It’s definitely a confluence of an unpalatable story and unenjoyable gameplay. Usually the game portions of World of Warcraft, and certainly the art, are rather neat.
2 Likes
i mean, i agree with op, but what angers me most is how obviously bad the lore was. mop was really bad to begin with, but they ramped it up ×10 for bfa. it is inexcusable trash level writing.
4 Likes
For the lore-casual player, maybe, but not for me. The War of Thorns actually sapped my desire to log in, no matter what the gameplay was.
12 Likes
I completely agree. However, if they hadn’t kill Vol’jin we never would’ve (Hopefully) gotten a much cooler Loa of Kings. (Or Light) Who knows?
I think BfA managed to be a confluence of bad story and bad gameplay systems. It kind of resulted in a feedback loop, because people were able to reel off a whole list of things that annoyed them, rather than focusing on one particular thing.
On top of that, if you read between the lines, the early statements about the Azerite gear read like the devs trying to make less work for themselves. Their defensiveness about gameplay and story faults both made them easy targets for criticism.
10 Likes
Mists was a while back. I mean, there was any shortage of tired of the faction war comments before BfA, and it only picked up speed during BfA (with people like Bellular and Taliesin doing segments on how the intent of BfA would be to end the faction war).
I really think Blizzard has not only destroyed any appetite for faction war, but left people with no faith they can pull one off that isn’t horrible.
1 Like
Personally speaking I was already at this point after Cata and I am dumbfounded that anyone thought it would be handled well going into even MoP, let alone BfA.
1 Like
Was Mists really liked because of the faction war, though? I assumed that most people just liked the setting of the new continent. This expansion’s war campaign was entwined more throughout the end-game so I think it poisoned the setting way more than MoP’s did, which was largely contained to specific patches.
11 Likes
No criticism. What they deserved is to gave us back a portion of the money they charged just to pretend to work for less (they charged more for the expac while at the same time trying to work less / under more mediocre parameters; tell me if this isn´t the very deffinition of dishonesty).
The only reason I don’t mind this too much is as a result of trying to be lazy at first, they ended up having to do more work later, which is exactly what they deserved.
3 Likes
The story had big impact at the beginning of the Expansion. But after that was boring and It felt the most time like I am waiting for something big to happen. The whole war was boring as gameplay and story … except BoD …
I´m way harsher than you, I guess… imho they got scott free too easily without the usual inconveniences one has to confront when trying to compensate a disgruntled customer.
Anyone who thought the faction war was gonna end in Mists was kidding themselves. Hell, the thought it might end after BfA is still a pipe dream. For as long as WoW exists the factions war will remain, if not in the forefront, definately in the background. Hell, Blizzard might even add a new Battleground for SL.
MoP was fine, aside from certain grips(Robot kitty!). To this day things like the Purge have left an indelible mark on WoW’s story. The gameplay, the raids and new lore was pretty awesome.
Based on that alone we can say people generally liked it. Hell, raiding a faction city was a pretty awesome experience and a novel idea.
1 Like
Horde identity = Metzen. As he became more hands-off and retired, I don’t think any one remaining had any idea how to carry that torch.
6 Likes
Yeah and that was made up for, there was peace, which the horde broke
No such thing, In my opinion they shoot themselves on the foot in the long run and this will come bite them hard, i believe shadowlands will suffer because of bfa, of course torghast sounds cool and all but i aint believing anything until i see it, you cant just turn trust into fast profit and expect the customer to come back again.
Blizzard’s Q1 report disagrees with you.
After doubling in the second half of 2019, World of Warcraft’s active player community increased further in the first quarter, driven by both new and returning players, as the team continued to deliver more content between expansions than ever before.
- Shadowlands is still on schedule to release during Q4 this year.
- World of Warcraft drove strong revenue growth and operating margin growth for Blizzard.
If anything the Q1 report seems to be a direct rebuke to people who dislike BfA. At the very least it is proof regardless of how WoW’s story is perceived it doesn’t have as much of an adverse effect to the game’s profit.
1 Like
Expansion release will be a guaranteed surge, but current figures are going to be inflated due to the ongoing pandemic.
Q1 report
This isn’t really an endorsement of BFA considering during this time frame countries began locking down and people started getting laid off.
1 Like
Oh we all know about Covid, I have been stuck in my house for over a month, only leaving it to buy food. Blizzard however was smart enough to add both the Exp and Rep buff which got people to flock back it, as oppose to some other video game.
And if your not satisfied with Q1, we can always look at Q4 2019:
World of Warcraft exited 2019 with an active player community2 more than twice the size of its Q2-
ending level • Blizzard has a rapid cadence of follow-on content planned for Classic, as well as the Shadowlands®
expansion for modern World of Warcraft, in the second half of the year
My point is, content is king in WoW, not story.