Should The Next Expansion Be More Dark and Gritty?

[Verbatim]

I'm just gonna go ahead and agree with MoanaLisa. MoP was pretty damn dark, provided you took the time to pay attention to the story.

[Bremmon]

I don't care what it is, as long as it's not underwater... Honestly none of the expansions to date have been "dark" the game is to bright and bubbly to be dark and gloomy.

[Aspen]

I don't want to sound like a complete hater but I am SO DONE with pandas and zen and all that nonsense, I'm ready to cut something's eyes out xD

[Thelxi]

Dread wastes was dark enough for me. I would like more art like zangarmarsh, which did not have a lot of color but still looked magical and mysterious.

[Louis CK]

I don't care what it is, as long as it's not underwater... Honestly none of the expansions to date have been "dark" the game is to bright and bubbly to be dark and gloomy.

This a million times over.

[RickJamesLich]

This a million times over.

lol, hey! I sorta like Vash'jir, at least the first time around.

[prwraith]

I want really dark and gritty. Think like warhammer dark elves who devoted themselves to slaanesh dark..

Like pitch black / holocaust humor the entire time.

[Deleted]

The next expansion has to be dark, and I think it will be; though how effective Blizzard will be at implementing this is debatable. For marketing purposes I doubt they can make it *too* awful, but if I had my way I would have the next expansion delve so hard into the ideas of insanity and the old gods that you would be almost literally shitting yourself.

Ny'alotha has amazing potential to be the most terrifying thing that has ever been in WoW. All it requires is to hire a psychologist, and truly design that area/part of the expansion to be as psychologically traumatising as possible. Not gorey, but manipulative and horrific. It is painted out to be a pit of despair and true madness, so why should it not be in game? The background music has to send a shiver down your spine, there must be whispers in the shadows, there must be weird and wonderful curios that will make players panic. If any of you have done the Niuzao Temple quest chains, you will remember that there is a cave of fear nearby, where mobs that attack you cause you to "go to 1hp" and have flashing warnings that your health is low and you are about to die. I freaked. Perhaps there could be a set of things that can randomly happen to your character, and give them the chance to be either an illusion, or real. I.e. Have yourself drop to 1HP and have an image of an opposite faction member approach you, and there is a chance that you either have full HP still, or that you actually only have one; have a chance that there is in fact an opposite faction member about to gank you, or an illusion.

Strange whispers amongst the kelp trees about the quest you are on, that when taken as advice, may help you complete it, or cause you to die. It would make you question everything. Riddles everywhere.

The whole expansion should not be dark, but Ny'alotha itself should be immensely so. And terrifying to boot. I really want to be petrified of going questing there, because you really don't know what will happen. There are elite mobs all around that are unpredictable and can sneak up on you and pretty much one shot you, or be harmless; you will never know. You are not safe. And if you are not careful? You will rest in Ny'alotha.

Dying while in Ny'alotha could be different too. Whenever you die, you are unable to rez unless you complete a series of tasks, like haunting other players (which could perhaps proc the random illusion events which happen to them, or perhaps permit you to "be" one of these elites and you cannot rez until you have sufficiently traumatised someone else, be that killing them or if they are particularly skilled, having them beat you).

Ny'alotha should be a zone you do not go to willy-nilly. You should prefer to go in a group, as it is hideously dangerous, and it should be, most of all, insane.

[Areto]

Mists of Pandaria is actually pretty "dark" in concept, what with your fears manifesting a physical form. If you take a closer look at the quests, there are some pretty grim things going down on both sides - Garrosh's corruption, Jaina's madness, the enslavement story of the Pandaren to the Mogu, the sha, lands shattered, corrupted and lost.. You just gotta pay a little more attention from the graphics and you can see it, really, in my opinion.

Can it get more gritty, like in Wrath? Yes. By all means the more gore there is the better, in my opinion. It makes it feel real, something that grips at you and gets under your skin. I was pretty sad when the Crypts under Karazhan were "removed" from the game, to tell you the truth. So much you can pull out from there.

Then again, the amount of gore has to be on a limit because the game itself is rated +12 and "we wouldn't want to scare the kiddies" and steer clear of certain aspects so they don't get too under the skin. (The Chinese don't really take kindly to undeath apparently.)

