It wasn’t just a “bad expansion” , it fundamentally rewrote parts of the game in ways we still feel today. And unlike something like WoD’s Garrisons, you can’t just opt out of its influence. The lore gutting, the systems obsession, and the sterile feeling of the world all left scars that the game hasn’t recovered from.
But for me, Shadowlands is also just a symptom of the deeper design shift that started years ago.
The game slowly moved away from unique class identity, meaningful pacing, and immersive progression , the kind of philosophy that made the “original trilogy” (Classic → WotLK) so memorable , into a model built around speed, homogenization, and constant meta-chasing. That’s why so many of us say the game “lost its soul.”
I actually wrote a longer breakdown of my thoughts on this, going into detail about how Blizzard’s current design philosophy pushes players into a mindset that kills the social, adventurous side of WoW. If you’re curious, here’s the post: How Modern WoW Killed Its Own Legacy