Is that every second expansion after MoP is being created only as a setup for the one after. Example: WoD was a setup for Legion, BFA relied on the events of Legion to begin and was a setup for SL.
We see that clearly not only in terms of messed up gameplay (BFA) and lack of content (WoD), but in the writing as well. Why can’t expansions be written as their own stories without feeling the need to bleed into the next one’s story?
Take Cataclysm for example. The expansion’s story wasn’t dependant on Wrath to stand on its feet, the same way that Wrath wasn’t dependant on TBC, the same way that Pandaria came out of nowhere and wasn’t just Cataclysm chapter 2. At the end of each of these expansions, their stories pretty much ended and the next one was something new. The links are there, the story is connected, the characters are the same but the story changed focus seemingly out of nowhere which was refreshing. Now it feels like we are locked on this downwards spiral of events that don’t seem to actually lead anywhere.
And the outcome is always the same. Big bad guy comes, we get scared, we fight him we win. And this happens every time. It’s like that "Oh no! Anyway" meme. It loses its sense of immersion and/or urgency after a while imo.
It’s like the game is being made with the premise of crumbling to dust with an expansion and then rising again with the next. Rise and fall, rise and fall, rinse and repeat.
Just like a Blizzard stocks graph.
WoW’s story was never perfect but I also don’t remember it ever being this repetitive.
WoW’s biggest problem is that when something is good for a few months they make somekind of change that destroys it completely. For example: pinnacle of Frost Mage was during Wrath, pinnacle of Destruction Warlock was during MoP. Now they are both ruined and utter crap.
I think Blizz reckons certain characters are popular and use them in FMVs and lore as much as possible. Maybe they were selling stories first, then characters became the focus. I don’t know because I never played the RTS games.
I still can’t believe they beat N’Zoth and wouldn’t be surprised if he reappeared soon as lots of people thought he was cool, including me. The cynical part of me wonders if they invented Shadowlands just to bring back Arthas and Uther, and perhaps other lore characters that Blizz knows the fans either love, get riled up by, or both. In short, I think they are putting character and ‘rule of cool’ before original story, which can be a little sad, I agree.