I didn’t play much of the Dragon Isles, because frankly I’m racist towards WoW dragons and found the other races being explored was pretty limited. Then War Within came around and thought the intro was good, adored Undermine and dropped out at the third part where we were helping lamp people do something around desert orbs I couldn’t have feigned interest in even if you held a gun to my mother’s head.
Then Midnight comes out and I’m very invested in two of the zones. The two relevant to WoW lore. The purple rocks still not as visually interesting as Netherstorm were alright. And I genuinely just revile the trelves because I’ve no earthly idea why we’re trying to add these people into the middle of an already complicated enough story.
Then we had the Elf party quest. I’ve nothing more to say about it.
And now we’ve the next patch on the horizon and while Snake Island Amani content sounds interesting, they of course villain batted Zul’Jan because why should a problematic young character have an arc? Nah they’re just evil.
Also again this entire story seems to be happening in a vacuum where neither the broader Horde or Alliance exist. Gee sure are a lot of Troll troubles happening if only there was a God Empress of Trollkind sitting upon a Golden Throne in the Oldest City with WAR T REXS IN GOLDEN ARMOR THAT SHOOT LASER BEAMS.
But why involve something like that? I mean. Elves involved every disparate knife ear imaginable to install the world’s weirdest pool filter but sure. Can’t have more trolls. Not like there’s at least four other types that have crazy ish like a Hydra deity and idk maybe the new Loa of Kings who used to be Warchief?
Bah can’t figure out a way to involve any of that.
I was really set at launch to do all the quests, see all the story, do all the content, and then I finished Zul’aman and was just done. So I’ve gotten 6 elite sets, working on 7, RPing, and messing around with Overlord. I feel ya. Give me t rex lasers and Alleria’s head on a silver platter
I kinda got too busy to keep up with the PvP grind, or at least enjoy doing it. Started playing other single RPGs that’d been on my to do list, played Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, and then fell headlong into World of Darkness and wouldn’t you know it there was a VTM gaming group 16 miles from my house looking for new members.
So all my creative energy is has been going there. And beyond that I’ve only been sporadically playing Hard-core Classic with a IRL friend.
Next patch is really going to make or break my continued involvement I think. Housing is kinda cool but it’s such a process to make anything that’s not on some Animal Crossing Tea Time ish. I seriously cannot believe I can’t just have bloody meathooks sporting body parts, corpses hanging from a noose and blood splatter. Gotta get real creative to get anything approximating that and I’m referencing specific assets that were in Tirisfal in 2004. I’ll take the low poly versions I don’t care. At least give me the shrouded corpses you had mass graves for. I’ve a lovely, tasteful abode IRL. This is a fantasy and I want a nightmare cathedral / labratory!
But good look sponsoring THAT with Zillow I suppose.
Game just is going in a direction I’m disinterested in. Like WoW was always silly, whimsical and literally cartoonish by virtue of it’s art design. But there was always a really menacing, mean spirited and out horrific undertone. Which I’m just not seeing these days.
Like the Harbringer of Entropy crushes the Army of the Light and corrupts one of the ultimate fonts of magical power on Azeroth, directly next to a massive population center.
And uh. Nothing bad happens. All the named characters are just safely in the hospital like it’s Pokémon Red and you woke up from the lost fight at the healing center. And despite concentrated cosmic madness being blasted into the sky at Chernobyl melt down levels, nothing yet of note afflicts the countless citizens in walking distance of it, and the whole problem is thwarted by the power of hastily made friendships and reconciliation like a week later.
So apparently WoW now has the stakes of a Captain Planet episode but without the social benefit of at least pointing out an IRL problem.
I genuinely find it hard to be invested in this. I don’t need it to be Warhammer. But I need it to be a tad more serious than a PG kid’s movie.
Like I speak not a word of hyperbole when I say The Sheep Detectives was wayyyy darker than Midnight. The movie about talking sheep solving a mystery had harsher consequences and a more emotionally mature tone than Warcraft. I think somethings gone wrong here.
Sounds to me that you are just suffering from a combo of Burn out and placing all you enjoyment on the life of one Troll character
that sounds like something to take your mind off WoW for a while, though it depends what edition of Vampire you are playin, if it’s good solid V20 then you are in for some fun but if it’s like V5 or Vampire: The Requiem I’d say you’d have a better time Elsewhere, but i’m a Nagaraja so my opinion is always stained by how we got sidelined for Hecata
I’ve never played WoW to where I played expansions from start to finish and the only one that I did were Vanilla and WoD (when I came back to the game after quit playing playing just before TBC started and never came back until all the way to a few weeks before WoD launched) and I only really play WoW for mogs and the occassional checking up on what the new zones are like
I’m most likely going to skip most of 12.1 because I’m highly disinterested in Warcraft Troll stuff as well as the fact that none of the gear for the new questing gear and raid gear looks good. Will I be skipping 12.2? Most likely since it’s looking like that it’s basically yet another underground zone that’ll be flooded with Titan stuff, dwarves, and more of the incredibly forced Alleria-Xalatath rivalry x family drama.
