Is It Time to Come HOME? - The Future of World of Warcraft 

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Frankly they really need to put a lore compendium in game. I’ve been playing for two years, paying attention to story and lore the whole time, and I still regularly find myself having no clue what’s going on a lot of the time

I`m gonna trust blizzard not in their words but what they actually deliver

Props to Ion for not taking anything you've told him personally over the years and actually moving forward with the game by making these improvements

If they want to help the long term absent players to get back into the story they really need to give some massive lore catch-up for anyone. More than just a few texts and Lorewalker Cho. Nobbel talked about it on his stream, looking forward to his resumee on that idea. During the last Q&A they also talked about something called *Azerothian Archives* . I hope it is what I think it is.

It’s sad it’s taken them four expansions to figure this out. The flash of legion overshadowed how poorly the game was made. It’s limped on ever since.

Leaving retail was the best decision I ever made. It'll take an hell of a miracle in changes to bring me back. My time is precious and is better spent in fulfilling things.

If getting players to return is the goal, making them start playing 3 days late, or pay double for the new expansion does seem counterintuitive.

The warband system addresses the fundamental gameplay aspect that kept me away from most of Dragonflight. But I have serious concerns about Blizzard's ability to tell a coherent story, and about WoW content creators/dataminers not spoiling every plot point for short term engagement.

How can I trust the crew will turn the ship around, when it's the exact crew that got us here in the first place? Will the writers suddenly become good? Beyond that, as a Night Elf main, no writing possibly could undo the years of shitting on this race and their lore.

WoW is a comfort game to me. I started playing when I was 9 years old. I had to beg my parents to buy it for me, and pay my sub. I’m now 26 and still find myself returning to it every few months. The music, the world, the characters. It’s so nostalgia ridden for me. I just want to see them take this game in a fresh, exciting direction. This game was so many people’s introduction to online gaming and it’s been long overdue for some of these changes. Here’s hoping that they can deliver us an experience that brings back awe and excitement, and not just an experience catered to getting our wallets out.

Like a true abusive ex. Pay us $90 for the preorder and COME HOME!!!!

Shadowlands was supposed to be like this too. Then right before launch they absolutely screwed everything up (and didn't fix most of it til the last season). Dragonflight, as you said, has been better in a lot of ways, but it really has exposed some of the weaknesses of the core game. I'm hopeful that DF showed them some things about the playerbase, and that the next few expansions truly do feel like a return home.

WoW stopped being my home long ago. The house has been torn down. Nostalgia has no place in my life (for anything) anymore. Hopefully the game will be good for the people who still care though.

I don't know why but seeing Ion and Preach in the same room is so funny to me, would love to see Preach doing regular interviews with the wow devs

Paid early access. In an mmo.. Where the launch of a new expansion is supposed to be the exciting part where everyone goes on an adventure. This should tell you all you need to know about in what kind of hands the game is in.

See guys???? THIS TIME!!! This time Blizzard’s turning things around!! This time!

90 euros to play 3 days early in an MMO.

What's shocking to me is hearing Blizzard say they didn't really have a long term plan or goal for their Warcraft franchise before NOW, when the game has been out for 19 years already. This new approach should already have been a part since Cata at the latest.

The monetization is getting worse?! It's so damn sad

"Come back home!" "Did you fix the gas leak that made me sick six years ago?" "I promise we will a year from now." "You keep saying that!" "But it's true this time I swear!"

I'm very much like the crowd was at the very beginning. Very hesitant to cheer.. I want things to get better but it's on them to show us that things are changing for the better. I'm not about to throw my money at them to preorder this new expansion just because they got Chris Metzen on the stage to try to get everyone hyped.

I just feel like this 3 days early access kills most of that big launch day hype. where you are all there, be it your friends or wow streamers you happen to watch , everyone is there together waiting for the clock to hit launch time

I love the Preach-Ion Character arc throughout the expansions, its been a wild ride seeing you two discuss events over the years and how thats evolved.

As someone who has played since vanilla almost exclusively for lore, they have a long way to go to get my trust back. Having metzen back i think will help, hes a long term thinker. Itll be hard to reconcile the lore of both WOD and shadowlands going forward but i hope they can.

not only the 3 day early access but the overall price of the expansion! the price bloat is insane!

