POLL: How much does the theme of an expansion affect your overall impression of it?

[orville078]

I am seeing a lot of talk on the forums about aspects of vanilla, BC, WOTLK, etc that made one expansion better than the other.

What I would like to know is, Features aside, how much does the overall theme of the expansion affect your opinion of the game?

For example:

BC: Legion themed, features aside, how much did the expansion being legion themed affect you loving, hating or just feeling meh towards the expansion?

Thoughts on the impact of the overall theme of an expansion would be appreciated as well, compare and contrast all of the expansions with your overall experience - how much did the theme really make or break the game in your eyes?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It's probably #2 for me behind new features. The story is the basis for everything that goes on. All the raids, dungeons, zones, quests, and even most of the features.

[Chirri]

I think it's less the theme itself, and more how they decide to handle that theme through an expansion. There's only one expansion I really didn't enjoy due to the theme (Wrath), but it's not the worst expansion in my opinion (that goes to Cata, the only expansion I'd rate under Wrath, due purely to the fact that they simply didn't have the time/resources invested into it to make it a proper expansion).

A ton of people need to wash their pants after discussing Wrath, but they're overwhelmingly players who were introduced to Arthas in the pre-WoW Warcraft games.

I'm actually pretty content with ANY theme they'll throw at me - I have no particular expectations, so long as they don't return to whatever the heck it is they did in Wrath that made me so damn bored. (I'll get you next time, Gadget. NEXT TIIIIIIIME!)

[Lesane]

Initially I would say it affects it a lot, but then I realized that WotLK had very strong theme (hunting down Arthas) but the execution made it fairly poor and a mediocre expansion in my eyes. Instead of fighting scourge we were doing titan crap and a coliseum until ICC hit, and even ICC was partially ruined due to stupid comic relief bosses having a strong presence in the instance. MOP on the other hand, had a theme which didn't interest me at all, and I simply gave it a chance but it completely sucked me in and is in my opinion the best expansion besides TBC.

[Deleted]

somewhere between moderate and strong.

the theme gives a first impression of what might be, however what is might be better/worse then theme implied.
which in the end leaves a bigger impression.

[Spraxle]

Theme is a big deal to me. I had always been that person in line on release night to get a copy and when MoP was still a month from release I unsubbed (missing the prelaunch event sadly *sigh*) and didn't come back till it had been out about 4 months. Why? I hated the idea of the Pandaren. I still do honestly. The game didn't need them to tell the Wrathion story. But I know most people love the Pandaren, I just don't. But I understood they were a joke race made internally for some Christmas cards so i didn't ever want to see them in-game.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

What the theme actually is has little effect on me, how well the theme is represented on the other hand is quite a bit more important to me.

[Deleted]

Theme is the reason MoP got such a bad rap at launch.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Theme is the reason MoP got such a bad rap at launch.

I think that was more how the PR team was not actively promoting MoP. For some reason they felt MoP was going to be a success just because it wasn't Cata. They never bothered to defend Pandaren, never bothered to hype up Garrosh, and their cinematic commercials left people with the wrong impression of what MoP was about.

[militaryspartan]

Theme has a strong effect on me, however it doesn't make or break me buying the next xpac, though it does emphasize how much I will enjoy it. I play WoW with my friends and because it's pretty solid overall; 10+ years of development makes that obvious enough.

I loved Wrath because it gave me a great theme combined with what I already enjoy in the game, however I do understand if players didn't like it because of the theme and as such didn't enjoy it as much as say BC.

While I haven't enjoyed MoP nearly as much, I will say it is due in part to the theme. An ancient china-esque xpac just didn't grab me as much (weird too because I usually enjoy things like ancient Japanese fantasy, and yes I know they are quite different), but I have enjoyed it a lot more than the annoying apocalyptic theme of Cata.