WoW getting more childish?

Lore Story
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Sorry but this expansion seems a bit more childish than the others. Ofcourse, I can see that there are some comedic values throughout the game. Characters like Dumas, Budd and other hilarious encounters you come across throughout the game. However these characters were more sideline characters, easter eggs and what not. The obvious pop culture reference here and there. Ofcourse one exclution to that is John J Keeshak who they turned into a Warcraft rambo.

But the overall story of the game was more serious in line. Path of glory in Hellfire Peninsula is a road carved out of Draenei skulls. Sinestra, the mate of Deathwing has scars from Deathwing, which implies he did some awful stuff to her. Not to mention last expansion we saw parents spiked against the wall for their children to watch in Brennadam village (correct me if I’m wrong).

But the overall tone of this expansion, despite it being set in the literal Shadowlands, seems a bit more childish. As if I walked straight into a Tumblr convention of Adventure Quest.

Metrosexual vampires who are holding parasols, using snarky remarks. I thought these were going to be the edgiest bastards I would ever see. It’s sad to say that the vampire Blood Elves portrayed in the Ice Crown Citadel raid come off more edgy than the vampires from Ven’thyr.

The Maldraxxi Undead seem way too overjoyed for a Shadowlands realm that is full with death and blight. Arthas’ his undead army would give Maldraxxus a run for their money. Not to mention how awful Drakka is inserted in here. I was more interested in Krexus.
I mean c’mon, an abomination is a being that’s sewn together from a bunch of corpses.
There’s one abomination that decided to band up together, because the souls from those corpses agreed in doing so.
How is this an undead setting?

Ardenwaeld is Disney. No more words needed.

Kyrian is probably the worst take of the light ever. Ruined the light from me as a whole and also ruined Uther as a character to me.

Shadowlands in its entirety is a massive lorelol retcon to be honest, and I fear the damage it caused doesn’t even match the lorelol fest that was Warlords of Draenor.
All these Shadowlands realms were made up from nothing. We had common ideas about the Shadowlands. The druids with Elune, the Orcs and their ancestors/shamanism, the Tauren with the Earthmother and gravewalkers. The Humans and the light.

It ruined a bunch of stories to me, and for this reason alone I wish Blizzard would give the writing back to Chris Metzen, or like-minded people who don’t spend their whole day gloating over themselves on Twitter. Bring back some metalheads into the fray. Or atleast anyone who respects Warcraft as a whole.

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If you feel that game is not anymore what you like just quit and find something else to do
Best way to enjoy life :slight_smile:

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Full agree on the story being trash

Also the overall tone of the expansion is quite infantile, Ardenwald is the worst offender for sure, but also as you said Maldraxus is just not giving you the proper vibe as an undead afterlife world should.

I too would like if WoW adopted more of a Diablo 2 tone and design paradigm, but it seems that the curent iteration of Blizzard designers either aren’t capable of making it like that (doubtful), or they are just being instructed to banalize it from the top.

I am more inclined to think the other, as the same thing is happening with Hearthstone over time. First 3-4 sets were more serious Warcraft, and after that everything started going into some childlish design that really ruins the vibe.

I know for Hearthstone they specifically talked about it in some interviews how they are purposely trying to make it childlish and playful. That paradigm is also breaking into WoW apparently.

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Apart from the existential stuff that Sylvanas laid out as motivation, I don’t disagree.

Cata was probably a fair bit more childish though (or just badly realized, not sure).

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Cata’s leveling zones were full with pop cultures on the Alliance side. I somewhat agree. Althought the content on later levels tended to be more serious.

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The pop culture references probably make up for most of my opinion on that, but the whole green jesus arc with dragons giving up their big boy powers was also stupid and boring.

But then again, I think WoW was never particularly good at story, apart from maybe the odd sidequest here and there.

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I always felt that WoW kind of skirted on the edge of being childish lore wise, but in Shadowlands… the writing is transparent, immature and too on the nose.

Addams family cast rejects=Venthyr, fairies which are lame, etc.

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Are demon hunters not enough?

As to the question; no, I don’t think WoW is getting more childish. I think it’s always tended to bring serious ideas (old god invasions, end of the world) and then give them a touch of whimsy. Gnomes, goblins, the visual styling of flying vehicles, the tone of 50% of quests.

That said, I’m not enamoured by the afterlife theme of SL. I don’t like the whole “true death” nonsense. This is a terrible afterlife. You die once in life, and you die once in the afterlife, and now you’re really gone. I think it is a horribly mundane, bland, unadventurous interpretation of an afterlife. It fails to bend time and space, it fails to suggest any sense of ‘eternity’, and it mostly just feels like an alternative to yet another Draenor.

