Shadowlands: Why So Mad?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

So yeah. People are mad. Not everyone mind you, only about 50%. I hear it in basically every thread here, someone going off about how Shadowlands is a "filler expansion," how the "cycle is broken," or outright making "I quit" posts.

I know we've all been there in the past with expansions, most of us that was us 2 years ago. Though I'm curious for some data on why people are mad. Is it just a shotgun of issues or is there one specific thing people are mad about most of all? So I've trolled a few threads, gathered up some complaints I've seen leveled, and put them in a poll!

You only get one answer though because I want to see why you're the most mad. What one thing is so egregious that you're willing to unsubscribe for two years? Or at the very least grumble about it until 9.1 and then come back to whack the Sylvanas Loot Pinata.

[Nagawithlegs]

No cross-faction confirmed (seen lots of crying about how "Alliance raiding is dead" because of this) plus no new class and no feature bloat.

A lot of people also seem to hate the lore/setting of the expansion?

[Nyel]

You only get one answer though because I want to see why you're the most mad. What one thing is so egregious that you're willing to unsubscribe for two years? Or at the very least grumble about it until 9.1 and then come back to whack the Sylvanas Loot Pinata.

No features that are worth to be called features. Covenants are reputations plus Azerite essences, Torghast is Island Expeditions in a Mage Tower style. Besides that there's nothing worth to be called a feature.

(I like craftable legendaries and more customization but that's not worth to be called an expansion feature)

[Nathasil]

I think the main reason people are unhappy is because we are coming out of the worst expansion in the history of the game and people were (rightfully) expecting more. After Legion players were happier with the general state of the game, so it was easy for Blizzard to get a more positive response.

If you look back at the last "bad" expansion before BFA - WoD - Legion gave us WAY more and cooler features:
- Suramar is still better than all of Shadowlands combined.
- Demonhunter was a new class players had been waiting for since 1.x and it actually turned out to be the best class in the game.
- Order Halls + Artifact weapons were HUGE on the visual-fluff front, arguably ~3times more fluff than SL will bring.

So, yeah, compared to Legion SL does indeed look a lot worse...and since BFA was FAR worse than WoD people were rightfully expecting something better than Legion to compensate....

[Beefkow]

Dude.

They're unpruning classes.

What's there to dislike?

[Nagawithlegs]

So, yeah, compared to Legion SL does indeed look a lot worse...and since BFA was FAR worse than WoD people were rightfully expecting something better than Legion to compensate....

No matter how much people scream...

[Andymion]

I voted for the cinematic. I haven't enjoyed WoW's story since 7.3 and super power Sylvanas and realm hopping are not things I am interested in.

[The Emperor]

This should be a multiple choice, obviously... Because there are fuckton of reasons to be mad about Shadowblands

[rogueMatthias]

I don't think everyone's mad.

Most people are just very "Meh"

There's so little to get excited by at all in the expansion.

The biggest sell points so far seem to be oversimplified levelling, old talents coming back and the ability to level to 60... again.

Tbh I'm more excited about the few extra character customisation options than anything else. Even the "towers" - time will tell if they'll just be Island Expeditions 2.0.

Even the zones and creatures look so derivative and nothing excites me like seeing Drustvar or Pandaria zones for the first time.

Meh!

[The Emperor]

Dude.

They're unpruning classes.

What's there to dislike?

Oh, great, they're giving me back what they have taken. What an amazing "feature"! I am so happy!

[Heladys]

50% my ass.

More like 5% but the rampaging morons are always the loudest.

[Hatexon]

O U T R A G E C U L T U R E!

BE ANGRY AT EVERYTHING AHHH!

I stopped playing WoW in early BFA, looked at how gear worked and was obtained with randomized stats, didn't want another AP grind. Then saw essences added in and was like "Glad I didn't bother". Since all of this is gone in Shadowlands I will probably play again.

[xpose]

They didn't really share much which is suspect at the least.

Tower feature seems fun and inspired from slay the spire.

No mention of pvp changes
No mention of mythic+ changes
No mention of raid changes

Is this really just a covenant only patch?

[Role Unknown]

Like Many have mentioned......essentially nothing new.....

This expansion seems will be a hit to the Classic enthusiasts.....in essence this expansion is Classic +

[ercarp]

Mostly the cinematic.

Everything else I've heard about the expansion sounds extremely good and I don't even care that we're not getting a new class personally. But Sylvanas coming out of a 1v1 with the Lich King completely unscathed, still smirking like everything is going according to her big brain plan. That's something I can't get over. I am mad about the cinematic and I'll continue to be mad about it until Sylvanas bites the dust.

[Restors]

and realm hopping are not things I am interested in.

I actually can understand people not liking this idea... Like Alternate timeline, pulling argus closer to us, entering the realm of death... But we did have Outland in TBC so its not very new-age idea kind of. But I can see where you're coming from.

- - - Updated - - -

Like Many have mentioned......essentially nothing new.....

This expansion seems will be a hit to the Classic enthusiasts.....in essence this expansion is Classic +

cant be classic+.. They are getting rid of heavy grinds.. Grinding is the main feature in classic.

[Kyphael]

I got over my problem with level squish but still disappointed at no new class. I was so sure we'd get Necromancer. HELL, I would have even settled for Tinker!

[Sialina]

This is the first time since the WoD announcement I felt disappointed, I'm not making I quit threads or posts, but I dislike that the team seems to have no idea where they want to take the game, I'll paste my post from another thread in here

"This looks so barebones, I'm usually not negative about wow but this really looks bad, I get that 15 years is a long time, but the vision for the game seems to change every time we get a new expansion. Faster leveling, slower leveling, more dangerous leveling, less dangerous leveling, bring the class, bring the player, remove abilities, give abilities back, it's all so confused and incoherent.

Like a mechanic removing the backseat as a service and then charging to put it back in, removing your tires, then putting on different ones, and in the end, he didn't do what you came in for, an oil change.

This team seriously needs someone with a vision for where they are going to lead them, it's getting silly at this point."

We are not breaking any cycles here, we are going around in one, adding and removing the same features over and over, with no real direction that I can see or feel.

[dojichan]

You will always find a ton of people on the forums that are unhappy;
It doesn't matter that every major thing talked about were changes that the forum and Streamers have been pushing; Even when people get exactly what they want they will ask for something more or different;

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm mostly okay with them besides the usual lore and story gripes, at worst I'm a little bit disapointed in some of the changes/additons or lack thereof; first and foremost with the presentation itself. They didn't seem to have enough to show off and I would have frankly prefered if they talked more about the class aspects than the level process which can be summed up in a blue post with 2 pictures, I don't need a 12 minute presentation for that. I would have prefered to know more about the scope of classes, but frankly I think they just don't know themselves yet.