Shadowlands is almost entirely new territory, so it will be their best and last chance to show they can make a good game.
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Yes.
- The Story
On it’s own, the Battle for Azeroth narrative isn’t terrible, but if you were a player that played in Mists of Pandaria, you’re going to pretty quickly realize how starved for ideas they are. In the focus for faction-driven conflict, they more or less copy-pasted several ideas from a prior expac.
- Current Warchief eliminates Alliance presence in Kalimdor
- Current Warchief’s actions sow dissent among the ranks
- Current Warchief is fooling around with Old God stuff to further her ends
- Rebellion against current Warchief and a Loyalist/Rebel schism among players.
The reason this is bad is because it paints the Horde as a very clear villain entity that can’t be trusted to not go off the rails once in a while. This has tainted the position of Warchief as something that can, and will, go sour given enough time. This is setting a bad trend for the Horde that leaves Horde players feeling disenfranchised with their faction when they’re not obnoxiously at each other’s throats talking trash about whether they supported the Banshee Waifu or the Old Soldier. It feels bad all around, and the spit in my eye is when Blizzard says that this kind of polarizing is good for the community and means you’re emotionally invested. No it doesn’t.
There’s a litany of other problems with the story, like Anduin’s plot armor and being a flawless and unerring visionary that can do no wrong, which is obnoxious, and Sylvanas getting beat ugly with the idiot stick and doing things that aren’t in line with her character until, very recently, we learned she was acting like a pants-on-head idiot on purpose 'cos we’re supposed to just “trust the plan”.
The story is garbage because you can write a story about the Horde and Alliance being at odds with each other and make them both seem like two factions just trying to survive, but Blizzard can’t do that without writing the Horde as the abject villain faction.
- Systems that Fail to Launch
Warfronts was an overhyped mess. Blizzard in their infinite wisdom failed to predict that guilds of players that that saw Warfronts as a potential for guild content, and only allowed you to queue for groups of 5 at a time. This was rectified a full year later when introducing Heroic Warfronts, but it 's a case of too little, too late. The Warfront is not the third-person Warcraft 3 experience that it was billed as and is a neat gimmick, but not much else.
Warfronts were going to have a contribution phase where players gave resources, which immediately invoked memories of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj where the players would rally together to fulfill supply needs. But not long after going live, this was changed to. Warfront contributions automatically tick toward the goal, whether or not players contribute at all. This seemed to me like a lack of faith in the community coming together, and just seemed to kill the vibe of this entire system.
Island Expeditions are not the hyper-replayable, rewarding exploration gameplay that they were billed to be, either. You can’t meaningfully explore something under a time limit, in this case existing as the other team. Because you can’t hang around on the island after you win, Islands are, in themselves, a massive contradiction.
I’ve never seen anyone praise the Artifact System in the Heart of Azeroth, which seemed like an afterthought in the beginning because of how it did nothing for our gameplay, and then outfitted with an unbalanced Essences system where if you weren’t bringing the best Essence for your class/spec, you’re not doing as well as you could be. The Essence system is like taking an entire row of Spec Talents and putting it behind a time gate, which is awful.
- 8.3 is an Afterthought of a Patch
8.3 has the very palpable feeling of being the content patch that the D team dealt with because the A, B, and C team are all busy with Shadowlands. The patch is entirely absent of any sense of urgency that we’re fighting the Old Gods because we’re forming a union of desert bandits and cat people to ward them off in Uldum. These zones feel absolutely bare when there isn’t a Black Empire Assault happening to spruce things up with flailing tentacles, and the only content worth speaking about is the Horrific Visions. I hear those are popular, but it’s already become samey and boring for me.
- Player Retention is King
It goes without saying that any game company wants you playing their games, and not their competitors. This makes sense, and honestly, I don’t think anyone can argue against it. Once upon a time, companies made you want to play their game by making the game enjoyable, fun, and immersive.
The reason why Battle for Azeroth rubs people the wrong way, more than anything, is that it truly is the expansion that seems built to keep you playing, and punish you if you fall behind. This expansion is nakedly, unabashedly, unapologetically designed to keep you in the hamster wheel, because if you aren’t there for a week, two weeks, or a month, you’re going to have catch-up work to do. The periodic catch-up for the Hearth of Azeroth and increasing the iLvel of heroic instance drops don’t amount to much when you still can’t that Essence you need because it’s time gated, and the rank ups are also time gated.
I’ve played World of Warcraft since Vanilla. This is not the first time I’ve stepped away from the game, but it’s the first time I felt like I was being punished for doing so.
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Its not that bad. You are just in the deepest pit of WoW nerds and they are driven by 25 percent legitimate gripes, 25 percent salt, and 50 percent nostalgia from older expansions.
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BFA at launch wasn’t that good. But 8.1 and 8.2 fixed the main issues. 8.3 is the fun cherry on top.
If you’re having fun, stop listening to the serial bemoaners on this forum.
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Not really. People love to complain. It happens all the time. People complained in Vanilla, BC, WotLK, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, and they will in Shadowlands too. The game is as fun as you want it to be. I came back after not having played since Cata, and I’ve enjoyed BFA a lot.
