Shadowlands is Removed From The World of Warcraft

Community General Discussion
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While I applaud Blizzard at trying something new with SL. Its a new realm and plane of existence. Creating sub factions which we all join (Covenants) to aid and explore this realm. A threat to our souls and the afterlife. It was a decent effort to do something new.

My problem is that, it is so removed from Azeroth, and itself disjointed, that I dont feel invested in it. Being so far removed from home (Our Faction Cities) and the land itself feels odd. Walking around Oribos, I dont feel like its a city. Its just an airport. There is nothing emotionally memorable to it. You zone in, fly somewhere else, and repeat. Or Jump in the hole to somewhere else.

Then going to the zones of Shadowlands. They are all so separate from each other. While they are well done, they are cramped and packed with so many mobs, you cant run from point A to B without aggroing a bunch of mobs. In addition to cramped, they are also isolated. You have to take the flight worms and fly through 4 portals to get to a different zone. They each have a theme, but there barely feels any cohesion between them. Even though the story ties them together, they never really feel together.

There are characters from Azeroth that have made their way to Shadowlands for the story, but it still feels detached to me. Even with all of BfA’s flaws, it still felt like a part of the World of Warcraft to me. Pandaria was the same. Separate, but it still felt a part of the same world. Even WoD and Burning Crusade. They still had deep ties to the World.

Shadowlands just feels so far away from the World that Warcraft exists it, that I dont really care much about it. I am sure a lot of you can put your fingers on it better than I, but it just doesnt feel like part of the World of Warcraft. The expansion, right now for me, feels almost like a side content.

I also worry that they are going to retcon the whole expansion after it ends. We complete the final raid, and In pre-patch, we go back to Azeroth and it has been a couple weeks since we left. I also think they painted themselves in a bit of a corner here. When we go back to Azeroth and things havent changed at all, then what we have done in the Shadowlands will feel hollow.

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This is where I’m at. I don’t have any problems with any aspect of the game other than I don’t feel like I’m in Warcraft anymore.

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At least it’s not an alternate universe/timeline like in WoD. Still, I hope we go back to a de-catafied Azeroth later.

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You’re not on Azeroth during Warlords of Draenor, Burning Crusade and during 7.3 where everyone was on Argus

Why is Shadowlands any different

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These two things together left me with asking “Why do I have to do anything about this? Why does it need to be me this time? How about someone else do all this heavy lifting for once?”

Consequently, I haven’t logged in since Christmas, so I guess it ain’t me this time…

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For once I actually kind of agree. I don’t think the SL itself is bad. The lore is pretty interesting and I do like the covenant and Jailer stories. But I feel uncomfortable being here at times. I miss Azeroth too and rather prefer the living world more.

The SL feels sort of like a dream I guess, like we don’t belong here. Which is a true in a way we’re living people going to the afterlife. It’s meant to be foreign and strange. But I hope the fight carries on into Azeroth later in the expansion, that’ll help bridge the gap and better connect things.

Exploring cosmic realms and powers is fine and dandy, just keep the worlds we know on the stage too.

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Ironically enough, it is an “airport” it is a hub that connects a few realms of shadowlands. We have 4 right now +maw, but that’s only scratching the surface of shadowlands. There are other worlds there too AFAIK (seen in some lore video).

I am just glad there are no murlocs in Shadowlands. If that’s what it takes, then I am happy for SL to be as far away as possible. But also, Shadowlands is in the after life. Different world. In a nutshell, it is as far away as Argus.

Either way, my issue with such threads is that you say how everyone is bad, without actually saying how to make it better.
All the issues described are within the Lore of the game. Shadowlands is another realm that has no physical connections to Azeroth. Every single Shadowlands zone is a mini-world that are NOT connected with each other. They are far. Could be thousands light years away from each other. Oribos is what allows us to fly between them.

Again, I love the lore and its fantastic. To each their own.
If you want to make Azeroth and SL feel “closer”. Set HS in SW/Orgrimmar, and get engineering wormhole for shadowlands.

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Maybe an alternate world where World of Warcraft was developed for Eastern markets, but it certainly didn’t feel like the Western-centric Azeroth that it was from Warcraft 1 up until that point.

In fact, Shadowlands feels more authentic to Azeroth than Pandaria. Maldraxxus seems like a modern version of what the Plaguelands might look like. Night Fae looks like some sort of Night Elf forest. Bastion looks like the base of operations for Paladins. Venthyr is really the only style that hasn’t been explored in Warcraft before, but it is also presented as the final zone after we’ve already explored three realms, so we’re eased into the afterlife at this point and it feels like not such a stark contrast.

