Underwhelmed

[fooliuscaesar13]

I loved the cinematics for Battle for Azeroth and like the lore direction.

However, so far, I find the expansion underwhelming:
- 6 fake races - basically a little texturing work, does not make the impact of a true new race
- No new class. Probably what many people are most looking forward to.
- Azerite. Find and replace with 'Gold'. Resource farming is not fun.
- Heart of Azeroth does not make sense. Why should it be given to both Alliance and Horde in a war between Alliance and Horde. Aka Talent tree 5.0. Let's hope we'll be able to change the choices, whatever they are called, at will and for free, contrary to Legion
- Warfronts = Warcraft II RTS, yet another minigame in Wow that has nothing to do with RPG
- Island = glorified 3 person scenario or whatever it was called back then
- Social feature: trying to catch again Discord & Curse, but it's too late

All in all, very little new features for an expansion, let's hope the new raids and dungeons will be good.

Seems to me the WoW team has a big creative block and has absolutely no idea of how to innovate in the RPG-genre or even where it want to be in 5 years. That's ok. It's hard. They should probably hire new blood and transfer team members to other games/activities in Activision Blizzard, at least for a few years. It's rarely good to work on the same for 15 years, that's why most companies have some kind of rotation system.

You're underwhelmed, so tell us: What would you do differently? You're calling out their alleged creative block; how would you fix this?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm looking forward to it and as usual people that aren't won't change my mind about it.

Right there with you on this.

[Magnagarde]

Those are extra additions which will be added on top of whatever new things Legion provided us with. What you mentioned will come on top of world quests, emissary quests, M+, profession questlines and so on. It just an extra layer of activities.

[Deleted]

It's funny how many people complain about no innovation but never seem to describe what new ideas they want added to the game.

It's funny how so many people say this, but fail to realize that a player, a customer, doesn't have to come up with innovating ideas, because theres many heavily payed people in blizzard and other companies who's entire job is that...all the customer has to do is express dissatisfaction with lack of something, not actually do many peoples massively payed jobs to find solutions...we are not all artists and innovators, and we can still see if something is massively lacking...

The problem ofcourse lies in the big difference between any everyday product, say shaving blades, and an MMO. With the blades you won't almost by definition go to the forums and demand improvements, you just instantly vote with your money and try new products of the same type. But you do that because your money investment, time investment, emotional investment are all to the minimum. Notice how your behavior will change even with the razor blades, aslong as a bit of time/emotional/money investment goes in, say you have been using same product of same company for years and all of a sudden it doesnt do it for you. ONLY then some are going to go to some forums and voice dissatisfaction.

BUT now imagine an MMO, many of us have been playing the same for 5 or 10 or more years..we have invested thousands of hours, build up many memories, invested thousands of dollars....now we are trapped with this game and company by our own biology (nostalgia, memories of good and bad, all sorts of phychological effects that show how a gambler who has invested alot in a bad deal will always try to invest more hoping the luck will turn, all to avoid dissonance and face how his bad choice was so bad it cost him so much).

[Deleted]

I agree. It needs Tinkers!

Here's the story: Gazlowe expanded his forces to protect the new and expanded Gadgetzan. Both alliance and horde want their technology and a fight ensues with the Gadgetzan forces for wanting to continue to be neutral. The tinkers defeat both sides. Gazlowe promises to help both sides by letting some of his tinkers join either side in exchange for Gadgetzan (steamwheedle cartel?) to keep it's neutrality and thus trading with both sides (aka monies).
Races would probably have to be goblin and gnome. I'm sure others could be aswell though. Maybe dranei and troll.

There. Expansion 100% better!

Also, visual distinction for race/class combos. Heard a sugestion about that. Like having Void Paladins, aka Paladins with void effects and stuff in that regard. Unique cosmetic effects for some race/class combinations. Shouldn't be too hard to do. Just need to change the color on effects.

There. Expansion 200% cooler!

Get to it Blizz.

[Shibito]

Guessing the alliance is happy they get the elves they been bitcing about since tbc

[Deleted]

Guessing the alliance is happy they get the elves they been bitcing about since tbc

No, they aren't. Because they aren't.

Horde QQ'ing is the worst.

It would be comparable to you getting really campy Ogre's with a void spin instead of ogres.

[GreenJesus]

No, they aren't. Because they aren't.

Horde QQ'ing is the worst.

It would be comparable to you getting really campy Ogre's with a void spin instead of ogres.

Who cares? Ogres are ugly and fat. Don't get why people want them.

