Worth noting is that the LFR wings open up at a much swifter cadence in TWW than ever (?) before. So to me, at least, that would feel quite rushed.
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“Quite rushed” is exactly the aftertaste that this expansion leaves for now 
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B-but the story is totally different this time and not more of the same what are you t-talking about?!!
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I’m playing it by ear .-. in my own RP group (and by extension the Sisterhood rescue party) Ansurek is still alive but the steps before that are a bit under constant debate with the former group. For both groups, my character is missing so now I’m in this weird position where the respective groups should probably never meet each other lest the time-space continuum is broken 
Now, I could declare certain events in the future and pre-fleet events in the present in theory, but in practice I’d have to exclude a part of the group from RP over it which is not an ideal outcome.
Now, if I’m to interact with the Hallowfall hub I’d have to acknowledge that the forces have already landed a very, very long time ago, which implies that the Nerubian coup is already underway, which implies that Hallowfall is probably ‘solved’… To cope with this I’m just mostly not logging on unless it’s to DM or do profession weeklies until I guess October arrives or my character’s rescue happened at the hands of either group.
In short, I’d like to flip a table. This too much reminds me of when I had a Kor’kron I wanted to kill off but missed a 1-hour-long Siege of Orgrimmar event due to IRL reasons and subsequently had to figure out how to satisfyingly kill her for months. A year? I don’t remember.
What do you mean this isn’t the negativity thread???
I think most people consider the queen overthrown by now. 
Quick clarification to this!
The Hallowfall hub so far appears to be roleplaying around the mid-late stages of the Hallowfall in-game story, with nerubians as the intractable enemy. For the most part, the Hallowfall hub is comprised of Kirin Tor and miscellaneous other groups who’ve reached Khaz Algar in good time-- it doesn’t really represent the “main forces” mustered by Thrall and Jaina.
Hallowfall is being presented as a dangerous place, and an active warzone, far from solved!
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my personal consensus is story content is complete as it is released. Expac release for my guild took place during our RP grace period where people were actually playing the game, and content since then has just been as it has been released. Since we’re neck deep in the ringing deeps or hallowfall or Azj-Kahet, our ability to learn the news is far limited, so often big story details we don’t learn until we return from our adventures!
The Ansurek kill quest has been released today (together with the story mode), so it does make sense to consider her dead. For those who want to, at least!
One more word of caution against speedrunning TWW’s base storyline…
The 20th anniversary event begins in November and runs through much of December (maybe the end of the year itself?). Such is the volume of content that there’s going to be a PTR for it, so it can probably be considered TWW’s first content patch. It’s unlikely, then, that we’ll see a new TWW raid, zone, or any new story content during that time, and I, personally, am going by the assumption that there’ll be nothing prepped for release in January. That means 4-6 months until we figure out what’s next in Xalatath’s subterranean itinerary (it’s possible Blizzard releases some insight before then, of course, but I doubt it).
In previous expansions – BFA, Legion, Wrath – the story beats after the base game raid were pretty obvious: the campaign continued, more progress was made towards getting a foothold in Icecrown, or the war over Azeroth’s resources escalated. In TWW it’s less clear; the story is driven by mystery, with an enigmatic antagonist. So, after slaying the queen, what’s left? “Mopping up” the nerubian queen’s loyalists doesn’t raise the pulse, and while there are well-established other horrors in Khaz Algar, I don’t think there are any so rich as fighting a genuine nerubian army, on their own turf, down in the deeps.
It’s great material for storylines, so to ditch it because it’s convention to time story beats to LFR wing openings seems, to me, a bit of a waste. As far as our characters are concerned, the nerubian queen is the Lich King of this campaign; she’s the one with the scores of monsters bearing down on the Earrthen and Arathi, not someone to knock off her throne before proceeding onwards. If you think of the terrain of this expansion, the untraversable drops, the dead end passages, the submerged areas, who’s even there, within two months, to kill the queen and defeat her army?
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I’d also add that the LFR release was convenient for RP because it gave us plenty of time to explore the story. That just isn’t the case with new approach Blizzard is going for, with not only quicker LFR release but also fewer bosses per raid (so fewer wings) and story mode that pushes the death of the boss only 3 weeks after expansion release (compare it to 7 weeks between 8.3 and N’zoth’s LFR release or Legion’s staggered patch release where we had Argus for 4,5 months before the final wing).
Also, this is the first time that I see RP community excited about interacting with what the story brings us since N’zoth’s defeat over 4 years ago. Accepting that the story is done and the big threat is over IMO only takes away from RP experience.
What I’d suggest instead is release of next patch (in this case 11.0.5) to be used as the canon raid ending. With Blizzard’s fast content release pace, singular patches often don’t last that long anymore, but will still allow us to RP out the stories we need (something that just can’t be done in 3 weeks that include expansion release and season start).
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This! Wanting a canon defeat of the Nerubians this early on seems like RPer self-sabotage.
Great post.
EDIT: I’m not sure how relevant others will find this, but, as well as acknowledging the shortened time scales of when raids and their wings become available, the average age of AD RPers is probably higher than it’s ever been, and age usually correlates with a longer list of responsibilities and reasons why you can’t be on to roleplay every night. Someone who can only roleplay 2-3 times a week is seriously losing out by tying major story beats arbitrarily to content release schedules.
Obviously there’s no survey of how many times a week the average ADer can roleplay (perhaps it might be a good idea?) but I suspect it’s actually quite low. On the surface, 8-10 weeks to resolve a conflict might seem like there’s a lot of breathing room (I’d disagree on that, even), but for some that’s far fewer roleplay sessions than they might like.
Importantly, it’s not just a question of how much roleplay you can do, but also how much DMs and community leaders can organise within the time limit. Planning RP takes time. Scoping out zones, designing interactive encounters, recruiting others to NPC for you. It’s just not reasonable to pack all that into a short time frame which, again, just doesn’t serve the realm. DMs have their lives too, and often need some extra time to think about how they can harness different areas for RP events (I know I do).
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