Now we know why they did the awkward "faction war" story now.

[George Lucas]

Cosmic powers my ass. Anyone who thinks that this game will become better because of it's story is delusional. It doesn't matter if we are fighting bandits or gods, because both will be written horrible. At this point only gameplay matters and if Blizzard continues to timegate everything they will loose longtime players.

[Mahmeya]

I don't get why people want to take the War out of Warcraft. It's weird.

There will always be war. What some people (including me) want is to move away from the artificially resurrected faction conflict that is being absurd due to two-faction narrative limitations and can't ever reach a satisfying conclusion because of that.
Because there's only so much that can happen without doing too much damage to one of the factions and without alienating its player base too much (which WoW might be bordering on now - on BOTH sides based on perspective).
Because getting back to faction war themes causes weird, abrupt, lore-wise unexplained shifts of power (character-wise and faction-wise) - such as the fact that Horde that was supposed to be decimated after SoO is back at full strength a few years later while it'd realistically need almost a full generation.

Cold war state we had for most of WoW fits much better than this. Faction war was rarely the main focus, it was almost always about some greater threat - which works way better.

[vitor210]

The earnings call fallout makes something very clear to me.

See here’s the thing, 2019 was never going to be big for WoW. Transitional year businesswise (which we’re learning now), and a transitional story to move to something big. This makes sense because, as I’ve said many times elsewhere, they are taking up this time (too much of it, IMO) to tell a necessary but uncomfortable story: They’re grinding out the last gasp of the faction divide so they can explode into exciting, high concept, “cosmic powers” stories aimed at a united player base in the greater WoW universe. Rough as it is to be a player through this story, this is the time to do this.

I expect Blizzcon 2019, announcing products for BEYOND 2019, to be a mind blower for WoW and maybe Diablo. They’re turning a ship that they’ve said many times must turn slow, and they’re force-turning it with uncomfortable speed. It’s gonna hurt, it’s going to be boring, it’s going to lean on systems meant to keep us engaged with the game if not the story… but once the ship is turned, the future is bright.

Obviously that future brightness doesn’t put food on laid off people’s tables. That part is not cool, full stop.

Imagine being in 2019 and still expect Blizzard to give us good surprises lmao but hey, it's the gullible players like yourself that keep on feeding Blizzard your money so GG no REEEEEEEEEE

[Aeula]

You're really over thinking this.

After destroying titans and gods, the only real threat left to us is each other. All these 'high concept' cosmic powers are just droll loot pinatas with no personality and capable only of spitting out edgy one-liners.

This expansion's theme would have been perfect if they hadn't fucked it up from day one by casting the Horde in the villain/civil war light.

If they remove the faction war for good I'll consider quitting. I'm not interested in fighting the lovecraft fan club under Anduin's banner for the rest of the game.

[ldev]

to be a mind blower for WoW and maybe Diablo.

You're kidding me? When was the last time Blizzard was able to deliver something?..

[Kudos]

Do... do people really still not understand this is an expansion about N'zoth and the powers of Death?

If you spend your time only in game and missed the Warbringer videos and many of the fansites, you might not see this at all. I, for one, can't wait, but you'd be surprised at the amount of people who know very little about what's just over the horizon.

[Destinas]

Pandas: I wasn't really here for that, but hey look, panda land, with pandas! and fish people that aren't murlocs for once!

I mean. They're literally murlocs transformed by the waters of the Vale.

[etheldald]

There will always be war. What some people (including me) want is to move away from the artificially resurrected faction conflict that is being absurd due to two-faction narrative limitations and can't ever reach a satisfying conclusion because of that.
Because there's only so much that can happen without doing too much damage to one of the factions and without alienating its player base too much (which WoW might be bordering on now - on BOTH sides based on perspective).
Because getting back to faction war themes causes weird, abrupt, lore-wise unexplained shifts of power (character-wise and faction-wise) - such as the fact that Horde that was supposed to be decimated after SoO is back at full strength a few years later while it'd realistically need almost a full generation.

Cold war state we had for most of WoW fits much better than this. Faction war was rarely the main focus, it was almost always about some greater threat - which works way better.

This, the story always becomes extremely forced and weird always that there is faction conflict.
characters being inconsistent, massive plot armor for BOTH sides character acting out of character (like anduin randomly imprisoning talanji instead of talking to her)
plot-induced stupidity for every leader in order to make the conflict work.

blizzard don't know how to create a compelling faction war story for both sides.
then better return to cold-war state and some random battles here and there
so we can go back to murdering each other in BGs like civilized people.

[Accendor]

Just like Legion spent its first half in an elf fanfic, and WoD an Iron Horde one. It's like you guys are brand new to the game. Did you not play MoP, or Cata, where there was an extremely similar early narrative of "We need to fight the other faction!" and then that story gave way to the actual bigger even rising behind that conflict?

WoD was an Iron Horde expansion, not a Burning Legion expansion. In fact, HFC was totally out of place story an theme wise.

[Mahmeya]

massive plot armor for BOTH sides character acting out of character (like anduin randomly imprisoning talanji instead of talking to her)

Not to mention plot holes. Was there ANY explanation at all how Talanji ended up in Alliance hands? I doubt she just went on a boat trip around Stormwind for fun + considering her powers, it makes even less sense to end up captured.

