To be clear, this is not another “they did ___ wrong” thread. While I am currently awaiting the end of my sub too, my thoughts are in a different place. For me, this xpac has disappointed me for one main reason - it’s way too dark thematically.
Folks, we’ve been basically locked in our houses for the past 9 months. Many of us have lost income, jobs, even property. The last thing we need is more doom and gloom. And while I can understand that the Bizz devs did not see this coming (who could have?), the fact is that the last thing I want to do is spend one more second in a gloomy place right now.
I like being in the Barrens. Or even Ashenvae/Azshara (never thought I’d actually say that). I like being outside where there is some scenery because, well, we miss it in RL too.
So yeah, aside from all the other things that are wrong here, I’ve seen it before and could play through it. But as soon as I got 60, I was done. To much darkness for me. The scenery is just too drab for me mentally right now and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Nobody could have seen this coming. I don’t blame anyone here. It’s just bad timing and a poor design choice to begin with tbh. Sorry, but I’ll be waiting for New World to come out later in 2021. Done with retail. Will probably play Classic til then.
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But, many did. Warnings went unheeded.
Anyway, kind of funny that an undead would be speaking of gloominess, but whatever.
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A bit of stretch dont you think? besides this expansion was announced WAY before the whole pandemic started
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A theory on why some people don’t like it, maybe. But I can assure you, plenty of people like it a lot for the same reason (and others).
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I do think the afterlife is something should not have even considered touching with a 10 foot pole… though not because it’s gloomy, so much as that it’s a very contentious topic that is best enjoyed when left behind a shroud of mystique.
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Out of curiosity, what is different about this expansion, compared to an expansion people loved like Legion. There is a grind to empower something, world quests, a story you cannot do all at once, dungeons, raids, LFR, pvp, cosmetics, mounts, pets, crafting, legendaries.
Aside from a very unfamiliar story and completely new location idea. What really is the difference? People just want to destroy demons over and over and over more so than the Maw army I guess?
Maybe I am missing something.
The story isn’t all that great so far for one.
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I think one of the biggest problems is the over all feel of the game. It all feels so…mechanical. It’s like Blizz did research and got data on what type of content players like and then simply implemented it without any feeling. Torghast could be more fun, but there’s no feeling to it. Campaigns are ok, but do we really care about most of these characters or their story? I haven’t felt much of a connection with most of these new characters or their stories. For all BfAs problems, and there were many, you could at least get the impression that there was care put into the content, as much as we didn’t like it. This time around, the content is much better but feels hollow. At least to me that’s how it’s feeling.
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It’s quite fun and entertaining around Bastion. It’s a good trip away from the Maw.
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Sorry to read this xpac isn’t for you. I love the Shadowlands, and everything about it. Not every xpac will be for everyone.
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For me,
Its because the expansion feels very much like its been made soley for padding time and metrics.
Its been going this way for a bit, I just feel it’s becomming more transparent.
So much lately I want to log in, I want to play, but after less than an hour I’m out of meaningful things do to on my character. (Outside of raid/m+ nights)
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From what I can tell is that the expansion isn’t bad, not good, but certainly not ugly. It’s practically in the middle, but it’s a lot better than BFA regardless if players wanna admit that truth or not. There’s a difference, but as of right the game doesn’t holds players interest for too long. They do get to jump on their alts often than before so that’s a good thing.
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It could also be that they’ve created a world that is just boring and uninspired.
Why should we as mortals care at all about some stupid afterlife?
Screw the leaders, leave them for dead. They’re useless anyway if they got abducted so easily in the first place.
I’d rather be back on Azeroth fighting to take back territory or even rebuilding where 3rd parties might have advanced and taken ground.
To the nine hells with Shadowlands. Send a boatload of mana bombs into the heart of The Maw and be done with it.
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I dunno.
I honestly haven’t found 2020 and Covid doing anything to affect my moods.
Which is weird, because I’ve been dealing with depression for 40 years.
I feel like it’s my time to tell the whole planet what I was told for too many years - Just be happy. Make yourself enjoy what you have.
So, go outside and enjoy some scenery. Seems pretty simple.
People, imo, aren’t unhappy with SL because of it’s dark themes, they are disappointed because of how controlled our experience is by things like time-gates.
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Umm. Go hang out in Bastion? Even Ardenweald isn’t particularly gloomy, it’s just more… nocturnal?
People aren’t liking SL because the loot system went back to the hardcore model, but without any bad luck protection. Feels bad when you put in effort for no reward because the RNG gods doesn’t shine a beam of light on your kiester. Plus all the world quests tend to be slogs. And don’t get me started on the maw. Its only hard to force you to spend more time there. Soon as I saw that most of the rewards were just meant to make the maw easier to do i immediately lost interest. THANKS FOR THE HARD EFFORT FOR YOUR REWARD IT WILL BE 2% LESS ANNOYING TOMORROW!!!
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The main reason this expansion isn’t enjoyable is because the Entire Expansion is just one big TIME PLAYED METRIC creation.
It’s going to come back and bite the developers in the rear but honestly who really needs to take it in the neck is the Suit(s) up in Activision that mucked into the design and sadly Shadowlands just screams interference from Activision.
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THIS.
Other than that, this is all way too blatantly Diablo-esque. The theme, the imagery - even the color scheme is total Reaper of Souls. And like… I like Diablo, or at least what it once was, but it doesn’t really go with WarCraft.
WarCraft’s Demons are all bombastic and colorful. This is just… grim for grimness’ sake.
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So is this a theory for other people, or just your own reason for leaving?
Because im inclined to believe that most people are upset for the reasons they already gave, bugs, timegating, scaling.
Ah yes, the doom and gloom that is bastion
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