World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

 PC
User Score
2.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2405 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 558 out of 2405
  2. Mixed: 94 out of 2405
  3. Negative: 1,753 out of 2405

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  1. Rewk
    Feb 1, 2022
    3
    Shadowlands has a lot of things, that need to be changed for the better, lore (same goes for bfa), FOMO needs to go, the world desperately needs modern graphics, more customisation options are needed- especially stuff like sliders, borrowed power systems need to go and there needs to be a consistent content flow.

    However, this critic will mainly focus on the elefant in the room,    Shadowlands has a lot of things, that need to be changed for the better, lore (same goes for bfa), FOMO needs to go, the world desperately needs modern graphics, more customisation options are needed- especially stuff like sliders, borrowed power systems need to go and there needs to be a consistent content flow.

    However, this critic will mainly focus on the elefant in the room, factions with all their issues.

    Recently they annoucend (as I am writing this- literally yesterday), that with 9.2.5. (so sometime in the future), there will be cross faction raids, dungeons and rated PvP.

    While this are good news (even though it should have been implemented several years ago), it is just a small step in the right direction. On it's own this won't help to balance the factions.

    In order to do something against faction imbalance they need to:

    Make cross faction guilds optional, so that GMs can decide, if they want to have members of both factions.

    Make cross faction mailing available, so that players have the ability to send gold and items to their characters on the other faction.

    Make cross faction LFR and random bgs optional.

    And most importantly,

    +++++++All races need to be neutral.+++++++

    Most players will continue choosing a faction based on the races and not because they like the lore, cities and values of said faction more.

    In order to give players the freedom to choose a faction solely because of it's history and because they feel loyal to it, neutral races are an absolutely necessary.
    Otherwise the new sentiment of letting players choose a faction they feel connected to will come across as hypocritical.

    Seriously Blizzard, if you are reading this, give us the freedom to choose a faction without hindering us to play our favorite races or the whole thing will fall apart.

    Racism is not something you would want to hold on to.    … Expand
  2. Ossro
    Nov 17, 2021
    0
    0/10
    Why? Because this game is almost at a point, where it is unplayable.
    Faction imbalance: Response of the devs? "Let's make the situation even worse and let's make even more players swap to the overpopulated faction, because of mainstream races we give that faction, more classes, more customization options, more zones, lore and cities, more focus in the story, cinematics revolving    0/10
    Why? Because this game is almost at a point, where it is unplayable.
    Faction imbalance:
    Response of the devs?
    "Let's make the situation even worse and let's make even more players swap to the overpopulated faction, because of mainstream races we give that faction, more classes, more customization options, more zones, lore and cities, more focus in the story, cinematics revolving around the overpopulated faction and so on.
    FOMO
    "Oh, you wasn't playing the game at a certain time? Haha, that's you're problem, if you don't play our game each and every month and give us that sweet sub money. We won't give you the skins, mounts, sets etc.!"
    Borrowed power systems, choregast, class imbalance
    Do I really need to explain this mess?
    Lore
    Probably written by a bunch of drunk guys. What was once halfway decent during the first two patches of Legion became a complete dumbster fire.
    Racism
    Yeah, as if anyone would be so naive to believe your hypocrisy Blizzard. Removing emotes IS NOT the way to handle with all the toxic stuff in your game. Racial segregation of your playable races is the most toxic aspect of your game and there was not a single word, that you would remove racism in your game.

    No thanks. In the current state nobody in their right mind would pay for this game.    … Expand
  3. Enkl1
    Nov 19, 2021
    1
    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.
    The races are still divided    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.

    The races are still divided between the (imbalanced) factions.
    You know, just like in rl, where people will always only stick to those, who look like them. Because we all have a hivemind. So of course the races in the game should have a hivemind too.

    It's really, really disgusting, that Blizzard is representing racial segregation as essential to the game.
    And the sad thing is, that some players swallow this toxic mindset.    … Expand
  4. Dorik
    Nov 20, 2021
    2
    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races. Borrowed power systems -> big oof Content droughts ->    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play
    Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races.
    Borrowed power systems -> big oof
    Content droughts -> Blizzard: Who cares. Buy our store items!
    Customization options -> Some races got a little bit, others almost nothing. Still no sliders... in 2021.
    Old world -> still being ignored. Blizzard: Who cares that our world looks like something from the early 2000s?

    Just don't waste your time and money! with this game.    … Expand
  5. Tamsom
    Nov 22, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting? The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting?
    The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated arms & legs vs cute foxes for example), but some players wake up sooner than others and my time has finally come now too.
    I'm so done with the devs constantly abusing the faction system... no thanks.

    There are other mmos like Final Fantasy 14, that have a healthy faction system, no racial segregation, actual housing and customisation options, good lore and so much more then this pile of garbage called world of warcraft.    … Expand
  6. Grigax
    Nov 23, 2021
    0
    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit on these double standards    … Expand
  7. Lorixo
    Jan 10, 2022
    2
    I've read a lot of critics calling Blizzard racist and that Blizzard would cater the game to toxic players with their game design.
    These racist concepts Blizzard forces their players to participate in, namely with racial segregation, which, as stated by quite a few, is the very first thing a wow player has to take part in, was there since Vanilla.
    However I do understand why more and    I've read a lot of critics calling Blizzard racist and that Blizzard would cater the game to toxic players with their game design.
    These racist concepts Blizzard forces their players to participate in, namely with racial segregation, which, as stated by quite a few, is the very first thing a wow player has to take part in, was there since Vanilla.

    However I do understand why more and more players are angry about it, pointing it out and calling Blizzard hypocrites for keeping this archaic concept,
    -splitting factions not based on values etc. but based on races.
    Because that is certainly not how factions should function. Where it is important what race you are and not what you stand for.

    It's hypocritical, because at the same time we now know due to the lawsuit against Blizzard, that the devs are anything but progressive and all the trivial and meaningless changes they've done to the game
    (turning a painting of a woman in a bikini to a bowl of fruit for example)
    comes across as nothing but laughable pr, that no one can take seriously.

    With the removal of racial segregation, letting us play all races in our favorite faction, they would put something innovative in the game, making it a lot more progressive and finally, after almost 20 years, allow us to play the game the way we want to, without forcing us do make compromises, non-stop.

    World Of Warcraft has many, very unhealthy aspects and with that creating an overwhelmingly toxic environment.
    Which is why the wow community is known to be very toxic compared to other mmo communities like that of Final Fantasy 14 for example, a game, that manages 3 factions (without faction imbalance). Blizzard can't even manage two factions and the main reason for that is the racial segregation, along with no cross faction grouping and pvp.

    Imagine having developers, who split their community into two, don't allow them to play together, don't allow them to speak together, forcing them to participate in a racist mindset, don't treat both factions the same way... yeah, that is called toxic and it brings out the worst in (some) players, who adapt to this toxic mindset.

    There are many other big problems this game faces (lore, FOMO etc.), but this review is already very long. Thanks for reading.    … Expand
  8. Ywwo
    Nov 29, 2021
    0
    Don't waste your money on this game.

    There is of course the lack of freedom of choice. If you are expecting to have the freedom to chooce your favorite faction together with your favorite races, this game is not for you. Wow is heavily using the racial segregation concept. The playable races are portrayed to live in a hivemind society. If one leader goes to a certain side all members    Don't waste your money on this game.

    There is of course the lack of freedom of choice.
    If you are expecting to have the freedom to chooce your favorite faction together with your favorite races, this game is not for you.
    Wow is heavily using the racial segregation concept. The playable races are portrayed to live in a hivemind society. If one leader goes to a certain side all members of that race join that person like sheep.
    Why Blizzard thinks giving the races a racist mindset would be good and should be treated as a foundation of wow is beyond me.
    For the gameplay it is just a huge pain in the a* and led to several serious problems:
    Faction imbalance is probably the biggest of them all. Players will tend to choose the faction with more mainstream races and the better racials

    Faction and Class imbalance.
    The faction system of wow doesn't work. It is as simple as that.
    It never really worked and it certainly doesn't work since Blizzard activly started to neglect the faction with the smaller population.
    The answer why the faction system is extremly toxic, just like the racial segregation is obvious, yet Blizzard is ignoring this problem and is even making it activily worse.

    The solution is so easy... just look at FF14, more factions, yet no faction imbalance.
    Why?
    Simple. No racial segregation + cross faction pve & pvp.

    It's beyond me why Blizzard is so toxic to their players.
    Mmos are supposed to be a social game, yet wow is as anti soical as it can get.

    Grindful systems, lack and imbalanced customisation options and ignored old world graphics.

    Finally the lore... I'm really sorry, but the lore is garbage.
    It was going in a good direction with the first 2 patches of Legion but got worse with the end of Legion and was a complete dumpster fire ever since battle for Azeroth started.

    Players, who are still playing this game... take your blinders off, seriously.
    There are other mmos. Play them, like really playing them, not skipping everything and pretend you tried them. Only if you really played something else you might finally understand how bad wow really is.    … Expand
  9. Jakkl
    Dec 1, 2021
    0
    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play. They continue to force a lot of    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play.
    They continue to force a lot of ridiculous borrowed power systems on the players.
    So much time gating and looooooong content droughts, despite the greedy game design.
    So much imbalance, both in factions and in classes...
    FOMO
    No new classes, no new races, no world and npc updates (except for the dev's waifu Sylvanas, who constantly gets model updates), still no player housing, imbalanced and laughable few customization options (still no sliders)

    Do yourself a favor and don't play this clown show.    … Expand
  10. Aquki
    Dec 9, 2021
    1
    It really saddens me how toxic the game, along with the playerbase (the few, who are left of them) and the Devs have become.

    I'm sure the most in your face problem, that keeps being ignored and at times is made worse by the Devs is the faction imbalance. Both in retail and in bc classic. Why is it so hard for the Devs to remove racial segregation, so that there wouldn't be the problem    It really saddens me how toxic the game, along with the playerbase (the few, who are left of them) and the Devs have become.

    I'm sure the most in your face problem, that keeps being ignored and at times is made worse by the Devs is the faction imbalance. Both in retail and in bc classic.
    Why is it so hard for the Devs to remove racial segregation, so that there wouldn't be the problem anymore that the mainstream races are only found in one of the 2 factions, making most people obviously choose that faction.
    Also what in the world made the Devs think racism would be a good aspect for the game in the first place? There is not a single good thing in this racist mentality forced upon the players. It only makes them as toxic as this toxic restriction is.
    Along with making all races neutral, just like the Pandaren, they also have to introduce cross faction raiding and alt mailing.
    This game is in desperate need of these changes.

    It also needs new writers or at least the current writers have to rethink the mess they made with battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. The lore has gotten so bad, that... while at first I was very angry I now lost every connection and interest in the story completely, because it is just too absurd to be taken seriously.    … Expand
  11. Taylor8O
    Nov 30, 2021
    0
    This game has become unbearable. It's a mess and the only ones left playing this "mmo" are the most toxic crowd you can think of, full of copium. No wonder obviously, toxic systems and toxic devs create toxic players.

    There is FOMO, there is faction imbalance (with no cross faction play whatsoever), there is racism (racial segregation of playable races), there are a lot of extremely    This game has become unbearable. It's a mess and the only ones left playing this "mmo" are the most toxic crowd you can think of, full of copium. No wonder obviously, toxic systems and toxic devs create toxic players.

    There is FOMO, there is faction imbalance (with no cross faction play whatsoever), there is racism (racial segregation of playable races), there are a lot of extremely frustrating borrowed power systems, there are content droughts despite the monthly sub costs, the expansion costs AND the microtransactions, there is the ridiculous bad lore, there is time gating, there is the arrogant behavior of the devs, there is the laziness in the old graphics and customization options, there is straight up trolling towards players from the devs, there is in general a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to the behavior of the devs, there is no player housing and in general stuff a modern mmo should have... I could go on.

    Overall it's just a really terrible game, that had some nice aspects during Legion, but lost those completely in bfa and now in shadowlands.    … Expand
  12. Grommashh
    Feb 8, 2022
    2
    I could list the many flaws of Shadowlands- like borrowed power systems, content drouths, bad story, neglection of npc model updates apart from Sylvanas (seriously, why is she constantly being updated but not the others?), FOMO etc. but I am sure all of that has already been addressed by others.

    So I'm writing this in response to the coming cross faction organised raiding with 9.2.5    I could list the many flaws of Shadowlands- like borrowed power systems, content drouths, bad story, neglection of npc model updates apart from Sylvanas (seriously, why is she constantly being updated but not the others?), FOMO etc. but I am sure all of that has already been addressed by others.

    So I'm writing this in response to the coming cross faction organised raiding with 9.2.5 (would be nice to know when that patch actually comes though, but the communication between devs and players is still very bad...)

    Anyways, I'm happy that they finally... finally! come down from their high horse and start moving in a better direction with this baby step... but it's not enough and I really can't understand, why they are so afraid of letting their players actually play together...

    Blizzard is ignoring the majority of players, namely the casuals.

    Cross faction has to be accessible for lfr, random bgs, world quests (without having to add the battlenet ID!) and of course cross faction guilds need to be a thing or all the stuff above is almost meaningless.

    Furthermore racism needs to be a thing of the past.
    Racial segregation should have no place in a modern game.
    The players deserve to have the freedom to choose a faction based on it's values and not based on the races.
    It's kinda sad that you have to point something that simple out to Blizzard...

    My suggestion would be to free the races in waves. For example:

    - Lightforged Draenei & Mecha Gnomes go Horde in 9.2.5
    - High Mountain Tauren & Nightborne go Alliance in 9.2.5

    = These races make absolutely no sense to be in only one faction. It felt incredibly forced and weird to give these races to only one faction. All start zones/cities can and should be shared. So there would be almost no work for Blizzard anyway.

    - Goblins & Vulpera go Alliance with the PrePatch for 10.0
    - Gnomes & Dark Irons go Horde with the PrePatch for 10.0

    = Goblins have more than enough neutral groups. Vulpera can be taken from Kul Tiras with a sailor like theme. So goblins would get a small area within the dwarf district in Stormwind and Vulpera could get their own ship in the Stormwind harbor.
    There certainly are some gnomes, who would like to work with goblins together, so maybe a small area in Azshara? Well and Dark Irons should have been Horde anyway. They fit perfectly and could get a machine in Orgrimmmar.

    - Draenei & Kul Tirans go Horde with 10.1
    - Blood Elves & Tauren go Alliance with 10.1

    = Draenei are very forgiving, so I'm sure, some of them would like to explore the other faction. Even their starting zone can be shared, similar to the Pandaren starter zone. Kul Tirans would be the counter part to sailor Vulpera with their own ship near Orgrimmar.
    Blood Elves (as high elves) already are in the Alliance. So maybe they get their own district in Stormwind or they simply share the starting zone with the blood elves. Tauren... well, quite honestly, Baine is more Alliance than Horde anyway. So the tauren not being Alliance is weird anyway.

    After that all the rest can and should become neutral (with night elves renamed to highborne, similar to blood elves to high elves).

    Keeping this outdated and quite frankly racist concept for so long in wow... yeah, no. Together with cross faction content Blizzard should definitely start making the races neutral.    … Expand
  13. Oakwoody
    Dec 3, 2021
    0
    How can a game with so much potential get so bad?
    Battle For Azeroth was garbage.
    Shadowlands... yeah, still garbage. Story, gameplay, systems, graphic... there is really nothing to like about wow anymore. The story is so idotic and it angers me how much they ruined several important lore characters along with the factions in bfa and continued with that in sl. This game is immensely    How can a game with so much potential get so bad?
    Battle For Azeroth was garbage.
    Shadowlands... yeah, still garbage.
    Story, gameplay, systems, graphic... there is really nothing to like about wow anymore.
    The story is so idotic and it angers me how much they ruined several important lore characters along with the factions in bfa and continued with that in sl.
    This game is immensely unbalanced. Let's be clear here, the faction system with all it's idotic restrictions like racism along with no cross faction play was broken from the very beginning. The imbalance is now so bad... Disgusting how the devs still haven't removed racial segregation and still don't allow cross factions stuff.
    So.Many.Repetitive.Borrowed.Power.Systems.
    Fomo, time gating, content droughts.
    You call that customization options Blizzard? You don't even know how to design normal looking propotions on some races, let alone introduce sliders and ever thought of updating those archaic looking graphics of your older zones? No. Ok. Thought so.    … Expand
  14. Verya
    Dec 6, 2021
    0
    If you are considering to come back to this game, don't. Just don't.
    The last time this game was enjoyable was during Legion. Although the last patch had some flaws, it was still ok. Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are utterly trash and no, that is not an exaggeration.
    And despite of all the feedback and all the criticism the devs of this game are so extremely arrogant, that they    If you are considering to come back to this game, don't. Just don't.
    The last time this game was enjoyable was during Legion. Although the last patch had some flaws, it was still ok. Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are utterly trash and no, that is not an exaggeration.

    And despite of all the feedback and all the criticism the devs of this game are so extremely arrogant, that they are ignoring almost all of it.

    The gameplay is completly broken, on the one hand of course because of the trashy faction system, that prevents players to... well, to actually play with each other, let alone to choose all races they want to play in the faction they want to play, on the other hand because of the class imbalance, the borrowed power systems... well, in general the flood of systems.

    The story is completly bonkers and on top of all they abuse the player's good will with FOMO, as well as extremly long content droughts. Instead of content they usually put more stuff in the store for the sweet microtransaction money.