[Dracullus]

Are people really that blind? Most of them ignore that we'll got MORE content at launch that in Legion. One more zone and in practice one more dungeon (because Violet Hold is kinda abandoned in Legion - no M+). Daily and dungeon system from Legion will stay, so we will have again 4 main activities (PVP, raids, dungeons, open world) that we can do any time.

On top of that we'll get two brand new activities - island scenarios and warfronts. It doesn't matter if it turn up great or will become minor stuff (like pet battles) - BfA still will have more stuff than Legion.

Of course biggest flaw is lack of class specific stuff - but this time we have faction specific stuff, so I expect longer campaign.

Legion have many new systems, but most of them are response for "nothing to do" problem that grow bigger and bigger with each expac. BfA new systems are: "ok, game is fixed, now we will try brand new stuff".

[Softbottom]

The next expansion is just going to be m+ grinding and raiding all over again. I have a feeling island scenarios and warfronts are going to get boring really quick and probably offer lousy rewards.

[A dot Ham]

Untrue.
Many ideas were given over the year, such as finish north of Eastern Kingdom redesign (even suggesting to crowdsource it since they do not seem to want to do it themselves), make demonology a tanking spec, or get inspired by feature x of game y, but Blizzard never does.
It feels like a "not invented here" company.
Case in point: asking for housing and getting garrisons instead.
Another: Star Wars superb class quest design
Another: give players an editor and let them design part of the world, perhaps selecting only the best.
Deep crafting vs superboring crafting with exactly the same quests as pve.
Another: bring back the talents that were not necessarily useful in raiding or pvp, but were great to do things in the world (e.g. solo with very creative use of mechanics, which has been impossible for many xpacs).
Another: Huge talent tree ako PoE
Wildstar's free form targeting
Another: multiclass like D&D or totally free-form as in pick whatever skill you want from class a & b & c

There are many many features to try. Some would get adopted, some would get removed from the game for lack of success.
But IMO, this would be time much better invested than in minigame x (pet battles, labyrinth, ...)

Plus, in the case they have been praised a lot for a feature, such as reforging, they do not hesitate to kill it to most user base chagrin.

None of that is innovative. I hate being... no I don't I love it... go find yourself a dictionary.

Your definition of "not innovative" is not what I wanted. Feel free to not play. I'll never understand why people continue to pay/play for things they don't enjoy.

Pulling bits and pieces from other (not as successful) mmos is not a recipe for success. You may think that those mmos do certain things better, but that is what is called a "trade-off" its what gives those companies, and those games their competitive edge.

I just want to clarify that your solution to everything that is "bad" in WoW, is to pull from other games that haven't ever actually compared to success that WoW has had? Moreover the features you want to ripoff aren't even necessarily better, you just like them more... which is far from objective proof. Thank god people like you don't make games.

[Lightforged]

Many ideas were given over the year, such as finish north of Eastern Kingdom redesign (even suggesting to crowdsource it since they do not seem to want to do it themselves)

Ever think they might be saving that piece of the continent for future expansions, like how we did not have Hyjal, Uldum or Kul'Tiras in Vanilla?

make demonology a tanking spec

Did you not see how much complaining Hunters did with Survival? Plus, you would most definitely have Hunters complaining about the fact that Warlocks can tank but Hunters can't... Actually, Mellee Survival would be fun as a tanking spec...

Case in point: asking for housing and getting garrisons instead.

Blizzard doesn't want people hiding in their houses all day. It would be fun to buy property in different cities and deck them out with furnisher and maybe some minor NPCs.

Another: Star Wars superb class quest design

SWTOR has 8 classes rather than 12. It is much easier to design 8 good quest lines than it is to do 12. Also, each of the classes in SWTOR have very well defined flavor, with each class being created and molded by the idea of fun stories following them around. WoW's classes are much more generic. It is also an issue of resources. Does Blizzard want to make awesome content that only 1/12th of the player base will see or do they want to take that same effort and make fun quests for everyone? I think that kind of idea has to be baked into the expansion itself as it is being created, and not saved up for patches, or else we will have another 7.2, where it was the largest patch ever but because most players were only seeing maybe 1 or 2 twelfths of it, the patch felt very shallow. Sadly, I think they will learn the wrong lesson from 7.2 and not do class specific content again. Maybe we could do something like class content but tie it to something like the Scyers and Aldor. I agree, this is once place where Blizz could push themselves.

Another: give players an editor and let them design part of the world, perhaps selecting only the best.

Won't happen any time soon.

