Future expansion downscale ?

[Deleted]

Maybe not the appropriate subforum however would like the input from the rest of the nerds.
Toons do not only have scaled lvl and gear. But in the rpg world they have scaled importance and impact in game.
From adventurers we became champions , highlords, high priests, whatever. From driving murlocs out of farms, bringing a donkey's saddle back or w/e we got rewarded for in the past we came to be asked by king's advisors to beat some sense into the king and khadgar feels inclined to apologize before asking us to collect his lost coins ...
From learning/reading about war of the ancients heroes we actually are the ones writing history and tbh in future cronicles we are going to be mentioned as the champions that aided/participated in driving away legion and gave sargeras a good lesson. (would be fun to have a worlds first kill raid combo mentioned in one of the future cronicles trololol. name copyrights belong to blizz or players ? ).
Where is the top and where we stop or how are they going to tune us down ?

[Aucald]

My assumption is that in the greater scope conflict is that the game will go interplanetary - with other worlds, other (alien) races, and a requirement for a greater stage in the conflict versus the Void Lords. While we as PC's are indeed the greatest heroes of Azeroth we're decidedly less on the universal stage of the Great Dark Beyond or the Twisting Nether. While some worlds may have heard of our victories over the Legion (or potentially Sargeras himself) they may not grant us the same prestige as we've garnered on our homeworld. Some of them may feel that we've acted too slowly or too recklessly, others might be contending with out-of-control Old Gods or creatures of the Void wrecking their world. A wider scope such as this would once more diminish our victories and our prestige on a greater stage, requiring us to effectively start the journey over without necessarily stripping us of the accolades we've rightfully earned.

[Deleted]

we will most likely be atleast a little scaled down again by next expansion, mostly due to the Artifacts being depleted/destroyed/whatever they plan.

it´s really the only way to go if they plan of having next expansion be Azshara/Nzoth, with our current power level they would get shitstomped, Azshara herself having been even with her access to the Well of Eternity ever having been still under Archimonde. so it either needs to give both one big power boost (and no, Old God Corruption isn´t that big of a upgrade overall. Deathwing himself who got basically all remaining Old Gods empowering him when he turned still mostly was that destructive due to being a Aspect.)

but once we go towards the Void its pretty much a given that the characters will powerwise shoot through the roof again, no other way really.

[In Ogres We Trust]

My assumption is that in the greater scope conflict is that the game will go interplanetary - with other worlds, other (alien) races, and a requirement for a greater stage in the conflict versus the Void Lords. While we as PC's are indeed the greatest heroes of Azeroth we're decidedly less on the universal stage of the Great Dark Beyond or the Twisting Nether. While some worlds may have heard of our victories over the Legion (or potentially Sargeras himself) they may not grant us the same prestige as we've garnered on our homeworld. Some of them may feel that we've acted too slowly or too recklessly, others might be contending with out-of-control Old Gods or creatures of the Void wrecking their world. A wider scope such as this would once more diminish our victories and our prestige on a greater stage, requiring us to effectively start the journey over without necessarily stripping us of the accolades we've rightfully earned.

I have no desire to play StarCraft in Warcraft.

[McFuu]

I have no desire to play StarCraft in Warcraft.

Too late, we've been playing Starcraft since TBC and talking wind-chimes and space goats.

[Aucald]

I have no desire to play StarCraft in Warcraft.

Don't think it'll work like StarCraft - but there are a variety of unexplored worlds, already in the lore, we've never visited or seen. As the Void threatens the entirety of the universe I'm of a mind we'll be seeing them in the long term. Not too different from TBC, really - we create portals to these other worlds and engage whatever threats they're working against to cultivate more and more races into the campaign against the Void.

[Arrashi]

My assumption is that in the greater scope conflict is that the game will go interplanetary - with other worlds, other (alien) races, and a requirement for a greater stage in the conflict versus the Void Lords. While we as PC's are indeed the greatest heroes of Azeroth we're decidedly less on the universal stage of the Great Dark Beyond or the Twisting Nether. While some worlds may have heard of our victories over the Legion (or potentially Sargeras himself) they may not grant us the same prestige as we've garnered on our homeworld. Some of them may feel that we've acted too slowly or too recklessly, others might be contending with out-of-control Old Gods or creatures of the Void wrecking their world. A wider scope such as this would once more diminish our victories and our prestige on a greater stage, requiring us to effectively start the journey over without necessarily stripping us of the accolades we've rightfully earned.

