Shadowlands doesn't feel like Warcraft

[FelPlague]

Yeah, it's quite off-putting for me personally. Ardenweald was the only zone that felt like it has ties to old azeroth, and despite initially thinking it was the most lame convenient I picked that just so it felt like wow lol. Don't play SL anymore but that's how the zones made me feel. Even just first thing in bastion I thought... Hmmm this doesn't feel like wow. Even the first quest giver being some chirpy blue girl saying hello felt like they'd brought this post-overwatch blizzard vibe to wow. To me it doesn't fit but if other people like it then hey hope they enjoy.

The maw is straight out of diablo as well but that's cool lol.

Have.... have you been to maldraxxus?
it is literally eastern/western plaguelands/all the scourge ever literally all combined together...

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't even hit 52 before I gave up. I'm sorry but another expansion where the only thing to look forward to is borrowed powers that we'll lose isn't something to look forward to. No new class or race for the 2nd expansion in a row. More borrowed content and temporary powers. More waste of time and yet another expansion where the only thing to do at max is M+ and other bullshit.

Blizzard is dead. They ran out of ideas. The game is dead.

What?
We got more new races last expansion then all past expansions combined times 2.
no new class yeah, but no new race wtf you smoking?

also would you rather have nothing to do at max level but raid, or nothing to do but M+, raid, and PVP, cause the first is old expansions, the second is recent expansions, it seems you want LESS to do, not more.

- - - Updated - - -

The Simpsons. Law & Order: SVU. Final Fantasy franchise. Nintendo. There are things that have lasted longer than WoW.

Are these really your examples?

How is nintendo a "Tv show or game"

Simpsons, law and order, these are both tv shows that do not have over arching long series lore, these are shows that every single episode are their own individual story. and even then really ,you are gunna use these as examples of things that "did not get stale"
cause i can fucking tell you, at a very specific point in the Simpsons the show got stale, and has gotten more and more stale since.

- - - Updated - - -

they ran out of idea when they made a Frankenstein fantasy game. nothing blizzard made has been original. pretty sure I remember reading about orcs and the clash of men before blizzard.

And to think you hate borrowed power, yet you have no problem with having a physical body.

Nothing anyone has made in the past 20 years is original. Look up "The seven basic plots"
there is only 7 original plots in story telling, everything after that is nothing but a ripoff with no originality

Overcoming the monster
Rags to riches
The quest
Voyage and return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

Then bonus, the rule of three.

there is nothing original, everything fits into these categories, and therefore is a ripoff of the original.
that's why you shouldn't care, who cares, enjoy it, who cares if its a ripoff or not original, just have fun.

[quakicon]

WoD was an expansion that started out great, but once you reached end-game content sort of winnowed down to raiding and the chore of garrison maintenance. Most of the dungeons felt uninspired and became quickly formulaic, which made Mythic+ a bit mind-croggling after a time. Raiding was a high point for WoD, but at least from my viewpoint was really the only high point it had. Compared to higher tier expansions like WotLK and MoP it didn't have much on offer.

You know there was no mythic+ in WoD, right?

[arkanon]

I mean it is a 16 year old game with a lore that is 20 years old. If they dont branch out the storyline and do the same old, same old, how stale do you think it will be?

Can you name anything in pop culture, any TV show or game that has lasted as long as WoW has?

I agree, both the Maw as well as Torghast are strongly Diablo influenced. But no MMO in gaming history has ever tried to bring roguelike dungeon crawl into their game. It is unique and will take some iterations to perfect it.

Coronation Street. has 4 decades over WoW. There are countless other examples from around the world, and a quick google search will be quite interesting for you I think. General Hospital, Days of our lives - most soap operas that you have heard the name of have been going for decades.

As for pop culture, pretty much all the "big" superheros have had a comic book since the 50s/60s/70s with many still going now.

WoW is somewhat unique in the gaming space, but more to do with its consistency rather than quantity or longevity. Other series have existed for longer, however their releases are often broken up by a long hiatus here and there.

