Are Blizzard devs out of ideas for new WoW content?

[CSINada]

Pretty much every expansion brought something new and fresh to the game, with the annoucement of Battle for Azeroth, expansion already feels unispired with nothing new and exciting (at least for me), anyone else got that feeling? Ye sure we get 6 new races, so what? Races change nothing to gameplay content you just run with different passives and racials which means literaly nothing. We got pretty much thesame content as in Legion with new names...

Even WoD as bad and shitty as it was had something new like garrisons and it doesnt matter if this was bad or good, still it was there! For me this seems like WoW is becoming money machine, just milk it as much as possible before we give it free to play.

[Deleted]

Aren't you drawing conclusions a bit early? We don't know stuff yet.

[Indigenously Abled]

Pretty sure they're in a mad heat to rustle up subs. A large amount of the shit that they announced is shit people have asked for.

[Soeroah]

Obviously not. Everyone thought we were getting Azshara and N'zoth, but so far it looks like that's not the main part of this expansion, at least at launch.

The fact they surprised a lot of people should show they still have ideas we don't always predict.

Edited for clarity: by "at least at launch" I am acknowledging that Azshara is a tier 2 raid boss, but that doesn't change the point of this post which is to say that the story entire isn't about Azshara or N'zoth, given it's starting off with leveling zones and the first raid tier being completely unrelated to her or it.

[ls-]

This "problem" comes from a power creep.

In Legion we reached a point where we're fighting Titans (well, avatars), space-travelling and so on. However, in BfA we're going back to fighting each other and other Azerothian races.

But many see this as a downgrade, as relatively mundane stuff akin to collecting 10 bear asses in Silverpine, enough people want even more grandiose and pumped up stuff than Titans and their avatars.

Comics that are being published for a long time have the same issue.

[MrLachyG]

Pretty much every expansion brought something new and fresh to the game, with the annoucement of Battle for Azeroth, expansion already feels unispired with nothing new and exciting (at least for me), anyone else got that feeling? Ye sure we get 6 new races, so what? Races change nothing to gameplay content you just run with different passives and racials which means literaly nothing. We got pretty much thesame content as in Legion with new names...

Even WoD as bad and shitty as it was had something new like garrisons and it doesnt matter if this was bad or good, still it was there! For me this seems like WoW is becoming money machine, just milk it as much as possible before we give it free to play.

I think we needed this though; we needed a step down after beating the Legion and this fits that role perfectly. it goes back to the driving force behind WoW - Alliance v Horde

[MoanaLisa]

On the one hand I do believe that they are consolidating and iterating on all of the changes they made for Legion. They changed quite a bit with Legion and have learned quite a lot in the meanwhile I'm sure.

On the other, it's still very early and there's still a great deal for us to learn. There may very well be some significant things in store that they simply won't talk about yet for fear of being accused of promising stuff this early on.

As for milking the game, they have 140+ people on the development and support team. That's not the way to milk a game by anyone's definition.

My own personal preference is that they concentrate more on actual content and less on new features and mini-games. I'm not thrilled by the topic of the expansion and I may well opt out of it. But that's a decision for later and has nothing at all to do with brand new features that may or may not play well with players. I completely disagree with your point that it doesn't matter if garrisons were good or bad. I think garrisons taught them the lesson of not hanging too much of an expansion on new features. I'm fine with more story and less in the way of flashy features.

[Sastank]

Maybe you should apply for a job and work at Blizzard. Bet you've got loads of fresh and original ideas for them to use for years to come!

Also, do you think this sort of post is new? Cry babies are running out of things to cry about too.

[Makabreska]

This "problem" comes from a power creep.

In Legion we came to a point where we're fighting Titans (well, avatars), space-travelling and so on. However, in BfA we're going back to fighting each other and other Azerothian races.

But many see this as a downgrade, as relatively mundane stuff akin to collecting 10 bear asses in Silverpine, enough people want even more grandiose and pumped up stuff than Titans and their avatars.

Comics that are being published for a long time have the same issue.

