2020

The Year Without a Major Update

1.20 launched in January 2021, making 2020 one of the few years to not have a 1.XX update. So, what happened during that year? Well, we pretty much got the usual. 1.19 got some patches, one of which actually added back the Wynnter fair for a bit. People did all the new content until they got bored, and right as that happened, teasers for 1.20 started trickling in.

This time, the admins did something different: monthly news threads about the update. Most of them showed simple stuff like a build revamp, but the first teaser actually laid out what the eventual update would be about. It hinted at no new regions but more mid/late game content as well as general improvements. The teaser also mentioned the admins planned on releasing an update before 1.20, which would add a new feature and update the store. Both of those things ended up being delayed until 1.20 however.

As more teasers arrived, it became obvious that 1.20 was possibly larger than we originally thought. The teasers had minimal common links beyond (general revamp), and the timeframe between 1.19 and 1.20 was growing to be one of the largest between Wynn’s history. By late 2020 Wynn also had four game devs (Jumla, colin350, Apollo, and HeyZeer0), the most it ever had in history.

1.20 Unveiled (November)

Many had speculated that 1.20 would include a Gavel revamp. But no one predicted that The Gavel Reborn update would also include housing, raids, and a guild update, three of the most highly-requested additions/changes in recent years. Due to this, 1.20 seemed like it could surely become an instant classic, but all of those cool things were overshadowed by the elephant in the teaser: the Champion rank.

It makes sense that another rank was added. After all, server hosting costs and developers needed to be paid. Still, all of the forums discourse in the first few days after the 1.20 trailer focused on the champion rank, as it added several controversial features such as the bomb bell and champion slots - both of which still get some criticism to this day. Fun fact: champion Rank may have ended up as a subscription base rank, as was possibly hinted at by a survey sent out during beta.

Despite the trailer’s release in early November, it was obvious that a lot of work still needed to be done on the update, as was evident when beta testing finally began in December. Two raids and several quests were missing, and while most of them were eventually added in beta, the Nexus of Light raid didn’t arrive until a while later after 1.20’s release.