World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. The modern MMO has been available for play since 2004, with several expansions released along the way to become one of the world’s most popular games. I would love them to make an expansion that lets me take my old character from 2003 and still have it playable in 2019!
The “blizzard gift card” is a question that has been asked many times. I would like to share my wish list for the next expansion.
All indicators point to 9.2 being the last patch.
To begin with, gamers are typically unhappy with Shadowlands’ plot and gameplay flaws. Borrowed over borrowed abilities is a muddle, the plot goes from good to bad at times, the characters are uninspired, Shadowlands seems strange, and Torghast looked to be an unfortunate experiment (which had its moments, but overall…).
Second, I don’t see how the Jailer’s narrative could have been carried out across a few more patches in any other reality. Despite the 9.1.5. fixes, which are welcome but far too late, the best Blizzard could do is wrap up the expansion as soon as possible, including a proper endgame zone (Korthia demonstrates that they can still do that), a final raid to kick Jailer’s butt, and a final raid to tie up the loose ends of the Sylvanas and Anduin stories, so that we can finally leave the death realm. I’m not expecting anything special with 9.2 – just some solid gameplay and “whatever” in terms of the plot. I had become so bored of the present writing (the main tale, not the lesser local ones) that even putting Sylvanas in Ardenweald would not irritate me; I simply wanted it to be over: to hell with grand twists and turns and character development, just let this rubbish die.
So, what can I anticipate from the current expansion — and subsequent expansions?
Simplifying gaming is now the most sought demand throughout the user community. People – like me – have grown weary of borrowing abilities and are in desperate need of a break. Allow the old method to resurface, when the only thing that counts in terms of character strength is the gear you acquire via different activities. There are no amplifiers save for jewelry sockets, enchants, and sharpening stones, which are all obtained via professions. There are no complicated supplementary systems to farm with zillions of AP. This adjustment alone takes care of the majority of the issues.
New game modes have been added. Sure, I’d love Torghast, mage towers, warfronts, visions, islands, and everything else, but the one thing that would genuinely make this stuff work is cosmetics, period. Implement a variety of cosmetic prizes, with two methods of obtaining them: one, a set of weapons and pets that you may build on over time while collecting cash or progress points, and two, the coolest mount ever that may or may not drop from the final fight. This would shift the whole activity to the enjoyment category, and since it is completely optional, there would be more reasons to come at leisure and avoid being burnt out. Of course, achievements, group, and challenge options would be beneficial.
In the open world, a better scale of time spent/difficulty/rewards. No one can disagree that anima income was ludicrous and depressing in 9.0; in my case, I stopped doing it entirely until 9.1., and I’m still producing this covenant sanctum rewards content now. Korthia is a great example of how to do it right: your planned trip is 15-30 minutes tops to do the daily responsibilities; you might extend this to an hour seeking rares and chests, but overall it’s fast and really rewarding for even the shortest session.
Time-Gating. That’s a difficult one. Renown was a terrible system since it required artificially doing tedious tasks in order to view the tale, and it was time gating for the purpose of time gating in general. Again, no additional systems are required: reputations and faction-related currencies, as well as the weekly loot cap, serve as a natural restriction on character power and aesthetic rewards. On the other hand, I support a time-gated plot in its current form. As a result, after you’ve completed the initiate levels, you’ll have a couple of months of narrative development ahead of you, with new lore and epic events arriving every week – and it’s thrilling!
I’m going to skip the story. However, campaigns – and, well, anything lore, denoted as yellow tasks – should be permitted to be bypassed on alts after your main – or other alt – has seen everything. To their credit, Blizzard has already taken several substantial, and not insignificant, measures in this direction: Threads of Fate, bypassing several intros in BfA, skipping three phases of the 9.1 campaign, and giving all alts the Taza’vesh flying path, although I wish they had gone all the way through. The less you have to repeat the narrative bits, the less you’ll dislike it by the time you’re on your fifth, tenth, or fiftyth alt. Allow the players to choose how many times they want to see the yellow missions in order for the information to soak in. And, by all means, access to every new system, feature, and zone – such as Mechagon, Torghast, dungeons, raids, gear enhancement, and so on – should be granted to all of your alts soon after one of them completes it. That has to be the gold standard in current WoW, promoting alt gaming and, in the long term, enhancing MAU.
Crap and Currencies When we have currencies tied to the present location – such as archive research, manapearls, tinker parts, crystals, or whatever – I’m ok with that. It acts as a natural mild gating and gives the new site a unique taste. However, better compute the revenue such that it arrives in more manageable quantities and does not become obsolete after people complete high-level group content, making the gear rewards meaningless once you have enough to buy them. Also, only one currency at a time. To farm in dozens of various locations and activities, no one requires dozens of overlapping currencies: for example, obtain your horse or weapon for 5 void lord cores, 10 void beastling skins, and 50 lightforged seals.
System of World Quests/Dailies I’m not sure, maybe the existing blend is sufficient? Accepting the task and turning it in is inconvenient for dailies (and travel time is actually the most precious resource in the game). When I could simply finish the prerequisites and teleport out of the zone to covenant sanctum, Oribos, or whatever, I don’t like it in Korthia when I have to poke every questgiver about prizes and walk back over the whole area to hand them in.
