So I haven't been writing much lately. I also haven't been playing much either. I haven't bought Dragonflight, or even logged in since the pre-patch. No Jellycat or whatever for me.
I don't know if I will either. Shadowlands was really, really bad story-wise. Mechanically, I thought it was okay, but I think that opinion is out of step with the rest of the community. So I'm not excited in the least for Dragonflight.
Perhaps the real issue is my guild. I like my guild and the people in it. But since I moved to the East coast, I can't really raid with them. I guess I'm not looking forward to trying to find a new guild either.
Or I don't know. I haven't really played any other games in this drought. I got a new job about six months ago, and I think that is taking a lot of my mental energy, though not really my time.
Are you excited for Dragonflight?
I'm about where you are. I didn't raid at all in Shadowlands and I miss it. I expect I'll play Dragonflight for the story, and if I find a way to raid casually I'll stick around. Otherwise I'll stop playing, like I did in Shadowlands.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have high hopes for the story though. Maybe that's a good idea, at least play the first part and quit early.
DeleteI'm still on the fence as to whether this is the expac that gets me back into Retail. Not sure, although I was initially quite intrigued, but I'm going to wait and see how things go first before jumping in. If it becomes yet another "faction leader gone bad" expac, "but this time it's Alliance!" I'm not gonna be amused at all.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the writing team is really bad. Or maybe that's too harsh, they do a lot of small things well. It's just they have no critical taste when it comes to larger plot.
DeleteI'm looking forward to it - which makes this the first retail expansion about which I can say that since Cataclysm. But then I don't really care about raiding in retail - I'm just looking forward to making an evoker and casually playing with my husband, doing quests and easy mode dungeons.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you are looking forward to it. Yeah, maybe I should just approach it with the mindset that I'm not going to raid. Perhaps that will work out better.
DeleteI haven't picked the game back up in years. That being said, I would encourage you to try it out simply for the fact that I still enjoy reading your updates. Brings back great memories every time one of these posts shows up in my feed.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I should buy the expansion and play it to provide you with content? Heh, not the worst reason, I suppose.
DeleteI found the Drunk N Disorderly group on /r/wow. They ran learner normal and heroic progression pugs at 4PM Eastern which was a hard time to hit on weekdays but pretty easy to make work on weekends. I found this was a good way to stay with my guild, aa friends and family cluster that struggle to clear normal bosses or even field a full 10 man roster and still get through the content I wanted to in the lead up to Dragonflight. As for Dragonflight, it passes the smell test. It smells like a WoW expansion and every WoW expansion so far has been worth the purchase, even if it didn't stand up in the end game. I can't say the story of Warcraft has been worth anything since Arthas. They tried with BFA but failed to create believable causes for the events. Warlords was a weird idea of an alternate universe that in the end just amounted to the exact amount of nothing as Shadowlands will. Ive personally been playing more Call of Duty than Warcraft lately, I'm sporadically leveling alts for heritage armors I wont likely use while waiting for Evokers, I hear they're fun to play. I've also rediscovered my love for the feel of fury warriors.
ReplyDeleteOverall I think the prepatch wont be anything exciting, but the expansion should be entertaining for at least a solid playthrough. I do like the sound of how easy it will be to get alts up to end game ready so I don't feel quit as stuck on one character as I did this expansion. I hope dragon riding is fun and comes to the old world areas. I hope the story is surprising, in a good way this time. But I expect we will be uniting to defeat some intergalactic planet ending threat once again, thats just the warcraft writing team.
Hmm, maybe I'll look for a community like the Drunk N Disorderly group you mention. A larger, more transient community that raids.
DeleteThat's an interesting point about the smell test. You're right that the base expansion and levelling zones have always been worth playing.
I used to be a little hyped up but Season 4 was a complete bust and the last month I've hardly been on (except for 10min a day to grab some easy gold), not really "playing" - just stocking up for WoW tokens.
ReplyDeleteI mean I kinda plan to buy it and raid, but I know that what I want now and what it is when it launches can be very different. I've had a lot of fun in SL, raiding with my guild and doing lots of M+ with some of them, but currently very unenthusiastic. But everything new might just captivate me like it always does, I hope so at least.