Would you be OK with a "Not Saving the World" expansion?

[Zenotetsuken]

Why does the world ending have to be the only reason to want to fight? If that is the only way they can compel you to do anything, that indeed is shallow story writing. That or (just being blunt) your attention span is short.

It isn't a problem to have an escalating fight. Or even a stronger opponent. The problem Blizzard ran into is the jumped to the "end of the world" content right away. In relative terms, WoW only has SIX expansions.... one might argue this game is still in its infancy if they can keep up the money they are bringing in.

I don't ACTUALLY live in that world, so you are trying to get ME (the player) to care about the video game world that even my CHARACTER is only "passively-actively" a part of. (I do things in the world, but they don't matter, because the world continues regardless if I even do ANY of them)
If there isn't a threat to the world that my character is part of, then what is the point of me (the player) caring enough about that world to spend my time on?

My investment in the world is this... If Thrall/Jaina/Sylvanas/Etc/Etc/Etc died saving the world in some grand CGI cutscene, I would watch it once, then skip it every other time. So how exactly should I be expected to care about a world that isn't even in danger?

[TITAN308]

I don't ACTUALLY live in that world, so you are trying to get ME (the player) to care about the video game world that even my CHARACTER is only "passively-actively" a part of. (I do things in the world, but they don't matter, because the world continues regardless if I even do ANY of them)
If there isn't a threat to the world that my character is part of, then what is the point of me (the player) caring enough about that world to spend my time on?

My investment in the world is this... If Thrall/Jaina/Sylvanas/Etc/Etc/Etc died saving the world in some grand CGI cutscene, I would watch it once, then skip it every other time. So how exactly should I be expected to care about a world that isn't even in danger?

You continue to miss the question. The world doesn't have to be in danger of being completely destroyed for there to be danger in the world. This may come as a surprise, but there are countless games, books, and even television shows that can keep peoples attention without involving the end of the world.

However, if by your own admittance, you are the type of person who's attention can only be held by one type of story, then you are right, there is nothing anyone can do to convince you of anything else.

The good news, is there are millions of DBZ fans, one of the worst anime's ever created in my personal opinion that falls into the "one upper" pitfall.

[Nihilist74]

I think it would be more interesting if there were more individual kingdoms that were allied less often. A good many of these kingdoms would be oppressive or evil. It would be hard to fit that into an mmo world though.

[Pantalaimon]

I would be totally down for it.

Blizzard is just risking making the game's lore end up exhausted because they keep pushing these big expansions one after the other that pits players against universe ending threats. I've always been confused about why, in the lore, all of the big bads are popping up to kill us a mere handful of months or a year or two after the previous big bad failed to kill us. It isn't realistic for most of the big bads to suddenly wake up and decide 'Hey, I want to destroy the universe' in a matter of a decade or two. Illidan/KT/Vael & KJ, then LK, then DW, then Sha/Garrosh, then KJ again, all in the space twenty or less years? Wut? If anything it would make more sense to have more of those threats pop up over a larger time period. Pushing big threats constantly just encourages a sooner conclusion to the game's main stories.

What Blizzard also doesn't do a good job at realizing is that when you keep pushing 'universe-saving expansions' all of the time you are unofficially pressured to rely on the same big lore characters to narrate more of the storytelling for that expansion instead of taking advantage of more 'side-expansions' to introduce and build on new smaller characters that can one day grow into new big lore characters of their own rights down the line.

[Nathreim]

MoP worked really well so yeah. Blizz would have to create a new area with the same quality story and lore for it to work but I think they could pull it off.

[Rudkobing]

Its what we do.

[Korhali]

I would actually prefer to be proactive for once. In Wrath of the Lich King, Arthas sent the Scourge and THEN we went and took care of him. In Cataclysm, Deathwing blew up the world and THEN we took care of him. In Warlords, the Iron Horde showed up and THEN we took care of them. Now, the Legion. See?

What if, for once, we didn't wait for the threat to show up and knock on our door? What if Queen Azshara let slips something while we opposed her in Azsuna? We figure out where they are, and we take the fight to them. WE catch them with their pants down, not the other way around. There's no end of the world threat because they were caught unawares and unprepared. It sets a tone for the entire expansion where we aren't the ones making up ground and overcoming impossible odds, but rather we're the adventurers exploring a new land while pillaging a future potential threat. Not only that, but the Alliance and Horde conflict would be justified, as we aren't dealing with annihilation breathing down our necks!

Burning Crusade was proactive, as we went into Outland to see what became of the Sons of Lothar and the orc homeworld. Mists of Pandaria wasn't really proactive so much as it was a random series of events set in motion by US, so we couldn't exactly be behind the curve. But other than those two, we've been playing catch up. Overcoming impossible odds is interesting only if you can do it, like, once. Otherwise, the odds aren't exactly impossible, yeah?

[Pantalaimon]

People also say the game started going "down hill" with the introduction of Blood Elves.

While some might find it best to be "anonymous", others (myself included) found it a bit weird that we tackled enemies such as Arthas, Deathwing and everything in-between yet we were always treated like freshly made characters whenever we got into a new expansion.
I find it far more believable (and nice) being acknowledged by in-game characters.

