Should The Next Expansion Be More Dark and Gritty?

[Deleted]

Honestly I don't care as long as it's good and the story is engaging.
Mists was light (at least part of it) and had a good story.
Cata was dark, but the story was handled poorly.
All I want is a good plot, with connected patches and good characters

[Mekh]

You just described Codex: Daemons (6th edition).

In which case, I'd rather play WoW than that. Because what I described is a child's idea of "mature content".

[Verdugo]

In which case, I'd rather play WoW than that. Because what I described is a child's idea of "mature content".

Oh right, I forgot that real adults find MLP mature.

Warhammer at least has real orks instead of green humans.

[skrump]

Mop like TBC looks a bit childish, the atmpsphere of wotlk was the best i've seen so far, I really wanted to rate TBC as the best simply because of the demonic theme but the way they designed everything made it feel more like a gay pride parade of demons and they seemed more incompetent than menacing.

[jbombard]

Oh right, I forgot that real adults find MLP mature.

Warhammer at least has real orks instead of green humans.

How can you tell a real orc from a fake orc?

[Mekh]

Oh right, I forgot that real adults find MLP mature.

Warhammer at least has real orks instead of green humans.

If you feel more at home playing drooling, asexual fungi creatures (who talk like Hozen), there's Warhammer Online. Oh wait, I forgot nobody liked that either.

[jbombard]

Mop like TBC looks a bit childish, the atmpsphere of wotlk was the best i've seen so far, I really wanted to rate TBC as the best simply because of the demonic theme but the way they designed everything made it feel more like a gay pride parade of demons and they seemed more incompetent than menacing.

Yeah colors were kinda bright in TBC too, but at least they didn't go with a fisher price color scheme.

[Verdugo]

there's Warhammer Online. Oh wait, I forgot nobody liked that either.

And it has everything to do with lore instead of EA being a bunch of cunts.

[Wildmoon]

The xpac could has all kinds of stuffs. No need to limit it to only one.

[Mekh]

And it has everything to do with lore instead of EA being a bunch of cunts.

I realize, that at one point in development Warcraft was supposed to be a Warhammer game, but that train has left the station more than a decade ago.

[Aerofluff]

although MoP was pretty dark too, it depends on what you focused during gameplay - the panda cooks or garrosh's actions

This is pretty much the crux of the issue. While I'll admit there were some dark storylines in MoP (such as Suna Silentstrike's questline with her dead husband in Townlong, etc), I still consider MoP to be the "brighter, more colorful and silly" expansion compared to Wrath, because the "happy-go-lucky fat drunken pandas" tend to overshadow the darker, mature themes with their jovial sillyness. Yes, Blizzard overdid skulls on everything in Wrath (Scourge were the primary focus, afterall, just like everything in MoP pretty much looks asian), but I don't consider it to have been "cartoon villain dark."
I'm pleased that SoO is bringing a bit more, what with the Darkspear rebels impaled on posts and caged and such, but MoP's overall feel is simply silly, to me. The positives regarding SoO are because... lo and behold, it's not fat drunken pandas, it's orcs and Orgrimmar and the fall of a central character. But monkeys, fishpeople, mogu, mantids -- I care about none of them, and dislike most of them.

My favorite thing ever is still the Wrathgate cinematic with Saurfang the Younger. It was tragic, and then you have a moment of sheer badassery (and treachery) when Putress yells out "Death to the Scourge, and death to the living!" I want more of that.

[Ausr]

MoP went Holocaust-like, don't think you can get darker than that for a while. (Yes, I realize I invoked a Godwin.)

[Deleted]

Tirisfal and Plaguelands ftw, nothing come close. Plaguelands with Naxx above it was the best.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It needs be so gritty that people call it World of CoD, yep so gritty it needs to be! No wait, what?

Meh, a bit darker than happy-go-lucky panda land would be nice, but I doesn't need to be like 100% torched soil everywhere. Personally Pandaria was okay in that regard even, if the Isle of Endless Grind would have been a bit more mixed and not 90% Jade Forest art assets I might even say Pandaria was fairly neutral. Depending on the final state of the vale, it might swing either way I guess. To be honest though, all of the expansions were fairly neutral, even Northrend. The last thing I want is 3 Zones like Hellfire Peninsula , 2 Icecrown Zones and 2 Dread Wastes for the next expansion.

[Aliessil]

So ..

The woman losing her husband, going mad, succumbing to a Sha and being killed,
Chasing carrion birds away so that you can retrieve your comrades' corpses and honour them properly,
Rolling your allies' corpses over so that their souls can ascend,
Garrosh going mad and torturing and murdering innocents

.. aren't dark enough already (along with plenty of other examples)? Maybe you should pay more attention to the quests you're doing and the world you're travelling through, rather than just going "lol pandas!". I don't see any need to make WoW any darker than it already is, and I don't see MoP as any more light-hearted than other expansions.

[Kryos]

It needs both or else it's too depressing to play and quest in dark and gritty areas all the time. I always prefered questing in Mulgore, Nagrand, Jade Forrest compared to Silver Forrest, Shadowmoon Valley or Dread Wastes.

[Deleted]

No, the opposite. An expansion much brighter and shinier than MoP, I'm tired of all that boring dark sha/oldgod/undead/firecaves bullshit.

[Soeroah]

I found MoP to be fairly dark and gritty. I don't see how it could become more so without a) losing what makes Warcraft Warcraft and b) become full-on gothic/emo.

I couldn't take WotLK that seriously with Saturday Morning Cartoon Arthas, and Deathwing's portrayal was a joke. To be honest, I thought MoP actually had a more serious storyline than either of them, though I understand mileage can vary.

[Deleted]

Yeah i'd like a more gritty expension

[Pull My Finger]

This topic comes up every now and then and one can easily tell how a lot of people started playing WoW in their teens. Now they're 19-24, are way into Game of Thrones and being badass and now they wish their WoW was "dark and gritty".