For me, the question if they can make the story feel like it matters is still the biggest questionmark, like Preach alluded to in the video. I would describe most of WoW Story-telling as "Storytelling on debt". All those amazing moments we really love and think about worked out so great not because those stories were told and developed in WoW, but because they already had their roots established through WC3 etc, which was a much more story-focused game and took it's time to establish a meaningful story. That's why people went into WoW (vanilla). They loved the Warcraft universe, and then got amazing events unfolding in BC and WotLK that gave us conclusions to previous events. But all those things were based on what was established before. WoW, at least for me, has failed in establishing new lore and I can't say I felt good about anything "new" simply because they don't give it the time it needs. I personally don't see this chaning drastically in the future. They will try but I would be surprised if they can deliver more than those weird moments of enemies turning into besties within 3 minutes of gameplay, which just feels so out of place. If all it took was a 3 minute conversation for the world to be fine it's just not something I can take seriously with how grand they make it out to be in the first place. I knew Illidan and the Lich King were things that mattered because I played through a game for HOURS and HOURS that established why they're important. I just don't think they think WoW is the kind of game that can deliver a similarly in depth, meaningful backstory and thus leaving us play out only the "highlights" of a story they invision which is a shame.

If they can prove that they can write a satisfying story (inside of the game), with authentic characters, i will consider coming back. Even now WoW is not a bad game. But I don't JUST want to have fun, I want to fall in love with the world as well

I agree with what you said regarding early access for people buying the epic edition. I feel compelled to spend more now because I don’t wanna miss out or be delayed. It doesn’t feel like early access for others, just delayed for those who can’t afford it or don’t want to pay that amount. Such a shame, it does kinda put a stain on it all and them trying to justify it is just insulting our intelligence if I’m honest. Either way excited to see what the worldsoul saga holds!

I'm glad to see Metzen back, but over the years too many bridges were burnt for me with Activision-Blizzard as a larger entity. I hope this isn't just all hype and bluster. I won't return, but I've got my fingers crossed for those who want to see a return to the quality they hope for and expect, even better.

Why did that last line of the video have to hit me so hard? I stopped playing retail the day classic came out, but I wasn’t invested in the game anymore way before that. Wanting to come home really resonated with me because I think I feel the same way.

Blizzard needs to address the bot problem that they have ignored for years, they need improve their customer service experience and just because something is "industry standard" doesnt mean that it should be and that everyone should be doing it.

Nothing I've heard of Blizzcon or the current state of WoW seems like anything other than typical Blizzard hype that is likely to fall flat on its face. They know the game is going downhill, and are trying to do everything possible to generate interest in it. The devs seem to barely know their own lore, which really doesn't bode well for making a compelling story. Having so much lore in out-of-game sources is another major issue the whole IP has, and severely hampers what they have done and can do in game. The dev team expanding could be good, but could also produce no real changes or even be worse. The saying of "too many cooks in the kitchen" often applies to game development as well. Dragonflight was a step forward for the game, but a relatively small one. Lots of hype at the launch, and everyone was giving it good reviews. Since then, the only things I've really heard about it is that it's an "okay" expansion. Not "great," often not even "good," simply "okay." And that really doesn't mean all that much when it's coming off the backs of BFA and Shadowlands, both of which were massive letdowns. Taking a step forward is good, sure... but is vastly diminished when that single step is coming after numerous giant leaps backwards. Unfortunately, like just about anything Blizzard releases, the upcoming expansions will likely see a massive positive reception on launch, regardless of how good or bad they are. This will, in turn, continue to fuel Blizzard doing whatever Blizzard wants to do to milk money from players, because they know that millions of people will slurp down even the worst crap they have to offer, and beg for more.

Love seeing preach still going. Been watching since 2012 ❤

Love your content. I for one and cautiously optimistic on a bunch of things. There certain things that get me excited and not necessarily the upcoming three expansions. Allowing us to dragon ride in the old zones and Dracthyr getting Dragon Riding system into their Soar kit gets me pretty excited.

