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Frankly they really need to put a lore compendium in game. I’ve been playing for two years, paying attention to story and lore the whole time, and I still regularly find myself having no clue what’s going on a lot of the time

If they want to help the long term absent players to get back into the story they really need to give some massive lore catch-up for anyone. More than just a few texts and Lorewalker Cho. Nobbel talked about it on his stream, looking forward to his resumee on that idea. During the last Q&A they also talked about something called *Azerothian Archives* . I hope it is what I think it is.

I`m gonna trust blizzard not in their words but what they actually deliver

The warband system addresses the fundamental gameplay aspect that kept me away from most of Dragonflight. But I have serious concerns about Blizzard's ability to tell a coherent story, and about WoW content creators/dataminers not spoiling every plot point for short term engagement.

Props to Ion for not taking anything you've told him personally over the years and actually moving forward with the game by making these improvements

If getting players to return is the goal, making them start playing 3 days late, or pay double for the new expansion does seem counterintuitive.

Shadowlands was supposed to be like this too. Then right before launch they absolutely screwed everything up (and didn't fix most of it til the last season). Dragonflight, as you said, has been better in a lot of ways, but it really has exposed some of the weaknesses of the core game. I'm hopeful that DF showed them some things about the playerbase, and that the next few expansions truly do feel like a return home.

Leaving retail was the best decision I ever made. It'll take an hell of a miracle in changes to bring me back. My time is precious and is better spent in fulfilling things.

It’s sad it’s taken them four expansions to figure this out. The flash of legion overshadowed how poorly the game was made. It’s limped on ever since.

How can I trust the crew will turn the ship around, when it's the exact crew that got us here in the first place? Will the writers suddenly become good? Beyond that, as a Night Elf main, no writing possibly could undo the years of shitting on this race and their lore.

I don't know why but seeing Ion and Preach in the same room is so funny to me, would love to see Preach doing regular interviews with the wow devs

WoW is a comfort game to me. I started playing when I was 9 years old. I had to beg my parents to buy it for me, and pay my sub. I’m now 26 and still find myself returning to it every few months. The music, the world, the characters. It’s so nostalgia ridden for me. I just want to see them take this game in a fresh, exciting direction. This game was so many people’s introduction to online gaming and it’s been long overdue for some of these changes. Here’s hoping that they can deliver us an experience that brings back awe and excitement, and not just an experience catered to getting our wallets out.

I'm very much like the crowd was at the very beginning. Very hesitant to cheer.. I want things to get better but it's on them to show us that things are changing for the better. I'm not about to throw my money at them to preorder this new expansion just because they got Chris Metzen on the stage to try to get everyone hyped.

Like a true abusive ex. Pay us $90 for the preorder and COME HOME!!!!

As someone who has played since vanilla almost exclusively for lore, they have a long way to go to get my trust back. Having metzen back i think will help, hes a long term thinker. Itll be hard to reconcile the lore of both WOD and shadowlands going forward but i hope they can.

I agree with what you said regarding early access for people buying the epic edition. I feel compelled to spend more now because I don’t wanna miss out or be delayed. It doesn’t feel like early access for others, just delayed for those who can’t afford it or don’t want to pay that amount. Such a shame, it does kinda put a stain on it all and them trying to justify it is just insulting our intelligence if I’m honest. Either way excited to see what the worldsoul saga holds!

I love the Preach-Ion Character arc throughout the expansions, its been a wild ride seeing you two discuss events over the years and how thats evolved.

See guys???? THIS TIME!!! This time Blizzard’s turning things around!! This time!

WoW stopped being my home long ago. The house has been torn down. Nostalgia has no place in my life (for anything) anymore. Hopefully the game will be good for the people who still care though.

The monetization is getting worse?! It's so damn sad

Paid early access. In an mmo.. Where the launch of a new expansion is supposed to be the exciting part where everyone goes on an adventure. This should tell you all you need to know about in what kind of hands the game is in.

Why did that last line of the video have to hit me so hard? I stopped playing retail the day classic came out, but I wasn’t invested in the game anymore way before that. Wanting to come home really resonated with me because I think I feel the same way.

I'm glad to see Metzen back, but over the years too many bridges were burnt for me with Activision-Blizzard as a larger entity. I hope this isn't just all hype and bluster. I won't return, but I've got my fingers crossed for those who want to see a return to the quality they hope for and expect, even better.