    Nowadays you will only find whales and players full of copium in this game, as well as players, who know they are in a toxic "relationship" with this game, but can't bring themselves to quite, because they already wasted so much time with this awful game.    … Expand
  15. Traxo
    Dec 4, 2021
    0
    If you're looking for a toxic game, with toxic gameplay, cringe story, a toxic playerbase and toxic devs, World Of Warcraft Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    I find it especially questionable how Blizzard is now trying so desperately trying to make their game look progressive by removing "toxic" emotes almost nobody uses anyway, while at the same time they keep racism, something all    If you're looking for a toxic game, with toxic gameplay, cringe story, a toxic playerbase and toxic devs, World Of Warcraft Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    I find it especially questionable how Blizzard is now trying so desperately trying to make their game look progressive by removing "toxic" emotes almost nobody uses anyway, while at the same time they keep racism, something all players have to participate in because Blizzard is forcing racial segregation on the players.
    You want to play a Draenei, but you're friend wants to play a Tauren? Well, that is your fault! You can't play together and hang out in your favorite city, let alone talk to each other, because RACISM IS THE FOUNDATION OF WOW. -Blizzard
    I can't even... This is such an outdated mindset. Races are literally the only thing that is important to which faction you are supposed to be loyal to.
    Free will, tolerance, diversity and values seem to be a no-go in the mindset of the devs.
    Making a mmo intentionally anti social... just wow.

    Of course there are dozens of other things wrong with wow, but it probably has been mentioned here several times already.    … Expand
  16. Doug92
    Dec 13, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands, as well as Battle for Azeroth, the former expansion, is full of nonsensical and contrived storytelling, retconning previous established lore left and right.

    Furthermore Activision has become painfully hypocritical with their recent attempts to appear open minded, tolerant and progressive. Removing some emotes for example is certainly not the way to remove toxic elements    Shadowlands, as well as Battle for Azeroth, the former expansion, is full of nonsensical and contrived storytelling, retconning previous established lore left and right.

    Furthermore Activision has become painfully hypocritical with their recent attempts to appear open minded, tolerant and progressive. Removing some emotes for example is certainly not the way to remove toxic elements from their game. Racism is the most obvious toxic aspect of wow.
    Racial segregation of playable races, instead of free choice for them all... yeah, you probably should remove that and treat all races equally like Pandaren instead of removing some meaningless stuff like emotes Blizzard ;)

    Gameplaywise the game is in a really unhealthy state. Faction imbalance is as present as it was years ago, yet there is still nothing done about it. Still no cross faction raiding, alt mailing and pvp.

    FOMO, borrowed power systems, outdated graphic, content droughts and so much more...

    1 out of 10 expansion.    … Expand
  17. Piccolos
    Dec 5, 2021
    1
    Let me start by saying that I am a rather new player to this game and the story is, well, it's a mess. It is all over the place with several different timelines and as for someone, who comes from ff14 (which has an incredibly good story) and wants to understand the story, I had to read several pages on the internet, aswell as watching lore videos from youtubers to understand what the heckLet me start by saying that I am a rather new player to this game and the story is, well, it's a mess. It is all over the place with several different timelines and as for someone, who comes from ff14 (which has an incredibly good story) and wants to understand the story, I had to read several pages on the internet, aswell as watching lore videos from youtubers to understand what the heck is going on in this mmo.
    It's really, really messy.

    Now it has some nice parts here and there but it lost me completly with warlords of draenor, battle for azeroth and shadowlands. The story in these expansions is so bad... oh my... xD
    The only reason I played all the way up to shadowlands is a friend to mine, wo wanted someone to play with because his guild mates all left wow.

    Unfortunately I had to end my sub to wow too, because there are just too many aspects of it, which are fundamentally bad. My friend even admits, that wow is in a really bad state, but he said he doesn't want to stop playing because of all the years he spent on wow.

    Unlike Final Fantasy 14, World Of Warcraft doesn't have a linear story design, it's rather comparable to a patchwork rug, which makes you wonder, if Blizzard even cares for their players to feel involved in the lore.

    Unlike Final Fantasy 14 all dungeons, raids and even the systems will be put in to the trash once a new patch or a new expansions hits. It feels like someone is filling your glass with water and then throws it out right in front of you. Seriously, what a toxic game design.
    In ff14 you can play all raids and dungeons all the time, even if your on a max level character and still get good rewards.

    Racism... yeah, I saw it mentioned by quite a few and it's really true. Wow's very pillar so to say is racism. The very first thing you see, while logging in, is racial segregation.
    So unlike ff14, where you can choose your faction freely, without missing out your favorite races, wow is forcing you to play certain races in a certain faction.... It really baffles me, that this company is still keeping such an unethical aspect after 17 years in their game.
    This is certainly not the way factions should operate, based on the way a person looks... really awful mindset right here.

    Along with the racism in this game comes of course the unhealthy faction imbalance. I could go into detail here on all the things Blizzard is doing wrong, but to keep it short, this too is something they should copy from ff14. Cross faction pve and pvp + of course the end of racial segregation.

    Overall I had a really bad expierence with this game. The music of some zones is nice, yeah, but that's about it, since Blizzard can't make the humanoid races look even slightly good/natural... they all look really weird with ugly propotions and the faces... xD

    Yeah, no, I really don't like this game.    … Expand
  18. Cherryo
    Dec 17, 2021
    1
    More time-gating, faction grinding, weekly disappointment-box opening, faction imbalance, cooler stuff in the cash store not based on ingame merit,
    cringe lore (Sylvanas is still the focus of the story and everything and everyone around her is constantly being retconned, just so she can remain a certain dev's waifu...)
    mind numbing sytems, FOMO, token collecting locked behind more    More time-gating, faction grinding, weekly disappointment-box opening, faction imbalance, cooler stuff in the cash store not based on ingame merit,
    cringe lore (Sylvanas is still the focus of the story and everything and everyone around her is constantly being retconned, just so she can remain a certain dev's waifu...)
    mind numbing sytems, FOMO, token collecting locked behind more time-gating so you can purchase stuff that will be invalid faster than it took to earn it, and of course some new lifeless and homogenous looking set armors made in the most bland and uninspiring colors, outdated graphics and rediculous few customisation options.

    I also don’t understand how a company can keep isolating half their player base, and yes that is what it is. It is clearly shown that one faction is suffering in a downward trend when it comes to players, they are either shifting faction, or quitting and moving to other games. Other games got rid of this unnecessary restriction long ago.

    Blizzard has to stop restricting the ability to play whatever you want, with whomever you want.
    Not only for gameplay reasons, but also because it's a very racist concept. Racial segregation of playable races? Yeah, that is called racism in a virtual form. All races should be neutral and not be treated like hive mind slaves.

    Honestly I just feel like at this point Blizzard is letting their game slowly implode, and will continue to blame the player base for being the problem, and not themselves.    … Expand
  19. Acrol87X
    Feb 16, 2022
    1
    Just as bad as bfa.
    Worst part for me personally is the awful story, that continues to focus around that horrible written Mary- or in this case Evil Sue Sylvanas. That character has caused several retcons and idotic lore decisions just so she can be the focus of the story all the time... just really, really awful story telling that ruined the lore of wow completely.
    Stuff like faction    Just as bad as bfa.
    Worst part for me personally is the awful story, that continues to focus around that horrible written Mary- or in this case Evil Sue Sylvanas. That character has caused several retcons and idotic lore decisions just so she can be the focus of the story all the time... just really, really awful story telling that ruined the lore of wow completely.

    Stuff like faction imbalance caused by faction neglection of the devs, FOMO, borrowed power, Choregast, class imbalance, outdated graphics, drop rates, time gating and many more things... well, it's not like there wasn't any feedback, but the devs keep ignoring their player's feedback for the most part... overall a really toxic game design.

    Now I had some hope with the announcement that they would finally introduce cross faction play with 9.2.5.... better late than never I guess... but turns out that they are only making cross faction raids, dungeons and rated PvP available, so I was instantly let down, yet again, as I learned that they keep the races separated and also don't allow cross faction guilds, lfr, random bgs and alt mailing... so essentially ignoring all their casuals.

    Just wow... cater for like what? 5% of the playerbase while continuing to ignore the majority? No thanks. So again, that tiny step they are making there won't bring me back.

    If they are finally getting rid of racial segregation and let us choose a faction freely without binding the races to a certain faction, then we can talk, but what they are doing now is nothing more than a tiny band-aid on a broken leg, that hasn't been treated for several years.    … Expand
  20. Wikk
    Dec 26, 2021
    1
    I'm just disappointed with Shadowlands, similar to battle for Azeroth.

    My biggest concern however is Blizzard's completely neglection of the dreadful and toxic faction system. They refused to fix this mess for almost two decades now and are still keeping racial segregation instead of neutral races and still no cross faction raids in sight. How can a company be that ignorant and toxic to    I'm just disappointed with Shadowlands, similar to battle for Azeroth.

    My biggest concern however is Blizzard's completely neglection of the dreadful and toxic faction system. They refused to fix this mess for almost two decades now and are still keeping racial segregation instead of neutral races and still no cross faction raids in sight. How can a company be that ignorant and toxic to their player base? Truly baffles me...

    Then again they are also practising FOMO, like with the mage tower for example, where they refuse to give the original rewards and instead players now only get boring and recolored gear sets. Not to mention that the mage tower (again) will only be playable for a short amount of time.

    Speaking of toxic behavior and neglection, they also constantly shove new borrowed power systems down our throats and still haven't updated old models and the world, let alone give all races a solid amount of customisation options. Body height slidesrs? Yeah, you won't even find simple stuff like that in this game.

    The story in this game? ... Just awful. Really, really awful. For years now players have to suffer under the obsession of the devs with their cash cow Sylvanas, which resulted in several horrible retcons, just so they can keep her around.    … Expand
  21. Cweetu
    Jan 5, 2022
    1
    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The lore: Battle for Azeroth & Shadowlands ruined former established lore completely. Why? Because the devs seemingly have an unhealthy obsession with Sylvanas. Faction Imbalance: Beyond repair. What started with tbc (mainly because of blood elves) was seemingly intentionally made so much worse with the introduction of Vulpera vs. disabled gnomes.    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The lore: Battle for Azeroth & Shadowlands ruined former established lore completely. Why? Because the devs seemingly have an unhealthy obsession with Sylvanas.

    Faction Imbalance: Beyond repair. What started with tbc (mainly because of blood elves) was seemingly intentionally made so much worse with the introduction of Vulpera vs. disabled gnomes. (There are a lot of other factors, too of course, but let's be honest here, most people choose a faction based on the races).
    Since Blizzard actively promotes racism in form of racial segregation there is no free choice in this game. Factions are divided based on the given races.
    Disgusting game design, but it comes to no surprise after seeing how toxic the work environment at Blizzard is. So no wonder, that they keep strict racial segregation and with that a clearly outdated mindset in this game.

    Just like the awful lore, which should be reset to Legion at this point, they should get rid of racism. No more racial segregation. All races for both factions + optional cross faction pve & pvp & alt mailing.

    FOMO... Jeez...
    I was on the brink of resubbing for the mage tower, only to learn, that Blizzard would only bring it back for a short amount of time & without the original rewards. WTF? No thanks...

    Graphic: Wolf npcs still look like in 2004, just like many other elements. How lazy can you get with your game, Blizzard?

    Time gating, borrowed power systems and so much more... not a game I would play anymore.    … Expand
  22. JR7
    Mar 23, 2022
    1
    What a hypocritical company. They change an ingame painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits for example and claiming with that they would now be progressive, yet at the same time they keep racism in form of strict racial segregation (except for Pandaren) in their game.
    Like... what?? In what reality is racism as a foundation of a game progressive?
    But that are Blizzard's double    What a hypocritical company. They change an ingame painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits for example and claiming with that they would now be progressive, yet at the same time they keep racism in form of strict racial segregation (except for Pandaren) in their game.
    Like... what?? In what reality is racism as a foundation of a game progressive?
    But that are Blizzard's double standards for you...
    In their world what counts in order to pick a faction is what you look like, not what you stand for.

    Shadowlands is yet the second awful expansion in a row. It has incredibly bad lore just like bfa, it has long content droughts, repetitive borrowed power systems, still outdated graphics, incredible unbalanced customisation options between the races und still a serious imbalance between the factions.    … Expand
  23. HugoXY
    Mar 25, 2022
    0
    We have 2022 and Blizzard is still promoting racism with the division of the playable races. Yikes. Only exception being Pandaren, but all the other's have seemingly a hive mind and keep to only to one side. What an embarrassment for modern times.
    It comes to no surprise however, considering the lawsuit against this company.
    A friend of mine said I should try this game and I was    We have 2022 and Blizzard is still promoting racism with the division of the playable races. Yikes. Only exception being Pandaren, but all the other's have seemingly a hive mind and keep to only to one side. What an embarrassment for modern times.
    It comes to no surprise however, considering the lawsuit against this company.
    A friend of mine said I should try this game and I was disgusted that the first thing I saw was open racism. Jeez... and there are still players, who actually play this game? Just sad...
    Not to mention the limited customisation options and age old graphics in this game.
    I can't recommend world of warcraft at all.    … Expand
  24. Dhoris
    Mar 28, 2022
    1
    This game has soooo much outdated stuff...
    Imagine still holding on to racism in this day and age. Yeah, that's world of warcraft for y'all, where almost all races are split to a certain faction because, if you look a certain way, then you will of course only stick to your own kind, because that is how factions work! -Blizzard's mentality.
    The only race with free will is Pandaren. All    This game has soooo much outdated stuff...
    Imagine still holding on to racism in this day and age. Yeah, that's world of warcraft for y'all, where almost all races are split to a certain faction because, if you look a certain way, then you will of course only stick to your own kind, because that is how factions work! -Blizzard's mentality.
    The only race with free will is Pandaren. All the others stick to racial segregation. Makes you kinda want to puke honestly. And the devs probably think this mentality is fine.

    Also outdated graphics, FOMO (mage tower without artifact skins for example), stupid lore, no cross faction lfr and lfd, no cross faction guilds, lack of modern customization options, you name it. Just don't play this game until major changes happen... if they will ever happen that is.    … Expand
  25. Horok
    Mar 31, 2022
    0
    What a racist company. Racial segregation is still a thing in this game. It might have been acceptable in 2004, but they kept it til this very day. Only half of the races are available for one faction, while the other half is available for the other faction. In Blizzard's mind this is seemingly the way factions work, meaning what race you are is important, not your values. Like... wtf?
    I    What a racist company. Racial segregation is still a thing in this game. It might have been acceptable in 2004, but they kept it til this very day. Only half of the races are available for one faction, while the other half is available for the other faction. In Blizzard's mind this is seemingly the way factions work, meaning what race you are is important, not your values. Like... wtf?
    I just find it hilarious, how people only just recently realised how racist this company is due to the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, while in reality this game had obvious racist elements since the very beginning.
    I for one won't touch this game as long as they keep racial segregation (and as long as the lore keeps being so unbelievable brain afk and as long as there is no cross faction guilds, lfr and lfd).    … Expand
  26. Savip
    Dec 15, 2021
    0
    Blizzard is incredibly disrespectful to their players.
    Just like in bfa they continue to ignore the gigantic gap between the factions. The imbalance is so big, that it has become nearly impossible to play in the hugely outnumbered faction.
    Now you would think they do something about it. Instead they did the exact opposite. Giving the small faction obese humans, gnomes with amputated    Blizzard is incredibly disrespectful to their players.
    Just like in bfa they continue to ignore the gigantic gap between the factions. The imbalance is so big, that it has become nearly impossible to play in the hugely outnumbered faction.

    Now you would think they do something about it. Instead they did the exact opposite.
    Giving the small faction obese humans, gnomes with amputated arms and legs, a copy & paste race without solid lore, without a hub and as ugly as it can get with tentacle hair, horrible hair styles in general and washed out skin and hair tones... while giving the already overpopulated faction races with rich lore, huge cities and only they got an actually new race, that could be straight out of a Disney movie.
    Yeah, that will make players pick the small faction...not.

    As many others mentioned before me, the whole racial segregation stuff is idiotic anyway. Factions don't work like that. Not the race but the characters and the things they feel connected to should matter. Every race should have the freedom to choose.
    Putting racism in a game is one thing, but forcing players to be an active part of it is another and yes, there are people, who got the mindset that racial segregation would be a positive thing. How toxic can you get?

    And people are wondering, why wow has such a toxic playerbase... The devs are activly catering to them. Not just with racism, but also with stuff like FOMO.

    Also there is still no cross faction play, the story is idiotic, the content droughts get longer and longer, almost no communication with the players, feedback gets ignored or corrupted, no player housing, the customisation options of the races are not only too few, but also extremely unfairly portioned, the classes are unbalanced and the old world looks rediculous outdated.

    Whatever, I'm done with this horrible game and Blizzard in general. There are certainly other mmos, thst respect all their players, not just a few.    … Expand
  27. ZekanK
    Feb 23, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands feels like a mindless chore. There are way too many grinds, way too long content droughts and way too much time gating and FOMO.
    Not to mention the horrible story. The developers seem to be obsessed with Sylvanas, like seriously. They are going out of their way to make the whole story about this stupid character. Certainly a huge part why battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands    Shadowlands feels like a mindless chore. There are way too many grinds, way too long content droughts and way too much time gating and FOMO.
    Not to mention the horrible story. The developers seem to be obsessed with Sylvanas, like seriously. They are going out of their way to make the whole story about this stupid character. Certainly a huge part why battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands have a trash story.
    Also a huge factor why this game is trash is the faction imbalance, which the developers created. It's gotten so bad, that this game is beyond repair. They have to introduce cross faction guilds, raids, pvp, lfr, alt mailing etc. asap.
    They also have to allow all races for both factions. Not only because of faction imbalance, but rather because racial segregation is just a horrible aspect of wow in general.
    Racism should never be something that is as glorified as it is in this broken af game.    … Expand
  28. XxZxX
    Apr 3, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands is awful. Second awful expansion in a row...

    Along with the typical stuff like FOMO, racism -yeah, playable races are still split between the 2 factions, what really makes you question the mentality of the devs, but whatever,- no player housing, unbalanced and in general too few customisation options, no dyeable gear, no npc and world update -seriously, the graphic is    Shadowlands is awful. Second awful expansion in a row...

    Along with the typical stuff like FOMO, racism -yeah, playable races are still split between the 2 factions, what really makes you question the mentality of the devs, but whatever,- no player housing, unbalanced and in general too few customisation options, no dyeable gear, no npc and world update -seriously, the graphic is outdated af in this game-, borrowed power systems, huge content droughts, almost no communication between devs and players and unbalanced classes you get another expansion with really stupid lore with Sylvanas as the main character since the devs seem to be obsessed with her for several years.