"Will these expansions be smaller? No, War Within will have 4 zones, 8 dungeons, and a raid! Midnight will have 4 zones, 8 dungeons, and a raid!" Okay, so they'll continue to be the smallest expansions in terms of number of zones and dungeons on release? That didn't make me less worried at all. The quality is much higher these days and the zones are bigger, but imagine if Northrend only had 4 zones but the same size. Imagine if Outland was 4 zones. Or Pandaria. I don't think him saying "They won't be smaller, we'll continue with the same formula - the smallest one yet" was a good move. Patch content is great, and with how much they've focused on seasons, I bet there's some dope stuff coming. But how many people are doing Forbidden Reach these days? Or even Zaralek Cavern?

Awesome Video, really informative! Did i miss the full interview or has that not been released?

I feel sad for all the hype train passengers. But at the same time, you deserve to be disappointed in the end. If you fell for their "We're sorry, we will do better next time" BS after WoD and BFA and Shadowlands and you're now falling for it after Dragonflight, you're a fool. Enjoy huffing on the copium bag and forking out $100+ for 3 days early access. It's time to come home? No thanks. Wow is like a prostitute. The older it gets the more makeup it cakes on to cover the scars.

Vanilla gave 2 continents,60 levels Burning crusade added an area only 10 levels obsoleted all previous work rinse and repeat all the way to current release

I’m excited to watch your cata guides again!

I wish I shared your enthusiasm, but I too will wait and see what the future holds .

Great video as always. I can say, though, that WoW will never be my home again. It was my home for a long, long time, but the game just doesn't have that appeal to me anymore. I still like to check things out and and play from time and time with a month subbed here and there, but I've simply moved on from the WoW being my main game. I have fantastic memories of all the years I've spent in Azeroth, admittedly soured by some pretty bad memories toward the end. I hope the game gets into a much better place and that people can think of it as their home again - but I'll be watching from the sidelines.

It is convenient that all these promises come out with the 3 day "early access". This seems like marketing BS to just get you to buy in.

I started in vanilla, quit in BfA, and will not go back. It's certainly not my "home" anymore.

It's weird that it's now somehow normal that expansions have 4 new zones to begin with when in the past they'd all launch with 7+. Outland had 7 + 4 for the new races, WOTLK had 8-10 depending on how you count Wintergrasp/Crystalsong/Dalaran, Cata had the entire world revamp + 7 + 3 starting zones, MoP had 7, WoD had 6+ Ashran, etc. And it's not like the new zones are particularly denser in detail either, WoD and MoP zones had way more treasures and secret stuff than newer ones.

Blizzard said all the right things I wanted to hear. The Warbands system alone might be enough to draw me back. However, they really set the expectations high imo. Let's see if they can deliver.

from 2004 to 2010 I played nothing else but wow. I feel I had my fill and dont ever want to go back

Is there a full version of the interview?

without watching the video, all I can say is if you refer to it as "home", then you were always destined to come back.

As long as they basically wipe the game with every patch im done with this treadmill. It needs a change of fundamentals to get me back. They always try to sell us respecting our time, but at the end its all about online time and monetization. And "Early access has no longterm effect" - Bullshit!

Where can I find the whole interview with Ion? Can’t find it anywhere

The point about storyline being behind renown is a good one. I had no interest in grinding out renown throughout the expansion, so I missed a bunch of the story. Once I realised I was missing some of the story, I just stopped caring about anything after that point. The main story should really be self-contained and not require people to go do a bunch of unrelated filler to unlock.

All the changes blizz is making since dragonflight gives me the itch to play the game again but i tried dragonflight at a month orso after launch (january) and almost immediatly regretted it because of the games community. Youre promotion in this video is a part of that reason where you need to play a certain build, have these addons, etc. or you are a noob. The biggest part of the community doesnt tolerate anything that isnt the "meta" so i wont be going home since the family is (for lack of a better word) toxic.

This is how people felt about the last expansion and the expansion before....

Love your WoW interviews man. I hope you keep making videos like this.

Well done Preach. Great video. Love Ian's "what sword" short.

I really hope they stick the story also. They really need some kind of in game story catch up mechanic like a scenario you can pick a certain expansion and play thru that gives you a condensed version of the story beats from it. A lore compendium in game would be nice as well for those that want to skip a readable version. I've had friends start playing that hadn't before or took a long break and were lost at points in the story.

