Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[therumblings]

I find it utterly hilarious how, during the time of Shadowlands first reveal and official "deep dive" by Blizzard and the first weeks/months of playing the game, the Arbiter not only had official art devoted to it but cinematics made for and so much story developed around it. The whole description of "a being older than time itself" and in the end... the entire expansion it was an offline robot eventually obliterated and the role of Arbiter given to a character who has had polarized reception itself.


Just makes me go


It's one of those cases in TV shows and films where a certain character is featured EVERYWHERE in promotional marketing... only for said character to appear for a total of 30 seconds in its respective medium. I never watching Game of Thrones, so I can be off with this, but didn't Sean Bean's character die in the fist episode? Yet his character is featured in a lot of promotional shit for the franchise?


The Arbiter is on a fucking loading screen, which will be present in the game for how many years going forward, while its only contribution to the expansion's story is "why Arbiter sleepin" and before we got to 9.2's campaign quests... "why Arbiter sleepin" wasn't even the most important issue anymore. Wild.

You could make the same argument for Krexus, and he actually was in a full CGI cinematic for 2 seconds as well.

[Marlamin]

"There are a cutscene or two left though" so there are cutscenes left?

Cutscenes aren't cinematics (as in separate videos). But yes, as I said, around two cutscenes are still encrypted.

[TriHard]

Less than a month away and no real leaks so far, what's going on?!

[therumblings]

Less than a month away and no real leaks so far, what's going on?!

Real leaks hardly even leak a week out from announcement, much less an entire month.

[Teriz]

Its pretty easy to say current blizzard would never make an expansion about gnomes and goblins, if it was the old gang and metzen, maybe. But current one is all abut proffit and "amazing and compelling storylines with awesome and serious characters blablabla" thus focusing on humans and elves. See shadowlands? is all about sylvanus and Anduin and a story that try to be too serious with the janitor.

Yet we also had Mechagon, which was a lot of assets and content just for the Mechagnome AR.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

You could make the same argument for Krexus, and he actually was in a full CGI cinematic for 2 seconds as well.

That's a good point as well. I forgot about Krexus. High definition CGI cinematic representation, featured in the 'Afterlives' promotional series, placement on the loading screen for Shadowlands... killed off and never to be seen again in the first weeks of the expansion.

[Skildar]

You could make the same argument for Krexus, and he actually was in a full CGI cinematic for 2 seconds as well.

I'm pretty sure Krexus was supposed to be an antagonist but the storyline got changed to avoid a repeat of the same story told way too many times: the master or big friendly pal of the zone is the actual enemy.

[Teriz]

You do the same thing though

I don't believe I ever said I "hated" anything Blizzard related, or said I would ever quit WoW over something being implemented.

It doesn't have mass appeal.. Otherwise Tinkers would already be playable without a second thought, instead of Demon Hunters who could barely even scrape up a 2nd spec.

The Gnome/Goblin thing is hindered by the fact that they're not just low popularity, but are outright disliked. They're considered an unpopular race and constantly considered the lowest picked of all races. That doesn't really change with a new class, as we've seen Pandarens with their own Monk class still gets overshadowed by Human and Blood Elf Monk picks instead.

If they do Tinkers, then it's gonna be very likely they'll keep it fairly broad and applicable to many races like Engineering already is.

I don't believe that Demon Hunters coming out before Tinkers is an indication of anything other than expansion schedule. For example, Monks came out before Demon Hunters, and Illidan was a far more popular character than Chen Stormsout.

That said, I do agree that if they do Tinkers it would be rather broad and apply to multiple races. In fact, I doubt the class would even be called "Tinker", and instead be called something like Mechanic, Inventor, or Gadgeteer with Tinker being a specialization, just like what happened with Brewmasters.

[therumblings]

That's a good point as well. I forgot about Krexus. High definition CGI cinematic representation, featured in the 'Afterlives' promotional series, placement on the loading screen for Shadowlands... killed off and never to be seen again in the first weeks of the expansion.

