Patch 11.1.5 was not exactly a highlight for Blizzard. False expectations and long waiting times ruined the update of World of Warcraft.
Patch 11.1.5 will likely not be remembered as the most popular patch by the players of World of Warcraft. The major features were not available at launch, and the only new event, the Nightfall event, was full of bugs and problems in the first few days.
This led to a sad realization: It is patch day, but there is nothing to do. And what there is to do does not work.
In an interview with the colleagues from PCGamer, game director Ion Hazzikostas talked about how several aspects of patch 11.1.5 were poorly received and what the developers can learn from it for the future.
Time-Gating as a good idea with false expectations
The biggest annoyance is probably the time-gating with which new content was released. Even though the “Disturbing Visions” were advertised as the highlight of the patch, they were not available at launch – they only came the Wednesday after, several weeks post patch release. Hazzikostas commented:
Our thinking was: Hey, it would be better for everyone and your time management – considering the season is 8 weeks old and many are still running dungeons and raids – if we don’t flood you with all the content at once and spread it out a bit so that each [piece of content] can breathe a little and have its moment.
Understandably, players are used to the patch day being the day when everything is released. We’re hearing that feedback loud and clear. It’s very likely that we didn’t hit the balance this time and that too much was delayed and not enough was available at launch.
Especially this perception of time-gating could be addressed with simple measures. Instead of cramming 3 features into patch 11.1.5 and then distributing them over several months, one could have simply released 3 smaller patches (i.e., 11.1.5, 11.1.6, and 11.1.7) at intervals of 3-4 weeks each. Each of these smaller patches could then have contained one of the features. The release speed would be the same, but the impact on the player base would be entirely different.
Bugs and errors spoil the fun
However, this would probably exacerbate another problem. Time and again, bugs or errors slip through quality control. Or old bugs that were thought to be fixed sneak into a new patch. This is partly because WoW is working on several updates at the same time.
A few problems came together. We fixed [bugs] in the last week of 11.1 and during that time we already finalized patch 11.1.5. We have processes in place to carry over these [bug fixes], so that the changes remain. It gets tricky when sometimes multiple changes are made to the same file in patch 11.1.5 and then there’s a conflict that is thorny and difficult to resolve. It is our job to resolve that, but for players it looks like: “How could that be bugged?” This is due to some challenging data conflicts.
You can never achieve perfection with a game like World of Warcraft. But the goal is for the number of known (relevant) bugs to get smaller each time, ideally in a low single-digit range.
The issues with the Nightfall event, which could not be completed due to bugs in the first days, are something we need to improve on. We fixed it as quickly as we could, but understandably this is not the experience we had intended. This is not the experience our player base expects and deserves when they log in on a patch day eager to test the new content.
Many also suspect that the fixed patch rhythm of 8 weeks leads to more and more bugs slipping through because the developers have such a tight schedule. However, Hazzikostas denies this. He says:
If there is an update that we know has still difficult issues, we will not release it just to maintain the 8-week rhythm. We never want to deliberately release something of low quality.
The absurd situation of WoW
This puts World of Warcraft in a rather absurd situation. For even though the last small patches at release all had annoyances that spoil the fun, WoW is probably doing better than it has in a long time. Many agree that The War Within is the best expansion in a long time, and many things have changed for the better. The progress system, the war host, the increased focus on class fantasy with the hero talents, and the significantly better presented story than in Shadowlands.
Actually, World of Warcraft is doing well and even a look into the future is promising – after all, next up is Legion Remix and the great housing system. However, if the patches would already work properly on day 1, this first impression would not be ruined time and time again.
