Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Ersula]

Especially when zones and races are gorgeous. I mean, who didn't dig vampire theme with entire castle as raid?

Except Torghast is supposed to be the "system" for casuals. And compared to Island Expeditions & Warfronts, it's extremely unimpressive. That & no allied races this expansion they should have expected to lose most of their non-mythic players.

[plz delete account]

Awwwwn, wholesome posts being wholesome. ♥

Did you ever find a substitute for ground beef for those croissant tacos?

[Nagawithlegs]

Except Torghast is supposed to be the "system" for casuals. And compared to Island Expeditions & Warfronts, it's extremely unimpressive. That & no allied races this expansion they should have expected to lose most of their non-mythic players.

I’d say there’s a solid chance of ARs to bring people in for 9.2 as the big thing. Otherwise it may just have a new zone and raid.

[Lahis]

Ouch. To me that's a strong signal they are really behind schedule, and don't want anything further distracting production. I might be completely wrong, but that's how I see it...

Hard to hold an event for announcements when you don't have shit to announce.

- - - Updated - - -

And you got OW2.

Overwatch is even deader than WoW.

[huth]

90% of the complaining about Shadowlands has been the theme though. People fucking hate it and won't shut up about how much they miss the pig farms and dinosaurs they thought they hated.

That 10% of people angry about lack of features is true though and it has been there since announcement. People called SL filler and checked out at Blizzcon.

And what makes you assume that's what he was talking about? Just that many people have been complaining about it doesn't mean it's the big change that is supposedly coming.

For all we know, it might not even be about anything ingame. Transitioning to a different payment model would also be very different. He's just trying to sound mysterious, there's no usable information content.

[SunspotAnims]

Overwatch is even deader than WoW.

Which doesn't refute that OW2 is in development regardless. To say there is "nothing" is to pretend that there aren't multiple announced titles still unreleased.

[Teriz]

Relax people. Given everything that's happened blizz needs to heal. Last thing they need is to host an online event.

That being said.... Check this out.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=186556/...cal-dragonling

This is a pet that's set to be available for wows 17th Anni next month.

What if it is a tease to a dragon isles expansion with the tinker class.

Maybe they'll use wow's Anni to announce the next expansion.

In BFA there was the Tinker team in Island Expeditions. For Gnomes, we discovered Mechagon and Mekkatorque becomes the King of the Gnomes, unifying the Gnomish races, and Gazlowe becomes the new Goblin leader with Gallywix pretty much disappearing after Sylvanas is deposed. We also discovered that Kezan wasn't completely obliterated. This sets up a retaking of Gnomeregan, and a pathway to Undermine. Additionally, Wrathion appeared all grown up at the end of expansion, helps us beat N'Zoth, and finds a bunch of Twilight Drake eggs that he uncorrupted.

In short, yeah, your theory is supported by the evidence.

[Cherry123]

Community : I can't play Shadowlands anymore!

Towelliee : remember what I told you

"I get these weird cyst things right on the fringe of my sac. I want to get 'em checked, but I'm afraid of what they're gonna tell me. "

Community : He is right! new expansion will be great!

[Varodoc]

90% of the complaining about Shadowlands has been the theme though. People fucking hate it and won't shut up about how much they miss the pig farms and dinosaurs they thought they hated.

That 10% of people angry about lack of features is true though and it has been there since announcement. People called SL filler and checked out at Blizzcon.

Why do you belittle a very valid and good criticism of Shadowlands? Does people having different opinions make you so salty?

Also I don't remember anyone saying they hated Kul Tiras and Zandalar, in fact most people loved the questing of BfA and the general aesthetics of the expansion. If anything back during BfA there was one thing people didn't shut up about, especially on Reddit, and it was about how good the art team was and what an amazing job they did with the islands.

[Seasz]

Except Torghast is supposed to be the "system" for casuals. And compared to Island Expeditions & Warfronts, it's extremely unimpressive. That & no allied races this expansion they should have expected to lose most of their non-mythic players.

Excuse me what but nothing will ever come close to the colossal failures that were both of those, especially warfronts.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Why do you belittle a very valid and good criticism of Shadowlands? Does people having different opinions make you so salty?

Also I don't remember anyone saying they hated Kul Tiras and Zandalar, in fact most people loved the questing of BfA and the general aesthetics of the expansion. If anything back during BfA there was one thing people didn't shut up about, especially on Reddit, and it was about how good the art team was and what an amazing job they did with the islands.

"sAy WhAt YoU wIlL aBoUt tHe ExPaNsIoN bUt ThE aRt TeAm Is KiLlInG iT!"

Fucking kill me.

[Ersula]

Hard to hold an event for announcements when you don't have shit to announce.

Right, but they absolutely should have stuff to announce: Covid was a setback but Shadowlands took the brunt of that. Working from home shouldn't have been all that detrimental & they've been back in the office since April. Given the history of their "Features" trailers they have no problem making trailers for content that is nowhere near completed. That & Blizzard acquired 2 more indie studios last year. We joke that they "don't have anything to announce" but they've definitely been working on "something"

[Seasz]

Also people really seem to forget that aside from the failures of the systems of Bfa (islands, warfronts and azerite armor) people were mostly disappointed at how dull and extremely underwhelming was class design at the start of the xpac. We went from having the somewhat complex and fun artifact rotation to the most basic and homogenized state most of the specs have ever been at. Only with 8.2 they managed to salvage some of it but the damage was already done.

