Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Research like it's 1995
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 18th 2012 at 11:00AM
Do you like WoW Insider? Do you like WoW? Do you like the internet? Then you should be concerned about SOPA and PIPA, even if you're not living in the United States. Go read about them.
holtzmanneffect asked:
do you think the world will survive an entire day without Wikipedia? Some people on the Internet will have their first taste of a post-apocalyptic future tomorrow!
I didn't last very long. Thirty minutes in, I regressed to playing MindMaze.
Puntable asked:
Were there a lot of expectations that the previous expansions would happen sooner than they did? I'm not sure where this idea that MoP will be "soon" is coming from. Sure Blizzard recently said they *would like* to put expansions out faster, but they have been saying that since the release of the Burning Crusade. Is it all just a big pile of wishful thinking?
With every expansion (and some content patches), someone at Blizzard comments that the developers are trying to make releases more rapid -- less time between expansions, less time between content patches, and so on and so forth. Like you said, it never happens. I'm not getting my hopes up for a quick Mists of Pandaria release. We expected Cataclysm to arrive rapidly after patch 3.3, but we spent a full year raiding Icecrown Citadel.
After seven years of World of Warcraft, I'll believe a rapid release schedule when I see it. Blizzard's been trying to improve over the course of Cataclysm, but over World of Warcraft's entire lifetime, Blizzard has always been trending toward a slower release rate rather than a faster one, despite its stated goals. Blizzard's got great devs and I believe they are capable of speeding up their release schedule in a meaningful way, but they haven't managed it yet.
kaminari asked:
with account achievements in MoP, what does your magic 8 ball says about opening reputation stuff account wide once you unlock it with your first character?
How do you anticipate the raid finder working in the first tier of the new expansion? Run Heroics to gear for raid finder to gear for Normals?
The Raid Finder, I believe, is meant to be optional. You'll likely be able to go into normal difficulty raids with 5-man heroic gear and be able to progress without issue. The Raid Rinder will help, of course, but I don't think it will be mandatory.
@davegw asked:
Do you think they'll keep the same 10/25 man shared lockout system in Mists?
Yes.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 7)
Phil Jan 18th 2012 11:47AM
Thanks now I have Gangsta's Paradise stuck in my head!
Grovinofdarkhour Jan 18th 2012 11:54AM
In 1995 I began my final year of college. It seems like only yesterday.
Then I realize that kids born in 1995 are now legal drivers.
/cry
Kole Jan 18th 2012 12:02PM
In '95 i was playing MajorMud on a dialup BBS (14.4k baud FTW!)
Caylynn Jan 18th 2012 12:06PM
I was studying engineering at university in 1995, and spent WAY to much time chatting with friends on IRC. Ah, youth. The internet was still a bright, shiny new thing in 1995 (I was only introduced to it in 1993) and I was learning Linux, participating in usenet groups like alt.starfleet.rpg and chatting on IRC late into the night.
Pyromelter Jan 18th 2012 12:32PM
Holy crap Kole I was doing the same thing. I remember playing a missionary which I thought was awesome - a rogue with stealth that had some cleric healing spells. I remember getting the special missionary longsword, then dying and completely losing it, at which point I quit that game.
Thank goodness in MMO's nowadays you don't actually drop your weapons and/or inventory when you die. That sucked back in the day.
Tirrimas Jan 18th 2012 1:21PM
1995 was the year my oldest daughter was born. She's a junior in high school now. D:
Damn, I feel old; I graduated high school in 1987.
Drakkenfyre Jan 18th 2012 2:51PM
"Oh, why is that Warrior coming in my town portal? Why does he have 1 million hit points? Why is he shooting a fireball at me? He killed me in one hit. Now he's looting all of my equipment that I dropped. And my gold."
That sucked in Diablo, too.
Drakkenfyre Jan 18th 2012 3:30PM
Uh, reply meant elsewhere.
SamLowry Jan 18th 2012 6:19PM
Coolio? Really, anyone still remembers that song?
Now AMISH Paradise is a song that will live forever.
