The Battle for Azeroth beta is here, at long last, and it feels like it might have come a little early in the process. Usually beta testing is mostly for when you have all of the core stuff in place, but this feels like it’s just officially being called a beta when some of the pieces are still being moved into the right direction. That might be more nitpicky than anything, so I’m not going to spend too much time on it; World of Warcraft has had a tricky relationship with “alpha” and “beta” terminology, but it’s still not even in the list of the worst offenders. I got my beta invite (at the same time the official changeover happened, even), but I haven’t yet gotten a chance to actually play around in it. However, I think now is as good a time as any to talk about the things that I am actually nervous about when it comes to Battle for Azeroth. Yes, I’ve been a pretty big advocate for the expansion and what we’re hearing so far, … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: Things that actually worry me about Battle for Azeroth
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WoW Factor: Guessing at Battle for Azeroth’s release date using math
The “when will Battle for Azeroth” speculation train is rolling once again because it looks like patch 7.3.5 is just around the corner. We haven’t actually been told when that’s landing yet, of course, but the World of Warcraft community continues to push forward with the sort of boundless optimism that it’s so well known for. “This time is going to be different!” Here’s a spoiler for the future: It’s not. This time is going to be exactly the same, just like how previous times have been exactly the same, just like each time we’ve talked about this have been exactly the same. Betting on anything before October is optimistic, betting before September is wildly unrealistic. Similarly, betting on 2019 is pessimistic, and later than January is wildly unrealistic just as surely. The funny thing is that while we have a relatively small sample size for World of Warcraft expansions, we have a pretty solid set of data just the same. And … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: Guessing at Battle for Azeroth’s release date using math
WoW Factor: Updating data in the wake of Battle for Azeroth’s release announcement
Hooray, we have a release date for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth instead of just a release window! And contrary to what many skeptics (myself included) expected to get, it is actually quite a bit faster than other releases. But as you all have no doubt noticed by now, my love of math means that I’m hardly sore about this. It just means that there’s another data point to consider when we look to the future. So let’s talk about this new piece of information while using the same information from the column in which I made a reasonable estimate, based on this new information. Again, I think it’s important to note how much faster this expansion is actually releasing compared to prior expansions; it’s significant, even if it means that the people predicting things like June were being wildly wrong about “optimistic” predictions. (After all, pessimistic predictions were equally wrong, just in the other direction; my own estimates were off by … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: Updating data in the wake of Battle for Azeroth’s release announcement
World of Warcraft brings Battle for Azeroth in August
Nothing like having pure white hair and no wrinkles to look that special brand of fantasy cute! Thanks to Blizzard making a presence at PAX East this past weekend, we now have shifted from a larger launch window for Battle for Azeroth (summer) to a much more specific date (August 14th). Other than being somewhat earlier than I had anticipated, I don’t think that this really stunned me or anything. I mean, we were discussing a family vacation in either July or August this year, so now I might lean for the former, but other than that… cool? I guess? At the turn of this year, I really thought Blizzard would be pushing the expansion off as long as possible for testing and whatever makes that studio take forever getting content out, but now it feels somewhat different. That the studio had a good pace going with Legion patches — 2017 was an excellent year for WoW in that regard — and it didn’t want to leave us with too long of a content drought. Now that we have … [Read more...] about World of Warcraft brings Battle for Azeroth in August
MMO Week in Review: WoW picks its Battle for Azeroth launch date, Ultima Online goes free-to-play (April 8, 2018)
Support Massively OP on PatreonWere you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review! Classic-but-still-updated MMORPGs were on fire this week! World of Warcraft kicked off PAX East with a bang by announcing Battle for Azeroth’s launch date of August 14th, and then Ultima Online released its Endless Journey patch, taking the 20-year-old game free-to-play for the first time ever. Stay tuned early this week as we roll out all our PAX coverage! In the meantime, read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions. THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth expansion launches August 14 - Who had August in the poll? Anybody have August 14th specifically? Because that, my friends, is precisely when World of Warcraft's Battle for Azeroth expansion is launching. So sayeth Blizzard's official… Ultima Online’s F2P … [Read more...] about MMO Week in Review: WoW picks its Battle for Azeroth launch date, Ultima Online goes free-to-play (April 8, 2018)