author: Miriam Moszczynska
WoW Dragonflight Alpha Launches; Players Worried, Developers Reassure
The Dragonflight expansion for World of Warcraft is now available for closed alpha testing. Players are almost certain that Blizzard won't be able to polish the content by the end of the year.
Alpha testing of the Dragonflight expansion for World of Warcraft began yesterday, and with it came the first feedback. While there is no shortage of positive comments about the changes the expansion brings, the players are worried that Blizzard may be unable to wrap everything up for release this year.
Alpha launches
Those who got the opportunity to check out Dragonflight early, were informed about it via email. Currently among the selectees are only veterans of WoW (e.g., Asmongold, who is already uploading materials about the expansion), the press or owners of fan websites.
Player reactions
It can be noted that quite a few people in the WoW community are "breaking the vicious circle" and are rather skeptical about the DLC. Comments refer to what the alpha looks like (although one shouldn't expect much from such a version), what's in it, as well as the time left for the developers before the release.
"[...] My problem so far is the lack of info about it [Dragonflight - editorial note]. Like class trees are slowly coming out and evoker finally having a real look at I'm tentatively excited," wrote. Buffmin.
So in other words, the way they released this really masks how much is done. Maybe its intentional? Who knows, they also said SL never was supposed to have a third patch and that was the most obvious BS we ever heard," wrote clineshrike.
Considering it’s less than six months to “release” and we still have less than half the talent trees to look at, I don’t believe it lol. They can’t even claim to have them finished otherwise they’d be released and in the Alpha today (which it was just confirmed they won’t be)," wrote The-Fictionist.
Concerns about the launch
Although gamers doubt the timely release of Dragonflight, Blizzard remains confident. The developers say they have five months to polish the alpha and make changes based on feedback.
"We also want to focus the feedback that we get, rather than having an Alpha that’s out there sparsely populated, sparsely attended. Over the course of the Alpha, we’ll have weeks/weekends where this zone is the focus, this dungeon is the focus etc. We think that we can get more feedback, offer better experience for our testers, and have more structure in terms of what they’re asked to do and new stuff to check out," wrote Ion Hazzikostas, Game Director of WoW (via Wowhead).
Hazzikostas also stated that Dragonflight will maintain the "tradition" according to which expansions appeared every two years (Battle for Azeroth launched in 2018, Shadowlands in 2020). What's more, he also pointed out that work on this year's expansion began even before the Shadowlands, so we have nothing to worry about.
"I understand that looking solely at the alpha and beta timelines, it may seem that way. But if you take a step back and ask: is two years after the last expansion too soon for another? Well, no, it's in line with some historical precedent."
In the face of uncertainty between gamers and confident developers, there is nothing left to do but to watch whose right will turn out to be "most right" at the end of this year. Nonetheless, the situation seems to become even more tense with each new assurance from Blizzard about the timeliness of the release.