Rezai Jan 18th 2012 11:13AM
Is there another addon updater besides curse that is still being updated?
hicks Jan 18th 2012 12:56PM
Wowmatrix still works for about 10 addons, and WUU links to the download pages when you run the updater so have to do that part manually. Still easier than scanning your addons directory, searching on Curse/Google/Whatever, and downloading them.
zackwbrandon Jan 18th 2012 11:13AM
The problem with the logic that Blizzard will release Mists business as usuall is that they have sworn up and down that there will be no more content for Cataclysm. As one response noted yesterday, to change that plan would require diverting resources. Diverting resources only makes the wait longer. Further, and no one discusses this, but Blizzard's release schedule is now also the business of Activision and they do not like reallocating resources and putting off releases. I think it is safe to bet that Mists is out before or immediately after the Fire Festival.
Noyou Jan 18th 2012 12:14PM
First of all, when it comes to Blizzard releasing an expac, I think we can take logic out of it. It's either ready or it's not. Second, they can release MoP content early if they really needed to put something in. I don't remember exactly what it was (raid finder) but they already said they gave us something in 4.3. We also went pretty much a year on ICC, not sure a whole lot of people hit ruby sanctum.
zackwbrandon Jan 18th 2012 12:36PM
I agree that logic is... less than applicable to Blizzard's release schedules, it should be remembered that so far everything has been released within a certain number of months of each other.
As to Ruby Sanctum: even if no one did it, it counts as a content patch because it happened and it existed. If we didn't count the things that people did not do then PvP would be irrelevant to end game (less than 25% of players have ever done a rated battleground). And yet they divert many resources to sustaining it.
Further, we have another consideration that is only fair: subscription numbers are dropping. We have not yet learned what damage was done by TOR, but I've heard rumors of a half-million drop. That is managable for WoW, but in light of the preceding million drop, there have to be high level discussions about how to win them back. The first item on those discussions would likely be: how can we get Mists out faster?
I've never understood why the Project Management at Blizz has not reduced some major x-pac features to be patches .1, .2, and even .3. For example, pet battles could be patched in after the x-pac has dropped in order to prioritize resources. Granted I'm on the outside looking in, but it would save time to stop overloading x-pacs with new stuff to focus on getting them open instead (admittedly they may have to charge less).
wow Jan 18th 2012 2:48PM
As to Ruby Sanctum: Loved it. :)
Subscriptions:
I'd rather Blizz allow half a million to leave then release a product that was rushed and buggy. That would get more people to leave in the long term because they don't want to wait for hotfixes. I am willing to wait, albeit impatiently, for the next XPAC. As for reasons people leave, it happens with every XPAC. There was a drop off before Wrath and Cata release, then the numbers went up, then down after a time. Though, I believe we'll see an August release at this point, maybe September.
They have released stuff during patches for all XPACS. Granted most of the time they are Raids, BGs, World PvP Zones (Winterspring/Tol Barad), and client-side hotfixes. But there is almost always new content to be had during a major content patch.
Shinanji
Mr. Crow Jan 18th 2012 11:15AM
For the most part, the common idea that MoP will be out in Q2/Q3 2012 is based on the leaked Blizzard product schedule from awhile back. However, given that nearly everything on that slate has either slipped or has remained a mystery, it's harder to believe that it's still being kept to.
My personal guess is Q3, which would still put it faster than every other expansion, but I wouldn't be shocked if it slipped to Q4 or Q1 '13. There's not way to tell until there's another internal leak or Blizzard starts churning out information.
Shinae Jan 18th 2012 11:35AM
I agree... although, man, I really hope it will be in Q3 and not after.
I'm just listening to the latest WoW Insider Show now, and they bring up a small clue that MoP will not be coming out until Q3 at the earliest. The novel about Jaina has a release date of July 24, 2012. The novel will likely feature the destruction of Theramore, which is rumored to be the pre-Pandaria world event.
Compare that to the Shattering novel, released on October 19, 2010, about a month and a half before Cataclysm's release.
freebeatfly Jan 18th 2012 11:44AM
I second what Shinae says and would like to add that DS has 3 less bosses than ICC and with Raid Finder available everyone will have seen its insides many, many times. Enough to drive them insane (and to SWTOR/other) if they have to wait a year for MoP without any new content.
Pushing the new expansion to Q4 or 2013 would be disastrous for Blizzard.
Puntable Jan 18th 2012 11:51AM
The guy that originally posted that leak later admitted that it was a fake.
Alizabal Jan 18th 2012 11:16AM
I ***HATE*** SOPA and PIPA!