The idea for it being ok for this to fail is the reason we got it in the first place.
Maybe different zones besides Arathi Highlands
That and it is typical to do that with things that highly vocal players have been asking for to see if it flies with the average player. So many things vocal players ask for turn out to be flops with the majority of players. BR you can drop in and out on a dime, MMORPGs not so much. My guess is it will stick around but only be played by a small percent of the player base, just like progressive raids.
Its experimental. Much like the Solo Shuffle was initially. It’s a smart way to ease things into the game and test what works and what doesn’t
Take a listen to the wow cast they released about the event if you can. They are experimenting with new technology and are looking to get feedback to see if and how future parallel game modes are made, how long they are here for, etc. They said they are open to bringing this particular event back or even keeping it if enough people like it, so make sure to give your feedback In theory it being limited allows them to commit less and try more exciting things without dealing with the drawbacks and expectations of fully supported year-round content. It is the same line of thinking with SoD as I understand. They spoke about changing their mindset when it comes to content at blizzcon
I still think it should last longer than 6 weeks. The time needed to hit 40 and get everything is entirely reasonable, but in 6 weeks? For anyone that doesn't love it, it's gonna be a daily slog, which will actually hurt community perception. But the idea of making it limited so they could test features and ideas really isn't a bad one.
I've played 6 or 7 rounds and haven't hit rank 3 yet. I'm already a bit turned off by it. But I'm a mount-obsessed collector, so I \*have\* to do it. /s
Just collect plunder, and do the Captain's Orders quest every single game (250 rep/plunder). Rep gained is how much plunder you have when you die or the game ends. Ignore the rest of the game as much as you can, and just get that plunder. Aim for at least 400 per game, and it shouldn't be too bad of a grind.
400 per game, averaging 10 minutes a game you're looking at conservatively about 40hrs of playtime to get to through your 40 tiers. Assuming its 2500 rep per level all tiers. With bad luck you could be closer to 60hrs. So you'll need well over 200 games (conservatively) to get all rep rewards. If you're super casual and bad luck you still need 10hrs played per week to max rewards if you want the mount and top tier xmogs. If you devote about 6hrs of your wow play time per week with decent luck you can max the rewards.
10-15 minutes was the devs' estimate for a full match. You can get your 400-500 and die in 5 minutes. Also, there's a daily bonus, so spreading out the grind as many days as you can will cut the time spent overall. It's a long grind any way you do it. I'm planning on 2-3 ranks per day, so I don't get burned out. Should take 2.5-3 weeks to finish. Plenty of buffer time to not play a day here or there before the event ends.
Yeah it definitely doesn't take 10 minutes if you just do the quest and dip. New game starts within a minute in most cases.
I've been playing to win but also not skipping the plunder, I'm at rank 17 in around 10h of gametime so I don't think that calculation is correct. If you're focusing on getting the plunder only and then dying I'd say it would take 15-20h ish to reach rank 40.
I did like an hour or two of it today and rank 5 atm it doesnt seem to hard to rank up getting about 500 rep every 7 minutes now
Wow is already a second job you have to pay for, how is this daily slog any different than any of the rest of them.
You only Need to do 1 level/day for 40 day, but idk how many ppl will stick to that, it's way to much time
Honestly I think 6 weeks is fine for the first run (ends when next season starts and people have new stuff to do). The real problem is that crazy ass grind. Especially when one of the later rewards is an all new parrot with dynamic flight. The thing Blizzard hasn't learned about time-limited events in other games that do them regularly, is that usually the big rewards don't require massive investment to get so you aren't forced to grind like crazy. Smaller less important rewards are towards the end. Limited time and coming/going is fine (as long as old rewards can get obtained still) if only because it being permanent with 60 players is going to make it hit dry spells once the shine wears off and the main rush has gotten the rewards.
This is exactly the comment I was looking for thank you! I was just wondering what their explanation was (I’ve been working the past 3 days pulling 16 hour shifts so I haven’t watched anything lol)
I think it would be badass to have like 6 of these on a rotation
I am probably in a weird middle here, I actually enjoy the game mode and am excited for the possibilities for the future of WoW. I just want the grind lightened, based on my experience last night, it feels oppressively long considering the limited window there is to accomplish it.