But childish? No. Don’t see it.

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WoW was always a cartoon looking MMO?

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Exactly. It hasn’t got more childish because of anything on the visual side. If anything, Revendreth, Maldraxxus and the Maw are three of the grittiest locations we’ve ever had.

(I dislike all of them, tbqh.)

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Deadwind Pass, Icecrown, Hellfire Peninsula all look more brutal/spooker to me. Hellfire Peninsula alone for the amount of fire that comes out of the landscape. I don’t see how Revendreth is even remotely gritty. It’s a castle on a hill. Maldraxxus is a downscaled version of Icecrown and Dragonblight

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Some of the inhabitants literally burn if they step out of the shade. That’s pretty brutal, tbh :slight_smile:

But yeah, there are other gritty places too.

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You have to get the vibe of what each of these places were -supposed- to be, before it all went wrong, because none of them are the same…

And if you actually think about it, some of them are utterly horrific.

Lets check them out. You have one Afterlife, which is a Holy and nice place of purification, and if you can’t purify yourself, don’t worry, we will remove your memories by force and -MAKE YOU PURE-.

I mean that is horrific, I mean, a lot of late 20th century social horror movies were basically about what Bastion is. ‘Clockwork Orange’ is probably a good start.

So moving on from Bastion, we have Revendreth. Revendreth is horrible, it is a form of afterlife where not only are you forced to atone, for things you think might have been reasonable, but the very way it is set up means that it doesn’t -matter- what you thought was reasonable in life, but even worse, there is a league table! You can grab other people’s sins and use them against them to clamber above these people you know, and come closer to Atonement. It’s not goths in Parasols, it’s the Hunger Games!

Ardenweald is actually probably the sickest…Disney? Disney? What Disney films have you been watching? My Gawds, from the moment you get there, you realise why everyone is so happy. Happiness is mandatory, if you don’t look happy, you may be fading…and if you are fading, you don’t need those Anima…Because this is the Beautiful Eternal Land of Triage, where if the Winter Queen decides on a whim that more Anima is needed, she will ask her loyal subjects to go and quietly place a pillow over a sleeping soul’s face, until it just…stops moving…and everyone can sing and be happy, in the knowledge that -THIS- time, it wasn’t them who was sacrificed. Its actually pretty damned horrific if you think about the mentality of the place. Can you honestly see Disney make a film like that, where a character is sent out to smother a sleeping person to death?

Maldraxxus is generic Undead zone. They had a good chance to actually inject some real actual cool zone settings and aspects, but instead they went with “How about Icecrown but with beige scenery?” I mean that is all it is. There’s nothing. It doesn’t even feel like a realm of horror, it’s just misery for no actual purpose. If I wanted that, I could listen to the first few ‘The Cure’ albums. It’s just generic undead zone, when it could have been so much more.

The Maw just spooks me because of the constant Cylon Raider’s sounds you hear when there. Once you hear them, you’ll always hear them…

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WoW getting more childish?

I hope so. I don’t want to get old mentally.

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I feel exactly the same way, which I also believe a great bunch of other people do.

I used to love the story of the game, while it now just feels so incredibly ”meh”.

And it’s not me that has changed, because when I look up old stories and whatnot from back then, that I didn’t know about, I usually really love those. It’s just this new stuff they put out, feels like there is no love, heart and soul behind the stories.

This expantion alone they just fully attempt to play on nostalgia. And yes, old characters are bound to reappear in the Shadowlands, but it’s so obvious what they’re doing (and poorly so).

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Just be glad we aren’t Shadowlands citizens and will return to Azeroth eh.

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Blizz want low PG rating so they can sell game to kids. Look how books are diffrent.
It wasn’t a thing in past.

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Just to clarify one thing here, it’s not about the content itself, but the way it is presented.

I don’t find Shadowlands content childlish - souls being tortured, angels being cut appart to make abominations, forests being drained from life etc.

I do find the way it is presented chlidlish - in lack of better terms for my scuffed english, it’s about the overall mode of presentation, or the design paradigm that guides how something will be presented.

Nothing in the way Shadowlands content is designed and written says dark & gritty.

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They should make a spinoff - World of Hugcraft

Just have Thisalee Crow and Lady Moonberry ready to set younger adventurers on their way :rofl:

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Oh God.
Quick delete this post before blizz can see it!

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