Why the Shadowlands make me depressed

[Shakana]

This is one of the most unappealing thing to me in Shadowblands. These new factions feel so unWarcraft. Like something out of a random asian MMO. No connecton to the warcraft at best, retconning old and loved lore at worst. Instead of asking themselves "Would it fit in WoW", it feels like developers just went "haha lets make a cute owl race". Or these stupid generic fairy tale satyrs, when we already have unique demonic satyrs.

OI, i love stupid night faes and cute stuff! Reminds me a bit of night elf most beautiful forests and magic.

[DemonHunter18]

Man looking at your avatar just makes me sad since it's possible to actually write an interesting, consistent and "grey" antagonist in an MMO.

haha I thought that avatar is familiar but I cannot place it though

[Wildberry]

I pretty much agree with every point here.

It's especially telling that Lore forum regulars seem to mostly be on the same page here, whereas people who... aren't are the only ones defending this absolute dumpsterfire of an expansion.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: The only way to salvage this franchise is to terminate the writing staff, give WoW the RPG treatment and have WCIV pick up where WCIII left off.

This has just become ridiculous.

[DemonHunter18]

@Wildberry hey, that signature... Christie Golden is what or she is Sylvanas

[iosdeveloper]

Have you people imagined what 10-50 in say Legion would feel like?
10 level-ups per zone gonna feel like a private server

i just thought of it... won't feel rewarding lol
Leveling is the only cool thing left and they killed it too

[Wildberry]

@Wildberry hey, that signature... Christie Golden is what or she is Sylvanas

In this case she's Sylvanas.

[DemonHunter18]

In this case she's Sylvanas.

ah gotcha.

I thought I couldn't see the whole signature.

man that is gold.

[Wildberry]

ah gotcha.

I thought I couldn't see the whole signature.

man that is gold.

It's an artistic choice taken to reflect the quality of what was just announced.

[iosdeveloper]

In this case she's Sylvanas.

wow, i see you have your theories too)
i got a theory of my own in a sig

[Nerovar]

It's an artistic choice taken to reflect the quality of what was just announced.

Love the bottom text. Nice touch.

[DemonHunter18]

It's an artistic choice taken to reflect the quality of what was just announced.

well Blizzard just folows the Rule of Cool at this point

[telygroar]

You know, contrary to the others crybaby, I can perfectly relate and support this one

[Feanoro]

"Tell them only that the Lich King is dead, and World of Warcraft died with him."

I've seen that used as a signature, and SL sure hammers home the truth of it.

[Reinhart11]

"No one has ever escaped the Maw."

In my opinion that means, that no soul without outside help has ever escaped the Maw. But Necromancers and Demons and Warlocks are able to bring back souls against the souls will. Of course the word "help" might not be fitting in this context, because these kind of characters do extremely evil things with souls. So that how i interprete that part about no one escaping the Maw yet. Of course Blizzard has to make it cringy as fuck because all of a sudden the players are something extremely special called Maw Walkers, because they have a special connection to Azeroth and they can enter and leave the Maw at will....

But with all the rest of the OP's post i totally agree. Its a shame really. The waste of characters and regions in WoW is at such a scale now, that the fantasy world becomes nearly completely uninteresting to me. And i haven't seen this with any other Fantasy World/Universe i know. Its mindboggling really. I doubt they will change anything though. The US WoW Story forum is full of critique when it comes to the story. But i doubt the writers are even capable of acknowledging that. They probably looked into the forums in the past, but got upset by all the posts that critized or even made fun of the non-sensical story and rather than questioning themselves and their story, they returned swiftly into their ivory tower into the story safe space room, where everyone agrees that the story is great and awesome indeed.

[Nuggsy]

Point 1. Blizzard retconned a lot of lore to make them happen
This point has already been beaten to death by other posters but I feel like I have to go over it again. Retconning lore on a grand scale like they did with the Shadowlands cheapens everything that happened in the old continuity. Kil'jaeden is no longer a powerful, ingenious demon lord who created the Scourge. He's just some cheap hack who had his goons steal some artifacts from the Shadowlands and then borrowed Maldraxxus' magic. By extensions the Nathrezim are lame too now since they aren't the masters of necromantic magic and the creators of Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination that we thought they were. And this example is just the tip of the iceberg. I won't be buying WC3: Reforged now because replaying the campaign knowing that Kil'jaeden, Ner'zhul & co were just cheap hacks who borrowed or stole stuff that wasn't theirs won't feel right.

Other lore simply doesn't work in the new continuity. If all the souls have been going to the Maw since (at the very least) Teldrassil and no one escapes from the Maw, how did Delaryn and Sira get raised? It's just a glaring plothole now.

But worst of all, it's hard to care about the lore when Blizzard keeps making shit up on the spot and coming up with new "biggest threat ever" every other year or so and waylaying established characters. Why get invested in the lore of the Shadowlands when it's a given that the Jailer will end up being a mook for some other cosmic threat? Speaking of waylayed characters...