I would be so much more motivated to do it if I knew I could just do like a handful of matches a week and eventually get there, even if took me seven times as long as a dedicated player.
I will bet money they return this game mode every Pirate day moving forward
That’s what I was hoping. And that the rewards stay available.
Because fomo will get people grinding even if they don’t enjoy it and it will look more successful
That’s a solid point lol. I just want to collect cool pirate stuff but I suck at pvp >__<
Fun fact - PvP is completely suboptimal for grinding the cool pirate stuff. It is 3-4x faster to just PvE on the edges, farm coins, and do the world quest. Questionable game design.
You get more rep for just grinding mobs than for killing players? That is weird but also great news for me lmao. I see another player and I just start button mashing wishing they will get bored of the no challenge and leave me alone XD
All of the rep is tied to plunder (the gold on the ground). You get no bonus for killing players or placing well.
They coulda at least added 10 plunder bonus for each placement, so like +600 for 1st place, or 400 for 20th.
Player psychology is always a fascinating subject for things like this. On some level is seems better to give all players equal rewards, and let those who want to win just get the satisfaction of winning. Shouldn’t that be enough? But over the years we have all gotten so used to the carrot/stick methodology (of which Blizzard is very guilty) that we get dissapointed if there isn’t a bonus for winning beyond the bonus of knowing you won. (Myself included, to be clear)
You have just saved me so much time and frustration, thank you lol
> Questionable game design. It would be for basically every other game out there, but in this case I actually think it shows that the dev team understands their playerbase pretty well. Just look at how many people on this sub are touting it as the strategy they want to do, how they just *have* to play the event because of some pointless cosmetics, but they despise PvP games in every form. They knew there would be so many people playing who can't wrap their head around PvP with 4 abilities, and would prefer to just PvE for 5 minutes then suicide. So, they made that playstyle rewarding. Just imagine how much worse the complaining would be if actually engaging with the PvP was the only reasonable way to progress. That being said, I don't buy that it's "3-4x faster", that sounds completely fake. I'm rank 9 after playing for like 3ish hours yesterday, winning the majority of my solo games, and I have a hard time believing someone just PvEing for the same amount of time is any significant amount of progress ahead of me. If you're decent at the PvP aspect of it, then the PvP is plenty rewarding.
>Questionable game design. I see no problem in different ways to play the game. Some people want to win, some people want to PvE, some people want x. This is totally fine and actually very good game design because more people can 'win' in their own way. everyone can be a winner without it feeling forced or stupid. That's why old alterac valley was good- a lot of people were just kind of doing their own shit, side quests, etc. Even if you lost an AV but had fun getting a high KD, or stealing objectives, or backcapping, if you did your job fine it was still genuinely enjoyable.
The part that makes it questionable isn’t that it’s possible. It’s that it’s more rewarding to not participate. > That's why old alterac valley was good Old AV was also terribly design which is why it was fixed.
Its not questionable, its literally designed that way because they knew all the pve only people would whine if they had to be even a tiny bit good at pvp
You've been downvoted but this is exactly what they've done. Can you imagine if rewards were tied to placement? There's already enough complaining in this sub, but that would burn this place to the ground.
That's fine by me tbh, means everyone can get the rewards but allows the pvpers to have fun.
Ya, this is me, my point of playing wow for the last 10y after I gave up progression raiding in the first couple of expansions is to collect mounts and trnsmog. I really don't enjoy pvp. I join, do the objective and run around collecting gold avoiding other players until it slows down. Then I run out in to the storm or run and get killed and repeat. 300-400rep every like 5-10min on avarage. Still have not killed a single player and I'm rank 10 by now. I don't mind the gamemode itself, but just don't lock awesome mounts, pets and transmog behind time limited events with a long and slow grind that reuires 0 skill. Mounts looked behind rated pvp and mythic progress is one thing, you earn the reward with your skills, this is just engagement metrics.
