Has WoW gotten "too" family friendly?

[dragi]

Well, in WoW dragons are more like a defenders of life. You can have different approach to subject.
But generally you have right, but in my opinion they somehow trying to cover their crimes in company with approach in games.
DF it's not RAW wild, rather like mentioned family friendly content. Next expansion we will not killing enemies only weakening them, and they will not dying only fainting

[Stickiler]

^ If enough people quit everyone will have to find a new game.

That is what is supposed to happen to games people don't enjoy. If you don't enjoy a game, stop playing, that's the _only_ way to illustrate that a game isn't fun to you anymore. And if too many people quit, it obviously isn't a very good game.

[HansOlo]

In Dragonflight. We have all these friendly dragons we deal with, a few who aren't so friendly but none that are truly terrifying. Dragons are supposed to be awe inspiring, terror inducing entities that radiate power, not your next taxi upon a quest-leg.

Look at movies like Dragonslayer from the 80's where it actually felt like Vermithrax (the name of the dragon antagonist), was something to be feared. When his anger was incited he bathed the countryside in blood and fire.

(Spoilers)

Look at season 2 of the new animated series Vox Machina in the first episode I was like now that's how dragons are supposed to be, as I watched a maruding band of 4 chromatic dragons obliterate the capital city.

All the while not sounding ANYTHING like the disney-fied dragons in WoW "Your monuments shall fall! Your civilization erased! Here me insects! You live out of mercy! Fight or flee and you forfeit that mercy!" All the while each dragon launched it's personal devestation upon the city and it's people.

One Dragon literally breathed gouts of poisons gas melting some from the inside. Yet another belched acid breath literally melting the castle ramparts. The frost dragon launched volleys of tremendous ice shards ripping apart the countryside. The leader's flame breath put Deathwing to shame. his fire basically turned into a giant molten beam of destruction vaporizing the main castle to it's foundation.

If anything close to this happened in WoW I honestly wouldn't know what to do. But instead we have nice dragons in WoW who help us plant flowers and find new homes for frogs...

You might not belong to the segment - have you considered that?

The playerbase is not the same gore oriented people 18 years ago. Today, the gamers plays LoL, Fort or whatever cartonish game.
Blizzard is targeting this group of younger people(as they should - otherwise, there won't be any games - if you target 30+ y/o busy/flakey people).

[Shadowferal]

Definitely not going to see another "Pamela Redpath" quest...ever?

[Daronokk]

Yes, the Warcraft franchise becomes increasingly family and kid friendly with every iteration.

It's come to the point that we can't even have a faction war anymore because people are offended. A Warchief is not allowed to exist anymore since they are mean. Morally grey was nice while it lasted but it had to make way for two lawful good factions that aren't at war with eachother anymore.

Everything has to be happy, cheerful, colorful these days. We're helping the Dragons back to power out of the goodness of our heart, not because we gain anything from it ourselves. Altruistic don't you think? It's very boring if you ask me. Internal strive, struggles, deceit, betrayals, wars, those things are interesting, it moves a plot forward and makes for nice twists. But we can't have that anymore because people will complain, "not my Warchief!", "<insert faction> is being favoured", "Why do they get <this> and our faction doesn't get <that>?", etc. It's very tiresome. So Blizzard abandoned it and made the two factions the same, now nobody can complain anymore. But it's boring like this. Going the way of the least resistance might get you the least complaints, it also gets you the least praise. It's become 'meh' at best. No high or lows.

So now WoW is a shadow of its former self, a family centered game the likes of a Disney or Pixar movie.

They tried to do the same with Diablo, just look at Diablo 3 which was also a lot more colorful, cartoony, family friendly and less scary. But they at least realized it's not beneficial to that franchise so they backtracked on it as you can see in Diablo 4 which is darker and scarier again.

I'm not saying Warcraft should go the route of Diablo, it doesn't need to be that dark, but right now it's a bit too happy and cheerfull, more of a middleground would be better for Warcraft.

[WowIsDead64]

It's come to the point that we can't even have a faction war anymore because people are offended. A Warchief is not allowed to exist anymore since they are mean. Morally grey was nice while it lasted but it had to make way for two lawful good factions that aren't at war with eachother anymore.

Virtual war shouldn't be source of so called "virtual racism", i.e. players hating each other just for picking other faction. It was ok for RTS games, but it isn't for MMO. In MMO all players should be friends by default, not enemies, and so called "war" should be completely voluntary.

[username993720]

We can only have so many expansions of ever greater HOOOORRIBLE COSMIC TIER THREATS trying to one up each other. This is supposed to be a healing period in Azeroth history. Life returning to the land and all that, so the overall tone is much more optimistic.