I think the anonymity would have been less annoying and less of a disconnect that we actually killed a big bad if the cutscenes following some of the earlier big bads showed more than just the protagonist giving some speech/trash talking the antagonist, with no band of adventurers to be found. When the LK went down it was all Arthas, Tirion, and Bolvar, no players despite the lore talking about how a band of adventurers worked with Tirion & the argent faction to take him down. Compare that to the Legion flashback of Illidan's defeat in BC & how it included that band of adventureres (Yes, I know some of that was meant for comic relief, but the point still stood that the later expansions have done a little better at striking a balance of heroes that were shown to be present acting as players with a major lore figure to take down a big bad, as opposed to be a nameless, faceless band of people that were not shown to be present).

I will agree with what others have said, being a hero working with other heroes is better than being the hero (if we are actually shown in cutscenes when most of the big bads go down so we are not faceless nobodies acting as heroes).

[rda]

Imagine an expansion where (just as a random example) the goal is to go out and defeat a bad guy simply because they are a bad guy. Not because they have the ability to consume the entire planet of Azeroth. Not because they want to rule the universe.

My only complaint about Legion so far is, "So, this again eh?"

I still pine for the day we get an expansion where the fight is Alliance vs. Horde, but not PvP based.

Hell, a human invading army would be unique at this point sadly.

I mean after we save the universe (again) in this expansion, I mean how long can they keep doing this without getting into space Jedi territory (which they have done to an extent). The legion space ships in this expansion are just lol wat

I get what you are saying - and, yes, I'd be OK with an expansion that would, for example, see the Horde and the Alliance dig some important resource in the deeps of Azeroth and compete semi-peacefully, exploring / uncovering / building some powerful machines trying to out-explore each other. Or have some races switch sides (ie, blood elves to the Alliance, but gnomes - for some reason - to the Horde) and build an expansion around big conflicts like Gilneas / Theramore.

[BarosanuNr1]

Burning Crusade was proactive, as we went into Outland to see what became of the Sons of Lothar and the orc homeworld.

The portal reopened and there was a demon invasion beforehand, we reacted and pushed them back through the portal. That's why there is a stalemate front on the Hellfire side of the portal.

[Deleted]

I would really like to see an expansion where we restore parts that were wrecked by Deathwing in Cataclysm, for nostalgia reasons.
To bring back the world a little like it was before flying was introduced in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor!

While above is what I would want to see the most, I can agree with you to some extent. I do uderstand how it all can feel quite repetitive.

[Marston]

maybe a correlation between being a Hero, and dwindling sales.

So if we are forced to create a new nobody as part of the main storyline in the next expansion, it would become as good as vanilla again, because we are nobodies again?
Okay.

[Ehrenpanzer]

What do you have against the Asian theme?

Because from what you wrote, MoP is basically everything you wanted. It's Horde vs. Alliance and it's about stopping bad guys for the sake of them being bad guys

Well, except for being completely wrong, you are spot on.....

MoP was an old god (again.....) making orcs evil (..again) so the bright and shiny uber goodness Alliance could save the day from the ultra wickedness of the Horde (.....AGAIN) and save the planet (a-fucking-gain)

It's like they can only write 1 story with minor variances.....

[Lane]

I would really like to see an expansion where we restore parts that were wrecked by Deathwing in Cataclysm, for nostalgia reasons.

I would too. The problem is Blizzard's model with everything in an expansion culminating to a raid boss. Unfortunately, even though we would enjoy it, restoring zones doesn't lead to a 'big bad', although, there's some potential in reviving old domestic disputes such as the centaurs.

Blizzard is basically going into the "everyone is a unique snowflake" story mode. As someone who reads a lot of books, its terrible writing in context of a MMORPG in my personal opinion.

Agreed.

[Raetary]

Well, except for being completely wrong, you are spot on.....

MoP was an old god (again.....) making orcs evil (..again) so the bright and shiny uber goodness Alliance could save the day from the ultra wickedness of the Horde (.....AGAIN) and save the planet (a-fucking-gain)

It's like they can only write 1 story with minor variances.....

y'shaarj didnt corrupt anything.
it was all garrosh going full "woohoo kill da non-orcs!" mode.

he used the heart just to get more powerful, nothing got ever corrupted and driven to madness by the heart. ( i mean orc wise, excluding mantid and the pandaren)

[Thelxi]

Of course. I think the whole "command this army superhero you" thing has lost most of it's weight over the years of repetition. I think it would be best to simply be an adventurer again that does end up fighting the big baddies of course, but rein in it a little. The Illidan scenario gave an interesting perspective on this.

[Traveler Voltin]

Can stormwind be burned down then turned into a crater?

[Deleted]

Sure, just minus the Asian theme. I would actually be totally stoked about that.

The Asian theme was actually the thing that made MoP good, the orcish theme of 5.4 ruined it.

[Aleksej89]

MOP was such a place, did not work out well.

No one cared about the zone or the story or the denizens.

[Deztru]

Sure, just minus the Asian theme. I would actually be totally stoked about that.

Pandaren theme*

I liked it.