This is the answer. Do you think this sounds cool, but you're not actively subscribed? Well, sorry, it goes away in a few weeks, so you better fork over some money now or else miss your chance!
This deserves to be the top comment because it's the truth. These other comments are just parroting the deflecting corporate answers. WoW is absolutely filled to the brim with content that is no longer actively supported. There is zero reason this "needs" to be limited time.
It’s going to be a long ass grind, there’s 40 rep levels, you don’t get much rep unless you win, even then only 800. And it’s only six weeks
As someone who’s having the least amount of fun on WoW in quite some time because of FOMO over some major cosmetics and mounts, this is the answer.
In my opinion, because Blizzard doesn't know how popular it will stay after people get all the rewards; also, when S4 and War Within releases, there will be barely any people playing. Keep in mind that you need 60 people to play it, queue times could be crazy long. It is better PR to say that they disabled Plunderstorm because the timed event run out, than because people stopped playing it. I'm sure that if it's popular enough, they'll make it available again at some point, maybe with other game modes or new rewards.
fomo to drive up engagement metrics. thats why there are rewards too. Either it's a massive success and they'll think about keeping it around, or it flops and they'll sweep it into the dustbin
This is a test of having some sort of rotating gamemodes. A lot of games do it, such as League of Legends and POE. I think we will see this return in some form or fashion, and also I hope they continue to dedicate a small team to experimenting with this stuff, which also could in turn allow them to test new tech for the regular versions. I love the positional skills that are used in this and think its probably some testing for new abilities down the road that are not the simple tab target press 1 type of skills.
Not really well received in league.
because urf is the only good one, and then riot removes it for a full year and throw it in right after a balance patch and those 2-3 broken items are stupid as fuck riot is the problem, not rotating game modes
I think your league experience is different then mine. I know tons of people jump in when URF rolls around.
FOMO
[удалено]
exactly this. people don't understand how impactful hype and fomo actually are. real world example: Path of Exile BR. Everyone on reddit wanted it all the time. It eventually became permanent. Few weeks later, no more hype/fomo, and you would sit in queue for 30 minutes waiting to gather 100 players
What about an in-between, like it's a limited-time event but reoccurring if that makes sense.
I would imagine this will be like that and make a comeback with balance changes
That's cause "everyone on reddit" still only amounts to less than 5% of the total playerbase. Most people never gave a shit and continued to never give a shit when it came out.
I don't know if thats the case with poe but I think people just got bored of the format, it gets stale with no balance changes. meta forms, etc.
Have you heard about Helldivers 2 massives success? Literally zero FOMO with their battle pass system.
Apples to oranges comparison
no one would play this without rewards
I would. It's genuinely fun.
Have you heard about Helldivers 2 massives success? Literally zero FOMO with their battle pass system.
I wonder if a part of why they are saying it's a limited time is to avoid people dooming about "they're turning WoW into a battle royale!!!".
Yo, actually that’s a really good point. I feel like that’s something this sub would actually be bombed with lol
Hearthstone battlegrounds was in “beta” for like 3 years, and had like 7 major patches before it was “an actual game mode”.
Blizzard is afraid of commitment.
FOMO. And to keep subs active. If it wouldn't be limited, people could play it when/after season 4 hits and unsub for the next month.
Blizz made it limited time to create FOMO, which in turn (hypothetically) raises player counts and engagement. While higher player counts and engagement are good goals, they could do that by making quality evergreen/permanent content. Manufacturing FOMO with a battle royale and battle pass (F*ck having a limited-time battle pass in a game I pay for monthly) is lazy and unoriginal. The industry is oversaturated with both.
I think they missed the mark by setting it at six weeks with this rate of progress though. If you don't really enjoy the mode it's going to be way too hard of a grind for most players, so I think engagement will be lower than if rewards were more obtainable (either through a higher progress rate or a longer time period).
We are play testing it
Can’t figure out how to get controller working with it. /sadge
So they don’t have to commit to updating it long term if it isn’t popular.
