The WoW Insider Show Episode 233: Friends and family?
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 21st 2012 at 2:00PM
Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wowinsider.com!
Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:
Filed under: Podcasts, WoW Insider Show
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Barthol Feb 21st 2012 3:00PM
If they're saying they don't think the Friends and Family is coming until March then why does McCurley think the game is coming out in "a few" months. Is he referring to the open Beta or does he think the game itself is going to be out in "a few" months? I was under the impression the Beta test took many months to complete prior to release of the game but I could be confused on how long the beta testing usually lasts. Does anyone know a normal time for beta to last prior to release?
cromahr Feb 22nd 2012 8:31AM
Quote: "why does McCurley think the game is coming out in "a few" months."
I hope this does not sound too negative, but IMO, thats either a very optimistic guess, or simply wishful thinking. I sometimes roll my eyes at how much some people stick to the thing about Pandaria being out months earlier than Nov or Dec.
Sure, its understandable, people look forward, but even though Blizz said they "want to get new content out faster", they never really said the expansion would be out months earlier, did they? And just because they want to do it does not mean it refers to the expansion, or that it actually will work out that way.
I listened to last week's episode, and one of the guys actually thought that Amazon might have "guessed" the release date for the Jaina-novel. Sure, considering "The Shattering" came out a few weeks before Cata, and the fact that the postponing of the release of this book hints at a possible release in late summer or the fall, I thought that was kinda silly...that is not how it works.
Amazon doesnt guess release dates or throw darts at the calendar...when a publishing house sends them a list of upcoming release dates, they have an ETA date, which might be changed by the publishing house later.
Who knows whether the book comes out before the expansion, or how long before it (considering that the releases of some of the newer books seemed to be a bit off anyway), but I think trying to stick to the theory (or wish) for a very early MoP-release is just... something that should stop at some point.
We still have the whole beta phase plus the pre-expac-events, plus the press-thing in Marchso right now, it doesnt look like it will be very soon, and even though waiting sucks, I think the whole "Guys, maybe all this is just wrong info, and it will still come out this summer" is just... I dunno, silly sometimes.
Sorry if that sounded mean or anything, I just thought it sometimes is a bit ridiculous how people cling to the "summer release" thing and try to defend it any way possible, when we really don't know and all we can do is guess, and based on what we have now, I seems rather unlikely we will see a /May/June/July-release... =)
jallan8210 Feb 21st 2012 3:09PM
from what i can tell there is already an alpha going on especially with the post on mmo-champion
loukeda Feb 21st 2012 3:59PM
How could you not talk about druids and Symbolsis? That will be the coolest thing going in Mists
Blayze Feb 21st 2012 4:59PM
What the Alliance need to do? Well, that's the fastest email I've ever written (Since I'd had the content typed up for a good while already). Hopefully it gets read.
amkosh Feb 22nd 2012 3:04AM
I think that anyone who thinks that MoP will be live before next Nov/Dec is nuts. Given Blizzard's normal mode of operation, even that is not entirely sure. MoP needs to have content on the scale of Cataclysm's total work, except in this case it needs to be at the level of where most the player base is, so it all has to be new, and it has to be engaging. I still maintain that Blizzard forced Cata out because ATVI's CFO gave a pretty strong promise that WoW would release its xpac by end of CY 2010. And I think that much of Blizzard sees that as one of the reasons why Cata has tanked. So I expect a series of continuing betas with Blizzard not afraid to retune or rewrite the content that it sees not working.
They need to give people a few months of content that they can play through at launch of MoP or they're going to be bleeding even worse than they did after Cata. And the content needs to cater towards all their players, and while I see that the pet battles and the LFG daily heroic quests is something towards the casual, it likely needs to be much more.
Raids just won't do it for the majority of their players, even LFR, as many people want some content, but don't have the time to invest in it.
cromahr Feb 22nd 2012 8:35AM
I agree to several points there, especially that people will want a lot of content, and there should be a focus on that. Cata was mostly about the revamp of the old zones, which ate a lot of the resources, but I think MoP needs to offer more for lvl 85s, and of course non-lvl-capped chars as well, and so I am totally fine with a longer development if what we get will offer a lot of different stuff to do (loved the "you pick what you do to advance your char", apparently we'll be able to get better gear and/or JP and stuff not only from chain-running heroics ettc, and I like that).
amkosh Feb 23rd 2012 4:16AM
One comment about SWTOR and the matchmaking. I wonder how many people really miss it. I think that you guys at WoW Insider are not typical, especially for TOR. My guess is the typical TOR gamer is more of a NWN/DA/ME player and that kind of player is really just looking for story.
Thinking back to my own WoW experience, LFD probably caused me to play WoW for an additional 3-4 months. I leveled to 80 in May of 10, and I was pretty much done with all I wanted to do by Oct. However, of that, I'd say I did about 2/3 heroic dungeons, and 1/3 questing.
In TOR however, I have done the initial dungeon on both sides, and 1 other dungeon. And I don't see LFD really making me want to do them. I perhaps will do each of em to just do em, but I don't see myself repeating em much if at all. There two reasons for this, first repeating content doesn't really appeal to me. Second is time. The one FP I did do took quite awhile in time. This is perhaps my biggest pet peeve with the initial and 4.1 cata dungeons is the damn things took way too long. So while I think a LFD function in TOR would be nice, I don't think it would cause me to keep playing SWTOR for that much longer.
Now a LFG tool for heroic quests is another matter, and I know they say they'll solve it, but that seems to me to nbe a harder problem as most heroic quests I have done aren't fully instanced. There's usually a part in the start which is not. Which is a shame because many HQs are quite fun ancillary stories. It irks me that I cant find people for the H4 quests, as I would love to do those quests once.
One last point, that is the fact that some people lament to the fact that they had a stronger community back before LFD/LFR in WoW. I personally find it curious. Those people don't have to use LFD/LFR to play. Or they can use the travel features/random instance (not random people) features as they see fit. Since they don't, that indicates to me that one of two things is happening. Either these people are an extremely small minority and they simply can't find enough like minded people to join them, or those people are hypocrites. My opinion is that if the sole reason you form a community is for something that can so easily be solved with technology, then that community while possibly seeming strong is built on a foundation of sand and would not have lasted anyways.
evoxpisces Feb 24th 2012 1:05AM
Thanks for pointing out that Tyrael's Charger has stubby-looking legs. Now I don't want to use my midget horse. Lol