As someone who's played since BC, I'm really disappointed that people are okay with this lackluster expansion. I've watched the panels a little over a dozen times now and WoD in a nutshell is this:
"Garrisons, mythic raids, 10 more levels, free 90 upgrade, new character models (...which won't all be available at launch)... did we mention garrisons? Garrisons are going to be cool and no, it's nothing like playerhousing"
And then no new race or class. No class because it takes effort to balance the classes. Are they serious? The devs back in WotLK would literally be posting on the forums asking us for our feedback on classes at 1a.m. just to balance them all, not because they were torturing themselves but because they enjoyed the changes they were making and actually requesting help from players. They actually got so damn close too. Anyone who played WotLK would probably agree that the classes were most balanced near the end when compared to a different point in time during any other expansion. But they chose not to add a new class because they were afraid they would ruin the balance [they think they have]? What the flying f...?
At this point, adding a new race just seems repetitive after Cata/MoP, so do I blame them for not announcing some new ones for WoD? Not at all. But the fact that they would also agree that adding a new race is repetitive at this point and then choose not to add a new class because it takes effort to balance the classes is absolutely lazy.
Then they remove features to make the game simplistic to engage but "difficult to master".
So what exactly is new with this expansion? Something as silly as pet battles, a new raid difficulty, 10 levels, and some upgraded graphics? Besides the 10 levels and a questing zone, this is as - and I hate to say it - barebones as it could get for an expansion but typical for a run of the mill WoW patch.
Of course, I expect to see some crazies in this thread spouting some nonsense about Blizzard not having a big enough budget to go all out. That might be partially true but most companies will flat out tell you that their budget restricts them from going any further with contest. They didn't do that here.
This expansion is disappointing. They needed to add revolutionary content to bring back all their lost subscribers - that's all they had to do. They chose the easiest, laziest way to develop an expansion and they'll feel the damage for it. WoD will do absolutely nothing to bring back WoW's subs to 10m. It'll make sub numbers slightly better first but then worse in the long run. Then eventually we'll get some dreadful news - somewhere along the lines of "Sorry guys, WoD is the last expansion but look at the bright side, we'll keep making big patches." Is this how we want the game to die?
If you want better content, more content for this expansion: all you need to do is complain. Guys, stop trying to think optimistically. Guess what? We did that for MoP and it didn't work. The customer is always right. Blizzard can only endure so much before they suck their pride in and announce some new details for the expansion. Complaints will ensure that the devs are working harder and maybe if a Blizzard head hears about all the disappointment - just maybe they'll get a bigger budget.
Please engage social networking - it's our most powerful tool as non-subs and subs. Use the hashtag: #expandwod and let Blizzard know that this expansion simply isn't acceptable.
You decide the future of WoW. Take the risk with WoD or take action now and tell Blizzard this expansion needs to be the best it can be.
Thanks guys.