Originally Posted by
guro-tchai
eh, i know you're talking about the main story, on which you're correct, but BfA overall, at least for me, had its redeeming moments.
i've always been playing on a PvE server as Alliance; the most sheepish demographic. with the introduction of warmode with its various features, and a substantial emotional push to try it (even if quite nonsensical), BfA opened up a new way to play.
i got to feel something new when i was hunting for the assassin in the 8.1 assault zone; when i met an orc in the middle of a road in Nazjatar as a newly-geared NE-dk - we eyed each other for a bit, just standing there, then somehow both of us put up racial flags from the Argent tournament, made a step forward, /roared and duelled to death (i got totally punished for picking the auto-CCtrinket as a PvP talent); when i found out that bears are actually OP in wPvP and even more so with corruption (imagine killing an enemy vDH flagkeep on WSG together with his personal hpala with a single twilight devastation. they didn't release spirits for a while. good times)
even though all of this was about a gameplay feature, it was a feature that naturally nudged many players to spontaneous RP-PvP - and with the focus on war, it made it emotionally rewarding, even if said rewarded emotion was usually a flavor of hate.
apart from that, the world was amazing. i still fondly remember Zuldazar and Drustvar. Boralus is the best city in the game i spent a couple hours just exploring - the amount of details, of environmental flavor is insane. the small stories were pretty good - i can't get one woman in southern Drustvar out of my mind. her husband's dead. her tiny patch of land, bearing nothing but mostly shriveled onion is overrun with giant porcupines, lizards and insects - yet she stands there nonetheless, defiant with her stupid broom, as if it could help even against the beasts. at the same time, her country's experiencing a Fall of Lordaeron-type event and her Union has just entered a total world war. she's still there - there's nothing else.
i've no idea why such things touch me, occam says i'm a tasteless pussy
also, i wasn't playing that actively during the first season, when there was a barrage of complaints at azerite armor. BoD was a great, innovative raid which was capable of evoking emotion (even if the operation itself is, again, nonsensical) when you're in a total war against the enemies in the raid.
re: cheering on thorough destruction of the Forsaken and Horde - who were these people? i genuinely don't remember because i never had any strong attachment to or involvement in these factions.
like that ex-wc3 dev equating covid to the plague of undeath, and recording messages accusing people of being mentally ill when they disagree with him?