By Eric Law
In no small part due to the success of Dragonflight, World of Warcraft is looking ahead to a bright future for the first time in several years.
World of Warcraft is one of the largest, longest-running MMORPGs on the market. Since its release in November 2004, it has consistently been called the king of the MMORPG genre. However, with 18 years on the market, World of Warcraft has experienced as many highs points as it has low. Luckily, after several years of being at one of its lowest points, World of Warcraft is finally bouncing back after the success of Dragonflight.
Every game will have its critics, and World of Warcraft is no exception. While Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor have all been the subject of scrutiny in the past, World of Warcraft’s two expansions before Dragonflight -- Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands -- were two of its weakest eras. To understand what World of Warcraft is doing right with Dragonflight, players must first understand where Blizzard went wrong.
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How World of Warcraft Lost its Good Faith
For many, Battle for Azeroth signaled a distinct downturn in the quality of World of Warcraft. While Kul Tiras, Zandalar, and the new Allied Races generally left a good impression, the positives were outweighed by numerous negatives. The story of the new zones was marred by a forced conflict between the Alliance and Horde, poor characterization of fan favorites like Sylvanas, and Azerite -- the frustrating gear treadmill that amplified the worst parts of Artifact Power from Legion. Additionally, some baffling story decisions, such as handling the Old God N’zoth in a single World of Warcraft patch, were not received well by players.
Shadowlands only made things worse for World of Warcraft. It left Azeroth behind in favor of a mysterious, unknown realm largely separate from World of Warcraft. The high-concept cosmic plot only saw reprieve with the few recognizable characters in the expansion, but unfortunately, their story revolved largely around Sylvanas’ partnership with the Jailer, Shadowlands' disappointing antagonist and final boss. Between this and frustrating endgame mechanics like Anima and Covenant Renown, many players lost faith in World of Warcraft.
The situation was made worse by the allegations levied against Blizzard in 2021. Partway through the Shadowlands expansion, several lawsuits pertaining to sexual harassment and discrimination were filed against Blizzard. Since then, the company has hemorrhaged both developers and subscribers, entered an attempted buyout by Microsoft, and has been in a constant conflict with employees seeking to unionize. These scandals and the COVID-19 pandemic led to Shadowlands having two major content patches instead of three, further alienating World of Warcraft fans.
Dragonflight is Winning Back the Community
When World of Warcraft announced Dragonflight, many were understandably skeptical about whether it would be any good. Though Blizzard had promised it was learning from its mistakes, and had made positive changes to World of Warcraft in Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5, players were slow to trust Blizzard. Dragonflight went live in late November 2022 to overall positive reviews. By all rights, it seemed like World of Warcraft had taken its lessons to heart. While far from perfect, Dragonflight has improved upon many of the systems players disliked from the past.
The Renown system from Shadowlands persists, but players can gain reputation with all four factions in Dragonflight simultaneously. Instead of expansion-specific mechanics like Covenants and Anima, Dragonflight focuses on evergreen systems, like Talent Trees, the overhaul of the Professions system, and hopefully the incredible Dragonriding flight system. The lore of Dragonflight has done a lot for the expansion as well. Instead of traveling to mysterious realms short on familiar characters, players are exploring storied islands hinted at in World of Warcraft since it first launched. Dragonflight has tons of new story, lore, and characters, but all of it is built upon existing knowledge.
Dragonflight's world building continues to improve upon World of Warcraft’s formula. For the most part, the expansion avoids falling into harmful tropes, like creating blanket "evil races", while it showcases a roster of diverse characters with a variety of appearances, identities, and disabilities. While these improvements are not entirely consistent across the Dragon Isles, it has created an expansion that is charming, diverse, and engaging overall.
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World of Warcraft Needs to Keep Up the Momentum
For the first time in years, World of Warcraft is in a good place - but that doesn’t mean Blizzard should rest on its laurels. World of Warcraft needs to keep up its positive momentum if it is going to carry forward the good faith it is rebuilding into the future. It has promised to learn from its mistakes, grow a diverse and sensitive development team, and listen to the feedback of its players. If it manages to do so, World of Warcraft can only improve. Imporantly, World of Warcraft needs to balance its respect for the franchise and its fans with the need to change. Like all live service AAA titles, World of Warcraft wants to continue to grow and attract new subscribers to make more money. To do this, it will need to innovate and constantly create new content.
However, World of Warcraft has a tendency to swing between good and bad ideas. It broke bad habits from Cataclysm and Warlords of Draenor in Legion, only to form new ones in Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. As long as it can avoid relapsing into old patterns after Dragonflight, and keep itself humble in the face of fan expectations and desires, World of Warcraft might truly be entering a new era.
Luckily, World of Warcraft seems to be in a great place right now. Blizzard has recently acquired new studios like Proletariat, the Microsoft buyout appears to be moving along, and Blizzard legend Chris Metzen recently announced his return to Warcraft after his retirement during Legion. The long-running MMO is slowly making up for its mistakes, but it still has a long way to go. That said, if World of Warcraft can keep up this momentum, some players may even name Dragonflight as their favorite expansion.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.
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