Why does BFA still feel like a filler expansion?

[Levogames]

Does anybody else still feel like BFA is a filler expansion?

It looks like it's been made for the mythic+ public and the rest of things are just a bunch of features that make the outside people feel like we are in a very complete game. So, they pay and after the first month they just continue spending money bc WoW and the MDI shet is like the new fashion but you have to play in order to feel inside all this media world.

[Soon-TM]

That's the problem though tbh.

All of these plot points build up over years are being hand waived into ending. There's barely any substance to it. Just bam, it's over.

Yep. The end of the "fourth war" is a particularly egregious example.

[Levogames]

I wanted to hate and kill the other faction as always.

I remember the Azeroth Choppers campaign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amMFuMoJObc) and that was really EPIC because we had rivalry and amazing speeches from Chris Metzen and Sam Didier. My inner alliance screamed on every single speech.

Then we jumped into legion... and then we got 'Battle For Azeroth', where we realized that we wont get more Alliance vs. Horde content, instead of it, we will fight together to defend our titan and in that moment, sincerely, my WoW spirit died.

This expansion is not only filler but also killed the whole point of warcraft.

[cocomen2]

BFA seems like it should be a major expansion, but feels like a filler, I agree.
But that made me think!
MoP seemed like it should have been a filler expansion, but it was chock full of content and major lore.

So I think, maybe the problem with BFA is that it has the makings of those things, but it all felt limp.

WTF man .... MoP filler? how.....
1 Vanilla -main
2 TBC -filler
3 WotLK -main
4 Cata -filler
5 MoP -main
6 WOD -filler
7 Legion -main
8 BFA -filler

Then you ask "Why does filler expansion feels like filler expansion?" and i roll my eyes
(main expansions not killing Kaels for lols, and have new Class introduced each time)

[Otimus]

WTF man .... MoP filler? how.....
1 Vanilla -main
2 TBC- filler
3 WotLK -main
4 Cata- filler
5 MoP- main
6 WOD- filler
7 Legion -main
8 BFA - filler

Then you ask "Why does filler expansion feels like filler expansion?" and i roll my eyes

I don't think MoP was filler. But before it came out, it sure seemed like that was what it was going to be. It's legit my favorite expansion.

[Zyrinx]

Because the two core elements of the story, i.e. the faction war and the lil' sword in Silithus have actually been filler. You could remove them entirely, and the purported content for 8.3 wouldn't change a single iota. Writers could have just gone with an Old God being released after Sargeras stabbed Silithus (I'd have loved the irony there), and 8.3 would make a neat 8.0.

Oh, and gameplay wise, my favourite classes are in a terrible spot. Like someone said here, they feel like an out-of-tune musical instrument. Yes, they can get the job done, but feel awkward and incomplete. And since classes are the vehicle you experience the content through, it's like gazing at a possibly beautiful landscape through a dirty, mud-covered glass.

This is highly accurate (both paragraphs). I personally think the main problem with BFA is that it was, and sort of still is, cloaked in this ridiculous faction war story that can never be decided one way or the other. Oh and predictably, we're now standing shoulder to shoulder with our "foes". Red v. Blue needs to go, at least for a while. It's SO stale.

- - - Updated - - -

I wanted to hate and kill the other faction as always.

I remember the Azeroth Choppers campaign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amMFuMoJObc) and that was really EPIC because we had rivalry and amazing speeches from Chris Metzen and Sam Didier. My inner alliance screamed on every single speech.

Then we jumped into legion... and then we got 'Battle For Azeroth', where we realized that we wont get more Alliance vs. Horde content, instead of it, we will fight together to defend our titan and in that moment, sincerely, my WoW spirit died.

This expansion is not only filler but also killed the whole point of warcraft.

It's literally impossible to disagree with an opinion moreso that I do with this one, but to each their own.

[Nathasil]

It feels like a filler expansion for me, too.

The reason is simple: A complete story needs a start, a build-up and a finish. Preferably a statisfying finish.

BFA has told a LOT of stories...but not a single one of them follows the simple rule outlined above.

The war had no build-up, we were directly thrown into full-scale genocide for no reason. If Dazar'alor was intended to be the "climax" of it, then i can safely say that killing a "Horde Leader" who never was at any point even a member of the Horde or sparring with an Alliance Leader does not feel like a "story pinnacle" to me.

The continental stories did not really take me far on the Alliance side, because the only one of them that was strong (Drustvar) ended far too quickly and while the other two did lead into later raid content, Tiragade was just a weak mess and Stormsong had too few strong moments.
On the Horde side, it all lead up to G'huun nicely and the big finish with Talanji claiming the throne was "ok" - but all of that was just a side-story and felt like it. Also, the whole plot of Bwonsamdi now being the Loa of Kings and arguably turning against Rastakahn during the fight and Talanji suffering from having him as a Loa was aborted for more than a year now.