It feels like there was going to be a series of CGI cinematics like BFA had for Saurfang, but for some reason they got cut. It just doesn't make any sense to create high quality CGI models of multiple characters only for a 30 second trailer lol.

[AngerFork]

I find it utterly hilarious how, during the time of Shadowlands first reveal and official "deep dive" by Blizzard and the first weeks/months of playing the game, the Arbiter not only had official art devoted to it but cinematics made for and so much story developed around it. The whole description of "a being older than time itself" and in the end... the entire expansion it was an offline robot eventually obliterated and the role of Arbiter given to a character who has had polarized reception itself.


Just makes me go


It's one of those cases in TV shows and films where a certain character is featured EVERYWHERE in promotional marketing... only for said character to appear for a total of 30 seconds in its respective medium. I never watching Game of Thrones, so I can be off with this, but didn't Sean Bean's character die in the fist episode? Yet his character is featured in a lot of promotional shit for the franchise?


The Arbiter is on a fucking loading screen, which will be present in the game for how many years going forward, while its only contribution to the expansion's story is "why Arbiter sleepin" and before we got to 9.2's campaign quests... "why Arbiter sleepin" wasn't even the most important issue anymore. Wild.

Hey yo.

Is it really any weirder than Gorak Tul showing up on the Kul Tiras loading screen even though he is essentially a dungeon boss? At least the Arbiter's coma has a key role to the Shadowlands plot as opposed to Gorak Tul making a few threats in Drustvar & then vanishing to the realms of cut Shadowlands content. We aren't in the Shadowlands if not for what happened to the Arbiter (& Zovaal before that). BfA can still happen without Gorak Tul.

[Vasoka]

Less than a month away and no real leaks so far, what's going on?!

How do you know what's a "real leak", exactly? Every single real leak so far had 90% of people doubting it and saying it's fake. People were saying the Bolvar cinematic screenshot was fake as well, and that Bastion's art was fake as well. For all you know the real leak has already been leaked.

[therumblings]

How do you know what's a "real leak", exactly? Every single real weak so far had 90% of people doubting it and saying it's fake. People were saying the Bolvar cinematic screenshot was fake as well, and that Bastion's art was fake as well. For all you know the real leak has already been leaked.

Yeah this is also true. I don't think many people ever bought into any of the real leaks in the past iirc.

[Vasoka]

Yeah this is also true. I don't think many people ever bought into any of the real leaks in the past iirc.

My bet is on that project Paradox anyway:

https://boards.4channel.org/v/thread...f-warcraft-100

[Polybius]

I find it utterly hilarious how, during the time of Shadowlands first reveal and official "deep dive" by Blizzard and the first weeks/months of playing the game, the Arbiter not only had official art devoted to it but cinematics made for and so much story developed around it. The whole description of "a being older than time itself" and in the end... the entire expansion it was an offline robot eventually obliterated and the role of Arbiter given to a character who has had polarized reception itself.


Just makes me go


It's one of those cases in TV shows and films where a certain character is featured EVERYWHERE in promotional marketing... only for said character to appear for a total of 30 seconds in its respective medium. I never watching Game of Thrones, so I can be off with this, but didn't Sean Bean's character die in the fist episode? Yet his character is featured in a lot of promotional shit for the franchise?

I think it was to subvert expectations. Scream did this with Drew Barrymore as “main lead” and it worked.

For WoW it didn’t work and never paid off. It was anticlimactic, like TV show characters who are quietly written off.

[Sondrelk]

Hey yo.

Is it really any weirder than Gorak Tul showing up on the Kul Tiras loading screen even though he is essentially a dungeon boss? At least the Arbiter's coma has a key role to the Shadowlands plot as opposed to Gorak Tul making a few threats in Drustvar & then vanishing to the realms of cut Shadowlands content. We aren't in the Shadowlands if not for what happened to the Arbiter (& Zovaal before that). BfA can still happen without Gorak Tul.

