I don’t know if they are smaller but definitely more dense. Too dense sometimes imo. Feel like you can’t hardly move without aggroing. I loved open spaces like classic Barrens. Makes you feel like the world is big and you are exploring it.
10 Likes
Technology can improve games in two ways:
- Making a better product possible (more polygons, more pixels, more detail)
- Building things faster (adding polygons, pixels and detail efficiently)
Both kinds of improvement have happened, no doubt, but the first bullet is probably outpacing the second.
So that means zone building is more expensive. Thus, it is unsurprising that modern expansions have greater zone “density”.
High detail in a low density would be cost prohibitive.
Not just small but separated as well. There’s not a connected world. Outside of a couple people doing WQs, you don’t really see other players doing anything besides waiting in town for queues.
3 Likes
And the one after that will just be a video game lobby. At the rate they’re going.
3 Likes
They’re not smaller, you must think you’re already flying.
1 Like
I can see it now…
“OK fellow devs, how can we get away with only 4 zones in an expac”
“We… well make each one some sort of covenant or team they have to join”
“BRILLIANT!”
1 Like
I think this is the case too. Also with Legion’s Argus Patch and Shadowlands, they are doing these Dethatched zones. No large expansive areas. Tightly packed, individual stand alone zones.
If this is a sign of things to come, I will probably be done with WoW for awhile. Segmenting the zones, and basically making them islands feels bad. They feel even smaller than they are. Shadowlands zones honestly done feel good.
3 Likes
I think MoP was the perfect balance. I missed that expansion when it was live(college) but I the zones are big and beautiful.
8 Likes
go play diablo 3 on an xbox 360 for an hr then log into wow and tell me what you see.
Quality over quantity. A smaller, beautiful graphics zone is more desirable to me than a vast 768 resolution Shadowmoon Valley or so on.
Need more Blades Edge mts IMO.
1 Like
“…and in doing so, we can spend less making it, and make more in the long run.”
“Johnson, this is why we pay you the big bucks. You’re always seeking out ways to rip off the customers.”
2 Likes
i feel the exact opposite
just you 
you obviously didnt read any of the thread before making htis response 
It’s not just you, although I don’t think zones are literally getting smaller, they are just being designed to feel that way.
Modern WoW zone design is a mishmash of tight, packed hallways, irritating, excessive & often-confusing verticality, and terrain that is almost always maze-like. Contrast this to old zones that were vast and sweeping, and had various spots with no mobs, even neutrals, which lent the feeling of a big open world.
Take Maldraxxus - there are areas where the terrain is flat and bare. But these areas are very compact and they are often surrounded by mazes made of random mountains and hills that are insurmountable.
The other point is that modern WoW zones are super utilitarian. Every inch of the zone must serve a world quest, side quest, campaign quest, daily or have a rare. Nothing is made for the inherent exploration and immersion value. There are no secrets to stumble across, no spots which make you go “wow! this is beautiful. I wonder what it’s for? I’ll take a screenshot here.”
All of this contributes to the zones feeling tiny, crowded and claustrophobic.
I would have to say that zone design is at an all-time low for me. BFA was not great; they somehow managed to get worse with Shadowlands.
9 Likes
No, it is definitely not just you.
I found going from the expanses of Pandaria to Draenor quite a shock. Then I compared Outland and Draneor and was doubly shocked.
On this board, I kept saying I had just dipped my toe in Legion but I went back yesterday to continue my priest’s and hunter’s adventures and have discovered for both Val’sharah and High Mountain it was all ten of my toes, both my legs and right up to my chest.
And, as someone is playing the game for the adventure of exploration and questing, it is quite disappointing.
2 Likes
I agree, the zones feel smaller despite whatever size they are simply because they are designed around world quests and stuff in such a way your always surround by mobs or cliffs/stairs that separate one area and another. Can not even run on the roads without getting chased by mobs nowadays. I prefer mop or even bc design, WoD was nice too. Big… open… space to run around and find neat little spots you like.
I was flying over mop yesterday actually and it was beautiful. So many waterfalls with little caves and small lakes just sprinkled everywhere.
5 Likes
If you havent yet and want an MMO with exploration, check out GW2. It’s quite lovely, though the combat system isn’t for everyone. (and admittedly, there isn’t a lot of content to do such as WoW dungeons. Still, it’s a stunning game.)
2 Likes
Around legion they committed to making more dense zones, and they are smaller for sure than zones we had in the past because of that, but I do not believe since Legion they have gotten any smaller.
It depends on your criteria though.
Revendreth is an absolutely gigantic zone if all you are tracing is steps required to cover 100 percent of the surface area.
But if you only care about raw size for whatever reason, you would need some way to measure that, perhaps in a sandbox or something, which they no longer publicly allow.
In the end, I think they have made each zone very active and diverse through out, so even if they were smaller in some way, they don’t feel that way to me.