Writing off everything that's optimistic as "too childish" is really dumb, no wonder y'all so angry all the time.

I'm only one zone in so far but the old dwarf form dragon and the dragonmaw orc at the ruby pools got me feeling, so the writer's have still got it as far as I'm concerned.

Have you heard the voice overs? A lot of them sound like they were taken straight out of a kids' show.

Not to mention the overly dramatic cutscenes and text about renouncing hatred and loving each other all the time.

Yes, the Warcraft franchise becomes increasingly family and kid friendly with every iteration.

It's come to the point that we can't even have a faction war anymore because people are offended. A Warchief is not allowed to exist anymore since they are mean. Morally grey was nice while it lasted but it had to make way for two lawful good factions that aren't at war with eachother anymore.

Everything has to be happy, cheerful, colorful these days. We're helping the Dragons back to power out of the goodness of our heart, not because we gain anything from it ourselves. Altruistic don't you think? It's very boring if you ask me. Internal strive, struggles, deceit, betrayals, wars, those things are interesting, it moves a plot forward and makes for nice twists. But we can't have that anymore because people will complain, "not my Warchief!", "<insert faction> is being favoured", "Why do they get <this> and our faction doesn't get <that>?", etc. It's very tiresome. So Blizzard abandoned it and made the two factions the same, now nobody can complain anymore. But it's boring like this. Going the way of the least resistance might get you the least complaints, it also gets you the least praise. It's become 'meh' at best. No high or lows.

So now WoW is a shadow of its former self, a family centered game the likes of a Disney or Pixar movie.

They tried to do the same with Diablo, just look at Diablo 3 which was also a lot more colorful, cartoony, family friendly and less scary. But they at least realized it's not beneficial to that franchise so they backtracked on it as you can see in Diablo 4 which is darker and scarier again.

I'm not saying Warcraft should go the route of Diablo, it doesn't need to be that dark, but right now it's a bit too happy and cheerfull, more of a middleground would be better for Warcraft.

Finally, someone who understands.

Virtual war shouldn't be source of so called "virtual racism", i.e. players hating each other just for picking other faction. It was ok for RTS games, but it isn't for MMO. In MMO all players should be friends by default, not enemies, and so called "war" should be completely voluntary.

Mmos can't have groups set against each another?
I'm not saying PvE shouldn't be cooperative, but don't neglect PvP. This game was founded on faction war, after all.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Definitely not going to see another "Pamela Redpath" quest...ever?

One of few questlines in WoW that actually made me stop and thing "Man, this is fucked up."

A Warchief is not allowed to exist anymore since they are mean.

Weell, the last two we've had went insane, so it was probably best to get rid of it. I could see the position of High King/Queen going away too.

[username993720]

Weell, the last two we've had went insane, so it was probably best to get rid of it. I could see the position of High King/Queen going away too.

A Warchief is meant to be a warmongerer. It is an integral part of Orc culture.
It was a mistake to give it to an undead high elf, though.

[Aliven]

A Warchief is meant to be a warmongerer. It is an integral part of Orc culture.
It was a mistake to give it to an undead high elf, though.

So then orcs should be obliterated, camps were the mercy they did not deserve.

[Kralljin]

Definitely not going to see another "Pamela Redpath" quest...ever?

I don't know, never felt that was that dark.

To me, the arguably "darkest" quest is Stalvan in Classic.
And that one in Grizzly Hills where you casually help to capture Ice Trolls to sell them off into slavery.

[Powerogue]

Have you heard the voice overs? A lot of them sound like they were taken straight out of a kids' show.
Not to mention the overly dramatic cutscenes and text about renouncing hatred and loving each other all the time.

Mmos can't have groups set against each another?
I'm not saying PvE shouldn't be cooperative, but don't neglect PvP. This game was founded on faction war, after all.

A faction war which is considered to be canonically completely over now. Tyrande finally signed that accord after Sylvanas faced consequences, and the factions are working together on a shared mission.

And your constant dismissiveness of "kid's shows" would be funny if it wasn't so sad. I worry about how much you've missed out on by writing those off. Some of the best stories I've ever seen about growing up, self-improvement, self-discovery, and looking to the future fall into that category.

[Gurkan]

Did anyone else do the Gnoll genocide questline in Azure Span? It was on the humorous side, but still kinda caught me off guard, especially in modern WoW.

[Amariw]

If by "family friendly" you mean less willing to tackle interesting and complex themes, then yes.

