Shadowlands: Rapidly Climbing the Ladder in Popularity

[badzerath]

So far, this expansion is on par to be my new favorite. It has already knocked TBC out of 2nd place and is heavily breathing down the neck of WotLK for first. I came into this game Jan 19, 2006, and after Cataclysm, have just not been impressed with the expansions that followed. Granted, that is just my personal, subjective opinion. I am speaking for no one but myself, nor am I claiming my opinion to be imperical data on the state of the other expacs.

Is anyone else either seeing Shadowlands move into their number one spot, or at least rapidly climbing the ranks? I know we still have a ways to go in this expac, but if 9.1 and 9.2 are anything like the launch, I have no doubt this expac will apologize for the last 4 in my book and become the new number one on my list.

Thanks OP this gave me a good laugh in hindsight almost 6 months later.

*wipes tears of laughter*

[LordVargK]

you are so much not playing this game to full potential if you think leveling is the problem......

Welly I don't do PvP. But everything else I play, soo... I just don't play as much that it becomes problem.

[Dracullus]

So why does every other expansion always sell extremely well at launch? And what will your excuse be when the one after SL sells well again? And the one after that?



People always come back and play new expansions because Blizzard still makes BY FAR the best content in the MMO market. But there are simply way too many amazing games these days to just keep playing the same game year round. People come back, experience the new content, and move along until the new title update. Very few games have year round staying power and none of them are as old as WoW and they are all mostly e-sportys competitive titles.

I clearly remember that - when BfA got 3.4M copies on launch - people said it was all because Legion success, cause BfA was of course worst expansion ever. So what now? BfA was so great SL sold 3.7M or it's all SL?

Ah, of course, there is excuse. Pandemic. Normally people buy what they like, but pandemic make them buy shitty games instead good ones.

Other stupid shit is whining about grinding. Of course grind is nothing like Legion/8.0 BfA (for hardcore, casual never had to clear map from AP anyway), but it doesn't mean you don't have stuff to complete. Game always was that, it's MMO, even WoD with almost 0 grind had few stuff like legendary questline. Want to return to 'good ol' times'? Check what TBC players must do on release.

Don't really want to comment again how pathetic is mocking OP for loving SL month after launch, while we are six month later with 9.1 delayed 2-3 months. You remember how community was surprised that SL honeymoon period is so long? How (realitively) quiet this forum was from your bitching? Of course not.

[Kelathos]

You need to learn the program. If you do not like the grinder content, swipe left, and move on to the next one....

Oh I did. I'll never set foot in Torghast again.

If my guild somehow survives Shadowlands, maybe I'll find them again next expo. But given how many already jumped, this is likely the end.

[Accendor]

shadowlands so far is the worst expansion in my opinion, so many boring chores, maw and torghast is the most boring dragged out zones/game modes I have ever seen, its like they want to make you mad, frustated and at the same time so bored. CN is ok but really started to drag after 5 months or so

I mean... Did you play BfA? Especially 8.3 was Shadowlands on Crack

- - - Updated - - -

The way I see it:

Legion = 2 major innovations: endgame progression system (borrowed power system) and a new endgame format M+

BFA = same systems as Legion + Islands/warfronts

SL = same systems as Legion + Maw/Torghast

I don't think BFA or SL contents themselves are worse than Legion. But the timing (BFA/SL is later than Legion) made them worse, because players don't want repeated stuff.

If Legion and SL are switched, SL is 7.0 and Legion is 9.0, I am 100% sure everyone will say SL was the greatest expansion and Legion sucks.

BFA/SL's problem is the repetition of Legion/BFA's core (excessive systems, timegated contents, grinding chores, etc.) and the failure of its own innovation (islands/warfront, maws/torghast) at the same time.

If Blizzard can't see this and repeats it again in 10.0, then I can predict right now: Next expansion will be the worst one ever. hehe

What you forget it's that over the course of 3 expansions, all the new features legion brought were not repeated but made worse. That's basically true for m+, borrowed power and WQs.

[dproject]

Shadowlands by far is the best expansion so far, hands down to Blizzard team. From storytelling, gameplay, raiding, M+, all of them really bring more enjoyment compared to all previous expansions

[Farora]

It turned out it wasn't climbing the ladder in popularity, but climbing the ladder to hang itself.

[Toybox]

It turned out it wasn't climbing the ladder in popularity, but climbing the ladder to hang itself.

Harsh, but accurate It ran out of rungs to climb & left itself with nowhere to go but down.

[Sanguinerd]

People always ignore things like professions when comparing expansions. For hardcore raiders it is probably irrelevant, but when comparing game from casual perspective, it is a big thing. Most expansions had some stuff for professions, which added extra stuff to do for casual players. Even basic things like fishing reputations and archeology weekly in Legion made it a lot more fun.

