Rock Paper Shotgun recently interviewed Blizzard Production Director J. Allen Brack about Mists of Pandaria and future content patches. He discussed the suboptimal sales figures for the new patch, agreeing that, perhaps, the lack of a source of impending doom caused the lower sales. It seems like Blizzard accept the appeal of big angry dragons and undead megalomaniacs. But, they argue that the Mists story is just getting started.
Brack is quoted as saying: “Okay, now Pandaria has been discovered by the world. We’ll have the armies of the Alliance doing their land grab. In the subsequent patches we’ll have other raid tiers, and then we’ll have the war escalate to the point where Garrosh actually starts to do some things that are not necessarily in keeping with what you would consider to be honorable Horde traditions. We’ve already announced that we’re going to have him as the final boss of this expansion cycle. We’re excited to see how that goes. We haven’t actually figured out exactly how that’s going to escalate and all the various pieces of that, but we’re deep into talking about it.”
This makes us wonder here at GAMEBREAKER just exactly what the Horde are up to. We’ve already heard sound files that suggest that Garrosh might have been behind the killing of Anduin Wrynn, but that could only be the start. With the tin-foil hat on, what could the Horde do? And what would the Horde do that would take it too far?
Brack also said that with 5.1, the way Blizzard put out patches would change. While Blizzard have been saying this for many a year they seem really serious about it this time around. Brack said: “We’re still going to have patches that are the giant raid tiers. We’re still going to have patches that are going to be what people traditionally think of as a WoW patch. But we’re also going to have very small patches that just have a few scenarios, maybe a movie or two that are little vignettes, and a round of daily quests. That’s what 5.1 is.”
So, 5.1 seems like it might be something different to what the WoW community is accustomed to with a patch. What will the outcome be? Will this lead only to disappointment as players are used to patches that change the landscape of the game rather than introducing a few new scenarios and some pet battle stones? Or will the little and often approach work to minimise the player drop after new expansions launch? It seems that the key may be the speed at which Blizzard are able to push out new raid tiers, as, after all, those still seem to be what the community are asking for in a patch.
What do you think? What could the Horde do to alienate their own kind? Will a patch with a few scenarios or a movie or two satisfy the community and prevent the subscriber bleed?
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