Saying "come home" and slapping a $90 price tag on an """early access"" edition...man can this company just put aside it's boundless greed for a SECOND? Even if they pull out Metzen, the biggest hype guy they can get, they just don't realize that WoW is no longer "home" for a lot of people PRECISELY because of shit like this. Also I have absolutely 0 faith in the story until they can actually put out something. The same writers who disenchanted Arthas and created the Jailer are still working there, why would things suddenly completely change?

Where can i watch the complete Ian Hazzikostas Interview?

Damn good summary. I know Mike spoke to these points in his Bcon talk but it’s nice to get this fleshed out bullet points pres with the addd snippets from the talk with Ion. I like most that Mike still holds them account stable all the while still being excited. We need these checks and balances to continue so they stay true to sticking the landing so to speak. Great vid!

A black stain on the industry. What a great way to convey the early access issue. Well done Mike! Sincerely hope that you and other influential persons in this space can pressure Blizzard into reversing that terrible decision

The biggest question is are they going to take another important page from ffxiv, and make each expansion payable like it's current content? For someone like me, who will probably wait until the second expansion, maybe 3rd, to come back and play the story, will we be able to like someone starting ffxiv fresh today can play all of the 3 expansions worth of content as close to if it was current as possible?

Hope we all can come home.

Honestly I'm mad how much warbands make me wanna come back. I don't even wanna play the game. I _aggressively_ don't want to play the game. But seeing all my characters banded together 10 billion years later than they should have been sounds so cool. That's where my attachment will never die, with the characters I crafted for over a decade. As for the rest... I wish them the best but its in that vague I wish positive outcomes for everyone sort of way. Even if they nail the new story, everything I cared about was burned to the ground long ago. Throw in the plague that are add-ons, the openly toxic player base, and Blizzard's predatory business model... I have no desire to come back to an abusive home.

We all want to go home, Mike. Warcraft to me, will always be the greatest and most impactful game ever made but damn do they have a long ways to go improving the story and how it's paced and delivered

I feel as though people are getting caught up in the blizzcon hype. Let's not forget this is the same company that's thumbled every new system release in modern history. Let's just wait and see before coming back.

first of all. look at you and your glow up. i mean everybody noticed that by now.bnut you look great preach. seeing old vids of you and the shape u r now in. huge respect. im happy for you. second of all. i really feel like wow is becoming the great game again it used to be under new conditions. im so happy to invest time again now in my character because it feels imr really getting rewarded. and hearing about all the new fetures and quality of life makes me thinka bout this game long term again. im gonna play this a lot over the next years.

Promises, promises. Show something first, then i'll consider coming back. Blizzard has just pulled too many dickmoves in the past, promising overwatch pve as a popular example. Now they promise us an epic storyline and a conclusion to so many story paths....and yet, all we got on our hands is a preorder pack for 90 dollars with a predatory buisiness model.

Same video Preach made before DF and then he played it for a like a month and stopped

End of the video reaction: Same. I would LOVE to come home. I left in the first tier of WoD, I've been gone a long time. But I started at the very end of OG/start of BC. I have fond memories of the game and a whole host of characters I'd like to play again. But they have to show me there's something worth coming back for.

The 3 expansion plan had me excited, but that momentum was quashed by drop in quality of story telling for the Guardians of the Dream. Fryakk was disposed of with little fanfare. A villain that has been one of the best parts of DF, and he doesn't even get cutscene death? Yet the Dragon Aspect getting their powers back went on way too long. Quote from another player, "I killed Fryrak and the to stand around serving tea while the Aspects are empowered. Doesn't seem fair, given the Champion has been doing all the work again.

There have been absolutely nothing announced that would make me go back again, good luck to those who do though.

how? how do you see this as "good direction" i dont get it, all that was said is we will do good we promise and the only true new feature is delves (wich will prob get boring after 2 weeks).. They could do so many awesome things.. but nope.. as allways we will do things safely. Warbands could be Wither Army traning 2.0 where u command your alts on missions and get special gear and upgrades for them. They could add true world events, like many games have (like for example gw2, where something happens in the world and after that there are no mobs but friendly npcs and traders in this area) Im just sick of this community that cheers at slightest sign of hope just to be disappointed and cheer on another thing..

wheres the full interview with Ion? please

WoW did not invent quest-based leveling. There were many, many popular MUDs with huge quest systems. XP from quests, even mainly from quests, predates WoW by decades. Everquest took certain things from certain MUDs. WoW just took different things from different MUDs. They just have slightly different lineages (though a lot of shared lineage too). I think if you are really interested in the history of MMOs, you need to look at the history of MUDs, maybe talk to some people about them, even play a few of the surviving ones (though most have died and a lot of the remaining ones are hard to get into), etc.

