Has WoW gotten "too" family friendly?

[Lolites]

You state a fact about modern wow that is bad

and here is the problem - its not bad, its not TO HIS LIKING, doesnt mean its bad, bcs that is his OPINION, not a fact... thats big difference, and while he have right to not like it, saying how its SUPPOSED to be is incredibly entitled and arrogant, and saying it "changed" is simply factualy incorrect

That WoW went from a DnD/Warhammer inspired world to a Disney/Pixar one and it's f'cking awful.

wrong, WARCRAFT was inspired by warhammer, just A LOT more childish, WoW was from the very begining childish, i started to play wow in march 2005 and dragons are pretty much the same as back then...
its like when people claim how story got worse, while the story of wow was ALWAYS mediocre at best... there were handful of few questlines (and always some side q lines, never main) with good story, but storytelling in wow as whole was always "meh"

[DatToffer]

If you're looking for some hard-core gore, this year and next year you are going to find it everywhere in real-life. Then the game will seem like a nice escape.

Destruction is not actually intelligent, and lovely things aren't dumb.

After the tenth lovey dovey protecc the ducky quest, wholesomeness kinda loses its appeal. Same way you can lose some edge trying to hard to be hardcore.

I don't really feel escapism when I'm questing with npcs who are so blatantly made to be relatable for the modern white millennial. Explorers who are just rock climbers, catalogers as vain as influencers. Drama ordinary instead of epic.

It's like you said, we're so flooded with violence and stressful news that a normal healthy life has to be made up on a virtual world.

And that's just fucking sad. It's not escapism to dive into a californian hipster's vision of a good life.

[username993720]

Yes!
I've been saying this for a while now. Warcraft has turned toddler-friendly in recent years. No cursing, no nudity, baby-talk voice-over, touching cutscenes that hardly evoke any emotion, the constant talk about love, friendship, togetherness and compassion from NPCs, and the bright future ahead.

Now, i'm not saying i want doom and gloom all the time. I like sunlit sceneries and joyful adventures like DF and MoP. But, don't get rid of the savagery, the bloodshed, the epicness of the franchise. There's no need to dumb down the content for young audiences.

Take these, for example. That's how dragons used to be portrayed in the game:

Spoiler: 

These dealt with themes like slavery, carnage, decapitation, corruption, treachery and even rape. I might be mistaken, by you don't see much of it in DF.

[sam86]

Go play in your MOP farm then. Endgame should be about threats.

every single patch for every single raid for 18 years? don't u get bored?

[Nymrohd]

It's not escapism to dive into a californian hipster's vision of a good life.

Lol dude, that is not their vision of a good life. . . these are simply quests intended for a different demographic. The body type 2 one.

[DatToffer]

Lol dude, that is not their vision of a good life. . . these are simply quests intended for a different demographic. The body type 2 one.

I played warcraft as a kid and I feel like the target audience today is «kids viewed by adults who think kids are very dumb».

[Nymrohd]

I played warcraft as a kid and I feel like the target audience today is «kids viewed by adults who think kids are very dumb».

And I am saying there is a massive demographic that loves to play sims or things that are cutesy. WoW had always had some content for that demographic. If the internal data shows there is a chance to capture more of that, prepare to walk the ducks around.

[Pakheth]

After having to suffer through the Maw for several years I am happy with this palate cleanser, just like I was with MoP after Cata. It gives you a breather from all the edgyness.

It's nice.

[Fitsu]

While WoW takes it's plot points from the Warcraft universe which had quite a serious undertone, the theme of World of Warcraft has always been more family friendly. Even with things like the burning legion (literal demons) and the Lich King (undead) they are still quite cartoony. Why would you expect that to change?

[Gaidax]

These dealt with themes like slavery, carnage, decapitation, corruption, treachery and even rape. I might be mistaken, by you don't see much of it in DF.

Oh no we got an expansion with no slavery, carnage, decapitation, corruption, treachery and rape.

Whatever shall we do now with our lives.

Fucking edgelords.

[LanToaster]

Vox Machina is rated 18+ though, WoW is pg12.