[guisadop]

for me it doesn't feel different enough, like the undead actually came from shadowlands! and the kyrian and the spirit healers, and the vampire, it's all from shadowlands! isn't that cool, customer?


not to mention that going too deep into this afterlife stuff is writing yourself into a corner

[Eapoe]

Have.... have you been to maldraxxus?
it is literally eastern/western plaguelands/all the scourge ever literally all combined together...

- - - Updated - - -



What?
We got more new races last expansion then all past expansions combined times 2.
no new class yeah, but no new race wtf you smoking?

also would you rather have nothing to do at max level but raid, or nothing to do but M+, raid, and PVP, cause the first is old expansions, the second is recent expansions, it seems you want LESS to do, not more.

- - - Updated - - -



Are these really your examples?

How is nintendo a "Tv show or game"

Simpsons, law and order, these are both tv shows that do not have over arching long series lore, these are shows that every single episode are their own individual story. and even then really ,you are gunna use these as examples of things that "did not get stale"
cause i can fucking tell you, at a very specific point in the Simpsons the show got stale, and has gotten more and more stale since.

- - - Updated - - -



Nothing anyone has made in the past 20 years is original. Look up "The seven basic plots"
there is only 7 original plots in story telling, everything after that is nothing but a ripoff with no originality

Overcoming the monster
Rags to riches
The quest
Voyage and return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

Then bonus, the rule of three.

there is nothing original, everything fits into these categories, and therefore is a ripoff of the original.
that's why you shouldn't care, who cares, enjoy it, who cares if its a ripoff or not original, just have fun.

They literally put “anything in pop culture...” and then included the others in the same sentence. Seeing as how Nintendo is very much part of pop culture, and even has home brews being made today, it is very much relevant.
The fact that they are episodic does not change the fact that they are still long running programs and have been around longer than WoW.
P.S. Go read Arkanon’s post for some more examples.

[Kaos Sverige]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...evision_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ame_franchises

Google for more ������

- - - Updated - - -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...evision_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ame_franchises

Google for more

[Fistfighter]

Yeah I feel you

but then again, it's a breath of fresh air, and while I personally don't find it as appealing, I see in this thread that it makes me the minority and I am glad people are enjoying this thematic shift in the game.

[Toppy]

They dropped the ball by making each of the shadowlands "races" be their own thing. They should have been variants of the existing races.

Blue skinned and winged Dwarves
Sickly looking pale Orcs
Horned and hooved Night Elves
Red eyed and fanged Goblins

It wouldn't have required major changes and could have kept them looking both uniquely "shadowlands" but still part of the setting as a whole.

[arkanon]

They dropped the ball by making each of the shadowlands "races" be their own thing. They should have been variants of the existing races.

Blue skinned and winged Dwarves
Sickly looking pale Orcs
Horned and hooved Night Elves
Red eyed and fanged Goblins

It wouldn't have required major changes and could have kept them looking both uniquely "shadowlands" but still part of the setting as a whole.

You might be onto something here - we are not heading off to dwarf villages, or troll villages, or human cities etc etc. Or at very least, it doesnt FEEL like we are. To be honest, i hadnt really thought about it until this post though, so it wasnt exactly a deal breaker for me. Interesting post tho, upvote!

[Toppy]

You might be onto something here - we are not heading off to dwarf villages, or troll villages, or human cities etc etc. Or at very least, it doesnt FEEL like we are. To be honest, i hadnt really thought about it until this post though, so it wasnt exactly a deal breaker for me. Interesting post tho, upvote!

There's just plain nothing familiar to it. They could put shadowlands in any fantasy setting and it would fit fine.

[Orby]

I just dont like the fact that we have to have the cycle of death be seen. WoW needs to have some sense of mystery, the more this MMO goes on the more we are going to see the unexplained be explained for us, now that there are rumours we might eventually see Elune? I mean, why does everything need to be seen and explained. Wheres the sense of wonder now?