I was burned with Shadowlands and quit WoW halfway through the expansion. With Metzen back, Account Wide focus, & Hero Talents has me thinking about coming back. WoW Classic+ is also interesting~

My issue is that it feels to me that everything good they do is reactionary. No change feels honest and feels like it's not made because they think it'll be better. Feels like they're forcing themselves to do this because everyone left, and, as soon as they get their numbers back to what they want, they'll restart the cycle of bullshit again

Honestly, hearing a man i have watched since dragon souls also have his passion for ”home” reignited put a tiny tear in my eye!

The way the quest text are presented need to change. It's much harder to care for people about a couple paragraphs of bland text in a little box on the far left of their screen. Addons like "Immersion" do what they should have implemented years ago to make the story presentation up to date.

It's crazy how happy and stress-free Ion looks since his appearance on the retail deep dive panel, I guess we'll never know how much was just beign stubborn and ''knowing better'' and how much was keeping his overlords happy but what I know is that his panel was a HUGE win for WoW's future and that's not even taking Metzen into account...

Big pass. This is a company that deserves what its getting. They have abused their fans for waaaaay too long. Far longer than most other gaming companies would have gotten away with. They refused to learn xpac after xpac after xpac. I personally dont care about all the harassment and milk stealing. I do however care that their vision of "Improving the game" is making women into fruit, changing spell names because they offend the fraction of the mentally ill population who wont even play their game. They are the kings of time wasting and postponing fixes till the end of the xpac. Activision, Microsoft, does not matter. Some of the changes they are implementing (Account wide reps, Account wide Bank etc etc) should have been in the game YEARS ago. And even now, the excuse is "Technology has caught up" like please... that's the same bs they do when ever an expac fails and they need to sell the new one, and they say "We have learned a lot from the previous xpac" and then they go and do the same thing again over and over.

I got Dragonflight when it came out, played it for 2 days and just forgot about it entirely. I didn't even have a big "fuck this game" moment, I just lost interest. I used to at least be able to get a month or two out of a WoW expansion, which was fine for me, but I can't even get that anymore. I had my fun with the game but at this point, there's just so many other things I'd rather play. Maybe they'll surprise me with the new expansion, but I doubt it.

Was that the entire interview with Ion?

I really enjoyed how this video turned out. It felt particularly well organized and edited, which is funny given the turnaround time on it 😅. Well done! I played WoW from release to the first patch of Shadowlands, off and on. I have to say, I have no idea what would make me want to play WoW again. And it has nothing to do with whether or not I trust Blizzard to deliver on their "promises". As a fan of the lore, I was really bothered by how much of the story turned out. The Jailer and the idea of the unreliable narrator really bothers me. And when I think about playing again, I think about having to deal with addons and toxic groups and ptr testing/not playing blind (the expectation is there in normal content, I'm sorry, it is), and I really just don't want to bother. So I don't think WoW is home for me anymore, and that's totally fine. I hope you and my friends who still play enjoy the changes and have fun. All that said, really looking forward to the RWF!

there was a time you culd take blizards word for it … never again wow died a long time ago

*If* I were to come back it wouldn't be to preorder The War Within. The best I could say at this point is I'll wait and see.

Very well written commentary. Thanks for it.

So Preach mentions that some people (not he, himself) are worried about not getting expansion specific systems? Didn't we just decide that stuff sucks?

Not a wow player myself but hope Blizzard and wow community gets a W here. It's cool seeing the buzz and excitement after that trailer drop

Me too Preach, me too. I will keep an eye for developments in the new expansion. Keep up the great job of informing us on what up with it :) Thanks!

When will the rest of the Ion interview come out?

I just want classes to feel fun again. A more simple but fun rotation where individual abilities have more impact, rather than having to blast my keys like I'm playing guitar hero and line everything up perfectly, where every ability is just a building block, while still doing suboptimal performance.

