Guss I Will Be Comming Back to Wow Again
Shadowlands' first year was so disappointing I've given up on WoW
When Shadowlands first launched a year ago, it felt like World of Warcraft was on a comeback streak. Boxing for Azeroth, the previous expansion, had been one of the almost contentious in the MMO's history—even if Blizzard did improve some of the features that players hated. But Shadowlands was a clean slate. A run a risk to printing reset and push WoW into a new era, all while tearing the veil off of one of Azeroth'south most fascinating realms: the afterlife. There were new zones to explore, new gear to obtain, and a whole smattering of new progression systems to larn and tinker with. It was an heady fourth dimension.
Fast forwards one twelvemonth, though, and I couldn't feel more differently about World of Warcraft.
With painfully large gaps between its underwhelming updates, Activision Blizzard's many bigotry and sexual harassment lawsuits and investigations, and a creative vision that feels completely divorced from what players actually want, I take never felt so disenfranchised with Earth of Warcraft and so uncertain of its hereafter. In fact, I've stopped playing altogether and take no plans on coming back. But to sympathize why, we have to look dorsum over the good, the bad, and the ugly World of Warcraft: Shadowlands' first year.
Launch solar day
Playing Earth of Warcraft these past few years has felt like being trapped in a perpetual beta exam.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands held a lot of promise at launch. It was big and beautiful, and the five new zones—each themed after a dissimilar fantasy afterlife—were gorgeous and total of fun surprises. In my review, I said Shadowlands "is the best World of Warcraft has been in a long while." If only I had known.
What I liked virtually Shadowlands at the time was how aggressive Blizzard had been with trying new things. Torghast, for instance, was a randomly-generated roguelike dungeon where you accrued funny and wild temporary powers over the course of your run. Like any good roguelike, sometimes I'd become a hodge-podge of random abilities, and other times I'd luck into a synergy that was so powerful I'd cut through Torghast's enemies like room temperature butter.
Shadowlands had too fabricated some smart adjustments based on the negative reception to Battle for Azeroth. Randomness played a much smaller function in acquiring new gear, and a new Legendary equipment system allow you runway down specific recipes and craft powerful Legendary items instead of merely praying to RNGesus the right one would randomly drop.
But, only like Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands divided the customs over a scattering of features that players hated. The biggest was Covenants, a kind of gang you'd bring together in one case hitting max level and beating the story. Each Covenant had their own base that could be leveled upward, along with special story quests, unique abilities, and glorious cosmetic armor pieces. It was meant to exist a choice every bit important every bit choosing what course yous wanted to play equally, but not everyone was convinced information technology would piece of work.
Starting from equally early on as Shadowland'due south alpha tests, players pointed out how imbalanced Covenant special abilities would probable force players to choice 1 solely based on any gave them a slightly ameliorate edge, rather than which one they thought was libation. Along with a secondary talent tree system chosen Soulbinds that was similarly restrictive, many players were concerned that Shadowlands' endgame would feel limiting and frustrating. And time ultimately proved them right.
The long drought
Normally, an expansion's first major update hits a few months after launch—once players have a adventure to level upwards and are starting time to tire of the repetitive endgame grind. But whether due to the pandemic or something else, Shadowlands' ix.one update ended upwards aircraft much afterward. It took 218 days before the release of the first major patch, the longest gap between an expansion release and its start major update in WoW'south 17-year-history. It sucked.
This drought sapped all momentum Shadowlands had going for it and exacerbated role player's complaints. Covenants, for example, began to experience much more than capricious and restrictive than consequential. Choosing one was meant to be permanent (switching came with large setbacks), but it ended up feeling like Shadowlands was an expansion you paid full price for and only received a quarter of. If y'all wanted to experience other Covenant storylines or earn their gear, you lot had to start a new character and grind for information technology.
Fifty-fifty Torghast began to irk me. At that place merely wasn't enough diversity compared to proper roguelikes to sustain how often I needed to complete information technology for resource to power up my Legendary items. Merely because of the manner rewards were distributed, information technology was possible to spend upwards of 40 minutes on a run only to die and become zippo. I've never had a more than frustrating experience in Earth of Warcraft in the years I've been playing it.