Its very eventual that WoW is getting way too cosmic going forward, the MMO can only have so many places to go, I look at that cosmic graph from the Chronicle book and feel we are going to everyone one of those plains soon because WoW needs more content lol. Which is why Shadowlands hasn't clicked with me. I love that so many people enjoy it, but I kind of agree with OP, the WoW I kind of loved has seemed to have moved on, which is understandable when your MMO is over 15 years old but its just not for me anymore. and thats sad because I do love the franchise. I am just watching it from afar now.

On top of that none of the places in shadowlands interest me. They look beautiful and creative, and well designed, Blizzards art team are gods in that department. But delving inside that, I am not interested in blue angels, or weird furry creatures, or elf looking vampires. Maldraxxis feels closer to WoW but still feel like nothing, and no one, not a single character interests me either nothing from a lore stand point makes me feel the need to care. Its really hard to pin point one thing, its the general feel of the expansion. As far as expansion themes, this may rank right at the bottom with Cataclysm, maybe even lower than Cataclysm because at least I was hyped going into Cata, I was very weary going into this expansion as I was originally not interested in the theme but thought I'd give it a go and thought maybe I would like it if I got into it, and 3 weeks into the expansion and I couldn't play anymore.

It's amazing how much of WoW had me hooked on its lore. Because I couldn't care about how my class plays or the loot, or ranking. I was in it for the lore. That was keeping me playing, I could overlook everything about a games mechanics as long as it has something to hook me lorewise, hell say what you want about BfA's lore, it may have had holes and its ending was a mess, but it was familiar for me to hold on and keep playing for. I was invested in the zone sand places. In shadowlands, the zones look so much nicer than BFA for sure, but there is no substance beyond that.

Every week I try and get back in to play, I love seeing that people are having fun because I want to have fun too, but man am I finding it hard. I said before that it might just be burn out thats stopped me playing, but right now I just think I am done with the game. Or at least in the play sense, I'll stick keep track of the lore and stuff, because I do still like Warcraft. I been playing it since 1994 so thats gotta count for something.

[Jotunhammer]

feels and should be named more Out of World of Warcraft, since it is not in this world anymore, it has not been of this world for quite some time now.

[FelPlague]

They literally put “anything in pop culture...” and then included the others in the same sentence. Seeing as how Nintendo is very much part of pop culture, and even has home brews being made today, it is very much relevant.
The fact that they are episodic does not change the fact that they are still long running programs and have been around longer than WoW.
P.S. Go read Arkanon’s post for some more examples.

Nintendo is not a franchise though...
and i think you fail to realize his point, as he literally says "Tell me a story that goes on as long as wow that does not get stale"

- - - Updated - - -

There's just plain nothing familiar to it. They could put shadowlands in any fantasy setting and it would fit fine.

Nothing familar?
Ardenweald, the emerald dream, all druid stuff, night elf stuff
Maldraxxus, eastern and western plaguelands, the scourge?

You really gunna drop lichs on us and go "naaah this aint wow"

- - - Updated - - -

They dropped the ball by making each of the shadowlands "races" be their own thing. They should have been variants of the existing races.

Blue skinned and winged Dwarves
Sickly looking pale Orcs
Horned and hooved Night Elves
Red eyed and fanged Goblins

It wouldn't have required major changes and could have kept them looking both uniquely "shadowlands" but still part of the setting as a whole.

Because then they would have to make them for literally every single race.

4xevery single race x2 genders=A LOT OF WORK

[Toppy]

Nintendo is not a franchise though...
and i think you fail to realize his point, as he literally says "Tell me a story that goes on as long as wow that does not get stale"

- - - Updated - - -



Nothing familar?
Ardenweald, the emerald dream, all druid stuff, night elf stuff
Maldraxxus, eastern and western plaguelands, the scourge?

You really gunna drop lichs on us and go "naaah this aint wow"

- - - Updated - - -



Because then they would have to make them for literally every single race.

4xevery single race x2 genders=A LOT OF WORK

it would require some skin color changes (can use DK ones for Maldraxxus), eye color changes (many of which are already available), and some horns that they could place on any race.

Its not near as much work as you make it out to be.

Why do you come to these threads if all you will ever do is agree with anything blizzard does?