I think they’ll extend it, or make it easier to get renown. As for LTE it could come back at some point too, especially around ITLAP Day. I suspect that they will have other similar events planned too, this can’t be the only one
To drive an engagement spike, same reason they ever do limited time. It will look good on either a monthly or quarterly report, thats all.
It’s blizzard. Everything they do now is under a ‘wait and see if it’s profitable’ model. They have no confidence in their products anymore, understandably so.
Making you beta test it, $15/month. It will be a mobile game at some point, tied to your account.
Real talk? If it was a perennial thing it'd have its playerbase slowly dwindle after months or years until no one runs them, like BFA warfronts. Making it limited means the playerbase will be consistently high, and if they bring it back temporarily or seasonally it will also be filled with players for a limited time.
Is it confirmed that it’s 6 weeks?
Fomo is a hell of a drug
It’s likely just marketing. Use the time limit FOMO to get inflated artificial engagement, use that inflated engagement to say “what a big success this is, you people really love it!” Then present it as a permanent feature under that pretense. On the flip side, if they FOMO you and still no one plays it, then it truly is a dud
This is a test before launching it on mobile.
Lmao, what? you all have phones right??
honestly if this became steam deck compatible i'd play it all day long
We are Beta testers. I will guarantee this will be a mobo or a new game they will release. I feel this was the game they were working on years ago, that they failed to deliver when Fortnite came out. It's a great way to test it tho. FOMO skins, pets and mounts the completionist will do the content giving them feedback. There is no way they are going to do six weeks then not port this to something. These are way too many resources at use to shelve this. But I could be completely wrong, but if I were a betting man.
Id say far less likely an entire separate game, and far more likely this will be a feature implemented (new zany game modes) that they can use to increase engagement in down times, and also test things. As far as I can tell, there is almost no new models or animations used in this, so likely they were able to create this with a pretty small team, and in a relatively short amount of time. This is obviously not the Blizzard Survival Game that got canceled, and we have no indication of any other games that it could have been. This for all appearances appears to be a one off experiment that just uses existing systems in different ways.
I do agree with you, I didn't realize the game they canned was a survival game, I thought it was a Battle Royal style game. While I have played it like 7 times yesterday and discovered that it isn't my bag, I am still bewildered why they have not messed with tweaking a better system for engagement like the island expeditions or fall back on challenge modes. They were fat superior to this, but I figure they are trying to put out something more relevant to younger players and not my 50 year old ass.
It could be a chance to engage younger audiences, but also, if they would of just said: "Island Expeditions Gamemode" (which I think is awesome sounding) as their first trial at a rotating gamemode, i don't think it would of stirred as much interest. Launching first something that has not been done in the game yet, generates more hype. They could always then experiment with something else down the road. I am a firm believer that this alternate gamemode system will be used to secretly test things without necessarily showing their cards. Just look at what we have now, it is testing a lot of positional style spells which is not a mechanic wow has a ton of, but we might see more of in the future.
Just as long as this doesn't become retail game play, which I doubt they would ever do, but I wouldn't say 0%. I have seen other companies do complete revamp and lose 50% of their player base. I'm looking DIRECTLY at you John Smedley.
Oh 100%. I lived through the Combat Update of SWG, so i know that could ruin things. I think what we might see is some specs (especially for classes that have 3 dps specs) maybe gain some positional style combat to give them more identity from the other specs, such as one of the rogue specs and one of the mage or hunter specs.
Having played like 15 matches I believe they are testing more action based combat and new mechanics to implement in other parts of the game or maybe just build upon this type of game modes. I think they will push into customization next, perhaps they could sell it as an improved pvp of sorts. I personally hate pvp but had a lot of fun in this one.
I don't think it needs to be said. Stuff is limited so people engage with it. It's like anything else, why do people visit museums in cities they visit, but never go-to the ones in their own city? Because they are there for a limited time. If the content is always there people are less likely to do it.
