Just cos you can’t know anything doesn’t make it unknowable. Obviously it’s the game, anyone with even a quarter of a brain can see it.
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While I’m enjoying TWW so far (and I say this as somebody who played WC2, WC3, and every WoW expansion), I get what you’re saying. I think it comes down to a few things:
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You’re older. You’ve changed. When you’re no longer 19 and your world doesn’t revolve around the game anymore, you become a little less invested.
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The mass resignations and layoffs of old Blizzard developers taking place between around 2016 and today coincides with the time frame you’re given us. Basically the entire old leadership is gone, including many legendary developers we used to see all the time. Their old school D&D style helped shape Blizzard, and with those people gone things are bound to change (for better or worse). I’m just glad Metzen’s back.
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Covid and the internal crisis going on over at Blizzard between about 2020-2022 definitely left a mark. They couldn’t engage as much with us as they used to. They alienated a lot of old players in attempting to be more inclusive for newer players (fruit bowls anyone?), and they made several inferior products (Shadowlands, OW2 to name two). Trust in Blizzard was simply eroded at this point.
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Since Dragonflight and the pandemic, they’re doing a lot of things right, but also very differently from the way they used to. From their events to YouTube videos, in-game narratives, and more. WoW has basically entered it’s Phase 3, if you count Vanilla - MoP as Phase 1, WoD - BfA/SL as Phase 2, and the rest as Phase 3. It’s a new era and it’s not going to be for everyone.
TWW seems like it’s trying to come up with a nice blend of old school and the new way of doing things. It’s different but it also feels Warcrafty. I’m definitely willing to see where this goes.
2004 - 2019 was a sort of golden era for Blizzard. Ever since WoW became a hit. But especially around 2014 - 2018 with Hearthstone, HotS, and OW. The quick downturn of events following those years will make things feel bad, if only in contrast to how good everything felt then.
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That’s a good thing. Tired of having to learn to play my class(es) again every other year; personally I think even the hero talent trees are an unecessary change. Class skins with plenty visual changes would’ve done far more for the game.
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As much as I enjoyed the game back in TBC or Wrath there is no way I’d enjoy going back to that now. Whilst a portion of players enjoy the old school approach it was awful to go back to slow combat, antiquated systems and terrible graphics for me.
Warcraft has evolved over the years and sometimes it will be not be something we will like and other times we don’t. If you are no longer enjoying the format then maybe a break is in order. Sometimes we outgrown games, other times we just need some time doing something else.
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I think it’s pretty good myself, despite gripes. I think certain areas of the game are over-designed, and the writing is mostly ghastly. Hero talents I agree are very hit and miss for something that is supposedly “heroic”. Some of them I barely even notice I’ve acquired. If they’re not careful players are going to start getting dewey eyed and nostalgic about borrowed power. Mainly what bothers me most right now is the number of bugs and the constant faffing about, like the latest issue with ilevel in TWW levelling. That just seems like raw incompetence at work.
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I’d also hate to have my favorite class/spec keep drastically chancing between expansions.
It could be towards much worse… or in rare cases better but i don’t like taking risks on this.
yes definetly, im playing since 2004 and never felt the game more emptyer. its just a game with few simple events now. small empty maps and i mean not even a thing to explore, i reach 80 in few hours and it’s sad but you can navigate/quest just by looking at the minimap, cos it was my experience %90of the time. and man dunno how is it possible but characters feels even more empty playstylewise etc. Okay, you are doing stuff, but for what? nothing. Sloppy designs, pointless things… Everyone doing same stuff wearing same stuff. I mean, the pit and tier systems, dungeons etc. in Diablo games are already very boring and do not provide any items, rewards(real original stuff) or satisfaction, unfortunately Wow has gone down that path too. I remember Far Eastern games without maps, where you just go into the game and farm small dungeons and events for the few same things over and over again.
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uh, I don’t know, like every single zone in each expansion? dungeons? raids? quests? literally everything?
oh no, the absolute horror, you chose a class because you like it, let’s say warlock and the next expansion it didn’t turn into a warrior!!!11
so like literally every single expansion that has ever been released until now?
god I hate this community 
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All who complain about the “state of the game” are usually people that do not engage with end-game content in the expansion.