Ironicly, the Dragons in the Universe Vox Machina is set are not by Default the Chaotic Evil he wants them to be. Most (Chromatic) Dragons, while Evil, usually just mind their own Business. And an Attack like what Happens in Vox Machina far away from the Norm.

And even more, the Universe also has these "Nice" Dragons, in form of the Mettalic Dragons.

[MCMLXXXII]

I remember Cata, which was so dark and edgy we had a whole zone spanning questline spoofing Indiana Jones. Now that was hardcore.

[Varodoc]

I wouldn't say so necessarily. Legion and BfA are part of Modern WoW and yet they are pretty dark expansions. In Legion you see mountains of skulls at the Broken Shore as well as all the mind-fuckery in the Emerald Nightmare; in BfA you have all the creepy and scary atmosphere surrounding Drustvar, G'Huun, N'Zoth, and Azshara.

Shadowlands should have felt creepy too if they didn't make the Janitor a joke villain, beyond that though the river of souls flowing into the Maw was kind of badass and creepy.

This is a problem with Dragonflight, it's like WoW writers are now scared of conflict. Literally 2 minutes into the questing experience you have to swear an oath to be friendly and shit with the other faction. This is some fruity nonsense, because MOP was also a more laid-back expansion with a more cheerful theme, and yet there was still conflict and discord between mortals on the new continent (think of Jade forest battle, Krasarang battle, etc.).

It's like Danuser and co. are scared of conflict after Shadowlands, they literally made people swear an oath of friendship in, like, the third quest of the expansion lmfao.

Knowing that the two factions are apparently all buddies and friends now removes a lot of the tension from the story.

I have hope for the future of Dragonflight though. Since it's obvious that the Old Gods will return and Iridrikon will turn into a lovecraftian monster, all this fruity "let's all be buddies :33 " nonsense might soon come to an end.

[Mysterymask]

2 years of shadowlands being out and people bitching over and over "I want to be an adventurer again and I just want a nice laid back expansion"

we get said laid back expansion and suddenly its a problem

[erifwodahs]

In Dragonflight. We have all these friendly dragons we deal with, a few who aren't so friendly but none that are truly terrifying. Dragons are supposed to be awe inspiring, terror inducing entities that radiate power, not your next taxi upon a quest-leg.

WoW literally never had scary dragons. Probably the scariest one is Nythendra? from Emerald Nightmare raid. We have been killing dragons from classic and even the worst ones were just literally Disney level of evil. Every expansion from WotLK we got dragon mounts too, so if it ever got "too" family friendly - it was like 15 years ago.

[baskev]

I'm in my mid 40's so I remember a lot. There were always a few outliers with Dragons on screen but Movies like Shrek I watched as like a joke. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Mulan wasn't my cup of tea. I was into Heavy metal and anything "Badass" which was why I was attracted to the First Diablo game and Orcs vs Humans. Falkor was a luck dragon which was a rarity that's why Atreyu when he first encountered him was at first defensive upon seeing a Dragon because previously the only dragons he had heard of were the ones that ate people, which was why his first comment was "Falkor: I like children Atreyu: For breakfast?"
Dragonheart was stupid and I never really got into that movie and just wrote it off. Even though Sean Connery was one of my favorite actors I thought he just took that part for a paycheck.
DBZ I only watched a few episodes here and there never really got into that even though it was pretty cool it was basically an Anime series not to be taken too seriously.

Now if you want to know the types of Anime that I WAS into that backup my POV about dragons then check out (Record of the Lodoss War) It was a Dungeons and Dragons based anime series where dragons were depicted as frightening creatures of untold destruction.

Which brings me to another point. I was a big Dungeons and Dragons player in my teens. Our Dungeon Master was really good, he was strict and by the books and didn't just throw dragons at us as sword fodder. When we encountered one it wasn't until we were either much higher level or he used them as unsurmountable obstacles at lower level that we would have to use creative roleplaying to avoid. When we got unlucky enough to feel the wrath of one of these creatures it made for some tense moments as he would literally fill a small cup with d6 dice to roll out the damage of their breath of death.