World missions should not have this fault, but a calm voyage from point A to point B should not be interrupted every 30 seconds by “Champion!” Several WOONZ made of azerite lay uncovered nearby!” I’m afraid I don’t have a solution for this. Perhaps global quests are superior, but you can only receive a briefing if you click on the mission name in your sidebar? Or a toggle to turn all briefings on or off? Or maybe both?
Housing for players. But, of course, this is true. We had Haflhill, garrisons, order halls, and everything else; all we had to do now was put the successful ideas into action. Here’s what I’d want to see: phasing, of course, with the ability to invite visitors. Customized versions for all races — not just draenei. If a draenei wants a gnome home, he should be able to have one. Upgrades and simple access — At level 10-20, you should be able to purchase a basic hovel, but as you get more wealth and levels, you can expand your home wide and high (and below!). Obviously, customized furniture places. A location to display a mog set, similar to a rack. A musical instrument. This is where you may brag about your boss triumphs. By all means, have a customized garden and yard. And there are vocations that help with everything: inscription can produce music sheets and library books, leather and blacksmith can make furniture, jewelers can make lamps, tailors can make curtains, and so on. Obviously, once an appearance is unlocked, you should be able to “transmog” it with a single click from a drop menu.
So, enough with the gameplay, let’s speak about the story.
Ethereal Worlds aren’t real. I predicted it when Shadowlands was barely mentioned, then I predicted it again before they were released, and my greatest worries were realized. The player characters must be able to connect to the locals, which implies they must have certain fundamental characteristics. Villages and towns, local clans and tribes, whether on the planet K’tzopp or on Azeroth, must operate in a way that corresponds to player behavior. That entails fishing, hunting, and raising crops, among other things. We don’t give a damn about anima problems. We’re from another planet, and we’ll never be friends with locals since we operate in a different way.
Emerald Dreams, Void Worlds, Ethereal Worlds, and Shadowlands are all out of the question because of this. Yes, we can stay there for a patch as a task force carrying supplies to a hostile, unwelcoming area and putting a stop to a major danger, but for longer? No. Could we eat tuskarr or pandaren food and participate in their activities while learning about their cultures in Revendreth? Do we wish to adopt Venthyr’s way of life? We don’t have any. There is no engagement for the simple fact that no matter how close we are to Kyrian, how many renown levels we have, or whatever else, we will always be out of place and will never call this place home.
Personally, I’d only see something somewhat ethereal once: in the big conclusion of the whole trilogy, when we finish the Void Lords. Even so, we should establish a base of operations on a “regular” planet on the outside of their sphere of influence.
Azeroth. It’s obviously the area we care about the most, and it’s where we want to be the most of the time. Of course, there is a slight possibility of new continents – such as the “dark side” of Azeroth, new isles, underwater kingdom, or antarctic Southrend – but it is impossible to expand it indefinitely, and so there is only one solution: archive the old world and quests to Chromie and her bronze kin (which they are already doing), and revamp the older continents, beginning a new chapter.
This offers up a world of possibilities – you can practically recycle every continent, opening them one by one as fresh expansion tales emerge. We might begin by looking at the regions around our faction capitals, which were overrun by troggs, quillboar, and other creatures — because factions were weary from conflict and their commanders had gone away for who knows how long. We could stave off the Light Portal invasion (Yrel is out there, and she’s zealous and enraged >_) and resolve the Turalyon/Alleria connection to these primordial energies. As Bolvar was in Shadowlands, without a helmet, and letting it all slide through his fingers, we could address the zombie issue in Northrend. Pandaria and the Broken Isles might be revisited. By the way, access to all continents or even zones may be limited until the expansion is completed.
What I mean is that re-discovering Azeroth might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will keep us engrossed as we battle for our home once again, starting from scratch, and it could last another ten years. This is a ready environment for both gamers and developers to feed off of, and it’s a great chance to go back to fundamentals and play with nostalgia while still delivering fresh, contemporary methods and layouts for the planet.
Narrative. For two expansions in a row, everyone repeats the same thing: explain. Tell. Show. In BfA, I let it go past my fingers since the major enemy was War, and it was done effectively, with personal adventures of Talanji, Jaina, and other characters thrown in for good measure. With the last raid looming on the horizon, we have nothing but Jailer and Sylvanas in Shadowlands, and we still have no idea what they’re up to. Damsel in distress – or rather, king in distress – is the sole cause to pursue Jailer thus far. By the end of Shadowlands, the sole motive is to preserve our darling little lion. That is the worst writing I have ever seen.
Villains may be as strange and ludicrous as they like, but their intentions must be presented during the opener cinematic and while questing so that we know why we battle from the start. Here’s the big bad guy, what he’s up to, and why he’s up to it — let’s go get him, boys! It’s not a big request.
To be fair to the devs, the campaigns and zone tales are consistently well-done. The overall image, and the big setting, are both faulty and urgently need to be rectified.
So, whether it’s the Great Gnoll War, Silithid Rising, Northrend’s new ice monster, or a Light Portal invasion, I’m ready for anything. But! As long as it’s in Azeroth, and as long as I understand who and why I’m supposed to bury:) As we can see, the authors of the short tales perform an excellent job. We just need a compelling enemy with goals and plans to fight for, not simply a menacing model and large, but meaningless words:)
***
That’s all there is to it. Of course, these are just my opinions, but considering how popular they are among players, I’m hoping that devs would at least take some steps in this direction.
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