Has there ever been an Xpac that wasn't shat on by the community

[darklogrus]

People being upset with 1-2 features is a lot diff then people hating everything within an expansion..

[Amnaught]

only factor on whether an expansion sucks or is successful is raw sub data. subs went up gradually from vanilla to wrath. id say that was successful regardless of opinion. when did blizzard stop releasing sub numbers? if subs were still going up id bet blizzard would still track it. but as long as it drastically is going down they never will. you could give someone thousands of dollars and they would still bitch. couple years ago here in the st louis area a man won a 15 million dollar lottery prize. on tv he was bitching about it taking up to a week to get his money deposited, and how he had to go to his bank to deal with the issues of having 15M deposited. guy had a disgusted look on his face the whole time while speaking on tv. like come on man you won 15M dollars and he was bitching..... doesnt matter the expansion/scenario you arent pleasing everyone. some people just hate life.

Adding to that, people are much more likely to be loud about the fact that RNG is screwing them over, or a plot point is shitty, than about how much fun they had raiding that day. The people who are content are quiet.

[Kithelle]

People have always complained since before the game even launched. That much is true.

However, its also disingenuous to pretend all these complaints are equal. There's a massive difference between someone saying they don't like pandas and someone complaining because the game has become an unfun chorefest.

Except pretty much every expansion at one time or another was considered the worst expansion...people even shit on Legion even though it's one of the more favored, best of the modern game

[MoanaLisa]

No, they all have. Every expansion has been 'the end of World of Warcraft.' It's a joke by now.

Expansions get their redemption arc a few years after they're done.

[Amnaught]

People being upset with 1-2 features is a lot diff then people hating everything within an expansion..

Those 1-2 features seem to get all of the attention. Translates as "this expansion suxx!!!" to the echo chamber.

Like Covenant swapping. It's been a major complaint for a long while now, and now they've "pulled the ripcord", and now nobody talks about it. Because "I like the thing" is a less interesting conversation.

I really like the transmog in this expansion. Earning them through Renown and Campaign quests gradually is legitimately fun for me.

[craigw]

Adding to that, people are much more likely to be loud about the fact that RNG is screwing them over, or a plot point is shitty, than about how much fun they had raiding that day. The people who are content are quiet.

for sure. when you are happy/content nothing is said. only uproar when mad

[Relapses]

Expansions get their redemption arc a few years after they're done.

Unless it's WoD.

[Drindorai]

Bfa: No explaination

Shadowlands: No explaination

W-what...? lol

It's taken so long for the back half of BfA and ALL of Shadowlands that there's been nothing BUT people extensively explaining what doesn't work in each one.

This is real low effort.

[Amnaught]

No, they all have. Every expansion has been 'the end of World of Warcraft.' It's a joke by now.

Expansions get their redemption arc a few years after they're done.

I mean, I haven't gone back to Draenor since Legion released, except maybe to Warspear for the PVP transmogs. That plot makes me cringe *hard*, and aside from the updated character models and zone art, it really didn't have anything going for it that wasn't done again but better in Legion.

[MoanaLisa]

Because "I like the thing" is a less interesting conversation.

Never mind the abuse you let yourself in for if you say you actually like anything in the game. No one needs that so you end up with tiny forum websites that are full of former players who hang out for years, proclaim their former love for the game, and always can be counted on to pick apart every little thing.

I've got my own list of complaints about the game but they are mostly big things like how the game is over-engineered and how the separate pieces of an expansion don't sync well. It's easier to keep quiet about anything you might like. Like one big one: I love rogue-like games of all kinds so while I haven't overdone it in Torghast I always enjoy running it. It's a decent translation of a rogue-like to WoW. I hope they learn from this one and do some more. Procedurally generated stuff with a bit of content or map randomness is more interesting than responding to tightly scripted bosses and trash that never varies.

- - - Updated - - -

Unless it's WoD.

I mean, I haven't gone back to Draenor since Legion released, except maybe to Warspear for the PVP transmogs. That plot makes me cringe *hard*, and aside from the updated character models and zone art, it really didn't have anything going for it that wasn't done again but better in Legion.

Even Warlords gets better reviews now than it did then. No argument: It's one of the two worst expansions for me but more for their laughable swipe at trying to make an expansion that would only last a year. That was never going to work. Loved the leveling in Warlords though, especially Shadowmoon Valley. The raids were good. There just wasn't enough of anything to last as long as it did.

[sunxsera]

Legion whining came at the start of the expansion, but almost exclusively with legendary items.

The hate for WoD came in strong after a couple months, when people realized there wasn't much to do. It was a raid logging heaven with good leveling zones though.