Love your content. I for one and cautiously optimistic on a bunch of things. There certain things that get me excited and not necessarily the upcoming three expansions. Allowing us to dragon ride in the old zones and Dracthyr getting Dragon Riding system into their Soar kit gets me pretty excited.

For me, the question if they can make the story feel like it matters is still the biggest questionmark, like Preach alluded to in the video. I would describe most of WoW Story-telling as "Storytelling on debt". All those amazing moments we really love and think about worked out so great not because those stories were told and developed in WoW, but because they already had their roots established through WC3 etc, which was a much more story-focused game and took it's time to establish a meaningful story. That's why people went into WoW (vanilla). They loved the Warcraft universe, and then got amazing events unfolding in BC and WotLK that gave us conclusions to previous events. But all those things were based on what was established before. WoW, at least for me, has failed in establishing new lore and I can't say I felt good about anything "new" simply because they don't give it the time it needs. I personally don't see this chaning drastically in the future. They will try but I would be surprised if they can deliver more than those weird moments of enemies turning into besties within 3 minutes of gameplay, which just feels so out of place. If all it took was a 3 minute conversation for the world to be fine it's just not something I can take seriously with how grand they make it out to be in the first place. I knew Illidan and the Lich King were things that mattered because I played through a game for HOURS and HOURS that established why they're important. I just don't think they think WoW is the kind of game that can deliver a similarly in depth, meaningful backstory and thus leaving us play out only the "highlights" of a story they invision which is a shame.

I just feel like this 3 days early access kills most of that big launch day hype. where you are all there, be it your friends or wow streamers you happen to watch , everyone is there together waiting for the clock to hit launch time

not only the 3 day early access but the overall price of the expansion! the price bloat is insane!

What's shocking to me is hearing Blizzard say they didn't really have a long term plan or goal for their Warcraft franchise before NOW, when the game has been out for 19 years already. This new approach should already have been a part since Cata at the latest.

90 euros to play 3 days early in an MMO.

Love seeing preach still going. Been watching since 2012 ❤

I’m excited to watch your cata guides again!

"Come back home!" "Did you fix the gas leak that made me sick six years ago?" "I promise we will a year from now." "You keep saying that!" "But it's true this time I swear!"

If they can prove that they can write a satisfying story (inside of the game), with authentic characters, i will consider coming back. Even now WoW is not a bad game. But I don't JUST want to have fun, I want to fall in love with the world as well

Great video as always. I can say, though, that WoW will never be my home again. It was my home for a long, long time, but the game just doesn't have that appeal to me anymore. I still like to check things out and and play from time and time with a month subbed here and there, but I've simply moved on from the WoW being my main game. I have fantastic memories of all the years I've spent in Azeroth, admittedly soured by some pretty bad memories toward the end. I hope the game gets into a much better place and that people can think of it as their home again - but I'll be watching from the sidelines.

Awesome Video, really informative! Did i miss the full interview or has that not been released?

I wish I shared your enthusiasm, but I too will wait and see what the future holds .

I really hope they stick the story also. They really need some kind of in game story catch up mechanic like a scenario you can pick a certain expansion and play thru that gives you a condensed version of the story beats from it. A lore compendium in game would be nice as well for those that want to skip a readable version. I've had friends start playing that hadn't before or took a long break and were lost at points in the story.

Nothing I've heard of Blizzcon or the current state of WoW seems like anything other than typical Blizzard hype that is likely to fall flat on its face. They know the game is going downhill, and are trying to do everything possible to generate interest in it. The devs seem to barely know their own lore, which really doesn't bode well for making a compelling story. Having so much lore in out-of-game sources is another major issue the whole IP has, and severely hampers what they have done and can do in game. The dev team expanding could be good, but could also produce no real changes or even be worse. The saying of "too many cooks in the kitchen" often applies to game development as well. Dragonflight was a step forward for the game, but a relatively small one. Lots of hype at the launch, and everyone was giving it good reviews. Since then, the only things I've really heard about it is that it's an "okay" expansion. Not "great," often not even "good," simply "okay." And that really doesn't mean all that much when it's coming off the backs of BFA and Shadowlands, both of which were massive letdowns. Taking a step forward is good, sure... but is vastly diminished when that single step is coming after numerous giant leaps backwards. Unfortunately, like just about anything Blizzard releases, the upcoming expansions will likely see a massive positive reception on launch, regardless of how good or bad they are. This will, in turn, continue to fuel Blizzard doing whatever Blizzard wants to do to milk money from players, because they know that millions of people will slurp down even the worst crap they have to offer, and beg for more.