So long story short, we will collect void boars asses instead of regular boar asses ?

Immersion - restored.

[Aucald]

So long story short, we will collect void boars asses instead of regular boar asses ?

Immersion - restored.

Hey now, don't forget the obligatory Void poop quest.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[In Ogres We Trust]

Don't think it'll work like StarCraft - but there are a variety of unexplored worlds, already in the lore, we've never visited or seen. As the Void threatens the entirety of the universe I'm of a mind we'll be seeing them in the long term. Not too different from TBC, really - we create portals to these other worlds and engage whatever threats they're working against to cultivate more and more races into the campaign against the Void.

The game should just be about Azeroth - its heroes, its stories, its past, present, and future. The interstellar Army of the Light, Void Lords, and Burning Legion story arcs should have been nothing more than background noise.

P.S. The story post-RTS (Warcraft I-III) and WotLK has been cringeworthy (the Kael'thas arc in WoW: The Burning Crusade was substandard, too).

[Aucald]

The game should just be about Azeroth - its heroes, its stories, its past, present, and future. The interstellar Army of the Light, Void Lords, and Burning Legion story arcs should have been nothing more than background noise.

P.S. The story post-RTS (Warcraft I-III) and WotLK has been cringeworthy (the Kael'thas arc in WoW: The Burning Crusade was substandard, too).

YMMV, I suppose. I don't think the game will go back very much with all the revelations from the Chronicle books about the Void and such. It'll become a question of interest in the wider plot for a lot of people.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Wildberry]

A demotion in player power and player rank is sorely needed, at this point. Promoting players to ranks such as "Commander" and "Deathlord" have had an objectively bad impact on this game's story as a whole. Beyond that, it's tedious, tiresome, generic, exacerbates "Threat Creep," and has turned Warcraft into a satire of itself.

I'm sure some wonderfully intelligent and insightful person is hitting the quote button right now, ready to tell me that they deserve to be acknowledged for killing Lich Kings and the like, so I want to expand upon why this sort of framing is inarguably bad for the game right off the bat.

During the campaign on Draenor, the player led their respective faction's war efforts against the (Fel) Iron Horde. In "Legion," players are leading their Order's efforts against the Burning Legion. The biggest issue here is that the leadership position is filled by you. Instead of being a "veteran of the Horde/Alliance" or a champion of said faction, you are leading.

Even though the format can't offer flexibility or choice (and if they did, such choices would have a canon and non-canon version), the choices made during these efforts are yours, the buildup and development is yours. The only issue is that you can't do anything with that development. "Unclbadtouch" the Undead Rogue won't become canon. NPCs on your end might recognize you; however, I won't hear of your exploits, nor will they enter canon. No matter how much NPCs kiss your ass for beating Gul'dan on LFR, you will never go on to occupy a meaningful position in Warcraft, nor will you have an actual story-arc.

All of the decisions made, development given, etc. is wasted on the player.

It might be forgivable were we in a position where the Warcraft Universe was swarming with heavily developed, deep, characters each with their own satisfying story, but that's not where we're at. Orcs went throughout "Warlords of Draenor" with no leader, until Saurfang was quietly promoted. Since then he's received nothing. Nobody can figure out who in the Hell is supposed to be leading the Trolls. Is it one of Vol'jin's kids that's only ever been alluded to in a certain reading of a single quest? Rokhan? Why, because he was present throughout WCIII, despite his flat personality? One of the two minor female Trolls? Because they made an appearance once?

Warcraft is desperately in need of more characters, not just racial leaders, either. We need more minor characters, Overlords, and the like, to receive development. These characters help flesh out races, which, right now, are defined entirely by their leaders. Look at Orcs in Wrath of the Lich King, for example, (Back when we were just "Champions" and veterans), sure they were led by Thrall, who represented a section of Orcish society; however, Garrosh, Saurfang, Krenna, Agmar, Gorgonna, Nazgrim Dranosh, etc. all helped to flesh out Orcish culture. We actually got a glimpse of bitter divides, generational gaps, philosophical differences, etc. These characters helped flesh out the Orcish race and give it soul.