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Who says everyone liked it then?

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Blizzard will not remove or retcon anything just because some people do not enjoy it. Shadowlands is part of the story and in order for the story to progress they needed to do it like they did it.

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BC we went to where the orcs were from. It was not Azeroth, but it was to a place VERY closely tied with the Warcraft Universe. All the zones on BC were connected and it felt cohesive. Additionally it was a part of the Warcraft Universe everyone was anxious to see.

In WoD, it was an alternate timeline, but it was an Alternate Timeline of zone closely tied to Azeroth and the Warcraft Universe. We were able to interact with a lot of the historic characters in the Warcraft Universe. We also got to see Draenor in a state before the orcs raised it then left.

And with Argus, it was a Patch. Not an expansion. We traveled off world for the battle which was the culmination of a building threat all expansion.

Shadowlands just doesnt feel linked to Warcraft to me. It didnt feel like it was a looming threat to Azeroth, even though it was. And the zones themselves in the shadowlands, even though they are linked with a story, they just feel very removed from each other. I think this is partly due to them actually being removed from each other. Traveling from one to the other, completely removes all feeling of interconnectedness.

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I feel ya. My dream patch leading into a Dragon Isles expansion is revamped Plaguelands. Revisit the Scourge stuff, let us see Lordaeron after the fall of the Lich King and departure of the Forsaken, etc. Dragon Isles are supposed to be north of Lordaeron, so exploring these zones revamped prior to Dragon Isles would be dope.

Heck, if they could go full-on Argus and revamp all three of the zones - both Plaguelands as well as Ghostlands, that would be really dope.

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Unpopular opinion maybe but I felt the same way about MoP until the end when the Alliance and Horde got more deeply involved. Even with Pandarians having been established (if vaguely) in prior Warcraft games, they and all of the other inhabitants of Pandaria were just too far-removed from Warcraft proper for me to care about.

In fact, I was so unenthused by MoP leveling that I stopped with the quests about halfway and then hit cap with battlegrounds. It’s just so… meh.

It’s funny because we’ve been to much more outlandish (hah) places but they were still more connected to the core story than MoP was.

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I MISS when Warcraft was STILL centered around Orcs vs Humans. Orcs feel like a side race now, not all that important. Even BFA, didn’t had strong orcish feel, only Saurfang thats it.

All older expansions pre-legion HAD that strong Orc vs human sense even if it wasn’t at the center.

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Blame the people whining about “World of OrcCraft”. Humans and Elves dominate now because Blizzard is in full pander mode. People simping Sylvanas? Better make Sylvanas more important to the story. Let’s get her elf sisters in there and focus on them. Also Tyrande, let’s shoehorn her into the story even though her character “arc” was largely filled almost twenty years ago IRL because people are simping for her as well.

There’s zero naturalistic elements to the story. Everything that happens now is pandering. Orcs get pushed to the side even though they’re the second most important race in the lore because they’re not popular enough in China.

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guys, im sorry you feel this way, however you need to understand were 17-18 years in at this point, the story in an MMO needs to advance.

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Are you saying Murlocs don’t deserve an afterlife?

Also, I’m wonder if they will explain how Orin’s halls and such fit into the shadowlands.

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I’d rather have this :slight_smile:

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They deserve the worst version of the Maw. Like, SUPER Maw.

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I never said that Shadowlands was bad. I am just saying how I feel about it. I actually gave Blizzard credit for trying something new.

I never said that they were against the Lore of the Game. I am simply trying to elaborate on how the expansion makes ME feel. And my opinion of it. And yes Oribos is an Airport. It doesnt feel endearing. How much time do you want to spend in an airport when you are traveling? Its just a junction between points.

And each SL zone being a mini-world would have been great in my opinion. Where each patch of the Expac lead us Deeper and further into the shadowlands. What if Ardenweld was one patch. Imagine 4 or 5 zones within the Ardenweld theme. Some though various phases of the anima draught. Really explored what Ardenweld does. The mini-world zones are small. And the whole of each story is shoehorned into this small area, super tightly packed with mobs and objectives.

You say “To each their own” on one line, then on the second, make a snarky response about setting a hearthstone to SW/Ogrimar. Im glad you like the lore. I dont think Shadowlands is a bad expansion. I am having fun playing it. I just think it feels detached.

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