How are the zones now on Alpha?

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Just wondering, based on all those rumors from alpha a few weeks ago that Alliance quests were poorly written to the point of seeming lazy on part of developers. We've had some more released since then, haven't we? I cannot say from personal experience since I am not on alpha. My request to Blizz is that they take another look and make sure they can feel proud of their writing (Suramar proud) on both sides.

[Siglius]

Bellular just made a video on that subject. I don't know if you like his videos, but if you do thats a good option to get an up to date view on the zones.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Preach oversold how bad they are to be sure. But if you're looking for Suramar-level storytelling, it isn't there yet. It's probably closer to Legion leveling right now. Except you move around a lot more.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Bellular just made a video on that subject. I don't know if you like his videos, but if you do thats a good option to get an up to date view on the zones.

For my tastes, Bellular is rather long winded, but I am interested in this topic so I will take a look.

- - - Updated - - -

Bellular just made a video on that subject. I don't know if you like his videos, but if you do thats a good option to get an up to date view on the zones.

Watching it now. He seems to be confirming Preach's concerns, with caveats and nuances.

[Steampunkette]

Belullar's take in a nutshell:

The Horde Zones are cramped and feel like Legion Leveling Zones: A Roller Coaster Ride on the Rails which tells a strong central story with definite immediacy, but in leveling alts it will feel a bit tedious.

The Alliance Zones are expansive and feel like the real world. The gameplay is open and fun, but the stories are more involved and require greater reading investment while the side-quests are very disconnected, so the storytelling can feel quite uneven. Leveling alts through it will feel pretty satisfying.

Kul'Tiras spends more time world-building and giving you a greater sense of things to come, while Zandalar is all about building toward the first raid. Some people will like the direct storyline progression more than the building towards a different end more slowly, but that's a matter of taste.

[Dracullus]

Strange that people focus on levelling experience so much. During 99% of expansion lifetime, you'll probably mostly do world quests here. So looks and design of zone is far more important than story.

Even if Horde have better story than Kul Tiras, I won't really pay attention for that after I level first 2 toons. Even more, most likely I will pay attention only in Beta (if I get in) and rush on release.

And believe me, people like Preach will do the same. He is type a person that couldn't reach level 2 (sic!) on fresh toon when 7.3.5 hit servers, apparently leveling is that boring to him. He can complain about such minor stuff like scroll in character screen (you can't see 12 chars at once after they increase limit to 16). In general youtubers must complain about something in their videos, even if it means huge exaggeration, otherwise it would be too boring and have less views.

Personally, I recently stopped watching WoW related news and reviews. After 15 years I kinda know that Blizz will make launch experience worth my 40 Euro (even Cata and WoD did that) and if endgame won't be fun for me, I unsub for few months and check next major patch. Don't need another person's opinion about it, especially people that literally turned playing WoW into a job.

[Faliz18]

As long as the level design isn't absolute garbage like antoran wastes I'll be happy