The bulk of Update 9.i was a disappointingly tiny new zone to explore called Korthia and some more repetitive weekly activities where you'd fight alongside the different Covenants. One big ray of promise was that 9.one would push the story forward and finally let players knuckles it out with long-time villain Sylvanas in the new raid. But the cutscene that nosotros had waited so long to see—1 that I hoped would finally make the story interesting—was and so unbelievably terrible the WoW subreddit instantly filled with mock and scorn. There was no closure and no emotional payoff, simply another contrived plot twist and some new macguffins to chase.
Since beta, players have complained about these exact issues and Blizzard didn't mind.
That'south where World of Warcraft has been for the past five months. In that time, Activision Blizzard's civilization of sexual harassment and discrimination was also exposed through lawsuits and investigative reports. Players responded by cancelling their subscriptions en masse and staging protests in-game with their remaining game time, while employees staged their own walkouts to demand more accountability.
Effectually that time, Blizzard began making pocket-sized updates to World of Warcraft, to remove dialogue, characters, and references—most of them decades old—that it considered offensive. It was something that should've happened long agone, but Blizzard's decision to just act on it now irritated many players who were desperate for bigger changes to problems they felt were more than relevant, like Shadowlands' stagnant endgame.
Those changes did come, though. Earlier this month, Blizzard released a surprise patch ix.1.5 that included a ton of the almost-requested quality-of-life features. Players can finally switch between Covenants freely and level them up individually on 1 character, for example, and there's a host of new catch up systems that make it easier than ever to get started on the endgame grind.
But those changes are far as well little likewise late. Since beta, players take complained about these exact bug and Blizzard didn't heed. Even during those 218 days, WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas asserted that Blizzard was not going to lift the restrictions on Covenants (even afterwards hinting that information technology might). Then, all of a sudden the evolution team pulls a 180 and does exactly what it said information technology wouldn't. So, what changed?
The answer isn't clear, just you can guess that the large exodus of WoW streamers going to play Concluding Fantasy fourteen instead—followed by a huge swathe of players—definitely had something to exercise with it. During the summertime months, some of WoW's biggest YouTubers and streamers outright quit the game, including Preach and MadSeason, 2 of WoW'due south oldest and most recognizable faces.
But fifty-fifty if Blizzard eventually caved, there's no crusade for celebration. While many of these bug facing the game feel relatively pocket-sized on their own, together they make World of Warcraft feel like it's in the midst of its worst identity crisis ever. Every bit someone that'south been writing almost information technology for over five years, I've lost any promise in its time to come. I've unsubscribed and have no intention of playing it again.
Giving up
At that place'due south just no existent indication Blizzard is any closer to having a consistent vision for Globe of Warcraft.
Shadowlands has highlighted just how unsustainable World of Warcraft has get. It's locked in an infuriating cycle of Blizzard swinging large on aggressive expansions and and so doing very little to address player feedback until far too late. Just like Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands had promise but launched with some clear issues that were left to fester unacknowledged for months until the community became and then irate that Blizzard had to respond. Merely now that some of these meaningful changes are really implemented, nosotros're already nearing the end of the expansion, and the bicycle repeats. Playing Globe of Warcraft these past few years has felt like existence trapped in a perpetual beta exam, which only makes its premium-priced expansions, subscription fee, and account services even more than insulting.
MMOs are games in motility. They demand momentum, merely World of Warcraft feels like it's stuck in a hamster wheel: a cycle of promise, repentance, and action that never actually improves the game in whatsoever tangible style because each new expansion wipes the slate clean just as the last one was starting to improve. It makes it impossible to be anything but cynical about new announcements and next year's new expansion because there's merely no real indication Blizzard is any closer to having a consistent vision for Globe of Warcraft.
Earth of Warcraft: Shadowlands was supposed to be a improvement story after Battle for Azeroth's many controversies, just instead it just remixed them in new and frustrating means. It's carried almost entirely on the forcefulness of its world and raid blueprint, while everything else—story, activities, progression—have slowly turned into a mess of conflicting ideas and promises that side by side time things volition be better. Only after Shadowlands, I'm done caring.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/shadowlands-first-year-was-so-disappointing-ive-given-up-on-wow/
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