These things can't be accomplished with the player in a leadership position. That arrangement siphons too much of a very small spotlight away from canonical characters that could actually benefit from such development and enrich the story.

Not only do characters suffer, but factions suffer as well. Sub-factions (ie, The Silver Hand) have had their identities watered down and diluted to accommodate all race/class options. The Horde and Alliance as a whole have to take the backseat to the player doing oh-so-cinematic things.

The game is worse off for our position.

With regard to player "power," we need kicked down there, too. "Threat Creep" is real, and doing things like killing Sargeras or battling the Void Lords directly is ridiculous and sucks some of the mystery out of Warcraft.

With regard to building an interplanetary coalition against the Void Lords, why in the Hell do I care about other planets? I want to do things on Azeroth. Draenor and Outland were only ever relevant because they threatened Azeroth, and were another, minor, stage for Azerothian actors to act upon.

Were we to work on building a coalition, we'd run the risk of (and inevitably run into, thanks to Blizzard's storytelling abilities) things feeling too detached from our own world for players to care. The "fun and mystery" that Outland/Draenor provided would most likely fall flat were it to become a regular occurrence with planets that players really have no reason to care about, either.

tl;dr: I want to go back to just being a veteran of the Horde. Allow me to work under canon characters, and battle local threats. I don't want to lead an interplanetary coalition against an incomprehensibly large, background evil.

[In Ogres We Trust]

A demotion in player power and player rank is sorely needed, at this point. Promoting players to ranks such as "Commander" and "Deathlord" have had an objectively bad impact on this game's story as a whole. Beyond that, it's tedious, tiresome, generic, exacerbates "Threat Creep," and has turned Warcraft into a satire of itself.

I'm sure some wonderfully intelligent and insightful person is hitting the quote button right now, ready to tell me that they deserve to be acknowledged for killing Lich Kings and the like, so I want to expand upon why this sort of framing is inarguably bad for the game right off the bat.

During the campaign on Draenor, the player led their respective faction's war efforts against the (Fel) Iron Horde. In "Legion," players are leading their Order's efforts against the Burning Legion. The biggest issue here is that the leadership position is filled by you. Instead of being a "veteran of the Horde/Alliance" or a champion of said faction, you are leading.

Even though the format can't offer flexibility or choice (and if they did, such choices would have a canon and non-canon version), the choices made during these efforts are yours, the buildup and development is yours. The only issue is that you can't do anything with that development. "Unclbadtouch" the Undead Rogue won't become canon. NPCs on your end might recognize you; however, I won't hear of your exploits, nor will they enter canon. No matter how much NPCs kiss your ass for beating Gul'dan on LFR, you will never go on to occupy a meaningful position in Warcraft, nor will you have an actual story-arc.

All of the decisions made, development given, etc. is wasted on the player.

It might be forgivable were we in a position where the Warcraft Universe was swarming with heavily developed, deep, characters each with their own satisfying story, but that's not where we're at. Orcs went throughout "Warlords of Draenor" with no leader, until Saurfang was quietly promoted. Since then he's received nothing. Nobody can figure out who in the Hell is supposed to be leading the Trolls. Is it one of Vol'jin's kids that's only ever been alluded to in a certain reading of a single quest? Rokhan? Why, because he was present throughout WCIII, despite his flat personality? One of the two minor female Trolls? Because they made an appearance once?

Warcraft is desperately in need of more characters, not just racial leaders, either. We need more minor characters, Overlords, and the like, to receive development. These characters help flesh out races, which, right now, are defined entirely by their leaders. Look at Orcs in Wrath of the Lich King, for example, (Back when we were just "Champions" and veterans), sure they were led by Thrall, who represented a section of Orcish society; however, Garrosh, Saurfang, Krenna, Agmar, Gorgonna, Nazgrim Dranosh, etc. all helped to flesh out Orcish culture. We actually got a glimpse of bitter divides, generational gaps, philosophical differences, etc. These characters helped flesh out the Orcish race and give it soul.

These things can't be accomplished with the player in a leadership position. That arrangement siphons too much of a very small spotlight away from canonical characters that could actually benefit from such development and enrich the story.

