Shadowlands: Rapidly Climbing the Ladder in Popularity

[Thundering]

shadowlands is just bad.

[DarkAmbient]

shadowlands is just bad.

In terms of art quality it's the best it's ever been. There's arguably more to do now than ever before.

But in terms of how it feels to actually be in the world doing stuff, it's the worst it's ever been, for me at least.

[ro9ue]

In terms of art quality it's the best it's ever been. There's arguably more to do now than ever before.

But in terms of how it feels to actually be in the world doing stuff, it's the worst it's ever been, for me at least.

WoW's art quality (and music imo) has never been bad. What's always in question is the quality of the game systems.

[DarkAmbient]

And the world design/mob placement, which right now is fucking awful from a QoL point of view.

[Soon-TM]

And the world design/mob placement, which right now is fucking awful from a QoL point of view.

Not only that, but also SL zones have the odd feature of being a pain in the ass to move across, while at the same time being dull as a brick. I guess Maldraxxus might be an exception, but that's it.

Compare it with e.g. Highmountain. That $#@& was also an aching back tooth to navigate, but it also was imposing af from a visual PoV, and it had a more or less relatable story. Exactly the opposite can be said about all the SL zones, with the possible exception of Maldraxxus.

[Gorsameth]

Revendreth is a pain, but the other zones are, imo, not much different from any other zone in the game, with maybe a few Flightpaths less then we have gotten used to in recent times.

[Glorious Leader]

Not only that, but also SL zones have the odd feature of being a pain in the ass to move across, while at the same time being dull as a brick. I guess Maldraxxus might be an exception, but that's it.

Compare it with e.g. Highmountain. That $#@& was also an aching back tooth to navigate, but it also was imposing af from a visual PoV, and it had a more or less relatable story. Exactly the opposite can be said about all the SL zones, with the possible exception of Maldraxxus.

Its bad I agree it doesn't feel as bad as fucling suramar or drazalor. I don't know maybe I'm desensitized to their fucking word design bs now. Fuck suramar.

[Shaqthefat]

This is mmo-champion/ the WoW community, every expansion is garbage, I have been here since Wod now and WoD sucked, Legion sucked, BFA sucked, Classic sucked.

In my opinion, Shadowlands is great, I am not playing much because work increased my hours but I still consider it one of the best expacs we have had in a decade.

If shadowlands is great why is your sig bashing on the expac?

[Watchers]

legion was the pinneacle

[Jinpachi]

This expansion is about as boring as Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning. At least the combat and crafting in that game was worth a shit. Only reason im still subbed is out of sure stubborness.

[VladimirM]

I always had hopes with this kind of topics.
They should promote discussions and thought exchange.
Sadly, they all end up with people promoting their own opinions without considering that someone likes something else.
Every couple years we are at the same topic with expansion name changed...
I enjoy playing, my friend doesn't. Does that mean I should stop or it means I should convince him that he should start again?

[bewbew]

I only play WoW casually these days so I was excited to hear about VP coming back and was thinking about resubbing. Turns out I can't even use the system because I only do heroic dungeons and an occasional set of m0s when the weekly quest hits.

You can grab gear from m0s and upgrade it with valor points from Callings.

And why would you only do heroics when you can do m0s?

[Zoneseek]

I would like to personally thank shadowlands for getting me to shake wow after so many years. Jokes aside for whatever reason I just haven't felt like playing this xpac, after a few weeks I just couldn't be bothered to log in. Ill keep checking mmo-champ to see whats up with the game but this complete disinterest in playing has never happened to be since vanilla. Maybe it was just time, or maybe the xpac just sucks for how i like to play the game.

[Alkizon]

In terms of art quality it's the best it's ever been. There's arguably more to do now than ever before.

But in terms of how it feels to actually be in the world doing stuff, it's the worst it's ever been, for me at least.

WoW's art quality (and music imo) has never been bad. What's always in question is the quality of the game systems.

Well, I won't agree with this, perhaps you even know why (at least even based on messages, that I have in my signature), but this isn't about everything they did, but rather a specific part of their "art". This most hated part of their design, which exactly, in fact, prompted me to leave the game, declared itself in WoD pre-patch.

