We should go back to Draenor. That glorious, savage world that was ended by a bad gameplay decision.
Yes it got dunked on and seen as the ‘worst expansion’ (it is personally the reason I quit until last year and then this last month) but it really isn’t. It’s a case of one wrong gameplay mechanic, garrison’s, hijacking what was otherwise a really great and heavily detailed setting. Draenor had so much personality, that Conan, pulp sword and sorcery fantasy that story and zone wise, I never lost interest in what was going on.
Gorgron and Arak were especially incredible places to quest in, and Frostfire was really important lore wise. Nagrand was okay, seeing it in one piece without the floating islands was nice but the ogres really took the prize in that zone.
There were zone missteps, like Talador and Tanaan, but overall the bones and most of the meat of Warlords was exceptional. Garrisons ruined it.
And then we get the time travel wonkiness where we go into its future and recruit all the Mag’Har from being mindwiped. I think that, given how well established Draenor is…If we cannot have our timeskip and Azeroth update, we should return to Draenor and see it either in the Lightforged future and make them the primary antagonists (or at least appear to be) and let us see and explore a world that was ended all because the developers floundered with a gameplay mechanic that ate everything else.
Could be a way to finally get Ogres into the game, Arrakoa, Saberons…I mean c’mon Blizz.
We could start out as Horde fighting off the Lightforged, the Alliance supporting them because “They fight for the Light and thus are good” while conveniently overlooking the atrocities committed by the faction. Eventually we could actually go toe to toe with the Void Lords and all of that, since we haven’t had an expansion that focuses on the Void yet. Be a great way to expand upon the Void Elves. Maybe have the Ogres starting to be manipulated and transformed by the Void Lords. Or the Consortium doing something. They could even let us try to avert the bad timeline we pull the allied races from. Heck, when Shadowlands ends prematurely (this many delays, problems and player dissatisfaction means it most likely will) have us get spit out back on Draenor instead of just immediately going home to Aeroth.
Or just make it the ‘prime Draenor’ by pulling it out of it’s doomed timestream and placed into the prime timeline where Outland is now (and Outland can be a moon or something). Because if Argus can warp into close proximity to Azeroth from across the universe, so can Draenor.
I’m a big proponent of forcing players out of the cities and back into the world, so trapping everyone on Draenor and then making us work to get home, I think I’d be a big fan. They have to engage the players again, so removing the safety net of old content and sitting in cities could be entertaining and reinvigorating.
Heck, the world is there, so depending on where they drop us in the timeline…Or maybe just allowing g us the chance to overwrite the bad ending for the Mag’Har, they would have to do much in the way of building new zones. They’d just need to do some updating, which would allow them to add in Faralon and the ogre continent.
Just no more garrisons.
Just saying, yeah, hindsight is 20/20 compared to the…nothing we have right now, but Warlords of Draenor got a bad rap, and Draenor itself is a world that deserves to live. Blizz never will unless they admit that Shadowlands was a massive step in the wrong direction and publicly apologize again, which they won’t, but I want more of that fun atmosphere and great aesthetic.
Just felt like ranting about this. Shadowlands just has me so frustrated with how unfulfilling it is on almost every level and I miss how good Draenor was as a setting.