In a Dragonflight in 2023 update laying out its plans for Dragonflight next year, the studio said that “older expansions like Legion are still “remembered fondly” by fans, and acknowledged that it hasn’t lived up to that standard with more recent releases.”
“A WoW expansion is not a single moment in time but a journey—we know that the merit of an expansion hinges on the sustained quality of its entire arc,” executive producer Holly Longdale said. "Years after its release, Legion is remembered fondly as much for the 11-week content update cadence that served as the framework for its first year as it is for artifact weapons or Khadgar’s brilliant dad jokes.
In planning out the road ahead following the release of Dragonflight, we’ve been mindful of the duty we owe our players to nurture this living world and, frankly, the need to do better than we have at times in the recent past. Our goal for Dragonflight is that there should always be something right around the corner, with a new update hitting our test realms shortly after the last one is live and in your hands."
So, Blizzard knows SL was a dud and might be going back to more of a Legion style of expansion design wise for DF.
I know most wanted Blizzard to return to Wrath of Lichking design philosophy, and others want to go back to Mist of Pandarian class design. I do not know what from Legion players would like to see returned. Maybe Mage Tower like challenges?
They need to go back to a more Wrath-like design. That was the game’s peak, and the number of people currently heavily invested in WotlK classic more than proves nothing has changed in that regard.
Honestly, people should let the devs do what they want. No older expansion pack is going to satisfy the needs of today’s nuanced demands across such a wide player base.
It still blows my mind people are playing something as clunky and slow as WotLK in 2022.
As in those fondly remembered expansion packs were peak for their time and context - it’s kind of silly to try and capture that specific lightning in a bottle again. But I guess there’s a market for every kind of sucker including myself.
As pertains to WotLK, no - it was the actual peak of the game. WoW’s player count has never even gotten close to what it had back then. WotLK Classic right now, all hyperbole and humor aside, is probably responsible for more active subs than Dragonflight. It’s not just old players with nostalgia goggles on, either. A ton of new blood has taken to WotLK Classic like walruses to water.
A modernized expansion with similar (but updated) characteristics would in all probability be extremely well received.
Seriously, the players have no control over what devs decide to implement. They design the game they want to design and then it’s take it or leave.
So why bother trying, when you can serve a minority of players and just have the rest leave? Because profits depend on the number of players playing the game. Every player you wrote off because you decided to nerf or remove their content cuts into their profits.
The sense of entitlement from those who consume vs. those who create is a never-ending battle.
It’s their product and IP, not yours. I personally don’t want them to direct money from my sub to rehashing old content for WoW boomers. [and I have been playing since Vanilla, mind you.]
Blizzard might go with a design were you get a legendary item and each major patch you do a quest that unlocks more of its power. You do not grind to empower it just a quest chain and it is at a new power level.
That’s… not very legendary, then. Even though they’ve done it before. At any rate, I’d like to see them start doing relic sets ala Final Fantasy XI/XIV. Give people a specific grind to go through, and if they complete it they will end up with extremely powerful equipment. They would have to stagger it for like a patch, though. That way the vocal minority of mythic raiders that actually care what other people get won’t start crying. Gotta let them have their max item level before everyone else.
