This is the problem I have with Battle For Azeroth: the
theme.
Strip away everything from every expansion, and what is it?
And now, we come to BfA:
Telling people they can't miss out on BfA is like telling people they can't miss out on Patch 5.2.
5.2. LANDFALL
The conflict between the Horde and the Alliance has ignited a new series of daily quests.
Players can visit their faction strongholds to begin the quest to summon their war fleets.
Players will both valiantly defend their faction's outpost and assault the opposing faction's headquarters.
Two new Reputations have been added: Alliance players can earn reputation with Operation: Shieldwall, while Horde players will curry favor with the Dominance Offensive.
I'm sure people will say "But in BFA we get to fight and kill Azshara!" or something like that. But I'm talking about the core theme of the whole expansion. Legion was about the demon's final invasion of Azeroth. Yes, we fought Xavius, but that wasn't the core theme that was advertised in the trailer, just like fighting and killing Ragnaros and Cho'Gall wasn't the core theme of Cataclysm. They were just big name lore characters we fought for a tier. I'm sure there will be many quests that explain why Azshara is a big deal, and the boss fight will be tough... but that's not the core theme of BfA.
The core theme of BfA is "The Alliance and The Horde are going to war!"
And I'm like... so?
We were fighting
before BfA.
We will be fighting
during BfA.
And we will be fighting
after BfA.
We will be fighting
3 expansions after BFA.
The core theme just doesn't give us a sense of importance or purpose. Every expansion either presented us with an all-powerful villain and demonstrates how lethal and grand he and his forces are, which implied we will grow in strength and power throughout the adventure, and eventually we WILL fight him head on and defeat him. Or, in he case of MoP, the theme was explore a whole new world and here's a new race; we're going to spend the next few years immersed in their land and culture, with both sides getting to play them.
But BfA? The core theme is war between the Horde and Alliance. That's it. That's the theme. But there's no world-changing assumption that the war will end one way or the other, so who cares? If the theme and cinematic was instead "Behold! A continent of snake people!", at least that would give players a fundamental sense of the world being
different than it was before BfA; there weren't snake people before, and now there are. Let's spend the next 2 years living in SnakeLand. It's Blizzard's job to make that interesting/enjoyable with lasting repurcussions. But they (rightly) didn't go with that theme.
But the theme Blizzard went with is just... not a big deal to me. It's not a
happening, as they say. I'm sure we'll be presented with big, evil characters who could destroy the world if champions don't stop them. We beat Xavius in The Nightmare, Nefarion in Blackwing Descent, and Grand Empress Shek'zeer in The Heart of Fear, and we were given zones to quest in to build up their looming threat and how it was a big deal... but they weren't the expansion. Just as questing in new zones under the looming threat of Azshara or some old god isn't the theme of BfA. The theme of BfA is
Horde and Alliance fighting.
Every expansion has a core theme of an extraordinary event, and the promise that by the expansion's end, things will be different:
So what's the world-changing consequence of BfA going to be?
So how are we supposed to sell BfA?
"In this expansion, the Horde and the Alliance are fighting; Just like they were before, and just like they will after. No new class, no new race, but a few cosmetic upgrades: Different shapes of humans, different shapes of Trolls, different shapes of Elves... etc."
BfA just feels like a big .1 patch, like
5.1: Landfall, or
4.1: Rise of the Zandalari. "The war ignites between the Horde and the Alliance! Also check out this new troll content!"
If there was even a
hint that THIS TIME things are different and there was a big ending coming for who the player is fighting against, then that would be something. But there's just not.
Of course I'll play, and do all the quests and run the dungeons and kill whatever raid boss is the baddie for 8.0, 8.2, 8.3... but there's just no "endgame" story event to look forward to.
I knew we would eventually "storm the gates" of Illidan/Arthas/whoever's home and fight them directly in past expansions, and the cinematic's job was to build up how much of a BIG DEAL the expansion's big bad guy was, and the zones and quests gave us a sense of gaining ground inch by inch until the whole continent was ours and we pushed all the way from Point A to Point Z and end the evil threat. There's none of that in BfA.
In BfA, the Alliance and Horde will fight each other; make a few clocktowers of stone, a few huts with spikes, and we fight. That's the theme. Other things will happen, no doubt, but the war is the BIG EVENT.
That just doesn't
feel like an World of Warcraft expansion pack to me.
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Originally Posted by Aeula
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