Incredibly Ironic -- Capitalization on hype to blind incoming failure

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

I find it incredibly ironic that both of WoW's top 2 [TOP 2] cinematics go to both of the worst expansions. Not only that but both WoD and BfA were incredibly hyped up. It seems when Blizzard and other companies build on hype it blinds their communities to a coming failure. I have seen this happen numerous numerous times. Even aside from video games. WOTLK, Legion, MoP, BC, and WoW, all were advertised yes but not as much as the former two. WOTLK is critically considered the best expansion amongst most people with either MoP or Legion being the best by the other % followed by one of those three expansions being the second best in 95% of cases. Now let's look at Shadowlands. It's cinematic wasn't too much critically claimed at all. People berated and lectured Blizzard on Sylvanas' powers against the Lich King. They praised the art and detail as of course as well as both actor's performance. [Patty never fails].
With advertisement even with COVID-19 in effect, it has been on the same level as the other expansions unlike WoD and BFA. No shiny cinematics like the Old Soldier for its Prepatch* [as of 10-20-20] or TV advertisements. There is no backlashing against feedback like with Blizzard banning/suspending people on their forums and snapping back at people on Twitter during WoD beta. In fact, this is the lowest i've ever seen for an expansion yet as far as hype. Shadowlands is looking pretty good in prepatch. Classes need some work but the gameplay is fine and the story so far is good and on a linear path unlike BFA and WoD.

Both are the most viewed videos on the Warcraft YT channel.

[Mysterymask]

and Mists is one of their most disliked videos? So youtube likes is the standard of metric for how good an Expansion is? Must mean Shadowlands will be the absolute best expansion EVER and Diablo Immortal is going to be #1 best blizzard game.

[deenman]

and Mists is one of their most disliked videos? So youtube likes is the standard of metric for how good an Expansion is? Must mean Shadowlands will be the absolute best expansion EVER and Diablo Immortal is going to be #1 best blizzard game.

the irony is that immortal may actualy end up being their best game lol,well not quality wise but played and profitable with lootboxes

[Lolites]

I find it incredibly ironic that both of WoW's top 2 [TOP 2] cinematics go to both of the worst expansions.

well, given that both "best" or top cinematic and "worst" expansion is subjective, this is not ironic, its just opinion, so it kinda doesnt matter what conclusion it leads to, as its COMPLETELY subjective...
BTW "most viewd" =/= best, in no meaning of the word...
FYI, personaly i still consider WOTLK cinematic to be the best

[Eurhetemec]

WoD's is probably viewed a lot because it's fucking badass. "Times change." is one of the great WoW lines, especially in the context of time travel/AU stuff.

It's just a pity the expansion totally failed to live up to that hype.

Wrath's one is good but it's like, not actually very exciting, it's just sort of Arthas Darth Vadering around a bit.

[Daronokk]

I find it incredibly ironic that both of WoW's top 2 [TOP 2] cinematics go to both of the worst expansions. Not only that but both WoD and BfA were incredibly hyped up. It seems when Blizzard and other companies build on hype it blinds their communities to a coming failure. I have seen this happen numerous numerous times. Even aside from video games. WOTLK, Legion, MoP, BC, and WoW, all were advertised yes but not as much as the former two. WOTLK is critically considered the best expansion amongst most people with either MoP or Legion being the best by the other % followed by one of those three expansions being the second best in 95% of cases.

That is your opinion. I personally loved Cataclysm and Warlords and hated MoP. Wrath of the Lich King was decent but started butchering the game by making it too easy and adding instant queue, destroying the RPG part of the game completely.

For the record, I also disliked TBC. It felt too alien with all these floating crystal weapons and spaceships and shit. Too science fiction for a fantasy franchise.

- - - Updated - - -

WoD's is probably viewed a lot because it's fucking badass. "Times change." is one of the great WoW lines, especially in the context of time travel/AU stuff.

It's just a pity the expansion totally failed to live up to that hype.

Agreed. It's a shame WoD failed due to mismanagement on the workfloor which led to a lot of cut content and abandoned storylines. It could've been so much better. I still loved it but it could've been even better.

The same can be said about Cataclysm. The premise of the expansion, the enemy and the story are awesome. It's just a shame it was rushed like that.

[dextersmith]

I find it incredibly ironic that both of WoW's top 2 [TOP 2] cinematics go to both of the worst expansions. Not only that but both WoD and BfA were incredibly hyped up. It seems when Blizzard and other companies build on hype it blinds their communities to a coming failure.

It's not ironic, they were successful marketing. Though apparently terrible, people were still compelled to buy them.

[Mirishka]

I find it incredibly ironic that both of WoW's top 2 [TOP 2] cinematics go to both of the worst expansions.

Because Youtube trailer 'likes' are clearly a metric of a game's quality.

Good lord, get a clue.

[Asrialol]

I don't see the irony here.

[Harbour]

Nah, they just went lazy with SL cinematic. Its trash from directing, writing and editing points.
Also this is just not true:

Shadowlands is looking pretty good in prepatch. Classes need some work but the gameplay is fine and the story so far is good and on a linear path unlike BFA and WoD.

Premise for the story never was so dull and story of the first patch never was so confusing and disjoined. Classes are also mostly barebones shit, with tons of unbalance systems slapped on.