The shortsighted nature of Mike's comment about "salty players who think they deserve" is honestly staggering. Look, I understand that Mike personally doesn't care about gear, but surely he must be able to understand that most people do, and in fact, the very reason the raiding scene used to be as popular as it was back in the day and the reason why so many people engaged in it was because of gear. If you wanted the best gear in the game, you had to be a raider. Mike has long been a champion of getting people into raiding, convincing them to try the content out, teaching them how to play, making them understand that they can overcome these challenges. That's all fine, but it comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what people's reluctance is. It's not because people think they can't deal with these challenges (I mean, some can't, granted). I'm sure most people are aware that, if push came to shove, they would be able to put the work in and get on the level of a Mythic raider, even if not Cutting Edge. That's not the problem. The problem is that the effort required to do that isn't worth it. If you want to get people into raiding, then you need to examine why people raid in the first place, and people's reasons for raiding can largely be divided into 3 pillars: 1.) The challenge. People enjoy the challenge and the exhilaration of overcoming it. 2.) The gear. People like the idea of wearing the shiniest and coolest gear in the game and AFKing in front of their capital's auction house to be envied and admired by passing casuals. Whether you think this motivation is vain or not is immaterial. The point is that it is a significant motivator that cannot be dismissed out of hand. 3.) The prestige. People enjoy the prestige of being a raider, of being part of an elite class of players who are saving the world. Let's face it, the main demographic of MMORPGs are not the Chads who are popular in school. Ain't many prom kings and queens farming Azerite Power. As such, the people who play MMORPGs are generally individuals who have trouble adjusting to their real-life social environment, and want to escape that status quo in a fantasy world. In this fantasy world, they want what they can't get in real life - status, fame, prestige. That's literally the central underpinning of any RPG, fulfilling one's fantasy of being the Hero of the story. Sure, there are many pieces of content that people can enjoy in World of Warcraft, and someone can have fun all day pet battling, but the guy who spends all live long day pet battling, transmogging, or playing the auction house did not save the world. You did. You saved Outland from Illidan, or Azeroth from the Lich King, Deathwing, the Thunder King, and any number of other threats. These are the 3 pillars that motivate people to raid. Not all people will relate to these to the same degree, some will relate only to one, Mike for instance, who only cares about the challenge, but the fact of the matter is that these 3 reasons, in various combinations and to various degrees, cover the 99.99% of raiders. And the unfortunate reality is that at this point in time, the challenge remains the only element that is still unique to raiding. Gear? You want the best gear in the game? Cool, you have 2 options. You either commit to a guild and a raid schedule, put in a tremendous amount of work to fit into a social group, to learn your class, optimize your character, optimize your rotation, invest time in becoming the best player you can be and then continually invest time and effort into maintaining that level of skill so as to raid Mythic and get your gear from Mythic bosses... OR... you can just clear a dungeon each week (doesn't even have to be in time, just get to the end somehow) and get a Mythic iLvL piece of loot every single week. There is NO comparison between a M+ 15 and a Mythic raid boss in terms of difficulty and the extracurricular effort that goes into organizing a Mythic raid run versus a M+ run. My main in Legion ended up at 976 iLvL. Antorus Mythic dropped 960 gear. I never stepped foot in Antorus Mythic. That should simply not be possible. Prestige? The same thing goes for that. In his podcast with Zepla, Mike said to raiders who complain about LFR that "That content is just not for you". Yes, but it drives away engagement from our content. Prestige is a 0 sum game. If everyone has prestige, no one does. An Aston Martin is a prestigious car not because it's a good car. It's a prestigious car because not everyone has one. Scarcity gives value. Think about the prestige someone had back in the day when they said they had killed Illidan, or the Lich King, or Yogg-Saron, or Ragnaros, or Kel'Thuzad, or C'Thun, or Kael'thas. Think about the prestige someone has right right now when they say they've killed the Jailer, or Deathwing, or Jaina, or G'huun, or Denathrius, or Sylvanas, or N'Zoth, or Azshara. Literally anyone can do it by just pressing a button and entering a queue. Mike himself did an experiment in Mists where he took a fresh rogue (if memory serves) character and managed to kill Lei Shen on LFR without ever typing in chat or pressing a single ability. That's possible in the game right now, in an MMORPG, it is completely possible to kill the final supervillain of the story without ever talking to any of your fellow MMO players and without using any of your RPG abilities. You cannot possibly make the case that that is an acceptable state of affairs. So, is it any wonder that people stop raiding? I mean, why would they bother with it? If they can get easily get to see all the content and experience defeating the ultimate supervillain in tourist mode and they can easily get the best gear in the game by just running some dungeons, why ever bother with something as challenging as Mythic raiding? Like I said, the challenge is the only thing that raiding has got going for itself anymore, and yes, I understand that that's enough for a lot of people, but you must also understand that for the overwhelming majority of players, that's not enough. It's like saying that you only work out for the health benefits. You don't care about aesthetics. You don't care if working out makes you look better or not. Ok, sure, good for you, gold star, but surely you must understand that the overwhelming majority of gym goers work out for appearance-based reasons. If it were the case that starting tomorrow, working out no longer made you look better, or if you could easily achieve an aesthetic physique some other way with no side-effects (even without the health benefits), literally 90% of gyms worldwide would go out of business overnight and it would come as no surprise whatsoever.

