Hi,
Of course this is just blowing smoke -- but from what I've seen this may be the case.
WoW is nowhere near finished. If all the content, all the features, all the basics were in place, then four months of tweaking would be about right, and it would take about that long to fix the argghs, to balance the game for both PvE and PvP for each of forty some race/class combinations, etc. Or, in other words, if the game were "finished" now, it would take that long to "polish" it.
But the game is far from finished now. One class (hunters) hasn't even been roughly implemented. All but two classes have no talents, and nobody has had much of a chance to build characters to see how the talents work, not just as a final set up, but in leveling to that set up. Many areas are still just roughed out and many more are incomplete. And even the finished areas still need some work to balance things like kills needed for quests versus spawn rate versus population. The need for high level characters to farm low level areas for trade items should be addressed. The auction system is very broken. Etc., etc.
So, if Blizzard follows its "we'll release it when it is done" policy, there is no way WoW is going to be out by Christmas. However, that policy seems to be cracking. Has been for some time. D2 was rushed out the door (or does anyone believe that that much abbreviated act 4 was intentional. Not to mention arenas and guild houses). I've barely touched it, but from the reports of others, WC3 was not really finished when it shipped, too. So, "when it is done" might be more of a remembrance of Blizzard's glory days than a policy implemented in the present.
On the other side, Vivendi is in trouble -- has been for quite some time. Now Blizzard may be gamers working for gamers, but Vivendi is strictly button counters working for the bottom line. And, as anyone who does not live in a vault knows, Vivendi owns Blizzard (ask Roper and the Shaffer's what that means). Now, Vivendi has announced a November ship date for WoW. The first time Vivendi ever announced a ship date for any of the game products, as far as I know. Failure to perform might have disastrous consequences -- look at Sierra.
Bottom line? Bottom line is "I don't know". WoW may thud out the door in time for Christmas to resounding failure and bring Blizzard down. It may not make it on time and Vivendi might decide to cut its losses. Or there might still be enough clout in Blizzard to buy it some time with Vivendi to make a more complete game.
Or Mikey might buy Blizzard, and then all bets are off ;)
--Pete
Of course this is just blowing smoke -- but from what I've seen this may be the case.
WoW is nowhere near finished. If all the content, all the features, all the basics were in place, then four months of tweaking would be about right, and it would take about that long to fix the argghs, to balance the game for both PvE and PvP for each of forty some race/class combinations, etc. Or, in other words, if the game were "finished" now, it would take that long to "polish" it.
But the game is far from finished now. One class (hunters) hasn't even been roughly implemented. All but two classes have no talents, and nobody has had much of a chance to build characters to see how the talents work, not just as a final set up, but in leveling to that set up. Many areas are still just roughed out and many more are incomplete. And even the finished areas still need some work to balance things like kills needed for quests versus spawn rate versus population. The need for high level characters to farm low level areas for trade items should be addressed. The auction system is very broken. Etc., etc.
So, if Blizzard follows its "we'll release it when it is done" policy, there is no way WoW is going to be out by Christmas. However, that policy seems to be cracking. Has been for some time. D2 was rushed out the door (or does anyone believe that that much abbreviated act 4 was intentional. Not to mention arenas and guild houses). I've barely touched it, but from the reports of others, WC3 was not really finished when it shipped, too. So, "when it is done" might be more of a remembrance of Blizzard's glory days than a policy implemented in the present.
On the other side, Vivendi is in trouble -- has been for quite some time. Now Blizzard may be gamers working for gamers, but Vivendi is strictly button counters working for the bottom line. And, as anyone who does not live in a vault knows, Vivendi owns Blizzard (ask Roper and the Shaffer's what that means). Now, Vivendi has announced a November ship date for WoW. The first time Vivendi ever announced a ship date for any of the game products, as far as I know. Failure to perform might have disastrous consequences -- look at Sierra.
Bottom line? Bottom line is "I don't know". WoW may thud out the door in time for Christmas to resounding failure and bring Blizzard down. It may not make it on time and Vivendi might decide to cut its losses. Or there might still be enough clout in Blizzard to buy it some time with Vivendi to make a more complete game.
Or Mikey might buy Blizzard, and then all bets are off ;)
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?