The ninth expansion of the popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft is officially here. Dragonflight opened to players on November 28th. There were many questions surrounding how this expansion would be received by the WoW faithful after two expansions that can be best described as duds. Spoiler: The login queues were back! A good sign that a new expansion can get the community hyped. But would the opening saga of Dragonflight be enough to avoid the hard dropoff of players? Did Blizzard truly listen to the WoW community and make the quality of life changes they were looking for?
As of right now…that answer is leaning towards ‘yes.’
The overhauled UI now allows for a level of personalization that was once only available through several third-party add-ons. Flying, a mechanic that Blizzard has always been iffy on, is now given to you almost immediately in the form of Dragon Riding. The heavily scripted start scenarios of the last two expansions were tossed out the window in favor of the old school MMORPG idea of the player getting to dictate how their individualized adventure unfolds alongside the main storyline. In other words: Blizzard is making WoW fun again!
Regardless of how bad the last two expansions were, one area that Blizzard has always done a superb job with is zone creation and the Dragon Isles are no different. Upon entering the Isles, players are introduced to wide open skies, hillsides, mountains, rivers, and valleys of The Waking Shores, as it serves as a stunning introduction into this long-lost area of Azeroth. For players that enjoy crafting not only their own story and adventure in the game, Blizzard has now introduced customization on levels never before seen in WoW. From the new Dracthyr race (with visage form) to the new dragon mounts, players could easily spend hours creating their in-game avatar and mount.
The main quest line is complemented with side quests that do not feel like they are forced on you, yet help you understand more about this unknown region. Most of the side quests will reward players with new customization options for their dragon mount. Pair that with an overhaul of the talent system and professions, and WoW has the “new game feel” all over again. Only time will tell if that feel will wear off. We are still months away from seeing if the “new expansion player dropoff” will happen as harshly as it did in Battle for Azeroth or Shadowlands, but the overall in-game vibe so far is overwhelmingly positive.
Image from: Activision-Blizzzard