So in short, any dragon that is nice You write of for not being seriously. And any dragon that is HC is serious.....kinda very subjective opinion you have there.

Yes there have been nice dragons in movies and you should take them seriously, because like you said. In mythology their have been nice dragons 2.

And most of the dragons i named ( and again just without googling them) are more well know then yours.

And yes D&D had "bad ass" dragons.

But that is not my point.

You say: blizzard has made this expansion to kiddy, to soft, to happy.
I ( and others say):
that has happend before. They even had said it out loud. That a light expansion is needed once in a while.
also you act like titan dragons in WoW have been bad ass before. They never have been. Thats the whole point of the story ( current one).
but other dragons have been...or did you miss the old dragons? or the skeleton ones we faced. your opinion about the example's do not matter. They are nice dragons. If you like them or not. A dragon is a dragon. i am not saying dragons can not be bad ass, eating people dragons. I am saying in all kinds of lore they can be both.

So again i am thinking, that you have a opinion , based upon facts of other dragon lore. And plaster that over all dragons. You also take context out of the picture. Or what this game and story has been over the past 20 years. Or story context like them being changed into wardens of certain aspects. You are also side stepping facts from ingame. That are brutal.
You want a certain type of 18+ game. A game that WoW has never been.

So all your opinions are wrong. And that is weird. Because opinions are feelings, and they can not be wrong.
But in this case you are complaining about a vegan salade not heaving steak in it. While the waiter has told you that they have always served this vegan salade like this. And that if you want something with meat you can order that.
You are in short being a K word, and want it your way. Not taking lore, context anything else to hearth.

- - - Updated - - -

2 years of shadowlands being out and people bitching over and over "I want to be an adventurer again and I just want a nice laid back expansion"

we get said laid back expansion and suddenly its a problem

nah, just look at his post.

Its clear he wants a certain level of brutallity. He wants it to look like mortal kombat.
He also uses terms as disney like etc....so pretty clear that he has a certain world view he wants everything to be in.

- - - Updated - - -

These dealt with themes like slavery, carnage, decapitation, corruption, treachery and even rape. I might be mistaken, by you don't see much of it in DF.

Have you played this expansion at all?

They are corrupting baby eggs, trying to burn the alive
You have lying on the ground and hanging from hooks dragon corpses.....

So either you are
a.) blind
b.) blind
or
c.) blind

Because there plenty of examples in this expansion of your things.
- slavery: the boss talks about it a lot. their whole points is not being slaves to titans.
- carnage: look at seb/wrath place....their are corpses of dragons everywhere.
- decapitation: nope, but we have people burning alive
- corruption: see eggs again, or chrome dragons story
- treachery: in valdrakkan their is a whole story line about it. And the boss feels betrayed be the rest .

So please play the game and look at the story and the terrain. because it is there in game.

Like i wonder if you have even played DF...

[Kralljin]

I remember Cata, which was so dark and edgy we had a whole zone spanning questline spoofing Indiana Jones. Now that was hardcore.

And Cata questing as a whole has been criticized for being too reliant on pop culture references since it came out.

[Tiwack]

I think it's intentional to give a sense of foreboding at what's to come or lurks under the surface. Didn't they hint at that as well in all their interviews? I believe so.

It's a bit jarring, I agree, but it's as much to try, as it's to set a scene. With endless wars and threats, I think it's fine the baddies are just some chill primalists and dragons in need of attitude-adjustments for a season or two.

It does make me miss timewalking instances all the more though...

[Flaks]

Everyone thinking Warcraft GAMES have become more child friendly doesn't realize it's only gone from "edgy teenager" with rare cursing and some vague implications of violence and R-rated themes to a more young adult "slightly mature" but sticking to the cliche rule of cool things. It has barely changed since Warcraft III. Maybe the earlier Warcrafts were more serious, I wouldn't know. But it's the same cheesy story it was 20 years ago.

[Itisamuh]

Not at all. As they force more and more woke garbage in the game, I would be less and less likely to want to expose a child to it. Using a shovel to smash the heads of screaming people who are buried to their neck in mud is one thing, but helping arrange a gay horse marriage, well that crosses some lines.