Rate Shadowlands (2021 version)

[chiddie]

4 is my rating.

As a more casual player (family/work commitments) I've found SL to much less enjoyable than previous expansions. There is simply no way to be competitive without group activities. By competitive I mean-random bg's not being blown up by the ilvl 226's, similar things in the few lfg dungeons. I expect a disparity, but the difference is just so much greater than previously.

Rated pvp, high lvl M+'s, or H/M raiding are required, as no amount of time spent doing stuff outside this gets you quality gear, whereas previous expansions a slow and steady grind would at least reward decent gear. Now, no matter how much time is spent, you're currently stuck around 200 ilvl.

World boss drops are meh, covenant gear is meh, lfr gear is meh, non-rated pvp gear even fully upgraded is meh.

Dude I don’t want to enter again the “it’s a MMORPG, you ARE supposed to do group content to progress past a certain point” tunnel... but it’s exactly this.

Solo activities (for the moment) are too easy to give really meaningful gear, considering that ilvl 200 is M+9 drops, I think that actual brainless solo activities are rewarded more than enough.

[Nerovar]

think back into history, what did wotlk have to keep people playing? ulduar patch - after you were done with raid there was few dailies and thats it, ICC patch likewise, there were dungeons too but if youve been done with raid you didnt want to run those either...
that mean wotlk too except of first few months in each patch sucked, right? if not, its a bit hypocritical to say shadowlands now is worse it was at release...

Well, obviously I don't know definitive answers to all these questions but there's still the fact that WotLK not only managed to retain its players but also increase subscriptions over the course of its life cycle whereas Shadowlands lost like half of its subscribers after a few months. I mean, sure WoW is an old game, people have less time (we all know the talking points) and all that but it seems weird to me that you would dismiss even the slightest possiblity that this kind of shift might be at least somewhat rooted in a change of game design philosophy.

I mean, by pointing to WotLK you're basically making my point for me here. You could even argue that WoW expansions maybe even had less overall content in the past but still managed to keep players entertained with that content for longer periods of time and are incidentally also more fondly remembered. Why is that? Just nostalgia?

[callipygoustp]

The 2nd expansion in which I found myself, without intentionally meaning to do so, not logging in much if at all. The other expansion was WoD.

I chose the "ok" option but was leaning toward "bad".

[Stardrift]

During the honeymoon phase, it was a 7/10 for me. Mostly because it was fresh new content and the beautiful zones, despite the horrible lore and voice acting were still entertaining and had plenty of memorable moments.

As of right now, I have 4 months left on my sub and I can't be fucked off enough to log on for shits and giggles out of boredom anymore. I'll be entirely skipping 9.1 as well, as it just looks raw. Which will probably come out after my sub ends anyways lol. Nothing quite like an end of the expansion content drought at the start of one..

That leaves my rating at 2/10 as of right now. Who knows, maybe they'll put out another killer of a patch later next year.

Even if it's called World of Warcraft it just doesn't feel like Warcraft anymore, bad from me.

WoD and BFA for all it's flaws atleast felt like Warcraft to me.

Yea there's just something really off about everything 8.2 and onwards. Through thick and thin the game has always still felt like WoW to me. But since 8.2? Idek what this is anymore.

[crusadernero]

I guess you could argue MMORPGs should provide more replayability than a linear singleplayer experience that you can "finish" once and never touch again. Long term success of MMORPGs is usually defined by and reliant on their player retention. Ideally, there should be enough "content" (I don't really like using that word) to keep players interested in the game until the next bigger patch arrives. You don't really want people to sub for a month or two, play all the "content" they're interested in and then unsub until the next "content" drop comes. If your MMORPG isn't enjoyable without constant injections of flashy new stuff then there's probably something rotten at a fundamental mechanical level. Because it's not just about content, it's also about how the game utilizes that content to keep you entertained for long periods of time.

Sadly, I think thats a businessmodel ActiBlizz lives fine with. People sub and unsub as content are released and cleared. Since they fill in the lost sub money with wow token, mounts, pets and other features in the shop, they earn alot of money from that. They dont need people subbed up for longer period of times. They dont need to create longlasting content worth doing for the masses.

wow retail now is more or less a seasonal activity. You sub up, get in, do the content for a couple of months, unsub.

- - - Updated - - -

During the honeymoon phase, it was a 7/10 for me. Mostly because it was fresh new content and the beautiful zones, despite the horrible lore and voice acting were still entertaining and had plenty of memorable moments.

As of right now, I have 4 months left on my sub and I can't be fucked off enough to log on for shits and giggles out of boredom anymore. I'll be entirely skipping 9.1 as well, as it just looks raw. Which will probably come out after my sub ends anyways lol. Nothing quite like an end of the expansion content drought at the start of one..

That leaves my rating at 2/10 as of right now. Who knows, maybe they'll put out another killer of a patch later next year.



Yea there's just something really off about everything 8.2 and onwards. Through thick and thin the game has always still felt like WoW to me. But since 8.2? Idek what this is anymore.

Fully agree. Its shifted away from Warcraft. Now its some sort of space sci-fi fantasy thing or whatever. It really sucks. Heres to hoping for better times in next xpac..

[Wangming]

sure, it sucks that there is no new content yet, BUT that doesnt make the content that is there worse, so the rating should be the same if viewed objectively...
game doesnt magicaly get worse bcs you finish it, same as book or movie or anything...

Don't you think lack of content should be taken into account for a subscription based MMO? Don't want to give unsolicited career advise, but you seem to have all the necessary qualities of a Blizzard executive.