The Tyrande storyline was a complete mess, told without any logic or passion. It was just put in to make a POS Warfront happen that somehow managed to be even shittier than the quest itself.

At no point in the expansion you could actually inquire and learn something about Sylvanas. The only thing that came close was the Voljin questline where you ask powerful entities what's up...and none of them know. But somehow we end up at this disgustingly weak "finale" at the gates of Orgrimmar where she dumps most of what her character has ever been without us having learned ANYTHING still. Sylvanas was more in the spotlight of the "3 sisters" comic than this expansion.

N'Zoth, last of the Old Gods, creator of the Curse of Flesh, Corruptor of Deathwing, Dreamer of Prophecies....will be burned as a boss with no meaning by being killed shortly after being free for the first time in ~11.000 years. What a pittiful joke finish for this character.

In Short: None of the stories of this expansion felt "complete"...even less so "statisfying". Without any complete story, it does feel like a filler.

Looking back, the last time i felt like a story was propperly built-up and finished by an expnasion was indeed WotLK. Cata took a dump on Deathwing, MoP was the build-up to Nagrand in WoD (which was a filler expansion itself) and Legion treated Argus (the planet and the boss) so badly that even Deathwing was moved to tears by it.

[Taeldorian]

It doesn’t feel filler to me really, I just think they fell short on a lot of things in BfA. Class design, azerite, the continuation of titanforging, tier set removal, GCD changes on top of losing legendaries and artifacts and the biggest thing for me is the AP grind being done through islands now. I didn’t mind the AP grind in legion because m+ has varying levels of difficulty so if I wanted to make it a challenge I could or if I wanted to relax I could. Islands have 1 degree of difficulty and it’s facerolling trash until you fill up a bar, all 4 difficulties are brain dead.

I think it’s progressively gotten better but class design is still in a tough spot, gearing progression still sucks and islands are still the main way to grind AP.

I think 8.3 will be good, I’ll certainly be raiding that’s for sure but my main hope is for the next expansion. It looks like they wanna fix gearing progression finally so that’s great, I hope they remove the rental gear systems from the game and carry forward essences instead. If they keep the AP grind they need to add variety to the grind or lock it behind content that has a varying degree of difficulty like m+.

[Goldielocks]

WTF man .... MoP filler? how.....

MoP literally came about because of a joke.

[Merin]

WTF man .... MoP filler? how.....
1 Vanilla -main
2 TBC -filler
3 WotLK -main
4 Cata -filler
5 MoP -main
6 WOD -filler
7 Legion -main
8 BFA -filler

Then you ask "Why does filler expansion feels like filler expansion?" and i roll my eyes
(main expansions not killing Kaels for lols, and have new Class introduced each time)

TBC... filler? Smells like wrath baby in here.

[GhostfacedKilla]

Most of the plot points concerning BfA were built up over the course of the last decade (N'Zoth, Twilight/Black Dragonflights, Azshara, Nightmare, Xal'atath, Ny'alotha, Naga/Nazjatar, Twilight's Hammer, Wrathion - even the Zandalari have had extended lore since Cataclysm). Instead of BfA simply filling time for players until the next expansion (lore-wise), this is actually the end of a few major storylines, mostly including the (known) Old Gods, Nazjatar, and even the faction war.

It feels like a "filler" for some people because they aren't having fun with it, plain and simple. In their mentality, they aren't enjoying the content or story presented, so they're waiting for the next big expansion, hoping it'll be better. This also happened with WoD, since it was seemingly cut short with the arrival of Archimonde again, leading into Legion. So, you feel like it's a filler because you're thinking like it is, when it isn't at all in reality.

In the end, there are no "filler" expansions - there are simply good or bad expansions.

You're 100% right. This is exactly how I've felt about this expansion. The kids or whoever just dont see it or aren't intelligent enough. Everyones complaining about how terrible lore wise BFA is. They are literally wrapping up so many classic storylines in one expansion and they are doing it well.

BTW I've been browsing this websites forums since 2008 and I just created an account to send this reply to you. Its nice to see someone else who looked more in depth and saw what this really was. Is blizzards story flawed? Yes...Ill tell you one thing though the writers are still top notch as is the cinematic/art team. For them to close out this many storylines that are 10+ years old in one expansion AND the conflict war is impressive. Possibly might even see C'thuun return.

[arandomuser]

because people complained about 12 months in between the last patch and an expansion so blizzard rushed it through and ignored feedback

[GhostfacedKilla]

It feels like a filler expansion for me, too.

The reason is simple: A complete story needs a start, a build-up and a finish. Preferably a statisfying finish.

BFA has told a LOT of stories...but not a single one of them follows the simple rule outlined above.