[username993720]

So then orcs should be obliterated, camps were the mercy they did not deserve.

If you're an Alliance player, then this is the spirit.

A faction war which is considered to be canonically completely over now. Tyrande finally signed that accord after Sylvanas faced consequences, and the factions are working together on a shared mission.

And your constant dismissiveness of "kid's shows" would be funny if it wasn't so sad. I worry about how much you've missed out on by writing those off. Some of the best stories I've ever seen about growing up, self-improvement, self-discovery, and looking to the future fall into that category.

Avatar: the last Airbender is a masterpiece.
I'm talking about toddler shows like Dora the Explorer or Barney.

[baskev]

If by "family friendly" you mean less willing to tackle interesting and complex themes, then yes.

yeah, but in these times is that not save. ( side note i do disagree, just did the obisidian citadel daily quests on my alt.....enough corpses etc lying around....if that is kid friendly....)

I remmember the forums in BFA when you had a strong women as leader of a group. Or gay couple's.....hell there is a whole thread on this forum right now because a blood elf ( a ingame ....A GAME) characther says he sorry for he has done to Jaina proudemoore......a ingame......sigh.

Whatever side you pick right or extreme left wing, pro or anti something. You will always step in a mine field if you do not chose the right answer for a group. And moving at all in the mind field is also not okay according to both sides...because thats also picking a side.

So the same people who are :73sid that its to kid friendly will most likely also whine when a hero or villian does something they do not like and start a thread about that 2.

remmber the day when comics/movies/games could just be a form of art, a game. And the story tellers could tell a story THEY wanted to tell and no one went off on them.
I really hate modern day new age hipster nerds. You know the type, the ones who became nerd after it became "cool" .

I said it before in this thread.
WoW has not become cuter or rougher. Its still the same. still corpses lying around, first zone is all about corrupt baby's in their eggs. We still slaugher heeps of npc's. and let their young join the tuskar....

[Gurkan]

If by "family friendly" you mean less willing to tackle interesting and complex themes, then yes.

That is not true though, we see them tackling complex themes in this expansion far more than other expansions have done. The dwarf and orc quests come to mind, orc one especially as it touches some of the worst atrocities that we know of (on a relatable scale, not cosmic like Shadowlands)

[Palapop]

This moment, for instance:




I'd say that a crying child looking up at the butchered corpse of his mother would count as "frightening", or at the very least a serious and mature scene.

You'll never find anything even remotely close to this in Dragonflight.

You can fiind other grim scenes like this; such as the Forsaken mage torturing a civilian by turning him into a fish, while on land (another grim scene from Brennadam). Or the Proudmoore cadets using a troll prisoner as a literal training dummy. It's small details like this one that made BfA bearable, and you won't find anything like this in Disney Dragonflight.

This. This. This 1000000%.

Also Drustwar graveyard was beautiful and spooky at the same time.
And alone child running around singing how everyones dead.

[Clone]

We can only have so many expansions of ever greater HOOOORRIBLE COSMIC TIER THREATS trying to one up each other. This is supposed to be a healing period in Azeroth history. Life returning to the land and all that, so the overall tone is much more optimistic.

Writing off everything that's optimistic as "too childish" is really dumb, no wonder y'all so angry all the time.

I'm only one zone in so far but the old dwarf form dragon and the dragonmaw orc at the ruby pools got me feeling, so the writer's have still got it as far as I'm concerned.

Serious doesn't mean cosmic tier threats, and family friendly doesn't mean no cosmic tier threats.

For me at least, a large part of it (at least in Dragonflight) has been the voice acting and dialogue. I've been playing Warcraft since W3, and while it was never really a true "grimdark" game, many assets are becoming a bit too cheesy for my liking. Dragonflight has been solid overall but it's definitely not the same Warcraft from the past. It is what it is.

The tone as well. The first one that really stood out to me was the elf girl going form alarmed at Khadgar showing up to remarking about his attractiveness in the span of a sentence.

It's come to the point that we can't even have a faction war anymore because people are offended. A Warchief is not allowed to exist anymore since they are mean. Morally grey was nice while it lasted but it had to make way for two lawful good factions that aren't at war with eachother anymore.

That's not even the issue. People disliked it because they were both written horribly. In the case morally gray it was actually straight up evil.

[guro-tchai]

I don't know, never felt that was that dark.

To me, the arguably "darkest" quest is Stalvan in Classic.
And that one in Grizzly Hills where you casually help to capture Ice Trolls to sell them off into slavery.

slavery and some assmad murderous incel is darker than the risen dead killing everyone in Darrowshire and turning them into restless ghosts?