World of Warcraft - Breaking Down BlizzCon 2023, Guardians of the Dream And More

mmorpg.com:

I went into BlizzCon expecting big World of Warcraft announcements, and we certainly got a bunch of them, but I can’t rightfully say I was right about any. However, I still think Iridikron will remain an antagonist throughout the next expansion, and it won’t be until Midnight that we’ll actually deal with him for the last time. I did not expect to get three expansion announcements, and some of the features coming with The War Within were also surprising. Additionally, 10.2 went live, and I have some thoughts about how that is progressing. Let’s jump in!

One of the many huge surprises during the announcement ceremony was not just the announcement of the three upcoming expansions and the overarching storyline but that so much time was devoted to setting things up before a feature was ever mentioned. I know there have been some complaints regarding this because some people wanted the big expansion announced with all the features first, and I get that. We’re used to that because the features are the big flashy “this is why you want to buy the expansion” type of thing.

The story in World of Warcraft has often felt as if it has lurched from one expansion to the next, with only the most tenuous threads holding everything together. There have certainly been some expansions where it felt like they came up with the idea for the setting and then took the view of “ok, how can we make the storyline fit that setting?” which is certainly one way of handling things. Focusing so much time on the storyline and choosing to show us the cinematic trailer, which featured no big battles or incredible set pieces but gave us a deep and heartfelt moment between two central characters — it was refreshing.

Also, that cinematic was incredible. The