wow Game Director Ion Hazzikostas on The War Within Early Acess

[Staff 1,183]

 

One of the more interesting answers from today's Q&A was related to the very controversial addition of 3-day Early Access to one of the War Within expansion bundles. Players have been very upset ever since it was announced, and today Game Director Ion Hazzikostas addressed the issue and here are the responses.

• The team was looking to add value to all the expansion bundles across the board. The base edition has more to it now than before, with the boost and immediate access to Dragonflight as well. Since the base level value is increased, the upper tiers also needed to have their value increased. Early Access (EA) and Beta access were one of the things they were paying attention to across the industry 
• They want to clarify that this is just a head start on leveling up, there will be no access to Mythic0 dungeons, weekly quests, profession cooldowns, higher end treasures/rares, and anything that feels like a competitive advantage will not be available during EA. 
• The aim of EA are players that might not have as much free time or can't take off work, and end up not being able to do endgame dungeons and M0 with friends later on.
• The goal is that when Season 1 starts, players won't be able to tell who had EA and who didn't (in any competitive way that matters). 

Here's the full answer:

 

[Prophet001 479]

Seems like a lot of spin to me.

[Ken007 64]

Many games offer early access for extra money. There's nothing wrong with it as long as it doesn't allow you early access to the season (which it doesn't). Not everyone can take off work to level, you could argue that the players that can take off work have an unfair advantage. It cost them a sick day or money to get that advantage, just like early access costs a little extra. It is not introducing an advantage that doesn't already exist (in a way). Time is money, my friend!

[Arcling 822]

2 hours ago, Ken007 said:

Many games offer early access for extra money. There's nothing wrong with it as long as it doesn't allow you early access to the season (which it doesn't).

It still gives people early advantage to set up auction house with the stuff they will farm early on. It won't matter later on, but early on they will be able to run game's economy.

Also their explanation about normal edition having more value is weird. They always add previous expansion to base game when new one is released.

Edited November 10 by Arcling

[TheCake 95]

I must be one of the only ones who do not care... 

[MeMy10 23]

With how much extra it costs for the privilege of having a head start over everyone else, it is definitely not worth it.

[Ken007 64]

12 hours ago, Arcling said:

It still gives people early advantage to set up auction house with the stuff they will farm early on. It won't matter later on, but early on they will be able to run game's economy.

Also their explanation about normal edition having more value is weird. They always add previous expansion to base game when new one is released.

It;s like I said, you could get the same advantage by taking a couple of days off from work to just play all day, while others still had limited time. It would cost you a sick day or some docked pay just like early access will cost you a little extra. It does not provide an advantage that some players were not already using (although through a different way). That's why I don't have a problem with it. Also, over time- the effect will be negligible. 

[FullMetalAlchymist 0]

God wow players will always *filtered* about benign things. So many other criticisms or comments about the game and instead they're whining about money they don't have to spend, and Blizz doing something literally every other major game does these days.

Don't buy it, if it isn't successful they won't do it again and move on.

[Arcling 822]

4 hours ago, Ken007 said:

It;s like I said, you could get the same advantage by taking a couple of days off from work to just play all day, while others still had limited time.

Except release date was the same for everyone, now it's not going to be. So taking days off won't help if they have to pay extra.