Love your WoW interviews man. I hope you keep making videos like this.

Well done Preach. Great video. Love Ian's "what sword" short.

Vanilla gave 2 continents,60 levels Burning crusade added an area only 10 levels obsoleted all previous work rinse and repeat all the way to current release

Blizzard said all the right things I wanted to hear. The Warbands system alone might be enough to draw me back. However, they really set the expectations high imo. Let's see if they can deliver.

first of all. look at you and your glow up. i mean everybody noticed that by now.bnut you look great preach. seeing old vids of you and the shape u r now in. huge respect. im happy for you. second of all. i really feel like wow is becoming the great game again it used to be under new conditions. im so happy to invest time again now in my character because it feels imr really getting rewarded. and hearing about all the new fetures and quality of life makes me thinka bout this game long term again. im gonna play this a lot over the next years.

Damn good summary. I know Mike spoke to these points in his Bcon talk but it’s nice to get this fleshed out bullet points pres with the addd snippets from the talk with Ion. I like most that Mike still holds them account stable all the while still being excited. We need these checks and balances to continue so they stay true to sticking the landing so to speak. Great vid!

This is how people felt about the last expansion and the expansion before....

from 2004 to 2010 I played nothing else but wow. I feel I had my fill and dont ever want to go back

"Will these expansions be smaller? No, War Within will have 4 zones, 8 dungeons, and a raid! Midnight will have 4 zones, 8 dungeons, and a raid!" Okay, so they'll continue to be the smallest expansions in terms of number of zones and dungeons on release? That didn't make me less worried at all. The quality is much higher these days and the zones are bigger, but imagine if Northrend only had 4 zones but the same size. Imagine if Outland was 4 zones. Or Pandaria. I don't think him saying "They won't be smaller, we'll continue with the same formula - the smallest one yet" was a good move. Patch content is great, and with how much they've focused on seasons, I bet there's some dope stuff coming. But how many people are doing Forbidden Reach these days? Or even Zaralek Cavern?

End of the video reaction: Same. I would LOVE to come home. I left in the first tier of WoD, I've been gone a long time. But I started at the very end of OG/start of BC. I have fond memories of the game and a whole host of characters I'd like to play again. But they have to show me there's something worth coming back for.

The point about storyline being behind renown is a good one. I had no interest in grinding out renown throughout the expansion, so I missed a bunch of the story. Once I realised I was missing some of the story, I just stopped caring about anything after that point. The main story should really be self-contained and not require people to go do a bunch of unrelated filler to unlock.

All the changes blizz is making since dragonflight gives me the itch to play the game again but i tried dragonflight at a month orso after launch (january) and almost immediatly regretted it because of the games community. Youre promotion in this video is a part of that reason where you need to play a certain build, have these addons, etc. or you are a noob. The biggest part of the community doesnt tolerate anything that isnt the "meta" so i wont be going home since the family is (for lack of a better word) toxic.

Is there a full version of the interview?

Honestly, hearing a man i have watched since dragon souls also have his passion for ”home” reignited put a tiny tear in my eye!

As long as they basically wipe the game with every patch im done with this treadmill. It needs a change of fundamentals to get me back. They always try to sell us respecting our time, but at the end its all about online time and monetization. And "Early access has no longterm effect" - Bullshit!

The biggest question is are they going to take another important page from ffxiv, and make each expansion payable like it's current content? For someone like me, who will probably wait until the second expansion, maybe 3rd, to come back and play the story, will we be able to like someone starting ffxiv fresh today can play all of the 3 expansions worth of content as close to if it was current as possible?

Blizzard needs to address the bot problem that they have ignored for years, they need improve their customer service experience and just because something is "industry standard" doesnt mean that it should be and that everyone should be doing it.

It's weird that it's now somehow normal that expansions have 4 new zones to begin with when in the past they'd all launch with 7+. Outland had 7 + 4 for the new races, WOTLK had 8-10 depending on how you count Wintergrasp/Crystalsong/Dalaran, Cata had the entire world revamp + 7 + 3 starting zones, MoP had 7, WoD had 6+ Ashran, etc. And it's not like the new zones are particularly denser in detail either, WoD and MoP zones had way more treasures and secret stuff than newer ones.

