Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[NikolaiShade]

You know what I would like? Azeroth saying I‘m out, I don’t want you and I don’t need you anymore. And waging war on us after she’s woken up prematurely.

No idea if you are joking, but it would honestly be one of the coolest twist in videogame history

[Sondrelk]

No idea if you are joking, but it would honestly be one of the coolest twist in videogame history

Wasn't that almost exactly the plot of the latest FFXIV expansion?

[NikolaiShade]

Wasn't that almost exactly the plot of the latest FFXIV expansion?

Never (seriously) played FFXIV so I don't know, cool idea anyway

[Soulwind]

You know what I would like? Azeroth saying I‘m out, I don’t want you and I don’t need you anymore. And waging war on us after she’s woken up prematurely.

Wouldn't be the first baby world soul that we kill...

I did speculate about an "exodus" (set of) expansion(s) a while back. Having to settle in a new world, with parallels to the draenei or the orcs, and creating a new canvas for them to work with. New ancient civilizations, buried threats and all that. Not to mention, brand new faction conflicts as the different races establish outposts and cities right next to each other, and frontiers could move every expansion.

[Super Dickmann]

I am still a firm believe that the writers are not incompetent, but are rather struggling to build a metaphorical Jenga tower even as the foundation crumbles underneath them.

The game desperately needs to let everything settle. Not just in terms of the stakes, but also the breakneck speed the story needs to go at considering how little time there is for actual in-game story.
Let everything settle, then start carefully constructing the plot going forwards.

They've said the next story will be more grounded on Azeroth. That's something I want to see how they handle because Shadowlands is part arch and part damage control, both very tall orders and both not important to the long-term health of the game. Can you competently tell a story about a green man with an axe and what kind of violence he can do? That's the question and we'll see the answer soon.

[draugril]

Wasn't that almost exactly the plot of the latest FFXIV expansion?

Not really. FFXIV had a creature essentially made out of empathy get nihilistic because of the prevalence of suffering in the universe. So your once and future friend turns herself into a World Soul to prevent a full on extinction.

[Sondrelk]

They've said the next story will be more grounded on Azeroth. That's something I want to see how they handle because Shadowlands is part arch and part damage control, both very tall orders and both not important to the long-term health of the game. Can you competently tell a story about a green man with an axe and what kind of violence he can do? That's the question and we'll see the answer soon.

The ideal next expansion for me would probably be something more akin to Vanilla.
Each patch deals with a one-off villain/problem, we defeat them in a raid, and then we move on to something else.
It would be less pressure on the writers to make each piece interconnected, and it could let us get closure on storylines that are probably not important enough to warrant a full expansion, nor so irrelevant to bake into something else.

The Dark Iron Dwarf insurrection plotline where they attempt to ressurect Ragnaros springs to mind.
Definitely not enough to carry a full expansion unless you make it a smaller part of a greater Twilight's Hammer themed expansion, nor so insignificant that it can be knocked off in a single zone, but instead just right for a single major patch.

Let the writers make something that can go mostly on autopilot, and then hope that this gives them enough breatinh room to start considering future plotlines and give them more thought.

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Not really. FFXIV had a creature essentially made out of empathy get nihilistic because of the prevalence of suffering in the universe. So your once and future friend turns herself into a World Soul to prevent a full on extinction.

Ahh yes. I should have realized it was a standard anime plot...


Probably shouldn't be so mean to it. I love Final Fantasy as much as the next week. Maybe if I played it I would get it.

[bruxx]

Ahh yes. I should have realized it was a standard anime plot...


Probably shouldn't be so mean to it. I love Final Fantasy as much as the next week. Maybe if I played it I would get it.

It really does sound completely insane and bad when summarized in 2 lines like that, but it was actually a pretty decent plot lol

[draugril]

Ahh yes. I should have realized it was a standard anime plot...

Probably shouldn't be so mean to it. I love Final Fantasy as much as the next week. Maybe if I played it I would get it.

I wouldn't say a "standard anime plot." A standard Final Fantasy plot? Absolutely. If you beat a Final Fantasy game and didn't kill God at the end, did you really play a Final Fantasy game?

That being said, it took me three or four tries to really get into it. The beginning experience is a complete and utter slog, while simultaneously being a master-class in worldbuilding that sets up everything that they've only now paid off. Thus, you cannot skip the beginning and "get" why people are enjoying the current content to the scale that they are. It shows what the genre is capable of when you actually plot out a longform narrative and follow through. Absolutely astounding. But again... big ask at the beginning that I don't blame anyone for not being able to accommodate.

I truly do wonder how "planned" WoW is, outside of the barest generalities. My faith was really shaken when they said that WoD and Legion were interchangeable. You can't really swap two chapters in a typically structured novel and have it make any sense. It speaks to how transient, improvised and incidental any lasting storylines are.

[Varodoc]

Ahh yes. I should have realized it was a standard anime plot...


Probably shouldn't be so mean to it. I love Final Fantasy as much as the next week. Maybe if I played it I would get it.

Lol, like that wasn't your average plot back in MoP, with all the Sha shenanigans...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You know what I would like? Azeroth saying I‘m out, I don’t want you and I don’t need you anymore. And waging war on us after she’s woken up prematurely.

I mean we've done evil Titans before. Twice in fact.

But I mean we're spending half this Jailer fight with him shooting death magic at her.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Saw the idea in another thread, but curious what people here think -

1. Level Cap Increase to 70 and change Chromie Time to 1-60?
2. Reset to 50, level to 60 again, and keep Chromie Time 1-50?