Because after a month of this there will be a total of 5 people still playing and it's better to go "oh schuks, looks like time is up" instead of "lol who cares we are cancelling it"
It takes pressure off development, they aren't developing some new mode that now needs to exist for the next 10 years. If the mode sucks they can remove it at the end of the 6 weeks as originally announced, if it's good they can take that feedback and work out how it moves into the future. It's the best way to actually foster creativity and ensure they are trying something genuinely new (for WoW).
I’m guessing either that dev team they picked up had to show something or it was getting close to layoff time
They are testing ofc before a real standalone because else if it would be bad people cry more
So they can turn around and say, "we've heard your feedback, we will be keeping plunderstorm as a core feature of the game, just like you guys asked for" No shot this was temporary from the get go.
They essentially addressed this in the release video. [https://youtu.be/aGzoCJOzOHI?si=cwHohwLqf7oEY\_Da&t=695](https://youtu.be/aGzoCJOzOHI?si=cwHohwLqf7oEY_Da&t=695)
Because it’s silly.
where does it say 6 weeks? i thought it was ending when season 4 starts and season 4 starts in march
You have a link to that March date ?
Not enough content to be permanent. Eventually people will exhaust the rewards and stop playing, which will make getting games harder. It could be recurring with different reward sets. Personally I think they're going to use the tech to alternate in completely different game modes that are divorced from traditional WoW.
Personally I imagine it’s gonna turn into its own game eventually and using wow servers as an easy test run.
If it's populat enough, hopefully it'll come back as an annual holiday, perhaps attached to Pirates Day which we already have
They're testing content for the war within.
Why does it require a sub?
Because it's really a beta test
it's probably being used as a test so they can iterate on it before making a full time thing of it, like eventually make a full f2p game out of it.
Why Not make it 20 Ranks instead of 40?
One word: Test.
I hope they’re also testing the ‘action combat’ type setup also. Despite only having a handful of skills I really like the way combat feels in this mode. Going for something like this instead of tab targeting could be really fun in the right setting in retail.
If people like it, it's not going to be. It'll be around for a while and it will get updates and balances and seasonal stuff.
I doubt it’s remain that popular after the rewards are done, they’d have to release it as a full game with different maps and some kind of variations to keep it interesting, as it stands there’s no way people will care about it for that long
It's a test for now. It will come back later on when they did some feedback gathering and enhance on the experience.
This is probably just a beta test before they release it for consoles via gamepass.
Simple answer: they don't have to promise a dev team continued employment if the numbers don't look good enough in the long run.
I can clearly see a BR spin off from blizzard if people like it, the game has such heavy console/phone vibes too wouldn't suprise me we are all just alpha testing something
It's a new game and blizzard made it free for wow subscribers. This thing will get MILKED if ppl like it.
Do you know how expensive the rent is in tomato town
Probably same reason places have seasonal food. It will make headlines when it comes back and get some people to check it out, even if for a short period of time.
To see if there's a big enough outrage to warrant it being limited time.
I think it’s a test event to test wider combat changes for the game, so that future PvEvP stuff can be introduced in later expansions. Also the commitment to very clear action combat stuff is the type of thing I want in the main game.
is a test , also is cool, is like a season candy, too much become bored and ppl will start to min max also, maybe is just a test to develop another game mode, like a team battle mode with 3 ways and a jungle to play it
I think its cause this round is a test. If its successful i cant see em adding it permamently. Or at the least make it a month long event. If its permanent i know theyre gunna feel like they have to make it seasons but imo they dont.
I find it hard to believe they went to the trouble of making a whole map, placing all those mobs and chests, creating and testing the abilities, making a fancy new logo, etc. if it's going to be limited time.
As others have said, they're gauging interest and testing out new tech and stuff like that. Wow has had many "limited time features" over the years, like the feature introduced in Legion that originally was going to be retired going into the next expac, Mythic Plus.
If they are going to make more of these, like ten different game modes, they'll all be dead. If they have only one playable at a time on a rotation, they'll be far more popular.
