In World of Warcraft, Blizzard fulfills one wish after another for the players. That’s good – or is it rather a desperate act?
The atmosphere in World of Warcraft has noticeably brightened up in recent weeks. From a “Meh, everything is crap” atmosphere, a positive mood has slowly but surely developed. This is mainly due to three major changes that Blizzard has decided on and has already partially implemented in World of Warcraft.
- Essences for the Heart of Azeroth can be unlocked much more easily by Twinks.
- All characters currently receive 100% additional experience points – leveling goes faster than ever.
- Legion dungeons and raids receive “legacy loot” which drastically helps transmog collectors.
Strictly speaking, almost every player group has received its little “treat”. Depending on the preferred play style, there are now incentives to spend more time in World of Warcraft.
- Those who enjoy endgame can now level up second characters faster and equip them with the best essences that promise maximum efficiency.
- Friends of Twinks and second characters can now blitz through the leveling phase and bring dozens of characters to max level. This also helps unlock the heritage armor of the Allied Races – leveling takes only 13 hours.
- Transmog lovers have a reason to check off the Legion raids every week, which is sure to motivate some for several weeks to complete old sets.
Whether this is really all friendly goodwill from the developers or rather cold calculation to keep players bound during the content drought for another month, everyone has to decide for themselves. The fact is that this change helps a large part of the players and is therefore fundamentally something positive for the enjoyment of the game.
This fundamentally positive mood is good for bridging the long dry spell. Because there will be no new content until the release of Shadowlands. So players will have to bridge well over half a year with the current content. It should be clear that subscription numbers will continue to decline in the coming months.
The developers’ measures could perhaps mitigate this decline in player numbers a bit, but it seems they cannot be stopped. Without fresh content, players simply disappear gradually.
Will Shadowlands come in 2020?
The biggest question mark currently hangs over the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft Shadowlands. Although there has been an encrypted alpha version of Shadowlands for weeks, an official test has not yet started.
In the meantime, many employees have also been sent home to contain the spread of the corona virus. Anyone who has experienced “working from home” for the first time in recent weeks knows that performance rarely matches what can be delivered in the office. The development of Shadowlands is likely to be delayed or at least slowed down. Whether the target of a “release still in 2020” can still be met is questionable.
WoW fans should start to come to terms with the thought that Shadowlands might be pushed to 2021. You have already told us how you deal with the content drought.
However, the corona crisis could also be – as strange as it may sound – a big help for Blizzard. Because of the whole corona situation, players’ understanding of a delay is probably greater than ever. No wonder, almost everyone is currently feeling the restrictions and problems that such a pandemic brings. Very few would be disappointed if Blizzard takes a few more months to finish Shadowlands.
It might actually do Shadowlands some good. Because after the rather unpopular expansion “Battle for Azeroth”, which many players still call “Beta for Azeroth” because many systems did not work well, a polished expansion would be important. It could therefore be beneficial to push Shadowlands back a few months and ensure the quality expected of the next WoW expansion.
And thanks to “Corona”, one would now have a perfect excuse for that.
