@CFStang: If you'll recall Burning Crusade's release, they don't need the raids complete at the time of launch. They have a month or two of grace period, waiting for people to actually level up and get to 70. Then they start polishing what raid content is in and introducing new stuff. There's also the fact that they've actually already completed the entry level raid (Naxxramas), and just need to tune it for 10 and 25-man groups.

The main content (zones, quests, etc.) seem to be much further along, especially considering their recent information deluge.

Suzaku

We're not seeing that expansion until 2009. Vivendi's PR can estimate all the release dates they want, but unless Blizzard has officially announced it, I wouldn't hold my breath.

zerokoolpsx

@Frampis:

thats pretty blatant, i can't believe no one noticed that yet. haha neato

wfreiden

@Frampis: I didn't notice it but now that you say something, I do see something like that.

mosiac

Illegal drugs are still a bigger industry. You've got a ways to go WoW.

baccardi84

Anyone notice anything strange in the screenshot? Namely, a female body in the tree on the left-hand side of the pic.

Frampis

@clintonskneecap:

Nah you're wrong. leveling up is a means to an end. The same exploring that takes place while you're leveling up can take place when you've hit the 'level cap'. It's just that there's a consensus (and I think it's a valid one) that players who have reached the level cap want bigger challenges.

The problem is that those bigger challenges always seem to require more and more people. The more people that are required to experience a specific part any game, the more 'exclusive' that part of the game becomes... and the more casual 'non-leet' players are left out of the experience.

angryoaf

@aphex242: they do the endgame stuff because that is all there is to do.

clintonskneecap

@clintonskneecap: Are you high? Tons of people do endgame stuff, levelling is just so you can get to do endgame stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see more in the middle too, but honestly it's the endgame people are most interested in.

aphex242

WoW being 'addcitive' or a 'waste of time' is all a matter of perspective and opinion. I've spent more consecutive hours trying to get through a single player Final fantasy game than I do playing WoW.
You could contend that I dont enjoy WoW as much as I did final fantasy but I assure you I enjoy WoW thoroughly.

I simply don't feel the need to spend all my waking hours playing it. Unless you're trying to participate in endgame raiding, there's absolutely no reason to. WoW is as casual as any MMO could possibly be.

angryoaf

instead of adding more end game stuff they really need to add more stuff to do while leveling. After all most of the population had fun leveling and exploring.

clintonskneecap

@CFStang: According to EGM/1UP.com, it's slated for 10/20/2008, but I believe that's just the date of an upcoming convention in California... but yeah, my biggest interests in regards to Blizzard are Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.

Arttemis

I think they can see that their wow hours are slowly on the decline. Many of the players blew through the expansion content, and the game is starting to decline a touch.

They probably released this as a method to continue to get players to 'hold on' as long as possible before they decide to stop completely until the expansion is released.

It's always like this! Blizzard, you're soo goood at releasing content right before players quit!

i.roboto

2009 is confirmed seeing that a month ago Blizz had not even begun working on Raid Bosses. They said Second Half of 06 for Burning Crusade and it got pushed to January of 07. If they don't do a beta expect a pushed back release date with lots of bugs.

I'm more concerned about a SC2 release window. Can we have that please?

CFStang

My wife and I start and stop playing with TV schedules. Rerun season starting up again here so we will probably start again. Good fun for the two of us.

GPman

@Migsta: No but I had a lot of gold on all my charachters.

Veltis

I quit for 6 months, then every time I read a post on a blog (including this one) about new content, patch notes, and Lich King information, I couldn't help myself and had to jump back in. It satisfies the stereotype so badly, but I can easily quit for good if there was sex to be had or places I had to go in RL. Until that time arrives, I think 15 dollars a month is a modest fee for the ability to forget all the sex I'm not having and live my life as a troll who rides a dinosaur and shoots fireballs.

Itami

@Veltis: Have you been paying for 2 years while being gone?

I wonder how many people are just paying...and not playing...maybe playing for a few weeks out of the year. I payed for a few months of not playing before canceling...sigh.

Migsta

@RTW: I actually played on a private server with my friends and it's way funner dueling with max everything than wasting the time leveling.

That broke my "addiction" within 2 days.

Lamburger Helper

So...

Assuming Blizzievision has a functional merge by the first quarter of '09 and the unusual amounts of natural calamities around the world right now...

All we need are four horses flying down from the sky and we are all gravy.

Fyren

Well, it will be interesting to see how many people buy the new expansion compared to the first expansion. I see World of Warcraft as the "Starbucks" of MMO, cause you can find a WoW player on every corner, and are willing to pay for a not-so-good service. Granted I used to play WoW, but stopped, when I realized how much time it took to do anything in the game past level 30.

SpearXXI

@Veltis: if that email is asking for your information, dont give it out. its a fake phishing scam. just in case you didnt already know.

uppitycracker

If you can cut your prescription for a week, it's VERY easy to get off of WoW. It's also very easy to get back into it if you get inticed by your friends. Thank goodness I got off that ship when I realized not only how much of a time waster WoW is, but also at the shitty service, and at $15 a month, it's high-way robbery.

RTW

Its funny ive been gone for 2 years from WoW and I just received an email today from Blizzard telling me that my account as been compromised. ^^

Veltis

Sometimes I hate wow but I keep playing it. Probably because theres no other MMO out right now thats even near the polish of WoW.

I could really go for a new expansion now though. The whole patch after patch of nerfs/buffs and odd changes are getting old. The promise of S4 coming soon isnt really enough for me to be excited over but either way I'll sadly be playing (and paying) like a fool.

Ghost1984

knowing Blizzard 2009 Confirmed.

Raziel Dune

World of warcraft is a game that I want to like but I just can't. You'd think it would be perfect for me since I love the warcraft games, the universe, the lore etc...But WoW just bored the crap out of me. The $15 a month definitely didn't help either.

CCCombobreaker