[Firebeast]

Seriously?? The Vault Of Disappointment is a good thing for you???? Kill 10 raid bosses and get one drop, that's total crap. How is this the 7/10??? The dungeons are sad and boring. Is this is third for you after Legion and Mop, that kind of explains your sad reasoning

[Bee76]

Well 3-4 here
- Balance is still terrible, speccs and covenants u cant choose them by style u have to chose them by performance if u want at least a little performance in endgame
- gearing is really annoying, do pvp or have fun hoping on that great vault litterbox...
- endgame becomes boring fast, doing a lot of m+ for that gv lottery means its getting boring, only 8 dungeons some of them terrbile designed
- lags und bugs everywhere, neraly daily hotfixes...
- boring story, as a proud horde member is was even more "touched" by warynns death in legion
- old nps recycling.....booooring
- bad villain

and so much more

2nd worst xpac after wod they ever did...

no sub from me

[arkanon]

I know I'm in the minority, but I quite liked mop. Legion was "ok", bfa was subpar, and SL might be the one that finally makes me hang up my sword and shield.

Compared to other mmos, it's bad. Compared to other wow expansion, it's a -2 for me.

[ImpalerEU]

Good.

That's an actually highly impressive rating for an expansion in its early stages.

[oldgeezer]

From a casual point of view, very poor. Unpleasant, cluttered zones (and disconnected with it), the tedium that is the Maw/Boreghast, frankly weird WQ design. Lore questionable. BFA (and even WoD) were way, way better expansions. 3.5/10.

[Zorachus]

Just logged on, and then off after 15 minutes. Think I'm almost done with this expansion I did a quick World Quest, and it was tedious and lame, and then I thought, why even do this WQ? For what, to get another Renown? Uh ok, big whip. I just got instantly bored, thinking only thing worth while right now, is start my +7 key for the week, but I didn't have the interest to put a team together and spend the 30 to 40 minutes running it. And for what, get 70 Anima, and maybe a possible upgrade. Ugh, not in the mood for the loot chase again.

And then flying form zone to zone in SL, is so annoying, always having to go through Oribos, and then long travel. it's stupid it takes that long to get around in this expansion. I much prefer one large continent with all zones connected for a expansion.

And no flight whistle, ugh.

[sssettlers]

The expansion was solid at launch. However, there are no strongly memorable moments that would be remembered by me. My account just expired today. I'll wait until the next significant content update.

[arkanon]

-does it count towards good and better?
-does it count towards bad and worse?
-does it not count at all, because it is just...ok?

Its very obviously removed, or split 50/50 either way (same result). Dont overthink things, it can have the opposite of the desired result.

[Lolites]

Don't you think lack of content should be taken into account for a subscription based MMO? Don't want to give unsolicited career advise, but you seem to have all the necessary qualities of a Blizzard executive.

but dont you think lowering rating from 8 to 3, as someone in this thread say they did, is a bit too harsh? bcs its not really lack of content is it? its "delay" of next patch, which tbh if i look how terribly out of timeplan some projects at my work get (some that should be done by now had deadline moved to 2024) im willing to give blizzard some space (not to mention most people whining about lack of content havent done most of it, i still have shitloads to do and i play daily...)

now look at it differently, if blizzard was so foolish to take votes like this into account when making new content what use would it have? content got rating of 7 on average so they can think "good, little improvements and it could be great" and then THE SAME GODDAMN CONTENT get rating of 3 few months later...
so what exactly is good about people rating it on a whim, on their current enjoyment? other than echo chamber for haters...
people didnt rate game itself but their current whim "yay, new things 8/10... im done, 3/10"

as for that veiled attempt for insult (lets not pretend its something else), you accidentaly stumbled on truth - using logic instead of current mood swing would in fact be one personal trait important for good executive, in any company, unless you ofc want to bankrupt it...

[Nak88]

6.5 / 7.

To sum up, It's a good expansion with improved classes, better dungeons and raid but the Maw, Torghast, anima systems are just terrible.

[javierdsv]

You can tell they focused on doing things at a lower scale this time around... and that's why it's "Okay", but there's just not a lot happening. And they happened to raise our expectations with Legion so well, their fault.

[chiddie]

6.5 / 7.

To sum up, It's a good expansion with improved classes, better dungeons and raid but the Maw, Torghast, anima systems are just terrible.

I think that, besides liking or not the theme and the story, it all relies on what you are doing in game.

For example I’m a healer, I love healing in dungeons but I have little spare time (something like 10 hours per week split in small sessions of 1,5 hours max) so the less things I feel mandatory that don’t involve dungeoning, the better.

In this sense as of now I can’t rate it but good at minimum. Reps are gone so I can avoid WQ and not dungeons related callings. I do my weekly covenant quests, a couple of Ve’nari quests while doing the weekly Souls quest, the world boss, the rare 250 anima WQ and nothing more. In about one hour I’m done with 90% of “weekly routine activities” and I can focus to dungeoning for the rest of my play time.

Feels really good. Of course if you are not interested in PvP, Raid or M+ once you get to ilvl 200 there’s it much more to do besides grinding anima for cosmetics, but what would you lie to being able to do besides the 3 main pillars?

[arkanon]

No you are not...MoP ranked pretty high in polls once we were in the x-pacs beyond it.

And that is almost all that needs to be said about polls.

My hands typed "mop mop", but my brain was saying "wod, WOD"

[Canderous1]

I was "cautiously optimistic" at the start. i suppose id give it a 'good' as in an average meh vote. some good things, some not so go. what is important is where it goes from here. Im not going to naysay an entire expansion based on the start. if i did that i'd never have experienced Legion or MoP, which i liked a lot.