It is convenient that all these promises come out with the 3 day "early access". This seems like marketing BS to just get you to buy in.

Where can I find the whole interview with Ion? Can’t find it anywhere

Where can i watch the complete Ian Hazzikostas Interview?

A black stain on the industry. What a great way to convey the early access issue. Well done Mike! Sincerely hope that you and other influential persons in this space can pressure Blizzard into reversing that terrible decision

There have been absolutely nothing announced that would make me go back again, good luck to those who do though.

Me too Preach, me too. I will keep an eye for developments in the new expansion. Keep up the great job of informing us on what up with it :) Thanks!

Preach your hair looks fantastic! Also there is an old saying "you can't go home again" which can mean or be taken different ways but I'm willing to revisit some familiar locations.

I really enjoyed how this video turned out. It felt particularly well organized and edited, which is funny given the turnaround time on it 😅. Well done! I played WoW from release to the first patch of Shadowlands, off and on. I have to say, I have no idea what would make me want to play WoW again. And it has nothing to do with whether or not I trust Blizzard to deliver on their "promises". As a fan of the lore, I was really bothered by how much of the story turned out. The Jailer and the idea of the unreliable narrator really bothers me. And when I think about playing again, I think about having to deal with addons and toxic groups and ptr testing/not playing blind (the expectation is there in normal content, I'm sorry, it is), and I really just don't want to bother. So I don't think WoW is home for me anymore, and that's totally fine. I hope you and my friends who still play enjoy the changes and have fun. All that said, really looking forward to the RWF!

I was burned with Shadowlands and quit WoW halfway through the expansion. With Metzen back, Account Wide focus, & Hero Talents has me thinking about coming back. WoW Classic+ is also interesting~

wheres the full interview with Ion? please

Very well written commentary. Thanks for it.

without watching the video, all I can say is if you refer to it as "home", then you were always destined to come back.

Honestly I'm mad how much warbands make me wanna come back. I don't even wanna play the game. I _aggressively_ don't want to play the game. But seeing all my characters banded together 10 billion years later than they should have been sounds so cool. That's where my attachment will never die, with the characters I crafted for over a decade. As for the rest... I wish them the best but its in that vague I wish positive outcomes for everyone sort of way. Even if they nail the new story, everything I cared about was burned to the ground long ago. Throw in the plague that are add-ons, the openly toxic player base, and Blizzard's predatory business model... I have no desire to come back to an abusive home.

Hope we all can come home.

Its always fun to see his face when a youtuber interviews him...

Promises, promises. Show something first, then i'll consider coming back. Blizzard has just pulled too many dickmoves in the past, promising overwatch pve as a popular example. Now they promise us an epic storyline and a conclusion to so many story paths....and yet, all we got on our hands is a preorder pack for 90 dollars with a predatory buisiness model.

We all want to go home, Mike. Warcraft to me, will always be the greatest and most impactful game ever made but damn do they have a long ways to go improving the story and how it's paced and delivered

Was that the entire interview with Ion?

WoW did not invent quest-based leveling. There were many, many popular MUDs with huge quest systems. XP from quests, even mainly from quests, predates WoW by decades. Everquest took certain things from certain MUDs. WoW just took different things from different MUDs. They just have slightly different lineages (though a lot of shared lineage too). I think if you are really interested in the history of MMOs, you need to look at the history of MUDs, maybe talk to some people about them, even play a few of the surviving ones (though most have died and a lot of the remaining ones are hard to get into), etc.

It's crazy how happy and stress-free Ion looks since his appearance on the retail deep dive panel, I guess we'll never know how much was just beign stubborn and ''knowing better'' and how much was keeping his overlords happy but what I know is that his panel was a HUGE win for WoW's future and that's not even taking Metzen into account...

My issue is that it feels to me that everything good they do is reactionary. No change feels honest and feels like it's not made because they think it'll be better. Feels like they're forcing themselves to do this because everyone left, and, as soon as they get their numbers back to what they want, they'll restart the cycle of bullshit again

I started in vanilla, quit in BfA, and will not go back. It's certainly not my "home" anymore.

*If* I were to come back it wouldn't be to preorder The War Within. The best I could say at this point is I'll wait and see.

