Back on schedule?
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 27th 2007 at 1:50PM
There was a flood of patch 2.3 news yesterday, which almost certainly means the CMs hit some sort of release date for 2.3 info (not to mention that they said they'd talk about 2.3 after 2.2 released, though we didn't realize it would be the day after). At any rate, the CMs made a lot of people happy yesterday-- from numerous amazing class changes (Fear Ward! No Blind reagent!), to info about new Engineering flying mounts and daily PvP and cooking quests, 2.3 is looking pretty groovy all around. Finally, something to get excited about again! Sure, there's the next expansion, but it's tough looking forward to something Blizzard hasn't even designed yet.And the best news is that patch 2.3 is likely to show up sooner rather than later. Eyonix, at the very beginning of the big Blue forum rampage yesterday, once again cited voice chat and the new sound system as the reason for the long wait on 2.2. It wasn't a class balance or content patch, it was a completely technical one. And that's why it's been three months since new content. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard ever tries something technical like this again-- lots of players have asked about upgrading the graphical engine, but if their efforts on the sound engine are any indication, that's just too large an undertaking for them to handle while also being expected to release new content.
But hopefully 2.3 will make up for lost time-- while the coders were working on editing sound channels, hopefully the developers were thinking up new ways to make the classes more powerful and interesting. Of course they haven't announced any release dates (this is Blizzard, after all), but my guess is that we'll see 2.2.2 with a week or two, and 2.3 about a month or so after that, definitely before Christmas.
Filed under: Engineering, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Autumnbear Sep 27th 2007 2:42PM
Before Christmas!? Sweet!
That's like 3 more months of forum trolling to go until it's for-surely out! ^_^
Gotta love the vague-iety of Blizzards' release dates!
Autumnbear Sep 27th 2007 2:00PM
Before Christmas!? Sweet!
That's like 3 more months of forum trolling to go until it's for-surely out! ^_^
Gotta love the vague-iety of Blizzards' release dates!
Kyane Sep 27th 2007 2:13PM
Tigole posted: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778517774&sid=1&pageNo=16#317
saying that hopefully 2.3 would be on PTRs the first week of Oct.
talkingmike Sep 27th 2007 2:17PM
I think it is unfair to say WotLK is "not even designed yet." There is more design that has gone into it at this point than you or I will ever know; the time table for implementation is most likely what is causing hesitation on the part of Blizzard to release information. If they tell us something (everything they say is on the record, there is no concept of secrecy with this stuff), then we expect them to deliver. By keeping as many cards close to the vest as possible, they are protecting themselves from pissing and moaning about broken promises from the masses.
Maybe it is a quibble on my part on the definition of "design," but by saying it has not even been designed about seems a little brash.
Darius Sep 27th 2007 2:24PM
"And that's why it's been three months since new content."
-- Pretty sure that 2.1 was in May, that's actually four months. :(
robodex Sep 27th 2007 2:29PM
The reason a lot of people were pissed about 2.2 taking so long is that it obstensibly added nothing of value to the game. Voice chat is a nice feature, but people don't care about 2.2 rewriting the sound system or whatever--when Blizzard takes 2 months to release a new patch, people tend to expect 2 months worth of new stuff, not a patch that added virtually nothing to the game.
IMO if Zul'Aman is already done they should have simply delayed the patch another month and tested Zul'Aman. At least then when 2.2 hit there would be something new to do. As it is, this is probably the least exciting patch since the "Storms of Azeroth" patch that added weather to a handful of zones. At least that one added T0.5.
Autumnbear Sep 27th 2007 2:43PM
Whoops, double post. Damn e-mails...
Queuetip Sep 27th 2007 2:49PM
I find it very hard to believe a lot of those proposed changes will go live. Arcane Shot purging buffs? Elemental shamans with the biggest burst dmg in the game can now sustain that insane dmg, along with less threat!? Mages actually losing the damage tax and having a non-broken evocation? Seems like they took all of the complaining and compiled it into a big list and named it patch 2.3 notes.
Addie Sep 27th 2007 2:57PM
@2 the Tigole post above the one you linked is pretty encouraging - he talks about polishing 2.4...
Angry Joe Sep 27th 2007 3:07PM
According to this page:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/brewfest/
Brewfest starts October 2.
I guess 2.2.2 patch is this Tuesday.
Medros Sep 27th 2007 3:45PM
Type: Brewfest
Date: 2-16 October
I suspect 2.2.2 will be out on Tuesday, though the brewfest may get pushed back if there are unforeseen bugs.
Cool Mike Sep 27th 2007 4:31PM
Ok, so when do we get the xp increase? I have a 31 mage that i wanna level up =/
Jason Sep 27th 2007 6:43PM
Actually, a graphical update would be easier than the sound was. The graphics engine was developed in house; they know how it works, the ins and outs. The sound system wasn't, it's an outsourced 'COTS' product, commercial of the shelf. That makes things a lot more difficult when you try to wrap it into a 'homebrew' application like WoW.
Dawne Sep 27th 2007 11:37PM
I think that Blizzard should update the graphics engine. Sure, it could take a bit of time, but I think it would be well worth the effort. After all, we've had the same graphics now for 3 years or so and if they want this game to continue to prosper, a good course of action would be to add a) customization options to characters and b) updated graphics (and content, of course). The graphics update wouldn't have to be huge, but I'm sure they could make the game look really sweet if they put some time and money into it.
Paw Sep 28th 2007 10:35AM
I don't understand why Bliz can't have two or three patch teams working simultaneously. There could at least be a content team and a technical team. The tech team doing the sounds, video, whatever, while the content writing the dialogues and making changes to game mechanics. One PTR for the tech testing and one for the other.