Shadowlands is forming into disaster by all possible indicators.

It honestly feels like they have already scrapped some distant patches plans and moved part of the resources onto 10.0 develeopment which suppose to be Legion-like monster about Light vs Void story, with much more content crammed in.

[daytonbrown]

Does anyone really give a crap about the trailer? It's just basically a commercial.

[Fistfighter]

eh... yeah, because these giant cinematics don't take nearly as long to produce as the expansions themselves.

yeah, they usually just cook them up in a week after Ion tells the cinematic teams to make a REAL good one this time, because the expansion isn't the best right now.

Remember back in MoP when the expansion was SO GOOD, Metzen had to call the cinematics guys to scrap the cool awesome cinematic and and do a shitty kung-fu panda with roided human instead?

[Eurhetemec]

Agreed. It's a shame WoD failed due to mismanagement on the workfloor which led to a lot of cut content and abandoned storylines. It could've been so much better. I still loved it but it could've been even better.

The same can be said about Cataclysm. The premise of the expansion, the enemy and the story are awesome. It's just a shame it was rushed like that.

I don't think it was just workfloor mismanagement but also some outright bad ideas being allowed to take prominence. Cataclysm's world revamp was fundamentally a terrible idea. Not because a world revamp was, but because they designed the entire world not with an eye to the long-term, but seemingly on the assumption that the world would be revamped again, perhaps every expansion, and thus every zone is set like hours to weeks after the Cataclysm, essentially rebooting WoW to a very weird point.

And the mismanagement let really unpolished and clumsy zone design in the new Cata zones slip through, too.

Then in WoD the problem seems to start when they switched from time travel as the conceit to visiting an alternate universe. I'm not sure it'd have been better if they'd stuck to time travel - it might well have been that needed to go. But that they got pretty far with the expansion before deciding to switch caused huge issues.

There was also the problem that WoW had a lot less developers back then. I can't remember if it was whilst developing WoD or developing Legion that they went back up to 200+ actual WoW devs, but it was like half that on Cataclysm and previous expansions. Perhaps someone can remind me.

[ONCHEhap]

the irony is that immortal may actualy end up being their best game lol,well not quality wise but played and profitable with lootboxes

well,that's quite likely really,mobile games attract the worst whales,and on top of that,the chinese mobile market is easily half of all video game profits in the world

[Ielenia]

Nah, they just went lazy with SL cinematic. Its trash from directing, writing and editing points.

And I see you work in cinematography and are a seasoned one at that to be able to say those things, right? Oh, wait, you didn't clarify any of your points. You didn't give examples of what's wrong with the "directing, writing and editing" points of the cinematic. You're just throwing shade for the sake of throwing shade.

Premise for the story never was so dull and story of the first patch never was so confusing and disjoined. Classes are also mostly barebones shit, with tons of unbalance systems slapped on.

Subjective. I had no problem following the story when the expansion was announced, and nothing seems "confusing or disjointed" to me. WoD "time-travel-but-it's-not-time-travel" was much more confusing, IMO.

It honestly feels like they have already scrapped some distant patches plans and moved part of the resources onto 10.0 develeopment which suppose to be Legion-like monster about Light vs Void story, with much more content crammed in.

HOW can you even say something like that when the expansion isn't even out yet!? Oh, sorry. You can see into the future. Can I get some lotto numbers, please?

[Krakan]

And I see you work in cinematography and are a seasoned one at that to be able to say those things, right? Oh, wait, you didn't clarify any of your points. You didn't give examples of what's wrong with the "directing, writing and editing" points of the cinematic. You're just throwing shade for the sake of throwing shade.


Subjective. I had no problem following the story when the expansion was announced, and nothing seems "confusing or disjointed" to me. WoD "time-travel-but-it's-not-time-travel" was much more confusing, IMO.


HOW can you even say something like that when the expansion isn't even out yet!? Oh, sorry. You can see into the future. Can I get some lotto numbers, please?

There is a real wod feeling coming off sl least fronwhat is left of the beta testers.

Even though it's been delayed classes are still not in a testable state. Conduits have been changed into flat damage bonuses in a desperate but futile attempt to bring the systems in line with one another.

It is all so annoying to see to be honest. If they didnt waste their time with all of these alternative power grind systems and just backed then into level cap I feel like they would of saved hundreds if not thousands of man hours that could of been invested in more content or respecting release windows.

They moved a good chunk of testing to the ptr now a large chunk of their usual work horses for testing the mythic raiders and some theorycrafters have given up.

I am hoping for vanilla levels of balance myself but I doubt it will be that tightly tuned at this point.

[Super Kami Dende]

tbf game Cinematics can often be amazing even for subpar games.

As much as I enjoy Swtor, I understand its fairly average for a Game, yet it's Cinematics are some of the best I've ever seen for a Game.

[erifwodahs]

Legion was hyped AF and it was amazing. Your point? BfA was not that hyped and there is very little hype about SL cinematic as the fight was onesided which was disliked by many. Seeing patterns and ignoring the rest of the stuff, how handy !

[rrayy]

I am hoping for vanilla levels of balance myself but I doubt it will be that tightly tuned at this point.

Vanilla was some of the most imbalanced play out there. It was never tightly tuned.

[Razorice]

Funny, because WoD and BfA are my least favourite cinematics.