    Do yourself a favor and don't waste time with world of warcraft. This game won't respect your time and on top of that glorifies racism.    … Expand
  29. Anatar90
    Jan 24, 2021
    0
    As every Blizzard product it is not a game it is a service for milking their playerbase. No fun, no rewards, extrimly toxic community of funboys. There are many good MMO's on the market with their own pros and cons but definitly better than WoW: Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, ESO. Beware of Blizzard false marketing machine!
  30. Cookie728
    Feb 18, 2022
    0
    Activision Blizzard is as toxic as it can get.
    Do not play World Of Warcraft as long as this toxic game design and in general this toxic mentality of the developers continues.
    Since this will be a long critic, I will concentrate on the biggest problem, faction imbalance: The devs will tell you „Oh, well, we're listening“, „We're working on it“, „It's a player made problem, not our    Activision Blizzard is as toxic as it can get.
    Do not play World Of Warcraft as long as this toxic game design and in general this toxic mentality of the developers continues.

    Since this will be a long critic, I will concentrate on the biggest problem, faction imbalance:

    The devs will tell you „Oh, well, we're listening“, „We're working on it“, „It's a player made problem, not our fault“ and so on,
    while in fact, no, they are not working on it, they haven't done anything to improve the situation while they should have done something a decade ago, they are not listening, they make the situation worse and worse and it definitely is the fault of the devs.

    For example:

    They gave the overpopulated faction a new version of night elves with their own model, lots of lore and a beautiful and large city... the unpopular faction get's a copy & paste race, but blue and with incredibly ugly hair styles and tentacles with some rocks in the void as their home that nobody but them can visit and without a unique model...

    H-Gets a better looking version of an old race,
    A-get's an ugly fat version of an old race with a ridiculous big body height, probably because the devs want to reuse that model for heavily requested ogres for the overpopulated faction...

    And the biggest insult of all:

    H-gets a brand new race, that could be sraight out of a Disney movie and was heavily requested by both factions. A race that could finally bring players back to the unpopulated faction... nah, let't give that to the already overpopulated faction!
    A-get's a variation of an old and extremely unpopular race, that looks even worse than the old race.

    Congrats, Blizzard, you are clearly working on the problem by trolling the small faction. :)

    And this is just one of many things they did to insult the small faction.
    There are also the cities and zones for the factions.

    A- lost 2 zones, that are now in an endless limbo: controlled by the H and controlled by the A and not a final option, that would show them under the conrtol of A.

    A-lost their only and popular elf city and a world tree- Teldrassil, lost a big harbor city- Theramore, lost a druid village of night elves, lost several zones, Astranaar is still under attack, lost a sailor village in Kultiras.
    What did they get in return? Mechagon... a junkyad, literally.

    H-lost an unpopular and already broken city, that can be restored by removing the plague, that their own leader put there and a tauren village with like 3 tents or so.
    They get an extremely huge zone with a gigantic elf city and they get a second huge zone with a gigantic tauren city.

    Seems fair, huh? Good thing you are listening to all your players, Blizzard. :)

    Several friends of mine left wow over the last couple of years, who felt trolled by Blizzard for wanting to play the small faction and I had to switch to the overpopulated faction because my favorite faction became a ghost town... to no surprise.
    Eventually I quit this awful game too because there are no improvements whatsoever in Shadowlands.

    This problem wouldn't even be there in the first place, if one of this game's pillar's wouldn't be built on racism.
    If all races would be available for both factions, along with cross faction play we could all play the faction we prefer and wouldn't be forced to play the faction the devs prefer.

    A truly toxic game, that I can tell you and I won't give this company any more money for insulting a part of their playerbase... and for a painfully bad story (aka Sylvanas).    … Expand
  31. Cosmos8
    May 2, 2022
    1
    I couldn't agree more with the other criticisms here. I'm so tired of all the restrictions in this game.
    There is so much you just can't do in wow.
    As already mentioned in other reviews, a big factor is of course the very, very stale faction choice. You won't be able to play half of the races in the faction you prefer. Who ever came up with this very poorly aged racial segregation    I couldn't agree more with the other criticisms here. I'm so tired of all the restrictions in this game.
    There is so much you just can't do in wow.
    As already mentioned in other reviews, a big factor is of course the very, very stale faction choice. You won't be able to play half of the races in the faction you prefer.
    Who ever came up with this very poorly aged racial segregation concept in wow... jeez... It makes faction choice look very shady and for us players it is just a very, very frustrating restriction.

    For me the restrictions on transmogs, which are bound to classes is also really annoying.
    Then of course fomo and time gating.

    Content droughts are also worth mentioning, considering that we have to pay monthly for wow.

    The story is a disaster in battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands (mainly because of Sylvanas).

    Customization options don't fulfil modern standards and some races would need a whole body upgrade because they look extremly weird, like male humans, night elves, worgen, male gnomes, male dwarves, blood and void elves.
    Also most zones use very dated graphics.

    Overall a very poorly managed game, that isn't worth playing in it's current state.    … Expand
  32. Tokoa
    Apr 5, 2022
    1
    I kinda agree on the comments here about the racism in wow.
    It is a very outdated mindset and as a player you don't have any choice but to take part in it, if you want to play this game. I guess especially after the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard the racial segregation part of this game became painfully obvious.
    This game won't let you choose a faction because of values and overall    I kinda agree on the comments here about the racism in wow.
    It is a very outdated mindset and as a player you don't have any choice but to take part in it, if you want to play this game. I guess especially after the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard the racial segregation part of this game became painfully obvious.
    This game won't let you choose a faction because of values and overall theme, it makes you choose because of the races, which are strictly divided between the factions and that for almost 2 decades.
    I think this game desperately needs to change this outdated concept and has to finally allow all members of a race to choose their faction freely.
    It is really time to end this racist concept and better sooner than later, considering the bad reputation of this company.
    It's also a very unnatural thing to keep in the game. Baine for example is more Alliance than Horde and Calia on the other hand is more Horde than Alliance.
    There are lots of neutral groups in the lore, who would choose the other side and even in the case of night elves, you could simply rename Horde nelves to Highborne and in return blood elves to high elves. Rogue Worgen for Horde, sailor Vulpera from Kul Tiras for Alliance, nightborne, lightforged, mecha gnomes and highmountain tauren don't make any sense to be in only one faction anyway.
    I mean, it's really simple, but instead Blizzard chooses to give them all a hivemind and keep racial segregation for whatever reason. xD
    I have really no clue why they hold on to racism of all things...
    Ah well, I hope they rethink their faction system altogether.
    Factions should only be exclusive in clothes and flags (and main cities, meaning Stormwind and Orgrimmar, maybe Teldrassil 2.0 (if there is one) and undercity). The rest like Exodar, Suramar, Silvermoon, Gilneas and so on should be available for both sides and with that for all players.
    There are more than enough frustrating things in this game (especially the lore in recent years, borrowed power systems and fomo), factions should not remain one of them.    … Expand
  33. RoyX71
    Mar 2, 2022
    0
    Horrible.
    This game is horrible. Ever since bfa the writers butchered the story, they humiliated the night elves non-stop, they portrayed the factions as completely brain afk, gods became a complete joke, retcons left and right and now with 9.2. they trashed the last good character, Arthas.
    And for what? Because the writers are obsessed with their waifu Sylvanas. I mean, yeah, I    Horrible.
    This game is horrible. Ever since bfa the writers butchered the story, they humiliated the night elves non-stop, they portrayed the factions as completely brain afk, gods became a complete joke, retcons left and right and now with 9.2. they trashed the last good character, Arthas.
    And for what?
    Because the writers are obsessed with their waifu Sylvanas.

    I mean, yeah, I agree with others here criticising the faction imbalance, class imbalance, ridiculous drop rates, racial segregation, fomo, borrowed power systems, time gating, unfinished content even after long content droughts, lazy character design, oudated graphics in general, you name it, but the lore... I just can't anymore.
    I honestly don't know why I've hoped for over 5 years now that the story will get better eventually.

    Unless they reset the lore entirely back to Legion I won't return to this horrendous game.    … Expand
  34. Xerjx
    Apr 21, 2022
    2
    Shadowlands as well as Battle For Azeroth are both very bad expansions with an obnoxious focus on Sylvanas, which basically ruind the entire lore, lot of content droughts, borrwed power systems, fomo, time gating and with a playerbase that is left ignored for the most part when it comes to feedback.
    Like others I want also criticize the ongoing racism in this game, which is dictated by    Shadowlands as well as Battle For Azeroth are both very bad expansions with an obnoxious focus on Sylvanas, which basically ruind the entire lore, lot of content droughts, borrwed power systems, fomo, time gating and with a playerbase that is left ignored for the most part when it comes to feedback.
    Like others I want also criticize the ongoing racism in this game, which is dictated by the developers in form of racial segregation when it comes to playable races.
    Seriously, in what age are these devs living in when they are still thinking your race is what defines your faction and loyalty?
    Race is apparently more important to Blizzard than values. Seriously?
    Get a grip, Blizzard! End racial segregation and give all races free will, instead of a hivemind. It is not only questinable to keep racism in the game it is also frustrating for us players not to be able to have the races we want to play together with the faction we want to be in.
    Together with cross faction guilds, lfr and lfd this will also FINALLY end the faction imbalance the devs created, because choosing a faction won't be forced because of races anymore or the bigger playerbase, but only because of the lore and main cities.    … Expand
  35. Tek7O
    May 1, 2022
    2
    This game is all about limitations. There are so many unnecessary restrictions for players, it's ridiculous.

    You want to earn a certain weapon skin from the mage tower? Nope. FOMO says hello. You want to play a dark iron dwarf (for example) in the Horde? Nope. Races are strictly separated between factions. You are not allowed to play the races you like in your favorite faction.    This game is all about limitations. There are so many unnecessary restrictions for players, it's ridiculous.

    You want to earn a certain weapon skin from the mage tower? Nope. FOMO says hello.

    You want to play a dark iron dwarf (for example) in the Horde? Nope. Races are strictly separated between factions. You are not allowed to play the races you like in your favorite faction.

    You want to be in the same guild and do some quests together with your friend, who happens to prefer team blue, while you prefer team red? Nope. Players are strictly separated between factions.

    You want to have your character a bit shorter or bigger? Nope. Customisation options only give you the bare minimum & are also extremely unbalanced between races.

    This game is full of tedious restrictions and outdated graphics.
    Can't recommend it at all.    … Expand
  36. Joshras
    Jan 16, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands isn't worth anyone's time. This is yet the second time in a row, where Blizzard messed up with so many things, lore, borrowed power systems, faction imbalance is as bad as ever, class imbalance, FOMO, outdated graphics, very long content droughts and so on. It's a mess.

    Since so many players are talking about the faction imbalance and with that Blizzard's questionable    Shadowlands isn't worth anyone's time. This is yet the second time in a row, where Blizzard messed up with so many things, lore, borrowed power systems, faction imbalance is as bad as ever, class imbalance, FOMO, outdated graphics, very long content droughts and so on. It's a mess.

    Since so many players are talking about the faction imbalance and with that Blizzard's questionable viewpoint on racism with their strict racial segregation between the factions and the races...
    don't expect Blizzard to change it for the better, aka removing it and giving the races an actual free will like Pandaren.
    I bet, if they will ever do something about the faction imbalance, even so they should have done something 10 years ago, they probably will only do something half-as* like allowing cross faction m+ raiding, instead of just straight up removing their racist concept and allowing all races for both factions and cross faction grouping, alt mailing and pvp.

    Why?

    We are talking about a company, that has a giant lawsuit against them for harassing female employees and treating employees of color in general worse. You really expect these guys to remove racial segregation from their game? Dream on. All you will get is meaningless stuff like removed emotes and a "bowl of fruits".

    Yes, I wish this game would finally get better, because it has certainly potential... if you would remove the entire story of bfa and shadowlands that is, but honestly, I don't see wow getting good anytime soon with the mentality of these developers.    … Expand
  37. OxolotlX
    Jan 27, 2022
    1
    What can I say?
    This game is has an awful story, that makes every fanfcition written by an edgy teenager look like a masterpiece,
    it has an overwhelmingly toxic game design with: lots of FOMO, racism- yes, you've read that right, because the forced racial segregation in this game for the playable races between factions is just that, time gating, gigantic content droughts and instead    What can I say?
    This game is has an awful story, that makes every fanfcition written by an edgy teenager look like a masterpiece,
    it has an overwhelmingly toxic game design with:
    lots of FOMO,
    racism- yes, you've read that right, because the forced racial segregation in this game for the playable races between factions is just that,
    time gating,
    gigantic content droughts and instead of new content they remind you every few weeks that there are new microtransactions you should buy, because monthly sub costs + expansion costs are seemingly not enough for Blizzard,
    outdated graphics in most of the zones,
    no customisation options like sliders and color palettes... you know, standard things in this day and age...,
    no player housing,
    almost no communication between the devs and players,
    horrible faction imbalance, because the devs seem to have fun trolling and neglecting one faction and openly favoring the other,
    no cross faction pve & pvp, meaning if you want to do anything you are forced to play the bigger faction, which also means you only get to play half of the races, because racism is so important for Activision Blizzard,
    disgusting borrowed power systems.

    Do not play this toxic game. I suppose the only players, who are still giving Blizzard money, despite the terrible state of wow ever since the end of Legion and of course the lawsuit against this company, are the most toxic kind of players you can imagine, whales, addicts full of copium and such.

    Really frustrating to see what a dumpster fire this game has become.    … Expand
  38. Kikvid
    Feb 24, 2022
    0
    The devs of this game are racist and sexist with outdated views, which they put in this game and even praise them as a so called „pillar of world of warcraft“.
    I'm exaggerating? Well, last year the state of Californian sued Activision Blizzard for the things they did behind the curtain.
    Their questionable mentality shows very clearly in world of warcraft. It's the very first thing a    The devs of this game are racist and sexist with outdated views, which they put in this game and even praise them as a so called „pillar of world of warcraft“.
    I'm exaggerating? Well, last year the state of Californian sued Activision Blizzard for the things they did behind the curtain.

    Their questionable mentality shows very clearly in world of warcraft.
    It's the very first thing a player will forcefully participate in. Racism.
    The 2 factions of this game are strictly separated by...? What? History? Values? No, no, we're talking of Blizzard here after all. The factions are divided by races.
    So players can't just play the faction they prefer because of it's lore, they are forced to participate in racial segregation, having to choose a faction based on the races.
    Wow... you know what Blizzard? Praising racism as a foundation in a game doesn't make it less disgusting than in real life.
    That's like saying the races can't think for themselves, making their own decisions. No, they all think like one person and if that person prefers blue or red, they will follow, no free thinking allowed in this game.
    If we would compare this with rl, this game would dictate you to decide, if you want to live exclusively with white people or with black people (for example). Just idotic to it's core.
    Instead of just making the factions visual exclusive based on it's gear and the main capital (Stormwind and Orgrimmar) they instead are making them exclusive because of the races.

    There are many things wrong with world of warcraft, but racism as it's very pillar... can't get any worse than that, huh?

    But sure, there are also the loooooooooooong content droughts together with all the time gating, despite this being a monthly subscription game, showing how greedy this company is. No content for months? Ah well, who cares! Buy more store mounts, dear payers... eh, players!

    Customisation options and graphics are the bare minimum. Yes, the new zones use relatively modern graphics, however a huge chunk of wow uses graphics from the early 2000s, yes, it looks like pixel mush.
    The customisation options are not only very uneven between the races, they don't even have standard options like sliders and color palettes... I'm not sure, if Blizzard realised yet, that we are living in the year 2022...

    The lore... one would assume the lead writer of wow sleeps with a body pillar of Sylvanas, given the way he writes the story. The decision to make her the main character for 5+ years has caused wow several severe retcons, destroyed Azeroth, destroyed the lore of literal gods of that world and made both factions look like complete idiots.

    FOMO, ah yes, they are still using this cheap method to bind players to their game. "You will only get this reward for a limited amount of time! Better never take a break of this game or you will miss it!!!" DIsgusting. I have nothing more to say about it.

    Faction imbalance, well, it doesn't need much of a brain to see why it came to this. It started with bc and was actively made worse during bfa by the devs. Yes, I heard they want to make a baby step with 9.2.5. but let's be honest here, without cross faction raids, lfd/lfr, random bgs, alt mailing and neutral races this won't help the issue at all.

    World Of Warcraft gets 0/10 points from me. Yes, it may have some interesting parts here and there, but even that died with the end Legion.
    Who knows, if this game will become good one day, but Shadowlands is certainly not good at all.    … Expand
  39. Zni
    Apr 6, 2022
    0
    When you're playing wow, you get the feeling you went back in time and are still in the early 2000s and I don't mean that in a positive way. Quite the opposite.
    Many zones and npcs in this game are not updated, meaning the graphic is very outdated and an ugly pixel mush.
    Even worse, after all these years Blizzard kept racism in their game and divide the playable races between the 2 very    When you're playing wow, you get the feeling you went back in time and are still in the early 2000s and I don't mean that in a positive way. Quite the opposite.
    Many zones and npcs in this game are not updated, meaning the graphic is very outdated and an ugly pixel mush.
    Even worse, after all these years Blizzard kept racism in their game and divide the playable races between the 2 very unbalanced factions. By this players can't really decide what faction they would like to play on because of it's lore etc. but rather because racial segregation is still very real in wow. Quite frankly I find it very distasteful of Blizzard holding on to racism.
    Lastly I want to mention the lore, which went downhill very badly for the last couple of years.
    wow is in a very sad state and I can't recommend playing it.    … Expand
  40. Jagers
    Apr 26, 2022
    1
    This game is beyond bad and the developers have really outdated and shady world views, which they project in their game.
    They are actively forcing players to choose a faction solely based on race and separate races between the two factions. What you look like is important to which faction you go...disgusting.
    I bet these developers wish they could return to the days, where your race was    This game is beyond bad and the developers have really outdated and shady world views, which they project in their game.
    They are actively forcing players to choose a faction solely based on race and separate races between the two factions. What you look like is important to which faction you go...disgusting.
    I bet these developers wish they could return to the days, where your race was decisive to which school you could go, what job you can get or to which club you was allowed to go.
    The devs are certainly forcing this racist mindset upon their players.

