Over the last several expansions the world has been way, way to small. It is enough of a slap in the face that the expansions are exactly the same in that there are the same old invasions, pathfinder sequence, etc. etc. Each expansion for the last few expansions has been a cookie cutter copy of the prior expansion.
But to make matters worse the “new world” with each expansion is small.
Make the next expansion big. Make it huge. Make two or three gigantic continents full of dozens of zones with scores of quests, types of mobs and different things to do. Make zones that take a long time to fully explore and study. Make lots of cool places to go and see. Make several new major cities…Make the world big.
The small size of the expansion zones are a slap in the face and this is something that needs to be fixed immediately.
Nah see I liked playing Fallout 4 because it was smaller with a lot more in it as opposed to playing Skyrim where it’s big with not much in it. The expansions are a lot like Fallout 4. Smaller but with more content in them.
The only time this has ever happened was Vanilla, because they weren’t tied to the 2 year expansion cycle or the expectation that people would already be max level.
To get what you’re asking for, you’d need to both convince the playerbase as a whole that leveling through “dozens of zones” for an expansion is a good thing (many people don’t enjoy that part of the game, especially now) and convince players and shareholders that waiting 4 years minimum for such a development would be worth it (which is unlikely to be true).
As for zone size, yes, zones are smaller than BC/WotLK and arguably Cata. But you know the difference? We don’t fly until a year into expansions anymore. The zones are designed to be traversed on the ground. So they’re smaller. They ARE more dense, though. More going on. BC and WotLK are prime examples of zones having way too much useless empty space.
That’s good and all except when you can’t go three step without stepping on something else. That coastal area in Tiragarde Sound that first comes to mind, the one that is an Azerite mining site. There’s all the Ashvane personal, then there’s dozens of sea lions and crabs that are festering the area that would have hightailed it once people moved in. Just seems like mess.
I feel like you have missed a lot of feedback posts the last few expansions, you should review before hitting the slap in the face button.
Size of zone means longer travel time, means players want more instant travel, or at least faster travel across the content.
The amount of quests in a zone can actually get overwhelming also if you deal with a lot of alts.
Then you also have to deal with the install size on disk, if a fresh install is ever needed, hopefully you don’t ever have to deal with caps on your internet download.
Size does matter, but having the right size is more crucial than making it gigantic, and overwhelming.
It helps if you don’t have a cavernous wand sheath that only the deluxe Wand-o-matic 5000 can fill. Like it’s so cavernous i can scream into the void that is the pitch blackness, the howling winds whipping against my face.
