WoW: Darum könnte Patch 6.2.2 auch erst nach dem 2. September erscheinen ³

WoW: Darum könnte Patch 6.2.2 auch erst nach dem 2. September erscheinen

Im Verlauf des gestrigen Tages haben die Entwickler von World of Warcraft offiziell verkündet, dass der neue Patch 6.2.2 mit dem Fliegen in Draenor vermutlich am 2. September 2015 auf die Liveserver dieses Titels aufgespielt werden soll. Da mehrere Mitarbeiter von Blizzard die Spieler aber gleichzeitig auch auf mögliche Verzögerungen für dieses Update und ein nicht wirklich zu 100% feststehendes Datum für den Release hinwiesen, beschweren sich aktuell wieder einmal sehr viele Spieler in den Battle.Net Foren über Blizzards unterschiedliche Aussagen zu diesem Update.

Aus diesem Grund hat sich Community Manager Lore vor Kurzem nun selbst in den Battle.Net Foren zu Wort gemeldet und zu den „Anschuldigungen“ der Spieler in seiner eigenen Meinung Stellung bezogen. Dabei hat der Mitarbeiter von Blizzard in einem sehr langen und recht ausführlich geschriebenen Text versucht zu erklären, warum Patch 6.2.2 möglicherweise erst nach dem 2. September erscheinen könnte.

Im Grunde läuft die Erklärung von Lore dabei darauf hinaus, dass man bei der Entwicklung von bei Spielen nie wirklich von einem problemlosen Ablauf ausgehen kann und die Entwickler sich dieser Tatsache durchaus bewusst sind. Theoretisch könnten die Mitarbeiter von Blizzard in jedem Moment weitere Fehler oder Probleme in diesem Update entdecken, die dann erst einmal behoben werden müssten. Solch eine Entdeckung könnte den Release von Patch 6.2.2 durchaus etwas weiter nach hinten verschieben, weshalb die Spieler von World of Warcraft sich darüber bewusst sein sollten, dass nicht immer alles nach Plan läuft und unvorhersehbare Dinge passieren könnten.

Ein gutes Beispiel für einen solchen Moment ist die Aussage der Entwickler, dass das Fliegen in Draenor eher Wochen und nicht Monate nach dem Release von Patch 6.2 kommen wird. Auch wenn die Mitarbeiter von Blizzard diese Einschätzung damals tatsächlich ernst meinten, so fanden sie bei den Tests auf dem PTR dann doch mehr Probleme als ursprünglich einmal erwartet, was den Release immer weiter hinauszögerte. Hätten die Entwickler diese Fehler nämlich nicht behoben, dann müssten die Spieler nun mit nicht funktionierenden Flugmounts, kleinen Flugverbotszonen mitten in der Luft und einer Vielzahl von weiteren Fehlern zurechtkommen, die über das „einfache Anschalten“ dieser Funktion hinausgehen.

—WARNING: HERE THERE BE PERSONAL OPINION DRAGONS—

I’ll start with this: we’re a software development company. More precisely, we’re a video game developer. Anything and everything can change in the software development world, for reasons that are often impossible to predict ahead of time. As a result, we’re hesitant to 100% commit to anything. We’ve learned that, no matter how confident we are at any given point, there’s always a very real chance that there’s something we haven’t thought of that makes what we want to do impossible.

The whole „weeks, not months“ thing makes an easy example. At the time that was said, we firmly believed that it would only take us a few weeks to polish off Tanaan and fix a few areas we knew were likely to have some bugs, and then we’d roll out the flying patch. It’s easy enough, right? We just change a few 0’s to 1’s and it’s all done.

Then we started finding a lot more bugs and glitches than we expected. We found tiny pockets of the world that weren’t properly obeying the flight rules, and would drop players to their deaths if you happened to fly through them. We found issues with certain mounts and class abilities that were caused by hotfixes to resolve exploits, which resulted in those mounts and abilities not working. We found situations in which if you fly into your Garrison at juuuuust the right angle, you get disconnected and can’t get back onto your character for a good half hour or so.

Finding those bugs, implementing fixes, testing those fixes, finding more bugs (sometimes caused by those fixes)… it all added up to a lot more work being needed to actually enable flying than we had originally expected. And as a result, what we originally thought would only take a few weeks ended up taking a couple months.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not making excuses here. And I don’t at all blame the players who are frustrated and upset that we didn’t hit the timeline we originally stated. Honestly, we probably should never have said that it would only take a few weeks. That was clearly a mistake, and I apologize for it.

But that should hopefully give you an idea of why — ESPECIALLY given the missteps we’ve made in the recent past — we simply can’t 100% guarantee that nothing will go wrong between now and September 1st. Truth is, we’re more confident in this release date than we usually are this far in advance of a patch. That’s why we felt that we could give a date at all.

There’s just always — ALWAYS — a chance that something can go wrong at the last minute. We could, say, be finishing the fixes for the last couple of dismount bugs on the Saturday before release, and when we compile the final build, all of a sudden activating your flying mount teleports you to the graveyard in Westfall and deletes the contents of your inventory. Is that likely? Not really, no. But it’s possible, so we need to make sure you’re aware that things can change, just in case something like that does happen.

There are alternatives, of course. We could just not give a date until we know for 100% certain, which is our usual strategy. Like I said, we feel a little more confident in this date than usual, so we thought it was okay to share it.

The other option would have been to try to have the patch ready to go by the 1st, but not actually plan to release it until a week or so later. That would let us announce a date we’d be extremely confident in, but we’d essentially be delaying the release of flight even further, and we definitely don’t want to do that. So, we gave a date that we feel pretty good about, with the reminder that we won’t be able to release if something catastrophic happens.

This ended up being a giant wall of text, but I’ll leave it with this: I know it’s super frustrating when it feels like we’re not being as open as we possibly could be. And I know it’s equally frustrating when it seems like we’re completely unwilling to commit to anything concrete. I spent 8 years as a player before I became an employee. I know exactly how it feels.

I just also know that it’s better to not expect much and be pleasantly surprised, than to feel like a promise was broken. At least that’s my opinion.

Quelle: JustBlizzard

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