    The new zones look nice, I can give a point for that, but that's pretty much all.
    The lore is ridiculous, there are way too many months without any new content despite the monthly sub costs, factions are obviously still unbalanced with all the restrictions and through the general behavior of the devs, classes are unbalanced, the old zones look horribly outdated aswell as many, many npcs apart from Sylvanas, who gets updated nonstop, probably because a certain writer loves her a bit too much... borrowed power systems, almost no communication and oh well, it's just a really bad expansion. Just like bfa and wod.    … Expand
  41. Nihax
    Apr 2, 2022
    1
    *Sigh*
    Shadowlands might be not as bad as battle for Azeroth, but it is still very, very bad (especially regarding the... very questionable lore and all the systems that nobody asked for.)
    For me personally however the worst part remains to be the toxic behavior of the developers, who keep neglecting one of their 2 playable factions for years now. In bfa it felt as if they were straight    *Sigh*
    Shadowlands might be not as bad as battle for Azeroth, but it is still very, very bad (especially regarding the... very questionable lore and all the systems that nobody asked for.)
    For me personally however the worst part remains to be the toxic behavior of the developers, who keep neglecting one of their 2 playable factions for years now. In bfa it felt as if they were straight up trolling the faction by:
    -giving them fat humans in ogre size, junk gnomes & a copy & paste races (but worse than the original, insead of high elves, that had been Alliance since the beginning and were highly requested for over a decade), not a single city, but instead an island full of junk, destroyed 2 zones (never endling warzone loop) and burned their world tree.
    -All that while giving the already overpopulated faction 2 new gigantic cities (Suramar -the biggest elf city in the entire game and highmountain) along with rich lore, a new mainstream fox race and an upgrade for trolls, 4 HD cinemtatics all about the meaning of their faction, they lost no zones to these disgusting war zone concept, and undercity can still be restored.
    This constant focus on the overpopulated faction is just so... tiring and at the same time the devs will tell us, that it is a playermade issue... yeah, sure.^^
    As someone, who doesn't want to swap to the overpopulated faction this game became unbearable a long time ago. Nonetheless I tried out Shadowlands, only to learn, that nothing has changed.
    The devs keep neglecting my favorite faction, so yeah, I won't pay for this dreadful game anymore.
    You can't have a 2 faction system in your game, when one faction is treated as a second class citizen for all these years.    … Expand
  42. Ukole
    May 12, 2022
    0
    I can't even fully describe how much went wrong over the last 2 expansions battle for azeroth and shadowlands... It's just so much. So here are just a few things:

    Lore...they completely ruined it and no, that is not an exaggeration. They retconned so much, just so that they could keep their status quo of Sylvanas being the Mary Sue of this game... disgusting. There is also disgusting    I can't even fully describe how much went wrong over the last 2 expansions battle for azeroth and shadowlands... It's just so much. So here are just a few things:

    Lore...they completely ruined it and no, that is not an exaggeration. They retconned so much, just so that they could keep their status quo of Sylvanas being the Mary Sue of this game... disgusting.

    There is also disgusting bias of the devs towards the Horde =huge faction imbalance as a result. They are downright trolling the Alliance with races like junk gnomes, fat humans that for some reasons (future ogres?^^) are ludicrous big, blue elves with ugly af hair styles and tentacles, no lore, no home & no logical lore, just so they could troll high elf fans, destroying 2 Alliance zones & making them to never ending war zones, gave the Horde 4 HD Cinematics, a new mainstream fox race, nightborne (better looking night elves with more customisations) two gigantic cities (Suramar, Highmountain) with rich lore, now with dragonflights they will also give the Horde female humans... the list goes on. So of course there are almost no players left on team blue.

    Almost no content over the last 2 years, yet lots & lots of time gating.

    FOMO.

    Class imbalance.

    Nothing innovative, like player housing (or actual modern customisation options/sliders color pallets etc.)

    Like others wrote, racial segregation. Yeah, it's still a thing in this game. You have to look a certain way, to be in a certain faction. Also disgusting.
    Not to mention that with all races being neutral + cross faction guilds there would be no faction imbalance. So of course Blizzard will hold on to racial segregation, in order to keep this game as toxic as it can get.

    0/10 Do not play this game. It's really bad.    … Expand
  43. cOKI
    Apr 11, 2022
    1
    I find it funny how so many criticize racial segregation in wow. While yes, of course it's wrong and Blizzard needs to remove the racist division of the races, but why does nobody (as far as I could see) criticize the allied races aspect from bfa? I mean... um... overweight humans are presented as their own race instead of just a customisation option for normal humans...disabled gnomes areI find it funny how so many criticize racial segregation in wow. While yes, of course it's wrong and Blizzard needs to remove the racist division of the races, but why does nobody (as far as I could see) criticize the allied races aspect from bfa? I mean... um... overweight humans are presented as their own race instead of just a customisation option for normal humans...disabled gnomes are also considered their own race instead of just a customisation option for normal gnomes? Riiiiight... You could make the argument that brown orcs as their own race instead of a customisation option for green orcs is also very questionable.
    Well and all the other races (except for the only new race Vulpera) are as lazy as it can get, just recolors of the original race.
    If you look at the whole way Blizzard manages their playable races... well, it becomes pretty obvious that this company has not quite arrived in 2022 yet and has rather questionable views.

    Anyway, as for Shadowlands... the lore is just as awful as in bfa and all this because of the dev's mascot Sylvanas.
    There is absolutely no connection to Azeroth. The player spends the entire time in a death realm and yeah... it's as depressing as it sounds.
    The bunch of recycled borrowed power systems are just frustrating and time consuming.
    We (the players) are still not allowed to play in lfrs and lfds with our friends in the other faction and also no cross faction bgs and guilds. With the big faction imbalance this makes the game unplayble for a lot of players.
    FOMO... mage tower without the original skins for example.
    Graphic... while Sylvanas gets a new outfit pretty much every patch almost all the other npcs look outdated and ugly. They also haven't updated most of the old world, not even the main cities...
    Every game has it, Blizzard of course doesn't have it. Player housing, yeah... guess that would be too much work for a small indie company like Blizzard...    … Expand
  44. Kuszko
    Apr 9, 2022
    0
    Incredible racist, hypocritical and toxic company. Changing an ingame painting of a woman in a bikini with a painting of a bowl with fruits and removing some emotes is Blizzard's way of saying "Hey, look how progressive we are!", yet at the same time they're preaching their gamers that racial segregation is such a cool foundation of their game. After almost 2 decades playable races areIncredible racist, hypocritical and toxic company. Changing an ingame painting of a woman in a bikini with a painting of a bowl with fruits and removing some emotes is Blizzard's way of saying "Hey, look how progressive we are!", yet at the same time they're preaching their gamers that racial segregation is such a cool foundation of their game. After almost 2 decades playable races are still divided between the factions, sending the message of "You have to look a certain way, if you want to join team blue or red. We don't care what you stand for and which faction you feel loyal to, only your race matters like in the good ole days in the USA! That's our idea of fun!"
    Despicable, especially considering the lawsuit against this company and the toxic behavior of the devs towards a part of their playerbase.

    There are other things I despise about wow, like the lore in wod, bfa and now in shadowlands, like others said the outdated grapic, fomo, borrowed power systems and so on, but ever since I know about the lawsuit the racial segregation aspect of this game angers me the most.

    And no, allowing players pre made groups for cross faction raids is NOT fixing racial segregation in wow, since the races will keep their hivemind with this baby step towards cross faction. The races are still locked to only one faction.
    Well, and here we are, with a western company still holding on to racism. So yeah, I'm done with the hypocrisy of Blizzard.    … Expand
  45. Ingvar_Alighier
    Jan 8, 2021
    0
    - Если вы любитель мобильного гейминга на пк и вам нравится система батлпасов(известность в ковенанте очень похожа), то Добро Пожаловать!
    - Если вы ожидаете от игры лора(который не пойми куда вывернут), то Добро Пожаловать!
    - Если вы цените свое личное время, то не Стоит в Это Играть! P.S. - красиво сделано, но кроме визуала, более менее интересного лора(который не пойми куда вывернут)    - Если вы любитель мобильного гейминга на пк и вам нравится система батлпасов(известность в ковенанте очень похожа), то Добро Пожаловать!
    - Если вы ожидаете от игры лора(который не пойми куда вывернут), то Добро Пожаловать!
    - Если вы цените свое личное время, то не Стоит в Это Играть!
    P.S. - красиво сделано, но кроме визуала, более менее интересного лора(который не пойми куда вывернут) в этом дополнении вы больше ничего не найдете. Такая же система траты времени, как и в БФА.
    P.P.S. - Оставь надежду всяк сюда входящий!    … Expand
  46. Starkdrac
    May 20, 2022
    0
    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The biggest and most sad problem this game faces is the gigantic faction imbalance, which was caused by over a decade of neglecting the Alliance. The final nail on the coffin was during bfa, when the devs gave fat humans, disabled gnomes and an unwanted compromise in form of tentacle elves with some tents in the void "as home" for the Alliance. At the    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The biggest and most sad problem this game faces is the gigantic faction imbalance, which was caused by over a decade of neglecting the Alliance. The final nail on the coffin was during bfa, when the devs gave fat humans, disabled gnomes and an unwanted compromise in form of tentacle elves with some tents in the void "as home" for the Alliance. At the same time they gave the Horde one highly requested race after the other. The biggest insults being superior night elves with their enormous city and a brand new mainstream fox race. The Alliance in return received not a single new race, let alone a mainstream race.
    There are several incidents of toxic behavior towards the Alliance from the devs, but I want to keep this short.

    The devs of warcraft are sadly very toxic in general. Especially towards the Alliance and it's players, but with all their restrictions, time gating, FOMO, ignoring feedback and such they also behave very toxic towards the playerbase as a whole.

    There is of course an easy solution to the faction imbalance, namely making all races neutral like others already suggested and also putting optional cross faction guilds and such in the game. But the devs are so stubborn with their fixation of outdated stuff like the hivemind mentality for races, that I doubt that they are even considering to remove toxic restrictions like racial segregation in wow.

    It sure looks very grim.
    The devs are also very lazy when it comes to the outdated graphics in this game. Best example for that is probably Stormwind, that uses graphics from the early 2000s for the most part and looks like a patchwork rug with the few newer elements in there.
    At one point they changes a handful of lion statues with new ones, but let more than half of the remaining lion statues (among many other outdated elements) just be unchanged.
    Why didn't they finish the job? One would assume they are just lazy af and don't care for a proper update, even though it's the main city of the Alliance.
    There are a lot of other zones and cities however that are stuck in the past like Ashenvale, Gilneas, the warfronts, Theramore, you name it. The devs just keep ignoring the work, that should have been done years ago.

    The lore... is a mess. They shoved Sylvanas down our throats for the last couple of years and the story suffered immensely under the dev's obsession with that character.

    For everyone reading this, do yourself a favor and don't play this game. It is unbalanced, has a ton of toxic & time consuming systems and restrictions, outdated graphics, cringe lore and arrogant devs.    … Expand
  47. Wekxyu
    Sep 19, 2021
    2
    2 out of 10 expansion.
    The story is garbage, the imbalance (both faction and class) is incredibly bad, the racial segregation of playable races is still there... in 2021... just wow... and the flood of grindful systems and FOMO mentality is still despicable.
  48. Alori
    Aug 3, 2021
    1
    It's just so frustrating to see how bad this game has become. The last good expansion was Legion, but battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are really awful. Grindy, frustrating systems, poorly written story, unbalanced, buggy and a ton of restrictions for players (they still hold on the age-old faction system, no improvements whatsoever).
    Be better Blizzard.
    • Allow all races to become    It's just so frustrating to see how bad this game has become. The last good expansion was Legion, but battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are really awful. Grindy, frustrating systems, poorly written story, unbalanced, buggy and a ton of restrictions for players (they still hold on the age-old faction system, no improvements whatsoever).
    Be better Blizzard.
    • Allow all races to become neutral & available for both factions. No more missing out on fav. races & racials.
    • Allow optional cross faction raiding. Let us finally play together, if we want to.
    • Give us our cities (Teldrassil & Undercity) and old zones with better graphics back.
    • Stop ruining the lore or like others already suggested, reset the story entirely and put us back to the end of Legion.
    • Give casuals a reason to stay, like player housing!!!! or/and something similar like the mage tower or/and the artefact weapon skins.
    • More customization options, a lot more customization options are needed.
    • Be more transparent and start communicating with the players again Blizzard.

    I don't really believe, that Shadowlands can be saved at this point. But who knows, maybe 10,0 will be better.    … Expand
  49. Magicus
    Jul 31, 2021
    3
    World of warcraft - Shadowlands = a hot mess. Not worth playing at the moment.
    Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are almost as bad as Warlords of Draenor. When it comes to story and systems it's even worse. Not to mention recent events regarding the bad working environment for employees.
    Nonetheless, there is a lot of things, that would bring players back and I want to hold on to hope.    World of warcraft - Shadowlands = a hot mess. Not worth playing at the moment.
    Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are almost as bad as Warlords of Draenor. When it comes to story and systems it's even worse. Not to mention recent events regarding the bad working environment for employees.
    Nonetheless, there is a lot of things, that would bring players back and I want to hold on to hope. Blizzard and World of Warcraft still can become better.

    I've read a lot of reviews, comments and critics and there is so much Blizzard could do, to improve their game:

    -
    Lessen faction restrictions.
    Allow all races for both factions with new short introduction quests and voice overs.
    Allow cross faction raids, battlegrounds and alt mailing.
    Keep factions as a pure rp factor (exclusive clothes, rewards, cities etc.). Players shouldn't have the feeling of missing out something important, while deciding to join a faction (like races, racials, easier way of finding groups).

    -
    Real player housing.
    Garrisons are not player housing. Many players would love to have real player housing in Azeroth.

    -
    Less systems, less time gating, less or no borrowed power at all.

    -
    Improve the lore. Undo the events of bfa and Shadowlands. Square Enix did something similar to their game ff14 and now it's extremly popular. You can do the same. Both, bfa and Shadowlands were a mistake.

    -
    Better communication with the playerbase instead of ignoring it for the most part.

    -
    Better graphics.
    There are a lot of players, who wish for an updated Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor.

    -
    A lot more character customization options for all races.

    -
    More playable races like Sethrak, Arrakoa, Ogre etc.
    Like all the others they should be neutral and available for both factions.

    -
    Return to Azeroth.
    Many players feel more connected to Azeroth instead of some other worlds and realms.

    -
    Account wide reputation.

    -
    Balanced pvp and pve.

    -
    Impactful professions.

    -
    Make old zones relevant again. (Not by destroying them!!! but rather by improving them and giving them some new quests).    … Expand
  50. Dratin88
    Sep 1, 2021
    3
    After reading several critics I think, that many players (including me) are just tired of Blizzard recycling old systems and retconning the lore non stop, so that they can have their favorite banshee in the focus all the time.
    With old systems I mean those:
    - that let you grind with no end in sight, just so that you can put all that effort in the garbage with the next expansion and    After reading several critics I think, that many players (including me) are just tired of Blizzard recycling old systems and retconning the lore non stop, so that they can have their favorite banshee in the focus all the time.
    With old systems I mean those:

    - that let you grind with no end in sight, just so that you can put all that effort in the garbage with the next expansion and start grinding for the nex borrowed power system.

    - that prevent you to play your favorite race in your favorite faction and on top of that doesn't let you play with your friends in the other faction. The old faction system with all it's barriers is really an outdated relict of the past that needs to go. Not the factions per se, but the fact, that races can't choose their faction freely and players, who can't do dungeons and raids with their friends in the other faction.

    I want to add, that world of warcraft looks like a very lazily designed game. There are huge parts of the world, who are stuck in the past, if you look at the graphic. It's really pathetic actually. Also the customization options... there are so few. It's really embarrassing for modern standards...    … Expand
  51. Tritoon
    Jul 30, 2021
    2
    World Of Warcraft is in a bad state, in a really bad state.
    Though I want the game to improve, since I have good memories of it and it would be nice to come back to it someday, right now I would advise everyone not to buy it. For various reason. Some of them I'd like to list in this comment.
    1. Poorly written lore. I'm one of those nerds, who wants a good story in a mmorpg. World Of    World Of Warcraft is in a bad state, in a really bad state.
    Though I want the game to improve, since I have good memories of it and it would be nice to come back to it someday, right now I would advise everyone not to buy it. For various reason. Some of them I'd like to list in this comment.

    1. Poorly written lore.

    I'm one of those nerds, who wants a good story in a mmorpg. World Of Warcraft doesn't have good lore anymore.
    Ever since the end of Legion the lore went downhill.
    It is in such a bad state, that you would think the writers were drunk while they wrote Battle For Azeroth and Shadowlands. They ruined major lore characters left and right and the factions look like complete idiots with the way Blizzard is handling the story. Both of them.

    - Possible Solution:
    The only way how to save the lore at this point is to retcon Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. I'm sorry, but I really don't see any other way how to fix that cringe fanfiction level of writing. Make Battle For Azeroth and Shadowlands a vision of some old god or something and return to the end of Legion. The "allied races", who came during that time can join the factions regardless. Just change the way how they join.

    2. Faction imbalance, faction restrictions and it's anti social player impact.

    Many people already wrote it, but it can't be criticized enough. World Of Warcraft's playerbase is known to be kinda toxic. Part of it comes from the over 17 years old faction restrictions.
    Many years of neglecting one faction and favoring the other faction led to a mass exodus, so that the faction imbalance is beyond repair.
    Now those, who are still playing this game feel forced to play the overpopulated faction,- to get pve and pvp done and because Blizzard decided to give the overpopulated faction the two most liked races of the game, along with a constant focus on said faction, like story, cinematics and so on.

