but I'm not too sure if they'd batch up Paladins and Monks together.
Reading around, most can’t even stomach a minor run with a new character per patch at this point. I couldn’t bring myself to even test the bard or sorcerer. Barely did 30 min with the barbarian and had to unplug.
The one new class per patch is now stale and predictable, and familiarity breeds contempt. They need to do something surprising and fresh to shake things up and get the more jaded players stoked for at least one more run prior to go-live.
People who are sick of EA probably won’t play the paladin or monk if they are split into two more patches. But they might be willing to give this thing one more run if the next patch doesn’t seem formulaic. It’s all psychological – make people think you’re doing something different, even if you really aren’t.
Those panels from hell have overstayed their welcome – time to park them, and deliver a whopper for the anniversary that’ll keep people interested until launch. If they stick with one class per patch, there will really be a sense of them dragging their heels with this thing – seems creatively lazy and gives a poor impression, at least to me, of any kind of energy behind the product. Especially now that they’re at the last hurdle. Why limp to the finishing line.
I'd love for them to change up the formula too, and while I do think the burnout is real - especially for people who are very active on the EA (I'm talking about forum/discord users that are there every day, which includes myself), I feel like we're actually a pretty niche, fringe group, even within the subset of EA testers.
The player count data really doesn't show the same extreme burnout we see in these niche groups: https://steamcharts.com/app/1086940 More people actually came back to play the Bard compared to the Barbarian patch. So regardless of the sentiment on the forums, it seems like there's still a steady stream of players each patch for the purposes of testing.
The reason why I suspect multiple patches instead of 1 big content dump is because the Panel From Hells have actually been a fantastic advertising tool for Larian. And I think business-wise it's as important for them now (getting close to launch) to be more frequently noisy and noticed as possible by more mainstream (non traditional CRG) gamers - which is where their major source of growth is.
They're getting thousands of views and making news and conversation each time they do PFHs at limited "paid media" (i.e. digital/tv commercials) cost. On top of being able to showcase how personable and wacky their studio is, which is a HUGE part of their brand as a studio. Obviously, they'll probably still launch paid media closer to launch, but anything you can get for "free" like Panel from Hell now, you take it.