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Really? Why do you keep playing it then? Why do so many people who criticize it not even play the parts of the game they are criticizing? Like, I don’t mean actively, I mean EVER. Why do I know several people who have never even reached 120 that also “know” BfA is bad? If it sounds like a hivemind, looks like a hivemind, acts like a hivemind, it probably is a hivemind.
I’m not going to assert that nobody doesn’t genuinely dislike BfA, but is there any game in the world that is truly universally celebrated? The confusing part is that these people are pathetic enough low-lives to stick around for a game they don’t enjoy.
Have fun. Enjoy the game. ignore the whiners.
Because there is more to the game than raiding? I realize for raiders, it is the be all end all but, in reality, raiding is only a small part of the game.
There is:
Role-playing
Exploring
Questing
Professions
Dungeons
Battlegrounds
Pet Battles
World Events
Collectibles
Achievements
So one does not need to raid to have a valid, informed opinion of the game or an expansion.
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Does not pertain to BfA, you do not need BfA to Role-play.
Does not pertain to BfA, you don’t need BfA to explore.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to quest.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do professions.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do Dungeons.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do Battlegrounds.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do Pet Battles.
Does not pertain specifically to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do World Events
Does not pertain specifcally to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do Collectibles.
Does not pertain specifcally to BfA, you don’t need BfA to do Achievements.
NOW. Saying BfA is GOOD, and It’s not as bad as people say? Well. YOU’D HAVE TO DO BfA’S CONTENT TO BASE AN OPINION ON IT. Stop being dense, please.
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I think it’s good enough for $15/mo. For me that’s almost nothing so it’s not a big deal, although I haven’t bought any character services aside from this guy’s race change. That’s unusual for me compared to previous expansions.
I also haven’t preordered Shadowlands, which is a first for me ever since BC.
I also think it’s driven a lot of people away and done damage to Blizzard’s reputation.
As for this all being a hive mind, seems like you’re just seeing what you want to see. What I see is a simple case of people with your opinion being outnumbered by people with a different opinion.
It’s a good thing being right isn’t about who wins the popularity contest.
I get that you don’t appreciate what BfA is, but that’s your own personal problem. I completely appreciate all the aspects you complain about, and I’ve looked over your post history. So how about that? It’s not fact, it’s just your own negative opinion. You can’t express that as an objective flaw, you can whine about not liking it, but it just makes you seem really pathetic. Like, what is your life?
Too specific? Not specific enough? Okay, let’s try this another way.
How about you step back, picture the expansion without raiding, any type of raiding. And then look around and see all the other things that can be done and the game can be judged on.
There, see them. Good. That was what I was talking about.
(Edit: punctuation)
I’m just saying it’s not a hive mind. It’s a lot of people who all came to similar conclusions. Hell, I bet if you asked any two people they’d have different reasons why they didn’t like it, although there would be some overlap.
And for what it’s worth, I actually did unsubscribe from this expansion for many months. For me, it wasn’t about the monetary value as much as it was not wanting to reward what I saw as bad design.
If it wasn’t a hivemind, I wouldn’t be hearing people who have never played BfA content saying it is a bad game 100%. That’s a pretty crystal clear case of there being a hive mind present. Where else would their opinion come from?
edit: Like nobody is claiming that it’s all or nothing, but 100% there is a hive mind effect present in this community and it is extremely prevalent. That’s undeniable and you’re probably subject to it more than you think.
I don’t see that. I see people who haven’t played it saying that it looks bad based on what they’ve seen.
If someone who never played BfA said “I didn’t have fun playing this game” it would be a different matter.
along with all your other points you DO need BFA to do the ones pertaining to BFA
But sure, you might have to do the relevant content to have an EDUCATED opinion on it.
example people who never had pineapple Pizza already have an opinion on it. maybe miss informed. certainly not from experience but they have the opinion just the same.
I didn’t say that they said it looks bad, they said that it IS bad 100%, undeniably so. Not an opinion, people, even you, treat your negative perspectives as if they are objective information. It’s just a bad opinion, hot take central. Like, do you guys feel less lonely in the world when you hate on BfA together? Is that what it’s about? Feeling like you have someone you can relate to?
Oh, sure.
I see a terrible husk of a game that used to be great.
Throwing BfA into the mix, and telling others It’s “not that bad” without even doing the majority of the content of what makes this game an MMO is someone who is completely inept.
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I’ve very clearly presented this stuff as my own opinion, in case all the times I said “I think” and “for me” didn’t tip you off.
As in, not objective fact. Subjective opinion. Which happens to be similar to many other people’s subjective opinions. It happens.
Look again. You are specifically looking for BfA non-raiding content. You don’t need to form an opinion; you just need to see that it exists.
I’m sorry, but anyone that says “BfA isn’t bad” without having done it’s specific content should have ZERO opinion about it. I wouldn’t trust them, just like I wouldn’t trust someone saying “BfA is bad” with them having done none of it’s specific content.
Would you trust someone reviewing a 2020 Ford Focus saying it’s good, and then saying a 2010 Ford Focus is bad without ever having driven it? It’s literally the same concept, you’re just a fanboi of Blizzard lol.
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