    The faction system just doesn't work anymore. There are other popular mmos like Final Fantasy 14, who even have more than 2 factions and there is no faction imbalance whatsoever. Why? The reason is extremly simple: You have access to all races and you can trade and play with all players, regardless of the faction.

    - Solution:
    End the racial segregation.

    It is outdated, it is frustrating for the gameplay (both because you can't play your favorite race in the faction you prefer and because of the racials), it is unfitting and unnatural for modern standards when it comes to racism and it overall doesn't give a good look to the game. First thing you see while logging in is this huge resriction that doesn't let you play the game how you would enjoy it.

    Allow cross faction raiding, cross faction bgs (not same faction bgs!) and cross faction alt mailing, so that the players are able to send gold and other things to their characters in the other faction.

    All the rest can stay as it is. Horde players can't enter Alliance cities, Alliance players can't enter Horde cities. Warmode stays the same too.

    3. Graphic, especially the old world
    The old world looks for the most part as if it is stuck in the early 2000nds. This is on such a lazy level... Just... oof. This game looks really, really old. It's just embarrassing how bad World Of Warcraft looks.

    - Solution:
    Upgrade the world.

    4. The people working on this game:
    It's very sad, but I have to put it on this list too:
    The straw that broke the camel's back are the horrible working conditions for the employees of Blizzard. I won't go in to details in this comment. Everyone can read about the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. The working environment needs to change asap.

    These are the most important things for me. However there are of course a lot of other things that needs to be better. Like borrowed power systems, class imbalance and so on. This game has a lot of potential, but ever since the end of Legion... it's just sad to see what this game has become. It certainly isn't a game anymore, that I would recommend playing. I do hope though it will become better. Hopefully sooner than later.    … Expand
  52. Solgalos
    Jun 16, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is extremly boring and feels like a chore. There are too many systems, that nobody needs, too many grinds, huge faction imbalance, that keeps being ignored, classes are still a mess when it comes to balance, the story keeps being painfully bad with Blizzard's constant focus on that over powered edgy banshee and there is absolutely nothing new- meaning you wouldn't even feelShadowlands is extremly boring and feels like a chore. There are too many systems, that nobody needs, too many grinds, huge faction imbalance, that keeps being ignored, classes are still a mess when it comes to balance, the story keeps being painfully bad with Blizzard's constant focus on that over powered edgy banshee and there is absolutely nothing new- meaning you wouldn't even feel rewarded for doing all those grinds.

    New race? Nope.
    New class? Nope.
    Player housing? Nope.
    Customization options? Still laughable compared to other games and extremly unbalanced between the races.
    Graphic update for the old world? Nope.

    Biggest disadvantage and reason not to play this game: Racial segregation/Racism.

    Like several others already wrote, this game has a huge problem with this topic.
    Playable races are strictly split in to two factions. The only exception are Pandaren, who can be in both factions. There are several examples from real life events trough history where this happend and where people practised racial segregation. The same is happening in this game.

    It's not only extremly annoying from a gameplay perspective because players can't play their favorite faction with their favorite races, it also promotes toxic behavior in the game. "I don't want to see race XY in this city!" "I would never ever want to play together with race XY!"
    What the heck is this kind of mindset? Looking at the real world it's like saying "You have a certain skin color, so you should stick to a certain side and keep away from me!"

    I'm sorry, but there is really no other way to call the racial segregation. It's a form of racism and I for one find it very distasteful and I'm not enjoying to see it in wow. People who think that is cool treats every race pretty much like a robot, who can't think for it's own. A good story lives from it's individuals and there are enough neutral groups, who would gladly join the other faction. The faction should matter, not the race you choose. It's just stupid to explain to a new player that he can't play his favorite race on his favorite faction because racism is apparently something Blizzard likes to call the pillar of their game.

    And to clarify, factions should stay. A little bit of competion is nice (although cross faction raiding should be optional), but Blizzard should end racial segregation in retail as soon as possible. I know a lot of players, who (just like me) would resub to wow again, if all races are allowed on both factions. At least that would give us some fresh air after years and years of the same old stuff. Together with nice intro quests for the races, who join the other faction and maybe even new transmoggs to collect it would be a nice addition to spend some time with leveling new characters.    … Expand
  53. Xodin1
    Aug 11, 2021
    1
    I give Shadowlands 1/10.
    The story is on the same level as battle for Azeroth = bad. Really bad. I've read fan fictions, that had a better quality than bfa and Shadowlands.
    The big promise to give us more customization options for the races is a complete joke. They gave us almost nothing new. Not even something simple like different body heights were implemented. Systems upon sytstems    I give Shadowlands 1/10.
    The story is on the same level as battle for Azeroth = bad. Really bad. I've read fan fictions, that had a better quality than bfa and Shadowlands.
    The big promise to give us more customization options for the races is a complete joke. They gave us almost nothing new. Not even something simple like different body heights were implemented.
    Systems upon sytstems sprinkled with yet another borrowed power system to keep us grinding. Yeah... no thanks.
    Last but not least we still have to suffer under the stupid faction restrictions.
    Wanna play a dark iron dwarf in the Horde? „Guess what, you can't.“
    Wanna play a Tauren in the Alliance? „Nope. We here at Blizzard prefer to keep our races separated because we value racism as the pillar of this game.“
    Wanna do raids with your friend, who happens to prefer the other faction? „Nope. We here at Blizzard don't want you to socialize in our game and would like you to hold on to tribalism.“
    Factions per se aren't bad, but the restrictions to keep races and players strictly separated is really bad.    … Expand
  54. Ohiooo
    Oct 3, 2021
    3
    We give world of warcraft shadowlands 3/10 and that is very generous.
    My wife and I finally wanted to try out this game. We knew it for quite some time, but it's graphics look very old with a lot of clipping issues, so we never were all to interested. Then the day came and we both had 3 months to play this game.
    The first thing that almost made us quit even before we actually started    We give world of warcraft shadowlands 3/10 and that is very generous.
    My wife and I finally wanted to try out this game. We knew it for quite some time, but it's graphics look very old with a lot of clipping issues, so we never were all to interested. Then the day came and we both had 3 months to play this game.

    The first thing that almost made us quit even before we actually started was the racial segregation. Now we knew, that this is a really old game and comes from a time, where some of the developers might have thought that racism is a neat thing to put in to their game, but it makes you wonder, why they haven't removed this horrible and frustrating restriction after almost 20 years.
    So the game started with my wife wanting to play a race from the opposing faction, while I wanted to play a race from the other faction. Despite this being supposedly a mmo, it doesn't actually let you play together with familiy and friends, if they don't choose a race from a certain side. An awful first impression.
    The factions can be at war all they want, but you can't tell me that there aren't individual groups of each race, who would prefer to join the other faction. This whole system is just in every way possible a dreadful idea the developers force onto the players. The main reason my wife and I kept playing after this first bad impression was, because we bought the three months.

    So after some arguing, who of us would have to bite into the bitter apple, we started playing.
    The second thing that was really awful is the story of this game. For new players it's almost impossible to understand the lore, because everything is messy and all over the place. No linear story whatsoever.

    The third thing was, that the whole world looks like a patchwork rug. We knew the graphics and avatar models are really outdated and odd looking, but what we found out after actually playing the game was, that we seeming saw the "new" graphics in some areas, while other zones look even worse. Those zones look so bad, that you would think that you are still playing in the early 2000s.

    Overall we played maybe for 1 and a half month and let the remaining playtime run out. Just not a game worth our time. There are better alternatives to world of warcraft.    … Expand
  55. Jokaal
    Aug 2, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is just as bad as Battle for Azeroth. Don't play it. Wait until they improve their game. I have no idea when or if that will ever happen. Guess the only thing we can do is wait and see. That and giving them feedback. Maybe one day they come down from their high horse and start listening to their players again.

    The lore is important to me. So one thing that could bring me    Shadowlands is just as bad as Battle for Azeroth. Don't play it. Wait until they improve their game. I have no idea when or if that will ever happen. Guess the only thing we can do is wait and see. That and giving them feedback. Maybe one day they come down from their high horse and start listening to their players again.

    The lore is important to me. So one thing that could bring me back is a story reset, like others already wrote before me. Reset the story from bfa and shadowlands and bring us back to Legion. Make bfa and Shadowlands a fever dream or a vision. Something like that. Just remove that stuff from the canon storyline. No, there wouldn't be a problem with the allied races, but I come to that point later.

    Another popular request, that I too would like to see in retail is a change for the faction restrictions.
    Let us play with all players and let us play all races in each faction, not just half of them.
    You want to remove toxic stuff in your game? Racial segregation is probably one of the biggest aspects of your game that promotes toxic behavior. It's like those old dudes shouting at people with a different skin color that they shouldn't get near their lawn because they look different. It's pretty much the same ingame with people yelling they never ever want a specific race in their city.

    Blizzard should finally open the gates for free race choice, all races for both factions. Yeah, I get it. It's just a game. Who cares if there is racism in world of warcraft and a strict devide between races. I still don't have to like a virtual form of racism.
    But even if you ignore that, the devide forces players to make compromises they don't want to make. Because they can't have their favorite races and racials in the faction they prefer. They can't experience the game in the way they want and that is a bad thing and takes away a good portion of fun.
    Blizzard should also allow cross faction raiding and bgs, also a popular request I agree on.
    With these changes they would finally end the problem of faction imbalance. With these changes they would make the game much more fun.

    But what about the allied races? It's really not hard to come up with an alternative way how they join.
    Here are some examples.

    Nightborne, High Mountain Tauren and Lightforged Draenei:
    Both Alliance and Horde helped them during Legion. That they are neutral and join both factions is the only natural thing to do.

    Void Elves:
    The encounter with Alleria can stay the same and through Alleria a part of them joins the Alliance.
    However a second group should join the Horde. It's very weird that a faction like the Horde wouldn't want them, since they had never problems with "dark magic", if you want to call it like that. Just delete the part with the sunwell encounter.

    Dark Iron Dwarves:
    The connection to the other dwarf clans can stay. So that group joins the Alliance.
    However their whole being and their theme fits the Horde very well. It would feel natural for a group of them to join the rough ranks of the Horde.

    Vulpera:
    While the Horde explores the deserts and comes across the Zandalari, they also befriend the desert Vulpera of Vol'dun.
    The Alliance befriends the Tiragardesund Vulpera, so there would be a sailor and traveler theme for Alliance Vulpera. Taelia should be the one leading them in to the Alliance. They would be a very good fit for the Alliance and could have their own ship in the Stormwind harbor. They could also put a group of Vulpera into Stormsong Valley. There should be enough place for them too.

    KulTirans:
    They would look so awesome within the Horde with a sailor or even pirate like them, while the Alliance befriends them trough their connection to the Proudmoore family.

    Mechagnomes:
    Should be neutral anyway, since both Horde and Alliance befriends them. The encounter with Mechagon can stay similar to the original.

    Zandalari:
    Here you could take a group of banished trolls or travelers for the Alliance. Zandalari, who don't feel connected to the kingdom.

    Mag'har:
    I'll admit that these guys are a bit tricky, but you could play it out this way: They had the same vision or whatever it was from bfa and Shadowlands too and find a way to Azeroth in order to help out.

    It's really easy to come up with ideas and it didn't took more than 5 mintutes to come up with something. So yeah, it's easy to make it work. For all races by the way. Not just the allied races.

    I'm also tired of the borrowed power system. If there has to be such a system, then let us return to the legendary weapons in Legion.    … Expand
  56. Trakkal
    Aug 26, 2021
    1
    If you didn't like Battle for Azeroth, you won't like Shadowlands. The lore is still awful, the faction imbalance is still being ignored, for whatever reason they seemingly put all their effort in ridiculous time consuming systems, way too long content droughts.

    Quality of life things, that would bring me back: >Seems to be a popular request and I want it too - less faction    If you didn't like Battle for Azeroth, you won't like Shadowlands. The lore is still awful, the faction imbalance is still being ignored, for whatever reason they seemingly put all their effort in ridiculous time consuming systems, way too long content droughts.

    Quality of life things, that would bring me back:
    >Seems to be a popular request and I want it too - less faction restrictions. Let me play what I want, with whom I want and where I want. #AllRacesForBothFactions & #CrossFactionRaiding
    >I'm tired of all the systems. It was a healthy amount during Legion, but I hated everything what came after that and it is unbalanced, so please make some of the new stuff cosmetic.
    >Get rid of Sylvanas entirely. Everything surronding that character turns to trash. The whole lore has been ruined because of her as the overpowerd Mary/Evil Sue in this game.
    >More customization options. It is 2021 and the few cusomization options in this game are laughable.
    >Old world update. Start with the main cities and make them bigger with more unique districts.    … Expand
  57. Ekeys
    Sep 6, 2021
    1
    I thought bfa was awful, but then came Shadowlands... If you are interested in a good story and nice gameplay, then don't play Shadowlands. Play other games until Blizzard finally improve this awful game. Last time I had fun was during Legion and that is several years ago.

    -Along with the cringe lore I really hate that there is no change, no development whatsoever in this game. Just the    I thought bfa was awful, but then came Shadowlands... If you are interested in a good story and nice gameplay, then don't play Shadowlands. Play other games until Blizzard finally improve this awful game. Last time I had fun was during Legion and that is several years ago.

    -Along with the cringe lore I really hate that there is no change, no development whatsoever in this game. Just the same stuff recycled in every expansion.
    -We have 2021 and there is still no player housing in this game.
    -There is still racial segregation in this game, meaning the playable races don't have free will, making the whole faction choice stuff extremly stale and based on the given races, resulting in a lot of frustrating compromises and hugely worsen the player experience.
    -There is still no cross faction play- seeing how bad the faction imbalance has become (costed by the Devs for neglecting one faction over several years) that means, that one faction has a much harder way to play this game since so many players left and if you are in one faction you are not allowed to play with your friends in the second faction. So basically you get punished, if you play the small faction. That is not a way to handle a playerbase and wow is the only game that activly supports such a toxic system. It's beyond me why they do that and with that why there is still racism with the division of the races. Players are leaving wow in masses and this is definitely one of the reasons.
    -Most zones have still horrendous outdated graphic and the customization options are... well... far too few. Again... not even close to what you would expect for a game in 2021.
    -Might be just me, but it feels, that even the music got worse with Shadowlands.
    -Along with the faction imbalance the class imbalance makes the pvp scene just awful.    … Expand
  58. Henry12A
    Aug 15, 2021
    2
    If you're looking for yet another disappointment after battle for azeroth, Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    Too many systems, endless grinding, too many chores, ridiculous lore, random loot, still old and toxic faction restrictions because racial segregation/racism is seemingly the pillar of wow... like... wtf?, still no class balance, big faction imbalance, still laughable few    If you're looking for yet another disappointment after battle for azeroth, Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    Too many systems, endless grinding, too many chores, ridiculous lore, random loot, still old and toxic faction restrictions because racial segregation/racism is seemingly the pillar of wow... like... wtf?, still no class balance, big faction imbalance, still laughable few customization options that might have been ok in 2010 but definitely not in 2021, random loot, still no account wide valor unlock and reputation, tiresome alt leveling, still no graphic update for old zones, not even for the capitals, arrogant behavior of the Devs, who either keep ignoring feedback or twist it so that nobody is happy with the result, gigantic content droughts, yet they still let their players pay for each and every month...
    I could go on, but in short: Shadowlands is yet another disaster after bfa.    … Expand
  59. Magicxx
    Mar 11, 2022
    1
    Updated critique:

    With the last patch 9.2. of this expansion not much has changed. What I and many others feared just happened. The devs redeem their waifu npc, even though she is a psychopath and war criminal. The writers are playing the "oh, but it was just her bad side! Her good side is actually such an angel! You have to love her like we do!" card. Seriously, this kind of    Updated critique:

    With the last patch 9.2. of this expansion not much has changed.
    What I and many others feared just happened. The devs redeem their waifu npc, even though she is a psychopath and war criminal. The writers are playing the "oh, but it was just her bad side! Her good side is actually such an angel! You have to love her like we do!" card.
    Seriously, this kind of storytelling makes you wanna puke. And if that wasn't annoying enough they teased that they will continue keeping her relevant in the story, as if over 5 years with her as the main character wasn't enough.

    Blizzard is still keeping racism as their so called pillar of wow.
    They tried so hard virtual signaling by removing some emotes for example but didn't said a single word about removing racial segregation in wow.
    Such hypocrisy, if it wasn't so sad I would laugh.
    Now some emotes are considered as toxic but keeping racism in your game is a-ok?
    Seriously, stop being so arrogant and remove racial segregation Blizzard. It's about time that every race has the right to choose their faction freely.
    Such outdated mentality as racial segregation belongs in the past.
    Cross faction guilds, alt mailing, lfr & lfd need to happen too asap in order to save this game.

    Old critique:

    What a disappointment and here I tought it couldn't get any worse after Battle For Azeroth...

    Lore:
    After the awful story in bfa where they forced an idotic faction war that made absolutly no sense they now continue focusing their story on the worst written character there is. A certain „banshee queen“ that commited one atrocity after the other; (genocide-twice, destruction of whole areas, mind control, spreading the plague, slavery and so on, the list is long). She has been the focus since 3 expansions, but as long as there are some people, who see in her some weird kind of edgy waifu... I guess Blizzard will continue treating her like an overpowered Mary Sue that is above all else.
    Worst case scenario they'll redeem her and portray that ex dictator as an innocent victim. Considering Blizzard's horrendous writing skills since the end of Legion I wouldn't be surprised. Genocide isn't all that bad, if it is commited by a good looking woman, huh Blizzard? Time to forgive her! Well, but we will see what route they will go. Hopefully 9.1. will be the end of that mass murderer.