Most of MoP was pretty well received all things considered, with the only real whines I can remember being the absolute shit ton of dailies at the start of the expansion, and requiring you to win 2 BGs for the legendary quest later on. Outside of that, all the shit about the expansion came prior to it even coming out "As if an expansion based on Kung Fu Panda could ever be good".

Cataclysm was a huge amount of whining about launch heroic dungeons being way too hard (this happens when you flip the switch from TBC > WoTLK and then back again) and Dragonsoul as a whole.

WoTLK whines almost exclusively came from 'sparkle pony' at the very end of WoTLK. I believe it was the first mount you could buy from the store.

TBC whining came almost exclusively on the forums, with lots of people threatening to quit because the tuning was way too high and still required world buffs. They had to rebalance almost all of T4/T5 because of incredibly buggy bosses, stupid respawn timers on trash, and gear that had to be bumped up because pretty much every blue wasn't rewarding.

Realistically everything has been shit on to varying degrees, but a lot of it's retrospective at this point. I look back at expansions like WoTLK and Legion with contempt because there were truly terrible decisions in those times that made me hate the game, and nearly made me quit in each expansion. WoTLK difficulty at the start was awful, and the way you geared in Legion made me hate the game (AP, random legendary items and TF in general). Which is funny, because based both of these are generally seen as great expansions by a lot of the player base, but it wasn't for me.

The worst expansions for me was BFA, WoTLK and Legion (starting with the worst). Jury still out on Shadowlands, but it will likely usurp or tie BFA at this point.

Cata also had a huge debate when lfr was introduced. and top guilds got banned for abusing it.

[Chriisto]

Vanilla was the perfect iteration of wow and everything after simply looks bad in comparison.

[Vrinara]

Wrath and TBC I never see people shit on. Wrath sure, had LFG. But otherwise people love it. TBC was well. TBC. Vanilla 2.0 basically

[Mic_128]

Has there ever been an Xpac that wasn't shat on by the community?
<List snipped>

You left out BC. "Wtf I'm replacing my epics with greens?!"

[Frostfred]

Different people like different things. Some features of an expansion may be enjoyable for some players, and at the same time annoying for others. There was never an expansion, that wasn't shat on by parts of the community. There was also never an expansion, that was shat on by the entire community.

Just judging by what most people seem to agree on, however, it seems the split is roughly half / half in terms of more positively and more negatively received expansions. At least nowadays, people shit less on TBC, WotLK, MoP and Legion. On the other hand, Cata, WoD, BfA and SL get criticized more.

[FelPlague]

Legion was the best-received expansion I can remember. But I think that had a lot to do with coming after WoD, one of the worst received expansions. I have a feeling whatever expansions comes after this one will be liked for the same reasons, especially if there's a noticeable change in development direction.

only because you forget about the massive complaints about pvp scaling, legiondary RNG, artifact power, and M+

[Palapop]

Wotlk: Introduction of LFG and the first store mount

Cata: Heroics too hard, Dragon soul

MoP: "Kung fu panda and too many dailies!!"

WoD: Nothing to do, worst expansion ever

Legion: World of RNGcraft. Legendary system is terrible.

Bfa: No explaination

Shadowlands: No explaination

Let me try and put it this way, and then you can see the difference between complaints.

WOTLK: Introducing HC difficulty (but even that is "OK" compared to having 4 difficulties now)

Cata: Nothing.

MOP: Nothing.

WOD: Storyline (official downfall of lore), slow/no content release.

LEGION: DESTROYED PROFESSIONS, RNG legendary, retarded AP grindfests, destroyed pvp, destroyed gearing, 89432947327 ilvls per patch and removal of pvp/pve vendors.

BFA: DESTROYED PROFESSIONS, Essences, retarded AP grindfests, destroyed pvp, destroyed gearing, 89432947327 ilvls per patch and removal of pvp/pve vendors.

SL: DESTROYED PROFESSIONS, RNG retarded Renown grindfests, retarded conduit grindfests, retarded choreghast grindfests, destroyed pvp, destroyed gearing, 89432947327 ilvls per patch and removal of pve vendors.


You see the difference between pre-legion and post-legion wow philosophy?

[Relapses]

only because you forget about the massive complaints about pvp scaling, legiondary RNG, artifact power, and M+

How could I forget? I mentioned this in my next post. It's the reason I quit during Legion.

[Skylarking]

As long as they improve or fix the problem I don't care how much an expansion gets shat on. Repeat mistakes is what pisses me off the most.

[corgo]

Yes... TBC and WotLK. Activision bought Blizz during WotlK and turned the game to shit after that.