Honestly, just get rid of levelling altogether. It's clear that Blizzard doesn't care about the levelling experience, what with Chromie Time being botched and the constant squishes and the disjointed nature of levelling a character. Blizzard isn't interested in giving you new abilities as you level up. All new abilities have to tie into their grindfest borrowed power system. Levelling is at this point no longer a part of the WoW experience. It's just an arbitrary roadblock to levelcap where the real game that Blizzard cares about begins.

It's quite absurd that they keep creating new mysterious entities and forces because all the existing ones are, well, known.

It's almost like using Lovecraft-like cosmic threats as frequent villains in a game in which you punch things to death doesn't work somehow. Who could have guessed.

Some things just never should have been put into a position to be discovered or fought. LotRO doesn't let you go around killing Maiar, thus they still feel powerful and mysterious.

[bruxx]

I wouldn't say a "standard anime plot." A standard Final Fantasy plot? Absolutely. If you beat a Final Fantasy game and didn't kill God at the end, did you really play a Final Fantasy game?

That being said, it took me three or four tries to really get into it. The beginning experience is a complete and utter slog, while simultaneously being a master-class in worldbuilding that sets up everything that they've only now paid off. Thus, you cannot skip the beginning and "get" why people are enjoying the current content to the scale that they are. It shows what the genre is capable of when you actually plot out a longform narrative and follow through. Absolutely astounding. But again... big ask at the beginning that I don't blame anyone for not being able to accommodate.

I truly do wonder how "planned" WoW is, outside of the barest generalities. My faith was really shaken when they said that WoD and Legion were interchangeable. You can't really swap two chapters in a typically structured novel and have it make any sense. It speaks to how transient, improvised and incidental any lasting storylines are.

To me the biggest contrast in that subject is seeing the "payoff" from previous story arks when some allies we saved in a previous expansion just show up to assist for a bit. Imagine, say, the Jinyu showing up to help slow down the attack on Teldrassil. It's just the little things.

[draugril]

Lol, like that wasn't your average plot back in MoP, with all the Sha shenanigans...

You had the opportunity to say "Sha-nanigans" and you didn't take it.

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To me the biggest contrast in that subject is seeing the "payoff" from previous story arks when some allies we saved in a previous expansion just show up to assist for a bit. Imagine, say, the Jinyu showing up to help slow down the attack on Teldrassil. It's just the little things.

Yep. Even Mass Effect 3, which I still haven't touched again due to how let down I was overall, had those little touches of continuity. In WoW... it's like the denizens of the universe know that they're a 5.0 race and we're in 9.1 so they can't interact with the current plot. Even if they would have been immensely helpful in the new contexts we encounter... they might as well not even exist. And not for any narrative reason, but for meta reasons.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Wasn't that almost exactly the plot of the latest FFXIV expansion?

No, but if they want to copy SE's homework they dang sure can. Kill the world soul and start an apocalypse.

[draugril]

No, but if they want to copy SE's homework they dang sure can. Kill the world soul and start an apocalypse.

Isn't Sargeras basically an angry Galactus, anyway? Killing Titan eggs before they can hatch like Galactus eats Celestial eggs?

[Varodoc]

You had the opportunity to say "Sha-nanigans" and you didn't take it.

The idea crossed my mind, but no matter. Like the Old Gods teach, when one door closes, another opens. So when you miss one pun opportunity, another might present itself in the future, it's logical

[Magemaster]

did anyone post this chinese news site article?

Translation:

After being acquired by Microsoft for nearly $70 billion, Activision Blizzard ushered in a new opportunity for development. The game development is not bad. Several IPs that Blizzard had shelved before are expected to restart, and there will also be some existing games. New developments, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra said a few days ago that he will announce more news about World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo.

He did not specifically mention what is new in these three major games. Overwatch and Diablo should be related to Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4. Warcraft should be the new 10.0 expansion pack. According to the previous rhythm, it should be announced at the Carnival in February. For next year's expansion.

World of Warcraft will soon enter the last major version of the 9.0 expansion, and it is time for the official announcement of the 10.0 expansion. The relevant content has been leaked on the Internet before, and the 10.0 version will usher in the largest change in the history of Warcraft.

This is not to say that the content of the 10.0 expansion pack is huge, but that Blizzard will change the gameplay of Warcraft over the past 17 years. Since the current player scale is not enough to support Blizzard's huge investment in developing new content, the 10.0 version will be changed to season mode, update The frequency is faster, but the content is not as large each time, and the seasons cost money to buy, otherwise you can only play the old mode content.

It is reported that the content of the first season of version 10.0 will be related to the five-colored dragon, and the theme is related to the eternal dragon disrupting the timeline, which will allow Blizzard to recycle the past content of Warcraft.

can't post links on this account for whatever reason but you can google search the sentences and find it. doesnt really list a source and also promotes an event that hasnt been announced yet for february so we'd see if its fake this month

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Well there's no Blizzcon in February so it's already wrong there.

[draugril]

did anyone post this chinese news site article?

Translation:


can't post links on this account for whatever reason but you can google search the sentences and find it. doesnt really list a source and also promotes an event that hasnt been announced yet for february so we'd see if its fake this month

They seem to be reporting on Chinese "leaks." Leaks which, much like ours, are biased. In the Chinese market, games are much more seasonal and piecemeal. Thus, their "leaks" would certainly tend to lean that way.