Not only do characters suffer, but factions suffer as well. Sub-factions (ie, The Silver Hand) have had their identities watered down and diluted to accommodate all race/class options. The Horde and Alliance as a whole have to take the backseat to the player doing oh-so-cinematic things.

The game is worse off for our position.

With regard to player "power," we need kicked down there, too. "Threat Creep" is real, and doing things like killing Sargeras or battling the Void Lords directly is ridiculous and sucks some of the mystery out of Warcraft.

With regard to building an interplanetary coalition against the Void Lords, why in the Hell do I care about other planets? I want to do things on Azeroth. Draenor and Outland were only ever relevant because they threatened Azeroth, and were another, minor, stage for Azerothian actors to act upon.

Were we to work on building a coalition, we'd run the risk of (and inevitably run into, thanks to Blizzard's storytelling abilities) things feeling too detached from our own world for players to care. The "fun and mystery" that Outland/Draenor provided would most likely fall flat were it to become a regular occurrence with planets that players really have no reason to care about, either.

tl;dr: I want to go back to just being a veteran of the Horde. Allow me to work under canon characters, and battle local threats. I don't want to lead an interplanetary coalition against an incomprehensibly large, background evil.

This was, without question, a perfect response, and it highlights my own feelings about the current direction of the game.

[Deathquoi]

This was, without question, a perfect response, and it highlights my own feelings about the current direction of the game.

And yet I couldn't disagree with it more. It's almost like there are millions of players playing this game and they don't all agree!

[Radaney]

A demotion in player power and player rank is sorely needed, at this point. Promoting players to ranks such as "Commander" and "Deathlord" have had an objectively bad impact on this game's story as a whole. Beyond that, it's tedious, tiresome, generic, exacerbates "Threat Creep," and has turned Warcraft into a satire of itself.

I'm sure some wonderfully intelligent and insightful person is hitting the quote button right now, ready to tell me that they deserve to be acknowledged for killing Lich Kings and the like, so I want to expand upon why this sort of framing is inarguably bad for the game right off the bat.

During the campaign on Draenor, the player led their respective faction's war efforts against the (Fel) Iron Horde. In "Legion," players are leading their Order's efforts against the Burning Legion. The biggest issue here is that the leadership position is filled by you. Instead of being a "veteran of the Horde/Alliance" or a champion of said faction, you are leading.

Even though the format can't offer flexibility or choice (and if they did, such choices would have a canon and non-canon version), the choices made during these efforts are yours, the buildup and development is yours. The only issue is that you can't do anything with that development. "Unclbadtouch" the Undead Rogue won't become canon. NPCs on your end might recognize you; however, I won't hear of your exploits, nor will they enter canon. No matter how much NPCs kiss your ass for beating Gul'dan on LFR, you will never go on to occupy a meaningful position in Warcraft, nor will you have an actual story-arc.

All of the decisions made, development given, etc. is wasted on the player.

It might be forgivable were we in a position where the Warcraft Universe was swarming with heavily developed, deep, characters each with their own satisfying story, but that's not where we're at. Orcs went throughout "Warlords of Draenor" with no leader, until Saurfang was quietly promoted. Since then he's received nothing. Nobody can figure out who in the Hell is supposed to be leading the Trolls. Is it one of Vol'jin's kids that's only ever been alluded to in a certain reading of a single quest? Rokhan? Why, because he was present throughout WCIII, despite his flat personality? One of the two minor female Trolls? Because they made an appearance once?

Warcraft is desperately in need of more characters, not just racial leaders, either. We need more minor characters, Overlords, and the like, to receive development. These characters help flesh out races, which, right now, are defined entirely by their leaders. Look at Orcs in Wrath of the Lich King, for example, (Back when we were just "Champions" and veterans), sure they were led by Thrall, who represented a section of Orcish society; however, Garrosh, Saurfang, Krenna, Agmar, Gorgonna, Nazgrim Dranosh, etc. all helped to flesh out Orcish culture. We actually got a glimpse of bitter divides, generational gaps, philosophical differences, etc. These characters helped flesh out the Orcish race and give it soul.

These things can't be accomplished with the player in a leadership position. That arrangement siphons too much of a very small spotlight away from canonical characters that could actually benefit from such development and enrich the story.