But I have my hopes. I know Blizz will offer something really good on the next x-pac.

[Outofmana]

Would love that morbid atmosphere back that you had in the original Tirisfal/Silverpine/Plaguelands/Naxx/Scholo etc zones, which was also present in Karazhan. Love that atmosphere in MMOs.

[StrayFox]

As much of an improvement MoP was, I think we need a more serious and dark expansion to get more people to take the lore seriously. :P

Enough of Thrall having babies, enough finding happiness and 'togetherness' in panda land.

I want some important people to die and dark and grim things to happen.

Lets get some Game Of Thrones fantasy in here! haha

[Verdugo]

But since when did gore become the criteria for grim?
Why do we measure the darkness from the amount of skulls an expansion has?

No, Tzeentch doesnt have a single drop of blood in his domain. His domain is propably the worst for mortals..

[Deleted]

As dark as tbc it's perfect please. We've had a nice break with mop now please don't do it ever again

[Xarnius]

I don't want to sound like a complete hater but I am SO DONE with pandas and zen and all that nonsense, I'm ready to cut something's eyes out xD

I sort of agree. I liked the whole harmony thing around MoP, but the quests had such a light theme that it felt like I was an adventurer instead of some hero. Adventuring is fun the first time, not when repeated.

I want a Burning legion expansion. Why? It's probably the biggest and most in-depth lore WoW has to offer, I miss the raids like Black Temple(didn't raid at that time, but the raid itself is amazing, no.1 raid on my list).

I liked how they balanced balance & harmony with war and bloody zones. You had Nagrand with it's amazing landscape, shattrath in terokkar, a dark-themed but still pretty peaceful area if you ignore the birdpeople all over the place. You had Hellfire peninsula and Shadowmoon valley(hopefully how a burning legion expansion would look like), but I also hope for peaceful, unharmed zones.

Perhaps mages(Khadgar, not Jaina and co.) protected the entire zone with some sort of a barrier like in the final Harry Potter movie. I also don't mean another Netherstorm, but maybe a Nagrand(be original, not Nagrand) inside, so that you won't notice the barrier too much. I also wish they would come up with some original way of re-using shattrath, much like dalaran. Give us shattrath, we give you subscriptions!

[Fullgore]

Definitely dark. Hoping on a good bad guy too

[TyrantWave]

As much of an improvement MoP was, I think we need a more serious and dark expansion to get more people to take the lore seriously. :P

Enough of Thrall having babies, enough finding happiness and 'togetherness' in panda land.

You've not actually played MoP have you?

[Verdugo]

You've not actually played MoP have you?

Yes, there was a ton of shit happening outside of farmvilleland.

No, it doesnt matter when you dont see the farmvilleland residents being affected by it at all.

Seriously Blizzard, you have phasing, USE IT PROPERLY!

[Celawien]

I'd like to see dark like Darkshire/Karazhan dark. I still remember the first time I wandered into Darkshire area as a lvl 10 or something and just got this sinking feeling "I'm not suppose to be here" kind of feeling.

[deviantcultist]

Pleased by the results

[StrayFox]

You've not actually played MoP have you?

Yes I have, and I couldn't play much longer because I didn't care much for the Panda lore. Not saying MoP was a bad expansion, the gameplay and other features they added were wonderful!

But setting is important for me, so I couldn't get engaged in MoP.


Also since Vanilla Darkshire (Or Duskwood) is my favorite zone of ALL time. If they can get more of a evil and dark (Maybe a bit more realism) slipped into WoW's next expansion. I'm gonna throw money at my screen.

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I'd like to see dark like Darkshire/Karazhan dark. I still remember the first time I wandered into Darkshire area as a lvl 10 or something and just got this sinking feeling "I'm not suppose to be here" kind of feeling.

Amen! Especially with the warning signs and hanging dead bodies. (Yes if you haven't been near Karazhan or Deadwind pass. There are hanging bodies everywhere.) Now thats grim! Give us more serious and scary stuff like that!

ALSO what about that creepy island near Southshore with all the ghosts!? That place is awesome!!!