Quote Originally Posted by Dyvid View Post
Why don't they just release content as they finish it instead of waiting for huge patches? Staggering it out so you have something you can drop everything month might not be a bad thing. I remember in SWTOR we waiting on a certain feature for months because the PvP part was delaying the big patch. Most the community was just getting annoyed with the whole thing and telling the devs to release what they had and catch PvP up later.

As for the devs and their time off, sure they earned some rest but when your an adult you work 40+ hours a week, 54 weeks a year. Sometimes you have to put in 60 to 80 hours a week to get things done. I know if my company told the customer "Sorry but we need to delay the product a month because our people need time off" we would get laughed at and told to either hire more people to stay on schedule or pay stiff fines as per contract.
first point: Content patches a good way to make people interested in returning to a game. More practically, however, major content patches are pricey to make and pricey to put online. I don't know how SE manages it but at my company we have to submit patches for approval. We don't have deployment costs but I think some places still do. Again, I don't work for SE nor do I have any insight into how they operate things but patch cycles are present in any online game. Usually only when a game breaking bug comes up is something rushed into deployment.

Having cycles allows us to have content for you, the user. And most companies I've worked for or have spoken to are working on multiple patches at a time. If something isn't ready, it's pushed to a later patch, must have content for the next patch becomes priority one tasks etc.

Second point: It was made pretty clear these guys NEEDED that much time to depressurize. From all I've read doing the expansion AND 2.x AND making these new jobs destroyed their stamina, but they were intent on the first expansion being a burly one. Never underestimate how much work is required to make one of these monsters. I know someone who had to work for a certain major company for a while and they worked her so hard with no break she quit her job, moved to Tibet and became a monk. That story is true.