Having returned to World of Warcraft, I decided to run through the Battle for Azeroth expansion on a new alliance character. What struck me, having taken another break from the game, is the fact its blueprint hasn't changed in all these years. While that might sound obvious, I’m fairly stunned to find I’m still picking shells up on a beach, and freeing thick-as-shit huntsman who insist on being webbed by spiders. 

I’ve no objection to a varied quest log, but it feels all too often that Blizzard have run out of steam when it comes to both originality, and innovation. Despite all their attempts to reinvent the wheel with Specializations and Talents, as well as the Heart of Azeroth, Essence and Azerite Powers, it’s all bloated, lacks refinement and feels far too grindy in an attempt to force retention. 

Make no mistake, there is good stuff in Battle for Azeroth: Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar are a triumph of design, and are truly stunning. Heck, even the crop of raids and dungeons are exceptional. What bothers me the most, however, is the fact that there's so little ambition from Blizzard in the face of obvious flaws. When FFXIV Shadowbringers is receiving universal acclaim, how is it possible that World of Warcraft feels so devoid of vision?

Why are cutscenes in WoW so bloody rare?

As director for World of Warcraft, the fault has to lye with Ion Hazzikostas and his failure to not only arm his team with a clear path for World of Warcraft and its expansions, but also his unwillingness to address faults that have seemingly plagued it for years. I’m an experienced MMO gamer, and returning to WoW, it’s not difficult to quickly write down a list of things the game desperately needs to address, with many arising as a result of the latest expansion:

  • Why aren’t Alliance races freely available, from the moment you dive into the expansion?
  • Why are you gating fluff content behind a reputation grind?
  • Why is the UI for accessing your Azerite Powers across your items so poor? Wouldn’t just one screen have sufficed?
  • Why is there yet another grind to fly in the new zones?
  • Why are cinematics used so infrequently when they're an engaging, exciting way to deliver story content?
  • Why are we still obsessed with increasing the level cap, when all it’s doing is creating greater, long-term issues that discourages new players?
  • Why are we continuing to visit new zones, when the world - and its story potential - is ripe for old zones to be reworked, and redesigned? 
  • Why hasn’t there been a level squish (back down to 60) so that new players can dive in without a huge climb, and old expansions once again have value?
  • Why has no attempt been made to address the fact you go tens of levels without an ability or talent?
  • Why are you still bloating game systems with yet another new addition? (Essence)

What frustrates me the most about all the above, is that it feels like it’s all born from cynical design decisions: how can we force players to keep playing? 

Blizzard should be focusing on quality of life, being brave in their storytelling, and allowing players to participate in a multitude of content that’s nothing but fun. Instead, it feels like the complete opposite. Is there good in the latest expansion and its subsequent updates? Absolutely: its maps and instanced content are truly stunning. Does it desperately need wider, long-term ambition for future updates? Absofuckinglutely. 


What's your thoughts on WoW and its ambition?  Do you think Blizzard desperately need to learn lessons from FFXIV?


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Last Updated: Jul 24, 2019

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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