Shadowlands has none of that. Developers didn't do more than bare minimum, removing yet another part of casual game play.

That's because Shadowlands screams "we don't give a shit about casual players" - pay for tokens so you can buy boes on the ah if you wont to progress your character a bit I guess.

[Verdugo]

OP aged like milk.

[Lolites]

it's quite impressive to lose the interest of nearly the entire playerbase after six months.

its even more impresive you know this without any sub numbers whatsoever... since wod...

[bloodykiller86]

The way I see it:

Legion = 2 major innovations: endgame progression system (borrowed power system) and a new endgame format M+

BFA = same systems as Legion + Islands/warfronts

SL = same systems as Legion + Maw/Torghast

I don't think BFA or SL contents themselves are worse than Legion. But the timing (BFA/SL is later than Legion) made them worse, because players don't want repeated stuff.

If Legion and SL are switched, SL is 7.0 and Legion is 9.0, I am 100% sure everyone will say SL was the greatest expansion and Legion sucks.

BFA/SL's problem is the repetition of Legion/BFA's core (excessive systems, timegated contents, grinding chores, etc.) and the failure of its own innovation (islands/warfront, maws/torghast) at the same time.

If Blizzard can't see this and repeats it again in 10.0, then I can predict right now: Next expansion will be the worst one ever. hehe

not exactly as legion was better in many ways such as world random PvP, better world content, consistent updates, bunch of meta cosmetic rewards for artifact weapon which you could pursue, etc etc. BFA and Shadowlands lack in a few ways but mainly update cadence and some form of "nice look at my thing" reward

[starstationprofm]

That's because Shadowlands screams "we don't give a shit about casual players" - pay for tokens so you can buy boes on the ah if you wont to progress your character a bit I guess.

The fuck? They took out the mandatory grind out of the game. It's never been easy to make gold ( I paid my sub with gold and I only did table missions ).

What the hell do you want? Yeah they're not going to give every keyboard turner 226 ilvl gear, nor should they. Mythic raid gear should be prestigious, raiding is hard.

[Accendor]

That's because Shadowlands screams "we don't give a shit about casual players" - pay for tokens so you can buy boes on the ah if you wont to progress your character a bit I guess.

Thats funny, because Shadowland also screams "we don't give a shit about hardcore players" too. Its amazing how they managed to make everybody unhappy.

[MasterOfNone]

Welly I don't do PvP. But everything else I play, soo... I just don't play as much that it becomes problem.

That doesn’t bolster your point. Leveling is like the least fucked up thing in shadowlands right now and the leveling isn’t that good. My point is that with the terrible flaws this expansion has, you are picking one that is literally at the bottom of the pile.

[mickybrighteyes]

Honestly. For me. Shadowlands isn't climbing in popularity at all.. it's better than WoD and looks like it won't be stuck with cut content jokes like it and Cata got but the top spots for me (Wrath and MoP) aren't shaking. Legion/BFA/Shadowlands are in a flux while the jury is still out for SL.

[LordVargK]

That doesn’t bolster your point. Leveling is like the least fucked up thing in shadowlands right now and the leveling isn’t that good. My point is that with the terrible flaws this expansion has, you are picking one that is literally at the bottom of the pile.

What I'm saying is: I don't see it your way. For me personally SL now is much much better than Legion and BfA were until they got their .2 patches. Your pile of problems is probably very different than mine, my main problem is that I would like to have more classes at max, but leveling them is boring and my feeling is that it takes longer than in BfA (where leveling was incredibly boring as well). Once they allow leveling in Torghast (and tune it correctly) that problem is probably fixed as well.
9.1 seems to solve some of my minor issues (best gear for heroic raids dropping in m+, some WL issues, and new content).

[TheRevenantHero]

Shadowlands is hands down the worst expansion they ever put out. I hated it when I played it. Everyone in my friends group hated it. I see people unhappy on all kinds of forums and discord servers.

Good job, Blizzard. You managed to push something out that's worse than WoD.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Shadowlands is hands down the worst expansion they ever put out. I hated it when I played it. Everyone in my friends group hated it. I see people unhappy on all kinds of forums and discord servers.

Good job, Blizzard. You managed to push something out that's worse than WoD.

Same experience for me. Worst part is my sub renewed automatically for 6 months just a couple of weeks before I quit.

[Wangming]

Shadowlands is hands down the worst expansion they ever put out. I hated it when I played it. Everyone in my friends group hated it. I see people unhappy on all kinds of forums and discord servers.

Good job, Blizzard. You managed to push something out that's worse than WoD.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the big problem with WoD wasn't that what we got was bad per se. There was just not enough that we got.