Has Blizzard Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew

With the continued wait for news on the expansion and the outlook being more and more likely that we will suffer well over a year with no content you have to wonder why is it taking so long.

When my source told me that the artwork was holding them up some months ago he and I had a long conversation about how they should have never let that happen.  The new character models should have never been something that were a selling point for the new expansion.  It should have been something we were told would be added as the expansion went on and then added as they were ready.  A few on release, another one or two during the first patch and then more with each patch until they were all added in.

But no, blizzard wanted them as something of a selling point for the expansion.  I can't say I blame them really being the coming expansion offers basically nothing else otherwise.  Sure, some new zones, some new levels, some new skills, and some new raids and dungeons.  But they are already ditching scenarios, which is a huge mistake in my opinion, and everything else outside of new levels is just "patch" material.  The new expansion offers us new character models and garrisons.  That is it, nothing more.

So how exactly are they biting off more than they can chew?  Well, being we are not currently playing the new expansion you have your answer there.  Those two new things they are actually adding could not be fine tuned well enough to meet a reasonable release schedule.

Mists added more to the game and it did not hang them up that long.  Even cataclysm offered a completely redesigned and remade old world that saw the world change, the quests change, the maps change and flight added and it did not take that as long.

Garrisons are a very ambitious endeavor, one I am honestly looking forward too, but it does not seem like they were capable of finishing them off in a reasonable time frame.  Between adding those and remaking the art for the characters we are set waiting for two things that are both throw away things. 

Once the expansion after warlords comes out garrisons will be gone and forgotten, a mistake in my opinion, because once again blizzard does not design to the big picture and will tie them to only one expansion and the other, the art, will look nice when we first see it but roughly 6.3 seconds after we log in and see what our characters look like we won't care any longer.  It will be a case of, oh, that look nice, now lets get to leveling, questing, dailies, dungeons, raids, etc.  It is not exactly a feature, more so a feature that should hold up the development and release of the game.

Blizzard could have just as easily not done character models and not added garrisons and just made it a slightly more advanced farm, which they already have designed, instead of the huge leap forward they they are doing for personal space, a sort of player housing thing.

They could have released the new zones, with new levels, and item squished redesigned skills and talents and let us get playing in those new dungeons and new raids with a new player vs player season.  This would have kept the player base happy, very happy.  All they want are things to do.

Would we like new character models?  Yes.  Would we like garrisons?  Yes.  But the question is, would we have rathered the expansion being released in march at the latest, as it should have been, or in november as it seems it will be?  March please.

Blizzard should have noticed that garrisons were holding them back, that the art work was holding them back, and instead of making an already disgruntled player base wait and get more upset with them they should have released new content.

Save the garrisons for a november patch, save the art work for a november patch, they should have released the game to keep the player base happy at a reasonable time, like in march.

Did blizzard bite off more than they could chew trying to get all these things ready?  I believe so.  They should have worked on the heart and soul of the game first.  The story, the zones, the leveling, the dungeons, the raids, the quests and added the "new content" later.

Think about it, even at its base, the basic stuff like leveling is going through a great deal of changes as it is.  With some stats being removed and other stats added, items being squished, talents being removed, talents being changed, talents being added, and so much more micro managing going on for this coming expansion, they had enough to worry about just to get out the simple stuff so we could do it.  Adding new leveling content has never been harder because we would be leveling through it with new stats, missing stats, new abilties, missing abilties, squished items, and it would all need to run smoothly to work.  Isn't that already a lot to ask of them?

Even if I say often that warlords is offering us nothing new really, and it isn't, it is not exactly offering us nothing at all, just nothing new but a lot of something adjusted.  There is a huge undertaking to the backbone of the game and how it works.  Not something you could call a feature, but something that was needed and apparently, something that was already a bit too much for them to handle.

I believe garrisons should have been held back for a later patch.  I believe the character models should have been released over time one at a time.  I believe everyone should have been working on the basic game to make it work and make it ready for release instead of making us wait.

So yes, I believe blizzard bit off more than they can chew.  Lets just hope it "feels" better when it is all done than the cataclysm redesign of the old world did, and just feel like a complete waste of time.

Only time will tell, but as it seems, blizzard is going to make us wait.  Maybe they are hoping if they make us wait long enough we might forget how much we hate being stuck in the middle of nothing with no new content for a year.

Hey, maybe that is the angle they are going for.  Release it as late as possible so we will just be happy to have something instead of complaining how late it was.  One problem, how many will be left to be happy when we had to wait so long.  Yes, they bit off more than they could chew.