Another: bring back the talents that were not necessarily useful in raiding or pvp, but were great to do things in the world (e.g. solo with very creative use of mechanics, which has been impossible for many xpacs).

Definitely doable now that Celestion is gone.

Another: Huge talent tree ako PoE

Doubt that will happen. Class balance is hard enough as is, without massive talent trees.

Wildstar's free form targeting

Maybe?

Another: multiclass like D&D or totally free-form as in pick whatever skill you want from class a & b & c

Sounds like you just want to play Skyrim. Which is fine. But WoW will always have well-defined classes. From a personal standpoint, the loss of Major/Minor skills in TES games was a huge turn off to me.

[Squiggit]

now we are trapped with this game and company by our own biology (nostalgia, memories of good and bad, all sorts of phychological effects that show how a gambler who has invested alot in a bad deal will always try to invest more hoping the luck will turn, all to avoid dissonance and face how his bad choice was so bad it cost him so much).

Yeah, it's impossible for someone to just disagree with you. They must be wrapped up in nostalgia or some other psychological trick if they aren't angry. JFC.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I did lol at "fake races" heheh

[Sensimilla]

I did lol at "fake races" heheh

But he is not wrong on that one : D

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

But he is not wrong on that one : D

No, what you mean is "I agree with him."

[SilverCoin]

of course it's underwhelming, the hype is for Classic.

Wow...

I was really happy to see Classic got announced.. but damn some of you Vanilla-fanboys are self-aggrandizing a.f.

[Leodok]

I wish Blizzard would be innovative.

*complains about Blizzard being innovative*

[Yassy]

It's funny how many people complain about no innovation but never seem to describe what new ideas they want added to the game.

Not only that they often just quote what the particular element is and say some rendition of "this is bad and i dont like it"
Or create some terrible comparison.

Like Azerite to Gold. Azerite is just Valor. Level cap EXP used to purchase stuff. Just like artifact power was. Gold does not immediately translate into character power where Azerite will. Most of these criticisms are just bad.

"ISLANDS ARE LIKE SCENARIOS!!!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, they said that when they introduced the feature.

[corebit]

"Underwhelmed"

It's actually a good thing. Better to be underwhelmed and then pleasantly surprised, than to be hyped to the high heavens and then disappointed after playing it.

Same thing happened when Mists of Pandaria was introduced. So many people went "lol Pandas" and were underwhelmed by it. Turned out to be one of the best expansions.

[Talsar]

I loved the cinematics for Battle for Azeroth and like the lore direction.

However, so far, I find the expansion underwhelming:
- 6 fake races - basically a little texturing work, does not make the impact of a true new race
- No new class. Probably what many people are most looking forward to.
- Azerite. Find and replace with 'Gold'. Resource farming is not fun.
- Heart of Azeroth does not make sense. Why should it be given to both Alliance and Horde in a war between Alliance and Horde. Aka Talent tree 5.0. Let's hope we'll be able to change the choices, whatever they are called, at will and for free, contrary to Legion
- Warfronts = Warcraft II RTS, yet another minigame in Wow that has nothing to do with RPG
- Island = glorified 3 person scenario or whatever it was called back then
- Social feature: trying to catch again Discord & Curse, but it's too late

All in all, very little new features for an expansion, let's hope the new raids and dungeons will be good.

Seems to me the WoW team has a big creative block and has absolutely no idea of how to innovate in the RPG-genre or even where it want to be in 5 years. That's ok. It's hard. They should probably hire new blood and transfer team members to other games/activities in Activision Blizzard, at least for a few years. It's rarely good to work on the same for 15 years, that's why most companies have some kind of rotation system.

1) Individually none of the allied races would be equal to a new race, but combined i consider them acceptable (not to mention people have been asking for them for ages).
2) Blizz has never added a new class 2 expacs in a row before, why were you expecting this to be different?
3) Unpopular opinion probably but i loved artifacts and am interested to see how this new system turns out as an evolution of that.
4) It was given out by a neutral faction. It would make far less sense to give it out solely to Alli or Horde.
5) Am stoked to be able to feel like i'm participating in the faction war beyond BGs tbh. Plus new non-raid content is always exciting for me. The old format is getting stale as fuuuck.
6) See 5)
7) Yeah i couldn't give less fucks about a new social feature. Me and my friends are pretty close knit so i doubt it will change much.

The real thing that worries me is their stated intent to not change much with the classes. I always like seeing what they change with my fave classes each expac and there are many changes the communities were hoping for and it seems like there's a very real chance that they will be getting none of them.