Will I be around? Sure, but probably just working on housing stuff and possibly mog stuff if the 12.2 gear interests me at all.
Will I be around for TLT? Yeah, but once Blizzard starts hard focusing on Titan and Iridikron stuff (like we all know they will) I’ll probably go into maintenance mode again and just focus on mogs/housing
I had a lot of fun with Midnight up to and including Voidstorm (though personally not into the Haranir or Harandar, that was a boring and brazen attempt to force cut content from TWW somewhere it really doesn’t fit.)
But it’s kinda really fallen off after that.
The Haranir still bore me, but the new Zul’Aman stuff has piqued my interest at least. It’s good to see some tension between the Blood Elves and Amani at least.
But yeah Midnight started so strong in Quel’thalas and Zul’Aman, and then kinda fell off hard. I hope they recover things a bit
Tbh I’d enjoy housing a lot more if you could have more than two homes. And if the HAUNTED FOREST NEIGHBORHOOD wasn’t in Alliance territory.
Like yes I want my Grand Cathedral of the Forgotten Shadow / 3rd Act of a Resident Evil game sprawling structure.
But I’d also like my Hunter to have a quaint ranch house in Tirisfal. Interiors pretty rustic but the main show is the yard which has a smattering of undead animals and some giant spiders he ‘milks’ for venom and silk as raw materials to sell to tailors and alchemists.
Seriously the only Alliance race that is at home in a haunted forest is the Worgen. And great they remembered they exist for the 4th time since Cataclysm but I think the OG horror race are a touch more deserving of that terrain.
I think the race who’s Capitol is the cursed forest should have the cursed forest neighborhood option.
Gilneas isn’t even cursed or haunted it’s just gloomy and wet. Because England.
Kul Tirans have more of a right to cursed forests as they’ve Drustvar at least. Tirisfal meanwhile is a land where the sun never truly shines, the trees and bushes glint with the glowing eyes of Shadow knows what and is indigenous to nothing but demonic hounds, giant vampire bats, insane religious zealots, lost, predatory and starving mindless undead and of course the Forsaken.
… And also some Murlocs. And gnolls but they’re undead gnolls because we’ve got a bit of a theme going here.
Gilneas was just unpleasant. It became a nightmare when Azeroth’s dumbest king thought werewolves would be a good solution to their zombie problem. Which is like dealing with a fly infestation by unleashing breeding pairs of fanged toads into your house. Yeah the fly problem might get solved but I’m seeing a staggering lack of consequential thinking toward what the next issue might be.
And the people who RP their worgen as being from Duskwood should have it as a option. It can be a option for forsaken without taking it away from everyone else.
It shouldn’t be an either/or - Both factions should get a spooky forest zone.
That’s one of my disappointments with housing - I was waiting all this while for an Eversong-themed neighborhood, because that’s the only house I’m interested in building. But there’s no new settings, no new exteriors for the races who didn’t get in the top 4, and the room layout restrictions make designs horribly boring. Blizz really needs to step up their game (literally).
Woooah don’t make this about the Forsaken. What’d we ever do to you???
… Oh. Really? We… Oh. Um. Oh and there were still worgen on Teldr-… Ahem.
Objection withdrawn your honour.
Anyway I agree mostly. With the caveat that I think they made the neighbourhoods work as they stand, as a first step. Like clearly Founders Point and Razorwind Shores are based on the territory immediately surrounding our capitals, Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Inevitably that’s not going to capture every Alliance and Horde race.
I say this as a massive Forsaken fan whose house is designed to look like an abandoned Forsaken Zeppelin Tower from the Fourth War lol, but if anything the Horde area probably covers more races than the Alliance one. You’ve got areas that resemble Durotar, the Echo Isles, and Azshara, covering at least the Orcs, Trolls and Goblins. And there’s some grassy mesa areas with bridges that, while not as green as Mulgore, could be seen as a bit Taureny. The Alliance area by contrast resembles Elwynn, Westfall and Duskwood, which are all human territories. If anything I’m glad they’ve got the Duskwood area for Alliance because, while it’s a tenuous connection, it’s clearly drawing inspiration from the Emerald Dream Portal in Duskwood and so there’s some Moonwells and things scattered around, a gentle nod to the Night Elves.
So for now I’m okay with it. But the key words here are “for now”. I really really think that Blizz should add different exteriors and different neighbourhoods over time to fit some of those other aesthetics. Down the line we should, I think, get a Forsaken, Nightborne and Blood Elf themed area. As well as a dwarf/gnome themed area. They really should keep expanding the neighbourhoods in my view, and as they do so, allow us to have more than two houses.
Anyway that’s my two copper on the matter.
… You know what no it’s not. I am an entitled Forsaken! I am! I embrace this! So Blizzard!!! Give me Forsaken beards or I riot!!!