Not only do characters suffer, but factions suffer as well. Sub-factions (ie, The Silver Hand) have had their identities watered down and diluted to accommodate all race/class options. The Horde and Alliance as a whole have to take the backseat to the player doing oh-so-cinematic things.

The game is worse off for our position.

With regard to player "power," we need kicked down there, too. "Threat Creep" is real, and doing things like killing Sargeras or battling the Void Lords directly is ridiculous and sucks some of the mystery out of Warcraft.

With regard to building an interplanetary coalition against the Void Lords, why in the Hell do I care about other planets? I want to do things on Azeroth. Draenor and Outland were only ever relevant because they threatened Azeroth, and were another, minor, stage for Azerothian actors to act upon.

Were we to work on building a coalition, we'd run the risk of (and inevitably run into, thanks to Blizzard's storytelling abilities) things feeling too detached from our own world for players to care. The "fun and mystery" that Outland/Draenor provided would most likely fall flat were it to become a regular occurrence with planets that players really have no reason to care about, either.

tl;dr: I want to go back to just being a veteran of the Horde. Allow me to work under canon characters, and battle local threats. I don't want to lead an interplanetary coalition against an incomprehensibly large, background evil.

You're correct.

The only actual story development Warcraft has received since WC3 was Wrath and Mists of Pandaria where good characters were introduced/expanded; Tirion, Wrathion, Garrosh, Taran Zhu, Thunder King etc. and the story actually progressed in a meaningful way. This is because the entire story of the expansion focused on THOSE characters and their exploits, we as players were just along for the ride.

In terms of the expansion we're in now, Legion. Getting to the point of killing Archimonde and Kil'Jaeden never actually happened storywise, we're just suddenly doing it for some reason. Even those these characters destroyed Dalaran in a single moment, killed a Wild God in a wrestling match and destroyed an entire zone alongside literally creating the Lich King. We have not progressed to this point properly storywise or power-wise and neither have our surrounding characters. These characters have been the scourge of the universe and leader of an inter-galactic infinite army for more than 10,000 years, do I feel powerful enough in game to be killing these characters? No.

The only space or story events between the Illidan book where Illidan was shitting himself where Kil'Jaeden appeared and forcefully probed his mind with overpowered intergalactic mind-reading spell hacks and suddenly killing him now in Legion was Illidans death and 10,000 year imprisonment. How a death and 10,000 year imprisonment as a vegtable suddenly puts you on par with Kil'jaeden I have no idea but apparently it does.

Atleast Deathwing required some of the most powerful characters and the most powerful artifact on Azeroth to kill him but apparently Archimonde only takes a random orc and draenei and Kil'Jaeden, the arguably second most powerful character currently in the entire Warcraft Lore only requires Illidan who participated minorly in the fight.

The story has been butchered and it's potential ruined for what WC3 set-up.

[Destinas]

As far as Chronicle, there are only three planned volumes, and we're up to the second right now. Presumably, the Chronicle series will end somewhere after the Third War, or shortly before World of Warcraft began. So, sadly we won't be hearing about the events we've seen in the MMO, but that doesn't matter much in my opinion. In most books/short stories (inside and outside the game) it's always stated to be "adventurers" that defeated the big bads, or had a garrison in Draenor, or did anything important.

I feel we're going to plateau in importance in the near future. Many of the followers from the Draenor garrison take the place of "random adventurers" now, seeing as many of them were involved in the Broken Shore pre-event scenario, and some appear as a cameo in the background of the current Order Halls. Even since MoP, the Black Harvest members were people that were simply part of the raid that beat certain bosses - Kanrethad helped defeat Illidan, Ritssyn helped defeat Ragnaros, Shinfel helped defeat Cho'gall, and Zinnin was there when Deathwing died. Our old lives as simple plucky adventurers is being taken by our underlings, and it would be difficult to revert back without feeling as though we're much less powerful, or like a piece of the story is somehow missing.

Even so, there are plenty of people that want us to be considered powerful. Through our own eyes, we are the ones that defeated the Lich King, saved Draenor, stopped the True/Dark/Iron Hordes, defeated Old Gods, and pushed back the Legion many times. In the past, fans have wanted that acknowledgement from more than our own achievement page. But, it's understandable how many people feel as though the titles of a commander, Highlord, Archmage, and others take away from the lore for plenty of other characters.

