WoW clearly expects you to have a character concept. That's not wrong.

[Omedon]

If there's one solid thing I think I can say about the direction WoW has gone since at least legion (I returned from a 2-3 year hiatus at the legion announcement because it spoke to what I wanted to see in WoW) it's that WoW, while being this place where the upper echelons of PVE and PVP are eyed as potential Esports, wants very much for you to interface with its vision of the world it's building, and pick an actual concept for your character(s).

While it has succeeded or failed at "being an RPG" depending on who you ask, a great many elements of the game over the last 3 expansions (I count Shadowlands in this based on what we know of its launch state) have turned to the player behind the character and asked "who is your character?" Whether it's turning their 12 classes into 36 character concepts in legion, or really really asking you to love (or hate) your faction through an ugly war in BFA, or asking "where does your soul belong" in Shadowlands, it doesn't wanna hear "hey man, Lovestospooge is just an arena guy, screw concept!" It's gonna hear it anyway, but it's clearly not gonna develop a world for that "shallow" perspective.

...and I can't really blame them, to be honest.

I personally dislike the longstanding binary sentiment, that's plagued MMOs since EverQuest, that "you're either a roleplayer OR you're successful at the game as a game." While I dislike it, I see where it comes from, as it's often validated by certain examples, I don't deny that. That said, it is more than possible to be "conceptually aware" and still succeed at the game to a reasonable level. There are many examples of that end of the spectrum as well. If given the choice, I have to think that WoW leans its development toward appealing to the latter. It's just a feeling I have. Maybe because I am that player and have felt very spoken to and happily served by so many elements of the game that the hyper-competitive community has come to despise.

I guess what I'm taking way too many words to say here is, if you really feel at odds with things like covenants being what they are, maybe, just maybe try to look through the eyes of your character. Yes, I know it's possible to cheese this by saying "my character is hyper competitive and wants to excel at everything all the time, screw you Mr Roleplayer OP," let's look past that sort of pettiness and look at the covenants as concepts, view them in the lens of who your character is, and realize that while the powers and stats of covenants will absolutely be nerfed and buffed, your character concept won't. That makes concept the far more stable axis to choose a covenant along... and probably the one Blizzard intends, to be frank.

And to be bluntly honest... if you can't or haven't bothered to come up with a concept, and insist that Lovestospooge doesn't have "a character," can you really expect WoW, as a company building a world for characters, to give your opinion a lot of weight against their own when it comes to designing that world?

Part of enjoying a game that's "carried by" its art assets and musical scores is realizing that this game is an art of intermingling concepts. Yes there's a game under it all, and there's an oddly competitive aspect to the extremely minority apexes of its PVE and PVP paths, but I think there's a social compact that WoW maybe naively anticipates, and potentially builds for, where a player ideally does not sell their (actual) soul to leave the lane of conceptual awareness and appreciation. And if you choose to do so... you do so at your own risk. You needn't look any further than the very concept of PUGing high end M+ to see this case: they aren't going to support that with covenants as they shall exist in shadowlands. It's not intended. It's possible, sure, but not intended.

We are intended to be enriched, and yes, limited by our concepts. If you try to get around that, you potentially do so in an unsupported, unintended realm meant for the few actually professional players that will compete in the MDI, arena world championships or world first raiding. That's probably not you, it's definitely not me. So relax. Enjoy your concept. Let the art carry the game and enjoy the world of the game wrapped in that art. Good enough is good enough, and within that mantra comes an alignment with WoW's intent.

I only start these discussions to help people reach the epiphanies that have helped me truly enjoy the game even though lore that I do not like. So long as I have my conceptually realized and expressed characters with something to do that I enjoy at a "good enough" level in the game, I can't see me ever falling fully out of love with it ever again. If my making these long winded posts either helps anyone else reach that enjoyability or validates those already joining me there, it's worth it.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy the game!

[arkanon]

Thank you for reading, and enjoy the game!

A bold claim - that anyone would really read your personal blog post. Did you not think of posting in one of the countless existing threads covering the topics you are no doubt discussing? Covenants, "permanent choice" "RPG".

[Shinrael]

A bold claim - that anyone would really read your personal blog post. Did you not think of posting in one of the countless existing threads covering the topics you are no doubt discussing? Covenants, "permanent choice" "RPG".

Well, I just read the whole thing, so you might as well get out and don't let your rudeness slap you on the way out.

OP: You take a little bit too many words to say something that the majority of posters here won't really be able to understand no matter how long or short your explanation is. But I do agree and whenever I post it is usually about this. The players have "sold their souls" and forgotten that this is a game and that we are meant to enjoy it. Numbers, numbers, numbers....