The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[PotHockets]

It looks disappointingly, generic.

It's just a stage.

[Nyel]

So if it's Avaloren, what will your reaction be?

Waiting for Cata Classic.

[Cheezits]

Main stage looks cool.

Why does it look like the Eye of Azshara leak?

[Jellykiss]

Are we still in the dark?

[Jekyll]

It's just a stage.

In the previous Blizzcons, the stage had decorations that has something to do with the next exp, such as Lordaeron designs for BfA etc.

[Keyalios]

Can I write the story for 12.0?

Based on your PFP if you bring in some FFXIV villains and make WoW: The Final Fantasy I would be very happy.

FFXIV story and characters with WoW combat and some mechanics would be the best of both worlds.

[meroes]

If it’s Avaloren, I’m evacuating from WoW for good

[Jekyll]

Are we still in the dark?

Most of the Palestinians are since electricity is rationed or cut off.

[Varodoc]

To be fair, I'm not hyped for cosmic expansion wasn't hyped for Argus either, and personally, I treat Shadowlands and Draenor more as a "magic fantasy" rather than a "cosmic" one, but maybe we differ on what constitutes "cosmic". But I guess it's not a debate for this thread

It's funny that you would say this, because all the "Cosmic" complaints started circulating during Shadowlands.

"Cosmic" according to this community is anything that "doesn't take place on Azeroth".

But, then, why people started complaining about "Cosmic" in Shadowlands and not in TBC or WOD?

Because the Cosmic setting was never the problem in the first place, it was simply the garbage villain.

What people dislike about Shadowlands is not the setting, it's that the Main Villain is garbage and retroactively ruined the lore.

Go back and look at the immediate reactions to SL, people either liked or were neutral about the Cosmic setting.

[Keyalios]

All those convention leaks proved fake now, right?

We knew they were all of them were AI.

The only other one is the guy who talked about Xal, seemed realistic, then said we would see the 10.2 cinematic. Whom I am still somewhat hoping is real. But who promised us his ID badge if he was wrong then went radio silent.

[Jekyll]

If it’s Avaloren, I’m evacuating from WoW for good

Byeee. <3

/10 chars of goodbyes Y _ Y

[Catastrophy349]

Some people need to look at the BlizzCon Map. That is the BLIZZCON ARENA! For the "Opening Ceremony!" What did you expect? Orcs and Humans? Or maybe Xal'atath front and center?

[Echil46]

How I see it is that people want cosmic storylines, but experienced through the lens of the familiarity of Azeroth and the characters we know.

Legion worked because we mostly stuck to Azeroth. Learning more about the world, and saw the effects the invasion had on places and people we knew.

Shadowlands didn't because while the topic was expected, you didn't get a solid frame of reference to how this affects Azeroth and the people there.

I'd argue it's not so much "cosmic" that bothers people, but things that are too impersonal.
Argus was cosmic as in "we have to cross some large distance". But it was still people fighting off some known enemy, it was relatable and relevant.

Shadowlands was a bunch of unknown people, fighting off some unknown threats that was force-rectonned into our "everyday" threats, to make sure some "terrible thing - but what thing ? - trust me it'd important now go kill some robots and walk on water" - didn't happen.

That's not cosmic, that's a misconception that you can write a game the same you'd write a book / movie / tv show. That's bad writing / storytelling.

I'm fine with cosmic forces fighting for the soul of my planet, as long as i understand why I should lift my lazy orc ass from my cozy sofa to bash some construct's skull.

[Jellykiss]

O M G
/10char

[Akatsui]

Why does it look like the Eye of Azshara leak?

Lmao, Eye of Azshara confirmed.

[Akhinos]

Or maybe the premise of that post in itself is wrong.

People do want Cosmic.

People were hyped for Outlands.
People were hyped for Draenor.
People were SUPER hyped for Argus.
People were reasonably hyped for Shadowlands.
People are hyped for K'aresh and constantly speculate about it and the Ethereals.

People do want Cosmic settings, what people don't want is Cosmic villains with 5000IQ masterplans who retroactively insert themselves into every previous storyline.

WOW's playerbase is conservative, and isn't usually receptive to things that are far from the game's core. This is pretty obvious after almost 20 years of WOW. Even MOP, which was one of the best expansions, received hate for having a theme that was far from the game's proposal.

My point is very simple, WOW is a game that survives on transactions and an aging playerbase, I would be super cautious about pushing content that has no foundation in the lore, and the truth is that Avaloren is insignificant, and a remote minority doesn't even know the existence of this place.

It wouldn't generate hype, simply because it's a story being pushed aside, like DF was after the fiasco of yet another expansion with random villains that no one has ever heard of.

I'm not against expansions with cosmic threats, Legion was fantastic, I don't like the idea of themes that I don't see a connection to the core of the game.

[Sondrelk]

Except we clearly know how this affected Azeroth and its people wot???

Ffs, the villains whole goal required Azeroth and its power lmaooo

We were told the effects it had, we were not shown.
The entire expansion made a big deal of how everything on Azeroth is at the breaking point due to constant Zombie invasions, and we just leave it and never see it outside that brief moment in the pre-patch.

[Nebron]

Main stage looks cool.

I guess, now we can be certain that this crap could have never been legit

[Harbour]

I think people want the balance of cosmic setting and down to earth setting, balance of epic scale events and following memorable relatable characters.
Like in enjoyed TBC immensely back then, despite of being on another planet and dealing with another planet's massive events.
Because i checked out the caverns underneath Honor Hold, dealt with the ghosts of the past, talked to Turalyon and Alleria son and helped Khadgar to deal with green eyed assholes at Tempest Keep.

If to go even further on the epic scale, Legion dealt with cosmic treat, while keeping something close and gripping, like political story line of Suramar. Characters were well written and fun to follow, and then came heavy hitters like Illidan, whose dynamics with Khadgar, Maiev and Velen were the jewel gem of the expansion.

The balance.

On other hand we have Shadowlands with alien environment, way too detached villains, little to no nicely written characters. Oh and also plot reframed previous expansions events, in own lameness making them all lame as well (Jay Lore 5D Chessed Lich King, Legion and Light).

Execution matters.

[Echil46]

Amen.
Avaloren can come in a later expansion or in a patch.
I don’t want another mysterious island but this time with heretic Titanforged (and maybe dragons!) right after Dragonflight - and I honestly don’t think that feeling would be lost on Blizzard.

Do not underestimate how badly they can read a crowd or their audience, and misconstrude their vision for what we really ask. And if not, that's cuz we think we want it but we don't. (i saw that on a video from the phone we all have).