The problem is finding a good balance. We should be important, but not more than already established characters, in my opinion. We should have lore characters to look up to that aren't literal gods. Hell, warriors command the children of the Titans to go take out felhounds in Legion, while still taking orders from another. Some feel like they're overpowered bosses, while others feel like a slightly more important underling among other underlings. Perhaps that's the key in the future, since many other orders (druids, mages, rogues, etc) are simply part of an important council, but not really the main leader, per se.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

The game should just be about Azeroth - its heroes, its stories, its past, present, and future. The interstellar Army of the Light, Void Lords, and Burning Legion story arcs should have been nothing more than background noise.

P.S. The story post-RTS (Warcraft I-III) and WotLK has been cringeworthy (the Kael'thas arc in WoW: The Burning Crusade was substandard, too).

you do know 90% of warcraft 1-3 and wotlk wasn't just azeroth right? without outlands there is no orcs no lich king nothing just abunch of dumb humans being dumb. warcraft has always been about interstellar crap its never been just azeroth, hell every thing but the trolls and cows are because some intersteller begin did something.

[Kynario]

A demotion in player power and player rank is sorely needed, at this point. Promoting players to ranks such as "Commander" and "Deathlord" have had an objectively bad impact on this game's story as a whole. Beyond that, it's tedious, tiresome, generic, exacerbates "Threat Creep," and has turned Warcraft into a satire of itself.

I'm sure some wonderfully intelligent and insightful person is hitting the quote button right now, ready to tell me that they deserve to be acknowledged for killing Lich Kings and the like, so I want to expand upon why this sort of framing is inarguably bad for the game right off the bat.

During the campaign on Draenor, the player led their respective faction's war efforts against the (Fel) Iron Horde. In "Legion," players are leading their Order's efforts against the Burning Legion. The biggest issue here is that the leadership position is filled by you. Instead of being a "veteran of the Horde/Alliance" or a champion of said faction, you are leading.

Even though the format can't offer flexibility or choice (and if they did, such choices would have a canon and non-canon version), the choices made during these efforts are yours, the buildup and development is yours. The only issue is that you can't do anything with that development. "Unclbadtouch" the Undead Rogue won't become canon. NPCs on your end might recognize you; however, I won't hear of your exploits, nor will they enter canon. No matter how much NPCs kiss your ass for beating Gul'dan on LFR, you will never go on to occupy a meaningful position in Warcraft, nor will you have an actual story-arc.

All of the decisions made, development given, etc. is wasted on the player.

It might be forgivable were we in a position where the Warcraft Universe was swarming with heavily developed, deep, characters each with their own satisfying story, but that's not where we're at. Orcs went throughout "Warlords of Draenor" with no leader, until Saurfang was quietly promoted. Since then he's received nothing. Nobody can figure out who in the Hell is supposed to be leading the Trolls. Is it one of Vol'jin's kids that's only ever been alluded to in a certain reading of a single quest? Rokhan? Why, because he was present throughout WCIII, despite his flat personality? One of the two minor female Trolls? Because they made an appearance once?

Warcraft is desperately in need of more characters, not just racial leaders, either. We need more minor characters, Overlords, and the like, to receive development. These characters help flesh out races, which, right now, are defined entirely by their leaders. Look at Orcs in Wrath of the Lich King, for example, (Back when we were just "Champions" and veterans), sure they were led by Thrall, who represented a section of Orcish society; however, Garrosh, Saurfang, Krenna, Agmar, Gorgonna, Nazgrim Dranosh, etc. all helped to flesh out Orcish culture. We actually got a glimpse of bitter divides, generational gaps, philosophical differences, etc. These characters helped flesh out the Orcish race and give it soul.

These things can't be accomplished with the player in a leadership position. That arrangement siphons too much of a very small spotlight away from canonical characters that could actually benefit from such development and enrich the story.

Not only do characters suffer, but factions suffer as well. Sub-factions (ie, The Silver Hand) have had their identities watered down and diluted to accommodate all race/class options. The Horde and Alliance as a whole have to take the backseat to the player doing oh-so-cinematic things.