    Faction Imbalance:
    It's no secret that they focus only on one faction, while the other is treated like a second class citizen.
    - only 1 faction got a new and obvious mainstream race, while the smaller faction got a reskin of a rather unpopular old race.
    - only 1 faction got 2 well established races with two huge and beautiful cities, while the smaller side got a race, that came in the very last patch and a second race that came literally out of nowhere
    - both races without a city.
    - one side got a better looking version of an old race, while the smaller side got an overweight version of an old race.
    - one side got 4 high quality cinematics all revolving on the meaning of their faction, while the smaller faction was playing the side character.
    - the smaller side has less druids and shamans than the other side.
    - the last Blizzcon was revolving around the bigger faction... again.
    - the second most popular city of the smaller faction was destroyed, while the other faction only lost a hardly visited city, that still can be saved.
    - 2 zones were attacked of the smaller faction and are now in an endless loop between being controlled by both factions. Thus useless.
    - the racials of one faction were overpowered for far too long, yet every small advantage of the smaller faction gets nerfed immediately.

    Despite all of that Blizzard claims they have no idea, how to help the smaller faction. I'm no expert, but treating the smaller faction like an afterthought propably doesn't help.

    Did it change with Shadowlands? Nope. They continue as if it never happend. With an attitude like that I agree with many others on this subject. They should just end the racial segregation. All races for both faction + cross faction raiding.
    The damage is far too big at this point. Not to mention that racial segregation and thus a kind of racism... it's a game sure, but it doesn't sit well to claim the pillar of wow is build on racial segregation. Racism is not faction identity. Ideals and so on, that is faction identity. These archaic restrictions harm the community and thus the social factor of the game. "You can only play with me, if you choose a race of this specific pool." "But I like that race..." "Then you can't play with me." Excuse me, but what? You shouldn't separate players like that. Like seriously.

    And lastly there is the usual stuff like unbalanced classes, the never ending grinds and all the systems.

    I want to like wow and I have good memories playing it. But I'm sorry, it' utterly trash since bfa. Still hoping it will get better though.    … Expand
  60. Tedaku
    Jun 1, 2021
    0
    Shadowlands is probably the definition of lazy. Yes, the new zones are nicely done, but apart from that there is absolutely nothing new and innovative in this game.

    You get to grind for the sake of grinding. Mindless systems, which only costs frustration for a lot of players. Broken class balance. Huge faction imbalance for a lot of reasons caused by the Devs. Extraordinary    Shadowlands is probably the definition of lazy. Yes, the new zones are nicely done, but apart from that there is absolutely nothing new and innovative in this game.

    You get to grind for the sake of grinding.

    Mindless systems, which only costs frustration for a lot of players.

    Broken class balance.

    Huge faction imbalance for a lot of reasons caused by the Devs.

    Extraordinary brainless lore, just like in Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor.

    No new class.

    No new race.

    Same old faction restrictions:

    - meaning you get only half of the races, if you prefer one faction over the other, because racial segregation and racism is fun I guess? Seriously, get you sh* together Blizzard. Racism is definitely not faction identity. All races should be available for both factions.

    -only access to a small part of the playerbase, meaning that especially the smaller faction has a huge disadvantage. Allow cross faction raiding.

    How a game can be so openly anti social and activly supporting racism is beyond me. Being a different race doesn't mean that every race has a hivemind and should stick to one side.

    And finally the archaic graphic for old zones and npcs. One word: Embarrassing.    … Expand
  61. Sonelai
    Aug 9, 2021
    0
    After the complete failure Battle For Azeroth I was looking forward to Shadowlands. Turns out Shadowlands is just as bad as bfa. Man I wish we could go back to Legion...
    Furthermore the game became almost impossible to play because of the ever growing faction imbalance. I am so tired of these outdated faction restrictions that prevent us from playing the game in a healthy way; namely    After the complete failure Battle For Azeroth I was looking forward to Shadowlands. Turns out Shadowlands is just as bad as bfa. Man I wish we could go back to Legion...
    Furthermore the game became almost impossible to play because of the ever growing faction imbalance. I am so tired of these outdated faction restrictions that prevent us from playing the game in a healthy way; namely without racial segregation and with the option to play with everyone.
    Keep factions, but burn the faction restrictions down. Burn it!
    Allow all races to every faction + allow cross faction raiding, at least for hero and mythic. Factions can still get their unique stuff, like mounts and tabards for example. However races should not be exlusive to only one faction

    If Blizzard would care about the health of the game they would do something to fix it. So why is the imbalance still being ignored?

    So yeah, in short, not a fun game at all.    … Expand
  62. Luciuso
    Aug 12, 2021
    1
    I want to like wow, but I just can't anymore. I really enjoyed Legion, but I hated battle for azeroth and Shadowlands is... just frustrating... because I finally came to the conclusion that there is just too much wrong with this game.
    The lore, faction and class imbalance, throwaway systems, same old faction restrictions, choregast... there is nothing to like about the newest expansion.    I want to like wow, but I just can't anymore. I really enjoyed Legion, but I hated battle for azeroth and Shadowlands is... just frustrating... because I finally came to the conclusion that there is just too much wrong with this game.
    The lore, faction and class imbalance, throwaway systems, same old faction restrictions, choregast... there is nothing to like about the newest expansion. On top of that the long content droughts. There is nothing new and innovative in Shadowlands. Still no player housing, still no old world upgrade, still no cross faction raiding and more playable neutral races, almost no new customization options, nothing really for casual players.

    One of the most frustrating things... Blizzard seemingly just don't care for their players. They only care for money. Feedback keeps being ignored or currupted. Wow is in a really sad state.    … Expand
  63. Caeki
    Jun 27, 2021
    2
    Right after Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor the worst expansion so far.

    As someone, who cares for the lore I'm so tired of the bad writing ever since the ending of Legion. Worst thing about it is the forced faction conflict with all it's brainless restrictions for players and on top of that the constant focus on „Ms evil Mary Sue“ and her idiotic plot armor. Jeez what a dumb    Right after Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor the worst expansion so far.

    As someone, who cares for the lore I'm so tired of the bad writing ever since the ending of Legion. Worst thing about it is the forced faction conflict with all it's brainless restrictions for players and on top of that the constant focus on „Ms evil Mary Sue“ and her idiotic plot armor. Jeez what a dumb character.
    Only good thing, that could come out from the 8 month wait for patch 9.1, that brings us absolutly nothing innovative (just more systems upon systems together with reskins of old stuff), would be for that banshee to FINALLY die for good at the end of the raid.

    The main reason however why I really can't stand the game anymore is the racial segregation, like several others mentioned before. It's so stupid, that we can't play with all our friends, if some prefer a different faction. Jeez, how hard can it be to allow cross faction raiding for those, who want it.

    That and the fact, that we can't play our favorite races in the faction we prefer... like wtf?

    Why is racim so important for Blizzard? You can't tell me, that a Goblin for example wouldn't join the Alliance, when there are already active Goblins working for the Alliance in the SI7, or Lightforged Draenei the Horde, or Vulpera from Tiragardesund as sailors the Alliance, or as counterpart sailor humans the Horde, or High Mountain Tauren the Alliance and so on.

    For each and every race there is a reason to prefer the other faction, yet we are stuck with a racist system that promotes toxic behavior and separates the playerbase in an unhealthy way.

    I could go on with the faction imbalance, that Blizzard is making constantly worse with their decisions or the class imbalance, the outdated graphic and so on... it's just tiring at this point...    … Expand
  64. Drely
    Aug 23, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is so incredibly bad, just like bfa.
    Who writes such a cringe story? Who thought it would be a good idea to give us yet another bunch of awful systems? Who thought it would be a good idea to keep ignoring the faction imbalance? Seriously, who at Blizzard supports all these awful decisions? No wonder there is such a big exodus.
    Final Fantasy 14 is so much better in so many    Shadowlands is so incredibly bad, just like bfa.
    Who writes such a cringe story? Who thought it would be a good idea to give us yet another bunch of awful systems? Who thought it would be a good idea to keep ignoring the faction imbalance? Seriously, who at Blizzard supports all these awful decisions? No wonder there is such a big exodus.

    Final Fantasy 14 is so much better in so many regards. ff14 let's you play every race in every faction, in contrast to wow, where there is still racial segregation. Considering the lawsuit against Blizzard you would think they would get rid of racism in their game, but nah, they hold on to stricly separating the races. ff14 has player housing. Wow... not so much. xD ff14 has way better gear, not those ugly pixelated age old looking gear. ff14s Devs actually listen to their player's feedback. Yah, imagine that! ff14 doesn't have faction imbalance, because despite having several factions they let their players play together. Then you look at that extremely anti social faction system in wow on top of their racist division of the races. Yikes! And ff14 has a really solid story. Wow... just don't has a good story anymore. Bfa completly ruined the story and SL continues to be bad.

    Hopefully world of warcraft will get better, but until then, Final Fantasy 14 it is!    … Expand
  65. Srekk32
    Sep 3, 2021
    2
    The lore is still bad, the old world looks still bad, the faction imbalance is still bad, the class imbalance is still bad, the borrowed power system is still bad the racial segregation is still there so it's also still bad, the customization options are still too few and with that bad.
    If they would at least let us play all races in both factions instead of holding on to racism as their    The lore is still bad, the old world looks still bad, the faction imbalance is still bad, the class imbalance is still bad, the borrowed power system is still bad the racial segregation is still there so it's also still bad, the customization options are still too few and with that bad.
    If they would at least let us play all races in both factions instead of holding on to racism as their game's pillar... but nooo, they continue forcing us to make frustrating compromises.

    I'll wait until they make noticeable changes to their game and not just their usual halfbaked stuff. I don't see why I should come back to the same old miserable game, that is stuck in outdated nonsense.    … Expand
  66. Zijs
    Sep 5, 2021
    1
    Really bad expansion.
    With the faction imbalance still being unchecked by Blizzard the game reached a point where it's in a really unhealthy state.
    Really wish they would finally do something about it. Like playable races becoming neutral, so that everyone can have every race and with that all racials would be available on both sides, plus of course optional cross faction raiding.    Really bad expansion.
    With the faction imbalance still being unchecked by Blizzard the game reached a point where it's in a really unhealthy state.
    Really wish they would finally do something about it. Like playable races becoming neutral, so that everyone can have every race and with that all racials would be available on both sides, plus of course optional cross faction raiding. Something that should be standard in this day and age, but for some reason Blizzard doesn't seem to care for the health of the game.    … Expand
  67. Ykkaru
    Aug 24, 2021
    1
    I played two months of this expansion and quit. 9.0 is awful and 9.1... yeah, is still awful.
    You could argue that the systems suck, that the class balancing sucks, that the graphic sucks, that the limited customization options suck, that the story with that edgy bashee sucks and yeah, I would agree with that, but what I hate the most about this over 16 year old game is the fact, that    I played two months of this expansion and quit. 9.0 is awful and 9.1... yeah, is still awful.
    You could argue that the systems suck, that the class balancing sucks, that the graphic sucks, that the limited customization options suck, that the story with that edgy bashee sucks and yeah, I would agree with that, but what I hate the most about this over 16 year old game is the fact, that Blizzard continues to ignore the faction imbalance and activly made it worse with the former expansion Battle For Azeroth.

    I agree with many others on this subject. Given how bad the whole situation is, the only change, that would bring me back would be to make all races neutral like the Pandaren (preferable with their own introduction voice overs and new voice lines) and to give us players the ability of choosing optional cross faction raiding and bgs. So gamers would have free choice of playing with their own faction or together with the other faction.

    But the way it is now and has been for over a decade,- limiting the races to one faction only and the players to not being able to actually play together in this mmo, if they prefer one faction is just frustrating.

    Sadly I don't see this change coming anytime soon. Luckly there are other mmos, that are much more fun than wow at the moment.    … Expand
  68. Zhassu
    Sep 9, 2021
    3
    2 bad expansions in a row. Really doesn't look good for wow. I wish we could go back to Legion, where this game was still good.

    They really need to do something about faction imbalance too, like others already said. Like more neutral races for both factions. There are a lot of races where it's pretty easy to do so. Like Lightforged, Draenei, Mecha Gnomes, Gnomes, Dark Irons, Kul    2 bad expansions in a row. Really doesn't look good for wow. I wish we could go back to Legion, where this game was still good.

    They really need to do something about faction imbalance too, like others already said. Like more neutral races for both factions.
    There are a lot of races where it's pretty easy to do so. Like Lightforged, Draenei, Mecha Gnomes, Gnomes, Dark Irons, Kul Tirans, maybe even normal Dwarves for Horde. While Nightborne, blood elves, renamed as high elves, goblins, Vulpera from Kul tiras, High Mountain Tauren and Tauren for Alliance. Though the best thing that could happen to this game would be that all races get to choose freely.
    Sucks to be judged by the race you want to play. What does the race have to do with loyalty? Can't the individuals of the races think for themselves? The whole system is rather outdated and needs to be fixed, so that we have more freedom in this game and with that more fun too.
    Also cross faction raids need to happen.
    There also needs to be a better writing team. The lore went pretty downhill with bfa and still sucks in Shadowlands.
    Also more focus on class balance and professions is needed.    … Expand
  69. YrikiX
    Aug 31, 2021
    2
    Shadowlands is just awful. Just like Battle for Azeroth. I kinda hoped things would get better with this expansion... but the game is still bad.
    They ruined so much of what I used to love in wow. The lore. Oh the lore... it's so cringe... I can't even... What I would give, if they would just reset everything back to Legion...
    We all worked together in our class halls back in Legion,    Shadowlands is just awful. Just like Battle for Azeroth. I kinda hoped things would get better with this expansion... but the game is still bad.
    They ruined so much of what I used to love in wow. The lore. Oh the lore... it's so cringe... I can't even... What I would give, if they would just reset everything back to Legion...

    We all worked together in our class halls back in Legion, then came bfa and whoops, now the Horde is like: You know what? I know we were friends like 5 minutes ago, but I feel like today is a good day for genocide. Don't mind me slaughtering all of you, including woman and children. wtf is this writing? Now in Shadowlands it's like all of that isn't all that bad, let's be friends again! Get you sh* together Blizzard. This back and forth between factions is beyond ridiculous. That brings me to my next point actually.
    Why can't we play together?
    Mmos are supposed to be social games, yet wow is as anti-social as it can get.
    Why can't we choose a faction regardless of the race we want to play?
    It's like USA's racial segregation back in the day all over again, just this time in a virtual game.
    And why on earth does it matter, if we are Alliance or Horde, if we want to raid together with our friends, who might prefer a different faction?
    Why can't we play together the way we would enjoy it the most?
    Faction rewards like mounts and tabards can stay, but the other restrictions like race and one faction only raiding should go asap to make this game more social and enjoyable.    … Expand
  70. Ikkao
    Sep 10, 2021
    2
    This game is almost unplayable because of the faction imbalance.
    I'm sick and tired of waiting for Blizzard to actually care and fix it. It's easy. All races need to be neutral and cross faction raids should be optional. They've done so much wrong in the past, that you could think they are purposely trolling one of their factions. Just yikes. Neutral races & cross faction gameplay is the    This game is almost unplayable because of the faction imbalance.
    I'm sick and tired of waiting for Blizzard to actually care and fix it. It's easy. All races need to be neutral and cross faction raids should be optional. They've done so much wrong in the past, that you could think they are purposely trolling one of their factions. Just yikes. Neutral races & cross faction gameplay is the only way out of this mess at this point. No reason to continue playing this game, if you are looking for balanced gameplay.    … Expand
  71. Ollei
    Sep 8, 2021
    2
    Just an overall frustrating and bad player experience.

    After all these years they are STILL ignoring the faction imbalance. What the actually heck? You really think an edgy elf race with ugly customization options like tentacles, that nobody asked for and with a rock in the void, that nobody but them can visit would help, while giving the overpopulated faction a whole zone and a huge    Just an overall frustrating and bad player experience.

    After all these years they are STILL ignoring the faction imbalance. What the actually heck?

    You really think an edgy elf race with ugly customization options like tentacles, that nobody asked for and with a rock in the void, that nobody but them can visit would help, while giving the overpopulated faction a whole zone and a huge city with tones of lore? Or overweight humans and even more gnomes with amputated arms and legs, while giving the other faction an adorable new fox race that could be straight out of a Disney movie?

    How about Blizzard stops trolling one of the two factions and start taking notes from other popular games like ff14, where there is no faction imbalance for obvious reasons, but I write it anyway.
    ff14 has no racism in their game. There is no racial segregation and no matter what faction you are in, you can play all races, so nobody feels miserable, because they have all their favorite stuff in their favorite faction.
    Not to mention that ff14 actually let's you play with players from other factions.
    I will stay in ff14 until Blizzard finally fixes the faction imbalance, ends the racial segregation and allows cross faction stuff.    … Expand
  72. Issso
    Sep 23, 2021
    1
    World of Warcraft has one of the most toxic game designs you can find in a mmo. I would even go so far as to say it's the most toxic game, if you only count mmos with noteworthy publicity, resulting in a toxic and frustrated playerbase, very well known for their bad behavior.

    Now with the gigantic lawsuit against Blizzard more and more players finally wake up and leave this company.    World of Warcraft has one of the most toxic game designs you can find in a mmo. I would even go so far as to say it's the most toxic game, if you only count mmos with noteworthy publicity, resulting in a toxic and frustrated playerbase, very well known for their bad behavior.

    Now with the gigantic lawsuit against Blizzard more and more players finally wake up and leave this company. However it's not just due to the lawsuit.
    This game had big issues since over a decade now, but enough enjoyable things up until Legion, so players stayed.
    Since battle for Azeroth this whole game became absolute garbage in almost every aspect imaginable. So I won't bother writing down every problem in wow, not to mention, that others already did that.

    But I will explain what I mean with toxic game design.

    1. Glorified racism.
    This game, although in a virtual form, glorifies racism and racial segregation since the very beginning.
    The first thing you see as a player is the devision of playable races. Because seemingly there is nothing like free will in that world. Races will only stick to one side, If this reminds you of real world events... well, it's the same in wow. No free will, only a hivemind is ok... I don't actually know what to say to such an outdated mindset...
    Yes, it is a game, but it stills baffles me, how Blizzard thought this would be a good thing to put in the game. Is racism good? No. Is restricting players to certain races good, instead of letting them choose their faction freely? No. So what about racial segregation is good? It adds nothing and takes away so much from the player expierence.

