wow Negative Reactions to the Holiday Season Release of Castle Nathria Raid

[Starym 3,801]

 

Update: Game Director Ion Hazzikostas has now also commented on the issue.

As we just got the official Castle Nathria raid release schedule, including Mythic releasing on December 15h, it seems the World First race (and everyone else heading into the maximum difficulty at launch) will be clearing it during or very close to the holidays. This was somewhat unexpected, and I personally even thought they might delay the Mythic part of the raid specifically for this reason, but we now know that isn't the case.

As you'd expect, it didn't take long for the community to bring out an old blue post where Blizzard specifically state that they don't want players to have to play during the holidays:

This is why developers have to be SO cautious when interacting with players unfortunately.

Statements like “we try to” or “we’re thinking about” or “our current intent” often get taken as 102% set in stone and thrown in our faces if change or circumstance happens. pic.twitter.com/YFEjfbAGN5

— Kenneth Huang (@kenandstuff) October 29, 2020

As mentioned in the tweet, the key word there is "try", so Blizzard were very much aware of their own policy when making this particular decision. There were less subtle and understanding/constructive posts as well, with titles like "Times change I think. For the worse." and similar, as well as some actually pretty great meme-y posts:

The reality of the situation is a little more complex, as the raid race itself will likely be finished in the first reset, at least for the very top guilds, but there are many, many more guilds outside the top 10 (or even top 100) that will still be pushing and playing during the holidays. While delaying Mythic only would have been a weird and unprecedented decision, players would probably understand, and the top raiders that will be racing would welcome it, but it seems it's set in stone now, so at least we get some World First entertainment just before and probably during the holidays as well!

[Nayrusa 50]

I don't get the point of this shitstorm tbh

We are in a mother freakn pandemic and we suppose to min the contact to older ppl (our parents / grand parents) so this holiday season wont be the same as it ever was before

yes the holidays is a time for family and friends but dont ppl use their brain?

 

[ResoWho 68]

have to work every single holiday, hoped the release was at least delayed to januar so that i can take vaccation again

Edited October 29, 2020 by ResoWho

[Ragingwolf 310]

Game should of been released early spring of 2021 imo.  I'm not salty or angry about the new given date just don't think it's at all feasible at a late market intro to push for a Holiday release.  I already know that I will be busy off and on for the next 3 months with work.  And I don't plan on using any vacation time again till early summer or fall.   I also don't plan on being able to play a whole lot at the new launch date either.

[Wildwitch 108]

Hahaha! There is a worldwide pandemic happening. Many of us actually care about other humans and are keeping ourselves under house arrest. Not all of "celebrate" any holiday and people need to stop shoving their beliefs down other people's throats. I am HAPPY for the release date! That's a holiday to many of us!

[Bobbis 208]

13 hours ago, Starym said:

This was somewhat unexpected, and I personally even thought they might delay the Mythic part of the raid specifically for this reason

I honestly thought it'd be a dec 8th release week, with raid opening early Jan, mythic 2nd week of Jan. Fits schedules fine, still have a xmas release for stockholders, and gives a couple more weeks for development (as beta is still a bit of a mess it seems...) 

I don't gaf about the world first race, but it's a *filtered* time to make people work on the game, when most people save their holiday for and so there's a skeleton crew to sort out bugs / tuning. I did my time in retail, never going back voluntarily, it's the most toxic time of the year.

[Brye333 0]

So many narrow world views. Other cultures exist. The entire world doesn't celebrate Christmas. It's not fair to make everyone wait so the people in the top 1% of guilds that do celebrate Christmas can compete in what is basically a pissing contest.

[Ragingwolf 310]

3 hours ago, Brye333 said:

So many narrow world views. Other cultures exist. The entire world doesn't celebrate Christmas. It's not fair to make everyone wait so the people in the top 1% of guilds that do celebrate Christmas can compete in what is basically a pissing contest.

It's not that..........the majority of Blizzard staff will be most likely be off from work during the Holidays so a lot of ingame issues that should arise will probably not get a fast pace reaction to be corrected till time becomes available when they come back.  Stating that their needs for a Holiday Break are not warranted is just as bad compared to those that don't participate in any Holidays and don't like to wait further to play an expansion of the game.

[Jueles 0]

I join the group that are happy with the release date!!  Pretty awesome that it is the same release date as Vanilla!  We bought the game for my son that Christmas.  Christmas holidays will be low key for our family,  playing WOW a great part of having a few days off.