Well that one does go along with the usual pattern of just having a random enemy in the loading screen. The loading screen for Zandalar was just a random Sethrak for instance, and the MoP one was a nondescript Mogu.

[draugril]

Sure, but if someone complain about titanforging we can discuss pros and cons. Same with AP or any system/design. But currently it's either "game is broken" or "systems bad" after devs fulfilled like 80% of wishlist from end of BfA (and in 9.1.5 wishlist from launch). And when I see same stupid argument twice or more, always turns out it's 1:1 from some Asmon stream.

"Systems bad" always irks me. Gameplay itself, whether it be in WoW or literally any other game, is 100% systems. Combat is a system. Gear is a system. Reputation is a system. Quests are a system. Talents are a system. And so on. So "systems bad" is just an invalid point of discussion. Are certain systems "bad"? I would argue yes, particularly if temporary.

But you just can't generalize that all systems are bad.

And that being said, if the complaints are more general and more personal, like all the variations of "WoW is dying" or "WoW has changed into something I do not enjoy"... there's no room for discussion there. If someone disagrees, that's all that can happen - a disagreement. If the game "died" for someone because their guild all quit for X reasons, or because they play exclusively for archaeology which was not updated... the game is dead for them. Someone else having a different personal perspective is not going to change their personal perspective. And in lieu of any hard data on population in the age of the useless "MAU" metric, there is no basis for factual discussion. MAUs can mean all kinds of things - the most and least generous interpretations of that statistic are wildly variable.

[Vasoka]

In my mind it's highly improbable that after the disasters of BFA and SL (and the scandals) and all other clownery around Blizzard 10.0 will be just another filler, cookie-cutter xpac. I expect some groundbreaking changes and renovations which players will either fall in love with or utterly hate. It's a gamble situation, but either way I don't think it will just be some regurgitated systems ala Legion / BFA / SL. :

https://www.twitch.tv/towelliee/clip...e=7d&sort=time

He's probably full of shit, but overall he has shilled 10.0 like 3 times that has been clipped on Twitch and claims it will be amazing. Keep in mind that Legion basically reinvigorated the game. He "MIGHT" know SOMETHING, even if vague, which he deems to be very good.

[Golang]

From today's campaign quest

Oracle Voraxxi: Shackles and chains. The scryers will be sought.
Oracle Voraxxi: Your cosmos... is forfeit...

Oracle Zoketh: Fall to dissonance!
Oracle Zoketh: Eyes alart, wits sharp... they will see the unseen.
Oracle Zoketh: he will... reshape... reality...

Thought it was interesting that Voraxxi said our cosmos is forfeit. Also who are the scryers? TBC faction?

/e there is an npc called automa scryer that is used to create the arbiter lol so nvm..

[Dioporco]

And is there more diverse content for endgame now or 10 years ago? Raiding has always been elitist btw, and minmaxing as well (even more before with caps and reforging). Also elitist players make way less of a percentage of the playerbase in raiding and dungeons than people here think

diverse content endgame like what sorry? we have raid and M+ which are glorified Challenge Mode which are glorified HC dungeons Cata version.

if you mean Torgast Island and Warfronts as "endgame" well i have a bad news for you, those sucks a lot.



Greg Street was the lead dev during the 3 most coolest expac overall and this is taking into consideration pve pvp raid and non vertical content, he and Ion are technically Elitist players but they had different approach and different results, and it is pretty visible to everybody.

[Khaza-R]

Yeah but they also learned their lesson and won't repeat that 'mistake' twice.

Look at all the Pandaren lore we've gotten since MoP.

You mean like how they learned their lesson with the disjointed zones in Cataclysm but then tripled down on the same concept and made it worst in Shadowlands?

Anyways, I fully expect the next expansion theme to be much more light-hearted after Shadowlands. Regardless of what the overarching theme is.