I, Slapface, have no opinion on this matter because I didn’t complete a single quest in The War Within.
Aside from the mandatory “Fall of Dalaran” scenario, obviously.
This thread will therefore be less interesting than all the others, because you won’t be blessed with the blinding light of Truth that usually radiates with my presence.
Yes and no… I’ve found both Dragonflight and The War Within stories to be a bit meh — honestly, kind of boring.
People give Shadowlands a lot of flak for its plot, and yeah, it had its issues — but for better or worse, at least it had some interesting story beats along the way.
And honestly, Battle for Azeroth had some really solid lore and storytelling too. It wasn’t perfect, but parts of it were genuinely engaging. The Horde campaign was amazing.
Personally, i found bits of Dragonflight to be interesting, such as Iridikron’s role in the world soul saga. The character has been one of the best antagonists we had in wow for a while, truth be told, one that doesn’t understimate us and that uses cunning rather than just raw power to take us upon, using Dawn of the Infinites as example, where he made sure that he would win knowing we couldn’t afford to let Murozond become real, and knowing we couldn’t stop both. That was great as a scene in my opinion, and a true foe to be feared.
I also did enjoy of DF and TWW how the titans are being recontextualised and are making new lore out of the old, with the actions of the titans done in the past being put under the light of “Did they do that for the sake of us, or just for the sake of what they want?”, which is an interest narrative they are bringing on.
Although, i do agree that there’s things of TWW and DF that are badly written, such as how the aspects regained their aspectral powers, Vyranoth’s decision to become an aspect after having been imprisoned for 20k years and seeing eggs being stolen and transformed against their will + the death of her close friend Razsageth, Gazlowe saying “Watch out” to the person he despises the most and who litterally tried to assassinate him…
There are many things that make no sense, but there’s also things in the lore that are well. Honestly, i lung for blizzard’s epicness, such as Legion’s epic storytelling and narrative. I hope Midnight will bring such thing back
I like it the way I liked the 8th and final season of Game of Thrones.
I’m in it for the finale.
And I guess I am intrigued about the finale because of all the preceding story and lore that has been building toward the finale for quite a while now.
Some of the story and lore has been great, some less so, but generally it’s all been piling wood on the big fire that Blizzard have yet to light up.
Like Game of Thrones, it’s all about the finale.
And I am here for it.
But it’s also all I’m here for.
I enjoyed the leveling experience and the way the story was structured and paced tremendously. But it slowed down to a crawl when patches started being released and the vast majority of the story in those patches feels like side content, honestly.
You can really feel that they’re stretching things to fit the 3 expansion arc they’re going for; since TWW was already in place when Metzen joined the team and proposed the trllogy.
Df was better for me…I miss the place i woke up and meet Azurathel.Ill be back.
But Spiders…They are ancient civilization i expected more Intelligence and story…
Undermine has mafia vibes and so much detail. They wana us having fun and i appriciate it.
Looking forward to void world the most of twwt.
Have to agree with this. Never thought I would miss the lore butchering over the boring writing.
As a BfA baby (so to speak), I see BfA in quite the good light even.
I think WoW needs to get its edge back, be more mature in themes again and most importantly bring back the faction war.
The Warcraft formula is “Horde vs Alliance vs both against big evil”. The formula can’t just run on “Both against big evil”. Then we could get rid of factions altogether at this point and that would likely kill the game for many. A huge player loss would be the result and that would cost Blizzard money. Less money means less happy investors/Microsoft, which means further layoffs and cost cuts which would fuel an endless cycle of attrition eventually killing the game.
Diablo 4 is already a side-show and still will be compared to WoW. Overwatch 2 is the rotten resurrection of Overwatch 1 and also isn’t a main money earner really anymore.
Blizzard basically sustains itself from WoW subs. If they drop, the company suffers.
I really enjoyed Earthen lore and quests, so much that I now main the race, even if I didn’t like them that much when they were announced.
So far I’ve only played through the old campaigns in Shadowlands and BfA, but when I arrived on the Dragon Islands, I noticed the same scenario as before: We arrive in new lands, these lands have their own “local” conflicts, and eventually a couple of no-name heroes in funny looking gear somehow solve all the problems that the locals haven’t been able to solve for years and unite everyone to defeat the villain! 
Its bad. Dragonflight was worse, but both expansion suck when it comes to lore and feeling. Even Shadowlands had its moments and the “Warcraft” feeling to it. Less towards the end of it though…
It’s alright. DF was a nice change of pace after covid and the gloom of SL. I enjoy Xal’atath as a villain but I can’t stand Alleria. Nothing has been as good as or better than the Legion storyline for me yet.
I think the narrative has promise but the storytelling has gone to absolute whack
I don’t enjoy the quirky DND group of my horde character + a bunch of alliance leadership, Arathi felt like blizzard just doesn’t know their own lore anymore with Trollbane
Earthen have been an improvement up from dracthyr, they actually get lore in compariso to dracthyr but at the same time I havn’t forgotten things like the arathi storyline, menethil being pushed as a leader figure while she’s not even the same type of undead as forsaken
the resolution to gilneas where we just retconned scarlet pressence, or the fact that it was even a horde available quest, or the fact that belameth allows horde players
it all makes hardly any sense, it feels like unearned alliances and peaces, mostly still because it all happened offscreen or in a rushed questline
The annoying thing is by the time new story comes out most people have already forgotten what happened in the first place.
Don’t remember why we’re in the… whatever the isles are called.
Following Xal? I guess…
Already forgot what the crystal in Hallowfall is too.
In fairness, it’s really hard to keep up with.
For example: Why is Anduin there?
Something about visions and the radiant song, the destruction of Dalaran, his faith in The Light, chasing Xal’atath, I guess? Some of those or all of them? I’m not sure, I struggle to remember. The guy is just there.
No. It’s poorly paced, badly structured, and completely mediocre. The only people defending it are those with no standards.
They promised something reminiscent of Suramar, but what we got doesn’t come close.
The new storytelling feels overly simplistic, almost as if it’s being written for a much younger audience, despite the fact that the vast majority of players are well into their 20s, 30s and 40+.
It’s bland, predictable, and at times painfully forced. Some characters feel shoehorned in, lacking depth or natural development.
Bringing Metzen back may have generated some short-term hype, congrats on that, but nothing has changed.
Same recycled formula: the villain was misunderstood all along, secretly trying to save us how original. 10/10.
Also, where are those WOD, Legion type of in game cinematics, what is up with these cheap a** cinematics recently?
Anyway, I will still purchase midnight, because of Quel’thalas, beyond that, I have no hope for this game anymore.
I have to disagree.
A boring expansion like Dragonflight is much less problematic than a terrible one like Shadowlands.
Shadowlands permanently ruined the story of the game for me with its terrible take on the afterlife.
You’d think this would be their chance to make a more mature game with real themes and consequences. They need to age with their audience. Later gen Z and Alpha don’t care about WoW and won’t be interested if it looks like everything else. Their time’s already taken by mobile games and other live services.
You’re right. The WarCraft universe needs brainrot.
Bring back sigma male Garrosh and make sure he’s mewing.
Blizzard did a restructuring of their organization some years ago now, where they basically fired a lot of people in non-development roles and hired a lot of developers, to emphasize the game development aspect of the company.
That cut the cinematics department to the bone. Coupled with the fact that a lot of the profiles and veterans of that department have left of their own volition, Blizzard’s cinematics today aren’t what they used to be.