Well my solution would be a third neighborhood in an indistinct part of the border between Gilneas and Lordaeron where on the far West you’ve normal if a bit rainy forests, in the middle you’ve the imposing tall pines of a silver nature and then toward the North East you’ve blatantly haunted woods with dimly turquoise grass smattered with purple, trees with spider webs criss crossing them and foliage that occasionally flashes glowing predatory eyes and it’s up to you to guess if that’s something in the bush eyeying you or if the bush itself is predatory.
Instead of the Orc / Elf, Human / Kaldorei architecture currently allowed the options would be intimidating Victorian manor for Alliance and imposing Mad Science building for the Horde.
Because we know from BFA that there’s innumerable islands in the Great Sea, I reckon a way to capture both Forsaken and Blood Elf aesthetics would be to make an island that’s meant to be just north of the Western Plaguelands or something. Divide it into thirds. The southeastern corner can look like Tiristfal, the southwest can look more like Western Plaguelands, maybe not as cursed but similar pines and grassy hills, and then the north can look more like Quel’thalas. Boom, solid neighbourhood that ticks a few boxes.
Honestly, I haven’t really been actively interested in lore since BfA ended. I am not claiming BfA was a writing masterpiece, it was bad, really bad, but at least people cared. EU forums actually had a posting community instead of a random post every 5 days like it is nowadays. However badly written, at least there was some conflict and strife, meanwhile everything is so safe and boring from DF onwards you can predict how the story will go from Day 1. I’m genuinely tired of Avengers: Azeroth Edition, now with Councils.
Little off topic but what would be fun as both a zone and neighborhood would be the still unexplored Northern Lordaeron.
I’d have that be a place largely completely ravaged by the Plague. So WPL but if nobody tried to fix it for decades. So just a wasteland filled with the occasional oasis of giant, disease spreading mushrooms with lakes of plagued water. Only Last of Us level mutated beasts linger here and throngs of mindless, feral undead wander aimlessly in massive herds.
The northeast though resembles the Hinterlands. Untouched and perfectly pristine nature safeguarded by the Amani.
But most of it would be a desert where tumbleweeds made of limbs and fungi bounce around.
Who but the plague immune Worgen and Forsaken could build in such an inhospitable place?
Yes I’m suggesting a Wild West zone staffed by nothing but undead and Werewolf cowboys and settlers. With the occasional Amani because somebody’s gotta play the Native role and they really fit the bill.
C’mon 1800s Nevada but cursed where the settlers are Frankensteins and Wolfmen. But of course everyone comes here. Wretched cults too foul to be accepted by their own society practice their depraved rituals with reckless abandon in the hills. Ruthless criminal and corporate syndicates open up towns and try to rip the malevolent but nonetheless valuable wealth from the land. The Forsaken and Gilneas have two fortified towns on the coast but beyond that it’s a lawless land with settlements run by the creatures of the night and visited by the delusional, deranged and desperate.
So basically this;
They could do the Blood Hunt thing but instead they’re Bounty Hunting quests but they’re given by a Worgen in a Cowboy Hat named MacGruff. There could be Blackjack and Texas Hold’Em card minigames at saloons. You could have an immensely cheerful one legged Forsaken rifleman named Lopsalong Cassidy. You could have a roaming elite hyper dangerous NPC who’s a guy in a poncho and a wide brim hat with no name over his head. Ya know like he’s a man with no name.
Idk not only does this sound fun, ripe with PvE & PvP opportunities, lore expansion but also let’s WoW go wild with it’s references. Only they’d have to be based around old Westerns. Which Blizz writers should be forced to watch because yeah it’s 90% about unhinged dangerous white men but so? It’s also got morally complicated stories, outright villains as protagonists and a lot of endings that go “Yeah so everyone died horribly. Moral of the story is life’s a witch and then you die. Goodnight”.
Which is something I’d recommend because I’ve to deal with one more Arator I’m going to scream. Anduin as a naive but relentlessly hopeful Boy Scout could be grating but it was consistent characterization for years. Personally I never even disliked the guy. I’d party with Anduin. I’d like to personally be a terrible influence on that man. I’d block Arator’s number as bro is 43 and has the personality of a 19 year old. Idk how much he throws his trust fund around he gives me Elon Musk vibes.
So what about some morally questionable characters in a land that rewards ruthlessness and leaves heroism unpaid or even punished? And they’d be mostly literal Halloween monsters! So who’s going to complain?
Anyway this probably should’ve been it’s own thread. Gah. Azeroth radiates so much potential and instead of exploring any of it I’ve to play around with storylines as spicy as vanilla yogurt and characters who’d seem one dimensional in god damn Digimon cartoons. Gah.
My girlfriend hasnt even been able to finish the main campaign she finds it so dull.
I on the other hand pushed through to see just how bad it was going to be out. I was not disappointed. From Arator not using magic to avoid being slashed in half to the Velves getting the population of Magisters Terrace killed to the god damn Dawnwell it was a beautiful array of crap to seethe at.