Basically this. After Legion, Blizzard had two options, crank up the danger dial or take a breather, and I'm fine with what they chose (seen loads of people complaining that WoW turned into Starcraft). Also, it doesn't mean that they won't bring something bigger later on.

[Indigenously Abled]

I think we needed this though; we needed a step down after beating the Legion and this fits that role perfectly. it goes back to the driving force behind WoW - Alliance v Horde

Yeah, the big-bad fatigue was really starting to set in.

[Mysta]

Obviously not. Everyone thought we were getting Azshara and N'zoth, but so far it looks like that's not the main part of this expansion, at least at launch.

The fact they surprised a lot of people should show they still have ideas we don't always predict.

what.. Azshara was in panel as a boss, and there are tentacles popping up throughout the slides.. You guys are giving them zero credit..

[Pull My Finger]

Constantly whining also terribly reeks like lack of new ideas.

[Lightbull]

People forget that the things that made Legion replayable are staying, World Quests and Mythic+, and they are adding even more replayable content on top of that with island expeditions. They can get away with announcing a bit less this time around.

[Ynna]

Don't think so. Like others, I like that we're getting more down-to-earth threats and stories now and they do seem to be looking into new types of content like the RTS raids and the three-man island challenges with actual AI enemies. Plus, we'll probably see multiple bigger and weirder threats as well.

And we'll get a dinosaur mount so all's good.

[syar]

It actually seems like they are focusing more on gameplay and root problems now instead of big villains and the next apocalypse. If you recall vanilla got popular with almost zero cohesive grand story , and with a focus on the world and player engagement.

I am extremely pleased with the fact that they seem to take a new direction. As much as I enjoy legion it offers seriously no long term engagement for me, I sub for every patch do the story and then quit til the next patch. The game plays like a movie pretty much, with some que moba elements. They need to reform game systems, and make more of the world the relevant, encourage social features and so on. They seem to be doing just like that with this expansion , hence I am pretty pleased with their direction.

[Yassy]

No, BFA is going to be used to refine existing mechanics and allow other characters to have some spotlight and develop story arcs. I find it funny but also understanding that so many people feel blindsided by the Horde vs Alliance theme this expansion. The last HvA event we really had in WoW was stormheim with Sylvanas and Genn's conflict. Aside from that, our factions have been all but absent throughout Legion.

It's funny because people still think the factions were at peace, but understandable because neither of them have had much screen time. So having a 'filler' expansion allows the Alliance and Horde heros to have some screen time, build up some more antagonists, and not just shoehorn the same heros into the plot all the time. It'll be nice to see Jaina, Sylvanas, SAURFANG, take center stage while Khadgar hangs out in the back. It'll be great that Azshara basically gets most of an expansion to be built up. She's been this big looming threat and if they jumped straight into Void Lords and Old Gods, we probably would've seen her as a side kick. One of the biggest complaints story wise with WoD was the lack of proper send offs for characters like Doomhammer/Ner'zhul. Which happened because they put way too many important dudes in one expansion.

Like imagine if all of these glimpses we have caught of Azshara over the last decade ended with her being owned in the first raid tier? It would suck and be bad story telling.

[Melius]

yes we do need another faction war with no winner!!! oh dear and the amount of work they put into making sylvanus a cool character is rather annoying and im not saying this as someone who only plays alliance. but then again i would love to see the Lich King bitch slap the shit out of her in this. wishful thinking

[Dnusha]

OP don't like blizzard ideas =/= blizzard out of ideas

[Miatog]

I've heard people say this with every expansion since Cata.

Cata: "They just redid the world, they can't come up with any new ideas!"
MoP: "Pandas!? They've drained the ideas!"
WoD: "Time travel is only for people who can't think of anything."
Legion: "We've already done this expansion! It's called BC."

They have plenty of ideas, they'll be running strong as long as they have the people paying for the game.

[Thrif]

We got pretty much thesame content as in Legion with new names...

Island expeditions? Warfronts? Were you sleeping through the whole presentation?

Honestly, getting more game modes like this is extremely good for the game, to combat the whole "raid or die" feeling, especially after they completely ruined PvP. More things to do in the end-game, which actually sounds fun and not super competitive, can do wonders for it if implemented correctly.