Blizzard has already said that they basically don't give a flying fuck about the lore. They described the lore as a 'limitation' they didn't want to be bound by. So you can expect shit to just nosedive in terms of story. They're not creative enough to build upon what's already there so they have to rewrite and unmake everything to fit their limited scope. What's really bad is that this was supposed to be the 'Good Team' this time around. I'm not going to condemn or praise it just yet but I will say it's clear they have ran out of shit to do. From here on out they're making new lore, new enemies, new whatever the hell.

I've complained a lot about Blizzard over the years but the one thing that always got me excited were the new expansion cinematics. This time around I didn't feel much. Ice Crown in full blown CGI was really cool, as were the scourge but Sylvanas walking in there, owning the Lich King and not even breaking a sweat just because 'she's been getting secretly more powerful this whole time guys.' It's whatever, I'm absolutely done with Sylvanas and I pray she ends up a raid boss at this point because I'm sick of looking at her. Hopefully the gameplay and stuff is great because if you're here for story anymore, you best get off the train. =/

[KYZ123]

Point 1. Blizzard retconned a lot of lore to make them happen
This point has already been beaten to death by other posters but I feel like I have to go over it again. Retconning lore on a grand scale like they did with the Shadowlands cheapens everything that happened in the old continuity. Kil'jaeden is no longer a powerful, ingenious demon lord who created the Scourge. He's just some cheap hack who had his goons steal some artifacts from the Shadowlands and then borrowed Maldraxxus' magic. By extensions the Nathrezim are lame too now since they aren't the masters of necromantic magic and the creators of Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination that we thought they were. And this example is just the tip of the iceberg. I won't be buying WC3: Reforged now because replaying the campaign knowing that Kil'jaeden, Ner'zhul & co were just cheap hacks who borrowed or stole stuff that wasn't theirs won't feel right.

Other lore simply doesn't work in the new continuity. If all the souls have been going to the Maw since (at the very least) Teldrassil and no one escapes from the Maw, how did Delaryn and Sira get raised? It's just a glaring plothole now.

But worst of all, it's hard to care about the lore when Blizzard keeps making shit up on the spot and coming up with new "biggest threat ever" every other year or so and waylaying established characters. Why get invested in the lore of the Shadowlands when it's a given that the Jailer will end up being a mook for some other cosmic threat?

At this point, they have two options for new expansion lore. Either they retcon in a new threat (such as in Shadowlands), or they return a defeated one (e.g. Sargeras breaks free). Neither are really good options, but they've more-or-less exhausted the previous lore. The Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, Deathwing - they've all been defeated. There's the void lords, but it was established that only powerful void lords can actually physically manifest, and can do so only for a time, so they can hardly be an Arthas or Deathwing level threat. They could do an expansion based on the 'tyranny of the light', I guess.

[Phatte]

"Tell them only that the Lich King is dead, and World of Warcraft died with him."

I've seen that used as a signature, and SL sure hammers home the truth of it.

Except, you know, that millions of people still play and WoW is not going anywhere for another decade or longer. The negative people are the ones who are vocal, the ones enjoying the game are all longed in and not bothered to come on here.

Cant wait for Shadowlands already preordered and buying a few hardcopies when I can probably

[DemonHunter18]

all those millions of players are on Classic...

[Feanoro]

At this point, they have two options for new expansion lore. Either they retcon in a new threat (such as in Shadowlands), or they return a defeated one (e.g. Sargeras breaks free).

Or a third option. It's crazy, but bear with me. They build something new on the lore they already have!

- - - Updated - - -

Except, you know, that millions of people still play and WoW is not going anywhere for another decade or longer. The negative people are the ones who are vocal, the ones enjoying the game are all longed in and not bothered to come on here.

Cant wait for Shadowlands already preordered and buying a few hardcopies when I can probably

Shill harder. Also, please update your repertoire. The "any criticism is negativity" crap was always a sad attempt to reframe and shame. Further, since you're "bothered to come on here", by your own statement you're not enjoying the game.

[Dagoth Ur]

you've hit it on the head with a couple of things that have been bothering me since forever.

Be it what I suspect is either the lack of respect or care and/or laziness to double check something that's been previously written about the places or characters being visited/revisited.

More effort being put into something which in their minds people will consider cute or cool over something that's already established and a huge deal in the lore.

I also agree with your opinion about "I have X fatigue!!!" people. That's preciesly the reason why every new place we visit feels like a thematic lunapark ride instead of a living and breathing place which you could imagine being a part of the Warcraft world. Also how we end up in a situations where biggest Legion invasion is contained to just one tiny island diminishing the threat of the expansion's baddie the moment they're introduced.

Guess it's something you just have to make up with, considering this is a business and gameplay takes precedence over the lore anyway. Honestly feels like riding fucking alpacas is more important nowdays than visiting a place like Naz'jatar.