    2. Catering to the the whales and victims of FOMO mentality.
    For whom is this game designed?
    For those, who buy a lot of services, mounts etc. from the store and to those, who are naive enough to think FOMO is good.
    FOMO is a strategy to keep players subscribed, because they have the fear of missing out certain rewards. These people can't be happy, if they can't flex with their virtual stuff. They can't be happy, if all players can get their oh so precious virtual rewards all the time.
    So everything should be restricted to a certain time frame. You can't allow other players to have nice things afterall! Where would we be then?!! Those toxic players are the ones Blizzard is catering to.

    3. Throwaway systems.
    There are a bunch of new systems in every expansion with the only purpose to let the players brainlessly grind in order to take away as much play time as possible. Again, a really cheap method to keep players subscribed all the time. The sad thing about that? Many players fall for it. Then the expansion ends, said systems are thrown in the garbage and new systems are put on the table.

    These are the players this game is designed for:
    Pleople, who enjoy racial segregation/racism and who are against races, who can actually think for themself.
    Whales and FOMO victims.
    People, who are coming from work, just so that they work again with the endless grinding going on in wow.    … Expand
  73. Teyxra
    Sep 16, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is another awful expansion.
    On top of that Blizzard continues to cater to the worst kind of players.
    Those, who enjoy FOMO (fear of missing out) and who have the need to be special little snowflakes, who can't enjoy skins and races, if all players get access to them all the time and with the chance to get them. So they want time gated stuff to feel special, even though    Shadowlands is another awful expansion.
    On top of that Blizzard continues to cater to the worst kind of players.
    Those, who enjoy FOMO (fear of missing out) and who have the need to be special little snowflakes, who can't enjoy skins and races, if all players get access to them all the time and with the chance to get them.
    So they want time gated stuff to feel special, even though everyone should know that FOMO is one of the cheapest ways to keep players subscribed all the time and with that Blizzard earns more money.
    Well, and racial segregation is bad in general. People, who think racism is a good thing (even if it's in a virtual form)... oof. Instead of just giving both factions all races.
    Well and Blizzard is among those people, who support such toxic systems.    … Expand
  74. FSDnu
    Nov 11, 2021
    0
    Blizzard doesn't seem to understand how factions work. No, it doesn't matter how you look, what race you are. What matters are the things you stand for, the things you feel connected to, values etc. Those are the things that make you choose a faction.
    Forcing players to pick a faction based on the races they want to play... especially in this day and age... you gotta wonder what's going    Blizzard doesn't seem to understand how factions work. No, it doesn't matter how you look, what race you are. What matters are the things you stand for, the things you feel connected to, values etc. Those are the things that make you choose a faction.
    Forcing players to pick a faction based on the races they want to play... especially in this day and age... you gotta wonder what's going on in the heads of the devs, who believe in this stuff.
    Do they really think by doing stuff like replacing an ingame painting of a woman with a bowl of fruit suddenly will make them look open minded, while at the same time the very first thing you see as a player is racial segregation?

    I'm tired by the double standards this company has. Not "only" in this case, but in many others too.    … Expand
  75. Twinko
    Sep 25, 2021
    1
    While many here already pointed out the amount of problems this game has, I think the biggest issue of them all is the faction system and the lousy written lore in bfa and Shadowlands.

    The faction system is clearly biased. I too, had to change to the overpopulated faction because the small faction is getting trolled almost always by Blizzard. Wanna play Diaper Gnomes, while we give the    While many here already pointed out the amount of problems this game has, I think the biggest issue of them all is the faction system and the lousy written lore in bfa and Shadowlands.

    The faction system is clearly biased. I too, had to change to the overpopulated faction because the small faction is getting trolled almost always by Blizzard.
    Wanna play Diaper Gnomes, while we give the op faction a new mainstream race?
    Wanna play fat humans, while we give the op faction better looking trolls?
    Wanna have almost no lore and no hubs for your races, while we give the op faction 2 whole patches explaining the lore around their new races and on top of that giving them huge zones with gigantinc cities, while also backstabbing the small faction, who helped them out just as much?
    Wanna get your second most favorite hub completly destroyed and also one of your races wiped out almost completly + 2 of your territories as never ending warzones, while er touch not a single zone of the op faction and make a hardly visited hub of them for a mall amount of time uninhabitable?

    Does that sound like fun? Nope. And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unfairly faction system. Blizzard only has 2 factions in this game and can't even handle them, actively creating a miserable expierence for the small faction.

    I didn't want to change factions, but Blizzard more or less is forcing you to play the op faction, if you want a halfway good time in this game.

    Ah well, I'm done now with this game too. There are so many bad things in this game and surrounding the company... I just can't anymore.    … Expand
  76. Ayek
    Sep 29, 2021
    1
    It's funny to me that Blizzard, who are now trying to wash their name clean from all the allegations by changing ingame drawings of woman with fruits for example... but keep the most no-no you can think of in the game and call it the pillar of wow. Racism. It's the first thing you see if you logg in that game. Racial segregation is something Blizzard activly support with their game design.It's funny to me that Blizzard, who are now trying to wash their name clean from all the allegations by changing ingame drawings of woman with fruits for example... but keep the most no-no you can think of in the game and call it the pillar of wow. Racism. It's the first thing you see if you logg in that game. Racial segregation is something Blizzard activly support with their game design. Among many other red flags, this is probably the biggest of them all and enough to avoid Blizzard games, especially wow.… Expand
  77. Greggorr
    Sep 29, 2021
    1
    What an awful game. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with Shadowlands. It is just as bad as bfa.
    Arrogant devs, large faction and class imbalance, bad storytelling, grindful systems, racial segregation in the game, outdated graphics and on top of that a gigantic lawsuit against the company Blizzard, because of the bad work environment for employees.
  78. Zuihh
    Oct 3, 2021
    2
    Shadowlands is a lousy expansion. So similar to battle for Azeroth. gg Blizzard on creating two bad expansions in a row.
    Ever growing faction imbalance with the same outdated restrictions like promoting racism with racial segregation, no cross faction raiding, no cross faction battlegrounds, no cross faction alt mailing, FOMO stuff like recently telling players, they bring back the mage    Shadowlands is a lousy expansion. So similar to battle for Azeroth. gg Blizzard on creating two bad expansions in a row.
    Ever growing faction imbalance with the same outdated restrictions like promoting racism with racial segregation, no cross faction raiding, no cross faction battlegrounds, no cross faction alt mailing, FOMO stuff like recently telling players, they bring back the mage tower but without the mage tower rewards lol, atrocious lore (best thing to do is to pretend everything after Legion never happened), awful throwaway systems, lots of grinds, outdated and too few customization options, outdated graphics in a lot of zones and so on.    … Expand
  79. Ezooo
    Oct 2, 2021
    1
    If you like racism in form of racial segregation with a hivemind mentality for the playable races, if you like FOMO (fear of missing out) in order to keep your money for Blizzard flowing, if you like huge faction imbalance, that not only makes the game expierence for one faction awful, but also prevents players to play with eachother, if you like dozens of grindful systems, if you likeIf you like racism in form of racial segregation with a hivemind mentality for the playable races, if you like FOMO (fear of missing out) in order to keep your money for Blizzard flowing, if you like huge faction imbalance, that not only makes the game expierence for one faction awful, but also prevents players to play with eachother, if you like dozens of grindful systems, if you like extremly outdated graphics for most of the world, if you like having almost no customization options (not even different body heights), if you like not having player housing in 2021, if you like an awful cringe story... well, as Ion (more or less) once said, this game is waiting for you.… Expand
  80. Rigor81
    Jul 27, 2021
    1
    This game has a lot of problems, unfortunately.

    One of the main issues is the glorified racism in form of racial segregation in this game. Not only is the restriction of separated races rather questionable for obvious reasons, it's also very annyoning from a gameplay perspective. Instead of choosing a faction because a player prefers the overall theme, the valors and ideals, they    This game has a lot of problems, unfortunately.

    One of the main issues is the glorified racism in form of racial segregation in this game.
    Not only is the restriction of separated races rather questionable for obvious reasons, it's also very annyoning from a gameplay perspective.

    Instead of choosing a faction because a player prefers the overall theme, the valors and ideals, they strictly make you choose based of the given races. Meaning if you prefer one faction over the other you only get access to half of the races.

    Seriously, what an idiotic and outdated system. I had several cases where my friends and I had to make annoying compromises, just in order of being able to play together.

    The faction system of wow is extremly anti-social.
    Racial segregation is questionable and annoying af. Especially if you consider, how unnatural it feels. However Blizzard likes to paint the picture of races, who follow a strict hivemind instead of making their own free decision.

    Then again, if you look at the recent scandal of Activision Blizzard, it comes to no surprise that racism in form of strict racial segregation is seen as a pillar of wow.

    Another thing that is annoying af are the pointless systems and borrowed power, that you can put in the trash right after every expansion or even after every patch. Meaning all the hours you spend with grinding for it are basically a waste of time.

    Then there is all the time gating for new content, just so that they can keep you/your money as long as possible in the game.

    Then there is the class and faction imbalance.

    Then the lore, that keeps being retconned, characters gain and loose power randomly just to fit Blizzards current narrative. The lore is in such a bad state, that I'm of the opinion that a bunch of middle school students could write a more solid story than what we have now.

    The list go on...    … Expand
  81. Zokko
    Aug 8, 2021
    2
    There is almost nothing I like about Shadowlands. So a similar expierence to battle for Azeroth. Both expansions are pretty bad. At least we're not stuck in a brainless faction war, that made no sense after Legion.
    Speaking of factions, yeah, the imbalance is growing bigger and bigger by the day. No wonder, if you look at how Blizzard is handeling them, regarding playable races, racials    There is almost nothing I like about Shadowlands. So a similar expierence to battle for Azeroth. Both expansions are pretty bad. At least we're not stuck in a brainless faction war, that made no sense after Legion.
    Speaking of factions, yeah, the imbalance is growing bigger and bigger by the day. No wonder, if you look at how Blizzard is handeling them, regarding playable races, racials (in past expansions) and so on. That is a problem for years now, but Blizzard hasn't done anything to help the small faction out. They did quite the opposite if you look at the allied races.
    It's gotten so bad, that there is only one thing that would make this game playable and fun again. Get rid of most of the faction restrictions. Seriously.
    Let us play together with all the races we want. The playable races need to be neutral asap. Cross faction groups for raids need to happen aswell.
    There would still be a lot of money earned from faction transfers and race changes, once players get the chance to choose their faction and races freely without being forced to play in the overpopulated faction. So no worries there, Activision Blizzard.^^
    There don't have to be whole new zones for the races. just small introductions and a starting point. Aswell as new voice lines (for the Alliance! for the Horde!) for all races. Shouldn't be a big deal for such a huge company.
    Can't be so hard to reduce a part of the toxicity in this game by giving the players more freedom and the ability to actually play together.    … Expand
  82. Xeril73
    Oct 5, 2021
    1
    What a joke. Blizzard is trying to appear political correct by removing emotes and voice lines for example, things almost nobody uses anyway, but leave the most obvious garbage untouched. Racism. Racial segregation is the most toxic aspect of this game, together with the rectriction to not letting gamers raid together, if they choose a different faction.
    Seriously, if you want to make    What a joke. Blizzard is trying to appear political correct by removing emotes and voice lines for example, things almost nobody uses anyway, but leave the most obvious garbage untouched. Racism. Racial segregation is the most toxic aspect of this game, together with the rectriction to not letting gamers raid together, if they choose a different faction.
    Seriously, if you want to make your game actually less toxic, Blizzard, then remove racial segregation asap. Let players choose their faction regardless of the race they want to play. Racism of any kind should not have a place in this game. Free faction choice would also allow us to finally play the game the way we want, to have fun with all races, not just half of them.
    It let's us choose a faction because of it's ideals and so on, not because of certain races. Racism is such an outdated and straight up questionable thing to have in a game. Who cares for some emotes you remove? Did anybody ever complain about the emotes in the first place? It's unnecessary to remove such minor things.
    Removing racial segregation however would be major and show that you care for the health of your game. Oh and by the way, be so kind to retcon bfa and Shadowlands, ok? Because the lore of both expansions is so bad... just wow. Really... probably the worst story I saw in a long time.    … Expand
  83. Taccoru
    Aug 6, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands feels soulless.
    While I felt a lot of anger and frustration during bfa, because of how bad that expansion was... now there is just a feeling of disappointing for Shadowlands left. It just gets worse and worse with this game.
    They ruined the story and with that several important characters within the story... It feels like the authors of the story deliberately trash the    Shadowlands feels soulless.
    While I felt a lot of anger and frustration during bfa, because of how bad that expansion was... now there is just a feeling of disappointing for Shadowlands left. It just gets worse and worse with this game.
    They ruined the story and with that several important characters within the story... It feels like the authors of the story deliberately trash the lore...
    They don't respect the time of their playerbase. Quite the opposite. With endless grinds, random loot and time gating they make everything feel slow. They force their players to spend as much time as possible in the game in order to work their ingame chores off, so that Blizzard gets their monthly payment from us.
    They do not listen to feedback. Often they do the exact opposite of what their players ask them for or corrupt feedback and make it eben worse than before.
    They do not let us play together. They still split the playerbase with their old faction system and continued through several advantages like better racials, playable mainstream races, spotlight within the story etc. to give the players the feeling that they have to migrate to the overpopulated faction. They are promoting toxic behavior, which leads to some players acting like racist idots, who enjoy shouting at others for not being in their faction and yelling stuff like certain races don't belong in their „oh so great“ faction and shout certain races should be wiped out and similar stuff.
    But it seems as if that type of players are those Blizzard is catering to. While other players just want to be able to play all races in their favorite faction and to be able to do raids and battlegrounds together with the other faction. You know, being able to play with all players... something that should be normal in a mmo.    … Expand
  84. Zufis
    Sep 28, 2021
    0
    Unplayable. Due to the faction system wow is unplayable.
    Blizzard: "We're working on the problem." For over a decade and nothing came out of it? Or do you mean the ongoing favoring of the red side? Yeah... that didn't help.
    I can see past the cringe story of this game and even all the grinds, but when 1 out of 2 options becomes unplayable I check out. #CrossFactionRaids    Unplayable. Due to the faction system wow is unplayable.
    Blizzard: "We're working on the problem." For over a decade and nothing came out of it? Or do you mean the ongoing favoring of the red side? Yeah... that didn't help.
    I can see past the cringe story of this game and even all the grinds, but when 1 out of 2 options becomes unplayable I check out.
    #CrossFactionRaids
    #CrossFactionBGs
    #NoMoreRacism
    #AllRacesForBothFactions    … Expand
  85. Cegik
    Oct 6, 2021
    1
    Activision Blizzard is as hypocritically as it gets, if you look at the newest changes of world of warcraft.
    Having a hardly recognisable painting of a woman in underwear in the game? Gotta change that to a painting of fruits! Having emotes like fart and cough? Gotta remove that!
    Having racism through racial segregation of the playable races in the game, that also prevents players to    Activision Blizzard is as hypocritically as it gets, if you look at the newest changes of world of warcraft.
    Having a hardly recognisable painting of a woman in underwear in the game? Gotta change that to a painting of fruits! Having emotes like fart and cough? Gotta remove that!
    Having racism through racial segregation of the playable races in the game, that also prevents players to play their favorite races in their favorite faction? Yeah, well, racism is actually pretty cool and should stay as one of the pillars of world of warcraft! :D
    Yeah... right.

    Also:
    This game has such a huge amount of issues that I really can't recommend it to anyone anymore.
    Racism/racial segregation, no cross faction raiding = faction imbalance, class imbalance, awful and way to many systems, lots of grinds, ideotic story ever since the end of Legion, FOMO (no original mage tower rewards say hello), outdated graphics, laughable, lazy, unbalanced and outdated customization options:
    Ever heard of sliders?
    Oh, you don't want to look like a hairy gorilla as a human? You can also be an overweight human with ogre size, but since overweight humans are no normal humans we make it a new race! I'm not even kidding, for Blizzard overweight humans are apparently their own race.
    I mean, the list goes on. World of warcraft is such a bad game, that I'm honestly surprised that there are still people playing it. Sure, this game has potential and it would be cool, if they actually manage it to save it, but there are so many changes needed at this point... well, we'll see.    … Expand
  86. Uguay
    Oct 10, 2021
    0
    World of warcraft will constantly remind you that "you gotta stick around for the next patch, don't miss a day you'll fall behind, get these rewards that will be gone in a few months, "and so on, that idea that "nothing you're doing now will matter when the next patch comes out," that deep FOMO (mage tower for example)... and than you see other games like Final Fantasy 14... to go fromWorld of warcraft will constantly remind you that "you gotta stick around for the next patch, don't miss a day you'll fall behind, get these rewards that will be gone in a few months, "and so on, that idea that "nothing you're doing now will matter when the next patch comes out," that deep FOMO (mage tower for example)... and than you see other games like Final Fantasy 14... to go from that to this pure crafting of timeless moments, with no racism in it... it's night and day. It's a worldview changing shift, and it's so refreshing.
    World of warcraft is deeply toxic and I can't give this game a single point, because the very core of wow is rotten as it can get.
    FOMO
    Racism (Division of playable races/racial segregation)
    Grindful systems, that become useless with every new expansion
    Very poorly written lore (since the end of Legion)
    Very questionable behavior of the Devs (favoring one side and ignoring or straight up trolling the other side of players)
    No healthy social aspect = Big faction imbalance (no cross faction play whatsoever)    … Expand
  87. Fliko2321
    Oct 9, 2021
    2
    Bfa was terrible, yet somehow Blizzard managed it to make this game with Shadowlands even worse.

    The biggest problems are: 1. Factions and all the barriers and restrictions for the players. What an archaic system. We can't have every race playable in the faction we want to play. -Racism says hello. We can't play with friends, if they want to be in a different faction. -Ever heard    Bfa was terrible, yet somehow Blizzard managed it to make this game with Shadowlands even worse.

    The biggest problems are:

    1. Factions and all the barriers and restrictions for the players.
    What an archaic system. We can't have every race playable in the faction we want to play.
    -Racism says hello.
    We can't play with friends, if they want to be in a different faction.
    -Ever heard of cross faction play like in ff14?
    We can't mail alts in the other faction items and gold.
    -Bye bye twinks on the other faction.

