…there is a large appetite for Fantasy, or to be more specific, Heroic Fantasy. Strong, likable characters in larger-than-life Fantasy settings that are simultaneously fun and humorous, while also able to be dark and violent. What they want, is what I’d argue Warcraft had. The thematic and stylistic choices are extremely on par with the tone of the story of characters of Warcraft III or World of Warcraft from Classic to Wrath of the Lich King.
What they don’t want is whatever the hell Shadowlands is offering. Clearly. Where afterlife is a weird disconnected theme park, where the mysticism is Robots All the Way Down, and they especially don’t want their Heroic Fantasy leaping the shark and attempting to ape Game of Thrones with acts of mass murder, destruction and genocide.
People want this type of fantasy and it is the height of irony that at the time when it is extremely popular to the point that TV series based on MOBAs that originated from a WCIII mod the Warcraft franchise itself has completely dropped the ball.
Drop the cosmic crap. Drop these awful 2-dimensional, convoluted, contradictory cast of characters. Get back to Azeroth, to Dragons, Ogres, Monsters, Adventure, Mysticism and Dungeons. This isn’t working. I mean c’mon.
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I honestly think it’s too late for Azeroth.
All the mysteries seem to be out in the cosmos. Every expansion now will revolve around two years of exposition.
Blizzard could save the franchise but it would take some serious guts.
I think they need a 10 year plan that includes a complete narrative from which they absolutely do not veer. I think they need to isolate cdev from marketing without compromise. I think they need to stop using beta testing to promote the expansion. All of these things would result in temporary drops in sub numbers. So there are some things they would have to do to make sure the game brings people back or new people in the traditional way… by being good.
The overworld needs to be good on its own. There are a lot of things that need to change to make that true. More world bosses, or more story-relevant world quests might help. But also, more compelling and believable settings. Hillsbrad managed to keep players around from Vanilla through Wrath. If the zone isnt attracting players in the same way, it should be considered lesser… and at this point, WoW shouldnt settle for lesser. Hillsbrad had compelling WPvP which is something.
Wpvp today isnt very attractive to people who arent interested in ganking. The game had to get rid of RPPvP servers for a couple technical reasons, but also because the design philosophy was to use gear to gatekeep endgame PvE content. There was just too much power gap between overworld enjoyers and instanced content fans because of gear. There exists now, a solution so people could be compelled to engage in overworld PvP again. Currently, PvP gear scales up in instanced PvP and Warmode. Raid and mythic dungeon gear could scale down in the overworld. There needs to be less of a power gap in the overworld caused by gear. (But should still be some power from gear). But why does this matter?
WPvP is a unique, immersive feature of MMORPGs. It ties the player, through their character and those of others to the virtual world. The world can be small and the stories can be intimate. The conflict is still relevant and visceral because of the immediate threat of other players. Vanilla’s small world stories worked because there were features that made the overworld relevant.
LoL:Arcane was Batman.
Jynx = Harley Quinn
Vi = Batgirl
Silco = Joker
Viktor = Mr. Freeze
Jayce = Bruce Wayne (Or D. Grayson)
Mel = Cat Woman
Vander = Batman
Ekko = Robin
Deckard = Bane
While it feels weird to think about it, after all we’ve been through as mortals of Azeroth.
The Pantheon of Order take firmly after the First Ones, and visiting places such as the Halls of Stone, you can really see that mechanical/stone bodies/armies is a fundamental aspect of this Progenitor lore.