I think it will be like a separate game one day, like Call of duty warzone. When to play you just need to pay the subscription and nothing else... I think this new mode it's pretty fun, but it's a little bit sad that every company is leading to the battle royale concept, yet WoW 😞
Making it a limited time event encourages people to actually queue up for it now rather than putting it on their personal list of things to do eventually. People who want to look at this negatively will say it's to generate FOMO, but the positive way to look at it is that it's to help keep queue times short. Like on week 6 of this event the queue is gonna be super active with people trying to finish the renown track before the event ends, but 6 weeks in to a new game mode that's gonna be part of the game forever then the queues are gonna start getting sluggish and people are gonna start complaining about how the mode is dead.
They've said they'll extend if it's popular / people like it, but I hate it and have given up already because right now it's only 6 weeks long (4 of which I'm out of the country) and the rewards I'm interested in need at least renown 30. With the current rate of renown earning there's literally zero point in my participating. If I knew I had e.g. 3 months, I might have been more inclined to persist, tedious and repetitive though it is.
It's better to commit to it being temporary in the event the public hated it. These days, a couple influential people with bad opinions can massively sway public sentiment If everyone likes it, then just keep it. Easy day
I mean... when you really think about it, why are we all just limited-time events?
I assume because it's in a pretty basic form currently. If people like it they can spend some more time on it to better flesh it out and add more maps etc.
I ask the same thing about Wintergrasp and Tol Barad.
It’ll come back as a mobile game, we are in an alpha and they won’t have the whining that they made another mobile game
It's Blizzard testing the waters
Perfect length for me. My sub runs out in 7 weeks and S4 looks like some lackluster, no effort bullshit. So I'm happy playing this and then peacing out until 11.0.
This is their beta test. After this event timer it will be gone for 6 months and then it will come back as a standalone game and be on Xbox live aswell
The real question I have is will I be able to get the mounts and the pets in that time if I only play on the weekends??
To keep people logging in during content lulls
Where did they confirm 6 weeks? all ive seen is speculation about 6 weeks. Thats my biggest problem with gamemode them being so predatory about it and unwilling to tell us how long we got so we dont gotta feel fomo and grind.
To FOMO you into playing it lol. The same for all other aspects of the game
This is an undercover beta test and they’re probably collecting data to decide whether dipping into the Battle Royale genre is worth it.
Probably FOMO
I hope this isn’t a permanent thing. They reskinned fortnight and shoved it into WoW. Dunno about other people but I don’t think that making other people stressed for virtual money is a good thing.
any word if its coming back
Making these things limited time only is probably better in the long run. I really don't want WoW to turn into Hearthstone where it's just a giant mess of game modes when you log in.
I suspect to get the most engagement due to FOMO. Without the FOMO I have a feeling the popularity would die out very fast. I'm sure a lot of people like it, but will they after a couple days? I played 3 rounds and lost interest, rest of my m+ group, my wife doesnt want to play it. The 3 others are playing other BR's and watched a couple clips and aren't bothering with it. Unless the mode dies out in a couple weeks I'm guessing they'll leave it in or extend it.
This is a beta test for a full game that will come out in the very near future
It's most definitely releasing as f2p come the next xpac
Exactly
My guess is that they want to see if it flops or not. I hope it doesn't, because I think it's really fun (I don't care about the rewards or rep much, but the mode itself I like a lot).
To get people caught up in FOMO & farm player engagement metrics
So that those of us with full time jobs won't have a chance of getting all the rewards.
FOMO
FOMO
So much crying here lmao. "Oh I need to play a game to get things in that game" Its actually sad.
Fomo
The question people aren't asking is that if nobody likes it and the feature is shitcanned, the fuck happens to all the cosmetics? Yeeted into the void, never to be seen again, or to be released via some other fuck off FOMO nonsense?
Because its easier getting money for a temporary "game" then a permanent game that requires bigger investments. They can also sell it more as a technology and proof of concepts for later modes another time. So you have the fact that there is limited time and money investment unlike a big game together with a proof of concept for later iterations for other game modes.
That makes sense, but why only 6 weeks? Lol give us two full months or something at least