The war had no build-up, we were directly thrown into full-scale genocide for no reason. If Dazar'alor was intended to be the "climax" of it, then i can safely say that killing a "Horde Leader" who never was at any point even a member of the Horde or sparring with an Alliance Leader does not feel like a "story pinnacle" to me.

The continental stories did not really take me far on the Alliance side, because the only one of them that was strong (Drustvar) ended far too quickly and while the other two did lead into later raid content, Tiragade was just a weak mess and Stormsong had too few strong moments.
On the Horde side, it all lead up to G'huun nicely and the big finish with Talanji claiming the throne was "ok" - but all of that was just a side-story and felt like it. Also, the whole plot of Bwonsamdi now being the Loa of Kings and arguably turning against Rastakahn during the fight and Talanji suffering from having him as a Loa was aborted for more than a year now.

The Tyrande storyline was a complete mess, told without any logic or passion. It was just put in to make a POS Warfront happen that somehow managed to be even shittier than the quest itself.

At no point in the expansion you could actually inquire and learn something about Sylvanas. The only thing that came close was the Voljin questline where you ask powerful entities what's up...and none of them know. But somehow we end up at this disgustingly weak "finale" at the gates of Orgrimmar where she dumps most of what her character has ever been without us having learned ANYTHING still. Sylvanas was more in the spotlight of the "3 sisters" comic than this expansion.

N'Zoth, last of the Old Gods, creator of the Curse of Flesh, Corruptor of Deathwing, Dreamer of Prophecies....will be burned as a boss with no meaning by being killed shortly after being free for the first time in ~11.000 years. What a pittiful joke finish for this character.

In Short: None of the stories of this expansion felt "complete"...even less so "statisfying". Without any complete story, it does feel like a filler.

Looking back, the last time i felt like a story was propperly built-up and finished by an expnasion was indeed WotLK. Cata took a dump on Deathwing, MoP was the build-up to Nagrand in WoD (which was a filler expansion itself) and Legion treated Argus (the planet and the boss) so badly that even Deathwing was moved to tears by it.

I really do agree with a lot of your points but they still are opinions. Some i agree with some I dont but thats the beauty of it. They are wrapping up a lot deep rooted storylines in one expansion to prepare us for the next big baddie which is probably void lords/death god. I also dont think we will be ending N'zoth here. My true belief is that we will somehow loose the battle and the Black Empire will rise again. Next xpac will be a time jump and a lot of faction leaders either disappeared or are dead. The rest of the expansion is the remainder of the horde and alliance winning small battles against the empire until finally the big climax where we strike at the heart.

Just my opinion but if you are right and they end N'zoths story in BFA I think it will be a terrrible send off for one of the most influential characters in WoWs universe. Also in my theory next xpac. I think we will be introduced to a few more new Old Gods. Or a resurrected C'thuun.

[towelliee]

lol come on now a filler expansion?

[LolFrank]

The reason why people think its a filler was because of exhaustion. We went from farming nonstop mythic + in legion, AP farm, relic farming for our artifact. It was an endless grind in Legion for the most part. We went from that to ANOTHER endless grind with our heart of Azeroth. Unlocking a trait you once had for another piece is bad design. Constantly trying to catch back up week after week of getting a new azerite piece that you couldn't use until you reach X level on your neck.

Storytelling was sloppy. There was no clear direction to where we were going and to what we were going after.

When you have so much focus on your character trying to get that carrot on a stick, in addition to not really having an end-goal. It's easy for people to criticize this expansion as being bad. Which more-so than not.. yes it was bad. I hate admitting it because people use it as an easy out, but classes were truly gutted and many of them didn't feel like they once did.

[The Iron Fist]

There is no such thing as a "filler expansion". The people that think that are conspiracy theorists with an IQ of 80.

[Shakana]

I feel like there is an endless stream of dumb threads being created. Can anybody pinpoint the reasons as to why MMO-C feels this way?

Oh Trend... There's no salvation.

[Margamanthak]

the "war" for me has been the weakest story yet.
didnt have a problem level characters even in WOD, The story felt really weak from the off.
ny alotha should be a new zone in 8.3, making it just a raid unless they are planning the next expansion
very soon in 2020 just cant see how its going to keep players going.

Well, we'll find out in 3 weeks what their plans are, as Blizzcon is on Nov. 1.

[Dilbon]

Professionwise it totally is a filler expansion.

[Demithio]

I havent played WoW seriously in a very long time. I finally broke down and bought BFA a few days ago (on sale), and within an hour or two I had the same feeling. It feels like a filler expansion. Theres nothing that seems particularly noteworthy. As stated, I'm not a WoW fan any longer per say, so I'm pretty neutral about it. It just doesnt have the splendor or polish of Legion and I can see why many people found it boring.