Why I've never been so excited for an expansion as Warlords of Draenor

[AbsolutePitch]

Hello fellow Warcrafters (we really need a name for ourselves as a community, like "Browncoats" is for Firefly),

I'm going to tell you all why I'm tremendously excited with this new expansion. I'm doing this partly because I'm overwhelmed with joy at its news, and I do so unashamedly because I haven't been excited about this game since I stopped playing it full-time in 2010. I'm also sharing my thoughts because as a community we have become so used to the disappointment that, while not absolute, has plagued our community progressively for some time now, and I feel it's more prudent than ever to share the things we look forward to or are happy about. For me, no news is as worthy of that optimism as Warlords of Draenor. The following are the reasons, which I strongly feel many of you will share, for my excitement about the new expansion.

1. Lore: For some time now, players have had complaints concerning the expansions' lore, complaints both thoughtful and thoughtless. For example, many felt that Deathwing wasn't a compelling villain, or that Mists of Pandaria's artistic direction wasn't consistent with traditional Warcraft art. This expansion maintains such a fidelity to the original Warcraft atmosphere; the whole continent and storyline is something I can imagine having happened during the RTS games. While I have felt this way about all of the expansions with the exception of Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor stands out because with TBC and Wrath we knew they were coming, we knew we would have expansions that dealt with Illidan and Arthas, while WoD is largely unpredicted. And as for Cataclysm, I didn't feel too threatened by Deathwing. He just showed up out of nowhere and never built much of a storyline even though he made frequent appearances to even the average player. With WoD, for the first time we're facing a collective as a final boss. This is so interesting to me because it divides the battlefield and allows for a good diversity of interconnected and complex narratives. Brilliant!

New features: I had stopped playing WoW seriously for a while, coming back to it for an odd month here and there, but I felt that it was dead. I had been looking at games like Wildstar, but they just didn't have the expansive and magical lore that WoW came with, nor the narrative mileage, nor the legacy, nothing. Now, with them adding dynamic optional events, player garrisons and revamping the models to look so much better, all of the things I found noteworthy in Wildstar will be featured on WoW. While they may not be done the same way, this still means that our old game has indeed learned new tricks.

Art Design: Is it just me or are those new zones just fascinating artistically? Out of all the expansions, I felt The Burning Crusade was the most magical and diverse, followed distantly by Cataclysm. Now we get the same template of that world but with newer (rather, older) zones that maintain that same level of surreal environmental art. The zones are just as diverse and lend to the diversity of the orc clans and the Draenei. I feel like leveling and just traveling around this expansion will be as enchanting as it was to fly around Outland.


And that's all I have to say for now. Some of you may disagree with me, and that's fine, but if you agree I urge you to voice your opinion! Though much of the game has changed for older players like myself, one thing that changed that has always been in our hands is the community, in-game and out. And I feel that if we can replicate the enthusiasm for WoW that we had when TBC launched or when Wrath launched, we can bring the game back to life with a budding social and communal atmosphere. The realm merger is going to help this become a reality, if only we make it a point to make friends, conquer this new expansion, which I honestly feel is the worthiest of returning to since Wrath, and enjoy ourselves as we once did in a realm where our imaginations prospered. Here's to a good upcoming age for WoW.

[thorun]

Im pretty excited also

Beware though. the haters will be tripping over themselves to come and flame this thread. On the plus side it is entertaining.

[fiesta911fiesta]

I totally agree with you

[Ledecor]

I'm super stoked for the new expansion. Only thing I'm not too excited for is 7 dungeons on release, 4 for leveling. I feel as if we should have so much more, like BC or WotLK

[Deleted]

Very excited for this one, good read!

[AbsolutePitch]

I'm super stoked for the new expansion. Only thing I'm not too excited for is 7 dungeons on release, 4 for leveling. I feel as if we should have so much more, like BC or WotLK

That's the one thing I'm apprehensive about. The one thing that I feel they've failed on in terms of instances during MoP was the lack of compelling and complex dungeons and narrative thereof. I really hope they fix that in this game. But I'm hoping that the lack of dungeons means that they've focused on quality rather than quantity, and I'd much rather quality than quantity.

[gr4vitas]

I have to be honest, I'm usually one of those 'haters', a washed up old timer from the vanilla days thats always yelling 'get off my lawn!!' but this expansion actually is quite appealing to me, I love the changes to raid difficulty and the tiers of raid.

