Leaked WoW Presentation: What Went Wrong with Shadowlands
The recent leaked WoW presentation sheds light on Blizzard devs’ perspective on the controversial Shadowlands expansion.
There were so many things that went wrong with Shadowlands. The WoW community has long been vocal about this controversial expansion. However, it wasn’t until a recently leaked WoW presentation that we gained insight into Blizzard’s perspectives on the journey into the afterlife.
Korean website Inven is the first to report this. Their article includes a collection of slides from the GDC2024 event. These slides trace Warcraft’s journey from its roots in real-time strategy gaming to its development into MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. Spin-off titles, including Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble, were also mentioned. Other than that, it also explores the franchise’s successes and criticisms regarding specific decisions and directions taken by the company.
WoW developers have realized that Shadowlands is far from ideal. In a slide titled “Things that went wrong,” Blizzard outlined the major grievances:
- Story and setting:
- Afterlife setting wasn’t accessible
- New antagonist wasn’t developed
- Well-known story heroes were diminished
- Gameplay:
- System didn’t evolve with player expectations
- Borrowed power
- Not enough variety
- Community:
- Gaps in content
- Lack of transparency
- Didn’t feel heard
Apparently, the developers have carefully reviewed all the missteps they stumbled upon during Shadowlands. Hopefully, this thorough examination will help improve future expansions.
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