[Ersula]

Excuse me what but nothing will ever come close to the colossal failures that were both of those, especially warfronts.

Yeah, but Torghast is absolutely tiny, conceptually & in terms of content, even compared to warfronts & islands. Even if it is more fun.

[Nathanyel]

You let me know when they do that. Maybe they’ll start releasing more than one content patch per year

Well the cancellation of BlizzConline certainly points towards that. If you don't want to believe that the delays aren't due to Covid and current revelations about certain former employees, but instead just caused by "Blizzard bad", then I can't help you.

God I hate how BfA ended...

It bears repeating that the issue wasn't that the focus suddenly shifted from Faction War to N'Zoth, it was that an expansion originally planned around N'Zoth/Old Gods had the Faction War shoved in. And as always, I blame any (=every) bad Faction War story after Vanilla fully on the players who yapped about how "Warcraft" is about the "War".

[Sondrelk]

Well the cancellation of BlizzConline certainly points towards that. If you don't want to believe that the delays aren't due to Covid and current revelations about certain former employees, but instead just caused by "Blizzard bad", then I can't help you.



It bears repeating that the issue wasn't that the focus suddenly shifted from Faction War to N'Zoth, it was that an expansion originally planned around N'Zoth/Old Gods had the Faction War shoved in. And as always, I blame any (=every) bad Faction War story after Vanilla fully on the players who yapped about how "Warcraft" is about the "War".

It doesn't really matter whether it was a faction war or N'zoth expansion, either way the expansion blew it.

If it was a faction war expansion with maritime elements then the ending majorly blew it with a raid, and indeed a full patch that might as well have been from an entirely different expansion going by how loosely connected it was.

If it was a N'zoth expansion then it spent way too long on what was supposedly a B-plot instead of actually developing the main conflict.

[Nathanyel]

It bears repeating that the issue wasn't that the focus suddenly shifted from Faction War to N'Zoth, it was that an expansion originally planned around N'Zoth/Old Gods had the Faction War shoved in. And as always, I blame any (=every) bad Faction War story after Vanilla fully on the players who yapped about how "Warcraft" is about the "War".

Elaborating on this, I know that it was stated that they needed Sylvanas in a certain position, but that could've been achieved in a different way, too:
Sylvanas burns the tree, then fucks off immediately and leaves the factions at each others' throats. Hardliners want to turn the War of the Thorns global, it does start, but across one, two patches there are peace talks, exchanges of information about the casus belli, diplomacy. So instead of the war culminating in a second Siege of Orgrimmar, it instead is resolved more naturally, "anticlimactically" like many real-life wars, with the factions coming closer together again just as the threat of the Black Empire rises/becomes more apparent.

[Khaza-R]

It doesn't really matter whether it was a faction war or N'zoth expansion, either way the expansion blew it.

If it was a faction war expansion with maritime elements then the ending majorly blew it with a raid, and indeed a full patch that might as well have been from an entirely different expansion going by how loosely connected it was.

If it was a N'zoth expansion then it spent way too long on what was supposedly a B-plot instead of actually developing the main conflict.

The biggest issue is that they came out and pretty much admitted they were just rushing through the N'zoth story so they could tell there own. Which apparently is all this cosmic war garbage. Kind of hard to not find that insulting as a fan when the Old God story was one being built up since vanilla.

[Sondrelk]

Elaborating on this, I know that it was stated that they needed Sylvanas in a certain position, but that could've been achieved in a different way, too:
Sylvanas burns the tree, then fucks off immediately and leaves the factions at each others' throats. Hardliners want to turn the War of the Thorns global, it does start, but across one, two patches there are peace talks, exchanges of information about the casus belli, diplomacy. So instead of the war culminating in a second Siege of Orgrimmar, it instead is resolved more naturally, "anticlimactically" like many real-life wars, with the factions coming closer together again just as the threat of the Black Empire rises/becomes more apparent.

A much simpler buildup that requires almost nothing is one where faction leaders are acting "off" in ways that end up being because of old god influence. Sylvanas disappears at the beginning, some think she is abandoning the Horde, some think she is waging a secret war. And then, 8.2 comes around and shows that no, Sylvanas was actually in league with Azshara to release N'zoth all along.

The faction war didn't need to be more than a series of protracted skirmishes for the story to function. Even the warfronts could just be portrayed as regular border conflicts that have slightly escalated because of old god influence.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The biggest issue is that they came out and pretty much admitted they were just rushing through the N'zoth story so they could tell there own. Which apparently is all this cosmic war garbage. Kind of hard to not find that insulting as a fan when the Old God story was one being built up since vanilla.

The cosmic war isn't garbage its the same type of stuff the Legion was. Its on the same type of spectacle.