The new continent looks awesome and it sounds like we finally have a good story and lore to go with it. I hope the game content for this expansion is as rich and thick as it sounds its going to be. Without having to spend copious amounts of time on thinks like talents and class overhauls I have high hopes for this expansion to finally have some great unique original expansive content, much unlike the last two expansions.

I'm still surprised that I'm as happy about the news and as excited for this expansion as I am, I'm typically a hater

[Daffan]

Real dungeons please. That is all

[Shampro]

Enough said.

[AbsolutePitch]

I have to be honest, I'm usually one of those 'haters', a washed up old timer from the vanilla days thats always yelling 'get off my lawn!!' but this expansion actually is quite appealing to me, I love the changes to raid difficulty and the tiers of raid.

The new continent looks awesome and it sounds like we finally have a good story and lore to go with it. I hope the game content for this expansion is as rich and thick as it sounds its going to be. Without having to spend copious amounts of time on thinks like talents and class overhauls I have high hopes for this expansion to finally have some great unique original expansive content, much unlike the last two expansions.

I'm still surprised that I'm as happy about the news and as excited for this expansion as I am, I'm typically a hater

I feel the same as that last sentence lol. But it's nice to hear the same sentiment from a fellow old timer. I hope many of us will return in this expansion and bring back wisdom from the old days or lecture these young'uns on how hard we had it.

As for races and classes, I am so glad they added neither. I contend a more balanced expansion is preferable to a diverse one. If they make the current ones more enjoyable to play then they've got their priorities straight as far as I'm concerned.

[SethRoguen]

I'm actually quite excited about WoD, I feel much better about it than I did with MoP.

People are certainly entitled to their opinions about it, but it seems like some are really reaching for things to be mad about. Calling it a glorified patch is a bit much.

[AbsolutePitch]

enough said.

"Every expansion ever, I'm happy for you and I'ma let you finish, but this is the greatest expansion banner of all time...of all time!"

[Enan1981]

Im pretty excited also

Beware though. the haters will be tripping over themselves to come and flame this thread. On the plus side it is entertaining.

Why are people who are posting their take on the new expansion and not agreeing or showing disappointment is just a blatant excuse to call them haters? We all have our valid reasons why we feel and how we feel it. Theyre not bashing how pitiful the next expansion is, theyre merely stating it feels lacking from most of the comments. No need to be condescending towards others. Weve all played the game. Some longer than others. We all have our own tastes, likes and opinion on the matter.

[SethRoguen]

Also, instead of frothing at the mouth about lore that I know little about yet, I too the time to think about it. Instead of thinking WoW is the next Call of Duty, I am interested in where they go with the story.

[lopk]

Why are people who are posting their take on the new expansion and not agreeing or showing disappointment is just a blatant excuse to call them haters? We all have our valid reasons why we feel and how we feel it. Theyre not bashing how pitiful the next expansion is, theyre merely stating it feels lacking from most of the comments. No need to be condescending towards others. Weve all played the game. Some longer than others. We all have our own tastes, likes and opinion on the matter.

I have to agree with you. The majority of people who dislike the expansion are pretty civil about it; the few who are toxic are apparently plentiful enough to earn the "hater" label for all people who don't like something about it.

[Eldryth]

Agreed completely. A little disappointed in no new class, but everything else (especially Garrisons) looks so awesome and caught me so off guard that it doesn't really matter to me anymore.

[Travio]

"Every expansion ever, I'm happy for you and I'ma let you finish, but this is the greatest expansion banner of all time...of all time!"

Blackhand agrees. That hammer is to "debate" with those who disagree with him.

[SethRoguen]

Why are people who are posting their take on the new expansion and not agreeing or showing disappointment is just a blatant excuse to call them haters? We all have our valid reasons why we feel and how we feel it. Theyre not bashing how pitiful the next expansion is, theyre merely stating it feels lacking from most of the comments. No need to be condescending towards others. Weve all played the game. Some longer than others. We all have our own tastes, likes and opinion on the matter.

I think that was more directing at the slavering trolls making ignorant comments that made no sense, or just spewing thoughtless vitriol and conspiracy theories.

[AbsolutePitch]

Blackhand agrees. That hammer is to "debate" with those who disagree with him.

I'm just loving the artistic design, it's just so...Warcraft *sniff* excuse me. P.S. Your sig is effing hilarious xD

[Gospels]

OP you stopped playing it 3 years ago, who is the real fan?