Well, this pretty much confirms my suspicions. Blizz has decided that many of the old-skool WoW game systems are done, and that it's time to adjust the game to the expectations of the younger demographic. On the gameplay side, that means no long or daily grinds and no super-low % RNG drops. Thematically speaking, that's a more inclusive game.A lot is going to depend on the quality of writing. It would be a fundamental misconception to think that a young, modern audience doesn't want dark, complex characters and challenging stories. Shows like The Dragon Prince and films like Nimona show it's absolutely possible to write compelling fantasy stories with diverse casts suitable for younger age groups. We don't need it to be a Disneyfied Azeroth to make it a game suitable for the next 20 years.DF has been too safe, too predictable and has too often felt like a clumsy game of inclusivity bingo, rather than a story written with a genuine understanding of what a progressive, Gen Z friendly Warcraft story looks like. The video game player base has undergone a demographic revolution in a very short period of time, and WoW needs to work harder if it's going to reclaim its position of leading from the front.Also, we need something to replace the grind and low RNG content. Delves sound like a good idea, but without an M+ style Delves system it's not gonna cut it. "Respecting player time" doesn't just mean making it easier for time-poor (or less committed) causals to get rewards, it also means catering to long-serving casual players who still want to spend a lot of time in the game. The devs need to be brave and say that not all casual content has to be easy content.
The only thing I'm scared of is the prices going up each expansion while they last shorter than before, giving less value for money for the time we have with it. Other than that, sounds good!
They say as they're arbitrarily messing with the feature they said would be here to stay, aka Dragonriding. Harkens straight back to WoD mentality, really. I suppose it does allow them to not design as large zones moving forward as we got in Dragonflight. "Lul Dragonriding is slower naow so zones need to be smaller to compensate!".
It's great to know their design philosophy is changing since not all change is bad. I just hope this applies to race/class combos because if I can make a Tauren mage or a Night Elf Warlock, it shouldn't be a huge stretch to do the same as a BE or Dracthyr Shaman.Keep in mind that there have already been a couple of BE Shamans, and it could be like the Draenei where it's canonically unpopular. That and it seems backwards to say the latter can't have more classes yet other races may be able to become Evokers. Why would anybody do that when people showed they were willing to keep making and deleting Evokers just to fight Sarkareth?
Sure... Not like we've had this exact same hype cycle EVERY expansion lmao?
Only the last paragraph was of interest to me. The rest of it isn't good.Since 1994 the story changed with new expansions basically every two years. Which WoW has followed for 19 years. Not thrilled with the same thing non stop for over the usual 2 years.
I'm not sure the multi-expansion storytelling is a good idea.Sylvanas' arc from Legion thru BFA and ending in Shadowlands was a multi-expansion story arc, and we were told "wait and see" the entire time. The payoff was awful.Maybe this is just their polite way of saying they learned the lesson of putting Danuser in charge of the narrative development.
It's still early to say anything at the moment. How ever, "letting Go Of Old Stubborness" is good in hindsight. While they "still" keep others, ISN't a good thing. (For an example.) Horde and Alliance are still at ends with one another. Which i know, they've been making "tiny" steps to fix that, which, isn't fast enough. Uniting the factions should be top priority, to where both faction can level up together/ be in each others cities with out getting killed.(For the pvpers. Uniting the factions doesn't mean tearing down the walls to combined them. No, the only time where the "name" Horde and Alliance means anything, is during pvp only. Anything outside of that is neutral.)With that being said, for me personally, other things have to happen. Like "more solo friendly content."(1. More customization for all raced, and not just hair.(2. Tear down the transmod walls "entirely." Who give a rats butt if a priest, or any class looks to be wearing, plate, mail, cloth, or leather.(3. Dracthyr. More visage forms. Allow them to be any race/ class, including druids.But if a had to pick which ones I have deal with still, it would be faction division and number 2. But 1 and 3 needs to happen next expansion in order for "me" to come back.
If they stick to a year and a half, it'll probably be 2-3 raids per xpac (maybe 2.5 with small raid instead of a 3rd larger raid). But they'll likely link the story/boss connection from raid to raid over the whole 3 expansion series.And if early access sales go well, it'll give them even more incentive to push xpacs faster so they can cash in on that $90+ every 1.5 years.
We don't need more storytelling, we need good storytelling.
