Do you want to know who will be the end boss of the next expansion from day one?

[SidheKnight]

In vanilla WoW, we didn't know who was the end boss of the game, hell we didn't even think about the concept of an "end boss" in a game that supposedly has no end.

Come the Burning Crusade, and we knew from the start that we would be facing Illidan at the end of our adventures through Outland, only to be surprised by the sudden appearance of Kil'Jaeden, an even bigger threat.

Wrath of the Lich King stayed true to the formula, it promised Arthas as the final boss, and it delivered. Sure, we had the Ruby Sanctum afterwards, but that was a small, inconsequential bonus raid that served as an introduction to Deathwing's machinations in Cataclysm.

Cataclysm again followed the same formula, and the fall of Deathwing, expected since cata was announced, was the end of the expac.

Mists of Pandaria also announced from the start that it would culminate in the dethroning of Garrosh Hellscream, the only mystery was how we would get from point A (Fall of Theramore) to point B (Siege of Orgrimmar).

Now I ask you: Do you prefer to know from the start that you'll be facing the character in the box art at the end raid of an expansion, or do you prefer the mystery and the not-knowing of where the journey will take you, as in vanilla?

[Sole-Warrior]

No clue, I fucking thought it would be a fucking god damn clusterfuck. Fuck it.

[Jokubas]

In vanilla WoW, we didn't know who was the end boss of the game, hell we didn't even think about the concept of an "end boss" in a game that supposedly has no end.

Well, there really wasn't even one. Sure, there was a boss that would be the last one introduced before Burning Crusade was released, but that's not really the same thing. The major raid patches usually all had their own story. There wasn't some overarching plot we were building up to.

Come the Burning Crusade, and we knew from the start that we would be facing Illidan at the end of our adventures through Outland, only to be surprised by the sudden appearance of Kil'Jaeden, an even bigger threat.

To be fair, Kil'jaeden was the leader of the Burning Crusade. Why the expansion made such a big deal out of Illidan when it was named after an enemy we both fought I don't know if I'll ever understand.

I happen to like knowing the final boss ahead of time. It allows everything in the expansion to build up to it in a way where you're excited the entire time. Now, I could imagine keeping it more or less hidden while still building up to it and that still having an exciting ending, honestly Garrosh was still more or less that way, since the Horde didn't turn on him en masse until late. The problem with that is you risk making the wait until that point boring, since you have nothing in particular to look forward to.

[Deleted]

To be honest knowing who the bad guy is makes it easier to solidify the lore in a way. Classic WoW had the advantage of drawing some villans from Warcraft 3, 2 and 1 which made them feel a bit known. It also made it feel like the villans did leave a scar on the world since the world had just been shaped, you saw the silithids everywhere, you saw the trolls in Stranglethorn etc.
However, as expansions roll by that feeling can't be achieved so easily without knowing the main bad guy form the start. Otherwise you end up like raids where you have no clue whom you're fighting as all their lore has been improvised in that patch and as such a victory over them doesn't mean as much.
Many people wanted to see Arthas since they knew who Arthas was, their knew his story since Warcraft 3. An unnamed villan that doesn't get refferenced might not engage people as much as villans that are developed at least over 1 expansion or even more.

So, bottom line, I think it's good to know who the main villan is as long as said villan isn't there all the time but is still there enough to make him feel threatening. I think the best example of this would be, funny enough, Garrosh, who wasn't there every time you opened a closet (like Arthas) but neither was he nowhere (like Illidan) and he wasn't put randomly around the world for no reason just for you to see him (like Deathwing's flame runs that burned the ocean it seemed since it killed me once underwater...).