I think that there will still be decent amount of players, who (won't only agree with me, but also) will additionally remember about secondary/inferiority/pretentiousness/unification of changes regarding even combat (literally those, as well as priority of class over race and gender) animations, changes in sounds, unbalanced/unstable style, if take it as a whole - globally (again in connection with changes I mentioned about before).

So here is an alternative opinion...

+ A little separate stuff about human females faces. Also about Fur and Feathering art + some stuff about environment. Classic struggle. Animations'(effects) discussions.

Also, customization's conversation and order of priorities, when you want to do job properly. About plot&appearance coherence here. Animations'(effects) discussions. Also, kind of wish post.

---

Last threads from EU/US forums: +/+

ps. Although, of course, this isn't exclusive problem of expansion, which means that it has no literal relation to SL (rather, to specific "@$$-places" of art's steering department), that's why I'm not inclined to somehow associate or voice this in topics like this (but since there happened such opportunity)

[ro9ue]

Well, I won't agree with this, perhaps you even know why (at least even based on messages, that I have in my signature), but this isn't about everything they did, but rather a specific part of their "art". This most hated part of their design, which exactly, in fact, prompted me to leave the game, declared itself in WoD pre-patch.

I think that there will still be decent amount of players, who (won't only agree with me, but also) will additionally remember about secondary/inferiority/pretentiousness/unification of changes regarding even combat (literally those, as well as priority of class over race and gender) animations, changes in sounds, unbalanced/unstable style, if take it as a whole - globally (again in connection with changes I mentioned about before).

So here is an alternative opinion...


ps. Although, of course, this isn't exclusive problem of expansion, which means that it has no literal relation to SL (rather, to specific "@$$-places" of art's steering department), that's why I'm not inclined to somehow associate or voice this in topics like this (but since there happened such opportunity)

Yeah I don't disagree with what you're saying. What I'm differentiating is the art quality. It's all really well done stuff by really great artists, however it's definitely true there's not enough customization and stuff like that in game.

[Nobleshield]

I personally feel this team needs to go. I don't know if the rumors after WoD were true and they brought the Diablo 3 team over or not but it sure feels like it. They pretty much need to scrap everything they did from Legion onward and go back to the formula that worked.

The borrowed power is garbage and still not a true alternate advancement system. M+ might be popular but shits on RPG design by putting the focus on speedrunning, and the affixes change how classes fundamentally perform (e.g. if you roll a tank it's because you want to tank, not kite shit). The raid design has gotten progressively over the top, with the design seemingly being "how many effects can we cram into a boss". I can't speak to PvP since I don't care about it but I've heard class balance there is still dogshit. This seasonal approach to an RPG is fucking atrocious.

It's a wrong, from top to bottom. The fundamentals are wrong and nothing will change until the team is reminded what made the game good, or gets replaced with a team that does. It's so far from wow thst it's basically wow in name only.

[Cazze]

God, that clickbaiter Bellular has way too much influence with those half truths of his.

OT: Shadowlands is objectively better in the beginning than almost all expansions.

[Kralljin]

I personally feel this team needs to go. I don't know if the rumors after WoD were true and they brought the Diablo 3 team over or not but it sure feels like it.

That's not exactly a rumor, the only thing which is unknown here is "how many were brought over".

The borrowed power is garbage and still not a true alternate advancement system.

The fundamental issue here is that RPG's aren't supposed to run "forever".

You start.
You progress.
You finish.

Then you either start a new game or quit.

WoW faces this massive conundrum of: Power cannot grow forever but power needs to grow in order to continue the game.
I'm not saying that i like borrowed power, but the alternative is to stare down the massive issues of (endless) powercreep, which isn't that much of an appealing solution to me.

[Vampyrr]

You clearly have no idea.

Looks like the peak is equal to Wrath in that and other graphs online show further variance.

[Alanar]

It rapidly drops popularity as expected.

I agree with this and all it all sounds so obvious to me.

Like realy.. what was there to hype in the first place?
Now that is a good question.