    2. Extremly bad lore.
    - Ever since they put all their attention on Sylvanas the lore went downhill. Fast. Only solution to this mess is to reset everything to Legion, where we still had a decent enough story.

    3. Endless grinds with all the systems.

    4. Extremly limited and outdated graphics.
    - both for playable races and for mobs & the enviroment.

    5. The game is in general not on a modern standard.
    - no player housing for example.

    6. Biased and arrogant devs.
    - They only care for a small part, while ignoring the rest of feedback.

    7. FOMO
    - newest example the mage tower without it's original rewards.

    8. Hypocrisy
    - turning a painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits, but openly showing, that you support racial segregation with your playable races? Ok, Blizzard. ^^    … Expand
  88. Awwalo
    Oct 15, 2021
    1
    Horrible game design. Frustrating faction imbalance, which the developers of this game made worse and worse over the years (especially during bfa) to a point that you would come to the conclusion the devs are either incapable to treat factions in a fair way or they are intentionally trolling.
    As others already pointed out there is also the issue with the devs praising racism with their    Horrible game design. Frustrating faction imbalance, which the developers of this game made worse and worse over the years (especially during bfa) to a point that you would come to the conclusion the devs are either incapable to treat factions in a fair way or they are intentionally trolling.
    As others already pointed out there is also the issue with the devs praising racism with their game design, through the division of playable races.
    I had to laugh when I heard what changes they are currently making to the game (like removing several emotes, because apparently those are considered as offensive now), things almost no player uses anyway, but racial segregation is here to stay?
    The double standards of this company are really laughable.
    I had a little bit of hope when they announced the return of the mage tower and I thought to myself, well, at least they finally get rid of FOMO. Guess what, they stick to FOMO and don't give you the original rewards. xD
    I mean, it's sad, but also funny at the same time. I'm sitting here, waiting for something to return, but with almost everything I hear about this game and the company they drive me further away.
    Also a big issue is the lore in bfa and now in shadowlands... I think they should really just retcon it, like many players suggested.
    And don't get me started on the outdated graphics in many, many zones and the limited customization options...    … Expand
  89. Tsiikas
    Oct 18, 2021
    1
    The story is so terrible... Jeez... Both bfa and Shadowlands have such a bad story, that I can't take this game serious anymore, let alone play it on a regular basis.
    I know world of warcraft has a lot of problems like so many criticized before me, like the ongoing neglection of one of the 2 playable factions (resulting in big faction imbalance), racism (racial segregation of playable    The story is so terrible... Jeez... Both bfa and Shadowlands have such a bad story, that I can't take this game serious anymore, let alone play it on a regular basis.
    I know world of warcraft has a lot of problems like so many criticized before me, like the ongoing neglection of one of the 2 playable factions (resulting in big faction imbalance), racism (racial segregation of playable races between the factions), FOMO, frustrating systems, content droughts and in general the arrogance and hypocrisy of the devs, but in my personal opinion the worst problem are the writers for battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands.
    The lore is not just bad, it ruins years of build ups for characters, factions and the world in general... if they continue this kind of story telling I don't see me ever coming back to this game.    … Expand
  90. Swirro
    Oct 21, 2021
    0
    Terrible expansion.

    Dreadful lore, just like in bfa: Faction story = completely destroyed. Everything they worked for in Legion is thrown in to the garbage in bfa with a brainless war, then again in Shadowlands suddenly all are friends, but there are no consequences? No reinstatement? Forgive and forget yet again? Legion was the perfect time to destroy the repeat button Blizzard is    Terrible expansion.

    Dreadful lore, just like in bfa: Faction story = completely destroyed. Everything they worked for in Legion is thrown in to the garbage in bfa with a brainless war, then again in Shadowlands suddenly all are friends, but there are no consequences? No reinstatement? Forgive and forget yet again? Legion was the perfect time to destroy the repeat button Blizzard is pressing for over 17 years now and end this nonsense.
    But no, they keep on recyling the same old trash story and on top of that destory important lore characters like Azshara, N'Zoth and Elune on the way. Because apparently everything in wow has to be trash, so that Blizzard's favorite cash cow Sylvanas can shine.

    Not to mention the faction imbalance the devs costs by lots of questionable decisions. A lot of them happened in bfa, making the faction imbalance even worse then it was before. Yet Blizzard let's the underdog faction suffer without doing anything about it, no, instead they make it worse and worse.

    And oh the hypocritical actions they made with 9.1.5. recently. Like removing emotes and turning a painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits. Yes, that surly will make you look better. Oh wait, racism will stay? Races still can't freely decide to which faction they want to belong? Riiiiiight...

    Then there is FOMO (mage tower), way too long content drought for the costs of this game, no player housing, age old graphics in most zones, not enough customization options and some races have almost nothing at all. Some races look straight up weird and ugly with the faces and bodies, like male night elves, male humans and worgen for example.

    Just overall an unbalanced and outdated game, expressing questionable game design with racial segregation, while preaching the company would be inclusive, also wow is using shady methods like FOMO in order to trick players, so they feel the need to keep being subscribed for each and every month despite the fact, that there are gigantic content droughts.    … Expand
  91. Woody271
    Jul 9, 2021
    1
    Horrendous storytelling.

    Without writing down spoilers here, I will only say this much; every aspekt of Blizzard's main focus character for 3 expansions now, who is called „The dark lady“ by some edgelords, is extraordinaire garbage. They stretch her story arc for far too long now, put her in most cinematics, retcon her every other patch just so that they can keep her around and so    Horrendous storytelling.

    Without writing down spoilers here, I will only say this much; every aspekt of Blizzard's main focus character for 3 expansions now, who is called „The dark lady“ by some edgelords, is extraordinaire garbage.
    They stretch her story arc for far too long now, put her in most cinematics, retcon her every other patch just so that they can keep her around and so they can sell more figurines and pictures for the people, who (for some reason) still simp for that murderous maniac. But I guess hot women sell, no matter how bonkers a character is written.

    Second point to despise World of Warcraft in it's current state are the things Blizzard is preaching with it's game:

    1)
    Genocide, mind controll, raising the dead and spreading the plague is totally fine, if it's comitted by a good looking woman. You should totally forget and forgive her for all her crimes. Don't you see? She just had a bad day and now she is totally good again! No consequences at all!

    2)
    Racial segregation and racism is fun and the pillar of World Of Warcraft!
    That's why it's totally importat that we separate players by race.
    The race matters, not the factions and that's why we strictly separate players by race instead of letting them choose their faction freely and without racial segregation.

    Wtf? In what universe should racism be a pillar of something to build on? It's beyond me, how Blizzard is still supporting the idea of racial segregation and racism after all this time and claim it's a pillar of wow.

    The faction should matter, not the freaking race a player wants to choose.    … Expand
  92. Timui8
    Oct 22, 2021
    0
    In short:
    Bad story.
    Bad faction design - faction imbalance keeps being unchecked, no cross faction pve & pvp. Racism - racial segregation - races are divided in two factions, making it impossible to have all favorite races in the faction a player prefers, resulting in frustrating compromises. FOMO - Mage tower for example. What a joke. Too many meaningless grinds and systems Class    In short:
    Bad story.
    Bad faction design - faction imbalance keeps being unchecked, no cross faction pve & pvp.
    Racism - racial segregation - races are divided in two factions, making it impossible to have all favorite races in the faction a player prefers, resulting in frustrating compromises.
    FOMO - Mage tower for example. What a joke.
    Too many meaningless grinds and systems
    Class imbalance
    Too many bots & boost sells
    Content droughts
    Arrogance of the Devs + hypocrisy
    No fun stuff like player housing
    Lazy and too few character customization options.
    Lazy world design (most of the world looks like it is stuck in the early 2000s.    … Expand
  93. OMso8
    Oct 7, 2021
    0
    Terrible expansion.
    We get it, the devs are obsessed with their edgy banshee queen. So she is the one, who has to be the constant focus of the story, the one, who constantly gets model updates while other npcs keep looking ugly, the one, who gets a free pass for genocide, mind control and dozens of other atrocities, because apparently that was just her "bad side". Both factions along with    Terrible expansion.
    We get it, the devs are obsessed with their edgy banshee queen. So she is the one, who has to be the constant focus of the story, the one, who constantly gets model updates while other npcs keep looking ugly, the one, who gets a free pass for genocide, mind control and dozens of other atrocities, because apparently that was just her "bad side". Both factions along with other major lore characters, even gods, had to be made into complete idiots in order to let her look like a master mind. It can't get any more cringe than hat.
    FOMO, you like it? You get lots of it in world of warcraft. Just recently they were trolling us with the mage tower. You liked the original mage tower skins? Too bad, you won't get them.
    Worst of all their recent duplicitous act to look like they would care for equality by removing emotes. As if that would do anything good.
    How about you do something that is noticble, like, I dunno, removing racism in your game. Racial segregation directly effects every single player. Emotes? Not so much. Every playable race should have free will and free choice of which faction they want to join. Yet you portray it like it's a good thing that they have a hivemind.    … Expand
  94. Obbus
    Oct 23, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is as bad as battle for Azeroth and warlords of Draenor. So do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with this game until some major changes will happen.
    And there really need to be major changes.
    Racism need to go. All playable races must finally get free choice to which faction they want to go. There should be no room for racial segregation in wow, especially since    Shadowlands is as bad as battle for Azeroth and warlords of Draenor. So do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with this game until some major changes will happen.
    And there really need to be major changes.

    Racism need to go. All playable races must finally get free choice to which faction they want to go. There should be no room for racial segregation in wow, especially since Blizzard is so desperately trying to cover up all the sh* they did behind the curtain. Removing meaningless emotes will do nothing but anger players, because it is certainly unnecessary.

    They must hire better writers, because the lore is beyond ridiculous and bad.

    They definitely need to make old content like artefact weapons relevant again instead of treating old content like garbage, that won't be important after a year or two. If people like those weapons, then they should get the ability to keep that systen instead of forcing them to use newer borrowed power systems.

    They need to remove FOMO. It's as toxic as the promoted racism in this game and it shows in the mentality of quite a few players. Sadly.

    They finally need to update the world with newer graphics and they need to bring character customization option to a newer standard. It's rather sad to see how limited players are.

    They need to introduce cross faction raiding. They did so much harm to one of their 2 factions over the last couple of years, that I don't see any other way to get this game to a healthy state again.

    They need to make quite some big changes, but until then this game should really be avoided. It is not in good state at all.    … Expand
  95. Tesmes
    Oct 26, 2021
    0
    World Of Warcraft is an incredible toxic game and you gotta wonder what kind of players are still left playing it after everything Blizzard put their players through.
    There is so much FOMO... it isn't even funny anymore. It's a pathetic attempt to keep naive players stuck in a subscription. Newest example would be the original skins for the mage tower they took away, but there is a lot    World Of Warcraft is an incredible toxic game and you gotta wonder what kind of players are still left playing it after everything Blizzard put their players through.
    There is so much FOMO... it isn't even funny anymore. It's a pathetic attempt to keep naive players stuck in a subscription. Newest example would be the original skins for the mage tower they took away, but there is a lot FOMO in general in this game.
    Blizzard also present racism as one of their game's pillar. You seriously can't make this stuff up. Playable races are strictly divided between the two factions, yet Blizzard hypocritically act as if they would be oh so welcoming and tolerant to all by removing emotes and stuff like an ingame painting of a woman.
    They are clearly unable to treat their playable factions even remotly fairly, obviously resulting in a big faction imbalance, yet don't allow their players to play together (cross faction).
    They introduce one borrowed power system after the other in order to make this "game" like a second job, so that players have never ending grinds before them.
    They are incredibly lazy with their world design and character customization options, giving some races some new stuff, if they feel like it and at the same time ignoring other races completely. Meanwhile the world looks like a patchwork rug with lots of outdated zones, that really show their age = ugly af.
    The story... no words. It's so bad... just wow. As if they wrote bfa and shadowlands while they were drunk.    … Expand
  96. Isu
    Oct 27, 2021
    0
    Disgusting game design.

    FOMO, racial segregation of playable races, class imbalance, crappy borrowed power systems, awful story, outdated graphics, extremely limited character customization options, gigantic content droughts, faction imbalance, no player housing, outdated looking gear, no quality of life things like dyeable gear etc.
  97. ForestCrow
    May 16, 2021
    1
    So far this expansion is really, really bad.

    Classes are unbalanced, the story feels very dull, you have to grind for hours, systems upon systems that nobody asked for and they broke their promise to give all races more customization options throughout the expansion. What they did was giving orcs 70% of the new options, while the rest went to the other races. Some races got almost    So far this expansion is really, really bad.

    Classes are unbalanced, the story feels very dull, you have to grind for hours, systems upon systems that nobody asked for and they broke their promise to give all races more customization options throughout the expansion. What they did was giving orcs 70% of the new options, while the rest went to the other races. Some races got almost nothing at all. So most of the races look half baked. Now they said there will be no new customization options in Shadowlands. False advertising.

    The old world, even the capitals look like a patchwork rug with some new elements, but most of it uses the same graphic from 15+ years ago and that shows. They didn't even implemented new sky boxes. How lazy can you get?

    They only gave one faction a new race last expansion, so you would think they would announce, when they will give the other faction a new race aswell. Guess what, they just don't give the other faction a new race. How fair. All the rest of the allied races were lazy reskins. Now with Shadowlands there is no new race and no new class.

    The faction imbalance is getting worse by the day and they do the exact opposite of helping the smaller populated faction. Seriously, if you can't treat the factions fairly you should end the racial segregation alltogether. It's an outdated concept anyway and makes for many races no sense. Racial segregation should finally end. Let us play whatever faction with whatever race we choose. More freedom would FINALLY be something new and interesting, instead of repeating the same stuff over and over again.
    It's extremly outdated after 15+ years and unfitting, -painting the picture that you can only play with your friends when they choose a race of a specific pool. Players should be able to choose their faction regardless of the race. Racism is a pretty questionably pillar to build your ideals on. Just saying.

    Factions should stay for those who like them, but pve grouping for dungeons with the other faction should also be allowed in order to play with all players.    … Expand
  98. Gizmo231
    Nov 2, 2021
    0
    I guess only the whales are left playing this game, suffering from a big postion of nostalgia for a time, where this game was still ok and thus ignoring everything that is wrong with wow and Blizzard.

    Because ever since the last patch of Legion this game got worse and worse. FOMO, boost sells everywthere, content droughts despite the monthly subscription and expansion costs,    I guess only the whales are left playing this game, suffering from a big postion of nostalgia for a time, where this game was still ok and thus ignoring everything that is wrong with wow and Blizzard.

    Because ever since the last patch of Legion this game got worse and worse.

    FOMO, boost sells everywthere, content droughts despite the monthly subscription and expansion costs, constantly selling new stuff in the store instead of improving the game, glorified racism with the division of playable races, cringe lore, outdated graphics, trashy borrowed power systems, faction and class imbalance & questionable behavior of the devs.

    It's really not a game anyone should play at the moment, but I guess the whales simply can't stop taking copium.    … Expand
  99. Xral
    Nov 3, 2021
    1
    World Of Warcraft is all about restrictions, barriers, time gating, forcing players to make one compromise after the other and FOMO.
    The biggest slap in the face for me personally however is the fact, that after over 17 years, they are still keeping racial segregation and don't allow us to play our favorite races in our favorite faction. It's so hypocritical, all the the changes they    World Of Warcraft is all about restrictions, barriers, time gating, forcing players to make one compromise after the other and FOMO.
    The biggest slap in the face for me personally however is the fact, that after over 17 years, they are still keeping racial segregation and don't allow us to play our favorite races in our favorite faction. It's so hypocritical, all the the changes they recently made to look like they would care for equality and to act like they would be open minded, yet holding on to racism of all things in their game.    … Expand
  100. ERsae
    Nov 7, 2021
    0
    I enjoyed this game during Legion, even though Legion had it's flaws it was still good enough to keep me entertained. Ever since battle for azeroth however... oh boy... And it continues to be a painfully bad game in Shadowlands with a lot of questionable stuff.
    Some of them are a problem since the very beginning however and not just since bfa, like racism through the racial segregation of    I enjoyed this game during Legion, even though Legion had it's flaws it was still good enough to keep me entertained. Ever since battle for azeroth however... oh boy... And it continues to be a painfully bad game in Shadowlands with a lot of questionable stuff.
    Some of them are a problem since the very beginning however and not just since bfa, like racism through the racial segregation of the playable races, FOMO, no cross faction gameplay, unbalanced factions and classes, limited customization options and the outdated graphics.

    With bfa and now with Shadowlands there is also the absurdly bad lore, very grindful and unfulfilling borrowed power systems and content droughts, which are way too long if you consider that Blizzard is charging their players with monthly sub costs, expansion costs & micro transactions.

    I give Shadowlands a 0 out of 10, because there is nothing left I like about this game.
    It's too unbalanced, it has too many compromises forced on to the players like faction choice based purely on racism yet acting as if ingame emotes would be the problem of their game lol, FOMO, content droughts, all the systems, the arrogant behavior of the devs and of course the bad writing of the story.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

35
#35 Best PC Game of 2020
8
#8 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 12, 2021
    80
    Blizzard finally comes with an alt-friendly expansion that brings back the best features of the previous ones. The patch that WoW desperately needed. [Issue#309]
  2. Shacknews
    Jan 29, 2021
    90
    World of Warcraft: Shadowlands certainly manages to capture the same feelings we’ve had since first started playing the game. The leveling experience overhaul, constant sense of progress with rewards, and new campaign stories make Shadowlands a must-have for any avid player.
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  3. GamingTrend
    Jan 27, 2021
    90
    World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is a return to greatness for the franchise. The content is both accessible and fun for all types of players, and the story actually makes you feel like everything you’re doing is helping to save the Shadowlands. Torghast is one of the best features ever added and makes each experience unique and fun. While there are some issues which can slow down the time it takes to get everything you want, the journey there is still enjoyable.
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