Well, it seems like a fresh wave of trash writing is coming our way.
- Azshara is probably going to help us to defeat N'zoth.
- After all, it was always N'zoth that was going to be the last boss of this expansion. Players realized it back in Legion, yet Blizzard tried hard to hide it with their vague talks - amd here we are.
- Calia Menethil - a new forsaken leader.
- Baine, Thrall and some other random guy (probably Rokhan) are going to rule as a council.
- Xal'atah is the weapon we need to destroy N'zoth. It was a part of Azshara/ Sylvanas bargain. Absolutely unpredictable...
- Wrathion succumbs to N'zoth's corruption and we need to purge him, yet he's about to be the next main most powerful character of 9.0... the guy that gets corrupted within 1 patch after being away for so long.
Although we get some cool features like Horrific Visions scenarios, this looks like a continuation in a wrong direction, especially lorewise. I would truly prefer a simple, predictable story rather than a one that was meant to be mysterious and with it's predictability - disappointing.
The whole war concept appears to be out of place and terribly planned out. It pushed story nowhere and leaves a feeling like the story wasn't strategically planned in advance (1-2 years), but it's been written quickly before the launch. The worst are all these cheesy, pompous dialogs. Look for the raid bosses descriptions - it's full of: "succumbed to N'zoth great, horrific power" or "Azeroth is on the brink of destruction"... just like in a fan-fiction.
What's wrong with them? Literally, everything is wrong. They failed to create the suspense. They failed to created ambitious dialogs. They failed to provide a satisfying behind-the-scenes plotting. They delivered the worst war-themed story this game has ever seen as the biggest faction war in the universe. They provided us with the greatest villians of Azeroth just to kick their asses like nobody elses (Azshara and N'zoth). They made TONS of leadership changes. They introduced Azeroth as a Titan, and it has no consequences in the story whatsoever. Plotlines are vague as hell, nobody understands the motives really. The whole Heart of Azeroth served as a plot device and the very moment they realized it's a horrible mistake in terms of a gameplay, they got rid of this ASAP. The story is absolutely inconsistent and all over the place. Too many characters were involved in the plot to relate emotionally to the story.
Blizzard, what is happening?? It's probably the worst expansion when it comes to lore. The scope was HUGE, yet the execution was terrible.
A tip for future: keep it simple and cohesive; provide only a few main characters; a conflict of interest; deep, psychological character development; create a satisfying villian with some other motives than 'destroy the world'; forget about cheesy redemption story arcs; establish new heroes and forget about the overused characters; actions ALWAYS need ti have consequences. That's all. Nothing more is needed to create a great story. It doesn't need to be HUGE in order to be MASSIVELY GOOD. And if you want to go with behind the scenes plotting, do it properly rather than giving some shady interviews denying all the stuff people predicted just for it to turn out to be true.