To me the lore always had a redeeming quality that it could come back from. That changed with Shadowlands.
Because Shadowlands killed much of the lore and world-building + philosophies & limitless possibilities that I had so fondly loved, and wiped its poopy @$$ with my dollars – When it changed even the lore of even the many books I had purchased and applied a cop-out excuse that they were just from a faulty perspective.
However from another few threads and colossal likes ratio witnessed - Many along with myself would find it redeemed, if they did the same to Shadowlands. Apply that everything isn’t what it seemed to be. For instance:
‘The First Ones’ were NOT before the Titans but at the same time, they were just a different pantheon team who didn’t encounter the other for quite some time and considered each other equals to bring balance and harmony to the grand cosmos & beyond.
None of the cosmos orders (Including Shadowlands) were NOT created by ‘The First Ones’ but simply tampered with / they had simply attempted to bring order to them towards lowering the threat they posed to the other realms and eachother, so the grand-cycle of them could co-exist in as much harmony as they could.
Dying in the Shadowlands doesn’t extinguish you, but reincarnates you back into the living world without memory – OR – If once a powerful or ‘worthy’ being (Eg. Loa / Wild god) — Reincarnated with memory, but simply without the grand powers that once perpetuated them (This would lead to some fantastic questing potential – Especially if we got to reunite Ursol with his thought-had-been-lost brother Ursoc, now reincarnated as a Furbolg) - Potentially with ‘The spark of potential’ (To become something more / god tier again, after trials akin to the journey of Vol’Jin).
The last point above, I would absolutely love.
There’d be so much content to unleash with that concept and revival to much of the WoW universe to revel in, and who wouldn’t want that?
I feel the OP about the whole “Savior of the universe” thing. Story always should’ve been written that we are one of many. Not the sole hero. That story is trash for an MMO.
You could ask in WoW forums “when was the last expansion you enjoyed” and you will have people responding saying that they havent enjoyed an expansion in over a decade…yet they have been subbed every day since.
So either they are ok with spending hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours on a game they dont like…or they are liars.
It really was Shadowlands for me. Just something about that expansion really killed my love for the game. I mostly just play part time and go through the motions these days.
I think the day I truly stop playing will be unremarkable, but it is unimaginable at this point. I have really disliked some things I have really enjoyed some things but I’ve been around since the beginning and I’ll likely be here til the end.
Dragonflight is probably what made me notice but i can trace it back to 8.3
I did not enjoy 8.3 at all. I liked getting vulpera but that was all the fun the patch had in my eyes.
And ever since then the game has ranged from bad to just okay. But never really good.
8.2 was the last time i can say the game had an actually good update.
Im still playing the game so i dont know what that says about me. Its not all doom and gloom, but its certainly not what i fell in love with.
I bet it’s hard if your friends left recently or in this latter phase of WoW where expansions are spotty. Since I’ve been alone for awhile, I can say that 10.1 is a real bight spot in the WoW timeline. And I wouldn’t have said that in 10.0