I think one really important thing they need to look into is get new players into the story that is no longer current or accessible in-game. About 3-4 years ago in BFA my girlfriend at the time wanted to try WoW. I had played since launch so I was ready to offer any help or advice that I could. She enjoyed the game but the major issue she had was that there was so much lore referencing to the time before the Cataclysm but she had no way to access this content. For a new player leveling up it's just so wierd when you level through Northrend and everyone is talking about the Lich King being the big bad that we need to worry about. But once you go and level somewhere else then the Lich King is completely forgotten and not mentioned again. "Who was Onyxia? What was the significant story behind her?", "Why is Illidan a boss in Black Temple? I thought he was a good guy?", "In this cinematic Garrosh is leader of the horde, but when I go to orgrimmar he is not there? Why is that?" One interesting thing I heard from a new player was "I thought the Lich King was blue? But when he appears in Shadowlands he is glowing red?". This player had leveled in Northrend. Hit high enough level to leave the zone before even fighting Arthas and just never having that story done because the game told him to go somewhere else. New players are not interested in going on RU-vid and watching a video to understand what is happening in this game they just bought. The lore from a new players eyes will just be a mess because it jumps around all the time. Some type of lore recap would be great for new players. Having the Bronze Dragonflight tell you the story of what has happened since Vanilla and have you transported back to experience short versions of the fights and moments that were significant maybe? And besides this I just want more solo things to do in the game. Grinding M+ is fun for a week and then it just gets old when you have done the same dungeons over and over again. Raiding is fun but too much of a time commitment and the fights have too many mechanics. I think one of the biggest appeals of Classic is that it's not about the difficulty of the raid but rather the experience and the enjoyment of doing it. I enjoyed Dragonflight but it was a short enjoyment as I had nothing to do except grinding M+ and bashing my head against mythic raids 3 days a week. The future looks bright for WoW and I am ready to come home if Blizzard is actually going to come through and make the game into the home we all want and not a crack shack.

Going back to the old world seems like a good step especially for new players like me to visit and learn about the world since It feels like it's scattered stories instead of one world I like wow even now but I hope it improves too.

For the first time what they're saying is genuinely in line with what I want. Everything will come down to execution. If they deliver, I'll be there, if not, business as usual (in other games).

The only thing i still think they need to do maybe with warbands its some kind of shared weapon/armor stash between caracters like FF 14, i have 33k achivements on wow and i play since tbc, but in the last expansions i cant care about leveling an alt like i did until legion, alts fell like a waste of time, i dont want a 30 ilevel lower item so i can give to an alt, i wanna use my hunter gear on my shaman, i want to give my rings trinkets and neck to my rogue, i dont wanna farm the same trinket i already got on freehold +20 on my rogue and my shaman, why cant i just give to them like i do on FF 14?

Legion was the last expansion since WOTLK that genuinely hooked me. I do not foresee them topping that - unless they’re ready to commit to a true finale.

Putting all the Emerald Dream quests behind Renown when that was the plot of 10.2 is such a weird decision.

I tried to come home. But after ffxiv and classic wow, retail is just too fast paced, both in its combat, and in its GOGOGO approach to content. I cant do it, i cant play when it feels like an esport i cant keep up with.