Atleast everyone replying on this post dosent.
Which basically boils down to this :
WoW was not a “exploration and discovery” game. It always had an endgame.
Like in Vanilla. You took 3/4 months to level up a toon thats for sure. But once you level 60, you spent 1.6 years doing what exactly ? Sit in Stormwind AFK ?
Nope. You did dungeons, raids, PvP… ect…
Same with TBC… and WotlK… You level up to 70/80 in 10 to 20 days and then what did you do for 2 years ? Sit there and look at the black temple all day ?
So I find all this “lack of exploration” argument really biased. Because nothing has changed since Vanilla in that aspect.
Well… one thing has changed : The end-game is much more accessible, varied, fun, and engaging than it used to be…
Simple. 
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OP time to find a new hobby maybe?
Although many players have some sort of near physical relationship with their wow characters your not married to the game, try find something you will enjoy more, It probably won’t be hard to find something.
In part it’s because blizz didn’t used to try a character focused story narrative instead they told the story through the world. Even if it was shallow at times. Also the assets and environment massively changed for each expac.
TBC: The dark portal has reopened demons are coming back through, illidan is psychotic. As you go through the zones you’re learning about the fates of the forces we left behind here. 5 new areas, that look nothing like anything in the other games, with the twisting nether overhead.
Wrath: The Lich Kings awoken and is getting the band back together, he’s going to try and kill everyone in the world with the army of the dead. Take him out. You’re fighting back the forces of the undead and nerubians loyal to the lich king. The Main NPCS are making battle plans you’re acting as a soldier following through on these plans. 9 zones, again artwork looks very unique compared to the rest of the game.
Cata: Deathwing awakens and is going to burn the world because he’s insane. Completely changed the entire game world. All assets look different. Again you’re acting as a soldier/Merc, the Main story NPC’s leaders, kings etc are making plans and you’re enacting them.
This all changes about BFA, (yes you picked where to go in legion, however you were leading you class order, not the worlds forces) when you become the Champion of Azeroth, now the player is calling the shots, so the main NPC’s are running around doing stuff and you’re picking where we go, the player no longer is attached to the world story. And the game starts to take a more linear individual narrative story approach. It also means we no longer get to see the NPC’s behaving like leaders and doing smart of tactical things, because we as the player as functionally picking the next place to go.
This doubles down in Shadowlands and Dragonflight. Add in the fact that in Dragonflight and War within, the environments don’t really look unique, take the big crystal from the sky box look around and tell me where we are, it could be any of the dozen areas added since bfa, the art is exactly the same IMO.
I’ve leveled just one of my chats to 80 and I think I’m going to wait until season 1 before I do anything the lack of gearing up is shameful at the moment.
Man, imagine making yourself play something you dont enjoy. Respectfully, even if everyone agrees, the only thing you can do to help yourself, is stop playing, if you are not having fun. If sunk cost is the only thing keeping ya here then be free, the time wasnt wasted you had fun, but now that you’re not its being wasted.
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Thats everything in life even in so called boomer classic era
I think Vanilla to wod/mop changed as much as current expansions are charging.
Legion was truly revolutionary but they burned that model leading to the Shadowlands burnout and havent found anything that game changing since and are sticking to the more vanilla model of playing It safe and just adding dungeons, raids new areas, class changes and things like dragonriding or delves. And to be fair im fine with that for now, but I can see it getting old.
The need to hit the right key like they did with legion and come up with something new.
I hope now that we have DF and TWW as foundational expansions, we see something maybe more radical in Midnight considering we are coming back to the old world. Less resources on area building might mean more resources for new stuff we havent seen in wow before.
This advice took lot of people and actualy quit. Never seen expansion like TWW to have such low hype during its release.
In 1998, I thought half-life was amazing, one of the best games ever. Now that big box sits in a drawer, unused.
People grow apart from games, due to them changing as people, or things around them changing.
When you stop liking a game, play something else.
When the fun stops, stop.
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It still is!
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Then you weren’t around during mists of pandaria, that release didn’t interest anyone, but ended up being liked expac.
I was around MoP. And people were claiming they liked MoP after expansion ended and we started fetting things like WoD, Legion, BFA,… People say they liked it becouse they put it into perspective againts expansion what they were currently playing.