The game is worse off for our position.

With regard to player "power," we need kicked down there, too. "Threat Creep" is real, and doing things like killing Sargeras or battling the Void Lords directly is ridiculous and sucks some of the mystery out of Warcraft.

With regard to building an interplanetary coalition against the Void Lords, why in the Hell do I care about other planets? I want to do things on Azeroth. Draenor and Outland were only ever relevant because they threatened Azeroth, and were another, minor, stage for Azerothian actors to act upon.

Were we to work on building a coalition, we'd run the risk of (and inevitably run into, thanks to Blizzard's storytelling abilities) things feeling too detached from our own world for players to care. The "fun and mystery" that Outland/Draenor provided would most likely fall flat were it to become a regular occurrence with planets that players really have no reason to care about, either.

tl;dr: I want to go back to just being a veteran of the Horde. Allow me to work under canon characters, and battle local threats. I don't want to lead an interplanetary coalition against an incomprehensibly large, background evil.

Well said. You've put into words what I couldn't. 100% agreed on this. You should post this on the official forums too.

- - - Updated - - -

You're correct.

The only actual story development Warcraft has received since WC3 was Wrath and Mists of Pandaria where good characters were introduced/expanded; Tirion, Wrathion, Garrosh, Taran Zhu, Thunder King etc. and the story actually progressed in a meaningful way. This is because the entire story of the expansion focused on THOSE characters and their exploits, we as players were just along for the ride.

In terms of the expansion we're in now, Legion. Getting to the point of killing Archimonde and Kil'Jaeden never actually happened storywise, we're just suddenly doing it for some reason. Even those these characters destroyed Dalaran in a single moment, killed a Wild God in a wrestling match and destroyed an entire zone alongside literally creating the Lich King. We have not progressed to this point properly storywise or power-wise and neither have our surrounding characters. These characters have been the scourge of the universe and leader of an inter-galactic infinite army for more than 10,000 years, do I feel powerful enough in game to be killing these characters? No.

The only space or story events between the Illidan book where Illidan was shitting himself where Kil'Jaeden appeared and forcefully probed his mind with overpowered intergalactic mind-reading spell hacks and suddenly killing him now in Legion was Illidans death and 10,000 year imprisonment. How a death and 10,000 year imprisonment as a vegtable suddenly puts you on par with Kil'jaeden I have no idea but apparently it does.

Atleast Deathwing required some of the most powerful characters and the most powerful artifact on Azeroth to kill him but apparently Archimonde only takes a random orc and draenei and Kil'Jaeden, the arguably second most powerful character currently in the entire Warcraft Lore only requires Illidan who participated minorly in the fight.

The story has been butchered and it's potential ruined for what WC3 set-up.

Agreed. What I don't understand is why it has to be us killing extremely powerful characters like Archimonde/Kil'Jaeden. Shouldn't we be tagging along as heroes, and letting characters like Illidan/Anduin (or other characters that should be getting more exposure and character development) take care of dealing the final "blow" to such antagonists? Maybe it's just a simple business move. They need to make players feel extremely important and powerful with lines like "The fate of Azeroth rests on your shoulders, Hero!" in order to ensure players feel powerful and good about themselves and keep subscribed. It feels like the exact opposite though... when everything is epic, nothing is epic. :-/

[Aucald]

Personally speaking, I'm actually fine with either concept (e.g. expansion of scope or a return to form) as long as either concept is done well. I think the whole interplanetary "Light vs. Shadow" war could be great, and would meet the need of essentially de-powering the PC's by moving the proverbial goalposts from renown on Azeroth to renown across many worlds. But a return to the form of classic WoW or even WC3 would also be welcome - an attempt to recapture the essence of those original stories in some fashion would be a bit of a breather from the spate of expansions that feel apocalyptic in nature.

[In Ogres We Trust]

And yet I couldn't disagree with it more. It's almost like there are millions of players playing this game and they don't all agree!

Cool story!

[Coffeexbean]

agree with OP entirely... the games lore also looks like its heading for more sci fi themes that Im not a big fan of.. WoW needs to return to feeling medieval.. none of this titan void lord pantheon jesus stuff.. too divine and boring lol