What does Wyrmrest Accord think of BFA?

Something to note here is that Blizzard’s developers have come right out and said, in the past, that they enjoy writing for the Horde more, that they specifically put more effort into the Horde’s story.

That’s why I don’t really feel like giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to can they/can’t they. The question of “can they keep their love of the Horde from affecting their writing for the Alliance?” has been answered already.

Honestly if Blizzard can’t give both factions the same attention then it shouldn’t be one gets more because it still won’t be satisfying to the side that’s now “winning” based on their current writing. It should be neither get attention. Stop telling story about the factions. Do a Legion - every main NPC character is essentially neutral.

We won’t get that in BFA. But I would rather the factions just dropped to the wayside except for some PvP shenanigans to explain why you’re stabbing that guy in blue/red over there. The factions can be background, nothing more.

That seems to me like the clearest evidence for my point: it’s not what they can do, but what they choose to do.

I’m a fiction writer myself, as in it actually pays my rent. And there are definitely aspects of my series I prefer to write and others I have to groan and trudge through. When the second come up, I buckle down an do the damn work, because it is my job and what my readers pay me for.

I’m just some doofus with a keyboard. If I can discipline myself to pay attention to the parts of a fantasy universe that don’t interest me as much, there is zero reason a company with Blizzard’s resources cannot.

Their capability is not in question, only their will to exercise it evenly.

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This is one way they can do it, yes, but as seen above earlier in the thread even when the factions are irrelevant, people will still claim that this faction or that faction got more attention because these neutral NPCs are in some way leaning to one side more than the other.

Right… and as we have seen, they don’t. So now what?

Honestly as a writer and roleplayer I can see their reasoning. The horde leadership is more dysfunctional and prone to drama, which as this thread is a testament to is more fun to write than periods of calm.

With the leadership open to anyone, it’s more rewarding to develop characters on the off chance they might lead someday. As opposed to the alliance which will never be led by anyone but anduin or his heir by law.

For the alliance to regain interest it would literally have to go through a political revolution to become more unilateral in its leadership.

And I, Gnarl Marks will be the forsaken to lead the alliance to equality and defeat the bourgeoisie!

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I’d be perfectly happy with this if it meant for a more balanced story and better writing. At least, if they can’t do 50/50, bounce the attention evenly around between expansions?

Players shouldn’t even need to ask Blizzard to do this.

Up to you.

Anyone who is just too tired and frustrated with this can stop complaining and stop giving Blizzard their business at any time. I don’t mean that as “quit if you don’t like it,” but acknowledging that Blizzard is exhaustingly dense about this whole thing and washing our hands of them is a valid choice for any of us.

I personally choose to keep playing, and keep calling out what I see as the game’s problems. As I said previously, I may in the future decide this is not worth it and quit. For now, I’m living with the fact that the developers of my primary game are really half-assing it and seem impervious to criticism on the subject.

That’s just me. I respect anybody who chooses to handle it differently, so long as they’re not calling for other players to be punished for Blizzard’s foolishness. That is where I draw the line.

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That’s kind of my point. If they can’t bring us down to 50/50, then the next expac is going to have to be 90/10 Alliance focused by default. But if they do take us to 50/50, then the Horde has to give up 40% of their current attention, which isn’t inconsiderable.

There is no way out of this that doesn’t see the Horde swallowing a bitter pill.

I don’t doubt that a chunk of the Horde playerbase would be shaken at not getting the majority of the attention, if only because they’re not used to it.

But for me, at least, it wouldn’t be a bitter pill at all. I love so many of the Alliance races and want to see them do more. I loved Varian, I don’t mind Anduin, loved Tyrande back when she was awesome. (I was hoping Darkshore would bring her back in full vicious Kaldorei glory, but… not sure anymore.) So yeah. 40% is a lot, but it’s the right choice. I hate what they’ve done with a lot of the Horde lore in the last few years, and if shelving parts of our story helps that, cool. Gimme a balanced, ever-shifting faction struggle again, instead of a series of horrible slaughters and maniacal leaders.

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Are we sure it’s 90/10

Are we really sure

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Join me, friend, in insisting on a patch where the Horde bows out of the war and goes for a little “me” time. Perhaps some yoga? An enriching dance class? Or maybe just have a nice beer and watch the sun set.

Get in, orcs. We’re goin’ to Margaritaville.

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Horde needs to go on vacation so the alliance council can find themselves.

Literally.

Like where are they.

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Yeah. Gonna say Sarestha is on point on how I feel. I will add that islands and warfronts can get boring, I find them to be very enjoyable with friends. I’m enjoying the story, of course there’s more to be desired but I don’t have high standards with MMO story telling.
I think it’s a great expansion, and much better than BC, cata and warlords. And I’ll say I enjoyed warlords a lot if they just added more content.

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Bleh. I wrote that big rant and felt terrible immediately after posting it. In reality, WoW devs do put a lot of heart and passion into this game and have been working hard to improve different facets of BfA post-launch. I’m just a bit jaded, I guess, being so wary of all their past mistakes and the ones that they continue to make.

But we all gotta keep moving forward, right?

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I’m playing but not near to the extent I was in Legion. Bellular said it best when he said that BfA feels more like another major Legion patch than a separate expansion. I think that’s really why I have little/no motivation to play.

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writing’s bad overall with some good zone and character stories here and there

content’s eh. island adventures are too repetitive and warfronts are only slightly better because it’s more mindless

raids and dungeons are ok, but temple of sethraliss makes me want to smash my head on a table

mogs are cool tho

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That’s the issue I think a lot of players have. After all this time we feel like Blizzard should know what works and what doesn’t. A lot of the hate and criticism comes from a place of “How did they not know better?!” I think a lot of people quit because it feels like an endless circle.

I feel like the discussion about Horde and Alliance is conflating Blizzard’s screwups and players. I didn’t sign up for the Horde narrative as it stands now.

Blizzard is absolutely deserving of criticism for their screw ups. However, Zan’s human doesn’t work as a lead dev of World of Warcraft (If we did we’d be getting playable Arakkoa, werebirbs :peacock:, and better customization).

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Overall a disappointment. I really haven’t given a damn about the half-baked story of WoW since vanilla, so I won’t talk about that.

From a purely gameplay-related perspective, it’s a failure.

Arena PVP balance is absolutely terrible.

Warfronts and Island Expeditions, the supposed ‘flagship’ features of the expansion, are tedious and provide no challenge whatsoever. They also feel tacked on and don’t really relate to the overarching plot beats at all.

Dungeons… I like 'em.

Can’t say much about Uldir.

The soundtrack - and I want people to understand how hard it is for me to say this - the soundtrack is TRASH. Moving away from their live choir and orchestra was the worst mistake they ever made.

Honestly, though? CrossRP redeems all of it. The available transmog sets are also pretty solid this go around.

Straight up, period, nuff said.

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