[Felixon]

The earnings call fallout makes something very clear to me.

See here’s the thing, 2019 was never going to be big for WoW. Transitional year businesswise (which we’re learning now), and a transitional story to move to something big. This makes sense because, as I’ve said many times elsewhere, they are taking up this time (too much of it, IMO) to tell a necessary but uncomfortable story: They’re grinding out the last gasp of the faction divide so they can explode into exciting, high concept, “cosmic powers” stories aimed at a united player base in the greater WoW universe. Rough as it is to be a player through this story, this is the time to do this.

I expect Blizzcon 2019, announcing products for BEYOND 2019, to be a mind blower for WoW and maybe Diablo. They’re turning a ship that they’ve said many times must turn slow, and they’re force-turning it with uncomfortable speed. It’s gonna hurt, it’s going to be boring, it’s going to lean on systems meant to keep us engaged with the game if not the story… but once the ship is turned, the future is bright.

Obviously that future brightness doesn’t put food on laid off people’s tables. That part is not cool, full stop.

And then there are people who say,that BfA is not a filler expansion. So,if they follow this idea,the next expansion will be significant,the one after -skippable etc.

[Nalorakk]

I'm in two (well, maybe three) minds about this.

Mind 1:
I dislike the forcefulness, which will likely amount to me disliking the outcome which will persist and plague the stories to come.

Mind 2:
I like the idea of getting super high concept and exploratory with WoWcraft storytelling, but BfA doesn't instil much confidence in that department.

Mind 3:
Fuck I hate a lot of these characters if they're going to be front and centre in a unified story.

I also feel like WoWcraft won't evolve out of its own trappings (yet). I expect the next expansion to follow the trend WoD started with getting really up its own ass about something nostalgic within the franchise while also pushing it forward.

WoD: ORCS!!! REMEMBER ORCS!!!
Legion: DEMONS!!! REMEMBER DEMONS!!!
BfA: FACTION WAR!!! REMEMBER FACTION WAR!!!
9.0: DEATH/LICH KING/DRAGONS MAYBE??? REMEMBER DEATH/LICH KING/DRAGONS MAYBE???

[huth]

Not to mention plot holes. Was there ANY explanation at all how Talanji ended up in Alliance hands? I doubt she just went on a boat trip around Stormwind for fun + considering her powers, it makes even less sense to end up captured.

I think you need to look at who got imprisoned there with her(the troll, not the orc). I'd put this up there with the other Old God schemes going on.

In fact, i would be more surprised if the whole faction war wasn't instigated by them, which would also at least partially explain why it feels so forced: it is. In-story.

[rrayy]

Just like Legion spent its first half in an elf fanfic, and WoD an Iron Horde one. It's like you guys are brand new to the game. Did you not play MoP, or Cata, where there was an extremely similar early narrative of "We need to fight the other faction!" and then that story gave way to the actual bigger even rising behind that conflict?

They obviously are new to the game because if they had played the game since the beginning they would realize the faction war has been apart of the game from the beginning.

[Freshouttajail]

The earnings call fallout makes something very clear to me.

See here’s the thing, 2019 was never going to be big for WoW. Transitional year businesswise (which we’re learning now), and a transitional story to move to something big. This makes sense because, as I’ve said many times elsewhere, they are taking up this time (too much of it, IMO) to tell a necessary but uncomfortable story: They’re grinding out the last gasp of the faction divide so they can explode into exciting, high concept, “cosmic powers” stories aimed at a united player base in the greater WoW universe. Rough as it is to be a player through this story, this is the time to do this.

I expect Blizzcon 2019, announcing products for BEYOND 2019, to be a mind blower for WoW and maybe Diablo. They’re turning a ship that they’ve said many times must turn slow, and they’re force-turning it with uncomfortable speed. It’s gonna hurt, it’s going to be boring, it’s going to lean on systems meant to keep us engaged with the game if not the story… but once the ship is turned, the future is bright.

Obviously that future brightness doesn’t put food on laid off people’s tables. That part is not cool, full stop.

If it's not a full disband of factions to create real FFA WPvP with no faction imbalance and give us full high quality customization guild housing as new capital, it's gonna suck.

[kasuke06]

I mean. They're literally murlocs transformed by the waters of the Vale.

huh, didn't know that.

[Traveler Voltin]

I don't get why people want to take the War out of Warcraft. It's weird.

There's plenty of other games they can play where they can hold hands and pet each other and whatever other nonsense carebears do, but instead they pick a game about a faction War between the Alliance and Horde and then complain about said War. Really strange.

We have been in a war every expansion.

[huth]

We have been in a war every expansion.

Most of the time, the faction conflict got in the way of those, too. In WotLK, they started fighting right in front of ICC, which even ingame was pointed out as stupid.

[MysticsDK]

I love the "Glass half Full " attitude.
Just a pity ActiBlizz pissed in it.

[huth]

I love the "Glass half Full " attitude.
Just a pity ActiBlizz pissed in it.

I doubt they give a shit about what the story is.