Saying "come home" and slapping a $90 price tag on an """early access"" edition...man can this company just put aside it's boundless greed for a SECOND? Even if they pull out Metzen, the biggest hype guy they can get, they just don't realize that WoW is no longer "home" for a lot of people PRECISELY because of shit like this. Also I have absolutely 0 faith in the story until they can actually put out something. The same writers who disenchanted Arthas and created the Jailer are still working there, why would things suddenly completely change?

I've been on and off with WoW since Cataclysm. I really stopped playing after base BfA, and still to this day haven't completed the Shadowlands storyline. I moved to FFXIV and found a home. It is where my guild is. It is where my friends are. It is where my community is. The announcements and forthcoming changes make me happy, but not enough to make WoW my main game again. That foothold isn't there, even if I will be buying and playing the new expansion. (I have played Dragonflight a bit, but nothing too deep.) WoW will be a nostalgia trip that I will be happy to go on. But that is honestly it. FFXIV is my base, and I am not really sure Ion, Chris and the gang at Blizzard can pull me back in like I was so long ago.

I dont see myself returning to wow, but I always appreciate your content on it. Keep it up!

One of my favorite creators to watch because the comments are so candid, visceral, and spot on. Sad when you stopped making wow content, so I hope Azeroth has enough to bring you back full time!

For the first time what they're saying is genuinely in line with what I want. Everything will come down to execution. If they deliver, I'll be there, if not, business as usual (in other games).

Not a wow player myself but hope Blizzard and wow community gets a W here. It's cool seeing the buzz and excitement after that trailer drop

I got Dragonflight when it came out, played it for 2 days and just forgot about it entirely. I didn't even have a big "fuck this game" moment, I just lost interest. I used to at least be able to get a month or two out of a WoW expansion, which was fine for me, but I can't even get that anymore. I had my fun with the game but at this point, there's just so many other things I'd rather play. Maybe they'll surprise me with the new expansion, but I doubt it.

This video came at such the right time. I have spent most days for the past 3-4 weeks just missing WOW and the community surrounding it. It was such a big part of my life and BFA just destroyed that with a little mix of IRL stuff and I stopped playing. Will definitely keep a close eye and see if I might actually be ready to return.

So Preach mentions that some people (not he, himself) are worried about not getting expansion specific systems? Didn't we just decide that stuff sucks?

Honestly, I dropped out a month into Legion, and only tried the game for like a day or two here and there for the following years. But with what they are doing with WoW soon I am more than happy to give the game another shot. I am just thinking about how I can finally level multiple characters without feeling like I am playing the game 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times over again. It's all shared soon, and that excites me. Also gonna try the Season of Discovery in a few weeks!

When will the rest of the Ion interview come out?

I wondered if that was preach while watching the presentations!

how? how do you see this as "good direction" i dont get it, all that was said is we will do good we promise and the only true new feature is delves (wich will prob get boring after 2 weeks).. They could do so many awesome things.. but nope.. as allways we will do things safely. Warbands could be Wither Army traning 2.0 where u command your alts on missions and get special gear and upgrades for them. They could add true world events, like many games have (like for example gw2, where something happens in the world and after that there are no mobs but friendly npcs and traders in this area) Im just sick of this community that cheers at slightest sign of hope just to be disappointed and cheer on another thing..

It is so evident that Preach has WoW in his heart. I hope that the new trilogy does just that and brings you home.

100% with you I am ready to come home but slightly concerned that it's all sweet words. All the best!

I’d like to see you come home preach

Same video Preach made before DF and then he played it for a like a month and stopped

The only thing i still think they need to do maybe with warbands its some kind of shared weapon/armor stash between caracters like FF 14, i have 33k achivements on wow and i play since tbc, but in the last expansions i cant care about leveling an alt like i did until legion, alts fell like a waste of time, i dont want a 30 ilevel lower item so i can give to an alt, i wanna use my hunter gear on my shaman, i want to give my rings trinkets and neck to my rogue, i dont wanna farm the same trinket i already got on freehold +20 on my rogue and my shaman, why cant i just give to them like i do on FF 14?

I'd really like to hear more about the what he says at 5:39 - what did they see in the Classic data that helped inform the change in mindset?

I only played WoW during Legion. The reason I had trouble getting interested since, is I heard that the class hall and that weapon system was removed or something. Thus I felt like I'd just come back with no ground floor to land on. I'm glad they're fixing all these content holes that make it so hard to find your bearings in WoW as a new or returning player.