Oh and for clothing they could have just made player-able gear which would have been great from a cosmetic standpoint. No more work than they already put in since the implication here is that they wouldnt have had the monster races we ended up with which all needed their own gear sets.

[Aucald]

You know there was no mythic+ in WoD, right?

To be quite honest, I forgot.

[huth]

You might be onto something here - we are not heading off to dwarf villages, or troll villages, or human cities etc etc. Or at very least, it doesnt FEEL like we are. To be honest, i hadnt really thought about it until this post though, so it wasnt exactly a deal breaker for me. Interesting post tho, upvote!

We're not, which is why the idea makes no sense. They aren't variants of existing races because they aren't meant to be variants of existing races, but their own thing. There's a big difference between that and not fitting into WarCraft, though.

Frankly, it sounds rather unimaginative and boring.

[FelPlague]

it would require some skin color changes (can use DK ones for Maldraxxus), eye color changes (many of which are already available), and some horns that they could place on any race.

Its not near as much work as you make it out to be.

Why do you come to these threads if all you will ever do is agree with anything blizzard does?

Oh and for clothing they could have just made player-able gear which would have been great from a cosmetic standpoint. No more work than they already put in since the implication here is that they wouldnt have had the monster races we ended up with which all needed their own gear sets.

"Horns they could place on any race" i dont think you know how that works, they gotta place them on each individual model.


so yeah its ONLY new skin colours, new eye colours, new horn models
for every race, there is like what, 30 something now?
and both genders.
just so they can give us the same old boring races we have but in dead version

or just ya know, give us new races so it actually feels like a new strange place?

i dont agree with everything blizz does, i just dont cry like a pissbaby with my bad things i dislike that make little to no sense, i mean i could list all my problems with the game but you would just claim blizzard shill, cause thats how it goes when you have zero argument.

"You like this thing, that means you like everything, you are shill!"

[arkanon]

"Horns they could place on any race" i dont think you know how that works, they gotta place them on each individual model.

You are not wrong, but to be fair they have multiple helms even in vanilla that added horns to various races. They would look pretty shit though.

- - - Updated - - -

We're not, which is why the idea makes no sense. They aren't variants of existing races because they aren't meant to be variants of existing races, but their own thing. There's a big difference between that and not fitting into WarCraft, though.

Frankly, it sounds rather unimaginative and boring.

I agree, and even said I hadnt noticed and didnt think it was a big deal, but it could go some way to explaining why people feel disconnected from the typical wow universe.

[Toppy]

You are not wrong, but to be fair they have multiple helms even in vanilla that added horns to various races. They would look pretty shit though.

- - - Updated - - -



I agree, and even said I hadnt noticed and didnt think it was a big deal, but it could go some way to explaining why people feel disconnected from the typical wow universe.

Exactly this yes, it would be about the same as adding helms.

- - - Updated - - -

"Horns they could place on any race" i dont think you know how that works, they gotta place them on each individual model.


so yeah its ONLY new skin colours, new eye colours, new horn models
for every race, there is like what, 30 something now?
and both genders.
just so they can give us the same old boring races we have but in dead version

or just ya know, give us new races so it actually feels like a new strange place?

i dont agree with everything blizz does, i just dont cry like a pissbaby with my bad things i dislike that make little to no sense, i mean i could list all my problems with the game but you would just claim blizzard shill, cause thats how it goes when you have zero argument.

"You like this thing, that means you like everything, you are shill!"

You're missing the point. This is what they could have done rather than adding the multiple shadowlands races, who all needed their own gear; that only they could use, and own skins, eyes, and so on, that again, only they can use.

It could have given it both a more lasting impact for the future, as it would have allowed players more cosmetic options gear wise, but also would have much more strongly tied Shadowlands to the setting as a whole.

[arkanon]

Exactly this yes, it would be about the same as adding helms.

Ok but just to be clear, i did add that they would probably look a bit shit. The ones I referenced dont look organic at all, and are not intended to. But i guess it might be an option, im not sure, im not a designer.